61 A.D.

David McAfee

Prologue

She enjoyed this part the most. The part where they started to scream. It didn’t matter how old or how strong they were, when she started to work her particular brand of magic, they all screamed. Even the tough ones; the ones who thought they could hold out and be strong. The ones who thought they were stronger than she was. Those types usually screamed loudest of all. Of course, that could be because she was harder on them than the ones who cooperated, but it didn’t matter.

In the end, she thought, all Bachiyr are cowards. They all had their breaking point.

This particular Bachiyr hadn’t lasted long at all. His screams sounded long and loud, echoing off the walls of the keep and traveling the length of the hallways and through the chambers beyond. She couldn’t hide her smile as she realized that the humans in the valley below probably heard them, too. Good. It would give them yet another reason to stay away from her home, as if they needed further warning.

She watched her prisoner squirm, enjoying the burnt smell of his flesh while her fire scorched his toes. She controlled the flames with a simple psalm, but she had to constantly monitor it to make sure it maintained just the right temperature. If she allowed it to get too hot the fire burned away the nerves and the prisoner would feel nothing. If she allowed the fire to get too cool it lost its effectiveness. After several millennia of practice she had mastered the ability, much to her prisoner’s dismay.

He’d tried to resist her, even going so far as to tell her to go to the Abyss and calling her all manner of filthy names. He even spat at her, but he missed. She had seen it all before. In four thousand years she’d seen just about everything there was to see. Not much surprised her these nights.

After two minutes she cooled the flames-not out of any sense of mercy, but because she needed information. A prisoner who is screaming can’t speak.

The Bachiyr’s feet were little more than charred stumps. Even if she let him go-which she had no intention of doing-he would never walk again. But at times like these few prisoners ever seemed to think that far ahead. Mostly they just wanted the pain to stop. It made getting information much easier.

“There, Agnor,” she said when he stopped screaming, “is that better?”

Agnor whimpered something in reply, but she couldn’t make it out.

“You’d better speak more clearly, Agnor.” She reached over and touched his cheek, running her nails along his jawline with enough force to break the skin. Blood dripped from a thin red wound, and he shivered in his bonds. It reminded her that she had not yet fed this evening. She would have to remedy that soon. “You don’t want to displease me. Your feet were just the beginning.”

“It is better,” he said, his teeth clenched against the pain.

“Good. I am glad you can talk. We have much to discuss, you and I.”

“I already told you, I don’t know where he is.” His voice had taken on a whiny tone. Not good. He already knew he would never leave her keep alive. Damn. It made it harder to get what she wanted, but the difficulty often made the getting more entertaining.

“Agnor,” she cooed, “You are a clerk to the Halls of the Bachiyr. No, no. Don’t try to deny it, I know it’s true. You have access to information that few others can get. If anyone outside the Council of Thirteen would know of his location, it would be you.”

“I don’t-”

“Spare me,” she said. “You are a terrible liar.”

“And you are going to kill me no matter what I tell you,” Agnor said.

“True enough,” she admitted. “You’ve seen my face. I can’t very well let you leave. But whether your death takes ten seconds or ten days is up to you. Tell me where he is and you will die like this.” She snapped her fingers. “Or keep stalling. You are only dragging the pain along further.”

Without waiting for an answer, she turned the flames on again. This time she started at his fingertips, charring away the skin and flesh as slow as she could, marveling at how his skin crackled and curled upward as it turned black. The acrid odor reached her nostrils and she covered her nose with a damp cloth. Despite her pleasure at the smell’s source, she could only stand it for so long. Agnor screamed again, shaking his head violently back and forth. Amidst the screams were words which she barely understood. Another denial. He was really playing out the lie. Excellent.

When his hands were gone, she cooled the flames again. This time she had to wait several minutes for Agnor’s screams to subside. When at last he quieted, he lay on the stone altar whimpering. Several small red trails leaked from the corners of his eyes. Blood. The coppery smell mixed with the scents of moss, stone, and burned flesh. She sighed, pleased with herself. She had another card to play.

“Do you think they will save you?” she asked. “They don’t even know you are here. When you failed to report to the Council this evening, how much time do you think they wasted looking for you? None, I’ll wager. You are nothing to them, Agnor. Nothing. They will replace you without a moment’s thought on where you might be. That bastard Herris has probably already seen to it. You owe him nothing, and The Father even less. Why suffer longer than you must? Tell me what I need to know. Where is Ramah? Where did they send him last?”

Agnor quieted and turned to look at her. His eyes hardened, and the set of his jaw firmed. She didn’t like the expression on his face at all, and she already knew what his response would be. Damn it.

“It’s Headcouncil Herris,” he said.

She nodded. She’d expected as much. “Very well, Agnor, clerk of Herris. Have it your way. I will enjoy making you talk.”

Agnor closed his eyes. She was just trying to decide where next to burn him-perhaps his manhood-when her thoughts were interrupted by a loud knock on the wooden door. Only one person would disturb her at a time like this.

“Come in, Feyo,” she called.

The door opened and her pet human entered the room. Feyo was large by human standards, and muscular, which is why she kept him around. She had taken him from the lands just south of the sea as a child and raised him at her keep, biting him every month or so to keep him healthy and stronger than normal. He bore the black hair, dark skin, and deep brown eyes of his people. He kept his tight curly hair cut short so that it resembled a small black rug on his head. Today he wore little more than a loincloth, leaving his lean chest and abdomen bare and shiny with sweat.

Had she any such desires she might have mated with him. But fond as she was of her servant, he was still human. She might as well mate with the dogs or horses.

“Mistress Baella,” Feyo said. “I have good news.”

“Speak it.”

“Your runners have found one of the renegades from Jerusalem.”

Baella turned to face him. That was good news. “Where?”

“Londinium.”

“Britannia? Why would Theron go there?”

“Not Theron, Mistress,” Feyo replied. “The other one. The tall one. The one who looks like a northerner but acts like a Roman.”

“Taras,” she said, not even trying to hide her disappointment.

On the table, Agnor snorted. He knew which one she wanted, too. Smarmy bastard. She turned to him and set his crotch on fire. His screams made her feel a little better, but not much.

“The Roman is of no use to me,” she said, raising her voice to be heard above Agnor’s screams.

“Ramah will not come looking for him?” Feyo asked.

“Ramah cares nothing for him. Neither does the Council.”

“But he has eluded them for decades. Surely they-”

“They will send lesser Enforcers to hunt him down,” she interrupted. “Herris and Ramah will not trouble themselves for one of such thin blood, Feyo. You know this already. Leave now. If you find Theron or Ramah, let me know.”

“But Mistress,” Feyo persisted, “Theron cares a great deal about the Roman even if the Council doesn’t, does he not?”

“Of course he does,” she snapped, losing her temper and her focus at the same time. The flames on Agnor’s crotch died instantly, but his screams went on. She turned to regard her servant, concerned about his line of questioning. Did he think she was a fool? “Theron hates Taras with a passion. He’ll never rest until…until…”

Until Taras is dead, she realized.

That’s what Feyo was trying to say. Of course. Bait for bigger bait. Ramah might not come looking for Taras, but he would come for Theron. And Theron, she thought, will come for Taras. No matter where he is.

“Brilliant,” she said. “Well done, Feyo.”

Feyo’s face cracked in a wide smile. “What are your orders, Mistress?”

“Send twenty men out. Give them each twenty gold and tell them to spread word of a tall, blonde man in Londinium with sharp teeth in every tavern and brothel they come to. When the men run out of gold, they are to return here and report. Theron likes to hunt in those places, he’ll hear about it eventually.”

“Yes, Mistress.” Feyo bowed and left the room.

Once word spread that Taras was hiding in Londinium, Theron would make all haste to get there. She would have to plant a message in the Council, as well, to make sure Herris found out. He would send Ramah, and she would be waiting.

Finally, after four thousand years, the Blood Letter would be hers.

Agnor whimpered, drawing her attention back to the table.

“You heard that, I suppose,” she said.

Agnor nodded. “You don’t need me anymore.”

“So it seems,” she replied.

His look of relief brought a smile to her lips, and she couldn’t stifle a short, derisive laugh. “You think that entitles you to a quick death?”

“But…you don’t need me,” he repeated. “You have what you want.”

“Yes, but not from you,” she replied. “Rest assured, when the time comes for me to kill Feyo he will die quick and painlessly. You, on the other hand, will be around for a very long time.”

When Baella brought the flames back, Agnor’s scream seemed even louder and sweeter than before.

I’m coming for you, Ramah.

1

A small tavern in Southern Spain, 61 A.D.

Gregor’s friends were laughing at him. “I’m telling you, I wasn’t drunk,” he said. “I saw him. He was seven feet tall if he was an inch.”

“You’re drunk now, Gregor,” Zebhoim said.

“So are you,” Gregor shot back. “Yet you see me just fine.”

“You’re a little blurry,” Zebhoim replied, winking.

“Maybe so, but I wasn’t drunk that night. He was seven feet tall and had long, shaggy blonde hair. Looked like one of those northerners, except for the teeth.”

“Yes, the teeth,” Boro said, laughing. “Tell us again how sharp they were.”

“They were like needles,” Gregor insisted. “And he came at me real fast, I almost didn’t see him. I barely escaped with my life.”

The serving girl brought the wine, and Gregor drank deeply of his cup before he continued. “The strangest part was when he spoke to me. A man like that, I expected to hear the language of the north, but he spoke in Roman.”

“What did he say?”

“He told me to run,” Gregor said. “It was the strangest thing. I thought I was a dead man, but he stopped about five paces away and told me to run. Looked like he was in pain or something, and his chin had blood all over it.”

Zebhoim laughed again. “A tall northerner, speaking Roman, with sharp teeth and blood on his chin came up to you and told you to run?” At this, the rest of the table joined in the laughter.

“It’s true, I tell you,” Gregor said.

Zebhoim laughed harder. When he finally settled into a series of chuckles, he wiped his eyes on his sleeve. “True or not,” he said, “it’s a story that deserves a drink.” He called to the serving girl and ordered another round, while several of the other men continued to laugh and poke fun at Gregor.

Gregor stewed in his chair until the serving girl arrived with the drinks, then he reached over and grabbed one. He might be angry that his friends refuse to believe him, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t drink their ale. He raised the mug to his mouth and downed it, much to the amusement of the other men at the table, who promptly ordered another round. Soon he forgot all about Zebhoim’s laughter.

A few hours later Gregor stumbled out the door and into the street. He looked at the sky and realized for the first time that the sun would be up in a couple of hours. He’d been drinking with his friends almost all night. At least it was fun. After Zebhoim started buying drinks, the night got interesting. Gregor would have stayed longer except he had started seeing two tables where only one should be. That and he felt a pressing need to empty his bladder.

He walked into an alley near the tavern and untied the leather thong in front of his trousers, barely managing to free his cock in time to avoid wetting himself. A great sense of relief spread through him as the pressure on his bladder eased, and he sighed. Drunk as he was, he swayed back and forth, spraying his boots with piss.

“Damn it,” Gregor swore, lifting his leg and shaking his boot. This caused him to sway even more, and he nearly fell over. He only managed to catch himself by placing both hands on the wall. Of course, since he was still in the middle of urinating, this meant he splashed himself and the wall even further.

“Damn it,” Gregor repeated. He steadied himself against the wall, then reached down with his left hand and grabbed his flailing manhood. Thankfully he managed to finish the rest of the job without further incident.

His good mood gone, he re-tied his trousers and tried to shake some of the urine off them, but it didn’t do any good. He would have to have the girl at the inn wash them or he would spend the whole day smelling like piss. She wouldn’t do it for free, either.

Gregor grumbled about the cost of everything and turned to leave the alley. He froze in his tracks at the sight of the man behind him. The newcomer was dark, and hidden in the shadows of the alley, but Gregor could see the outline of sharp, high cheekbones and shoulder length dark hair. His eyes shone red in the middle of his face, giving off a surreal glow that only magnified the two sharp fangs in the stranger’s mouth.

Gregor had thought his bladder empty, but as he stared at the man’s eyes and teeth, he felt a tiny trickle escape and moisten the front of his trousers. He took a deep breath, ready to shout for help, while his right hand stole to the dagger at his hip.

The stranger’s arm shot forward, his hand clamping down on Gregor’s throat and shoving him back against the building. Gregor felt the moisture on his rump as the urine on the wall soaked the back of his trousers, but of more concern was the lack of air as the stranger’s hand closed around his throat. Gregor gasped and tried to pry the man’s fingers from his windpipe, but it was like trying to pry open a pair of iron shackles. Despite the lack of air, he couldn’t help but notice the color of the man’s hand. Black, like charred skin. It didn’t match the olive color of his face.

“Don’t struggle,” the man said. “It will not do you any good. Save your strength.”

Gregor gurgled. His vision swam and he was starting to feel lightheaded.

“You are mine until I release you,” the stranger said. “Do you understand?”

Gregor nodded.

“You have information I want. I am going to release your throat. If you scream, the rats in this alley will feast tonight,” the stranger said. With that, he opened his hand, allowing Gregor to suck in air. When Gregor caught his breath, he looked up to see the man staring down at him with those odd red eyes. His toothy mouth was curled into a sadistic grin.

“What do you want from me?” Gregor asked.

“Tell me about the tall Roman with teeth like mine.”

***

Theron stepped out of the alley, checking both directions to make sure no one saw him, and walked down the street with a spring in his step. It wasn’t just Gregor’s blood that had him in a good mood. The news that his old friend was hiding in Londinium caused him to smile all the way back to his sanctum.

From Gregor’s description, the tall Roman could only be one Bachiyr, and Theron had been looking for him for almost thirty years.

Taras.

His hand itched, as it did whenever he thought of Jerusalem. He reached over and scratched the blackened flesh. It looked charred, as though someone had taken a torch to it. It still functioned, and it didn’t hurt. The skin had even healed without a visible scar, unless you counted the color. It reminded him of the story the Jews in Judea told of a man named Cain, who had killed his brother and was thus, according to legend, given a dark mark on his forehead so that all who saw him would know what he had done.

It wasn’t quite the same, of course. Cain had killed Abel, but Theron had killed the so-called Messiah. The Son of God, some people called him. Supposedly he was anointed to free the people of Israel and lead humanity back to the path of righteousness. Ha! Those fools in Jerusalem would believe anything if it meant they could oust the Romans. Being the Son of God hadnhe S7?t saved him from me, Theron mused.

Still, he looked at his black hand and had to admit there was more to the man than he’d first imagined. Almost thirty years had passed since he’d burned his hand on the rabbi’s skin, and it still retained the pigmentation of a vial of ink. He could no longer exact revenge on the dead rabbi, but Taras was another matter.

Ever since Jerusalem, Theron had dreamed of finding the wretched northerner again, and now thanks to a drunken Spaniard he knew exactly where the bastard was hiding. The time had come to repay an old debt. Tomorrow night he would head to the coast. There he would buy passage on a ship to Britannia. In less than a month he would be in Londinium, and shortly after that Taras would be little more than a bad memory.

He wiped the last of Gregor’s blood from his chin.

“I will see you soon, Roman,” he whispered.

2

Londinium, in the Roman province of Britannia 61 A.D.

Taras opened his eyes, awakened by the sound of a late street vendor trying to make a profit before the sun went down. He’d chosen a sanctum near the market district because of the large number of people who congregated there. The crowds milling through Londinium’s busy market provided Taras with two things he desperately needed: food and cover. There was never any shortage of brigands and thieves in the market, and even one such as Taras could blend in with the throng.

He rose from his straw pallet, the scent of hay mingling with the spicy, earthen smell of the market nearby, and picked tiny twigs from his wheat-colored hair. His hair and height marked him as a northerner, and even here people noticed him from time to time. During its short history, Londinium had suffered attacks from Vikings as well as several tribes in the northeast, most notably the Iceni, who took offense to Rome’s attitude shift after the death of their King Prasutagus. Taras could have been a Viking himself for all the people around him knew. His tall frame and pallor spoke the truth of his heritage, and even though he’d long since forsaken his homeland to join the Roman Empire, no one in Londinium could know that.

In fact, he reflected, there is probably no one left alive who knows that.

His best friend Marcus, a Centurion in Jerusalem, had been killed nearly thirty years ago by a vampire named Theron. The same vampire who’d somehow tricked Taras into aiding the execution of Jesus of Nazareth. Taras didn’t like to think about that, how he’d helped put an innocent man to the cross. But more than that, he tried to dodge the memory of the strange encounter by the Mount of Olives a few nights later.

Jesus had died on that cross. Taras had forced himself to watch the whole thing, so he knew it was true. Had he really seen the same rabbi, even spoke to him, outside of Mary’s tomb a few days later? It sounded impossible, but he knew it was true. Could the dead really come back?

Taras had only to look at himself for the answer to that question. The dead could indeed come back. Unfortunately.

Jesus wasn’t the only one to die on that spring night twenty-seven years ago. Theron had killed Taras that night, too. But unlike his friend Marcus, Taras hadn’t stayed dead. He didn’t understand why, but for some reason he awoke in a hasty grave and had to dig his way out. He’d been terrified. And hungry. Now, of course, he knew the truth. Theron had turned him into a Bachiyr.

Taras slipped into his tattered pants, sending small clouds of dust into the air, and thought about that first night. He didn’t know what the hunger was, then. He’d walked around trying to eat whatever scraps he could find in the street, but his stomach would have none of it. It wasn’t until several days had passed that he ran into Mary’s father, Abraham, at the entrance to her tomb and finally learned his hunger’s true nature.

He pulled on his rough, homespun shirt. He’d taken it from a tall bandit in the countryside a few weeks ago, and it was starting to show signs of wear. He would have to replace it soon, but it would have to wait until he found a tailor that stayed open late or came across another tall robber. He shrugged his arms through the sleeves and adjusted the front of the shirt to fit his chest, which was smaller than the bandit’s had been. It would have to do for now.

Bachiyr. That’s what the Jews at the Damascus Gate had called him. Taras spoke some Hebrew, the result of several years spent living and working in Jerusalem as a legionary for Rome, and he recognized the word. It meant “Chosen.”

He slipped the shirt over his shoulders as he pondered just what, exactly, he had been chosen for. For nearly thirty years, he had hunted robbers, thieves, bandits and worse, feeding only on those who deserved his ire. But that was a choice he made back in Antioch, not one that was made for him, so it couldn’t be that.

Maybe the name was just a coincidence, or an attempt by the Bachiyr to make themselves seem grander than they were. He would probably never know. He’d have liked to ask another of his kind, but every time he found one they tried to kill him. No questions, no talking, just an attack. He had no idea why. But he’d been running from them for nearly thirty years now, and he’d gotten pretty good at it.

In another life, he’d been trained to be stealthy, silent, and deadly. An elite assassin in the great Roman Legion. Now those skills seemed to have magnified a hundredfold, and he learned new abilities every night. He could silence the area around him for a dozen paces, grow claws from his fingertips, heal his wounds by willing blood to the injured area of his body, and many other skills that turned him from a mere assassin into one of the deadliest beings in the known world.

But not the deadliest.

He hadn’t bested Theron in combat. Nor had he beaten the other Bachiyr that night, a dark-skinned creature of indeterminate age that exuded power and strength beyond anything Taras had seen before or since. He never caught the other Bachiyr’s name, and he didn’t want to. He’d had enough of that one to last a thousand years.

But Theron…that was different. He relished the thought that someday he would meet up with that black-hearted bastard again. He’d learned a few things in thirty years, and wanted to try them out.

Someday, he promised, I will pick up your trail again, Theron. Then I will send you straight to Hell.

He pulled on his worn boots and frowned, examining the hole in the bottom of the right one. That wouldn’t do. The winters in Londinium could be very harsh. He’d need a replacement pair before the cold set in. He’d have to add a pair of boots to the list of things to watch for.

Taras stood and walked to the entrance of the building he’d used as a shelter for the day, passing the dried out husk of the structure’s previous owner. The dead man had been a rapist and murderer in life, and Taras had followed him here after witnessing an attack. When Taras cornered the man the bastard had begged for mercy. It was a cry the Bachiyr had heard hundreds of times over the years from a myriad of bandits, robbers, highwaymen, killers, and worse. They all sounded the same to him, begging for compassion they themselves would never give. He killed the man, as he had the others, and left his body to rot in a corner of the building. That was six weeks ago, and no one had come looking for him. Now as he passed the body, he stopped for just a moment to stare at the man’s feet. Too small. He needed bigger boots. Time to go hunting.

He stepped over the corpse, barely noticing the puncture wounds in the dead man’s neck, and set out for the Market. Most of the vendors would have closed up shop by this late hour, but Taras hoped he would be able to find one still out and about, and with boots and a shirt that might fit him. Afterward he would wind his way to the tavern district. There were always thieves and lightfingers near the taverns, and Taras was hungry.

***

Boudica watched the fires level the city of Camulodunum. Smoke filled the air and stung her eyes and lungs, but she refused to budge. The screams of the dying rang through the night like a song, and every once in a while a resident of the town would run down the street, screaming in pain and trying to put out the flames that engulfed his or her body. In the last hour she’d counted ten such human torches, and the sight never failed to amuse her.

Her hip-length blonde hair-dim with ashes floating by from the ruined city- hung in a tight braid down the center of her back. Her icy blue eyes pierced through the smoky gloom, waiting for confirmation that the town’s wealth was now theirs. She wiped the sweat from her brow with a soot-covered hand, feeling the sting as the salt and grime mixed and dripped into her eyes.

There goes another one, she thought as a man ran down the street trailing fire behind him. He ran for twenty or thirty paces before he fell face-first to the ground and lay twitching in the road. Boudica smirked. One of her soldiers started walking toward him with his sword raised, probably intending to put a quick end to him.

“Leave him,” she ordered. “It’s no less than he deserves.”

The soldier turned, saluted, and walked away, leaving the burning man writhing in the street, much to Boudica’s amusement. It’s a good day to die, Roman.

Her thoughts returned to her daughters, raped and beaten at the hands of the Romans after her husband died. The King had willed the Iceni kingdom to his two daughters as well as to the Roman Empire upon his death, and as part of the treaty Rome had agreed to honor their family’s sovereignty over their lands. But upon the death of her husband, King Prasutagus, the Roman Emperor Nero showed his true colors. After nearly two decades of mutual alliance, Rome had decided they wanted the Iceni lands for themselves, and the subsequent attack on her family had been just the beginning.

Nero’s men marched through her lands taking what they wanted and subjugating her people. The Roman creditors who’d been so helpful and benevolent during her husband’s reign turned into savages almost overnight. They lay claim to everything that rightfully belonged to the Iceni, including their princesses.

A single tear leaked from Boudica’s eye. The sight of her two daughters coming to her bruised and beaten, with trails of blood between their legs, had been too much. Every Roman in Iceni lands that could be rounded up was slain that very day, with more and more losing their lives to the sword as the days passed.

But it was not enough. It would never be enough. Not until the Romans were gone, fled from Iceni lands like the dogs they were. Her people were strong and fierce, as evidenced by the complete destruction of Camulodunum, and they did not cower or surrender. Rome had made a very bad mistake.

“My Queen.”

She turned to see her general, kneeling at her back.

“Yes, Cyric?” she asked.

Cyric rose to his feet. Even at six feet tall, he stood two full inches shorter than Boudica, and had to angle his face upward. “The attack is complete. The Romans are all dead or dying, save for a few who managed to escape.”

“Where will they run?”

“Londinium, most likely,” he replied. “That’s the nearest city large and strong enough to offer them some protection.”

“And Camulodunum’s gold?”

“Is ours, as is their livestock, food, and everything else of value.”

Boudica turned from her general and faced the town. The man who’d run out into the street while on fire now resembled nothing so much as a burning log. She wiped another bead of sweat from her brow as she contemplated her next move. Cyric had said some Romans escaped with their lives. That wouldn’t do. That wouldn’t do at all.

“Londinium, you say?” she asked. “That’s where you think they’ve gone?”

“It would make sense, my Queen. The city is walled and well fortified. The refugees would probably feel safe there.”

“Then that is their mistake.” Boudica turned on her heel, putting the burning town at her back and startling Cyric. “Send the caravans back home with Camulodunum’s gold and anything else of value that would not be useful to us on the move. The livestock and foodstuffs will travel with us. Inform the men we march for Londinium at dawn.”

“I’ll see to it personally, my Queen,” Cyric said, a slight smile on his lips. He saluted, then turned and walked back to the command area, where Boudica’s officers waited for instructions.

Boudica turned back to the town, but this time she cast her gaze on the distant horizon, barely visible through the flames and smoke. How many had gotten away? She would have to ask Cyric later. It didn’t matter. She would kill every Roman she found until they were wise enough to leave her lands and her people in peace. Nero’s dogs were about to get a taste of their own medicine.

“Go ahead and run, Roman swine,” she whispered. “You won’t get far.”

3

The sun peaked over the eastern horizon, filtering through the bushes and speckling the woman’s body with alternating patches of shadow and light. Ramah looked down at her as she lay naked in the grass. She had never looked so beautiful, and his heart almost broke as he remembered their lovemaking. The smell of their sweat lingered in the tiny clearing, mingling with the smell of flowers, brush, and soil. He wanted her again, but with the sun came the day, and he would have to go back to his hut before his mother realized he was gone.

Reluctantly, he rose from the grass, putting his hand on her shoulder. Her deep blue eyes-so uncommon among his people, and the very reason many thought her a witch-watched him rise to his feet. Her smile faltered.

“Do you have to go?” she asked.

“I do. Mother will be awake soon.”

Her eyes drooped at the mention of his mother. She would never allow them to marry, and they both knew it. By the laws of his people, he was bound to live in her hut until he married and took a home of his own, but the only one he wanted to marry was Neeya, the very woman his mother despised.

“She hates me,” Neeya said, frowning.

Ramah nodded. It was no use lying; Neeya knew the truth. “But I don’t.” He bent down and kissed her forehead. “I will speak with her today.”

She turned away and reached for her clothes, but not before he caught the wetness in her eyes. “It will not do any good,” she said. “She will not listen.”

A tear spilled down her cheek, sparkling in the early morning light, and Ramah heard her jagged breath. He reminded himself that, as hard as their love was for him, it must be harder for her. He was Houlo of his village, and as such had many friends and people he could confide in. She had only him.

“I will make her listen,” Ramah vowed.

Neeya shook her head, a sob escaping her lips. “It will not work.”

His heart broke again as he watched her cry. It wasn’t fair. Neeya was no witch woman. The damn superstitions of his people scarred her and made her an outsider, but he knew the truth. She was a simple, lonely girl who only wanted what everyone else wanted; food in her belly, a hut to call her own, and a handful of children. As long as she lived in her father’s hut she would never lack for the first, but until she married, the other two would be forever out of her reach.

Ramah watched her bare shoulders bob up and down and felt tears rising in his own eyes. She was right. His mother would not listen. He’d tried many times already, but she refused to allow him to marry a Chalika, as she was called. This time would be no different. His mother was as stubborn as the sand.

He clenched his fist, feeling the old familiar anger rise up inside him. His mother would see him married to a woman of her choosing, not his own. But he would not be denied. Not this time. “Then I will defy her,” he said.

A blast of thunder boomed overhead. Odd, there was not a single cloud in the sky. Ramah ignored it. There were more important things to deal with right now.

“You what?” Neeya’s eyes widened.

“I will marry you. With or without her blessing.”

“You can’t do that,” she replied. “The law-”

“Can’t I?” he asked. “I am Houlo, not my mother. My word is law. I will marry you and build us a hut on the far side of the village.” He reached down and grabbed her shoulders, gently pulling her to stand in front of him. “That is, if you will have me.”

More thunder. BOOOM! Ramah looked to the sky, but could see no sign of an approaching storm. Perhaps it is hidden by the trees, he thought.

“Will you have me as your husband, Neeya?” he asked.

Neeya stood for a moment, her expression uncertain. “This will anger many people.”

“I am not interested in sharing my hut with many people,” he replied. “Only with you. And our children, of course.”

“But the law-”

“The law be damned. It is time to change it.”

“You would do this for me?”

“I would do it a thousand times over. Marry me, Neeya. The time for hiding is done.”

She nodded and sank into his arms. “I will,” she replied. “Of course I will.”

“I love you,” he whispered. He kissed her softly on the forehead.

Neeya said something in reply, but the sound of her voice was drowned out by another burst of thunder. BOOM! BOOOOOM!

Ramah woke with a start, his arms encircled around his soft, round pillow. Small puddles of blood had leaked from his eyes to soak the fabric, and he used his hand to wipe away the thin red trails on his cheeks.

The gods-damned dream again, he realized. He shook his head, trying to clear away the memories. Bachiyr do not often dream, when the sun rises in the morning sky most of his people simply lay down and die for the day, but Ramah was different. His days were often plagued by visions of his past, and most of them revolved around Neeya, the woman for whom he’d given up everything.

A loud, booming knock signaled that someone was growing very impatient on the other side of his chamber door. At least I know where the thunder came from, Ramah thought. He had no need to ask who it was. Only one Bachiyr would disturb him so brazenly. Not even the Lost Ones would be so bold. “Enter, Headcouncil,” he called.

The door creaked open, and Headcouncil Herris stepped into the room, flanked by his personal Lost One. The thing stood rotting away next to Herris, dropping larvae and small spatters of flesh onto Ramah’s floor. The temperature of the room dropped as the thing carried its aura of cold into the room with it.

“Headcouncil,” Ramah said. “Must that thing be present for this?” He pointed at the Lost One. “I do not care to have it in my private chambers.”

Herris gestured to his servant. “Leave us,” he said. The Lost One bowed, then turned and left the room, taking its unnatural chill with it.

Once it was gone, Ramah relaxed. Like most Bachiyr, he detested the Lost Ones, even though the other councilors enjoyed having them around. Especially Headcouncil Herris. The Lost Ones acted as servants for the Council and other prominent Bachiyr, but they also served as a reminder of what could become of vampires who disobeyed the Council of Thirteen. As a member of the Council himself, Ramah was immune to their laws, but the decaying, worm-eaten flesh of the Lost Ones still put him on edge.

“Thank you Headcouncil,” Ramah said. “How may I assist you?”

“There is blood on your face,” Herris noted. “Are you well?”

Ramah reached up and wiped away the remaining blood, cursing silently that Herris had seen it.

“It’s nothing, Headcouncil,” he said. “A minor injury that I have already healed. I merely forgot to clean up.”

“I see.” Herris studied him. Ramah felt the elder vampire’s beetle eyes boring into him, searching. That Herris knew Ramah lied was beyond doubt, Herris always knew when his subjects lied, but damned if Ramah would allow him to see why.

“Is there something I can do for you, Headcouncil?” Ramah asked as he erected a mental barrier around his mind. Herris broke off his study and smiled. He could probably still rummage through Ramah’s thoughts at will-such was the power of the Headcouncil-but he could no longer do it discreetly.

“You dreamed of her again, didn’t you?” Herris asked.

Ramah’s shoulders fell, and he nodded. No use trying to hide anything from Herris. He should have known better. Herris always knew. “Our last day together,” he said. “The night before I killed my village.”

“The Father’s request,” Herris pointed out.

“And duly obeyed,” Ramah replied. “I do not regret it. But the dreams will not leave me alone.”

“A test?”

“Perhaps, but I see no purpose.” Ramah said. “Never have I faltered in my service to our race.”

“True enough,” Herris agreed. “The Father has his reasons, I’m certain. He does not share them with us.”

“Have you ever dreamed, Headcouncil?”

“Never,” Herris replied. Ramah caught the flicker of doubt across his elder’s face. It was there and gone in an instant, but Ramah noticed. As the primary executioner of the Council’s will, it was his job to notice small things. Interesting. What would Herris dream about? No matter. Herris’ dreams, or lack thereof, were none of his concern.

“You should see Lannis,” Herris said. “She might be able to help you rid yourself of the dreams.”

“With all respect, Headcouncil, is there a reason you have come to my personal chambers rather than wait for the next Council session?” Ramah hoped Herris would take the hint. He didn’t want the dreams to stop. They reminded him of who he was, and fueled his hatred of mankind. For every drop of blood Neeya shed in his dreams, he took a gallon from the world of men. It suited his purpose for them to continue.

“Indeed there is, Ramah,” Herris replied. He leaned closer, and Ramah saw actual excitement in the dead man’s eyes. “I have just this moment come from a meeting with one of our humans in Britannia. We have found the Roman.”

Ramah looked up, trying to figure out why Herris would bother him with such trivial news. Herris looked excited, though, so Ramah dutifully nodded. “Where is he?”

“Londinium.”

“I’ll leave this very hour.” Ramah walked to the far side of his room and reached for the door handle. He didn’t need to pack anything. The Council had recently opened a gatehouse in Londinium, so he wouldn’t even need to travel overland to get there. Once he found Taras it should be an easy kill. He would be back before midnight.

“Wait, Ramah,” Herris said. “You don’t think I came all this way to wake you for that, do you?”

Ramah stopped at the door and turned to face the Headcouncil. “Is there something else?”

“We think Theron might show up in the city, as well,” Herris said.

Ramah smiled. Theron and Taras? In the same city? Could it be? There could only be one reason both renegades would be in such close proximity. “Theron must know Taras is there, also,” he reasoned.

“That is my guess, as well,” Herris replied.

“How did he find him before us?”

“I don’t know,” Herris admitted. “But the important thing is they will both be in Londinium, a relatively small city compared to Jerusalem or Carthage. They should be easy enough to find, especially if Theron remains true to form.”

Ramah nodded. Theron had taken to thwarting Council law at every turn, sometimes even leaving his victims out in the open without bothering to disguise his work. In Athens, he had even been seen in the act of drinking several humans dry. He simply didn’t care about the secrecy of the Bachiyr race anymore. If he arrived in Londinium, there would probably be a body or two found in the streets the next day that no one other than a Bachiyr could explain.

“I will find them both,” Ramah said, “and bring their heads back for the Council.”

Herris shook his head. “Kill the Roman, but Theron’s punishment has already been decided. You are to return him to the Halls so he can be made into a Lost One.”

