Finally releasing his grip on Gracchus, Lucius let him crash to the floor.
Gracchus fell hard, causing Vespasian to wonder whether Lucius had miscalculated and killed him. Then the cleric gasped. Coughing wildly, he spat up more drool, then finally sat up. As he recovered, he looked at Lucius with hate-filled eyes.
One day you will pay dearly for this insult, First Tribune, he thought as he shakily came to his feet. No one dares treat the lead cleric this way and lives. But that will not be today. Today my only goal is to initiate my ultimate war weapon, and so I shall.
Weakened but undaunted, Gracchus ignored Lucius and looked into Vespasian’s eyes. Everything had come down to this moment.
“May I have your answer, my liege?” he asked, his voice hoarse. “The time is now. Not only does the war effort need you, but your next terror could come at any time. If so, it might kill you.”
Vespasian found much of the cleric’s proposal unpleasant, but he realized that he had little choice. Besides, he reasoned, if for some reason thePon Q’tar had wanted him dead, they had had ample chances to kill him before now. Striding toward Gracchus, the emperor looked sternly into his eyes.
“I will do what you ask of me,” he said. “But hear me well, cleric. You and Lucius are both right. There are no citizens here to protect you, and only the victors write history-including yours. Should any harm befall me from these secret spells, I hereby grant Lucius and Persephone the right to avenge me in any way they see fit, including the total elimination of thePon Q’tar. Do we understand each other?”
Gracchus fell to his knees and kissed the back of Vespasian’s hand.
“Agreed, my liege,” he answered. “You will soon command wonders of the craft that the rest of us can only dream of. To begin, you must order a full-scale retreat of our forces from the riverside village that they continue to sack.”
Vespasian gave Gracchus a suspicious look. “Why?” he demanded.
Gracchus came to his feet. “Because they are no longer needed,” he answered with a smile.
Vespasian turned toward Lucius. “Make it so,” he ordered.
“But my liege!” Lucius protested. “We have lost many legionnaires in this latest struggle! Only now are we starting to gain control of the city! The gold mines lie just beyond! If we abandon our fight, what message does that send to our troops?”
“It sends the message that their emperor is still in command of these forces!” Vespasian shouted back. “I’m not asking for your permission, Lucius! Besides, I should think that you would be eager to put the cleric’s words to the test! Should I be harmed, you and Persephone can take your revenge in any way that you like!”
“Even if we order a retreat by azure portals, it will take at least three hours,” Lucius countered.
“Then I suggest that you start now,” Vespasian answered.
Clearly upset, Lucius would nonetheless do as his emperor ordered. Gathering up his helmet, he strode angrily from the tent and into the night. At once he could be heard barking out orders that the other tribunes would find nearly impossible to believe. Pouring two cups of wine, Persephone gave one to Vespasian, and the three Rustannican rulers listened as Lucius’ voice faded into the night.
As they waited, Gracchus further detailed Vespasian’s many new gifts and how to use them. As the cleric talked on, Vespasian and Persephone could scarcely believe their ears.
FOUR HOURS LATER, VESPASIAN, GRACCHUS, PERSEPHONE, and Lucius stood atop the long, sloping hill that lay just north of the partly destroyed Shashidan city. The remainingPon Q’tar members and Julia Idaeus were also in attendance. Only moments ago Vespasian had received word that by his orders, his forces had abandoned the struggle. At Gracchus’ suggestion, those same legionnaires now surrounded the three rulers by the hundreds of thousands, waiting to see what would happen. Let them witness your reasons for their unexpected retreat, Gracchus had suggested to the emperor. Not only will it justify your decision, but it will assert your ultimate mastery of the craft for all time.
A great and terrible thing was about to occur, the stunned legionnaires had heard. The coming wonder would mean a quick victory here, allowing them to finally push forth toward the Shashidan gold mines. The rumor went on that the emperor himself was about to single-handedly finish destroying this enemy city. Eager to see what might happen, the legionnaires stood in strict ranks as they waited for their beloved emperor to act.
