As I’d been thrust through the door onto my hands and knees only a moment before, I didn’t really want to know the way in which they’d all arrived in the gloomy prison.
“I’m Mae,” I said, standing and brushing at the dust clinging to the white dress.
“Zafina.” She nodded. The other girls all watched, some of them whispering behind their hands. “Back to practice,” she commanded loudly, and the gathering of girls evaporated out of sight.
“How long have you been here?” I stepped closer to the light trying to get a good look at the others and where we were.
The ceiling was high and cavernous above our heads and I could sense a fresh breeze darting from somewhere although I couldn’t find any obvious sources.
“I’ve been here six months,” she said, raising her chin a little and nodding to the walls. Simple marks had been scratched into the stone—a calendar.
“Six months?” God imagine being here for so long. I shuddered but tried not to let it show. “And the others?”
She shrugged. “Some longer. Some less.”
“And what are you doing here? Why are you here?”
Her eyes were slanted into an almond shape and even in the low light I could sense their deep green. “The Emperor seeks power.”
“For what? He’s the Emperor. How much more does he want?”
She edged closer, coming alongside me and whispering. “I know only what I’ve managed to piece together from the others. We have all been delivered here, all of us given over as some prize, some appeasement to the Emperor, yet none of us are what he wants.”
My stomach chilled. He really did want me and what I contained. But, how did he know about it? How did he know what Mae had?
“And you are only girls?”
She nodded. “Yes. He is looking for someone with the magic of the earth. That’s all I know.”
The magic of the earth? Well I guess that counts me in. Although right now my golden thread of warmth and energy was very far from running in my veins. Maybe if I could shut it down long enough, I could survive this place?
“But why everyone? Surely there aren’t that many people running around with the magic he seeks?”
We still stood where I’d landed when I’d been pushed through the door.
She laughed and it bounced off the walls. “Let’s just say we all have our own skills set, but none of it has been enough. He gets bored of us eventually once he realises that we don’t have enough to move mountains, or make trees grow, or shape the nature of the world around us.”
“Well I can’t do that, either.”
Zafina tilted her head again, her gaze watchful. “Yet.” She reached for me. “Come, I’ll show you.” With a gentle grasp on my elbow she guided me down the first arched passageway. At the end of the tunnel was another room. This one had been laid out with pallets on the floor; woven blankets and animal skins made bedding. Wow, that’s a lot of girls all sleeping in one place.
“And he leaves you all down here when he realises you aren’t who he wants?”
She nodded. “Mostly. Sometimes he will call on his favourites and we get taken up. It’s been quiet the last few weeks. That’s how we knew to expect someone else. Here.” She motioned to a pallet by the wall. “This is for you. I’ve put you next to me for now.”
“Thanks.” My mouth was dry, nerves and adrenaline wreaking havoc on my responses. “I think. I didn’t expect it to be like this.”
“No? What did you expect?”
“I don’t know.” I shook my head. The last few weeks ran around my brain like a freight train out of control. I’d probably never get to see a freight train again. With an almost startling clarity, I knew I would never get to my own time again. Not now I was here. Out on the surface, even on the road to Rome I’d always sensed an escape was possible. That maybe I’d learn who I was and then be able to flee. But these one hundred and ten girls told me otherwise.
“Were you offered as a prize?”
“What?” I glanced at Zafina in surprise. “No. I was taken. The Roman Army, they came searching for me.” I stopped myself from saying, for her.
“I was given as an offering. My people, they thought I was cursed at birth.”
“Cursed?” I cast a quick glance over her. There wasn’t much about her that looked cursed.
Without a word she stole across the sleeping area to where an empty bracket hung on the wall. Holding out her hand she concentrated on the iron fitting.
“What?” I gasped loudly, smacking my hand across my mouth in shock as a flicker of fire kindled in the small grate. “You can make fire?”
“Sometimes.” She turned and grinned.
“And that wasn’t enough for the Emperor?”
“No. He wants all the elements, but more than that, he wants the ability to be able to create what he wants.”
“What can the other girls do?” It was just us in the room with the beds, but out there were a hundred other girls who might all have unimaginable skills.
“Some not much, sadly for them. Others can make water move, metals bend even. Others had no skill.” Her face flickered, her eyebrows pulling together. “They were sold by their people for peace.”
“Sold? Jesus Christ,” I exclaimed.
“They didn’t have peace when they died, I can assure you, and neither did their loved ones. The Emperor does not like to be made a fool of.”
“No.” My head swam a little, the room spinning as I contemplated the enormity of the lion’s den.
“Who is Jesus Christ?” Zafina’s gaze was direct.
“Oh, uh. Someone I know.” I needed to be careful.
She looked at me long and hard. “Are you the one he’s been looking for?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything about myself.”
Her face