“Even better,” Ramah said, and turned again to leave. This time Herris did not stop him, and Ramah soon found himself in the stone passages of the Halls of the Bachiyr, walking among the flickering torches and the acrid smell of pitch. Soon he would be in Londinium, and Taras and Theron would both be dead.

Oh, he had agreed to bring Theron back, and in truth, the thought of Theron as a Lost One did have a certain justice to it. But Ramah hated prisoners. They had to be handled, transported, guarded, and the like. Far too much trouble. In any case, Theron was powerful and resourceful. He would be difficult to guard. Far easier to simply remove his head and bring it back to Herris in a bag. Herris might complain, but Ramah was Second of the Council, and thus immune to judgment.

Ramah reached the outer halls and turned toward the Londinium passage. The tips of his fingers itched as his claws begged for release. He would let them out once he found Theron. Taras, too, but it was difficult to get excited about that. The Roman was a young Bachiyr and none too powerful. How he had managed to evade the Council’s minions for thirty years was a mystery.

Ramah intended to find out. Taras would live long enough to talk, then his head, too would part company with his shoulders.

Ramah slipped through the door into the Londinium receiving chamber, startling the clerk, who stammered out a greeting. Ramah ignored him and stepped through the door into the city, all memories of his dream forgotten.

***

Theron brushed the dirt from his sleeves, sending up clouds of dust into the night sky. He was glad to be off the ship. The constant rocking and roiling of the deck as it crossed the span from coastal Spain to Britannia had made it almost impossible to rest. To make matters worse, the crew was small, forcing him to endure his hunger for almost the entire journey. He could have killed every member of the crew, but that would have left him stranded in the middle of the sea, waiting to wither away.

Now free of the cargo hold, and of the crate he’d hidden in for the length of his passage, he felt better. Theron stretched his arms toward the moon, working out the cramps that threatened to set in as he scanned the small port village for any sign of a meal. He spotted the ship’s captain walking ashore. In a village this small there would not be much going on to merit a captain’s attention at this late hour, but it was hunger, and not curiosity, that drove Theron forward. He followed the captain a short way into the city until both men stood behind a single building.

The structure stood between them and the boat, obscuring their view of the docks. And also the dock’s view of the two men.

Excellent, Theron thought.

The captain turned around to face him, apparently not surprised to see Theron standing so close behind. He straightened his shoulders and faced the vampire with an expression that was probably meant to seem unafraid. The captain’s rapid heartbeat gave away his fear, however, and Theron had to force himself not to smile.

“So,” the captain began, “you are here.”

“Indeed,” Theron replied. “Sooner than I expected. Well done, Captain Sethus.”

“Thank the wind for that,” Sethus replied. “I had little enough to do with it.”

Theron nodded.

Sethus cleared his throat. “I believe you owe me ten gold coins.”

“Our deal was five gold coins.”

“You arrived sooner than expected, did you not?”

Theron smiled. “Didn’t you just say you had little enough to do with getting me here?”

“The speed of our travel was determined by the wind, but not the travel itself. You bought passage on my vessel, and you killed one of my crewmen en route.”

“I-”

“Don’t try to deny it, Ephraim or whatever your name is,” Sethus shook his fist at Theron, “I know it was you. You may have tossed the body overboard, but I saw the blood on your crate. I can replace the crewman, but it will take time, and for that inconvenience you must pay five more gold coins.”

“And if I don’t?” Theron asked.

“The Council of Thirteen would not be pleased to hear of it.”

“Probably not,” Theron agreed. Now he did smile. The captain had doubtless hoped to cow him by mentioning the Council of Thirteen. He was about to be surprised. The tips of Theron’s fangs poked into his lower lip. A tiny drop of blood formed, reminding him he hadn’t fed since halfway through the voyage.

Sethus took a step backward, but caught himself before he took a second. His outward demeanor remained calm and in control, but Theron caught the sweet smell of the man’s fear. “Headcouncil Herris would certainly take offense to the mistreatment of one of the Council’s favored,” Sethus said, probably believing Herris’ name carried some weight. Had it been almost any other vampire, it would have been enough.

But Theron was not any vampire.

He struck before the captain could utter another syllable, closing the distance between them and grabbing the man by the throat. His claws grew, but he was careful to let them get only long enough to hurt, not to kill. Not yet. His fangs extended to their full length, and the captain’s eyes widened in surprise.

Sethus grabbed Theron’s arm and tried to pull himself free from the vampire’s iron grip. Theron would have told him he was wasting his time, but he could see in the captain’s eyes that he already knew.

“My…crew,” Sethus said. “They’ll know…they know we carried you. Headcouncil Herris…will find out.”

Theron laughed. “They know you carried a man named Ephraim who liked to sleep in a crate. When Herris asks, that is what they will tell him.”

Sethus nodded, his eyes clenched shut in pain. “Yes…yes. He will find out.”

“My name is not Ephraim, Captain Sethus. It’s Theron.”

Sethus’ eyes flew open at the mention of the name. So, Theron thought. Even the Council’s pet humans know of me. The fight went out of the old captain then, and that told Theron exactly what he’d wanted to know. The Council of Thirteen was using every available resource to capture him.

“It’s nice to be wanted,” he said. When the captain didn’t respond, Theron looked at him. The man’s eyes had closed, and his face had gone slack. He wasn’t dead, Theron could feel the heart beating under his fingers, just unconscious. Perfect. He could take his time, this didn’t have to be messy, and he’d need these clothes again, so it would be best not to get too much blood on them.

Theron bit into the tough flesh of the man’s neck, tearing into the artery just beneath the surface, and then sealed the area around the wound by pressing his lips to Sethus’ skin. Fresh, warm blood poured into his mouth and down his throat, filling him with the vitality of the living. His head began to buzz slightly, and his arms trembled. Tiny electric motes sizzled up and down his skin, sinking into his spine and setting his nerves aflame. Still he held on, his hunger driving him to siphon every last drop from the dying captain.

When it was over, Theron let the body fall to the dirt. Then, as he’d done for the last twenty seven years, he turned and walked away, leaving the corpse where it fell. This was another way of thumbing his nose at the Council. By Council Law, all victims had to be hidden, camouflaged, or otherwise disposed of in order to keep the secrecy of the Bachiyr race intact. As an outcast, Theron no longer concerned himself with such matters.

Occasionally, he would change his methods for a while and hide the bodies, as such corpses tend to leave a trail. The Council’s minions had been chasing him for nearly three decades, and sometimes they’d gotten too close, forcing Theron to fight or flee. In most cases, he fought, and won.

He’d killed more Enforcers in the last twenty-seven years than he could remember, and yet the Council continued to send more. Of course, Ramah still hunted for him as well, and had nearly caught up to him in Spain. Theron held no illusions as to who would prove the victor in a fight between himself and Ramah.

Ramah would tear him to shreds, and then only if he was feeling merciful. More likely the elder vampire would incapacitate him and bring him back to the Halls of the Bachiyr, where the Council of Thirteen would turn him into a Lost One.

Theron felt an involuntary shudder as he pictured the Lost Ones. Vampires cursed to serve the Council without the ability to feed. Their bodies rotted away as maggots and other larvae ate their flesh away. But they could never eat it all. The curse of the Lost One is that there would always be enough flesh for the body to function, no matter how much of it the insects devoured.

Theron would sit on the beach and watch the sun rise before he would allow that to happen to him. The council would probably be fine with that outcome, as well, which was just another reason for him to continue living. As long as he remained active, he would be a thorn in Headcouncil Herris’ side.

Besides, he was enjoying himself far too much to die now.

He turned from the building and walked into the street, the light of the nearly full moon on his shoulders. So this is Britannia. There were not many of the so-called Christians here. The Romans owned the land, despite the efforts of a tribe of rebels. Iceni, he thought they were called. Led by their furious and righteous queen. Boudica? That sounded right.

But none of that concerned him. His only purpose for being here lay with Gregor’s story of the tall northerner who spoke Roman and possessed a pair of sharp fangs. Apparently, the northerner had come across Gregor in the tavern district and nearly attacked him, but backed away and let him leave.

Why?

Taras needed blood as much as any other Bachiyr. What reason would he have had for letting Gregor escape? Theron supposed it could be another Bachiyr, but Taras fit the description, and Londinium was isolated enough to be out of the way while still being large enough to offer plenty of prey. It made sense. Taras would look for a good place to hide, and the city of Londinium was as good as any.

But why had he let Gregor escape? Taras should have killed the man.

No matter. Theron was here, and he would learn what he needed to know.

I hope it’s you, Taras, he thought as he put the port town at his back and started walking inland. It’s long past time for you to die.

4

Near the center of the city, Taras walked the dark streets in silence, scanning the dusty shadows of every alley and alcove he passed in his search for prey. On this night the moon was almost new, leaving very little light for him to see his way. While this didn’t bother Taras, who could see perfectly well in the dim evening, it presented a challenge to the humans in the city. Any who were out and about at this late hour had to carry a torch or a lamp, which made them easier to spot.

Even before he became a vampire, Taras was more comfortable stalking through the shadows than out in the open daylight. An assassin by training, he naturally did most of his work after the sun’s departure from the evening sky. But ever since his change the sun held only pain for him, and he’d been banished to the night.

Still, it suited him.

The streets seemed less crowded tonight than normal. Ordinarily Londinium remained busy and active until sometime around midnight, but tonight the cobbled streets seemed virtually empty but for the occasional drunkard or prostitute. He hadn’t even seen a single Roman legionary, and their patrols normally ran through the city every quarter hour. It was almost as if half the city had left during the day. But why?

Up ahead, Taras spied a man in coarse homespun staggering out from a tavern amidst a volley of curses and swears. At least the taverns are still open, he thought. The warm lights of the building reached into the street a short way, then faded into the darkness. The drunk called out an insult to some people still inside, then stumbled up the street mumbling under his breath while drinking from a sour-smelling clay pot. He looked harmless enough, but Taras followed him anyway just to be sure. If the drunk started any trouble, then Taras would have his meal. If not, he would keep looking.

The man wasn’t from one of the local tribes. He stood just over five and a half feet and had the dark hair and soft brown complexion of a Roman. By his accent, Taras guessed him to be from the capital city of Rome herself. You are a long way from home, he thought.

The man walked through the neglected sections of the city, taking pulls from his pot at various intervals. He led Taras through the Market district and into the city proper, where the buildings became a bit less solid and a bit more in need of maintenance. The wooden slats that made up the outer walls were either peeling or bare of paint altogether. Here and there, the ravages of sun or cold pulled at the roofs of the buildings. Though they were relatively new, they had not been taken proper care of. Likely because no one cared enough to do so.

There were very few people here, either, and of those few who walked the streets, most shied away from the drunk as he passed. Either they knew him and wanted to avoid him, or they simply feared anyone new. He passed a ramshackle tavern and hesitated at the entrance. It seemed he might go inside, but after a moment the man took another pull off his pot and kept walking, grumbling about the high cost of mead.

Only a few blocks from the tavern, the man slowed and peered into an alley. With his hand on the top of his pants, he changed direction and wandered into the dark space between the two buildings, yanking the front of his pants down as he went.

Taras closed the distance in half a second, and stood listening to the sound of liquid splashing on the wooden side of the building. The man had been drinking a great deal from the pot in his hand. Taras was surprised he hadn’t run out of the stuff, come to think of it. The man had been drinking it from almost the moment he’d left the tavern, he…

Damn! Taras should have seen it sooner.

He turned just in time to avoid the clawed hands of one of the Council’s minions. Taras ducked under the blow, feeling the wind of the other vampire’s hand rustle his hair. He rolled to the side, away from the alley, and sprang to his feet, clawed hands at the ready.

Three vampires faced him, including the “drunk,” who had left the alley to stand with his comrades. They would be Council vampires, probably low-level ones, at that. Not nearly as powerful as the one Taras had fought in Jerusalem. The Council didn’t seem to consider him much of a threat, so they only sent lackeys after him.

“Well done, Roman,” the middle vampire, a female, purred. “You’ve learned much with no one to teach you.”

Taras said nothing.

The female was tall but thin. She had the dark hair and eyes of the people who lived just north of the Mediterranean. Her pale cheeks looked hollow and sunken, as though she’d died of starvation rather than being killed by a Bachiyr. She was so thin she seemed emaciated and frail, but Taras knew better than to underestimate her. A vampire’s strength doesn’t have anything to do with muscle.

The other two didn’t leave much of an impression. The one on the left was short and a bit pudgy, and the one on the right, who’d pretended to be the drunken man, was only slightly taller than his friend, with a gleaming bald pate and eyes the color of ashes. Judging by her stance and her words, the woman was the leader of the three.

“Nothing to say?” she asked. “Don’t you want to know who we are?”

Taras said nothing. He knew already. They were Enforcers. Just like the last ones that had come to kill him. And the ones before that, and the ones before that. They caught up to him every once in a while, although Taras had lived in relative peace here in Londinium for nearly as decade. He had begun to imagine himself almost safe, but apparently not. They had taken longer than normal, but they had found him again just the same. Not that it mattered. They would die just like all the others before them.

“Have it your way,” she said, and the two male vampires sprung from her side and charged.

Taras waited until they were nearly on him, then he spun on his heel and sunk to the ground. His outstretched leg tripped the bald Bachiyr, who landed face first in the street. The other vampire’s wild swing went over Taras’s head, and he followed the first kick through, raising his leg enough to strike the overbalanced second vampire in the middle of his back. He fell to the ground just as his bald comrade was getting back to his feet.

Taras rammed his clawed fingers into the back of the bald one’s neck, sinking them to his knuckles, and grabbed hold of the vertebrae. With no time for finesse-his other opponent was already rising from the street-he twisted his wrist, separating the bones in the Bachiyr’s neck and rending the flesh of his throat.

As the bald vampire’s head fell to the cobbles, his companion regained his feet and turned around. He looked at his fallen comrade, snarled, and launched himself at Taras in a flurry of whirling claws.

Taras shook his head as he blocked a clumsy strike with his left hand and sidestepped the charging vampire. Using his opponent’s momentum against him, Taras swung him by his shirt and slammed his head into a nearby wall. The wood cracked and splintered, and the vampire’s head broke through the outer wall.

His opponent stood there, hunched over like a man in the stocks, until Taras plunged his claws into the fellow’s back, sending a spray of blood into the air. His arm made a wet slurping sound as he forced it inward, reaching through his innards until he felt the Bachiyr’s heart. Taras wrapped his hand around it and began to squeeze.

Despite the frantic thrashing of his victim, it was over in only a few seconds. Once Taras squeezed the heart to pulp, the body went limp.

He pulled his hand from the dead vampire’s back and turned to face the woman, who stood watching him with a satisfied grin. She had not moved a muscle through the entire encounter. Her coal black eyes glittered with amusement.

“How fresh were they?” Taras asked. They couldn’t have been more than a few weeks turned if they knew so little about fighting another Bachiyr.

“I turned them ten days ago,” she answered.

Taras nodded. He’d guessed as much.

“There are more coming,” she said.

“There always are.”

“True enough.” She circled around him, her eyes never leaving his gore-covered hands. “The Council will never let you live.”

Taras shrugged. He’d never asked their permission.

“My name is Octavia,” she said. “Have you heard of me?”

Taras hadn’t. He watched her walk around him, putting her body between him and the street. Obviously, she thought rather highly of herself.

“That’s too bad.” Octavia stopped, then brought up her hands in a fighting stance. The pose struck Taras as familiar. He’d seen several of the smallish men from the far east adopt similar poses prior to a fight. The prowess of those men had amazed him. If this vampire knew their secrets, he might be in trouble. He squared his shoulders, bringing his clawed hands to the ready.

“It doesn’t have to be bad, Taras,” she said, licking her lips. Octavia glanced meaningfully up and down his body.

Taras stared. Did she really mean to lay with him? He tried to hold his laughter inside, but a chuckle burst through despite his best efforts to keep silent. Octavia’s face darkened. The smile at the corners of her mouth fell away, and a look of genuine anger marred the fine skin of her forehead.

“Did I say something funny?” she asked.

“I’m not that big a fool, Octavia,” Taras replied. He brought his clawed hands up to his face and waved her forward. “Let’s get this over with.”

Octavia lunged forward, her speed nearly catching Taras off guard. He stepped to the side and managed to avoid the worst of the blow, but her claws sunk into his shoulder and drew three bright red lines of blood in his flesh.

He whirled to face her and was met by her foot as it smashed into his nose. The bright flare of pain and the loud crack informed him she’d broken it. He staggered backward, half blinded by his own blood, and tripped over the body of one of her companions. His head hit the street just as she sailed over him, her claws extended outward. If he hadn’t tripped when he did, doubtless she would have skewered him.

He wiped a sleeve across his eyes, clearing away some of the blood. The first thing he saw was Octavia coming at him again, leading with her right hand. Taras stayed motionless on his back, waiting until she got close enough, then kicked up with his foot, catching her in the solar plexus and launching her into the air, but not before she’d dug those claws several inches into his belly.

He swore as he stared at the deep gouges she’d cut across his abdomen. That hurt. Not enough to incapacitate him, but still painful. If he’d been mortal that would have done serious damage. The Council’s servants were getting better.

Taras shot to his feet just in time to see Octavia slam into a wall. The sounds of splintering wood and pain filled the street, echoing off the buildings around him. Taras ducked into a fighting stance, echoing the pose from his training in Rome. Squat, feet shoulder width apart, bent slightly at the knees. Fists coiled and ready at chest height. He could launch an attack from this position with foot or fist. Thus readied, he waited for Octavia to emerge from the pile of wood and dust.

She didn’t.

After a full minute with no movement other than the settling cloud of dust, Taras relaxed a little and looked closer at the scene. The wall across from him sported a large, jagged hole. Splinters of wood and shattered beams jutted out from all angles, pointing like accusing fingers. A single booted leg hung outside the hole, and a large red puddle was forming underneath it.

Then the smell hit his nose. Blood. Lots of it.

He walked over to the hole, keeping his fists ready, and stared over the edge at Octavia. She lay pinned beneath a fallen support beam, her pale features twisted in pain. Through her chest, just left of where he heart should be, a sharply splintered piece of timber had torn through her flesh. Blood welled up among the wound to drip slowly onto the floor. The piece of wood glinted red in the dim light.

Octavia raised her hand and pointed at him. Her lips moved, but no words came from them. Her eyes narrowed, and she put her hand on the beam across her belly and gave it a shove. It didn’t budge, but that didn’t stop her from trying.

“How did you find me?” Taras asked.

Octavia shook her head, a snarl on her pale lips.

That worried him. He’d been very careful not to leave a trail this time. In the past the hunters had tracked him by his kills, but for the last ten years he’d been feeding only when necessary, and he’d always disposed of the bodies afterward. He’d thought himself safe in Londinium. It was fairly remote and not densely populated, at least not by the standards of the Roman empire. True, the city had grown quickly, but it couldn’t be large enough to attract the attention of the other Bachiyr.

Could it?

Taras looked down at the squirming, hissing vampire in the rubble and realized he was wrong. Londinium had gotten too big. He wasn’t safe here anymore.

Octavia stared needles into him, even as her eyes glazed over. She wasn’t dead yet. In all honesty he wasn’t sure her injuries would kill her anyway. His kind seemed to be able to survive a lot. But if someone didn’t lift that beam off her belly and free her before dawn the morning sun would turn her into ashes.

The thought occurred to him that he’d never fed from another of his kind. He was hungry, and Octavia no doubt deserved his ire. He could feed from her with a clear conscience. She probably still had enough blood in her to satisfy his hunger. What would it do? Would it be stronger than a human’s blood? Weaker? Would it kill him?

Taras thought about that last question. If he drank from another Bachiyr and it killed him, would it matter?

Twenty seven years ago, a dead rabbi had told him there was always a choice, even though it might not be a good one. He’d meant that Taras could kill himself if he really wanted to, rather than live out his years as a monster. But he wasn’t ready to die back then. Nor was he ready now. He would leave her blood intact.

Taras turned his back on her and started walking. Maybe someone would stumble through this area tonight and find her stuck there, maybe not. If so, she would surely kill her rescuers. She’d lost a lot of blood and would need to replace it. Taras couldn’t bring himself to feel pity for them. Hell, he wanted to find someone to feed on, too. As he walked away, it occurred to him that he should just kill her and be done, eliminating her as a witness and as a danger to others. But if the Council already knew he was here it wouldn’t do much good. They’d be coming for him anyway.

The time had come to leave Britannia.

5

Theron bounced along the road to Londinium, looking like nothing more than another driver as he approached the high, wooden walls of the city. His clothes-brought over from Spain-were plain and a bit dirty, as would be expected of a traveler on the dusty road from the coast. His matted black hair needed attention, but for now his unkempt appearance would help him get through the gates unmolested. The city walls were solid, but not especially tall. If things at the gate went badly he could likely climb over before anyone spotted him. Of course, he could also kill the two guards at the gate, but that would make noise and cause an alert that would rouse the city guard, and he didn’t want to fight off hundreds of armed Roman soldiers.

He needn’t have worried. The guards barely spared him a bored glance as he passed. Three other late wagons rolled through the gates behind him. At the same time, a dozen or so wagons were leaving, along with a score of people on foot. Londinium, it seemed, was a city used to people coming and going at all hours of the day.

The smells of dust and sweat mingled in the air, along with those of mead and meat. The market had long closed, but the city was not empty. The streets buzzed with people, many of whom streamed out of the city, turning north at the gate. Up and down the street, windows were boarded and doors locked as people left their homes and businesses to flee the city. Not a good sign.

He caught snatches of conversation from some of the passers-by.

“…Camulodunum is gone. Burned to the ground…”

“…not a soul left alive…”

“…coming here next…”

“…Suetonius is leaving…”

“…taking most of the soldiers with him…”

“…ordered the city evacuated…”

So that’s why the people were leaving the city. Apparently the Iceni queen and her horde were on the march to Londinium. Theron could hardly blame the people, he’d heard what happened to Camulodunum; buildings razed, citizens tortured and killed, the whole city was left a smoldering ruin by the Iceni and their allies. And now they were coming here, and the Roman general Suetonius was leaving the city to burn. Small wonder the people were walking over one another to get out. Theron smelled their fear. Ordinarily he would have enjoyed it, but now it meant he needed to get in, do what he came to do, and get out. Would Taras still be here? Or would he have already left? Too many damn questions.

He steered the horses to a nearby trough and tied the cart to a post. He would not be using it again, and it would probably be stolen shortly after he left it. That, too, would be a good thing. The less evidence he left behind, the better. It had been twenty seven years since he had defied the Council and set out on his own, and he hadn’t lived this long by taking chances. Despite the fact that the city would soon perish under the weight of tens of thousands of Iceni raiders, he would still avoid any unnecessary risks.

Then again, just being in Londinium presented a risk in itself. The city had grown large enough that the Council had probably gained enough interest in the region to put a portal here. Nothing fancy, of course. The building would just resemble a dilapidated structure somewhere in the city walls. It wouldn’t look like much, but it would be a gateway to untold numbers of the Council’s minions.

Theron made a mental note to be extra careful. If he spotted any sign of the Council, he would leave. But for now, the bait was too tempting not to try and get a bite.

Taras. That damned former legionary who’d somehow managed to turn Theron’s world upside down by being alive when he was supposed to be dead. True, Theron’s own carelessness led to Taras’s transformation, but if the bastard had just taken him to Jesus’ tomb when he asked, Theron would still be in good standing with his people. He could have gone to the tomb, taken the rabbi’s head, and then presented it to the Council as proof of a job well done. He would still be Lead Enforcer, and privy to the Halls of the Bachiyr, with his own apartments and amenities. He would still be able to enjoy all the benefits of his once lofty status.

Instead he was strolling through a doomed city in stolen peasant’s garb and trying not to arouse the suspicion of a few human guards. Humiliating.

He stepped off the cart and into the street, taking a good, long look at the people leaving the city. Not a single one of them glowed, he noted with more than a little relief. Apparently the fires of faith that burned so brightly in Jerusalem after the death of Jesus had not reached this far. Good. Doubtless the Roman gods ruled here, or possibly the gods of the local people. Either way, it would make his job easier. If he didn’t have to contend with any faithful Jews or any followers of the dead rabbi, then he should be fine as long as he didn’t linger. The Iceni could arrive any day. He gave himself one night to find Taras. If he could not locate Taras in that time he would leave the city and try again some other night.

He walked away from the horses and cart, leaving them tied to the post, threading his way through the exodus of people leaving Londinium. The man back in Spain had said something about the Market district. That made sense. Markets were usually crowded and busy, full of people who had more important things to do than watch a stranger. There would be plenty of people to feed from in a city like this: prostitutes, beggars, thieves. Lots of humans no one would miss. And most of them would be in the Market district.

Theron stepped slowly through the city. He had plenty of time. The sun had only set two hours ago. The peasant who owned the cart had filled his belly well, so he didn’t need to feed. He could take his time and learn the layout of the streets, which would be especially handy if he had to make a fast getaway. As he watched yet another family leave their home, carrying their possessions over their shoulders, he realized that the need for a fast escape might be a distinct possibility.

***

Boudica stepped from the tub, the warm water running down her body and pooling on the floor. Her youngest daughter Lannosea waited nearby with a soft robe, and she slipped her arms into the sleeves, wincing as the fabric touched the scars on her back. The pain was only mental, she told herself. The tissues had healed months ago. Still, whenever anything touched the sensitive scar tissue, it reminded her of those days immediately after the flogging when her skin felt like it was on fire, and the slightest touch was agony.

Her daughter’s eyes dropped to the ground. She didn’t like the reminders, either. Boudica had been flogged by the Romans, but her daughters had been beaten and raped at the hands of the guttural legionaries. All in all, the queen felt she’d gotten off easier than they.

She remembered every detail. The smell of the Romans’ sweat, the bitter smell of burning pitch, the sound of the whip, the pain in her back, even the grunting of the Roman officers as they took from her two daughters what their future husbands should have gotten. The Romans laughed as the girls cried, then they invited the other men to join them. So many men had their way with her daughters that she lost count. The memories would never fade, she knew. She would feel and hear those indignities until her last breath. But before she went to her grave, she meant to send as many Romans as possible to theirs.

She dried off, and was just getting dressed when her oldest daughter, Heanua, came into the chamber. Unlike Lannosea, the Roman brutality had not weakened Heanua to the point of meekness. Instead, Boudica saw a fire in her eyes to match her own. Heanua will seek her revenge until long after I am gone, she thought proudly.

“My Queen,” Heanua said, bowing, “The messenger from the Trinovante has arrived.”

“Does he have news?” Boudica asked.

“If so, he has not shared it. He will only speak with you directly.”

Boudica nodded. “Very well. Inform him I will be with him shortly.”

Heanua nodded and left the room, a slight eagerness to her step. If the messenger from the Trinovante brought the news they were hoping for, they would have plenty of weapons and warriors to attack Londinium.

The Trinovante, a neighboring tribe, held no love for the Romans. Under Roman rule their lands had been stolen, their taxes raised to shocking amounts, and their citizens were killed if they spoke against the treatment. Since the Iceni had given up their weapons years ago as part of the original treaty with Rome, Boudica had been forced to seek their assistance. Their neighbors were eager to help, and had been supplying weapons and warriors to help with the rebellion. Together, they’d already burned two of the region’s largest cities to the ground and killed thousands of Romans.

And Boudica had savored every moment.

She finished drying herself, then slipped into a long purple dress with white trim. The dress was for show, it would be useless to fight in such an outfit. But the soft purple cloth spoke of the wealth and power that Rome had stolen from her, and it was good to give the impression to her allies that she still held on to a piece of it.

Lannosea helped her put her arms through the sleeves. As had been the case since the Roman soldiers raped her, she went about her task in silence. Her eyes never ventured higher than Boudica’s shoulders. Tonight, Boudica had no doubt the girl would get little sleep, plagued as she was by nightmares. She never spoke of the dreams-or anything else, for that matter-but Boudica could guess well enough what terrors awaited her daughter when she closed her eyes at night.

She sighed, remembering a time not so long ago when Lannosea had been bright and happy, her eyes shining from her beautiful face, with a smile to rival the sun. The girl’s yellow hair gleamed in the sunlight so brightly that Boudica sometimes had to shield her eyes for fear of being blinded. She would have made a fine queen, with a kind soul and a strong mind. But now…she was not so sure.

Lannosea walked through the camp like a wraith, eating little and drinking even less. When she spoke, it was in short, quiet sentences, and then only when someone spoke to her first. The Romans had made her weak. At first Boudica tolerated the change, knowing that Lannosea needed time to heal her tortured mind. But now she had a rebellion to lead and a kingdom to retake. She could not afford to appear weak in front of the messenger, who would doubtless take his impression of the Iceni camp back to his king. She would have to make sure Lannosea was nowhere near when she received the man.

Boudica finished dressing, then stepped out of the chamber. She paused in the doorway to look back at Lannosea, and found her sitting on a soft chair, staring vacantly at the floor and wringing her fingers. Her eyes gleamed with ever-present moisture, as they had since that fateful night when Nero’s dogs showed their true colors. Boudica felt a moment of pity. If only she could talk to her youngest daughter. To somehow ease her suffering. Perhaps she should try again…

But the messenger was waiting.

She steeled herself, drew in a deep breath, and left Lannosea in the chamber. She would deal with Lannie later. When this rebellion was over and she had taken back her kingdom from the wretched Romans, she would present it to Lannosea as a gift. Then she could hold her daughter in her arms and give her the comfort she so desperately needed.

Right now she had a war to win.

6

Taras stepped into the damp, moldy building he’d been using for shelter during the day. The smell of moist wood and fungus filled the room like a rotting cloud. The previous tenant’s body lay right where he left it. Not a drop of blood remained in it, of course, but even if some remained it would have done him no good. Dead blood is useless to Bachiyr. He found that out several years ago after trying to feed on a recently slain robber. The dead man’s blood tasted different, foul. It hadn’t harmed him, but the spoiled blood was inert, as though missing an ingredient. He had no idea what that might be, but it didn’t matter. He just made sure to take his fill from every single victim. He sidestepped the corpse and wandered deeper into the place, headed for the bed chamber and what few possessions he would take with him.

Taras didn’t own much. His fugitive lifestyle demanded that he travel light. He never knew when he would have to run. It seemed the time had come again. During his walk through the market district he’d felt a strange tingle on the back of his neck. It defied explanation, but his skin pricked and tickled as if a thousand tiny needles danced across its surface. He’d felt eyes on him, which was strange since most of Londinium’s people seemed to be on the way out of the city. But the oddest thing about it was the sense of familiarity. Of deja vu. He’d felt it before, but couldn’t place it.

Whatever it was, it couldn’t possibly be good.

He stepped into the bedchamber-equally as moldy and damp as the outer room-and pulled his traveling bag from the hook in the wall. As he slipped it over his shoulder, a small scrap of pale blue cloth fell out and floated to the ground. A piece of the dress Mary died in. Taras eyed it for a moment, trying not to see the brown stain where her blood had dried. The blood had long ago vanished, leaving only the stain behind, but he could see it as if it were still wet and glistening in the moonlight next to Mary’s bleeding and broken body.

He reached down to pick up the strip, now dingy and dirty from years of being in his pack. The image of the blood brought a tinge of hunger to his belly, but he suppressed it easily. Memories of his dead love had that effect on him.

Mary.

He hadn’t thought about her for months. He almost wanted to think he was forgetting about her, which would make things easier for his heavy heart, but that would be a lie. If he lived another thousand years he would never forget Mary’s face. She had been everything to him. Taras had even ended his service to Rome just to be with her, yet she died that same night. He’d loved her and Rome more than his own life, and both had been stolen from him by a Bachiyr who’d used him to frame an innocent man.

His career in Rome and Mary were both gone, and his life, such as it was, remained intact. He was no longer a Legionary, or anyone’s lover, or even human. All that remained of the life he’d lost was the small patch of blue cloth in his hand, which he still carried everywhere he went. Theron had taken those things from him. He’d stolen them as sure as he’d stolen Mary’s ring from her finger as she lay dying in the alley. Taras had bought her that ring, a symbol of their forbidden love.

“I will find you someday, Theron,” Taras whispered to the empty room. He folded the strip of cloth and tucked it into his bag. “When I do, you will not get away again.”

“Marvelous,” said a female voice behind him. “I absolutely adore bravado.”

Taras whirled, claws at the ready, his pack dropped to the floor without a thought. He crouched low as he spun, making himself a smaller target for the vampire he knew must be swinging at him even now.

But the only other Bachiyr in the room stood ten feet away, leaning against the doorframe and wearing a smile that revealed the two bright, sharp points of her canines. Taras stood slowly, keeping his claws out and ready to fight.

“Put those away,” she said, nodding toward his hands. “You will not need them, and they would do you no good, in any case.”

Taras scoffed, and the woman sighed. She waved her fingers at him and whispered a few words in a language he did not understand. A strange tingle ran through his arms, and then his claws retreated back into his fists on their own. Taras stared at his vanishing weapons, willing them to slow or stop, but they didn’t. In only a few seconds his hands were normal again.

He looked up at the woman in his doorway. She winked, then yawned, revealing her fangs in gleaming white detail. “Now we can talk,” she said.

“Talk?” Taras asked, backing toward the window. Several wooden boards blocked it-Taras had added them to shield the place from sunlight-but he could break through them if he had to. “About what?”

“Something we both want, Taras. And stop moving toward the window. I could kill you before you broke the first board if I wanted. I’m not here for that.”

He couldn’t hide his surprise. How the hell did she know who he was?

She stepped into the room with a silky, lethal grace, giving Taras his first good look at her. Her long black hair spilled in waves over her shoulders. Aristocratic, sharp features dominated her lovely face. Her black eyes glittered with amusement, and a faint trace of a smile tugged at the corners of her deep red lips. Her clothing clung to her like a second skin, leaving very little to the imagination. He found his eyes drawn to the shapely swell of her breasts. Had he still had need of breath, she would have taken it away. As it was, he could not help but stare at her dangerous beauty.