The night was clear and calm as the many thousands waited atop the hill. Magenta light beaming down from the three red moons provided more than enough illumination for everyone to see the suffering of the beleaguered city nestled in the valley below. Dawn would break in less than two hours, and a soft breeze caressed the waiting Rustannicans. The grass was shiny with dew and the hillside was peaceful, its tranquillity in stark contrast to the desperate scene at the bottom of the valley.
The Shashidan city was called Kagoya. Parts of it were still ablaze, but there were fewer such areas than earlier. With the retreat of Vespasian’s legions, the Shashidan civilians and the katsugai mosota who had been rushed from Ryoto to help defend Kagoya had worked tirelessly to quell the flames and to tend the wounded. Even so, the city remained engulfed in an insane uproar.
Katsugai and civilians rushed about, trying to quell the flames and bring order to the chaos. Dead bodies and body parts from both sides of the conflict lay everywhere, the blood from their gaping wounds running red in the streets. Children cried, buildings still caved in here and there, and many wounded souls wandered the city aimlessly.
Earlier this night the dwindling Shashidans had watched as hundreds more Rustannican azure portals suddenly formed. Surely this will mean the end, they thought. But rather than see more enemy troops pour forth from the spinning vortices, the katsugai commanders couldn’t believe their good luck as legionnaires by the thousands abandoned the fight to enter the portals and be gone. Hours later, not one living enemy soldier could be found in the city. We are saved, everyone thought. We will live on to fight another day. And so, although their desperate struggles to quell the fires and to save the wounded continued, at least they now sensed a modicum of hope.
The fools, Vespasian thought as he sat atop one of his white stallions and he looked down on the scene. Little can they comprehend the forces that I am about to unleash.
Gracchus’ instructions to Vespasian regarding his new gifts and the various powers that they would unleash had been awesome in their mazelike complexities, stunning Vespasian and Persephone nearly into speechlessness. The cleric went on to say that because of the supremely gifted nature of Vespasian’s blood, the emperor would be able to call them forth with relative ease. The difficult part, Gracchus had warned, would be to control their ferocity once they had been unleashed.
Through his amazing revelations, Gracchus had at least partly redeemed himself in his emperor’s eyes. Even so, before using his new gifts, Vespasian had insisted that Julia Idaeus perform an auspicium to foretell whether his imminent use of the craft would bring good results or bad. As Julia expected, Gracchus embraced the idea warmly. Vespasian nodded to Julia, telling her to begin.
As the Femiculi walked toward her white birds, she again suffered the bizarre combination of emotions that always roiled up inside her whenever she was forced to participate in this sham of the craft. So as to protect her identity, she must conduct the ritual flawlessly, all the while appearing to believe in its power to help guide the empire. Yet she couldn’t help but worry for Shashida, the land in which she now stood and truly revered. It was not unusual for the Femiculi to perform auspiciums on the battlefield-she had done so many times. But this one would surely be even more awful in its portent, for like thePon Q’tar members, she too had finally been informed of Vespasian’s special gifts. The mere thought of being a part of any ritual that might grant good tidings to such a terrible scheme brought fear and disgust to her heart.
She knew full well that theChikara Inkai would want her to perform her part of the auspicium normally. They would forbid her to try to affect Gracchus’ tampering with the birds’ direction of flight, should Gracchus do so to ensure the favorable outcome that the lead cleric needed. Such interference would surely tell Gracchus that someone was plotting against him, perhaps causing his sharp brown eyes to turn toward her. Above all else, her secret identity as a League of Whispers member and her august position of Priory Femiculi must be preserved.
Even so, she felt that her refusal to expose Gracchus for the charlatan that he was somehow made her a traitor to Shashida. Knowing that she must do nothing to prevent Gracchus from subverting the ritual, she prepared to perform the auspicium.
The ten white sacred birds sat tethered to a golden rail. After coming to stand before the cooing birds, Julia pointed a finger in their direction. At once the tethers binding the birds’ feet to the rail vanished. This time, rather
