Donnan shook his head. "We have families. I don't even know where my parents are. I have a sister who works in the mines. What happens to her if I rebel?"
My heart pounded. Sending these boys in here was as cruel as anything the Praetors had ever done to me.
"I have a sister too," I said. "And General Radulf is her grandfather. If I give him to you, the empire
will have him executed."
"If you don't," Donnan said, gesturing to the boys around him, "then we are executed."
Radulf was almost high enough now that I could reach him. He called up, "I'll go with the boys. I'll face the charges against me."
I stopped pulling, unwilling to bring him to the surface only to see him carried away to trial. "We can disappear."
Radulf looked up at me, with little more than blackness and the sound of running water below him. He was straining so hard just to keep hold of the rope that veins were bulging on his face. "Where would we go?" he asked. "Take me away and they'll only come after me again, with higher stakes next time."
I shook my head, almost angry with him. "You're my family, Radulf. You can't just give up!"
"If I am family, then let me care about you as a grandfather should. Let me go."
He stared at his hand holding on the rope, clenching his fist in a way that I knew trouble was coming. I immediately dropped to my belly and reached into the hole, grabbing his wrist just as he let go of the rope. My other hand was clenched around the bolt in the floor to which the rope was tied. It was all that kept me from sliding into the hole with Radulf.
"If you fall back into that hole, it'll kill you!" I shouted.
"If I go to trial, the empire will kill me," he replied.
"I can save you!"
"But at our expense," Donnan said. "We have to take the general!"
"No, you won't!" I flexed my arm to pull myself away from the hole, bringing Radulf upward. Once I got him to the surface, we could work out a plan to save ourselves without sacrificing the slave boys, though I really didn't know how to do it.
Below me, Radulf only shook his head. "I was not happy when my son chose your mother for his wife. I was never as kind to her as I should have been. I wish for you to make an apology for me. Tell her I'm sorry I did not help her when I could have done it. I could have saved you all from the mines, and I should have. I've been so wrong for such a very long time, but perhaps I can repent here, if forgiveness is possible for crimes such as mine."
"There is no forgiveness for traitors," a voice said. Brutus. Immediately, a hand clamped down on my back, directly over the Divine Star, and I gasped with the pain of it.
I lost my grip on the bolt in the floor and would've gone over the edge with Radulf had Brutus not been holding me. Bright lights seemed to flash in my vision, enough that I had to close my eyes to keep them away. All that mattered was keeping hold of Radulf. I would not let him go, but I couldn't pull him up either. Not anymore.
Brutus laughed and pressed his hand deeper into my back. "Some of the Praetors thought you would wait until the trial to attempt a rescue, but I know you better than that, Nicolas. I knew you'd come here."
His knee was on my back as well, pinning me to the floor. In this position, all I could do was keep hold of Radulf's hand for as long as possible. Without magic, I felt the sweat on my palm. He was slipping.
Brutus called for Donnan and a few of the other slaves to come forward. "Get this man to the surface before he's late for his trial."
"I'm sorry," Donnan whispered to me as he knelt on the other side of the hole. "Truly, I am, Nicolas. We wanted you to succeed. You're one of us."
"I never was," I replied between gasps for air. Echoing in my head was my own voice, "You're not a freeman either."
Three boys reached into the hole and took Radulf's arm, pulling it from my grasp and inching him out of the hole. All I could do was remain pinned on the floor, trying to breathe and silently communicate my apologies to Radulf. He came to the surface looking as sad and empty as any person could, swallowed up in his guilt and weakness, and the reality of what he was facing after he left this building.
"You are my grandfather," I told him. "My pater familias."
Radulf was pulled to his feet, but before the boys led him away, he said, "If I am, then you will obey this order, Nic. Break free from that pig kneeling on top of you, then fulfill your promise to me and destroy the Malice."
"Get him out!" Brutus snarled. "General Radulf, I promise that you will pay for those words at trial."
"I do not fear you," Radulf calmly replied. "But if you harm my grandson or any of my family, then you should fear me."
"You will be dead by the end of this day," Brutus said.