More than her beauty, he felt the power of her lithe body in his skin. It tickled his nerves, sending an icy shiver through him that he couldn’t hide. Her wide, confident smile burned a hole through him and cauterized the wound. The woman’s power sizzled and popped, radiating from her body like heat from the sun. Taras realized he would have no chance if it came to blows. He had no doubt that she could, indeed, kill him any time she wished, just as she claimed.

He moved to the edge of his bed and sat down. She didn’t want to fight, that was obvious. A deal, then. But for what? And why him? Only one way to find out.

“What could a woman like you possibly want that you can’t get for yourself?”

She sauntered into the room, slithering onto the bed behind him and raising her hand to his arm. Her fingernails traced softly along his skin, leaving a trail of gooseflesh behind them. Her hand came to rest on his shoulder, and he felt something wet and slippery on the back of his neck. Her tongue? She brought her face next to his and brushed her lips against his ear. Taras stiffened, trying to suppress the rapidly awakening desires he’d thought long dead. Had he really been thinking about Mary only moments ago? Gods, it had been so long…

“Theron,” she whispered into his ear. “I want Theron.”

Taras jerked away from her, catching her wrist in his hand. All thoughts of desire gone, he stared into her black eyes, searching for some sign of the joke. She looked back at him, a smirk hiding at the very edge of her lips.

“What did you say?” he asked, his fists bunched, useless, at his side.

“Theron,” she replied. “I want him. You can help me get him.”

“Why do you want him?”

She shook her head. “We’ll get to that in a moment. The important thing is Theron is here in Londinium and-”

“He’s here?” Taras jumped to his feet, his rage lending him a strength he hadn’t known he possessed. Without realizing it, he’d willed his claws to grow, and despite the woman’s influence, they sprouted fast and strong from his knuckles. “Where?”

She eyed his claws, and for the first time her smile faltered. The corner of her mouth twitched, and her brow creased with a brief look of confusion. It passed quickly, however, and she stood to face him. “Sit down.”

Taras towered over her, and his rage pulsed through his body like a wild thing. “No,” he said, and tried to shove his way past her.

The second he touched her, he heard a popping noise and felt a jolt of energy sizzle through his body. His muscles jerked, and his knees buckled, sending him sprawling to the floor in a heap. The air in the room smelled like the aftermath of a thunderstorm. He lay there looking up at her while his arms and legs twitched as in the throes of a seizure. What the blazes had she done to him?

“I can do worse,” she said, as if reading his thoughts. “Don’t touch me again.”

Taras nodded, or he tried to. The muscles in his neck spasmed and didn’t quite obey his command. But she smiled again.

“Good,” she said, and sat back on the bed. “Theron is in town. He is here looking for you.”

The twitching in his muscles lessened, and he regained some control. “Me? Why?”

“Theron hates you almost as much as you hate him, if not more,” she replied. “Do you know what you took from him when you refused to take him to Jesus’ tomb?”

Taras shook his head. His body had resumed normal function, and he picked himself up off the floor and moved to the far side of the room. His visitor noticed, but her smile never faltered. “No, I don’t,” he said, “and I don’t care.” He thought of Mary’s face, and the familiar ache settled into his chest. “Whatever he lost, it is nothing compared to what he took.”

“He lost everything,” she continued. “He was on a path of glory; a servant of the Council, and a favored one at that. He’d made a few mistakes, but all he had to do was show up in the Halls of the Bachiyr with the rabbi’s head and he would have had everything he wanted.”

“Well,” Taras said, “we know how that turned out.”

She stared at him, a thoughtful expression on her face. “You and Theron are much alike, Roman. You are both skilled assassins who worked for a higher power. Both of you are dedicated to your tasks, and possessed of far more patience than most, yet your biting sarcasm has landed you in trouble more than once. And of course, both of you are Bachiyr who are running from the agents of the Council.”

Privately, Taras swore to himself he was nothing like Theron, but it was hard to argue the similarities with her. Time to change the subject. “So why do you need my help?” he asked.

“He will follow you anywhere,” she replied. “If you walked into the Council’s portal here in Londinium he wouldn’t hesitate, even though he knows the Council’s agents would swarm him. He hates you that much.”

“So?”

“I want you to lead him to me. Let him see you in the market, then run to me. Once he is nearby I can capture him.”

“Why do you want him?” Taras asked for the second time.

“Isn’t it obvious?”

Taras shook his head again.

She looked at him again with that same bemused smile on her lips. “You don’t know who I am, do you?”

“Should I?”

“My name is Lannis,” she said. “Fifth of The Council of Thirteen.”

7

Theron walked into the tavern and surveyed the room, his head swiveling from one side to the other. The main room stank of sweat and old mead, with a hint of blood added, probably from a brawl. The walls were bare, unadorned wood, with not a single window to let in light or allow the stale air to circulate. Apparently the patrons of this place enjoyed their gloom.

A dozen or so wooden tables sat on the floor, most of them empty. Behind the bar, a stout Briton was deep in conversation with a plump young serving girl. The two looked bored, as well they might. The place was nearly empty, with only a handful of sullen, raggedly-dressed humans nursing their drinks.

These are the ones who stayed behind, thought Theron. The city is doomed.

A pair of soldiers stood alone in a corner, talking and drinking and casting wistful glances at the door. Probably ordered by Suetonius to stay behind and offer a token resistance. Perhaps to slow down the Iceni horde. By all reports, Boudica did not take prisoners, so the two soldiers were as good as dead. Judging by their faces, they knew it, as well. Having seen firsthand what the Roman Legion did to deserters, Theron understood why they stayed behind. Better a quick death in battle than a slow, painful one at the hands of a Roman Inquisitor.

Taras was nowhere in sight. Another wasted effort.

Theron turned to leave, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

“Are you a coward, too?” said a gravelly voice at his back. “Afraid of a few barbarians?”

Theron turned to find himself face to chest with a very large – and very drunk – man in a dirty tunic and torn breeches. Theron recognized him as one of the men from the only occupied table in the tavern. Only a few moments ago the man’s face had been buried deep in a mug of ale. His craggy face revealed lines of dirt and sweat, and his odor testified to his lack of proper bathing. The man swayed on his feet, steadied by his hand on Theron’s shoulder, and bent his neck to bring his face close enough that the vampire could smell the rot of his mouth.

“Are you going to answer me?” the man asked, revealing a mouthful of half rotten teeth. He shook his hand, causing Theron to jerk back and forth like a toy.

Theron didn’t say a word. He punched the drunk in the solar plexus, delighted by the grimace of pain that sprouted on the large man’s face. He pulled his hand back and punched again, this time in the sternum. A loud crack echoed through the tavern as the bone snapped, along with several ribs. Theron grinned as the man slid to the floor, his breath coming in wet, choppy gasps. A thin line of blood trickled from the drunk’s mouth. Theron knew what that meant; he’d punctured a lung. The man would be dead in minutes, drowned in his own blood. No less than he deserved.

He looked up from the man, who lay on the floor coughing up large wads of blood and phlegm, and surveyed the tavern once more. No one met his eyes or even looked at him. The two soldiers continued to drink and talk as though nothing had happened. Most likely they simply didn’t see the point in arresting or even accosting Theron, knowing the city and everyone in it was doomed. Theron nodded to the gloomy barkeep and stepped outside, pulling his leg free of the drunk’s weakening grip.

Outside, he licked the blood from his knuckles, pleased at the outcome of the encounter. He hadn’t even had to use his claws.

His spirits lifted a little, he walked across the street to the next tavern, looking for Taras.

***

Taras, meanwhile, was on the other side of the city, trying to digest the strange news he’d just received. The woman said her name was Lannis. The name sounded familiar, but he couldn’t quite remember where he’d heard it. He thought he recalled something about a very powerful Bachiyr by that name, someone akin to Ramah, the monster he’d barely escaped in Jerusalem all those years ago. If so, he didn’t want any part of what she had to offer.

“I don’t need your help,” he said. “I can find Theron on my own.”

She nodded. “Of that I have no doubt. But can you defeat him?”

He was about to say yes, of course he could, but something about the bemused smirk on her face kept him silent.

“You can’t,” she said for him. “You have no idea what he is like. He would destroy you in less than a minute.”

“I almost killed him in Jerusalem,” Taras pointed out.

“That you did, but how did you manage?”

“What do you mean?”

“Was it a fair fight? Or was he preoccupied with something? Did you have his full attention?”

Taras didn’t like the smile on her face.

“Was he,” she pressed, “looking at a map or some such thing when you attacked him from behind?”

“How the devil can you know that?”

“Answer the question, Taras.”

He stared at her, willing her to look away, desperate for some sense of control, but she stared back. Her face gave him nothing. Eventually his eyes fell to his boots. “All right,” he said. “Theron had me beaten and near death. He’d all but discounted my existence when he turned to his map. It was only through the odd strength he’d given me the day before that I was able to stand and sneak close enough to plunge my sword through his back.”

“In the back, Taras?”

His eyes shot to her face. Her eyes sparkled with barely contained humor. Surely, she knew who he was in life. Stabbing a man in the back, while viewed as dishonorable, was often simply a measure of his profession. Caution kept you alive as an assassin.

Of course she knew. How could she not. She knew everything else. He dropped his eyes to his boots again. “It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever done. Not even close.”

“I thought not. That’s why I came to you, Taras. You have an innate sense of practicality which should make my offer more enticing.”

He sat on the bed, knowing a business discussion when he saw one. “Offer?”

Lannis sauntered up to him, placing the tip of one dainty finger to his chest. She swirled it, teasing his skin. The rumble of desire that her fingers roused in him kept his mind unfocused, and he forced himself to remember Mary’s face in an attempt to regain control. It helped, but only a little.

“So you are Lannis,” he said.

“You’ve heard my name before,” she replied.

Taras nodded.

“I thought so. I could tell when I introduced myself. But do you know who I am.”

Taras saw no need to respond.

She jabbed her finger into the flesh of his shoulder, causing him to jerk backward. It didn’t hurt much, but it surprised him. She brought her bloodied fingertip to her mouth and stuck it between her lips, licking off the blood with a contented smile. “I can see to it that you are hunted no longer.”

“How?” Taras asked, his hand going to the small hole in his shoulder.

“I am fifth ranked of the Council of Thirteen. Only Matawe, Algor, Ramah, and Headcouncil Herris himself are above me. Help me capture Theron, and you will never have to run again.”

Taras stayed sitting, not quite sure what to think. Could she be telling the truth? Could he really be free live without always having to look over his shoulder? He thought about the fight he’d gotten into earlier with the female vampire and her two cronies. The Council’s minions were getting better every time, eventually he would face one he could not defeat. To not have to worry about such a thing any more…

“You can do that?” he asked.

Lannis nodded. “I can. And I will. As long as you help me catch Theron.”

“What will you do with him?”

Lannis eyed him. Her straightforward gaze caused the hairs on the back of his neck to twitch. Was she angry? Or was she merely considering how much to tell him?

“You want to kill him, don’t you?” she asked.

Of course Taras wanted to kill him. It was almost all he’d thought about for the last twenty-seven years. But…

…but he wanted his freedom more. He nodded, but he lacked the conviction to make it firm.

“I thought so,” she said. “It is none of your concern what we do with him, Taras. Your job is to lead him to me, not to ask questions.”

“Very well,” Taras said. “I agree to your terms, Lannis.”

Her fist shot out faster than his eyes could register. The pain on the side of his head flared bright white, and his vision clouded over. When it cleared, he found himself lying on the floor in a small puddle of blood. Lannis stood over him, her expression calm, but the illusion of serenity was spoiled by the bright red blood on her hand. His blood.

“What…?” he began.

She shushed him and pressed her finger, still covered with his blood, to his lips. “Shhh. That was a lesson. If you are going to join the Bachiyr society, Taras, from this point on you must address me, and all other superiors, with respect. You will refer to me as Councilor Lannis, or next time I will not be gentle.”

Taras nodded from his position on the floor, silently wondering what the Hell he’d just gotten himself into.

8

Boudica stared at the walls of Londinium. Her horse shuffled, nervous, as though it sensed her reckless mood. She was not above racing into the city, sword drawn, and cutting down every person she found until they managed to kill her. The problem with that plan-as it was with the last two cities-was that her death would accomplish nothing. She would be able to kill a handful of Romans, maybe even a dozen, but they would stop her. If they didn’t kill her on the spot she would stand trial and they would kill her later, probably after raping her and beating her again.

The scars on her back burned. The wounds had healed, but faint memories of the pain whispered across the scarred tissue, reminding her that there was more at stake.

As if she could ever forget.

To her right, another horse snorted. She turned to look at Heanua, seated astride a large black mare. Her daughter’s eyes glittered with the reflected light of Londinium’s many torches. A soft black cloak covered her from head to toe, tied at the waist to prevent it from fluttering in the breeze. She knew Heanua would be more than willing to ride into the city with her and hack a bloody path through its inhabitants. Her hatred of the Romans burned almost as brightly as Boudica’s.

But they both knew it would have to wait.

The reason was simple mathematics. They could kill perhaps two dozen Romans on their own or wait until her army arrived and tear down the city board by board, slaughtering every one of its twenty thousand inhabitants, or at least those that remained. Reports had come in that Suetonius had abandoned the city, leaving behind a token force and a few thousand civilians who chose not to leave.

They would regret that decision, she vowed.

More important at that moment was the fact that Heanua sat at her right hand, but the space to her left-where Lannosea would normally be-stood empty, a sad reminder of what her family had become. “Where is Lannie?” she asked.

Heanua snorted. It was all the answer she needed. Lannosea would be back with the army, supposedly dealing with the Trinovante. Boudica knew the truth, however. Her youngest daughter no longer had the stomach for battle. Her eyes stung at the memory of her beautiful daughter, stumbling toward her on shaky legs. Blood flowed down the inside of her thighs. The legionaries who had attacked her tossed insults at her back as she fell sobbing to the dirt. Ever since the attack, she had preferred to sit and brood in her tent, alone with her thoughts.

Before the king’s death, Lannosea had been fierce and strong, as dangerous in battle as she was beautiful. But now her daughter’s strong braids and studded leather armor were gone, replaced by flowing yellow hair and loose-fitting robes. The Romans had turned her prized wolf into a sheep.

Boudica shook her head, using her anger to burn away her tears. What was done is done, and she could not undo it. If Lannosea could not be counted on to swing her sword well, then she would be more hindrance than help. Thus Lannie would remain behind with a few of the Trinovante women, as well as the younger children. As with the Iceni, the older Trinovante children would be given weapons and sent to battle. It was their war, too, after all.

The Trinovante had answered her call with not only weapons, but warriors to wield them. Additionally, they had sent along some wonderful devices that reminded her of the Roman ballista, but much larger. The stones these catapults, as the Trinovante called them, could throw weighed almost as much as her horse, and they had brought dozens of them, along with heavy balls of rope coated in pitch. The latter could be set aflame prior to launch.

The image of what those flaming missiles would do to the wooden walls and buildings of Londinium brought an eager smile to her face. They would not even have to get close to the city. With the catapults, they would be able to reduce most of the buildings to rubble without being in any danger from the remaining Roman archers or ballista. Once Londinium lay in ruins, she and her army would march through what remained of the city and kill everyone they found alive.

She watched the walls from a distance, counting the soldiers who patrolled it. “No more than a hundred archers remain,” she noted.

“Aye,” Heanua said. “And Romans, by the look of them. Filthy bastards. They should all die.”

“They will,” Boudica replied. “Tomorrow we will destroy this place.”

“It will be over too quickly. They deserve to die painfully. Like pigs on a stake.”

Boudica nodded. “That they do.” Impalement would be too good for the like of the Londonites. She would rather kill all of them slow, but they didn’t have time. By now word of her march must have reached that bastard Caesar in Rome. It wouldn’t be long before she found herself pursued by half the Roman Legion. When that time came, she intended to be someplace defensible. Londinium was just a stop along the way.

But what a stop it would be.

***

Ramah stepped out of the gatehouse door into the city. Newly installed, the building nonetheless appeared a bit run down and old. Nothing that would attract much notice. All the gatehouses had been designed that way on purpose. The idea was to make them blend in. In Londinium, as in most cities with gates, the building that house the Bachiyr’s portal to the Halls stood in silent, brooding anonymity. Not worn enough to attract attention, but not so fine as to be noticed.

The first thing he noticed was the crowds. Hundreds, even thousands of people walked the streets, most of them headed toward the gates. Men, women, children, and the elderly pushed their way along, carrying small bags of possessions over their shoulders. Along the street, many carts stood on the side of the road, their contents less valuable when the owners realized they could not pull them through the crowd. A handful of ragged, dirty men rummaged through the carts, stealing everything of value and then running back into the city. Obviously, some people intended to remain. But the rest were running from something. But what?

He thought back to his conversation with Herris, and realized he hadn’t gotten a very detailed report on the city. His fault, he should have waited for Herris or the steward to brief him, but he had been too eager to kill Theron. He could turn and walk back into the gatehouse, thereby admitting his ignorance, or he could proceed as planned. Not one for admitting error, Ramah stepped off the stoop into the throng.

The Bachiyr threaded his way along the dusty streets. In this part of the city, the streets were little more than hard packed dirt beneath his feet. Londinium had cobbled roads and alleyways, but only in the city’s prominent areas. They would be used by the wealthy while riding in soft, padded coaches. Here, among the taverns and the brothels, no one cared if the wagons jounced wildly along the street. Most of the people here didn’t have so much as a wheelbarrow, anyway.

He wished he could have gotten here sooner. The moon was already low, leaving only a couple of hours before dawn broke over the eastern horizon. It would take a very lucky break for him to spot either Taras or Theron by then. Londinium wasn’t Rome or Athens, but it was not small by any stretch of the word, and the many people crowding the streets did not help. He estimated he would probably spend several days wandering around the city before he found another Bachiyr, but he was wrong.

Less than ten minutes later he turned into an alley and found not one, but two.

9

Theron stepped out of another tavern-his fifth of the evening-and froze. An icy shiver flashed up his spine and pinned him to the spot. Across the street, facing away from him, a figure clad in a dark cloak stared into an alley. Theron recognized him instantly, even though he hadn’t seen him for nearly thirty years. There was no mistaking the graceful, deadly movements or the close-cropped, curly black hair. Even from across the street, Theron could feel the vast power of the Bachiyr councilor.

Ramah the Blood Letter had found him.

Theron had known all along it was only a matter of time. No one could hide from the council forever. The world just wasn’t big enough. Still, he thought he had more time. Another few decades, at least. Had he been that careless? He didn’t think so, but then, you could never be too careful where the Council of Thirteen was concerned.

He watched, waiting for the elder vampire to turn around and see him. How would he escape this time? A frown creased his face. He wouldn’t escape. Ramah would not let Theron slip through his fingers again. Theron would be lucky to live long enough to receive the Council’s punishment. He stood, frozen in place, and waited for the worst.

But Ramah didn’t turn. His attention remained focused in the dark recesses of the alley across the street. And when he stepped into it, Theron didn’t bother to question his luck. He backed away from the tavern and ducked around the corner of a building. Once out of sight, he turned and ran as fast as he could.

Taras or no Taras, if Ramah was in the city, then Theron would find someplace else to be. And fast.

He ran down the street, pushing aside any of the town’s residents who got in his way. The crowds were starting to thin; most of the people who were leaving had already gone. He headed for the city’s main gate. The road outside the gate led, eventually, back to the coast. He would not be able to get there tonight, but numerous houses and cottages dotted the roads in Britannia, it would be simple enough to find a place to spend the day. Then tomorrow night he would make the port town and arrange passage back to Spain. It wouldn’t cost him much. He could convince most any captain to take him for free.

Fear is a powerful bargaining tool.

He turned one last corner, ready to make a beeline for the gate, when he crashed painfully into something solid and unyielding. Theron fell on his back, sputtering curses at himself. When he regained his senses, he saw a figure standing over him, silhouetted by torchlight. He didn’t have time to kill the stranger, so instead he tried to get to his feet.

He made it halfway up when someone grabbed him from behind, pinning his arms behind his back. Theron snarled, all thoughts of leaving these people alive gone from his mind in the instant it took him to realize he was about to be robbed. He tensed his muscles, preparing himself to rip the arms of the person behind him off and use them to beat the person in front of him to death.

But he couldn’t pull free. He struggled and squirmed, but his assailant was far too strong. It took him a moment to realize what that meant, and indeed, when he forced himself to calm down he heard the figure in front of him-a woman-chanting a psalm. He didn’t recognize it, but he could guess well enough its purpose. She was using magic to immobilize him.

“Well, Taras,” she said when she finished. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

“Taras?” Theron asked. The grip on his arm tightened, and the joint in his elbow twisted painfully to the side.

Then the woman stepped away from the torch and Theron saw her face. For the second time that evening, he froze. Theron knew who she was instantly. He had only seen her face once before, back in Alexandria, but he would never forget it. To his knowledge he was the only Enforcer to have ever looked upon the face of the most wanted Bachiyr in the history of his race and live to tell the tale. Back then he had vowed to kill her if he ever saw her again, even though he doubted he ever would. To see her here, now, and with Ramah only a few blocks away. It couldn’t be coincidence.

“You,” he said.

“You remember me,” she said. “I’m flattered.”

“Don’t be,” Theron retorted. “I also remember my dog. She was a bitch, too.”

The woman smiled. “This is going to be fun.” She reached out her hand, bringing it to his cheek. Just before she touched him, Theron saw the sparks crackling up and down her palm. Another psalm he didn’t know. Damn.

She touched her palm to his face, and for an instant Theron felt a jolt of electricity sizzle through his body. Then the world went dark.

10

They stood with their backs to him, two Bachiyr of seemingly local origin to judge by their clothes and their accents. They smelled newly turned, not more than a month dead. The pair stood with their necks bent, looking down at a sobbing woman who lay squirming on the alley floor. One of them chuckled, and the other kicked the woman in the side, eliciting a sharp cry of pain. The smell of blood hung in the air, a tantalizing coppery scent that would have attracted other vampires to the alley like sharks. As it happened, Ramah was the first shark to the scene, and these two vampires would never live to finish the woman off.

He stepped forward, his fangs and claws tucked away for the moment. In truth, Ramah did not need either to deal with the two vampires. He could kill them from a hundred yards away if he chose, but that was less entertaining than spilling their blood in the street with his bare hands. His search for Theron and Taras had thus far proven fruitless, and it would feel good to release some of his irritation on these two renegades.

That the two figures standing in the shadows of the alley were Bachiyr was obvious, but they didn’t look familiar. Granted, he’d been away from the Halls many times, often for months or years at a time, but he still knew most of the other vampires in the world. That was by design. All Bachiyr had to be approved by the Council before they could be turned.

Unless they were turned during one of his absences, they had to be renegades. And the Council’s law on renegade Bachiyr was quite clear: terminate immediately. It would be a nice distraction before he went back to looking for Theron and Taras.

Ramah leaned against a wall and cleared his throat loudly. Both renegades turned to face him. Even the woman looked up. When she saw Ramah her face lit with such hope that Ramah couldn’t help but chuckle. Doubtless she thought he was there to save her. Once he killed the other two Bachiyr she would be his next meal. It was nice of them to tenderize her first.

“Go away,” one of the vampires said. “This doesn’t concern you.”

“Wait, Elias,” the other said. “”We’ll need as much blood as we can get for later, right?”

“True,” Elias replied, grinning. “I guess he can stay after all, Brecht.”

The one called Brecht turned his body around to face Ramah and bared his teeth. “Don’t worry,” he said. “This won’t hurt much.”

Ramah almost laughed. This was going to be fun.

***

Taras and his new ally dragged Theron through the tavern district. They held him up between them, making him look like a drunk being helped home by his friends. They needn’t have bothered with the ruse, the streets of Londinium were all but deserted, with only the moon to keep them company.

“How much farther?” Taras asked, wanting to get this over with. Despite his desire to kill Theron, the woman made him nervous.

“Right over there,” Lannis said, pointing. “In that alley.”

Taras looked. About thirty yards away was a narrow opening between two ramshackle taverns. Just beyond it, on the city’s skyline, he could see the faint lightening of the horizon that signaled the upcoming dawn. He hoped Lannis had a place to wait out the daylight hours.

Before they reached the alley they heard a shout of pain, immediately followed by a severed head bouncing out of the darkness and into the street. Taras froze, noting the sharp fangs in the dead, rolling face. Another vampire?

He turned to Lannis, but her expression showed just as much confusion as he felt. She blinked, then said, “Brecht?”

The head rolled by without responding, of course, and her face soon changed from confused to angry. She dropped Theron’s shoulder, sending half his torso into the dirt. The claws on her hands extended outward. She snarled and took a step toward the alley.

Just then a body flew out in a splatter of crimson and flesh. The smell of blood hit Taras’s nostrils like a hurricane, nearly bowling him over. The body landed hard in the street, and Taras noted that despite the many rips and tears, this one’s head was still attached. When one of the arms moved, and the victim tried to pull himself away from the alley, Taras guessed he probably wished he wasn’t living, after all.

“Elias!” Lannis yelled. “What is happening here? I left you-”

Her voice trailed off as a figure stepped from the alley entrance. Taras stared in awe. He’d seen this vampire once before, in Jerusalem. He didn’t know much about the elder vampire except that Theron had seemed terrified of him. Lannis, too, had stopped in her tracks.

“Ramah,” she whispered.

Ramah. Another Council Member. Good. He would see Taras helping Lannis to bring Theron to justice. That could only expedite things for him.

At the sound of his name, Ramah turned to face them. Taras steeled himself against the dark visage. Ramah stood drenched in the blood of two vampires that Taras could only assume were renegades like himself. Maybe they’d attacked Ramah while he waited in the alley. Judging by the results, it was very poor judgment on their part.

When Ramah’s eyes settled on him, Taras felt a shiver crawl up his spine. The smile on that bloody face didn’t look friendly at all.

“You,” Ramah said. “Taras, isn’t it?”

Taras nodded.

Ramah chuckled. “Is that Theron with you?”

Taras nodded again. “I’ve been working with Councilor Lannis to bring him to justice.” Taras motioned to his right, where Lannis had been standing when Ramah stepped out of the shadows.

But she wasn’t there.

Ramah chuckled. “Really? Where is she, Taras?”

Taras let go of Theron’s wrist and backed away a few steps. “She was right here. Didn’t she tell you about our deal?”

“Deal?” Ramah’s voice sounded light. Amused.

Shit. He could tell by Ramah’s bemused smirk that the Councilor thought he was lying. Where the hell was Lannis? She should be helping him, not disappearing. Now he was in real danger. He made ready to run, not wanting any part of another fight with Ramah. The last time he’d fought the elder vampire, only the interference of the people near Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate had saved him. This time the streets were empty, and he had no doubt who would prove the victor. He turned and sprinted for a side street.

Before he’d gone ten paces Ramah stood in front of him, materializing as if from the very air itself. Taras couldn’t stop, so he ducked his head and charged, hoping to surprise Ramah and bowl his way past.

It felt like he ran into a stone wall. He bounced off Ramah’s torso in a fit of stars and pain, and for a moment the whole world disappeared. The next thing he knew, he was lying in the street, dizzy and confused, while a shadow crossed his face. He looked up just in time to see Ramah’s clawed hand skewer his throat. The pain flared through his body like fire, and as Ramah lifted Taras off the ground by his ripped and bleeding neck, he smiled.

“Not this time, Taras.” Ramah said. “You will not escape me again.”

Taras coughed and choked on the blood pooling in his throat. He knew he would not live to see the moon again.

Ramah reached back with his other hand and punched forward, sending his second set of claws into Taras’s gut. Taras screamed at the searing pain in his belly, but no sound came out. The entire street had gone deathly silent. He knew what that meant. Ramah had cast a psalm to keep from waking the city’s inhabitants.

Taras reached out with a trembling hand and tried to swat at Ramah’s arm, but it did no good. Ramah batted his hand away as though he were a fly. Then Ramah brought his face to Taras’s neck and tore into his flesh. The pain was intense, but mercifully short. Soon Taras felt nothing at all other than a heavy tiredness that he’d never experienced before. He saw the lightening glow on the horizon and wondered if Ramah would manage to kill him before the sun peeked over the rooftops. Then there was nothing.

***

In a large but drafty tent many miles from Londinium, Boudica’s youngest daughter, Lannosea, watched her mother sleep. The Queen’s twin braids spread out on the pillow around her head. Lannosea sighed. Even in repose her mother’s face looked angry and violent, as though she could wake at any moment and sever an enemy’s head with a single swing. Before her father’s death, her mother was regarded as one of the most beautiful women in the Iceni lands and beyond. It was hard to reconcile that once lovely face with the constant frown the queen now wore even in her dreams.

Lannosea twisted her hair in her hands. She had the striking pale yellow hair of the Iceni, and like her mother, she wore it long. Lannie’s hair reached to her waist. But unlike Boudica, her hair cascaded down her back freely rather than in braids. She grabbed a handful of it, remembering the feel of the thick braids down her back. Those days were gone for her. Braids like her mother’s were meant for battle. Lannosea’s hair would never be braided again. She wished she could say the same for her mother and sister, but these days both of them wore their braids constantly, even sleeping in them most nights.

The Trinovante were of little help. Their lust for blood was nearly as great as Boudica’s own. Ditto her sister. They all called to her, tried to tell her how wonderful things would be once the Romans were defeated and driven from Iceni lands. They all seemed to think their lives would return to normal.

Lannosea closed her mother’s bed curtain and walked out of the royal tent, heading for her own less spacious accommodations. Tears fell from her sky blue eyes as she walked. Unlike her companions, she didn’t believe in their righteous desire to avenge the wrongs done to her people. They could talk all they want about returning to normal, but Lannosea knew the truth. No matter the outcome of tomorrow’s battle, or the one after that, or even the one after that, “normal” was forever a thing of the past.

She rubbed her belly, glad for the loose fitting gown that hid her shame from her mother’s ever angry eyes. Four months. Soon she would no longer be able to hide the truth. What would her mother say, then? Would she cast her out? Have her executed? Both seemed possible with the way Boudica’s temper had turned.

No, she thought, shaking her head sadly. Things will never be normal again.

***

This changes everything, she thought. I will need a new plan.

She sat in the shadows of an abandoned cellar which she had appropriated for her own use. The place was secure against sunlight and intrusion, and should serve her needs through the upcoming day. The bare floor would not be comfortable, but it would not be the worst place she had slept. Thousands of years of hiding from the Council of Thirteen had seen her spend the day in places that made this dry, empty cellar seem like a palace.

But all that was about to end. Ramah was in Londinium! That could only mean the Council had opened a portal in the city and they knew Taras or Theron would be here. Possibly both. Herris would take any opportunity to capture either of them, but both? He was probably foaming at the bit when he sent Ramah. If he knew she was in the city, as well, he would probably have come himself instead of sending Ramah.

Damn. Ramah. Had he seen her? No, she didn’t think so. If he had, he would most certainly have come after her. Thankfully that had not occurred. A small blessing, but she would take it. The Blood Letter did not know she was in the city.

But Theron did. And the former Enforcer would no doubt tell Ramah about her presence at his first opportunity.

But was that really such a bad thing?

She sat at the table and thought about her next move. Perhaps Theron was right where she needed him to be. Once Ramah learned of her presence he would no doubt come looking for her. All she had to do was avoid him long enough to free Theron and lead him out of the city. Ramah had probably brought a Lost One to guard the two prisoners during the day, but that would be easy enough to deal with.

She would leave Taras behind. Ramah would want to question the Roman about Theron’s escape, and that would buy her a little more time. Just outside the city was a large forested area filled with oaks, maples, and many others, and she wanted to be there by the time the Blood Letter caught up. It was the perfect place for an ambush.

After tomorrow night she would never have to run from Ramah again.

11

When Theron opened his eyes, he found himself tied to a wooden bench with a length of thick rope. Around him stood the bare stone walls of an empty cell. There were no windows, but a draft tickled his right cheek. The air smelled of mold, and he guessed he was in a basement somewhere. He tried to raise his shoulders and shift the rope aside, but it held fast. Under normal circumstances, he would have been able to break it, but his head felt odd and his muscles lacked their normal strength.

What had that bitch done to him?

A groan to his left caught his attention, and he noticed Taras hanging from a set of manacles. Not surprising, considering who he’d chosen as a new ally.

Serves you right, you bastard, he thought. That’s what you get for trusting the likes of her.

Theron thought about the female vampire from last night. He hadn’t seen her in a very long time. Not since the last time he’d had to hunt for her. That one time was enough. She’d almost killed him. If Ephraim hadn’t been there to stop her, he would surely have died. If she was in the city then he really needed to get away. Fast. He tried again to break the ropes, or at least the table under him, but it was no use.

“Where are we?” Taras asked, his voice a whisper. Theron ignored him. His mind whirred through the room, trying to think of a way out of this mess. Try as he might, however, he couldn’t escape the simple truth. He was tied to a table with rope almost as thick as his wrist, and he was too damned weak to rip a sheaf of papyrus.

“Is it getting colder in here?” Taras again. He was getting annoying.

Still, now that his attention had been drawn to it, he did notice the temperature in the room dropping. It didn’t affect him physically, since Bachiyr are immune to cold, but the sudden drop didn’t bode well. Only two things could account for it. A cold psalm from another Bachiyr, or the presence of a Lost One. Since Taras was the only other Bachiyr in the room, and he wasn’t whispering words of magic, Theron guessed it to be the second. But that was not possible, either.

A Lost One meant the Council. But the Council would not be working with Taras. They would have simply captured or killed him on sight. And they certainly wouldn’t be working with Taras’s new friend.

When the door to the room opened and a single, shrouded hand came into view, Theron knew the truth. A tattered Lost One stepped into the dim room.

“Damn,” Taras said. “I was hoping I’d never see one of those things again.”

“Me too,” Theron replied, forgetting in his surprise that he didn’t owe Taras any words.

The Lost One stood in the doorway, facing the two prisoners. It wore the tattered black robes of its station. Through the holes in the cloth, Theron could see the millions of insect larvae squirm and writhe as they feasted on the thing’s decaying body. The curse of the Lost One is that there will always be enough flesh to feed the parasites and keep the creature mobile, but no more. They literally rotted away while they were still alive. The sight of them made Theron’s insides churn, and not just for the obvious reasons. The situation was more ominous than he’d feared.

