“Tristram.” I stuttered over his name. I never thought I would get to say it to him again. He was dead, his cry of my name etched into my heart. Yet here he was in Rome, holding me in his arms.
“Trees, leaves, that kind of thing.” He smiled but his eyes were hard. He was listening for the Mage, waiting for her to realise I wasn’t behind her.
Tress, leaves… my kind of thing.
‘I’ve been locked up for days. I need to establish my connection.”
He nodded, like he understood what connection I was talking about.
“Aye, I know. I’ve been waiting.”
“You’ve been here?”
“Yes. Hiding in the shadows. These Romans are slow-witted fools. Although the big man is in a foul mood. I’m guessing that has something to do with you?”
“Shh. Let me concentrate.”
God, I didn’t want to. I wanted to kiss him like I’d never wanted to kiss anyone before in my entire life. But we couldn’t die in Rome. Not if he’d come all this way to save me.
He was here.
Unbelievable but true.
“I can’t believe you are here.” I dropped to the ground; we were hidden by the pillar but exposed to the garden side.
“I told you, Mae. I will always protect you.”
His heartfelt claim woke me up. I reached into the ground unravelling the tight container of gold from its hiding place under my heart. It surged forth, as though it knew itself it was safe now Tristram was here. My arms and limbs weighted down towards the ground as the energy pooled through me, lighting me up like a firecracker on Independence Day.
The roots of the trees were waiting for me. I pressed out of myself, surging everything I had in their direction. Their roots were dry, spindly, their movement through the earth rustled inside my head. This land was parched. Dust and air surrounded Rome. Even the luscious blooms in the Emperor’s palace couldn’t hide the truth.
Nature wasn’t happy.
Closing my eyes, I soothed every root my energy met. I couldn’t give them water, not literally.
The irrigation system!
That must be plumbed into some outside source.
Take me to the water, I thought. The trees quivered and then root upon root connected until they spread fast and sure away from the palace walls. Tristram shifted beside me.
I had moments to save us, to give us a chance of survival.
Further and further I reached, pushing and extending my energy through the network of roots, until at last the distinct tang of saltwater landed on the tip of my tongue.
Swiftly, I pulled it back, dragging it through the roots, sensing the rippling pleasure of the trees, who shook their branches and sent me their thanks.
“Tristram,” I whispered. He glanced down in my direction. His face was pensive, but my heart skipped a beat at the sight of him. He was here. My broken heart could sing again. With him, I had more power than I could contain because with him I was a simple alchemy of love and growth. Bountiful abundance pushed from me. “It’s going to get very wet.”
I flashed him a grin which he returned with a stretch of his tanned cheeks.
The earth rumbled beneath me. The smell of damp soil filled the air, the leaves of the nearest flowers darkened, pulling down slightly towards the ground.
Yep. It was going to get very, very wet.
“Tristram.”
“Mae!” The call of the Mage cut off my words. “I know you are here. I can sense you. I can feel what you are doing.”
I shook my head at Tristram’s wide-eyed look. “She can’t,” I whispered to him. “I’m stronger than her. I’m stronger than all of them.”
He nodded. Just once.
“In the jail at the basement of the palace are a whole lot of girls we need to set free. Can you help while I distract everyone?”
“Your wish is my command.” He dropped me a low bow, but his lips curved into a flashing smile. Suddenly he reached forward and caught my chin in his fingertips, his mouth crushing mine, his tongue teasing between my lips.
“You taste of the sea.” He lifted an eyebrow.
“Everything is going to taste like the sea when I’m done.”
The ground rumbled its agreement beneath me and Tristram’s eyes lit with admiration. “Go and set the girls free.” He turned; he would do what I asked. “Which way is home?”
“North.”
“Tell them to head north if they can’t find us. To follow the gold and the plants and the trees.”
He paused for a moment, his eyes lighting on my face one last time. Then he was gone, and it was just me and the trees and the Emperor of Rome. Only one of us was going to survive this.
I nodded to the weighted plants, now dark green almost bordering on black. At my command the nearest one rolled a droplet of water down the wide surface of its leaf, and then another and then another. So did the next plant, and then the next.
“Mae!” Her voice sliced through the air again. “Don’t do this. You can’t resist your rightful role. You’ll kill yourself, again. You have to fulfil your role.”
I’d kill myself again? Did she know I was from a different time? That this Mae was supposed to die on the stones? Or was she talking about something else?
Or possibly she was trying to distract me and succeeding. I slammed my hands into the ground and the earth beneath me gave a resonating crack. Arcs of water flew from the crevice in the earth and reached high into the sky before falling back down, crashing with thunderous droplets.
“Mae!” It was him. The god of war.
He couldn’t bring war against rain though, only man and the earth.
I was the one who could bring war on him. The trees, now replenished and full of vitality and strength jumped to attention at my