The thing’s presence meant the Council was here. But why? And why were they working with “Where is Lannis?” Taras asked. Theron assumed he was talking to the Lost One.

The creature turned its head toward the onetime Roman legionary. If Theron didn’t know better, he’d have sworn the thing smiled. It stepped slowly toward Taras, walking with an unholy grace, and pressed its larvae-covered right hand on the vampire’s forehead. Theron knew what would come next, he’d seen it hundreds of times.

Taras's scream filled the small chamber, bouncing off the walls in a high pitched wail that stung Theron's hypersensitive ears. Ordinarily, he would have enjoyed the other Bachiyr's pain, especially if he was the cause of it. But it was hard to smile when he knew he was probably next.

“Hello, Theron,” said a voice from the doorway. He didn’t have to turn his head to know who it belonged to. He’d heard that voice regularly for over nine hundred years. Of course, that had been in another lifetime, when he was the hunter and not the hunted.

“Hello Ramah,” he said, leaving off the customary Councilor. He turned his head to face the elder Bachiyr. “What brings you to Londinium?”

Ramah laughed, then his eyes flitted toward the Lost One, who was still working on Taras. The Roman’s screams had died down to a pathetic whimper. Having worked around the Lost Ones for centuries, Theron knew their capabilities as well as any. He could almost feel pity for his rogue progeny. Almost. But since it was pretty much Taras’s fault they were in this situation, he couldn’t quite manage it.

“I can’t believe I found both of you here. Together,” Ramah said. “This couldn’t have been any easier.”

“Go to hell.”

“Not today.” Ramah crossed the room and placed his hands on either side of Theron’s head. Theron winced as the elder’s claws elongated and dug into his skin. Ramah forced Theorn’s face up, probably so he could look him in the eye. Theron would have tried to resist, but he had no leverage and very little strength. “You will get to Hell long before I do,” Ramah promised. “But not before you beg me to send you there.”

With that, Ramah’s face hardened, and a sudden jolt of pain slammed into Theron’s body through his temples. All sight and sound vanished in an instant, leaving him in a world of bright red pain. He choked back a scream, certain his head had split open but determined not to give Ramah the satisfaction. The fire raged inside his head for what seemed like hours, though in truth it couldn’t have been that long.

When it finally eased, Ramah was laughing.

“No scream, Theron?”

Theron reiterated his earlier invitation.

“I am going to enjoy this,” Ramah said.

This time when the pain hit, it felt like a flaming boulder had been forced into Theron’s skull. He clenched his fists and his eyes shut, but the flames licked through the insides of his mind like a predator, clawing and eating away at his brain until all rational thought had fled. It didn’t take long for him to break his silence, giving Ramah the scream he desired.

12

Boudica watched the sun break over the Eastern horizon. Dawn. Time to march.

Behind her, the army of Iceni and Trinovante prepared for their journey. Her advance scouts had reported killing over a dozen Roman legionaries in the outlying fields. Some of them had been caught spying, while others were simply passing through but could not be allowed to continue after seeing the army camped so close to Londinium. Additionaly, dozens of civilians who’d been spotted in the area had been captured, interrogated, and put to the sword. Boudica was taking no chances.

Even with all their precautions, she knew her troops could not catch every single person who’d caught sight of her army. It mattered little enough, however. The prize was the city, and she meant to have it. The soldiers who remained in Londinium would not be able to withstand her onslaught, and the Roman insult would be avenged this very night. She turned to regard her troops. Cyric stood at the head of the army, calling orders to his officers, who in turn shouted orders to their men. Soon they would be ready to move. The journey would take the entire day, but that suited her just fine. Her intent was to attack at night when the city’s defenses would be at their lowest.

“It will be a long day,” her daughter said. Boudica turned to regard Heanua, uncertain of her meaning.

“Have you lost your will for this?” she asked. “Like Lannosea?”

Heanua’s eyes snapped left, and she stared hard into Boudica’s face. “Hardly. I wish we were there now. I can’t wait to gut the people of Londinium.”

The queen smiled. She should have known better. “Don’t worry. We’ll be there tonight.”

“It isn’t soon enough,” Heanua replied, and turned her face West, toward their objective. “Even if we arrive in five minutes, it will not be soon enough.”

Boudica noted that her daughter’s knuckles had gone white on the pommel of her sword, and nodded her approval. Heanua wanted this even more than she did. She supposed that made sense. Her indignities had not broken her spirit like they had Lannosea’s. Instead they had molded her into a fiery, merciless warrior.

Thinking about Lannosea reminded her that she had neither seen nor heard from her younger daughter all morning. The girl should be here with me right now, she thought, anxious to avenge herself on some Roman scum.

“Have you seen your sister?”

Heanua shook her head. “Not this morning. She is probably still asleep.”

“It’s almost time to move,” the gravel in her own voice surprised her. She hadn’t thought she could be so angry. “Why is she not standing here with us?”

Heanua shook her head again. “I don’t know.”

“Find her,” Boudica snapped. “If she sleeps, wake her. If not, drag her to my tent. I want to see her within the hour.”

“I am not your personal messenger, mother,” Heanua said. “Send someone else to collect Lannie.”

Boudica rounded on her eldest daughter, her face flushed and warm. “You will do as I say, child!” she spat. “Or you will watch the conquest of Londinium from one of the cages!”

The cages were just that; mobile cells the Trinovante had brought with them to house prisoners. Each one was six feet by six feet, with stout wooden floors and iron bars set wide enough apart to allow for throwing rotten fruit and buckets of excrement. The Trinovante liked to humiliate their prisoners prior to killing them. Boudica had no intention of taking prisoners, but the Trinovante leaders wanted the cages brought along anyway, and she needed their help. They rolled along on wooden wheels behind the bulk of the army, pulled by oxen.

“Mother, you can’t-” Heanua began.

Boudica cut her off. “I can and will. I will have one of the cages brought to the front lines just for you, so you can view the taking of the city from behind its iron bars.”

A dark look flashed across Heanua’s pale features, but Boudica held her ground, daring her to disobey. For a moment, she seemed like she might argue further, but then her daughter pulled her hand from her sword and swept into a curt bow. “Yes, my Queen,” she said, and turned back to the encampment.

I’ll have to watch that one, Boudica thought. Heanua was not next in line for the throne of the Iceni, but she was not far behind. If anything happened to Boudica, Heanua would assume the leadership of her people. While Heanua would no doubt make a fine, strong Queen, Boudica wasn’t ready to give up her rule just yet.

She turned and headed back for her own tent, which would be disassembled within an hour. Along the way, she pondered the strangeness of having one daughter with no ambition at all, and another who would probably try to kill her in the coming days.

It is a strange world in which I live. Strange or not, Heanua would never have considered disobeying her queen before the Roman attack. Those bastards had not only taken her husband’s kingdom from her, they had taken her daughters, as well.

But she would have the final word. Nero would beg her to take her kingdom back by the time she finished with his army.

13

Theron awoke to the sound of someone groaning. It sounded distant, hollow, as though he heard it through a long corridor. The sound grew stronger and louder as he gradually drifted into consciousness. He kept his eyes closed and listened, not wanting to give away his growing lucidity.

The pain was amazing. All through his body tiny sizzles fired on his nerve endings, making his muscles twitch and spasm. Because of these involuntary movements, he knew without opening his eyes that he had been moved from the table to the stocks. The groaning sound must be Taras, who might be regaining his senses, as well. But did he have to be so damn noisy about it?

Theron opened his eye a crack and risked a quick look. He was in the same room as before. The chains on the wall where the Lost One had tortured Taras hung empty. He couldn’t see anyone else in the room with him. That didn’t mean anything, of course. With his head stuck in the stocks there could be an army behind him and he wouldn’t be able to see them. He might be able to hear the breathing of living occupants, or their heartbeats, but the only other people likely to be in the room with him had no need of either. Still, the silence of the place spoke to its emptiness. He hoped. He opened his eyes the rest of the way and looked around as well as he could, all the while expecting to hear Ramah’s chortling laughter behind him. When the laughter didn’t come, he listened harder. The sound of a mouse scurrying across the floor confirmed there was no Psalm of Silence on the room, which meant he probably was alone for the moment. Well, except for Taras. Ramah had left them both in the cell and gone off somewhere, probably to sleep away the day.

And why not? Neither of his prisoners were going anywhere. Not weak and shackled like they were. All Theron could do was wait for Ramah to kill him, which would probably occur just after dark. Most likely, the only reason he still lived at all was because Ramah had run out of time and had to find a place to spend the day.

Was it dark outside now? He was awake, which usually did not happen during the day. Did that mean dusk had come? If so, how long did he have before Ramah returned? It didn’t look good. Sooner or later the Councilor would come back to the room and finish what he’d started.

The hell with this, he thought. He strained his arms against the wood, hoping to break the lock, but it held. The coagulated, rusty brown stain on the floor told him well enough why. Ramah had spilled and wasted a great deal of his blood. He needed more. Without it he was too weak to break free.

“Theron?” The voice came from his left. Taras. He sounded weak as well.

Theron ignored him and again tried to break through his bonds. Once again they proved too strong for his blood-starved body.

“Theron?”

Theron ignored him again and put his mind to the task of escape. His body couldn’t get him out, so what could he do? He could try to bribe Ramah, though he didn’t have anything the Councilor would want or couldn’t take by force. Perhaps he could shout for help, hoping some human would wander by. But that might bring Ramah all the faster. Or the Lost One. The room wasn’t freezing, so he knew the cursed thing wasn’t near, but it couldn’t be far. Ramah would have it with him at all times.

He needed to think.

“Theron? Are you there?”

“Damn it, Roman. Where the hell else would I be?”

“Dead would have been my guess,” Taras replied.

“Not yet.”

“That was a Lost One, wasn’t it?”

“Nasty things, aren’t they?” Theron suppressed a shudder. The Lost Ones curdled his skin. “Nasty, but effective. Now be quiet.”

For a moment it seemed Taras would do what Theron asked, but then his voice came through the silence again. “Ramah wasted a great deal of your blood.”

“I can see that,” Theron said, looking again at the large dried puddle beneath him.

“Why didn’t he drink it?”

“I don’t know. Ask him.”

“Is our blood poisonous to other Bachiyr?”

“Of course not. Ramah just enjoys torture. Now be quiet and let me think before I remove your head from your shoulders.”

Taras managed to remain silent for a count of thirty, then he started again. “When I get out of this, Theron, I’m going to kill you.” Taras said.

Theron chuckled, a thick, wet gurgle. “I doubt you’ll get the chance. Ramah will kill you just to keep that pleasure for himself.”

“Ramah will not touch me once he talks to Lannis,” Taras said. “He obviously doesn’t know about our deal. Once she explains it to him, I will be free, and you will be dead.”

“Lannis?” Theron asked. “ Councillor Lannis? How in the Nine Hells do you know her?”

“She came to me a few nights ago and told me you were in Londinium. She offered me clemency from the Council if I helped capture you, which we did. Once she talks to Ramah-”

Theron couldn’t help his laughter, which cut through the room and silenced Taras’s stupidity. Now everything made sense. “You are a bigger fool than I thought, and I thought you were quite the fool, already.”

“We’ll see,” Taras replied. “When Lannis returns-”

“That wasn’t Lannis,” Theron said, still chuckling. “That was Baella. A renegade Bachiyr that the Council has been hunting for a very long time. She always seems to pop up and make things messy, then disappears again. I bet she vanished the second she saw Ramah, didn’t she?”

Silence from Taras.

“I thought as much,” Theron continued. “You fell right into her trap, Roman. I’m not sure what she wanted with you, but now that Ramah has you, you will probably not live to see the moon rise tomorrow.”

Taras said nothing, thankfully, and Theron returned to the task at hand. Namely, escaping the stocks and getting the hell out of Londinium before Ramah came back. It wouldn’t be easy, even if he did manage to get out of this room. Ramah wasn’t the only one out in the city looking for him. Besides the Lost One, there was also Baella.

Theron didn’t have any idea what she would be doing with someone like Taras, but it didn’t surprise him. Nothing she did surprised him. He, and the rest of the Council, had been hunting her for centuries. Her name was whispered in the Halls of the Bachiyr like a curse, as if just by saying it she might appear to wreak havoc. The Council of Thirteen had been trying to corral her almost from the very beginning of his race.

No one knew much about her. Her origins and age were a mystery. Some speculated she was as old as Herris. To be sure, she’d been around at least as long as 3,900 year old Jui Jyn, the Council’s youngest member, and probably longer. Very few had ever seen her, and fewer still lived to tell others about it. Some Bachiyr even considered her a myth, but Theron knew better. He and Ephraim had cornered her once in the Library of Alexandria, just a few decades before the debacle that had made Theron a renegade, himself. Theron had set fire to the building in an attempt to destroy her. Ephraim had been inside at the time, and none too pleased that he had almost been killed along with the renegade.

Their relationship had never been the same after that. From good friends to a cool, detached distance, and then Ephraim fell under the spell of that damn Jewish rabbi and ruined everything. Theron should have killed the bastard in Alexandria and saved himself a great deal of trouble.

A shadow fell over his face, interrupting his thoughts. He looked up to see Taras standing over him, fangs extended and eyes burning.

“Who is the fool now?” Taras asked.

Theron stared at Taras’s hands. They had shrunk. As he watched, they returned to their normal size, filling in and swelling like rising dough.

“How…?” Theron began.

“You mean you don’t know?” Taras shook his head. “Then why the hell would I tell you?” Taras stumbled, but managed to steady himself by placing a hand on Theron’s stocks. He stared at Theron and his ice-blue eyes shifted to red, his ragged face framed by dirty yellow hair. He grinned, revealing his fangs. “Thank you for answering my questions. I would never have known our blood was safe if not for you.”

14

Lannosea was sitting in her chair tying her long hair back with a leather thong when Heanua stormed in, still angry with her mother for sending her to fetch her sister like some house servant. Lannosea started when she saw her, nearly falling out of her chair. Her expression was a mixture of fear and guilt. She doesn’t even have her armor on, Heanua noted. Lannosea wore nothing more than her shift, as though she had no intention of coming along for the battle. Had her sister turned into a coward?

“What are you doing?” Heanua asked. “Why aren’t you ready? Mother is waiting for us at the head of the army.”

“Tell her I will be there shortly,” Lannosea replied, and turned her attention back to her hair, twisting it into a tight bun before securing it with the thin leather strap.

“I’ll do no such thing. I’m not your servant.” Lannie had always been a bit spoiled. The result of her stunning beauty and her station as an Iceni princess. In the past, she had gotten her way with a subtle flash of her ice blue eyes and a well timed shift of her hair. Heanua, whose brown hair and gray eyes rarely attracted notice, had been forced to play second to her younger sister for most of her life. While Heanua was also an Iceni princess, it was widely believed that Lannosea would someday marry a more powerful husband, and thus assume the queenship of the Iceni people.

Yet here she was, languishing all but naked in a cushioned chair on perhaps the most important day in the history of their people.

“Lannie, you need to get ready. Now. Or I will drag you to Mother as you are.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“You know I would.” Heanua crossed her arms over her chest. “Today is important. Today we strike back at Nero.”

“As we did at Camulodunum?” Lannosea asked, her voice soft, muffled. “Do you remember the sound of thousands of people dying, Heanua? Their screams as they pleaded for mercy? Did it please you?”

“Of course,” Heanua said. “The dogs of Rome deserved nothing less.”

Lannosea turned her face away, but not before Heanua caught sight of the tears building in her eyes. “We are far from Rome, sister. The people of Camulodunum, like the people of Londinium, have done nothing to us.”

“Do you remember the sound of your own screams?” Heanua shot back. “I was there, as well, remember? Your cries for mercy went ignored, as I recall. How can you sit in your chair and pretend the Romans deserve compassion?”

Lannosea didn’t answer, but Heanua heard the sound of her breath as it hitched in her throat. Was she crying? Today, of all days? By the gods, what was wrong with her?

“That’s enough, Lannie,” Heanua said. She strode across the room and grabbed her sister’s wrist, yanking her to her feet. Lannosea yelped at the sudden jerk, but recovered enough to pull her arm back from her sister’s grasp.

“Don’t touch me, Heannie!” she screeched, her face streaked with tears. “Don’t touch me again or by the gods I’ll-”

Heanua slapped her sister across the face. “I don’t know what is wrong with you, Lannie. But you are coming with me if I have to drag you all the way to Londinium. Now I suggest you grab your armor and get moving before I-”

Heanua stopped short, her breath caught in her throat. Lannosea’s clothing had shifted when she got to her feet, and now Heanua saw what she’d missed before. When Lannie had been sitting in her chair, the bulge at her middle had been hidden by her clothes. But now that she was on her feet it was easy to tell.

“No,” Heanua whispered. “No, it can’t be. Lannosea…”

Her sister’s expression crumbled, and she slumped back into her chair and dropped her face to her hands. Her shoulders bobbed up and down as she sobbed into her fingers, the severe bun in her hair coming loose and sending stray locks of hair spilling down around her shoulders. “One of the Romans…” she said.

Heanua understood. The rapes. One of those Roman bastards had created what would be another Roman bastard. And her sister, an Iceni princess, would be forced to live with the shame of it. No wonder she hadn’t been acting normal. Even after the Iceni and Trinovante reclaimed Britannia from Nero, Lannosea would never rule. Indeed, the likelihood of her ever finding a husband at all was slim. No one would want her now. Not after word spread that she’d given birth to a bastard child of a Roman legionary. It wouldn’t matter that the child was born of rape. Few men, certainly no man of any standing, would want to touch her.

“You can’t keep this child,” Heanua said softly.

“I don’t want it,” Lannosea said. “The devil take it, I never wanted it. I tried to kill it, early on, but the potion failed. Now I don’t know what to do. I still have five more months before delivery, and I’m only going to get bigger. I’ve sent away all my servants so no one would know, but that won’t last much longer. Soon I will be stuck in this tent, or worse, hiding somewhere like a criminal.”

“How are you going to hide this from mother?” Heanua asked. “She’s waiting for us to lead the attack on Londinium.”

“I don’t know,” Lannosea replied. “I tried to strap on my leathers, but they don’t fit anymore.” At this, Lannosea fell into another round of sobbing. Heanua looked at her shoes, a small twinge of remorse worming its way into her breast. She should have known better. Her sister wasn’t a coward. She had never been afraid to fight. But she was afraid of what the Queen would say.

“Stay here,” Heanua said. “And stay hidden. I have to get back to the front line. We’ll figure out what to do about this when I return.”

“What about mother?”

“I’ll handle mother. You just make sure no one sees you like this. Dress in something loose and flowing, and don’t leave this tent.”

“People will think I’m a coward.”

“People will think what mother tells them to think.”

“And what will that be?”

“I don’t know yet,” Heanua said, turning to leave. “But I hope I can think of something by the time I reach her.”

***

Ramah returned from hunting. Over his shoulder he carried the body of an elk, recently killed and waiting to be cleaned. His talk with his mother hadn’t gone as well as he had hoped.

“She’s bewitched you,” she had said when he told her of his plans to marry her. “The filthy Chalika has cast her spell on you.”

Ramah had struck her then. His own mother. His hand sent her to the floor. If he lived a thousand years, he would never forget the shocked look on her face. He’d left her sitting on the floor, rubbing her face with her hand, to go hunting. He’d needed something to calm his nerves.

How could he strike her? His mother!

He would apologize when he saw her next. But he would not relent. He would marry Neeya with or without his mother’s permission.

I’m sorry, mother, he thought, but you can’t make this decision for me. I won’t let you.

The village was quiet. Much too quiet. And empty. No children played in the streets. No men stood and talked of the day, and no women walked through the camp carrying sticks or water or blankets. As far as he could tell, he was the only one in the village. Ramah stood at the entrance to his mother’s hut and listened.

Voices came to him, quiet and distant. They seemed to come from the eastern edge of the village, where the fertile lands gave way to the Living Sands.

“No,” Ramah said. He dropped the elk and ran. There was only one reason the entire village would gather at the edge of the Living Sands. They meant to banish someone to the Wastes.

And he had a pretty good idea who.

“Mother!” he shouted as he ran. “Don’t do this!”

But as he neared the edge of his village, he saw his people gathered in a group. Several men spotted him and came out to meet him. He tried to shout a greeting, but they grabbed him by his arms and dragged him forward. As the crowd parted in front of them, he saw his mother standing on the edge of the Living Sands. The red mark of his hand was still plainly visible on her cheek.

Neeya was nowhere to be seen.

“Mother, what have you done?” he asked when he reached her. In response, she spat at his feet and slapped his face.

Ramah woke with a start, bolting upright on his makeshift bed of dried straw. The small bundle of cloth he’d used as a pillow was wet with blood. He picked it up and wiped away the tiny red trails from his cheeks. It had become a ritual of late. Every evening he woke with blood leaking from his eyes.

The dream. Every day this week it had come to him. Why? It was bad enough when he only dreamed once a month, but every damned day? What was the reason? He took the cloth away from his face, surprised to note the tremors that rocked his normally steady hands. Maybe he should see Lannis, after all.

He rose from the bed, shaking the memory from his head. The Living Sands had burned, like walking on coals…

No!

He had things to do tonight. Theron and Taras waited. He would have liked to kill them the night before, but by the time the Lost One finished with the Roman, the weakling had lost consciousness. Ramah needed to ask him a few questions before he allowed the bastard to die, and the sun was almost up, so he’d left him there, hanging from the chains in the wall.

But not tonight.

Ramah stood, shaking the last wisps of the dream from his mind as he set himself to the task at hand. Tonight Taras and Theron would both die, and he could return to the Halls of the Bachiyr and pay Lannis a visit. She might be able to cure him of the dreams, but she would want something in return.

Lannis always did.

15

“Goodbye, Theron,” Taras said, his claws sprouting from his fingertips. “I’d stay longer but I want to be gone by the time Ramah returns.” Taras stuck the tip of one claw under Theron’s jaw. Smart, Theron thought. He doesn’t dare get too close to my teeth.

A soft flicker of movement caught Theron’s eye just as the claw pierced his flesh. There was a brief flash of light, then Taras fell to the floor. Standing behind him was…

“Baella.” Theron said. “I might have known.”

“Hello, Theron,” Baella said. Her deep, husky tone igniting memories of Alexandria. “Have you been well?”

“I was fine until you walked in.”

“Ramah will return soon.”

“Then have a seat. I’m sure he will be pleased to see you.”

“You’re in no position, Ex-Enforcer, to be an ass.” Baella winked at him and tossed back her ebony hair. Her dark eyes sparkled with mischief. “Will you come with me or should I leave you to the Councilor?”

Theron chuckled. “Just kill me here. “That will anger Ramah almost as much as me escaping.”

“Why would I kill you?“ Baella asked. “I went to a lot of trouble to get you here, you know. You could at least be grateful.”

“I came here on my own. Looking for that one,” Theron nodded toward Taras’s prone form. “You had nothing to do with it.”

“And how did you know he was here?”

“I learned it from a drunken human, just before I killed him.”

“Quite a coincidence, don’t you think?” Baella winked. “That a drunken human with knowledge of Taras’s whereabouts would just happen to fall into your lap in Spain.”

“Not really. I keep my ears open, and…” Theron eyed her, taking in the confident smirk and arrogant stance. “How did you know I found him in Spain?”

Baella smiled even wider. “Several months ago I sent out twenty humans to different areas of the world. Each of them was told to spread the news of a tall, yellow-haired man who attacked them in Londinium, then report back to me. Of the twenty, only one did not return. The one I sent to Spain.”

Theron shook his head. He should have known. This whole thing was just a trap to get him to Londinium.

“But why?” he asked. “What do you want from me?”

Baella’s eyes sparkled. She leaned down to whisper in his ear, although it seemed like a wasted gesture on her part since they were alone except for Taras, who still lay unconscious on the floor. “Ramah.”

***

Ramah threw aside the limp body of yet another renegade Bachiyr, his third such encounter of the evening. Like the others, this one was very weak, as though she had just been created. They seemed to crawl out of the dark alleys whenever he approached, almost as if they were looking for him.

Ramah had left Theron and Taras under the watchful eyes of the Lost One at dawn, and had gone underground to sleep through the day. Upon awakening at twilight, he’d set out to gather the two renegades and take them before the Council, but almost immediately he’d been attacked by the first of the renegade Bachiyr. And then a pair of them together, and now this one. He was not far from where he’d slept, and already he’d had to dispatch four vampires.

What in the name of The Father was going on? Who was creating all these damn renegades? And why so many so fast? None of the ones he’d killed tonight could have been more than a few days old. It would take a very powerful vampire to create so many in such a short time. Could Theron have been producing an army of minions? It seemed unlikely. Not even Theron would have that much energy. There were only a handful of Bachiyr who could pull off something like that, and most of them were on the Council of Thirteen.

Could another Councilor be behind this? Ramah didn’t know, but as he walked away from his latest victim, he vowed to find out.

He stepped away from the alley into the darkened street, headed for the building where he’d stashed Theron and Taras. No lights were lit in this part of the city, which is why he chose it. Only the moon lit his way, but it was more than enough. Centuries of living in the dark, combined with his already enhanced vision, made the night seem bright and vivid. He could count the pebbles in the road from a hundred paces away, not that he would bother.

Right now his keen eyesight detected movement in the shadows ahead and to his left. He walked on, studying the movement in the alley from the corner of his eye, acting oblivious. If this was another damn Bachiyr, he The attack came from his right. A dark blur sped to his side and jabbed something sharp into his abdomen. Ramah stifled a yell and whirled to face the newcomer. A ragged Bachiyr stared back at him, gleefully chuckling as he twisted the knife in Ramah’s flesh. The creature’s canines gleamed red in the dim light, as though it had just fed. Its breath stank of blood, but Ramah noted the blood wasn’t human. What had it been feeding on? Animal blood would do little for a Bachiyr. It was too weak.

Ramah reached down, grabbed the Bachiyr’s wrist in his other hand, and started to pull back. The renegade’s face tightened with the strain, but he was no match for Ramah’s strength, and the blade began to slide out of the wound. Just as Ramah pulled the knife from his side, he was hit from behind by something heavy and solid. The movement in the alley. So, the two renegades had decided to team up.

Ramah reached behind him and grabbed the new Bachiyr by a handful of cloth, then he bent at the waist, twisted to the side, and yanked on the creature’s clothes. Despite the poor quality of the cloth, the seam held, and the renegade flew off his back and landed in the street with a thud and a crack. He had just enough time to note that this one was female before it sprang to its feet and rushed back at him.

Ramah, his other hand still wrapped around the first renegade’s wrist, spun to the ground, sweeping out with his right leg and taking the male’s feet out from under him. The male sprawled to the cobbles in front of his companion, who tripped over his prone form. As she fell, Ramah reached out, claws extended, and jabbed her in the gut. She howled in pain as his claws tore into her flesh, reminding him to drop a Psalm of Silence on the pair. In his peripheral vision, he noted the male rising to his feet. Soon he would be fighting them both in close combat. It was time to end this.

Ramah jabbed his other hand into the woman’s throat and twisted, popping tendons and separating the vertebrae. Due to the magical silence, he could not hear the flesh tearing, but he could see and smell the spray of blood as her head separated from her shoulders. There was no rhythmic spurting of blood, as with a human victim, only the single burst as the vessel tore, like stabbing on overfilled wineskin, and several droplets splattered him in the face.

The body fell to the street, oozing crimson onto the cobbles.

Ramah tossed the head aside just as the male barreled into him, sending them both to the ground. The renegade’s mouth was open, screaming something Ramah could not hear, as he pummeled the prone Councilor with his fists. The blows stung, but they were not strong enough to do any serious damage. Ramah reached his arms around his attacker’s head and locked them around his neck, pulling him close. From there, he shifted his legs for leverage, and tried to roll over.

He felt a sudden pain in his throat and realized the Bachiyr was taking advantage of his new position by biting him. Ramah cursed himself for his stupidity even as he felt some of his blood draining away. He released the thing’s head and jabbed his claws deep into its side just below the ribcage. His opponent let go immediately, and Ramah put his other hand on the thing’s chest and shoved upward, going for strength now rather than technique.

The other vampire flew off him and landed in a heap a few feet away. Ramah shot to his feet and readied himself for another attack, but the new Bachiyr had not yet risen. Instead, it lay writhing in the street. When it rolled to its side, Ramah saw why.

The hole in the creature’s gut was massive, much worse than Ramah had thought. Ramah credited it to the subconscious fear all Bachiyr must feel when their blood is being stolen, similar to adrenaline in living humans. He simply hadn’t realized his own strength and had practically gutted the creature.

He approached slowly, determined to get some answers, but not willing to rush at the creature lest it be feigning incapacitation. The renegade watched his approach, hatred burning in his eyes like coal. Ramah noted blood on the creature’s throat. This blood wasn’t fresh and liquid like the blood from his open chest. It had mostly coagulated around a small wound in its neck that looked like a ring of small punctures. Two of them were deeper and more prominent than the others. Ramah knew what that meant. A bite mark! And still fresh.

This Bachiyr could not be more than a few hours old.

Its mouth was moving again, and Ramah, realizing he would need sound to interrogate the thing, dropped the Psalm of Silence.

“…ave you,” it said in Roman. “She will slaughter you like a lamb.”

Ramah knelt down, placing his claws on the wounded vampire’s throat. “Who? Who will slaughter me?”

“My master. She will have you. She will devour you.”

So it’s a she, Ramah thought. Lannis, perhaps? Taras had mentioned her by name earlier. But why would she risk Headcouncil Herris’ anger, and her own skin, trying to kill him? What could she gain? She could not hope to kill him with an army of simple minions. Minions unauthorized by the Council, no less. Besides, fighting among the Council was forbidden by The Father Himself. It didn’t make sense.

“I think not,” Ramah said. “I don’t know who your master is, young one, but I will find out. And then I will kill her for making you.”

The Bachiyr chuckled, spraying blood from its throat. “My master will have you, Ramah. Your remaining nights number almost as few as mine.”

Ramah stared. The thing knew his name. How the hell did it know his name?

“Who is your master?”

Gurgling laughter from the creature’s throat.

Ramah jabbed his claws into its side again, tearing the hole in its flesh even wider. The laughter halted, cut off by a cry of pain.

“Who?” Ramah demanded. “Tell me now and I will kill you quickly.”

The renegade spat a wad of blood in Ramah’s face. Ramah winced. In his momentary distraction, the prone vampire lunged at his throat. Acting on instinct, Ramah drove his claws deeper into the things chest, piercing its heart. The renegade’s face strained with pain, then he went limp.

“Damn,” Ramah said. He hadn’t meant to kill it so quick, but it had forced his hand. He would have liked to interrogate it further. Ramah stood, wiping his bloody hands on the dead Bachiyr’s clothes. He might as well have used his own, as he was covered in gore from several battles already.

But this business about the thing’s master bothered him. The renegade, only a few hours old, had known his name. That meant the pair had been waiting for him. Probably instructed to ambush him by his master. Ramah had a feeling that if he checked the throat of the female renegade, he would find a similarly fresh wound on her throat. That is, if he hadn’t ripped her head off as he did. No matter. It wasn’t important.

He resumed his walk to Taras and Theron, wondering why Lannis, if indeed it was Lannis, would risk so much to come after him when she had so little to gain by his death. He would need to ask Taras a few questions before they left for the Council. The thought made him smile.

Questioning Taras promised to be entertaining, at the very least.

16

Boudica watched her daughter approach-alone-and could not keep the angry growl from entering her voice. “Where is Lannosea?”

Heanua shook her head but did not back away. “She won’t be joining us.”

“What?” Boudica felt the anger rising in her face. “She is an Iceni Princess. She will join us or I will kill her myself. I should have known better than to send you to fetch her. I will go myself.” Boudica turned away and stormed down the makeshift path toward Lannosea’s tent.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to find Heanua holding her back. She jerked her shoulder, trying to free her arm. “What is it, Heanua? Do you think you can do a better job of running this war? You couldn’t even get your sister out of her tent.”

“Lannosea has taken ill,” Heanua said. “She can’t come with us today.”

Boudica stopped struggling. “Lannie is ill?”

Heanua nodded.

“How bad is it?”

“Very.” Heanua removed her hand from Boudica’s shoulder. “She can barely walk.”

“Why wasn’t I told of this?”

“Lannosea has not told anyone. I only found out because I witnessed her condition for myself.”

“I should go see her, as well,” Boudica started down the path again.

“No, mother,” Heanua stepped in front of her. “Lannosea is being well tended. It would not do the Iceni any good for you to get sick, as well.”

“Is her malady contagious?”

“We don’t know. But it’s possible. How would you look, mother, leading the army from your sick bed?”

Heanua was right. Boudica wanted to go see her daughter, but getting sick herself would only harm the campaign. It would have to wait until after the attack of Londinium. Once the city was destroyed, she would go see Lannosea and find out exactly what was going on. The girl had been acting strange lately, anyway.

“Very well,” she said. “You and I will lead the attack on Londinium. Lannie will rest. For now.”

Boudica turned back and walked to where her generals were gathered, no doubt going over a few last minute strategies. Cyric was there, as well, going on about the next city on their list. Always thinking ahead, that one. That’s why she liked him so much. That and the fact that he was obviously smitten with Lannosea.

She smiled. He would make a fine king someday.

***

Heanua watched her mother walk away, relieved for the time being that she wouldn’t have to come up with a bigger lie. What she’d told Boudica was partially true. Lannie was ill. Sort of. And she hadn’t told anyone. Of course, pregnancy wasn’t contagious, but she couldn’t think of another way to keep her mother from visiting the tent. At least she had bought a little time to think.

She climbed into her saddle and urged her mount forward under the guise of inspecting the troops. They didn’t require inspection, and indeed, many of them could scarcely be called soldiers. Her mother had assembled a vast horde of Iceni and Trinovante warriors, but compared to the disciplined ranks of the Romans, they were little more than a gathering of barbarians.

Heanua had seen the Roman Legion in action. Orderly rows and rank upon rank of organized men who knew their role and followed orders without question. It was a system that had seen Rome expand to the great empire it was today. Looking at her own people, she could only shake her head. Presently, two men fought over a wineskin even though they were to march in short order. A little farther on, a group of men snored loudly as their captain tried to wake them, the air around them smelled strongly of wine and mead. Not far away a man and woman lay naked on a mat of furs, their hands and mouths exploring each other’s bodies while a group of onlookers urged them on.

This was her army.

Heanua sighed. Her people were ragged and undisciplined, and the Romans were better armed and had the experience of generations of military learning. The Iceni had only one advantage, but it was a good one.

Strength of numbers.

Boudica had assembled a massive force of over a hundred thousand warriors, and more joined every day, attracted by the thought of plunder and conquest. The ground shook under her feet when her army marched, and the land behind them was bare and brown, the grass trampled dead by innumerable feet, hooves, and wagons. Among her people, it was the greatest such army ever gathered, and it would roll over Londinium like an ox over an anthill.

And Lannosea would not be part of it.

It felt strange to know she would ride into battle without her sister. Before the attack, Lannie had been a fierce warrior, besting women and men alike. But for the last five months she’d been timid and quiet, hardly daring to leave her tent. At least Heanua now understood why.

Pregnant. Those Roman legionaries had really done it for her sister. Her life was ruined, now. Cyric, who had doted on her ever since she was a child, would not want her once she birthed a Roman bastard, and she would lose the rulership of her people. That meant Heanua would be queen someday, a title she did not want. Let the Boudicas and Lannoseas of the world rule. Heanua had no head for it, and had never aspired to be queen. Heanua knew her sword and her mount. She relished the feel of the rippling muscles between her legs as her horse ran down an opponent, the scream as her sword cut into an enemy’s flesh, and the smells of blood and fire that accompanied battle.

That was Heranua’s world, not sitting in a cushioned chair issuing orders. But that would be her life unless she could think of a way to help Lannie. As she rode among the troops, she pondered her options. She thought of several plans, then discarded them immediately as unworkable or pointless. No matter what she might do, it didn’t change the fact that her sister was pregnant with the bastard child of a Roman legionary. By the time she reached the catapults, her face had grown flush with frustration.

She had to find a way to help Lannie. She had to.

17

The damp smell of mold and mildew flowed up from the stone stairway when Ramah pushed open the worn, peeling door that led to the basement. He expected to find his Lost One minding Theron and Taras, who should be ready for questioning after spending the day locked away. Instead he found Taras lying unconscious or dead on the floor and Theron missing. The stout lock on the side of the wooden stocks was broken, and hung by the warped loop of metal, but he could see nothing out of place with the shackles on the wall. The bolts were still in place, and the rings hung limply from chains embedded into the stone. How had Taras escaped them?

His Lost One was nowhere to be seen.

He stood in the doorway and examined the rest of the room, wanting to make sure there would be no surprises when he went in. More than one Bachiyr had been trapped by not paying attention to his surroundings. Ramah should know, he was an expert at catching his victims unaware, and so was Theron. But the room seemed clear. No ominous shadows or dusty tarps, and the wind outside told him there was no Psalm of Silence on the room. The walls were bare but for a row of metal rods, each about four feet long and an inch thick. Ramah didn’t know their intended use, but they were good for beating a prisoner across the back, as he’d learned the previous night. Everything was as he’d left it. The only thing out of place was the Bachiyr on the floor.

Ramah stepped through the doorway, his anger growing with each step. He never should have left the Lost One alone with his charges. When he found the thing, he was going to destroy it for letting one of the prisoners escape. Especially Theron. Ramah could have coped with the escape of Taras, but not Theron. The former Lead Enforcer was the one he really wanted. The Roman was just an added bonus.

As he approached, he reminded himself that the yellow-haired former legionary had been an accomplished assassin in life, and had somehow managed to survive as an unauthorized Bachiyr for almost thirty years, despite being hunted by every agent the Council of Thirteen could muster. It would be a mistake to assume everything in the room was as it seemed. Taras could be feigning unconsciousness, waiting for Ramah to get close enough to strike. Not that it would matter. Ramah would crush him easily, and both of them knew it.

He kicked Taras in the side of his chest, noting the satisfying crack as one of the prone vampire’s ribs broke. Taras groaned and made a weak effort to curl into a fetal position, but apparently the effort was too much for him, and he soon lay still again.

What the hell happened here? Had Taras escaped his bonds and then tried to assist Theron? Ramah couldn’t help but smile at the thought. Theron would have attacked Taras as soon as he was free. Taras would have to be very stupid to believe otherwise.

But Taras isn’t stupid, Ramah thought. Weak, but not stupid. So what did happen?

Ramah knelt down and grabbed Taras by the shoulder, rolling him over on his back. Taras’s eyes were closed and his fangs were retracted. He groaned again as Ramah moved him, and his eyes opened a crack. After a moment, the Roman’s eyes widened. Recognition dawned on Taras’s face, and he tried to squirm away, but Ramah put his hands to the other man’s shoulders and pinned him to the floor.

“You remember me,” Ramah said, pleased.

Taras didn’t respond, but Ramah could see the man’s mind working behind his eyes, probably looking for an escape.

“Don’t bother,” Ramah said. “In your condition, you would not get far, and there is no city full of Jews to cover your escape this time.”

Taras’s face fell. He must know, just as Ramah did, that he had no hope of escaping. Last time he’d been lucky. Ramah had been occupied fighting off a large group of humans in Jerusalem, which allowed Taras time to get away.

Not this time.

“Where is Theron?” Ramah asked.

“I don’t know,” Taras replied, his voice faint.

“You freed him?”

“Never,” Taras spat. “I freed myself. After I escaped I went to kill him and someone attacked me from behind.”

“The Lost One?”

“I don’t know.”

“Was the room cold?” Ramah asked.

“It is cold everywhere I go,” Taras growled, his voice gaining strength. “I haven’t been warm since your lackey-”

Ramah cracked the other’s head on the stone floor, eliciting a yelp of pain. “Don’t press your luck, Roman. The moment you cease to be useful I will kill you.”

“No,” Taras blurted. “The room wasn’t cold.”

“That’s better.” Ramah paused. It couldn’t have been the Lost One, then. Could it have been Lannis who attacked Taras from behind? But why? If she had set all this in motion, turning the fresh vampires against Ramah and making a deal with Taras, why would she attack him once Theron was captured? Did she want to be the one to bring him in? If so, why? Lannis had never shown any interest in hunting down fugitives before. She enjoyed punishing them when Ramah or an Enforcer brought them in, but actually hunting for them was another matter. She preferred to sit, safe and snug, in her plush chambers while others did all the work.

Something wasn’t right.

“You mentioned a deal with Lannis,” Ramah said. “Tell me what she offered you.”

To his surprise, Taras shook his head and barked a weak, wet laugh. “The woman said I would be free if I helped her capture Theron. She told me I could stop running and live in peace.”

“And you believed her,” Ramah replied, a smile on the corner of his lips.

Taras nodded. “I did.”

“Lannis is not known for keeping her word.”

“Theron said the same thing. He also called me a fool.”

“He was right,” Ramah said. “You were a fool.”

“It doesn’t matter, anyway.”

“Of course not,” Ramah said. “Lannis cannot make deals for the Council. Only Headcouncil Herris can grant immunity.”

“No,” Taras said. “It doesn’t matter because it wasn’t Lannis who made the offer. It was someone else.”

“How do you know?” Ramah had figured as much, but he wanted confirmation.

“Theron saw her, too. He said the woman’s name was Baella.”

Ramah stopped, unsure he’d heard correctly. “Did you say Baella?”

“I did,” Taras said.

If Ramah’s lungs still worked, his breath would have caught in his throat. Baella! Finally! Here was the opportunity to capture the single most wanted renegade in the history of his race, and she had all but fallen into his lap. He had no idea what she would want with Theron, but he didn’t intend to let her have him.

“How long ago did they leave?” Ramah asked.

“I don’t know,” Taras replied. “I was unconscious.”

Ramah grabbed one of the sharp metal rods from the wall and drove it through Taras’s chest and into the stone underneath, pinning the renegade to the floor. While Taras screamed and writhed, Ramah noted that he’d missed the heart, but not by much. Damn. He turned his back on Taras and walked up the stairs, nearly tripping on the top step in his haste to catch up to Baella and Theron.

“Don’t worry,” he called over his shoulder, “I’ll finish the job when I get back.”

18

Theron needed blood. Badly. He stumbled along behind Baella, trying to keep up, and found his face in the dirt far too often for his liking.

“Ramah will be coming for us,” Baella hissed. “Can’t you go any faster?”

“Need…blood…” Theron said. “My insides are turning to dust.”

Baella looked him up and down. “Blood? Why didn’t you say so?” She turned away from him and looked up the street. After a moment, she started walking.

“Stay here,” she said. Theron, still weak, nodded. It wasn’t like he had much choice, anyway. He sat with his back to a building, marveling at this strange new turn.

Baella. Here. In Londinium.

That certainly explained what happened to the Lost One. In the entire history of his race, only one Bachiyr had been able to destroy a Lost One without the aid of the Council. Baella. No one knew how she did it, or why, but she seemed to kill every Lost One she ran across, leaving nothing but a pile of ash in their place. She was rumored to have many other abilities not seen in other Bachiyr. The list of her supposed powers ran the gamut from being able to fly to turning people to stone. Ridiculous, of course. But she’d done something to him earlier that left him in a very weakened state-a state magnified by a night of Ramah’s attention-and damned if he could figure out what it was or how she did it.

Very few had ever even seen Baella. Theron and Ephraim had tracked her down in the Library of Alexandria many years before, back when they both worked as Enforcers for The Council. That night, Theron had caught his first glimpse of the penultimate renegade vampire. Theron had set fire to the Library while Ephraim and Baella battled inside, but she still managed to escape. Ephraim had emerged from the burning wreckage with only minor injuries, very upset with Theron for nearly killing him. He’d never been the same afterward, and eventually had betrayed his people for a human rabbi in Jerusalem.

Theron winced. The memory of his failure in Judea still stung.

He put it out of his mind and focused on his current situation, which was dire enough to require his full attention. He was a prisoner of the most hunted vampire of all. True, she’d freed him from the stocks, and she could have killed him easily if she’d wanted, which meant she needed him alive for something. But that didn’t mean much. She might simply be toying with him, ready to kill him as soon as she got bored. Weak as he was, he would not be able to do much to stop her.

Additionally, somewhere behind him Ramah would soon discover his escape. Baella had left Taras alive in the hope that he would keep Ramah busy for a while. If it worked, they might have a chance to get out of the city alive. But if the Roman told Ramah about Baella, no doubt the Councilor would come running, pausing only long enough to kill Taras before speeding out the door in pursuit.

Thinking of Taras brought the image of his unnaturally thin wrists and hands to Theron’s mind. How had he managed to alter them like that? That would be a useful thing to know. If Theron escaped Londinium alive, he vowed to learn that trick.

Movement up the street caught his eye. Baella. She had found a woman and was leading her back to him. The woman shuffled along behind, her arms at her sides and her expression blank. As they approached, Theron noted her attire. Bright colors, designed to attract the eye. The sparse outfit revealed a great deal more flesh than was generally considered appropriate. Probably a prostitute. Along with beggars, they were usually the easiest prey to find in the city, and most of the time no one missed them. This one had apparently decided the risk to the city was not worth her loss of income, although there was little enough in the way of potential customers left in the deserted city.

“Here,” Baella said when she reached him. “Feed quickly. We don’t have much time.”

Theron grabbed the woman’s arm and pulled her close. She came to him with no resistance, her eyes still blank and thoughtless.

“What did you do to her?” he asked.

“Does it matter?”

No, Theron thought. It doesn’t. He tilted her head back, exposing her throat. Her blood pulsed through the artery in her neck, a tantalizing fraction of an inch beneath the surface. He could almost smell it underneath her sweat and the scent of sex, which clung to her like perfume. Definitely a prostitute.

Theron’s fangs extended, and he sank them into the woman’s neck. At that moment she regained her senses. Her sudden fear sprang through her blood like fire, and he gripped her tighter, losing himself in the sweet taste of her terror. She tried to scream as she struggled to free herself, but all she could manage was a hoarse croak, which soon turned into a whimpered plea for mercy.

Theron had never been known for mercy.

He twisted his neck, tearing the skin of the woman’s throat. As her body tensed with pain, the thrill of death coursed through him, igniting his nerves and sending his synapses into rapid motion. The blood flowed into his mouth and he sucked it down greedily, draining the woman dry as her struggles became weaker and weaker. Soon she stopped moving altogether, but still he drank. He did not stop until she was nothing more than a dry husk.

He threw the body into the street, instinctively looking around for a good place to hide it. When he saw Baella staring at him, he realized what he was doing. Protecting the secrecy of his race was the Council’s mission, not his. Still, he preferred to hide his kills from human detection whenever possible. If for no other reason than not to leave an obvious trail for the Council to follow.

“Still living by their rules, are you?” Baella asked.

Theron shrugged. “Old habits can be hard to break.”

The line, recited by old men for as long as Theron could recall, brought back a memory that stopped him cold.

Malachi stepped in, ducking his head and twisting a bit to the side in order to maneuver his broad shoulders through the doorway. He wore his shoulder-length brown hair tied back with a leather thong, leaving his craggy, olive-skinned face exposed from forehead to chin, and he didn’t look pleased. He fixed his stern features squarely on the much smaller Ephraim. “Thank ‘The Father,’ Ephraim? Why would you offer thanks to a demon? Have you learned nothing these last few weeks?”

“My apologies, my friend. Old habits can be difficult to break.”

“Indeed, they can,” Malachi said. “That you are trying at all says much about your progress.”

That was it. The beginning of the end. The first day of Theron’s long fall from the Council’s grace. Had it really been only twenty-seven years? It felt much longer. Nearly three decades of hiding and hunting, chasing Taras while running from Ramah.

“There will be time for daydreaming later,” Baella’s voice cut through his reverie. “We need to leave. Now.”

Wonderful. More running. More hiding. More skulking in filthy alleys trying to stay one step ahead of Ramah. And it wasn’t likely to end anytime soon.

Or was it?

Theron looked at Baella again, careful to keep his sudden thoughts hidden. The Council had been hunting her since the earliest days of his race. She’d made Ramah, and even Herris, look like fools many times. She was dangerous and cunning, and he’d best not forget it. But if he could somehow bring her in, would it be enough to restore his lost honor?

Maybe. Maybe not. But if anything in the world had a chance of getting him back into the Hall where he belonged, it would be this.

Theron fell into step behind her. He couldn’t take her. Not yet. He wasn’t strong enough to defeat her, and she had too many tricks for him to attack her openly. He would have to be subtle. Bide his time. Wait for the perfect opportunity. Then, when the moment came, he would strike.

If everything went as planned, he would bring Herris the ultimate present: Baella’s head in a sack.

***

Baella felt Theron’s eyes on her back and smiled, knowing his thoughts had gone exactly as she thought they would. So predictable, she thought.

19

Ramah ran through the dust and cobblestone streets of Londinium, staring into every crack and crevice as he passed. Every shadow was suspect. Every doorway a possible hiding place for Baella and her minions. He kept his claws out and his teeth ready, unwilling to let his guard down for a moment just in case he spotted his prey. The few people he encountered ran from the sight of him. Those that didn’t died fast and bloody as Ramah’s claws tore into them. He tore one woman nearly in half, spilling her entrails onto the street and silencing her screams with a twist of her neck. Ramah never even slowed down.

He couldn’t believe it. She was here. Somewhere in this wretched city walked the most powerful renegade vampire ever. Baella. Ever since he joined the Bachiyr, he had heard about her. The myths and rumors were plentiful, and ran the gamut from the unlikely to the impossible. Some said she was the direct daughter of The Father, while others believed she was a human wizardess. Still others doubted she existed at all. The woman had attained near mythical status among his people, in part because no one had ever seen her, with the singular exception of Theron. Even Ramah had never laid eyes on the Bachiyr who was such a bane to the Council. But that was about to change. After four thousand years, he finally had a chance to claim the kill he’d always wanted. He’d never been this close. He could almost smell her.

He now understood the significance of the freshly turned Bachiyr who’d attacked him earlier. Baella must have converted them in order to keep him occupied while she freed Theron. It had worked. Ramah had been forced to fight the new vampires while en route to his hiding place. At the time he’d enjoyed the bloodlust, but now he shook with frustration. He’d just missed her! Worse, he knew she’d left Taras alive to taunt him. She knew he would speak her name, and that Ramah would stop whatever he was doing to pursue her. That meant she wanted him to chase her. But why?

And why Theron? Ramah would chase her regardless of the company she kept. Doubtless she knew that, so taking the former Enforcer wasn’t necessary. That meant she wanted him for something, too. But what?

Damn it all, there were too many questions. He needed to focus his energies on finding her, not speculating about her motives. He’d force her to answer his questions when he caught her. Then he’d kill her, and bring her shriveled, blackened heart to Herris as a gift, along with Taras and Theron, if he could be captured alive.

He turned a corner and saw two figures huddled in the shadow of a tavern doorway, a man and a woman. The man’s back was to him, but his height and build were about the same as Theron’s. Could it be that easy? He didn’t recognize the woman, but he’d never seen Baella before, so that didn’t surprise him.

As he approached, he heard their voices.

“How much?” the man asked.

“Five silver,” the woman replied.

“Robbery. I’ll not pay more than two silver.”

The woman spat. “It’s a bargain at five. Four is my final price.”

A prostitute. Not Baella. Damn.

Ramah swept by the pair, plunging his claws into the man’s back as he passed. The man gurgled and slumped to the ground, while the prostitute screamed and fled. Ramah ignored her and stepped over the body of his kill, peering into the next alley.

The man grabbed Ramah’s boot, his weak grip leaving red prints on the leather. Ramah shook him loose and kept walking.

Baella had to be nearby. She had to be.

***

Boudica spotted the torches atop Londinium’s Eastern wall. The city’s lights flared into the sky, illuminating the place in a dull orange glow that could be seen for miles. Under cover of darkness, her army had moved, covered from head to toe in black clothing, and managed to sneak, undetected, to within three hundred yards of the city gate. Well within range of her ballista.

Beside her, Heanua nodded, and Cyric motioned to the Captain of the Ballista Regiment. The big, heavy machines stood in dark silhouette, looking skeletal and deadly in the weak light. They moved forward on well-oiled wheels that her troops had padded with animal hides earlier in the day. The hides had dampened the sound of the wheels on the ground, but they also made rolling the machines a great deal harder. The last few hours had been long and tedious, but as she watched the first of her crews load a stone the size of a sheep, Boudica felt it was all worth the wait.

Behind her, crews carried large balls of tightly packed rope soaked with black pitch. The buildings in Londinium were mostly made of wood, and the balls would be set alight prior to launch. They should create havoc inside the city walls, and hundreds would feel the sting of their burn and breathe their acrid smoke just before they died. Once the city was reduced to a pile of burning rubble, her people would storm the walls and put any survivors to the sword.

“Sleep well, Romans,” she whispered. “Those of you who are lucky will never wake up.” Tonight she meant to wipe Londinium off the face of the world.

20

Taras lay in a pool of his own blood, watching it spread out around him in an ever increasing arc across the stone floor. The smell of it wafted up from underneath him, making it hard to think. The metal pole through his chest had ceased to hurt, and now he felt only a slight pressure as the skin and flesh tried to mend itself around the foreign object in his torso.

Maybe he’d lost too much blood to feel pain. That seemed likely, given the amount on the floor and the fact that he hadn’t fed recently. What had that witch gotten him into? Baella. He remembered the name. She’d been using him to get to Theron, and he’d fallen for it.

Clemency from the Council of Thirteen. What was he thinking? He’d never met any of the Councilors, but from what he understood, they never made deals such as the one she offered. He’d been a fool to think he could gain acceptance into their race. And now he would pay the price by dying like a stuck pig on a dirty floor.

Taras had spent nearly thirty years learning everything he could about the Bachiyr. He’d studied everything from folklore to reported firsthand accounts, even traveling to the East to speak with a man who claimed to have killed one. Almost all his leads turned out to be a waste of time, but he had managed to acquire a rudimentary knowledge of the Council and its minions.

Ramah was the one who hunted him. Ramah and Theron. Of course, Theron did so for personal reasons. Ramah was another matter. Bloodthirsty and violent, he made Theron look like a Jewish rabbi.

But this Baella woman…he’d never heard of her before. Whoever she was, the mention of her name had sent Ramah running after her like a dog chasing a rabbit.

Taras felt weak. His vision dimmed. This is it, he thought. The end of my days. He knew what it was like to die, he’d done it once already, and now it seemed he was about to do it again. Did he have the strength to fight it? Did he want to? He didn’t think so. Maybe it would be easier to lay down and die, as he should have done all those years ago.

But something about the comparison of Ramah to Theron brought back a fuzzy memory.

A Jewish rabbi.

Another time he contemplated death…

***

“You were wrong, Abraham,” he said. “Some of us want to die. Some would find it preferable.”

“It’s not beyond you, you know,” a voice said from behind him.

Taras spun, yanking his sword from its sheath. It was too early in the evening; too soon after such a painful goodbye to kill again, but he would if he had to. When he saw the speaker, his mouth fell open and he dropped his sword.

“You remember me,” Jesus said.

There stood the Nazarene, just as Taras remembered from the night he’d tailed Theron to the Gardens. That night, Jesus had not yet been arrested, and thus he didn’t have the cuts and bruises Taras saw later as he was led to Golgotha. On the cross, his face was bruised and swollen, and numerous cuts and scrapes pocked his body. Now, however, the man’s smooth, unblemished skin showed no evidence of abuse. The crown of thorns was gone, and Jesus's dark hair spilled over his thin shoulders and down his back. But the biggest change in the Nazarene, Taras noted, was the light.

Jesus glowed, similar to the people of Jerusalem but far more intense. Taras felt weak just looking at him. It radiated from Jesus like the light of the sun, and he had to squint his eyes nearly shut against the glare.

Taras blinked, thinking his own situation had driven him insane, but when he opened his eyes again, Jesus remained in front of him. “It’s not possible,” Taras said. “You are dead.”

“As are you, if I’m not mistaken.”

Taras looked down at his hands, so cold and lifeless, and realized he didn’t have a reply. “I suppose you’re right.”

“Of course I’m right.”

Taras remembered his part in the man’s death, and shame filled him. He raised his eyes and looked at Jesus, so calm and serene in the moonlight. “Why are you here?” he asked. “Have you come to take your revenge on me, Nazarene? If so, please get on with it. I’m late; I should have been sitting with Pluto in Tertius four days ago.”

Jesus smiled, and the light around him intensified so much Taras had to turn his head. “That is not why I came,” Jesus said. “Your mistakes are not entirely your own, though you must still take responsibility for them. I hold no anger for you.”

“Then why are you here?”

“To tell you it’s not beyond you.”

“What isn’t?”

“You know the answer to that already, Taras.” Jesus folded his arms and fixed him with a stern look, as though lecturing a dense child. “Your wish; it’s not impossible. The sun can do it. So can fire. If I’m not mistaken, the Bachiyr can also die by having their heads removed, and there are other ways, too. In other words, you have options.”

“Options?”

“Yes, options. Allow death to find you, or spend eternity running from the other Bachiyr, killing and devouring innocent people. They will hunt you, you know. Ramah, in particular, will not rest until you have been destroyed.”

Taras pondered that for a moment. He’d known about the Sun’s ability to kill him; his burned fingers told him that much. But he hadn’t been ready. Of course, at the time he didn’t know the extent of what he would become, either. Was he ready now? Could he step into the sunlight, if it came to that? Could he willingly walk into his death?

***

Jesus had delivered his words and walked away, taking his strange glow with him as he headed toward Bethany. He probably thought he’d left Taras better off than he’d found him, but instead Taras was more confused than ever. He’d stood by the entrance to Mary’s tomb and wondered if he was strong and brave enough to die. In the end, the answer was no. And he still wasn’t. He willed his hands to move, and placed them on the floor, palms down underneath his chest. With a grunt of pain, he began to push his body off the floor and up the length of the steel rod. The pain flared in his chest like a white hot poker, and he had to stop for fear of losing consciousness.

But as soon as it faded a bit, he shoved again.

Not yet, he thought.

When the pain flared through his chest again, he clenched his jaw shut and pushed still harder against the floor, rising off it in a haze of blood and pain. His vision blurred, and more than once his mind threatened to shut down, but he forced himself to focus on the task at hand, working his way up the metal pole one slick, red, painful inch at a time.

I will not die yet.

21

Ramah stood in the empty street, looking one way and then the other. Both showed him nothing. The dusty streets of Londinium showed no sign of his quarry’s passing. Theron and Baella could be in any direction, at any distance. He’d never locate them with his eyes alone, he would have to use a web psalm, though he dreaded the subsequent loss of blood. He would simply have to take some from Theron before he killed him.

Ramah stood in the middle of the street and closed his eyes, focusing his mind on the task at hand. He cast a mental web around his current position, and slowly expanded it to include the outlying area. The web kept growing, until it eventually covered an area one quarter the size of the city with him at its center. Once it was set, he poked along the filaments with mental fingers and willed his quarry to touch one of them. The strands were limited in their ability to gather information. He could only search for one person. Other individuals would merely register as a slight tickle of the web, but when the object of his search crossed a thread, he would know immediately.

He’d never seen Baella, but he’d known Theron for nearly a thousand years. It was easy enough to conjure an image in his mind of the former Enforcer. Since they were traveling together, he only needed to locate the one to find them both. Or so he hoped.

He pushed the strands out further, slowly feeling his way across the city streets. Dozens of small tingles registered on the web, but none more than a slight twinge. They were the normal humans who had remained behind. He forced himself to remain calm and still, letting the web expand at a slow, steady pace. Patience, he counseled himself. It would not do to drop his web and run randomly through the streets, he would never find them that way, and he knew it. It should not take much longer before There! A bright flash touched his web about half a mile to the east, back toward the gate. It could only be Theron. Ramah turned toward the flash and concentrated only on the strands of the web in its immediate vicinity. The rest of the web withered, lacking the mental energy to keep itself open.

The web psalm was a strong tool in the Bachiyr’s arsenal, and very useful, but it also drained a great deal of mental energy. Ramah could feel his body burning blood to keep the web active, but he couldn’t drop it yet. He needed Theron to cross another strand. The relation of the new strand to Theron’s previous position would tell Ramah exactly which direction the renegade was moving, making it a simple matter to cut him off.

There it was again! Still headed toward the city gate, and moving fast. They must know I am coming for them. Ramah dropped the web and ran. Theron and Baella were trying to leave the city. Ramah could probably catch them before they made the city gate, but it suited his purpose to let them leave. Once outside the city walls, there would be fewer humans, and fewer witnesses. Witnesses were messy. Easy enough to kill one, but not so easy to dispose of several dozen. Far better to have none at all.

Ramah slowed his pace, wanting to let Theron and Baella get far enough away from the city gate that there would be no one around once he caught up to them. Up ahead, a lone woman stood in the flickering light of a single lamp. A prostitute, judging by her garish attire. The sight reminded him of the energy he’d burned creating and maintaining the web. He would probably have to make another one once he left the city to locate the pair of renegades again, which meant he would need more blood.

The woman’s appearance proved most fortunate for the hungry vampire.

***

Taras clenched his teeth, fighting the nausea and blackness that threatened to overwhelm him. His entire world had been reduced to blinding pain as his body slid up, inch by agonizing inch, toward the end of the pole. His hands slipped in the gore beneath him, so he tried grasping the metal rod instead, with much the same result. Every time he gained a few inches, he would lose his grip and slide back down several more. It didn’t help matters that his hands shook with pain, making it difficult to grasp anything.

He slid back down to the floor, looking up at the two-foot shaft of metal through his chest, red and slick with his own blood. His vision grew more hazy with every passing second, and a sense of dread settled into his mind. How long had Ramah been gone? How soon before he came back? If he didn’t get off this damn pole soon, he would find himself at the mercy of that black devil, and from what he knew of Ramah, mercy was not one of his failings.

I will not die here, he told himself, and tried again. He grasped the end of the pole and pulled himself upward off the floor. After several attempts, he found himself at the tip of the pole. No longer able to pull himself forward, he reached behind him, trying to grasp the pole from his back and push forward. This was the tricky part, the angle was all wrong, and he invariably lost his grip and slid back down to the floor.

When he felt the metal in his hand, he tightened his grip, straining his muscles as he focused all his remaining strength on holding the pole. Then he reached behind with his other hand and grasped the pole just beneath his back. Almost there. With his hands on the metal, he closed his eyes and pushed. Up, up, and up, he slowly rose, feeling the rod slide painfully through his body. He almost blacked out, but fought it off, knowing that to faint now would only find him back on the floor again. When he reached the limit of his arms, he inched his hands upward and started again. He was close, he had to be. How thick was his chest? How much of the pole remained? How much longer could he hold off the gathering darkness?

One more push.

Then he was free. His back came away from the rod with a wet, sticky pop, and Taras twisted to the side and fell to the stone floor. He lay on his back on the cold floor, wet with his own blood, and stared up at the shaft of metal. It glistened red and slick in the pale light of the room. The smell of blood was everywhere.

The hole in his chest began to itch as his body tried to repair the damage, but without blood the healing would be slow. He needed to find food, and fast.

Taras put his feet under him and grabbed the pole. His hand slipped as he tried to grip it, but he managed to hold on and adjust his grip. With a grunt of pain, he rose to his feet. His vision swam as a wave of vertigo hit him, almost sending him back to the floor. Taras steadied himself, forcing his mind to clear. Ramah could be on his way back right now. Taras had not spent the last hour pulling his body up a metal pole in his chest just to faint now and allow Ramah to capture him again. He stood on shaky legs, willing himself to remain upright and conscious. Once the images of the room stayed more or less stationary, he took a tentative step away from the spot where he almost died. Again.

Damn the Bachiyr. He’d never wanted to be one of them, and he’d never asked for this. Should he somehow manage to escape Londinium with his life, he vowed he would never again entangle himself in their affairs. Let them all kill each other, he would have nothing to do with any of them. Taras had come too close to death too many times, all he wanted now was to get away and stay away.

He stumbled out the door, looking for food.

***

Lannosea sat in her tent. All her servants had been dismissed. On a chair in the corner sat her armor. Tears stung her eyes as it glinted back at her. The feeble torchlight reflected back at her from the numerous small steel plates embedded in the leather. It was good armor, battle tested and strong. She should be wearing it right now, standing with her mother and sister as they prepared to ride into battle. Her sword should be in her hand, ready to cut the life from her enemies.

Instead she sat in a soft, loose robe, far away from danger.

Far away from honor.

What would her father say if he could see her now?

She could imagine his face burning with shame. He’d be shaking his head, fuming at the thought of one of his daughters shying away from a fight. Her mother had given him no sons to train, and so she and Heanua had been raised to fight like any man. An Iceni queen does not run, her father would say. An Iceni queen fights until the breath leaves her body, same as an Iceni king. You shame yourself as well as your father.

It was true. For generations her people had been raised by the sword, and now she, a princess, sat in her tent alone as her people went to war. There could be no greater shame. “And for what?” she asked herself. “The unborn bastard of a Roman pig.”

Lannosea didn’t give a damn about the baby inside her, the gods could take it and do with it what they willed, but she feared the shame of carrying it more than anything else in the world.

The truth would come out eventually. Sooner or later, it would have to. She could not very well hide a nine month belly from prying eyes. What would she do then?

Her armor shone in the brief flare of a torch, drawing her eye to it.

Could there be another way? She had told her sister that the suit would not fit, but she hadn’t actually tried it on. She merely assumed that the leather and steel, being tight on her middle already, would not wrap around her growing belly.

But maybe…

She stepped over to the chair and grabbed the chest piece, lifting it from the chair with a sigh. It was beautiful, as much now as it had been when her father first gave it to her. A suit worthy of an Iceni princess. She tried it on, but it seemed her fears were correct. The fittings, even let out to their greatest breadth, would not close. The difference was marginal. She felt like she could almost cinch it tight, if only she were just a tiny bit smaller.

“My robe,” she said aloud. She removed the thick, woolen robe and threw it to the floor, standing naked in front of the chair. Would it be enough?

This time when she cinched the armor, it held. It was tight, and the leather chafed due to the lack of anything underneath, but it held. She took it off and donned a thin blouse and breeches, then she put on the rest of her armor, which consisted of studded leggings, bracers, and a small shield, picked up her sword, and admired her reflection in the glass. Everything was snug, and her skin would be raw despite the blouse, but it all fit. She could fight. She didn’t have to cower in her tent like a weak old woman. And her discomfort would only be temporary.

“Far better to die on the field, covered in blood, than an old woman with no honor,” she said.

Lannosea took one last look at herself in the glass, smiled, and raced for the tent exit. Her spirit soared for the first time in months. Finally, she had a plan. She had something to do other than sitting morosely in a corner. She could join her people at last.

Her mother would be glad to see her. Lannosea grimaced as the leather rubbed painfully against her skin, but she reminded herself it would only hurt for a short while. How happy would Boudica be when they laid her daughter’s corpse at her feet?

22

Theron wiped the blood from his chin as he tossed the woman’s body to the street. Another prostitute. It seemed they were the only ones foolish enough to remain behind. Perhaps this one was thinking about all the coin she could make from the remaining soldiers now that most of her competition had fled. Foolish whore. What good will those coins do you now, he wondered. He caught himself casting about for a place to hide the body, and Baella’s words echoed in his mind.

Still living by their rules, are you?

It was true. For the last thirty years, even though he’d been an exile, he’d lived according to the laws of the Council. He’d never turned a human into one of his kind and he’d always taken the time to hide his victims, or at least to disguise their remains so the method of death would be unclear. After nearly three decades of being a fugitive, he had to ask himself why he still cared.

It’s good sense, he told himself. I don’t want to leave them a trail.

Except he still left them a trail. Every kill he hid under a bush, mutilated beyond recognition, or simply fed to the animals would give away his location to those who knew what to look for. Humans would not be able to detect it, but other Bachiyr, themselves familiar with the many ways to dispose of their victims, would know right away. Now that he thought about it, it was a wonder Ramah hadn’t caught him yet. The Councilor must have had many other things distracting him the last few decades.

That made him pause. Since the debacle in Jerusalem, Theron had assumed that his capture and punishment would be a high priority for the Council of Thirteen, but now he knew that to be untrue. A single renegade would be of little consequence, even a former Enforcer like himself. They probably had forgotten about him by now, with the exception of Ramah, who never forgot, the Council of Thirteen had most likely moved on to other matters.

As soon as he thought it, he knew it was true. He’d been part of the Council’s elite team for centuries. He had seen dozens of renegades come and go, some of them heinous, and others mere inconveniences. He could only remember a handful of their names, himself. The old Greek Bachiyr Arya had fled the Council after falling in love with a human and telling him about her race. Jaquar the Mad had left a bloody trail across Asia in his search for a human whose blood was said to protect Bachiyr from sunlight. Trandy, a young Bachiyr from Rome, had attempted to assassinate Councilor Lannis and escaped by sheer luck when the boat carrying the pursuing Enforcer sank in the waters near Athens. All of them had been big news at the time of their crimes, yet they were barely mentioned in meetings a year later even though, to Theron’s knowledge, none of them had ever been captured.

To the Council, Theron was probably nothing more than another fugitive. And he’d never given them a reason to feel otherwise. It was no secret that he would prefer to go back to the Council and regain their good graces. Theron thought of little else but the Halls of the Bachiyr and ripping out Taras’s throat. But the truth, he realized, was that they would never let him back. Theron, former Lead Enforcer and executor of the Council’s will in Judea, was never very important to the Council at all. Just another servant in a long list of them.

Who was Lead Enforcer now? Was it Ramah? Or did they give the task to another Bachiyr? Aliandra, perhaps? Did it matter? With the exception of Ramah, anyone else in the position would be expendable. Fodder to be used and tossed aside when they were done. The idea did nothing to ease his tension.

The single exception to the Council’s general apathy toward renegade Bachiyr stood in front of him. Baella. She alone had remained a high priority for centuries. He couldn’t help but wonder why. Was it her constant thwarting of their demands? Or simply the fact that she took every opportunity to make them look like fools?

Probably a bit of both, but as Theron watched her walk ahead of him, he could not help but admire her. She had remained free of their influence for…for…

How old was she, anyway?

He supposed it didn’t matter. Her age would mean nothing once he took her head to Herris. But the more he studied her movements; the lethal grace of her walk, the confident stretch of her legs, the more he came to wonder if he could kill her. After all, if the Councilors hadn’t been able to get rid of her, what chance did he have?

None.

Besides, he wasn’t sure he wanted to get back in the Council’s good graces anymore, anyway. Maybe he’d be better off learning a few things from Baella. Clearly, she wanted him alive for a reason.

Maybe, after thirty years of exile, things were looking up.

***

Baella smiled. Theron was just like every other Enforcer she’d encountered over the centuries. His thoughts were as easy to discern as they were to manipulate. She sent a few more images backward to his mind. Pictures of the two of them fighting a team of Enforcers sent to capture them. It was a glorious image, and one she knew he would like.

It was too bad he would never live long enough to enact it.

Theron was a prize, certainly, but her real prize was behind them, back in Londinium. Sooner or later, Ramah would catch up, and then Theron would become expendable.

23

Boudica grasped the hilt of her sword and pulled it from its sheath. It came free with the telltale hiss of steel sliding across leather, and she raised the bared blade toward the sky. It was the silent command for her troops to get ready. Behind her, she heard the ballista crew tightening the rope spring, and she knew that all along her lightless lines, more crews were doing the same. The Trinovante had brought along a score of the machines, plus a dozen catapults, hundreds of boulders, and fifty balls of pitch that could be set alight and fired over the city wall. The first wave of her attack-all flaming balls of pitch-would be devastating to Londinium’s outer defenses. If the crews could get the machines loaded and fire another volley before the initial surprise of the first attack wore off, the battle would be over before it began. The flames would enter the city proper and set fire to the buildings within.

It is difficult to defend a city that is already in flames.

She looked down the line at her army, a dark column that stretched to the horizon like a black smudge on the land. Nearly a hundred thousand warriors from the northern tribes of Britannia stood ready to fight and die. Throughout the landscape of dark-clad soldiers she could see the larger silhouettes of the war machines they had brought with them. Catapults, ballistae, trebuchets, and even a few large machines that resembled giant crossbows, all manned and operated by men who crawled over them like ants. They could not lose. The Trinovante had sent thousands of men, as had several other clans, but by far the bulk of her troops were Iceni, born and raised in the ways of battle. The Romans had no idea of the force they had awakened when they stole her lands, but they were about to find out.

The clop-clop of a horse’s hooves caught her attention, and she turned to look behind her. Heanua sat rigid in her saddle, sword in hand. Despite her misgivings about her eldest daughter’s ambition, Boudica couldn’t quite stifle the feeling of pride she felt at the sight. Heanua looked like a queen. Regal, strong, and ready to fight for her people. If only Lannosea…

No, she thought. No distractions. Lannosea does what she does, and that is the end of it. Except it wasn’t, and she knew it. Lannosea had been acting strange for months, and if rumors could be believed, had even dismissed her bathing staff. She’d even begun to dress differently, wearing delicate, loose-fitting clothes not suitable for life on the road. Not only that, but her appetite had grown as her health declined. It was a wonder she Boudica stopped in mid thought, assembling the facts together in her mind. Lannosea’s recent bouts of nausea, her increased appetite, the lack of servants in her bath. Those servants were the only people who would ever see her with no clothes. Why would she dismiss them unless she had something she didn’t want them to see? Something like…

No…could she?

As if Boudica’s thoughts had summoned her, Lannosea rode up to her post, clad in her leather and steel armor. A cheer rose from the ranks as the soldiers nearby recognized the lovely Iceni woman, and it spread through the troops, despite Boudica’s strict warning for her men to keep silent. Lannosea stopped her horse ten feet away from her mother’s, and raised her hand in greeting. “I am ready, my Queen,” she said.

Boudica stared, unable to speak. Lannosea wore the same armor she always wore, yet this time it seemed a bit snug, straining at the middle where it wrapped her belly in protective leather. Lannosea herself pretended not to notice, but Boudica saw the strain of the leather, and she knew her hunch to be correct. Pregnant. Of course! It made perfect sense now. Those Roman bastards had gotten Lannosea pregnant.

As the ramifications began to pile up in her head-the dishonor, the laughter, the indignity-Heanua cleared her throat.

Boudica jumped, then realized Heanua’s meaning. She’d been staring at Lannie’s belly. That wouldn’t do at all. Soon the soldiers around her would notice what she had, and that would be the end of Lannosea’s future. If she still has one. She shook her head, knowing otherwise. Lannie will never rule the Iceni.

For her part, Lannosea sat straight and stiff in her saddle, her expression a mixture of stoic bravery and resignation. Boudica understood. Lannosea had been raised a princess. She would know better than anyone the inevitable results of her pregnancy. She would be forced to live in disgrace, unwanted and unwed. No one would make a move against her, of course. She was still royalty, but her future would be marred by scandal. For someone as strong and proud as Lannie, that would hurt much more than any blade.

She had not come to fight. She had come to die with her honor intact. The mother inside her remembered Lannie’s birth, and the feel of her mouth on her teat. She recalled the girl’s first sword, and the smile on her face when she first put an arrow into the target. When she was a babe, Boudica would sing soft, soothing songs to her until she fell asleep in her arms. Her father would cradle her as though she were the most precious of his treasures, girl or no, and he covered her tiny face with kisses made prickly by the stubble on his rarely-shaven face. The part of the queen that remembered those things cried out at the injustice of what had been done to her beautiful daughter.

But above all else, Boudica was a Queen and an Iceni warrior. The rulership of her people took precedence over all, and an Iceni was only as good as his or her honor. Without it, they might as well go to Rome and join the emperor’s minions. If Lannie sought an honorable death rather than the shame of bearing the animal in her belly, Boudica would not deny it to her.

“Very well,” she replied, and Lannosea’s face relaxed. “We will attack soon.”

She turned to Heanua, and the look on her eldest daughter’s face told her she had already known. How long had they been planning to keep this a secret? An unexpected pain stabbed at her heart. Her daughters had lied to her, kept secrets from her. No matter the dire nature of Lannosea’s condition or the severity of their coming battle, it felt like a mutiny. She might have expected as much from Heanua, but Lannie? Never.

She and Lannie had always been close. There had never been any secrets between them until now. Heanua was another matter. Willful and stubborn, she had proven a challenge on more than one occasion, constantly arguing with her mother over the distribution of supplies, training for the troops, even the weapons they brought into battle. It seemed to her Heanua thought she was the Queen, and not her mother. Once this battle was over, Boudica would have to show her once and for all who was in charge.

***

Theron and Baella left the city by way of the easternmost gate. A pair of armed legionaries let them go without even questioning them, probably under orders from Suetonius. Just outside the gate, two off-duty soldiers played nervously at a game of dice. They stared at the numbers as if they didn’t really see them, then picked them up and tossed them again. Theron recognized the vacant looks on their faces. They had been left behind to die, and they knew it. The scene reminded Theron of the night he killed Ephraim. That night, he’d been forced to kill two legionaries on patrol who’d stopped to play dice. He’d ripped the head from the first one, then turned and stabbed the second.

The memory brought a smile to his face. It was a good night.

They walked past the two soldiers and down the path leading away from the city. Theron didn’t know where they were going, he just followed Baella’s lead. Baella, for her part, said nothing, but she seemed in a hurry to put the city far behind them. Theron couldn’t really argue. Knowing that Ramah was somewhere behind them spurred his legs on, too. He would be only too happy to put as much distance between himself and the Blood Letter as possible. His only real regret in leaving Londinium was that he’d had to leave Taras alive.

“I hope Ramah kills you slowly, Roman,” Theron muttered.

“What?” Baella asked.

“Nothing.” Theron shook his head. His opportunity for revenge had slipped away, but at least he would live another night, which is more than he could say for Taras. “I was just saying goodbye.”

Baella’s lips curved into a smirk. She probably knew what he meant, but she said nothing. Just as well, he didn’t want to talk about it. The memory of his failure in Jerusalem still stung, and the farther he got from those involved, the better. Until he killed Baella, of course. Then he would only have to dodge Ramah long enough to find his way to the Halls of the Bachiyr. Once there he could find Headcouncil Herris and present the renegade’s head to him as a gift.

The two traveled further away from the walls, walking as fast as they could without arousing suspicion. Even this late at night there were travelers on the road, and while under normal circumstances they would provide a welcome diversion, with Ramah on their trail all Theron wanted to do was keep going. They didn’t have time to stop and feed. Besides, he had plenty of blood to do what he needed to do.

One traveler approached them on the road, and Theron thought something was odd about him. As he tried to put his finger on the problem, Baella grabbed his arm.

“Have you noticed anything strange about the people on this road?”

Theron had noticed, but he couldn’t quite figure out what it was. So he kept silent.

“They are all men,” Baella continued. “And every one of them is armed, even though they are dressed like peasants.”

She was right. Now that he thought about it, Theron hadn’t seen a single woman since they left the city, though there had been dozens of people. And every one of them had carried a sword. He studied the next person walking up the road toward them, and caught the unmistakable glint of steel peeking out from under the man’s filthy tunic.

Soldiers.

That didn’t bode well. The only reason there would be such a large number of soldier on the road was if…

“Londinium is about to be attacked,” he whispered.

Baella nodded.

“Looks like we got out just in time,” he said.

“Or maybe not.”

He was about to ask what she meant when the soldier on the path drew his sword.

“Don’t move,” the man ordered.

Theron almost laughed, but then the sound of many booted feet behind him drew his attention. He turned to see a group of soldiers, at least two score of them, moving to surround him. Every one of them was dressed as a peasant, and each one had his sword out and pointed at Theron’s chest.

Stupid! He hadn’t been paying attention to his surroundings. He should have heard the men doubling back on the path and coming up behind them, but he’d been too focused on how to kill his new companion. Now he and Baella were surrounded by forty armed men who were rapidly closing in on them. He turned to Baella to ask what they should do, but the renegade vampire was gone.

***

Ramah stood in an alley near the city gate, staring at the land beyond the city wall and trying to judge how long it had been since his quarry had left Londinium. Twenty minutes? Thirty? More? A minute can seem like an hour to a man watching and waiting for time to pass, but he felt certain that enough time had gone by to allow Theron and Baella to get far out into the countryside. They should be well beyond the wall by now, and more importantly, out of view of the city’s remaining guards.

Time to get to work.

He strode up to the gate, gaining only a glance from the two guards, and left.

Once outside the city, he walked to a nearby tree and leaned his back against it. Ramah repeated the web psalm, reaching out with the strands of his mental trap, looking for Theron. It required a great deal more effort this time due to the increase in range-for all Ramah knew, Theron could be riding fast on horseback-but he had plenty of blood for the task, he was more worried about the amount of time he had left to work his psalm. With enough time and enough blood, Ramah could cast it over the whole country, if the need arose.

Thankfully, it didn’t. Ramah located Theron easily enough. The former Enforcer stood about two miles to the east, a short distance indeed for a Bachiyr of Ramah’s power, but he was not alone. Ramah had expected to sense Theron’s traveling companion, but instead he found scores of people near the renegade.

They stood around him in a ring of bodies. The net could not differentiate between human and Bachiyr, but Ramah figured the newcomers had to be human. Such a large gathering of vampires in a single place would be so rare as to be unheard of, even for Baella, who reportedly never traveled with more than one or two companions.

Why would Theron be surrounded by so many humans?

Ramah stood by the tree, trying to puzzle out this new development.

He was still standing there when the first flaming missile hit the gate.

24

Taras stumbled from the building just as the first boulder struck. The noise of the impact could be felt as much as heard, and the entire structure shook with the force of the blow. The outer wall vanished into a cloud of dust and shrapnel. Bits of debris rained down on his head, pelting him with shards of wood, pebbles, and dirt. When the world around him went still again, he turned to look at the pile of rubble behind him that had once been a building. I escaped just in time, he thought.

Londinium was under attack.

Fires were everywhere. As he watched, ball after ball of flaming tar flew over the city wall to land with a sickening splat in the middle of Londinium’s mostly wooden structures. The smell of burning pitch hung in the air, mixed with the smells of burning wood and flesh. The few remaining inhabitants of Londinium ran screaming through the streets. Some of them screamed in fear, but many others screamed in pain. He watched as one man swatted futilely at the flames on his arm, desperate to quench the fire. Taras could have told him it was no use; the man’s arm was covered in burning pitch. He could swat it all he wanted and it would only grow hotter. The man ran back into the heart of the city, swatting at his arm and screaming in pain. Taras watched him go, shaking his head. The man was already dead, he just didn’t realize it yet.

Mixed in with the sound of crumbling stone and people dying were the cries of those who wept for the dead. To his right, a woman in brown homespun wailed over the body of a young man who lay in a pool of blood. Half the man’s face was gone, sheared off by whatever calamity had killed him, but enough remained that Taras could see the similar features of mother and son. If she continued to sit in the street, oblivious to the chaos around her, the mother would be dead soon enough, as well. They would not be the last people to die tonight.

He should leave. Now.

He tried to walk away, but his feet would not obey the order. He tripped and fell face first into the street, his legs too weak to hold him. Taras needed blood. Badly. All around him people ran through the city, but none of them would slake his thirst. Some of them moved with a calm sense of purpose, carrying buckets of water or drawing weapons and running into battle, but far more screamed and ran in a blind panic that caused more problems than it solved.

To judge by the frequency of the boulders and pitch, a very large, heavily armed force had the city under siege. Taras, no stranger to battle, guessed there much be as many as twenty or thirty ballistae. A large number to attack such a relatively small city as Londinium. Whoever was behind the attack, they obviously wanted more than mere surrender. This was not a war for conquest, but for destruction. Before the sun rose, Londinium would be nothing but a blackened swath of charred earth, soaked to near saturation with the blood of its inhabitants.

Taras regained his feet, swaying a bit but somehow managing to keep from falling over into the dirt. Blood or no blood, he needed to get out of the city before the attackers sent in the infantry. Once they invaded, they would kill anything that moved, and in his present condition he would be hard pressed to fight them off.

He got his feet under him and staggered away, headed for the area near the western gate. His hovel should be safe for the moment, as it would be out of range of most of the boulders, but that was temporary at best. If he was lucky, he’d find someone to feed on along the way. If not, then at least he wouldn’t care for much longer.

***

When she rounded a corner about two hundred yards from the Eastern gate of Londinium, she saw Ramah standing beneath the boughs of a tree. His dark form, large by human standards, stood huddled in the shadows on the tree’s trunk. It was probably instinctive for him to seek the darkness. After four thousand years as a vampire, he would prefer it. Baella could relate. She preferred not to be seen, either. But she was better at hiding than Ramah. Through the course of the last four millennia she had seen him often, but he had never seen her, despite the fact that he and his ridiculous Council had hunted her for centuries.

Actually, she amended, he’s seen me many times. He just didn’t know it.

Ramah’s face was tight with concentration. His eyes were closed, his jaw slightly open, and his brow furrowed like a field in early Spring. The shouting and screaming from inside the city did not disturb his efforts, which spoke volumes about the man’s will. Probably in the middle of a web psalm. Just as well, if he was deep into the psalm he wouldn’t notice her. And he would be looking for Theron, in any case.

Baella’s lip curled. Theron was a fool. It had been all too easy to lead the former Enforcer right into the arms of the invading Iceni and Trinovante. Theron’s mind was simple to manipulate. All she had to do was let him think she would allow him to join her, and he was hers. She could probably have done it without touching his mind at all, if she’d cared to try.

But she would never allow a Bachiyr like Theron into her midst. Despite all his power and considerable skill, Theron had one fatal flaw: he was no good on his own. He’d spent centuries following the orders of Herris and the other Councilors, obeying their every whim and working only toward their gains. He remained a faithful, if dangerous, servant to The Father’s laws right up until the Council blamed him for the problems in Israel, which were not truly his fault in any case. Just another example of how the Council of Thirteen gets everything wrong, she thought.

Yet despite the way they treated him in Jerusalem, Theron desperately wanted to be back in the Council’s good graces. She could read that on him as easily as she could read the look of concentration on Ramah’s face. Theron would never be a leader, he would forever be a follower, and Baella wanted no followers.

Ramah, on the other hand, had been leading vampires for centuries. Even before he died, he was the chief of his human village. All his life, he’d given orders and seen them obeyed. The man was born a leader, trained as such, and remained one even four thousand years after he died. In addition, Baella believed Ramah would leave the Council in an instant as long as she presented him with a tempting reason. After centuries of wondering, the time had come to see if she could provide him that reason. But first she had to take Ramah where she wanted him to go, and that would not be easy, especially since she couldn’t let him see her face.

But he’d be leaving soon enough. Baella knew how a web psalm worked. Right now, Ramah would be wondering why his quarry was surrounded by a large number of humans, but soon enough he would leave the tree and run to Theron’s location. He wouldn’t be able to stop himself. Theron had eluded him for too long, the large group of humans would not be enough of a deterrent to keep Ramah away.

If Theron’s weakness was a deep-rooted desire to be told what to do, then Ramah’s was his single minded determination. He would try to complete his task no matter what stood in his way, and to the Abyss with the cost. That’s why Herris liked him; he got the job done. It’s why she wanted him, too.

Well, one of the reasons, she thought.

That single-minded sense of purpose would not allow him to stray from his current path. It would also be his undoing.

Sure enough, after about three minutes, Ramah opened his eyes and started walking. Not back into the besieged city toward the Bachiyr Gatehouse which would take him back into the Halls, but east. Toward Theron and the waiting army of Iceni and Trinovante. Toward her.

Toward his destiny.

Baella smiled and waited, secure in her hiding place under a small copse of birches. Her black eyes glittered in the light of the burning wall, though she eased backward into the deeper shadows to make certain Ramah did not see her as he passed.

Ramah’s path brought him to within ten paces of her position, and she froze. She was not as deep into her copse as she would have liked, especially with him so close. His power and strength buzzed in her ears. Surely he could feel something, as well. All he had to do was stop and turn his head, and her plan would be ruined. She waited, hoping her earlier assessment of his nature would prove correct.

He never slowed. His eyes remained on the path ahead as he walked after Theron, never even considering that a more serious threat could be close. She could almost hear the words in his mind. Theron is this way. Must find him. Headcouncil Herris will be pleased. He passed her by without a glance.

So much the better.

When he was out of sight, she crept out from under the birches and onto the path behind him. Not far ahead was a larger grouping of trees, mostly maples, oaks, and still more birches. It was not a huge, shadowy wood, but it was very close to the lines of the Iceni army, and would make a good place to watch them. If they had Theron-and she had little doubt that they did-it was where Ramah would most likely stop to devise a plan for getting the renegade Enforcer.

And where she would capture him.

25

Boudica sat on her horse overlooking the battle. A steady wind blew the heat of many fires and hundreds of glowing cinders toward her, spooking her horse and searing her flesh in places. Despite this, she held herself stiff and rigid, muscling her horse into submission with the skill honed by many such campaigns. A grim smile split her face as she watched Londinium burn. Like Camulodunum, the fires raged through the entire city. Nothing and no one would be spared. Her night’s work would leave nothing intact, she had even ordered the wells be filled with stone.

A thick black plume of smoke rose a short way into the night sky and hung there like a black storm cloud, blotting out the stars above the city and turning the scene into a hellish nightmare. The screams of the dying rang through the night like the peal of a hundred bells, and the smell of burning timber and flesh reached all the way to her station near the ballista crews. This was all according to plan. By the time she left the city it would resemble nothing so much as a large black scar upon the earth.

My legacy, she thought. My gift to the world; pushing out the Romans.

To the left of the ballistae, the infantry waited for their turn to fight. Rank upon rank of anxious, battle-hardened Iceni and Trinovante men stood waiting for the order to attack. While not nearly as orderly and disciplined as their Roman enemies, her men made up for their chaotic nature with the fierceness and brutality that had become the standard for her people. The Romans called them barbarians. Boudica couldn’t help but chuckle. Her troops might not stand in pretty rows, but they knew how to lop off an enemy’s head, and they were loyal to the death. Her army numbered in the tens of thousands, and every single soldier stood ready to fight, die, and kill for their Queen.

No, that’s not quite right, she corrected herself. Her men, and those of the Trinovante, did not truly fight for her or her daughters, but for their king, who kept them free from Roman rule during his life and tried to do the same even after his death. They followed her because she was their leader, but they would never love her as they had loved her husband. Little matter, though. As long as they did what they were told, they could have been fighting for their dogs and she would have been satisfied.

At the head of the cavalry sat Lannosea, a splendid figure atop her black horse. As a princess, it was her duty to lead a group into battle. Boudica had determined that Lannie, being the better rider, would take the mounted troops while Heanua led the infantry. She rode with her back straight and her expression grim, the steel scales on her leather doublet glowing with reflected firelight. If Boudica squinted, and blurred her vision, it almost looked like Lannie was on fire, herself. And maybe she is, at that, Boudica thought. Not a fire of flame, but one of purpose.

Heanua sat behind Lannosea and to her right, ready to storm the city after Lannie’s charge and claim whatever glory the gods saw fit to deliver. There would be plenty. Once Lannosea died-and die she would-it would fall to Heanua to finish the attack. Boudica had no doubt her oldest daughter would acquit herself in grand fashion, she had been training for this for years. Once Boudica’s ballistae and Lannie’s cavalry softened the city’s defenses, they would be easy targets for Heanua’s men.

Just a few more series of ballistae attacks and she would send them in.

“My Queen!”

She turned to see one of her scouts running toward her, his face twisted in fear. Immediately, she thought the worst. Had Nero sent reinforcements? Had the Trinovante changed their minds? Were Roman forces even now cutting into her supply line? Whatever it was, the expression on the man’s face told her the news was not good.

He reached her horse and took a knee, saluting as he did so.

“Report,” she said.

“We have captured…something.”

“Something? What do you mean, ‘something?’” She looked behind him, to a group of men who were dragging a prisoner behind them. The man was tied to a wooden beam by a length of heavy rope, and no less than a dozen men stood around him with their swords drawn. Several archers walked nearby, their arrows trained on the man’s chest. Boudica caught her breath when she noted the condition of her men. Many were bruised and bloodied, with gashes on their arms and chests. One soldier’s left eye was missing, a hideous red hole stared blindly out from his face where it had once been. A thin red line trickled from the wound, making the man look like he was crying blood.

Many more of her men were similarly battered. Petrus limped along on a hastily made crutch, and Bolvo’s left arm was missing from the elbow down. The stump had been tied with a leather thong, but the man was pale as death. Despite this, the prisoner appeared unharmed. While there was a great deal of blood on his clothes, which were ripped and shredded, she didn’t see a single mark on him. How was that possible?

The man glared at her. His dark eyes filled with hate and loathing, and she felt the heat of his disdain from her seat, a good twenty feet away. His straggly hair was matted and sticky with blood, and his face shone red in the moonlight. His thin cheeks seemed gaunt, even hollow, but he had the lean, strong physique of a trained warrior. His muscles bulged as he strained against his bonds. Despite the number of ropes tied to him, she felt a momentary fear that he would break them and come for her throat.

It’s the eyes, she thought, staring deep into their black depths. They aren’t natural. The color. Not brown but black. Who has black eyes?

And what had he done to her men? She did a fast count and noted that over twenty men were missing.

“Where are the others?” she asked. “The rest of your patrol? Where are they?”

The scout looked at his feet. “Dead, my Queen.”

“How many?”

“Twenty-four.”

Boudica tapped her fingernail on the horn of her saddle. Had Londinium known what was coming? Had they sent out troops to meet hers before the bombardment? It seemed unlikely, especially since the attack was well underway already. “Are there any other prisoners?”

“No, my Queen.”

Boudica stood in her stirrups. “You mean this man,” she pointed at the prisoner, “and his allies killed twenty-four of my soldiers and you only captured one of them?”

The soldier looked shaken. “No, my Queen. That is not…that is…there were no others.”

“What do you mean?”

“The prisoner was alone.” He wiped sweat from his brow with a bloody forearm. “He killed twenty four of our men and injured a score more before we were able to subdue him. He fought like a whirling devil.”

Boudica sat back down, staring at the prisoner. One man? Against twenty-four? She looked closely, noting the shiny pink welts on his skin. Scars. Fresh ones. How fresh were they? She doubted he battled such a large force by himself without taking a single hit. One look at her men confirmed that several of them had scored bloody hits. Half the swords pointed at him were stained red. She shook her head, noting the bloody hands and jaws of the strange man.

Bloody jaws… something about the image brought a story to her mind. Something she’d heard of as a child but never believed in. A secret race of beings that looked human, but weren’t. They were said to drink the blood of their victims, and were rumored to have healing powers beyond the imagination of mortal men.

But they were just stories. Weren’t they?

One look at the prisoner’s burning eyes, which reflected the fires of Londinium and looked like burning cinders in the middle of his face, told her they were not.

“Gods save us,” Boudica whispered.

“My Queen?” the scout asked. “Is something wrong?”

“The Bachiyr,” she whispered. “You captured the Devil.”

***

Taras ran through the city as fast as his wobbly legs would carry him, dodging through people and bodies while skirting the areas of heavy fire and fighting, trying to reach the western gate ahead of the invading army. By the looks of things, the enemy-Taras had heard rumors of everything from the Iceni to the Romans to even monsters from another realm, but had yet to see any of them, himself-had not sent in the infantry yet, but that didn’t stop the denizens of Londinium from attacking everything that moved. Already he’d been accosted four times. Each time, he managed to evade the aggressor, but it was getting harder and harder to do. Taras needed blood. He would have to find a suitable victim soon or he would die in the fires of this burning hell.

As he neared the center of Londinium, another knot of men emerged from around a corner forty paces ahead. When they saw him, they yelled a challenge, pulled out their weapons, and charged. Only one of them had a sword, the rest were armed with sharpened sticks. Taras eyed the sticks, knowing that if he allowed any of the men to put one through his heart he would be done for. The stick wouldn’t kill him, but it would leave him paralyzed in the street, after which the rest of the men could finish the job, or the invaders, or the fire, or even the sun. He dodged to the right as the man with the sword charged, leading with his off-balanced weapon. Oblivious, the man swung the sword in a wide arc. He swung hard, leaning in toward Taras and extending his arm to its full length, not realizing that by doing so he overbalanced himself. Predictably, he stumbled over his own feet and fell to his knees, scraping his thick, coarse clothes on the ash-covered cobbles.

No training, Taras thought. Just a man who found a sword. He stepped around the sputtering, cursing Briton, and just managed to avoid a blow from one of his stick-wielding compatriots. Taras ducked under the newcomer’s weapon and launched a sharp, hard right hand into his solar plexus. The man grunted, dropped his weapon, and rolled into the fetal position, huffing and wheezing while he tried to force air back into his lungs. Taras stepped around him, knowing another would be on him in a moment.

The next man came in with an overhand chop which Taras easily sidestepped. Taras planted his left foot on the street and launched his right boot into the man’s back as he stumbled by. The man fell face first into the street, and Taras ducked under yet another blow. Behind him, he heard the sword-wielder grunt and rise to his feet, shouting for his friends to circle Taras and attack him en masse.

But Taras had other ideas. There was only one man standing between him and the empty street, and when the fellow stepped forward, Taras reached out and grabbed his wrist. Despite his lack of blood, Taras was still stronger and faster than his opponent, and he twisted the man’s arms down and to the side, turning as he went. The man ended up rolling over Taras’s hip, then landed flat on his back, issuing as loud whumph! As the air left his lungs. Taras, meanwhile, maintained control of the man’s weapon. It wasn’t much, just a three foot wooden pole with one end sharpened to a deadly point, but Taras swung it hard, keeping the wood in front of him as he spun around to face the rest of his attackers.

The stick jarred his hand as it struck the sword-wielder in the temple, and a loud crack sounded through the street, though Taras could not tell if it was the wood that cracked or the man’s skull. The man’s eyes rolled up into his head and he slumped to the street, but Taras had no idea whether or not he was still alive, and the man’s friends didn’t give him time to find out.

They came on him as a group now. Only four of them were on their feet. The man Taras had punched in the solar plexus remained on the ground, clutching his midsection and howling in pain. Probably broke his ribs, Taras thought. The man was lucky. Had Taras fought with his claws, or with the sword on his belt, he would likely be bleeding his life away right now.

The four men stood no more than five paces in front of him, grumbling and brandishing their crude weapons. One of them pointed at Taras and made a slashing motion across his throat. But no one remained at his back. Taras turned and ran, ignoring the men behind as they shouted insults at his back. They could call him craven all they wanted, by the end of this evening they would all be dead. Taras meant to live, and to do that he needed to reach the western gate.

He ran in that direction, dodging several more skirmishes along the way, but it seemed the closer he got to the gate, the more intense the fighting became. Finally he came in sight of the gate and saw the problem. While the city was being attacked through the air at the eastern gate, the western gate was being overrun with soldiers piling in to the city and setting fire to everything. The infantry had come, after all, they had just gone around the rear of the city.

So that was the plan. The enemy surrounded Londinium and cut off the exits. It must be a sizable troop to have such forces on both sides of the city. The men scrambling through the gate and over the walls wore no plate and hoisted no banners. Many of them wore no armor at all and fought in little more than furry vests, their bare, muscular arms vulnerable to any Roman soldier who could get close enough to hit them. Many of their weapons were crude, huge things, and their wielders swung them about with little regard for tactics or style. It seemed strength and ferocity were enough. Barbarians, then. The rumors regarding the Iceni were true.

Their presence here confirmed his suspicion that this was not an invasion, but an extermination. No one would leave the city tonight. Not until it had burned to the ground, and its inhabitants with it.

Unfortunately, that included Taras.

***

Ramah followed the trail, lured on by the signs left by dozens of men. Several hundred paces back he’d come to the site of a nasty battle. Over a score of men had been killed. Their corpses littered the area, laying in the dirt and grass with their bowels exposed, hanging from their bellies like thick, wet ropes. Many were missing limbs, and a few lay headless, their life’s blood trickling into the thirsty ground. One of the men groaned as Ramah passed, and reached out a single trembling hand to the Bachiyr’s leg, grasping his pants in a weak and faltering grip.

“Please…” he wheezed. Ramah noted the blood on the soldier’s face, and the large red hole in his chest where something had clawed away the flesh, revealing the bare ribs beneath. Blood poured freely from the wound, soaking the man’s leather jerkin and pooling beneath him. “Please, help…”

Ramah’s boot caved in the soldier’s skull, which gave with a sharp crack that sounded like splintering boards in the otherwise still silence of the clearing. A mercy killing. The man should have been long dead, Ramah just helped send him to the next world all the sooner.

He knelt into the bloody grass, taking stock of the carnage around him. The smell of blood was everywhere, and a cloud of flies had begun to buzz madly through the air, laying their eggs in the stricken flesh of the fallen. The killings had been brutal, fast, and effective. It must have scared the life from the soldiers; the survivors had not even bothered to waste time gathering up their dead.

He recognized Theron’s handiwork when he saw it.

To his right, a slight breeze stirred the grass, bringing the smells of fire and war. That would be Londinium, burning as the Iceni lay waste to the city. He could still hear the screams as people died behind the walls. With only a token resistance to slow the Iceni horde, the entire city would be destroyed by dawn. Sooner or later the gatehouse would be affected, and Ramah’s passage back to the Halls would go up in flames. No matter, he thought. I can find someplace else to spend the day. The country around Londinium was spotted with thousands of small farms and holdfasts, he would be fine. In any case, he’d come too far to go running back to the Halls. Now that he was so close to capturing Theron, he refused to return empty handed.

Ramah resumed his examination of the site. There was no indication that Theron had escaped the soldiers and run, which would have been the sensible thing to do. Thus, he came to the conclusion that the renegade had allowed himself to be captured by the Iceni. What will their righteous queen make of that? he wondered. By all accounts, Boudica was a sharp one. Would she know what she had? If so, what would she do with him? Would she kill him? Or would she try to use him?

Ramah grinned. The better option would be to leave Theron securely chained someplace where, come dawn, the sun would find him. If that turned out to be the case, he could return to the Halls and report that the renegade had been dealt with. It wouldn’t be enough to appease Lannis or Algor, who both wanted to make Theron a Lost One, but Headcouncil Herris would be satisfied.

It still left the issue of Taras, but Ramah didn’t think that would be an issue much longer. The renegade was pinned to the cellar floor of a building that was locked and bolted, waiting for the fires that would end his life. Ramah would have liked to go back into the city and check, just to make sure, but Theron was more important. In any case, Taras had been too weak to do anything but lay in a pool of blood and whimper. He wasn’t likely to have escaped.

But what about Baella? Was she a prisoner of the humans, as well? Or had she escaped? He couldn’t tell anything by the marks around the site. It was possible the humans had captured both, but he doubted it. Baella had managed to evade the entire Bachiyr race for thousands of years, the idea that a small group of humans could catch her seemed absurd. And yet…

Ramah learned long ago never to discount anything where humans were involved. He found the trail again and followed the tracks of the survivors. If they had captured Theron or Baella or both, he meant to know about it. Perhaps he could even steal Baella away from the Iceni. He could fight off a large group of humans. Possibly thirty of them, or more. If they stood between him and Baella, he would shred his way through them until he reached her. He even looked forward to it. The thrill of battle, the smell of blood in the air as it mixed with the screams of the dying, the fear his enemies felt when they realized they were about to die.

Like music, he thought.

Ramah followed the trail through a dense group of trees, keeping to the shadows and enacting a Psalm of Silence to disguise his approach. As he threaded his way through the oaks, maples, and alders, his ears picked up a low, persistent buzz to the east. It sounded like a large number of people gathered in one place talking, screaming, eating, and probably fucking, as would befit the Iceni and neighboring tribes. The trail of the humans also led east, so Ramah followed his ears, thinking he’d found his quarry at last.

Before he caught sight of the group, he had already come to the conclusion that it was more than just thirty humans. The low buzz had evolved into a din of voices, indecipherable on their own and merging into one long, hushed sound. The trail continued toward the noise, and so Ramah kept following, though he began to think he would not be able to capture Theron and Baella as easily as he’d first thought. If the group proved as large as it sounded, he might not even be able to see them.

He poked his head around one wide maple and saw that the group of trees ended about thirty feet away, opening up into a large field of short, hardy grass that stretched for miles in every direction.

Standing in that field was an army.

Ramah swore, scanning the groups. He spotted the infantry right away, the chaotic, disorderly humans who stood on edge and waited, fidgeting with their weapons. They were a largely undisciplined lot, which would make sense. Only those Iceni capable of learning to ride or work the ballistae would be spared infantry duty. To the south of the infantry he spotted the ballistae troops. Missile after missile launched from the mechanical monsters to drop upon the city. The attack must have started just after he left.

Movement near the ballistae caught his eye, and he noted the mounted riders near their head. The generals, no doubt, planning the attack. Not that it did him any good. He could not rip his way through fifty thousand human troops. Theron and Baella were nowhere to be seen, not that he had much chance of spotting them in this chaos. Ramah watched the army, unwilling to give up his search.

After ten minutes with no sign of his prey, he swore under his breath. He was just about to turn away when a group of men crested a distant hill and approached the mounted officers. Many of the men in the new group limped gamely along, and several were missing limbs. But every one of them held a crossbow trained and ready, pointed at the center of their group. Ramah tensed.

There, chained to a mobile platform, was Theron. The renegade’s shredded clothing was soaked through with blood. It hung from his flesh in tatters and rags, revealing dozens of fresh, pink scars. He struggled in his bonds and shouted curses at the humans around him, but he seemed secure. Still, the humans were taking no chances. Several of the crossbows were loaded with flaming bolts. The men might not know exactly what they had captured, but they had an idea how dangerous it was. Baella was nowhere to be seen. Ramah had figured as much. Another day, Baella, he thought.

The sight of Theron in chains spurred him on, and Ramah stepped from behind the tree and started walking toward the mounted generals. He didn’t know what he would say to gain access to the gathering, but he was not going to let Theron get away again. Somehow, he would find a way in. If he had to, he would rip and tear his way through have the damn Iceni army. But by The Father, Theron was coming to the Halls of the Bachiyr tonight, even if A flash of pain on the back of his head drove all thoughts of Theron and the Halls of the Bachiyr from his mind. His vision failed, and the last thing he felt was a strange sensation that he was falling…falling…then nothing at all.

26

The night was lit only by fire. The growing orange glow over the city mixed with the dancing light of nearby torches and the few remaining balls of burning tar that had yet to be fired. All in all, it cast the area around the queen in a flickering, shifting light. It was hardly enough to see the Bachiyr’s face-the thing stood tied to a thick pole in the center of a mobile cell-but even in the sullen light there was no mistaking those burning eyes and pointed fangs, which gleamed an evil red in the dim light.

The moment the word Bachiyr left her lips, the creature turned toward her, snarling like a rabid dog. It strained against its bonds, grunting with the effort. Her men jumped back a step at the sudden movement, their swords pointed toward the cage, but the ropes held strong, thank the gods. After a tense moment, the Bachiyr relaxed, apparently realizing it was stuck.

But for how long? Boudica doubted they would be able to detain the creature indefinitely. By the look on the Bachiyr’s face, it was thinking along the same lines. Its eyes sizzled with anger, sending a chill up the queen’s spine despite the heat of the nearby fires. She had never seen a true Bachiyr before, but she had heard all the legends, some more ludicrous than others. They were said to drink human blood. Some said they melted into the shadows, or they were the shadows, or they controlled the moon, or even that they could kill you from halfway across the world with nothing more than a malicious thought. All ridiculous, of course.

Or were they?

“A Bachiyr?” Heanua asked, eyeing the prisoner with a mixture of awe and fear. “Are you sure, Mother?”

Boudica nodded, unable to find her voice. She had grown up hearing the stories of the Bachiyr from her father and nurse, but she always considered them to be just that; stories. Fireside tales told to children to entertain or frighten them, but nothing more. How could they be real? But as she stared at the thing in her midst, she felt the creature’s hate roll over her body like steam. The Bachiyr were not legends, after all. They were real, and they were dangerous. And now her men had captured one.

What to do?

We should kill it, she thought. Kill it before it escapes and kills us.

Heanua seemed to have her own ideas. She pulled her mount close and leaned over her saddle. “We can use him,” she whispered.

“What do you mean?” Boudica asked.

“Drop him behind the walls of the city,” Heanua said. “Let the Romans deal with him.”

Boudica shook her head. “I think not. That thing is far too dangerous, daughter.”

“But think how much havoc he would wreak on the defenders of the city,” Heanua persisted. “He could do more damage in one hour than the ballistae will do all night. Just having him inside the walls will send most of the soldiers running.”

“And then what?” Boudica replied. “Once the Bachiyr is free of the city it will kill us, as well. The Bachiyr care only for blood, they do not concern themselves with whether that blood is Roman, Iceni, or otherwise.”

“We could make a deal with him. If he gave us his word-”

“It would be worthless.” Boudica looked at her daughter’s eager expression. The bloodlust filled her face, making her look almost evil in the shifting firelight. She would risk anything for her revenge. While Boudica could sympathize, she was not foolish enough to allow one of the Bachiyr to go free. The thing would most certainly return to kill its attackers, and she had no desire to give it free vent to do so. “The Bachiyr have no souls,” she explained. “It would honor its word in much the same way as Nero. It would turn on us at its first opportunity.”

“But-”

“The matter is not subject to debate, ” the queen said. “The Bachiyr is a demon, not a weapon, and I will not set it free so it can kill us and ravage the Iceni countryside. That is my final word on it.”

Heanua lowered her head, but Boudica noted the defiant expression on her daughter’s face. Soon, she thought. I will have to deal with her soon. But first I must deal with the Bachiyr.

She turned toward the creature, half expecting it to have broken loose during her exchange with Heanua. Thankfully the ropes still held, and the threat the creature posed was nullified. For the moment. She couldn’t help feeling like she was staring at a caged wolf. Were it not for the bonds, the thing would probably be pacing back and forth across the cage and growling. She shivered at the idea of letting it go free. Not even to avenge my husband, she thought.

But how to kill it? She dared not send anyone into the cage to lop off its head. Fire was rumored to work, but what if it didn’t? What if she set the cage aflame and all she accomplished was that the creature broke free once the wood burned away. She would be in just as much trouble as if she followed Heanua’s misguided suggestion.

She knew of only one way to be certain. There was one way to kill a Bachiyr that was the same in all the legends, but it would require an open roof on the cage. She checked the structure. It was sturdy, iron and oak. The roof was a patchwork of bars and beams, and would do little to stop a rain shower, let alone sunlight. It would do.

“The Bachiyr will remain in its cage until the sunrise,” she proclaimed. “Tomorrow morning the sun will take care of it for us. Until then I want forty archers with arrows trained on the cage at all times. If the creature moves, shoot it.”

Heanua started to protest, but Boudica silenced her with a raised hand. “Those are my orders. See that they are followed, daughter.”

“Yes, my Queen,” Heanua mumbled. Her words were echoed, albeit with a great deal more enthusiasm, by the men around her as they went to find forty archers.

Once the men had assembled on two sides of the cage, Boudica turned her attention back to the siege of Londinium. Damn it all that a wretched Bachiyr should come into their camp now. The forty archers she had stationed around his cage would be sorely missed once the ballistae finished their onslaught. Still, the outcome of the battle would be the same. Londinium could not stand against the combined might of the Iceni and the Trinovante, archers or no.

She sat in her saddle and directed the attack, a sullen and silent Heanua at her side. Down the line of cavalry, Lannosea had ridden through the troops and assumed command of the charge. General Ogden didn’t look pleased, but there was little enough he could say. Lannie’s appointment to the cavalry carried the weight of the Queen’s command.

She felt eyes on her back and risked a glance over her shoulder at the captured Bachiyr. The creature stared at her from its cage, its angry eyes glowing like cinders from the shadows of its face. Even from forty yards distant the thing’s malevolence filled her with dread. The sooner the sun rose in the morning, the better.

***

Theron watched as the queen sat on her horse and directed the troops. Soon enough, she would have to leave her position and engage the enemy herself. Her pride and the respect of her troops would demand it. With luck, it would create an opportunity for him. If so, he would have to be ready to take advantage of it.

The archers crowded each other on two sides of his cage. Boudica had instructed them to place two rows of ten men on the south and east sides to prevent any chance of her soldiers being injured in a crossfire should the need arise to shoot. Theron could have told her to save her breath. He would not give the archers any reason to shoot him. His escape would come from within. From the queen’s own blood.

He had heard the girl’s request to release him into the city. After the queen’s rebuttal, the anger rolled off her daughter’s shoulders in waves so thick and hard Theron could almost see them. Every few minutes, she would look back at the cage with a mixture of longing and anger. It would only be a matter of time before she tried to set him loose on the city despite the queen’s command. Her thirst for revenge had blinded her to the dangers around her, and that would be her undoing. It would also be his freedom. If he had time, he meant to kill the queen on his way out of the camp.

His only concern was the fact that somewhere out beyond the camp, Ramah would be looking for him. If the Blood Letter found out the Iceni had taken his prize from under him, he would storm the camp and cut a swath of bodies to reach Theron’s cage. Weak and tied to the post as he was, Theron would be unable to defend himself from the elder Bachiyr, and Ramah would gut him in less time than it would take a mortal man to blink.

He only hoped Heanua would come to his cage first.

***

Baella dragged the unconscious Ramah back through the thicket of trees, listening to the chatter of the encamped army to ensure they had not been seen. Satisfied, she deposited his prone form in a small clearing twenty or thirty paces from the edge of the trees. It wasn’t large, but it was well hidden. It would do for now.

She would have to figure out a way to smuggle him back into the city before he awoke. It wouldn’t be easy with the whole place under attack, but her portal lay inside the city. She had built it in a tunnel beneath the streets and hidden the entrance. It should still be standing after the attack, but the sun would rise before the Iceni siege would end, and she needed to be away from the city by then. Otherwise it wouldn’t matter. She would have preferred to catch up to him inside the walls, but he was more powerful than she’d anticipated. He caught up to them too soon.

Nothing to do for it but improvise. The Psalm she’d used on him should leave him unconscious for several hours. It was a simple enough trick, her energy simply shut down the nerves in his body. She’d learned it, and many other things, in her four thousand years, including many tricks the Council of Thirteen would pay dearly to know.

To the abyss with the Council of Thirteen, she thought. The Father’s lapdogs. Licking his boots for scraps from his table. Not her. She had no use for The Father or his laws. That’s why they hated her so much. The Council of Thirteen would have every Bachiyr believe that they needed the structure and protection of the Council to survive, but she was living proof that they did not. The only thing holding Bachiyr society to the Council was a thin strand of bluffs and outright lies. The Father could take them all to his realm for all she cared.

All but one.

She glanced at Ramah, running her finger gently up the curve of his jaw. So handsome. So dark. So beautiful…and so wasted in service to the Council. She knew his history, he was the product of a love gone wrong. The Father had tricked him into servitude by using his broken heart against him. But she would set him free, and together they would spread fear through all of Bachiyr society. It might take time for him to come around to her point of view, but she was up to the task. She certainly had time to spare. Her face split into a grin as she reflected on the last four thousand years. What were a few centuries weighed against eternity?

First, though, she had to get him back to her home, and that meant getting into Londinium under full siege. And for that, she did not have centuries. She had only a few hours. She sat her back against a tree and watched the Iceni lay waste to the city’s walls, waiting for an opportunity to present itself. Sooner or later the Iceni would cease the long range attack and send in the cavalry. That would be her chance to enter the city.

She just had to wait.

Thankfully, she didn’t have to wait long

27

Taras stood in the doorway of a crumbling baker’s shop, watching as people ran screaming by. Many of them sported flames on their arms, legs, and heads. The charred, smoking remains of the less fortunate could be seen littering the street. Most of the city’s people had left before the attack, but enough remained behind that the smell of their burning flesh hung in the air, mixing with the smoke of fires too numerous to count. Speckled among the bodies was the rubble of the city. Buildings, wagons, and merchant stands littered the street with smoking debris, many reduced to piles of charred wooden boards, their splintery points aimed in every direction.

The store where Taras took his refuge had been all but demolished by a rock the size of a fruit cart, and flour, burst eggs, and a myriad of other ingredients covered the wreckage. Here and there, broken pieces of the baker’s trade littered the street outside the entrance. Mixing pots, spoons, jars of honey and sugar, all lay cracked and broken amidst the rubble. But the doorway stood, and it made as good a place as any for Taras to rest and evaluate his situation. It wasn’t good.

He could not leave the city through the western gate. He would have to find another way. Fortunately, there was another way. A small tunnel used by smugglers to bring questionable goods into the city. Taras had found it one night while trailing a robber who’d stolen an elderly man’s coin purse. Before the man died, he told Taras everything he wanted to know. The entrance was hidden beneath the floor of a tavern on the northern side of the city and the tunnel led to a small copse of trees about a hundred paces from the north wall. The smugglers had chosen that location because the trees hid their comings and goings from the city guard. It would accommodate him, as long as he could reach it before the incoming soldiers.

The area around him was thick with crazed people running and shouting, trying to escape. But they had no place to go, and so they simply ran up one street and down the other until fire or weapon claimed them. Here and there, officers called to their men, directing them to the walls to try and hold off the invading forces. No one was tending to the wounded or dead, and the fires were left to rage on. Defense of the city took first priority. But even from Taras’s vantage point, huddled under a doorframe, he could see it would be no good. Tonight Londinium would fall.

The smell of blood was everywhere. It drove into his brain like a hot metal spike. Gods, he needed to feed, but there wasn’t time to track down a suitable victim amidst the chaos. There were plenty of people nearby, but they were mostly soldiers, women and children. He couldn’t bring himself to kill them. Even after thirty years, Jesus’ words still haunted him. He could kill innocent people, or he could die a slow death.

There is always a choice. It is not always a good choice.

Killing innocents was no choice at all, and even though the city burned with flames taller than buildings, Taras could not bring himself to sacrifice his life to them. He clenched his jaw and strode out into the street. He would simply have to wait to feed. It wouldn’t be the first time.

But unless he found blood soon, it could well be the last.

***

Lannosea sat atop her mount and ran her sleeve across her forehead, wiping away the beads of sweat and leaving a smudge of soot as she examined the city walls. This close, the heat and smoke were almost more than she could bear. Her horse, a huge black mare known more for her strength than her disposition, shied away from the wall, wary of the flames that consumed it. The ballistae and catapults had certainly done their job, reducing huge sections of the outer wall to smoldering rubble. She and her fellow riders should have little trouble storming the city.

A long, low horn blast sounded behind her. She knew what that meant. The ballistae crews had nearly exhausted their ammunition, which meant it was time for the cavalry to get ready. She held her sword straight up in the air and shouted “Hail Iceni!” Every mounted soldier up and down the line returned the salute, raising their own swords in the air and shouting her words back to her. When the next horn blast came from the ballistae crews, indicating that the long range ammunition was gone, Lannosea lowered her sword and pointed it at the city.

As one, the line of mounted men rode forward, with Lannosea at its head. The creak of their saddles and the pounding of their horses’ hooves were soon drowned out by the noise from within the city. The screams of the injured and the dying overpowered the shouted orders from the town’s remaining defenders, and few of the soldiers on the wall looked like they knew what to do. Most of them stared at the approaching horsemen with a look of fear or resignation. By the look in their eyes, each of them knew they would not live to see the sunrise.

Lannosea could relate. The Iceni cavalry boasted over four thousand battle hardened warriors, each of them bearing multiple scars from one campaign or another. She doubted the Romans had that many legionaries in the entire city. Taking Londinium would be easy.

But she did not intend to come back.

Her mother knew. Lannosea saw it on the Queen’s face when she requested to lead the cavalry charge, and she’d given her consent. Had the queen known? Probably. The queen knew everything. Of course, Lannosea’s death would mean Heanua would one day be queen of the Iceni, but that would probably be for the best. Despite what her mother and suitors said, Lannosea had never really wanted to be queen. Too much responsibility. Her desires were far more mundane. A good husband and a quiet life filled with the laughter of children were more to her taste, but even that could not be now.

A flutter in her belly reminded her why she was doing this. The Roman bastard growing in her womb had ruined everything. Nero’s men had taken her maidenhood as well as her honor, and now they would get her life, as well. It didn’t seem fair, but she would not dishonor her entire family by birthing the bastard child of a Roman legionary. Her shame was hers alone, and she would wipe it away tonight by dying with honor. She could do that much, she knew.

“The Iceni do not fear death,” she whispered under her breath, reciting the mantra her father had taught her as a child. “Death comes for all.”

Fifty yards from the wall, her troops were hit by Londinium’s archers. Scores of arrows sailed through the night at the advancing Iceni, many of them carried small balls of flaming tar on their tips. Several dozen of her men and a score of horses went down under the deadly rain, but dozens more came forward to fill the gaps.

“The Iceni do not fear death. Death comes for all.” Even unborn Roman bastards.

She ordered a full charge and kicked her horse into a gallop. At full speed, the archers on the walls would have time for only one more barrage before Lannosea and her men crossed into the city. One would not be enough to kill her remaining soldiers, not even close. After that it would be over. The cavalry would soften up the remaining defenders, and then the infantry would march in and take care of the rest. The citizens, if any were left alive, might put up a fight, but they would not be able to stop the march of the Iceni. Soon they and their city would be ashes.

Tonight, Londinium would disappear from the maps of the world, and she would earn her place in history. The noble princess who gave everything for her people, they would call her. A hero’s demise in a noble cause. Perhaps they would write songs of her bravery once the war was over. And no one would ever have to know she sought death on purpose, or of the poison fruit in her belly.

The second volley of arrows was a bit more precise, and claimed the lives of over forty men and a score more horses. The man to her right, a noble son of the Iceni named Balwar, grunted and fell from his saddle, his hand wrapped around the vibrating shaft of an arrow that had buried itself in his chest. Still, Lannosea’s prediction that one more flight of arrows would not be enough to stop her troops proved accurate as her horse sailed over the remains of the eastern wall and charged into the fray, followed by four thousand seasoned warriors from her clan.

She swept her sword down and caught one legionary in the shoulder. With the speed of her horse behind the blow, she nearly severed the man’s head. He went down in a bloody, twitching heap, but another soon came up to take his place. Then another, and then several more.

Lannosea looked around the crumbled wall and realized that she and her mother had underestimated the size of the Roman garrison at Londinium. Instead of a few hundred battered legionaries, she and her men faced nearly a thousand of them, and more were coming. She spurred her horse toward a group of soldiers and ran one down while her horse trampled another, yet they still came.

In moments, the scene devolved into complete chaos. The Romans earned their blood, preventing the easy slaughter she had been expecting. Still, as she looked over the battle she knew the Iceni would easily overpower Nero’s men. The Romans were too few, and they had no supply lines and no way to get reinforcements. They were trapped in their city like rats on a burning ship, and this last, desperate attempt to fight back was just that. Desperate. They knew, as she did, that surrendering would do them no good.

Give them credit for that, at least, she thought. For all their faults, these men are not cowards.

Lannosea turned her horse around, intending to run back into the battle and cut down as many legionaries as she could before Roman steel found her flesh. Now that her decision had been made, she felt no qualms about charging into the thickest knot of Romans she could see. They scattered before her like leaves in the wind, yet her sword still managed to bite into them again and again.

After several minutes, she was exhausted, and splattered with the blood of her enemies, but no Roman sword had touched her. She did not want to make it easy for them, but still, this wouldn’t do. Someone in this blasted city had to be strong enough to kill her, otherwise her plan would fail.

She rode through another group of legionaries, singling out one who stood a head taller than most, and nearly cut him in half with a downward swipe of her sword. Her momentum carried her through the knot of people and a short way down the street. Now she was near the wall again, far away from the heaviest fighting. She stared back over the rubble at the advancing Iceni infantry. General Cyric marched at the head of the group. Her heart, which had been so tortured of late, swelled with pride at the sight of her people’s might and glory. This was it, the end of the city.

The infantry was the real strength of her army. Cavalry charges, while devastating, were not thorough enough to destroy an enemy. They could not go everywhere and root out enemies from their hiding places, but the infantry could storm in and flow into every nook and cranny the town had to offer, exposing every hiding place and every survivor. It would be like a black tide washing in from the sea to engulf the people of Londinium.

And good riddance to them.

She wheeled her horse around, putting her back to the advancing army, and prepared to fight off another Roman. Any Roman would do, so long as he presented a challenge. This time, she would find one who could finish the job and send her to her death with all the honor accorded to those who died on the battlefield. But instead of a Roman, she saw a single woman walking toward her, hands upraised in supplication.

Lannosea could not determine the woman’s age, but the stranger was lovely. Dark of hair and pale of skin, with sharp, exquisite features. She wore plain, dark clothing; a blouse and simple breeches that hid her in the shadows, and soft leather boots that muffled the sound of her feet. Her eyes sparkled in the light of the many nearby fires, and Lannosea found she could not look away from them. She swayed in her saddle, suddenly unable to keep her balance, and the woman smiled.

Lannosea smiled back. “Good evening to you,” she said. Her tongue felt thick and heavy, and words blended together, making her sound like she had gotten into the wine.

“Greetings, Lady,” the woman said. “My apologies, but I have need of your horse.”

“Of course,” Lannosea replied, and dismounted. She handed over the reins, which the newcomer took in her soft hands. Lannosea’s hand brushed the woman’s and she drew back. The skin of her hand was as cold as snow and as dry as parchment. What manner of person…

The woman smiled, and Lannosea forgot about her unnatural chill. “My horse is yours,” she said. “Is there anything else I can offer you?”

“No, Lady,” the woman said. “A horse is all I require.”

Lannosea watched the strange woman lead her horse away toward the crumbling remains of the wall. In the light of so many fires, it was easy enough to see her lift an unconscious man onto the back of the horse, securing him to the beast with rope. Then she mounted the horse and set off through the city.

Lannosea watched her vanish around a corner, then she shook her head. What had she just done? Why did she give her horse away?

She was just about to run after the woman when rough, strong hands grabbed her from behind.

“Look, boys,” a gravelly voice said behind her. “An Iceni woman. A princess, no less.”

Lannosea struggled, but the man was too strong. Raucous laughter erupted all around her, and she turned her head to see half a dozen ragged, filthy men standing nearby. They did not wear the armor of legionaries, nor were they Iceni. Rouges. Probably intent on looting the city. Rats with human faces.

One of the men bound her hands behind her as she spat curses at them. Pain erupted from her lower jaw as he struck her. Then someone put a coarse brown bag over her head and cinched it so tight around her neck she had trouble drawing a breath. She staggered, but remained on her feet, kicking her legs and flailing until the men wrestled her to the ground and tied her ankles together.

Strong hands squeezed her breasts hard enough to hurt, and the men laughed again. She twisted, trying to free herself. This was not her plan. She was supposed to die in battle, with honor. She was not supposed to fall into the hands of brigands. She could not escape. She felt someone’s hand grope between her legs, while the others grabbed her ankles. She struggled and twisted and tried to fight back, but the men only laughed harder as they lifted her off the street and started walking. With the bag on her head she could not tell where they were taking her.

“Looks like tonight will be fun,” one of the men said.

***

The soot and smoke from Londinium stung his eyes, so Theron closed them. Even from this distance, the sounds of battle in the city reached his ears. Every scream of pain brought the Iceni that much closer to victory, and kept the Iceni princess from coming to him. She wanted to, that much was certain, but he needed a backup plan in case she didn’t make it. Theron concentrated.

How had Taras escaped the chains earlier? Theron, bent into the stocks, didn’t see how the northerner broke free of his chains. When Taras came around where Theron could see him, it looked as though his wrists and hands had gotten smaller. In his nine hundred years among the Bachiyr, Theron had never seen such a thing done. To the best of his knowledge, no one, not even the Councilors, possessed that ability.

So how had Taras done it? Could he be more powerful than he had a right to be? More powerful than Theron, Ramah, and even Herris? Not likely, he thought. A far better explanation would be that the Council did not know as much as they pretended. That in itself was interesting enough, but to think that a neonite with no training had been able to figure out a trick that no other Bachiyr could do told him that it had to be fairly simple, but no one had thought of it before.

When he wanted to extend his claws, he simply visualized his nails growing and lengthening. After some practice, the effect became instantaneous, almost involuntary. Danger would appear and his claws would grow. Unfortunately the Iceni had tied his wrists so that his nails dug into his palms. If he let his claws grow now, it would likely sever his fingers. If he lost his fingers he would lose his claws and his ability to wield a sword. But if he could make his hands smaller, he could slip the rope.

Of course, he was still locked in the cage with forty arrows pointed at his chest, but one thing at a time.

He pictured his hands, willing the image of them to shrink. In his mind, he saw the hands getting smaller, more delicate. Children’s hands. The wrists, too. He forced some of his remaining blood into them, trying to use the latent energy inherent in the liquid to force his flesh to comply, and only succeeded in poking his palms with his nails as they tried to grow.

How was it done? He had to find out. It could mean the difference between escape and dying in the morning sun. He opened his eyes and scanned the eastern horizon. Plenty dark for now, but it would only be an hour or so before it began to pinken with the approaching dawn. When that happened, he would be finished. A pile of ash to be swept away by some Iceni woman the next day.

An hour or two. That didn’t leave him much time to get out of this cage and into a secure location. He pictured himself as a glowing mound of dusty ash in the middle of this cursed cage. The Council would be pleased to know he died an animal’s death.

No! Focus, he told himself. You are better than this.

He closed his eyes again, bringing the image of his wrists back into his mind and willing them to shrink. This time, he thought he felt a tingle in his wrist. Elated, he forced blood into his hands and wrists again, but more than last time, hoping the added energy would finish the job.

Immediately the tingle stopped, and his claws dug into his palms again, dripping precious blood onto the floor of the cage.

“Damn,” he whispered. He’d been trying for over an hour, and every time with the same result. Each time he thought he might be getting somewhere, the effect slammed shut on him, usually right when he tried to send blood to his…

Wait. I’ve been forcing blood into my wrists. Could that be the problem?

Theron had used his blood in the same manner for nine hundred years. When he needed to run faster, he sent additional blood to his legs. When he needed extra strength in his arms, he charged them with blood. That is the power that all Bachiyr are taught from their very first night. They use their blood to enhance their abilities and to metabolize into mystical energy for Psalms and the like. But what if there was another way? One that no normal Bachiyr would think of on their own?

Theron tried again. This time, when he started to feel his wrists tingle, he pulled blood out of his hands rather than forcing it in. After a few moments, the rope around his wrist went slack.

Theron was so surprised he opened his eyes and lost his focus, and his wrists reverted back to normal. But he’d felt it. He knew it was true. What’s more, he could do it again. The knowledge brought him a small measure of comfort as he stared out at the archers lined up around his cage. He could shrink his wrists and free himself, but it would not change the forty or so arrows that would pierce his flesh afterward. They wouldn’t kill him, of course. Not unless one of the archers got a very lucky shot and pierced his heart. Even then, he would only be incapacitated until someone withdrew the arrow from his chest. Still, it wasn’t a chance worth taking. Not yet, at any rate. When the dawn came closer, he would take his chances with the archers.

For now, he would trust his earlier instincts about the queen’s daughter. Sooner or later she would come, and then he would be free.

If he felt generous, she might even live through it.

***

Baella galloped through the city, headed for her escape. Her portal was not far, but several of the streets were too choked with rubble and debris to be passable, so she had to skirt around them and find an alternate route. She swore an oath as she rounded another corner and found her way blocked by the smoking remains of a building. Behind her, she could feel the dawn approaching. She had an hour, perhaps less, before the cursed sun crested the eastern horizon. She needed to be gone by then, if for no other reason than to escape from the burning hell that had once been the proud city of Londinium.

All around her the once prosperous city had been reduced to ash and rubble. Londinium was not as large as some of its counterparts in Rome, but thousands of bodies littered the streets, nonetheless. Some of them still smoldered, while others twitched or whined feebly. A small handful crawled on their hands and knees, unable to stand. They looked around at the remains of their city with dazed, unseeing eyes. If there were any survivors who were still of sound body, they hid themselves well.

They would not be able to hide for much longer, she knew. The Iceni foot soldiers had entered the city not far behind her, and would soon begin the task of ferreting out any survivors. Those who yet lived would soon be put to the sword. The Iceni had invaded the city of Camulodunum earlier that month and reduced it to a pile of ash, killing every man, woman, and child they encountered within her walls. Baella had no reason to believe the people of Londinium would be spared the same fate.

She turned the horse away from the rubble and back out into the street, where she urged it into a gallop. Her stolen beast was a slow, clumsy animal, far more suited to a battle than a race. At least it was strong enough to bear two riders, although Ramah technically was not riding the horse, strapped as he was to the saddle behind her.

She hadn’t gone far before she was accosted by several Roman legionaries who, upon recognizing the horse’s armor as belonging to the Iceni, tried to drag her from the saddle. Half a dozen pairs of hands grabbed her by her legs, her boots, her breeches, anywhere they could lay hands. A quick boot to the face of the closest opponent sent him sprawling backwards into the dusty street, clutching his broken nose and screaming in pain. But where he fell, two more took his place, clawing at her clothing and pulling her down. Baella soon found herself unable to fend off her attackers while maintaining her grip on the reins. They grabbed her by her cloak and pulled her backward, bending her over her saddle. One of the men grabbed a burning piece of wood and slapped the horse in the rump. The animal reared, throwing her from the saddle, and galloped away with Ramah still tied to its saddle.

“No!” Baella shot to her feet and started to give chase, but a dozen legionaries stood in her way. She hacked at them with her claws and drove her fists into their torsos, but she could not break through fast enough.

She watched helplessly as the horse disappeared around a corner, carrying all her plans with it.

28

Lannosea’s screams mingled with those of the dying as she was dragged through the city streets. She kicked and clawed and twisted her body, but it was no use. Her captors had bound her hands well, and did not hesitate to administer punishment of their own in between removing her boots and armor and unstrapping her sword belt. One hard punch to her solar plexus caused her to double over in pain, gasping for breath. She vomited into the bag, tasting blood as well as bile. The men laughed, yanked her upright and pulled her on.

After what felt like hours, she felt the ground beneath her change. It was no longer pebbles and dirt under her bare feet, but solid wood. They had dragged her into a building. Knowing what would come next, she redoubled her efforts to kick and punch her way free. Another solid punch to her abdomen sent her to the floor.

“Here now, princess,” a voice said. “Just be calm and this will be over soon. Or you can struggle and fight back if you prefer. The result will be the same. In any case, some of us like it better that way.” His words left little doubt as to their intentions. Already they had stripped her of her armor, leaving her clad only in a loose sleeveless blouse and soft breeches.

Several of the men grunted in laughter. The bag came off her head, spraying her vomit all over the floor and her chest.

She was surrounded by six grinning men dressed in dirty rags. None of them were legionaries, but their intent was the same. These were the brigands who stayed in the city despite the threat of an invading army, probably planning to steal everything the people who fled left behind. Little did they know the invading Iceni would not take prisoners or bribes. Lannosea took a small amount of satisfaction in that knowledge as two of the men pinned her legs to the floor, while another held her wrists above her head, leaving three of them to fondle her any way they pleased.

“Her blouse is dirty,” one said. She tried to turn her body away and get loose, but the man holding her wrists pulled hard, sending a wave of pain into her shoulders. The first man reached down and ripped the blouse open, revealing her bare breasts. The other men sucked in their breath. She had forgone wearing any undergarments in an attempt to fit into her armor.

“How about a kiss, princess?” the man who’d ripped her blouse open said, and leaned over to plant his filthy lips on her face.

She spat at him.

He wiped the spittle from his eye and grinned, then he punched her in the belly hard enough for her vision to fade for a moment as she struggled to breathe. The pain was intense. White hot and angry, much worse than anything she’d ever felt before. She gasped as she tried to feed air to her starving lungs, but she couldn’t suck it in fast enough. She groaned, and blackness gathered around the edges of her vision.

“That’s right, princess,” the man said. “Dago can be rough, too. Now let’s have that kiss.”

Dago straddled her, placing one hand on the floor and the other on her crotch. His fingers rubbed and pinched as he leaned in for another attempt at a kiss. She turned her face to the side and felt his lips on her neck, followed by a sharp pain. He was biting her! Like an animal! She shuddered and tried to shove him off her, but he was too heavy and she was too weak. Lannosea stopped fighting, praying only that it would be over quick.

“You like that, pri-”

Dago’s arms stiffened as his question cut off into a gurgle, and something warm and wet sprayed her face. At first she thought he had spit on her, but then his whole body went limp. Suddenly the pressure on her feet and wrists was gone, and the room around her erupted into angry shouts. She opened her eyes to see Dago, still straddling her, looking down at his torso.

Blood poured from four holes in the middle of his chest. It flowed into the dirty cloth of his shirt and rolled downward in a great red stain that grew larger as she watched. Lannosea wasted no time scooting out from under him and rising to her feet. He never seemed to notice. His dazed eyes remained focused on his ruined chest, watching as his life’s blood dripped onto the floor. He reached his hand to the wound and touched one of the holes. His fingers came away red with blood. He brought the hand to his face and stared at it for a moment, his expression confused. Then he looked up at Lannosea, coughed twice, and fell face first to the floor.

That’s one, she thought.

Around her, the other men shouted and shuffled around. To her left, one of them shouted a curse that turned into a long, pain-filled scream, which then cut off in a wet gurgle. Something round and heavy rolled by Lannosea’s feet, leaving a trail of sticky red blood behind it. When it came to a stop, still dripping blood from the shredded neck, she recognized the head as one of her attackers.

That’s two.

Lannosea crawled backward into the shadows of the room, unable to regain her feet due to the searing pain in her belly. Dago had punched her, but it felt like he’d left a blade in her flesh. Looking down, she was amazed to find the flesh unbroken and bloodless, if a bit bruised. She couldn’t see much else, but she heard the sound of fighting all around her. Her attackers fought with sword and fist, but seemed to be losing. Had some Iceni come upon the scene and decided to rescue their princess? She clutched the torn edges of her blouse and tied them together, covering her breasts. When she realized what she was doing, she chuckled. What good was modesty at a time like this? Still, she knotted the ends together before planting her palms on the floor and pushing herself up.

She rose on unsteady legs, trying to get a better look. Her knees wobbled, and she grabbed the nearest wall to steady herself. The pain in her belly flared, and the darkness crept back into the edges of her sight. She shut her eyes and breathed deep, willing the pain to fade. After a time, she was able to open her eyes, but the room was just as lightless as it had been before. For the first time, she noticed that something warm and wet was running down her legs. Had Dago bled that much on her?

Another grunt of pain and another body thumped to the floor, this time falling into the small pool of light in the center of the room. Lannosea gasped. His throat had been ripped open, and a thin trickle of blood pooled underneath. Worse yet, he was still alive, watching as his blood poured from his ruined throat. For a moment, she felt a twinge of pity. Then she remembered what the man and his cohorts were going to do to her.

That’s three.

She fought against the pain and stumbled through the room, clutching the wall and looking for an exit. The bag on her head had blocked her view when they came in, but even without it she could not see much. There were no windows in the building that she could see, and the ballistae attack had not touched this place, so no fire or starlight showed her the way. Instead, she followed the sounds of fighting. If General Cyric or her mother had sent men to help her, they would know the way out.

She found the doorway and stepped through it, nearly tripping over a man lying prone in the hallway. The body was barely visible as a dark lump across her path. He wheezed when her foot brushed against him, and lifted a shadowy arm off the floor. He reached for her with shaking fingers. She couldn’t help but notice the droplets of blood that fell from his hand to the floor.

“Please…” he whispered, his voice weak and hoarse. “Please help me, good Lady.”

She spat on his outstretched hand. “Die slow, bastard.”

That’s four. Only two left.

As she passed by the dying man in the hall, she noticed a glint of steel in his hand. Lannosea reached down. Any weapon is better than no weapon. When her fingers closed around the hilt of her own sword, she could hardly believe her luck. So this was the man who’d taken off her belt. Lannosea spat on him again and gripped her sword as tight as she could, taking it from his weakening fingers. He never flinched or made a sound.

She continued down the hall, regaining enough of her strength to walk through the hall without using the wall for support. Her sword had restored a measure of her confidence, as well, though she was not even close to battle ready. The pain in her belly had subsided to a low, dull ache, dimmed to a tolerable level by adrenaline and fear, but it was still present. She recalled the warm, wet feeling on her thighs.

The baby. It had to be the baby. Dago had punched her hard in the gut more than once. Had he succeeded in doing what her own nurse could not? If so, her fate was sealed. She had seen enough instances of this during her years with the Iceni healers. If the baby died, so would she.

But wasn’t that what she had wanted? Why did the thought fill her with such sadness?

Because it wasn’t supposed to be like this, she realized. I was supposed to die honorably in battle. Not far away from the field with my breasts in the breeze and blood between my legs. Worse, it would not be an easy death. Likely she would linger for days as infection set in, devouring her from the inside. By then her people will have found her and it would be too late to hide her shame. They would look at the blood between her legs and they would know she died with child.

Maybe it’s not too late, she thought. If she could somehow escape this building, she might be able to meet a more honorable death outside. She still had her sword, after all. If she attacked a legionary with it, might be he would simply kill her. Her people would find her dead by sword thrust, and would think the blood on her thighs due to being ravished by her killer. She hoped.

She stumbled through the building, following the sounds of pain and steel ringing on wood, until she rounded a corner into a small room. This room did have a window, and light shone through, illuminating the middle of the space but making the shadows seem all the more dark. She came into the room just in time to see a tall, fair-haired man rip into the chest of one of her attackers with some kind of bladed glove.

Four sharp points pierced the flesh of his victim’s back as he grunted, then went limp. The newcomer pulled his hand back. It came free with a wet, sucking sound, and blood sprayed across the wall as the body fell to the floor. The newcomer wore no armor that she could see, and clearly did not belong to the Iceni or Trinovante. A resident of the city, perhaps? If so, he had not improved his lot by saving her life. Her people would kill him when they found him. She could vouch for him, of course, telling them how he saved her life, but she did not plan to live through the night. Bad luck for him, he should have found someone worth rescuing.

That’s five.

“Thank you,” she said. “I don’t know who you are, but-”

The tall stranger looked up and the light from the small window shone on his face. Lannosea nearly lost her grip on her sword. Cyric had not sent this thing to rescue her. No one had. Somehow, it had found her on its own.

A Bachiyr.

She would have preferred to take her chances with Dago and his companions. Lannosea had heard about the Bachiyr from her mother. Legends of the beings who drank the blood of their victims had passed along through the tribes for centuries. Until this moment, Lannosea had always considered the legends humorous. But now, standing not ten paces from one of them, it was difficult to find the humor.

Blood ringed the thing’s mouth and covered its clothes. The tips of two sharp fangs glinted red in the shifting light from the window. The image of the victim in the other room came to her mind. His throat had been torn out, but he hadn’t been bleeding as much as he should have been. Now she knew why. She took a few steps backward, waiting for the right moment to turn and run.

The Bachiyr shook its long hair out of its face, reaching across with its left hand to move a few stray locks that had stuck to the blood on its cheek. It eyed her with pale blue eyes, and she realized it was a northerner. Probably from the cold lands north of Rome. What the hell was it doing in Londinium?

Lannosea had no desire to find out. She turned her back on the Bachiyr and sped back the way she had come, her fear lending her the strength to run. She hadn’t gone more than two steps when she slammed into the last of her kidnappers.

***

Outside the city, far from the fighting but not far enough that she could not hear the sounds of battle, Heanua approached the group of archers guarding the Bachiyr. Their captain, a short, homely man named Haegre, met her twenty feet from the Bachiyr’s cage. He walked up to her, stepped in her path, and saluted. “I’m sorry, Princess Heanua, but I cannot let you get any closer.”

She had known he would. Her mother had ordered as much.“Is that so?” she asked. Haegre was young, and not especially useful to the campaign, else her mother would not have left him in charge of the Bachiyr, who seemed secure enough. By the look on his face, the fact that he’d been left behind to watch over a caged animal while his comrades found their glory on the battlefield did not sit well with him. Heanua could use that. “You would presume to stop me?”

Haegre nodded. “Your mother has commanded that no one be allowed to approach the creature, including you. It will meet its fate at sunrise.”

“I am not here for the creature,” she said, “I am here for you. You and your men are needed at the northern wall of the city. The Romans have proven stronger than we thought, and the northern wall still holds strong.” In truth, the northern wall had fallen an hour ago, but Heanua doubted the captain would know that. “My mother bade me to send you there right away.”

“She sent you? A princess? To deliver such a message? Does the queen use her daughters for clerks now?”

“You dare to question me?” Heanua felt the blood rush to her face. “My word is the queen’s word.”

“I’m sorry, princess,” he replied. “But I will need more than your word to disobey the queen’s command. If you have an official message, then please share it.”

Heanua fumed, but she reached into her tunic. She had expected this and come prepared, but the fact that Haegre had balked at her instructions irritated her. She pulled out a rolled piece of parchment, sealed with the queen’s brand, and handed it over, doing her best to keep her face even and calm.

Haegre examined the seal, then broke it and read the missive. He nodded, and turned to his men. “To the north wall, all of you. Quickly, now. The queen needs us.”

The men cheered. Apparently Haegre was not the only one who sought his glory on the field.

He turned to Heanua and saluted again. “My apologies, princess. A man in my position must be careful, you understand.”

“Of course. Now go. For the Iceni.”

“For the Iceni.” He saluted, then moved to the head of his men. After a few minutes, she stood alone by the Bachiyr’s cage.

Heanua sighed in relief. Haegre had not examined the wax seal closely, or he would have noticed it was made from the larger seal in the queen’s tent rather than the small one on her ring. Both were official, but in times of battle the queen often used the ring to save time. He undoubtedly knew as much, but had missed the detail in his eagerness to join the battle. No wonder her mother had left him behind. His lust for battle overruled his attention to detail. When I am queen I will have him sent to the farthest reaches of the Iceni lands.

Heanua watched them go, then turned back to the cage, where she found the Bachiyr eyeing her, its face a mixture of anger and curiosity. She stepped up to the bars and placed her hands on the wooden floor. In her right hand was a set of keys. Heanua made certain to jangle them, just to get the thing’s attention. In her left hand was a crossbow, its bolt tipped with pitch. She wanted the Bachiyr to know from the start of their conversation that she could offer him freedom or death.

“Well, now,” she said to the thing. “You are in a bad place.”

“You speak Roman,” it said in perfect Iceni. “That’s interesting.”

So the creature spoke their language. It didn’t surprise her, the Bachiyr had been paying a great deal of attention to the comings and goings around the cage, especially the orders from the queen. No one listened that intently to conversations they couldn’t understand. “It is wise to know your enemy’s language,” she replied, switching to Iceni.

“More likely you were taught Roman before Nero broke his treaty,” it replied.

She nodded. It was smart. Good. “My name is-”

“Princess Heanua,” he interrupted, smiling. “Greetings, Princess.”

“I am here because-”

“You want something from me,” he finished for her. “Oh, don’t look so surprised. Despite what you told our slow-witted friend, the north wall has already fallen, as you well know. I must admit I am curious. Why would a princess lie? Not that I am complaining, mind you.”

How the hell did he know about the northern wall? No matter. “I would make a bargain with you,” she said. “I will release you from this cage and from my mother’s sentence. In return you must perform a task for me. Do you agree to my terms, Bachiyr?”

“My name is-”

“I care not for your name, only for your answer.” She raised both hands, showing him the keys and the crossbow again. “I can kill you or set you free, the choice is yours.”

“What task do you require?” he asked. “Do you still wish to throw me back into the city to fight for your cause?”

Damn him. The Bachiyr had good ears. “I will tell you after you agree.”

“I should like to know to what I am agreeing to before I agree to it.”

“That is not the deal,” she said, jangling the keys for effect. “Agree to my terms or die with the sun. You choose.”

The Bachiyr turned his head toward the eastern horizon. The sky had begun to lighten slightly. It had not turned pink yet, but the black of night no longer reached the ground. Sunrise was an hour away at the most. He turned his face back to her, his thin lips tightened into a grin.

“It would seem I have little choice,” he said.

“I’ll have your word, Bachiyr.”

“You have it,” he replied. “Release me and I will perform any task you require of me.”

“Swear it.”

“By The Father, I swear it,” he replied. “What would you have me do?”

Heanua didn’t know what ‘By The Father’ meant, but it would have to do. She stepped up to the cage door and inserted the key into the lock, checking behind her to make sure no one was looking. Then she unlocked the cage door and stepped inside, setting the crossbow on the floor and pulling her dagger from her belt.

The Bachiyr eyed the dagger. “I have agreed to your terms princess,” he said. “There is no need for that.”

“It’s for the ropes, not you,” she said.

The Bachiyr laughed, then slid his hands from behind his back. The wrists and palms were so thin they looked almost delicate. She stared, her eyes wide, as they filled out, thickening to their normal girth in a matter of seconds.

“As I said, there is no need for that,” the Bachiyr stated, pointing at the dagger.

“You could have walked away at any time,” Heanua noted.

“Not quite. The archers, you see.”

Heanua nodded. The archers would have filled his body with arrows the moment he twitched. “Then you did need my help. So to our bargain.”

“Indeed,” the Bachiyr said. “What does a princess of the Iceni wish of me? You want me to steal into the city and slaughter the Roman guards there?”

“No,” Heanua said. “That will not be necessary. The battle for Londinium is well in hand.”

“I hear the other princess is lost somewhere inside the city. Do you want me to find her and bring her back?”

Damn him, how did he know all this? He must have ears like a bat! “My sister has made her choice,” she said. “She will turn up or not, as she sees fit.”

“Then what-”

“I want you to kill my mother.”

***

Baella removed her claws from the throat of her last opponent, sending a spray of blood in the air. The body slid to the street and landed in the sticky dirt with a wet thump. All around her lay the torn corpses of the men who had accosted her and cost Baella her prize. They got what they deserved. Of the dozen or so men that attacked her, eight now lay dead at her feet. The other four had come to their senses and left to find easier sport elsewhere. But the damage was done.

Ramah was gone.

“Damn you,” she kicked the body of her last victim, hearing the satisfying crack as his ribcage shattered. “You cost me everything!” The unfortunate man groaned in pain, but it was weak and shallow. He would be dead before she left the street. Now that the battle was over, she wished she could prolong his life, that she might make him endure more pain than he already had.

But there wasn’t time. To the east, the sky had begun to lighten. She had an hour at the most before the sun peeked over the horizon. If she was not in a safe place by then, it would no longer matter where Ramah had gone.

Ramah! The sun might kill him, too. If he did not regain consciousness before the sunrise, he would be stuck on the back of that horse while the sunlight turned him into ashes. She couldn’t allow that. He was too valuable.

Her portal was in the center of the city, which had not yet been destroyed by the Iceni attack. As it happened, the Council of Thirteen maintained a similar portal nearby, which is where Ramah would go if he did awaken in time.

Baella set off down the street, trying to determine which way the horse had gone. Both portals were close at hand, so she could spare a little time to try and find him. She would have to be careful around the Council’s portal; no telling who would emerge from that dark hole. With such a great prize at stake, however, she would risk it.

Ramah, the great Ramah. Second of the Council of Thirteen. Inside his head lurked all the secrets of her race. Four thousand years of history and conquest could be hers, and the information in his head could be used to bring the Council of Thirteen to its knees and end, once and for all, The Father’s influence in the world of the Bachiyr. Truly, he was a great and valuable prize, indeed.

Yet for Baella, Ramah’s greatest value lay in what he didn’t know.

29

Taras wiped the blood from his lips with his sleeve, but only succeeded in smearing it further. The Iceni woman, her attention focused on him rather than her own feet, barreled into the last of her attackers. Both fell over in a tangle of limbs, clothes, and hair. Her fingers clawed and scratched, and the man punched and kicked. They looked like two drunken brawlers in the street. He stepped forward to intervene, but it soon became apparent that the woman, in a fair fight and left to her own devices, was quite capable of defending herself.

Military training, he realized, and wondered if all Iceni women received it. He did not intend to stick around long enough to find out. Through the small window, he noted the lightening of the sky. Dawn was close. Too close. If he meant to escape the city with his life he would have to leave soon and make his way to the smuggler’s hole. Hopefully it remained undisturbed since the last time he’d used it.

He stayed in the room long enough to hear the man scream and watch the woman remove her bloody dagger from his belly. She drove it in a second time, twisting as she went. The man’s cries could surely be heard out in the street, if there was anyone out there to hear it. Given the secluded location-the men had wanted their privacy, after all-Taras doubted it. Just so, he thought. The man deserved everything she did to him.

She stabbed the man five more times, until his screams turned into soft whimpers, then quieted to a weak, choking gurgle. By the time she finished the man lay still on the wooden floor, his blank eyes staring up at the ceiling. She spat on his face and rose to her feet. The smell of blood was everywhere, but Taras had fed already. His urge to kill the woman faded as the brigand’s blood filled his body. She was no longer in any danger from him, if indeed she ever was, but she could not know that.

As she turned around, Taras stepped behind the corner, not wanting her to see him standing there. He should leave now. He hadn’t meant to stay behind this long, but he wanted to make sure the woman lived. Now that she had, he could go underground and wait out the day.

But he didn’t.

He listened for the sound of the woman’s feet. When they finally came she sounded off balance, her feet shuffled along the floor with a soft hiss. Something was wrong with her. Probably something to do with the blood on her legs. Initially he’d thought the blood the product of the men who tried to rape her, but now he wasn’t so sure. Out in the street, weak and injured, she would have little chance if another group of Romans came upon her.

It’s not your concern, he told himself. You have helped her once already.

He stepped around the wall and looked at the dead man on the floor. A trail of blood led away from him and down the hall, spotted here and there by bloody footprints. There was too much blood for it to all belong to the dead man. Some of it must be hers.

And if it is? What is that to you?

An unwanted image came to his mind, then. Mary, lying bloody and broken in an alley in Jerusalem’s Market District. She wore the tattered remains of an expensive blue dress that would have been unseemly in the pious sect of the city. Even then, he knew she’d worn it for him. For their trip to Rome.

But Theron found her first. Had anyone tried to help her? Would it have made a difference? Probably not, but it didn’t matter. If anyone had been near to hand, they had not helped, else Taras would have found more than one body in the alley that night.

“Damn it,” he swore. He turned and followed the woman’s trail.

You’re going to die, Taras, he told himself. The sun is going to rise in under an hour, and you will be nothing but a well-intentioned pile of dust in these accursed streets. His assassin’s instincts, honed over years of serving Rome from the shadows, told him this was madness. The woman’s eyes had widened to the size of dates when she saw him. Even if he could find her, she would resist his help, and likely he would only succeed in attracting the attention of the Romans or the Iceni roaming the city, which would get them both killed. He should find his hole and get out of the city while he still could.

Mary’s still, lifeless face, laying on a slab of stone in her dark, chilly tomb, her throat torn and shredded beyond repair. A single red flower lay on her chest, unmoving in the still, stale air. He did not know the name of the flower, only that it was pretty, and Mary liked them. Her father Abraham, who thought Taras killed her. He hadn’t, but that did not stop Abraham from attacking. His body lay in the tomb, as well, their bones forever close to each other. She would have liked that.

No one had helped either of them. Just as no one had helped Taras.

“There is always a choice,” he whispered under his breath. Even if it is not a very good choice.

Taras turned and ran into the street, following the Iceni woman’s trail of blood.

***

Theron stared at the young princess, for once unable to think of a witty reply. Her mother, he thought. She wants me to kill her own mother. To her credit, she did not look afraid or ashamed, and after a moment a slight smile crept onto his face. I hadn’t expected that. He had thought she meant to use him as a weapon against her enemies beyond the wall, but instead she wanted to deal with those on this side of it. Interesting.

“Your mother?” he said when he found his voice. “The queen? Why?”

“That is not your concern. You have your task, Bachiyr, and precious little time in which to do it.”

“Too true,” Theron replied.

“Dawn is quite near,” she said.

Theron eyed her again. “Indeed.”

Power. It had to be for power. What else could it be? Power could drive ordinary people to great lengths. Simon, the former clerk of the Council’s Jerusalem Gate, had dreamed a similar dream. He’d wanted Theron’s power, and had gone to great lengths to try and achieve it. But Theron was the stronger, and Simon’s death had never been in question by Theron or the Council. They had sent him to die at Theron’s hand, more for Theron’s benefit than the wayward clerk’s. The Council of Thirteen could never be trusted, not even by their own servants.

Thinking of Simon always reminded him of the Nazarene. You have been lied to, vampire. Jesus’ words. And you have been betrayed. Every night Theron heard them in his head. The rabbi’s promise of forgiveness often played through his mind as he hunted those who called themselves Christians. It was all a lie, of course. Theron would no more be forgiven by the rabbi’s God than he would the Council. In the end, he was alone.

But alone was better. Alone was faster. Alone made it easier to hide and easier to feed. Alone, he could write his own rules. He could “Bachiyr,” the princess said, interrupting his thoughts. “You owe me a life.”

Speaking of which, he thought. Theron grabbed the princess by the throat and pulled her close. She struggled, but even in his weakened state she could not match his strength or speed. He turned her body away from him, inserting his leg between her feet to keep her off balance, and put a hand on the side of her head. He pushed her head to the side, exposing her pale throat. The smell of her sweat and her sudden fear excited him almost as much as the low pulse of her blood beneath his fingertips.

“We had a deal, Bachiyr,” she said.

“So we did,” he replied.

“You gave me your word.”

Theron laughed. “I did, indeed. And I mean to keep it, but your life was never part of our bargain.” He covered her mouth with his hand, muffling her reply, and tore into her throat with his teeth. The princess was young and vital, her blood filled with life and energy. It flowed into him like a warm, turbulent river, and his skin started to tingle as his many cuts and scrapes began to heal. With every passing second, he felt more whole, more alive. More himself. Theron drained her, savoring every drop as her struggles slowed, and then stopped altogether.

When he was finished, he released her. The corpse fell to the wooden floor of the cage with a heavy thud, spraying a handful of stray droplets of blood across the boards. His hunger sated, he stepped around her body, which looked quiet and peaceful in the fading night. Were it not for the two large, gaping holes in her throat, she might have been sleeping.

Dawn was not far off, and he needed to get to a safe place. But what to do with the princess? Should he burn the cage to dispose of the body? Did he have time? Probably. He looked around for a torch.

Still living by their rules, are you?

The words came unbidden to his mind. Even though Baella had betrayed him and left him for the Iceni-and gods help her if he ever found her again-her point remained valid. The Council of Thirteen had betrayed him, when all he ever wanted was to serve them. Damn it, Theron would not live by their rules any more. He walked out of the cage, feeling better than he had since his arrival in Londinium.

At the door, he paused to take one last look at the princess’s corpse. “You should have listened to your mother,” he said. Then he was off, out into the night. He ran from the army encampment at full speed, dodging soldiers and their campfires with ease thanks to his stolen blood. But he could not outrun the sun, and he knew it. He needed a safe place to wait out the day.

But where?

He did not know the city of Londinium, having never been there before. If there were any sanctuaries or tunnels in the city, he had no idea where they were, or where to begin looking. But he knew someone who did.

Taras.

The northerner had probably lived in Londinium for a number of years, hiding from the Council’s eyes. It was the perfect place. Until recently, the Council of Thirteen hadn’t even had a Gatehouse here. Taras would have had free run of the city, without having to worry about any Enforcers finding him. If there were any safe havens within Londinium’s walls, he would know where they were and how to use them.

If the bastard’s still alive, he thought. Not likely. The last time he’d seen the tall renegade, he’d left him on the floor to slow Ramah down. Not that it would slow him down much; the Blood Letter was as vicious as he was powerful. Taras had probably not lived long enough to plead for mercy. Still, if Ramah hadn’t killed him outright, he might still be useful. It was a slim hope, but it was his only one.

Theron sprinted toward Londinium, now little more than a flaming ruin, searching for his worst enemy.

***

Baella ran through the city, darting between battles and leaping over the dead and dying. She sent fresh blood to her legs as needed in order to speed through the streets faster than anyone could follow. The few nicks and cuts she received while dodging through the chaos were worth the irritation. She needed to find that horse. Everything she did in Londinium, she had done to capture Ramah. Baella had even made six new Bachiyr to help her. Ramah had killed most of them, but it was not so great a loss. She would have killed any that survived the night, anyway, in order to make certain no one could track her. She’d put far too much work into this to abandon her plan now. She had to find him. Had to.

Yet the sun would not be denied.

The sky above the eastern horizon was bright orange. In a few minutes, the first rays of the sun would put an end to this night, and she could wait no longer.

“Damn it all,” she swore. “Not again.” It didn’t seem fair. She was so close this time. Ramah had actually been in her grasp. Damn those bastards who’d attacked her. She wished she could kill them again. If not for their interference, she and Ramah would be safe inside the walls of her keep by now. Instead she was standing in the middle of a burnt city, while Ramah bounced around unconscious on the back of her stolen horse, waiting for the dawn to come and turn him into a pile of ashes.

She looked up and down the length of the street one last time, and saw only burning buildings and charred bodies. Smoke drifted through the dying city, hanging in the air like low, black clouds. A few Iceni soldiers wandering among the dead, searching for survivors to execute. Others busied themselves by looting the corpses and buildings. There was no sign of her horse, or her prize. She sighed. The eastern sky had lightened to a bright orange. She could not wait any longer. It was time to leave.

“Goodbye, Ramah,” she said to no one in particular. Then she turned around and ran down the dusty, cobbled street, skirting a half dozen bound Roman legionaries that a group of Iceni raiders were putting to the torch. The agonized screams of the Romans followed her, but she paid them no heed. Soon the sky would be rife with more screams and the smell of burning flesh, and the inhabitants of Londinium would be on their way to their various gods. What were these six when added to the many others that would die this day? Drops of water in an ocean, she thought. Nothing to me.

The battle had gone poorly for the Romans. Pockets of resistance remained throughout the city, but most of them were civilians, not trained legionaries. They did not know how to properly defend themselves against raging barbarians. It was only a matter of time before the Iceni crushed the town like kindling. And given the lack of mercy shown to the unfortunate people of Camulodunum, she had little doubt that there would be no prisoners taken this day, either.

The Iceni queen was said to be pitiless and vengeful. Baella might have liked her if the invasion hadn’t made the rest of her task so complicated.

She turned a corner in the middle of the city and kept running. Her portal-and the safety it provided-were only a few blocks away in a plain, squat wooden building. It waited in a hole she had dug into the floor and covered up with boards. She would close it when she left so that no one could follow. Not that the Iceni would bother with it, they would be too busy pillaging and razing the town to stop and look for secret doorways.

At last she caught sight of the building. A tendril of smoke curled up from the roof of the place, but it seemed intact. Good. She had cast a psalm on the entire structure to make casual passers-by overlook it, and it had done its job. In any case, the building itself was not important. It could have burned to the ground for all she cared, just as long as her portal remained unharmed. As the warmth of the sun touched her back, she ran for all she was worth to the door.

The sound of hooves on pavement stopped her in her tracks, and she whirled around to see a figure leading a familiar horse toward her. It was hers, and with Ramah still tied to its back! But any joy she felt at the sight was quickly crushed when she realized who was leading the horse.

What in the Abyss was Headcouncil Herris doing in Londinium?

30

Lannosea walked unsteadily through the city, her adrenaline fading with every step, taking her hope and sense of purpose with it. She had come through the wall hoping to find an honorable death, but had met only brigands and thieves. Most of the Roman legionaries would be at the wall fighting her people. But the men who kidnapped her had dragged her deep into Londinium, far away from where the two armies battled. Now she was not sure which direction to take. All would lead to one wall or another eventually, so she chose her directions at random and trudged through the wreckage, trying to ignore the sharp pain in her abdomen. It flared like a glowing dagger in her womb.

It was Dago. The whoreson had punched her hard in the abdomen several times before he tried to rape her, and she was not far enough along that such a thing could not be devastating. In truth, she had considered a similar situation not long ago, knowing that a solid blow to her belly could end her problems. She had decided against such action due to the risks. Losing the baby could well kill her, too. Worse, she would die with the stain of the Roman’s bastard child between her legs, and everyone would know what had happened to her. That, she could not have, and so she abandoned the idea.

Now it seemed she would die exactly as she had feared, dishonored and weak, with the blood of a Roman bastard on her thighs. Dago had negated her decision. May the gods spit on his bones.

She was attacked more than once on her way through the city, but each time her superior training won out and she sent the bandits to meet their gods. Thus were the benefits of being a princess to a militant people. In truth, she welcomed the attacks, secretly hoping she would find someone who proved stronger. Maybe then the gods would see fit to grant her an honorable death. In addition, the combat provided more adrenaline, which helped to mask the pain. For a time, at least. After each fight ended, she found it more and more difficult to keep walking. Yet somehow she managed, refusing to die helpless in the street like a bitch with a litter of pups.

But even as she walked, she knew. Sooner or later she would collapse in the street, too weak to fight. What if a legionary found her, then? Would he kill her clean? Or would he be like Dago, preferring sport before blood? Pained as she was, she did not think she could stomach having another Roman inside her even as she lost the bastard child of the first rape. Far better to meet her end on her own terms.

Lannosea reached into the folds of her tunic and removed her dagger. It would do nicely. She placed it over her heart just as another spasm of pain wracked her body, sending her to her knees. The dagger fell from fingers that could not hold it, and Lannosea fell to the cobbled street. Her face lay in the dirt as her belly twisted inside her, wringing her out like a dirty rag. Something warm and wet ran down the insides of her thighs, and she knew beyond doubt she would not rise again.

The dagger lay a few inches away, but it might as well have been a mile.

So this is how I die, she thought. They will find me laying in the street with blood on my thighs and a half formed child between my legs. A weak sob escaped her clenched jaw, accompanied by a tear that wound its way across her cheek. This is not how I wanted to die, she thought.

Across the street, a blurry figure emerged from an equally blurry doorway and started walking toward her. Though little more than a shadow, she could tell it was a man of medium height and build with dark, shoulder length hair. The details of his face were lost in her fading vision, but she caught the soft glint of steel at his hip and on his chest. Armor. A legionary, just as she had feared.

“Please kill me quickly,” she said, or tried to say. All that came from her lips was a hoarse croak.

The man reached her side and knelt in the street, putting his hand on her thigh.

“Don’t,” she croaked. “Please, no…”

Then the world faded.

***

Taras watched as the woman walked through the city. Blood drenched her clothing like rain, but most of it belonged to those who dared accost her. It soon became obvious that she did not need any help from him, and several times he turned to go, knowing his tunnel would only remain accessible for a short while longer.

But every time he tried to leave, he soon found himself turning around to follow her again. There was something about her that he could not let go. Perhaps it was the strength of her determination. Gravely injured and in obvious pain, the woman somehow kept on her feet through sheer force of will. Taras found he admired her spirit, even though he could do nothing for her injuries. Ridiculous as it was, he felt he owed it to her-or perhaps to Mary-to see the woman through.

Every once in a while he would catch someone stalking after her. He killed these people as quietly as he could, unwilling to let her know that he watched over her. He recalled her expression back in the building when she first saw him. She had seen his fangs, as well as the blood on his chin. The look of horror on her face left no doubt that she had guessed his nature. He didn’t think she would appreciate knowing a Bachiyr watched her back.

He looked up at his latest victim, a large man who had fondled himself as he watched her stumble down the street, and realized how much time he’d spent trailing the woman. The eastern sky flared a bright orange, and the first rays of the sun would reach the top of the nearby building in a few minutes. He could not wait any longer lest the sun find him out in the open. He would have to return to his shelter and hope the woman made it out of the city alive.

Taras turned to take one final look at the woman and froze.

She lay curled into a ball in the middle of the street moaning in pain. Even from this distance the blood on her thighs was easy to see. It stood out against the contrast of her pale Iceni skin. More blood lay in the dirt between her legs. Dago hurt her badly, he thought. He deserved what I gave him, and more. In the middle of the blood, he thought he saw something else. A lump? A piece of flesh? Probably just a stone in the street. Whatever it was, it was covered with blood, as well. Her blood, most likely.

He saw movement out of the corner of his eye, and turned to see two legionaries advancing on her from either side of the street. One of them reached her and knelt in the street, and Taras felt a swell of pride. In another life he had served in the Roman legion, and his love for Rome had demanded he serve well and honorably so as not to besmirch her good name. As representatives of the greatest empire in the world, these men would have honor. They would aid the woman. He could stop worrying.

One of them grabbed her thigh and rolled her on her back. The other legionary grinned, then reached down to grab the woman’s ankles and spread them wide while the first fumbled with the laces of his breeches.

No, Taras thought. Has the Legion truly sunk so low?

Before he realized what he was doing, Taras ran through the street. He barreled into the first man and knocked him to the ground, smiling when he heard several of the man’s ribs crack. He whipped his dagger from his belt and jammed it in the man’s chest as he rolled by, driving it so deep the tip bit into the cobbles of the street beneath him.

Then he changed course and ran at the second. Warning bells in the back of his mind screamed at him to look up at the sky, but he ignored them. The second legionary reached for the sword at his hip, but Taras was faster. He extended his claws and ripped into the would-be rapist like a badger, shredding flesh and spraying blood.

His victim screamed and held up his hands to ward off the frenzied blows, but the thought of what the man was about to do to the helpless woman brought out Taras’s brutal Bachiyr side, and he tore into the man’s forearms, ripping the flesh as easily as if it was made of papyrus. He didn’t stop at the man’s forearms. In seconds, he worked his way to the Roman’s torso, ripping through his metal breastplate and tearing into the man’s chest. Soon the screams died down into a pitiful, pain-filled wail. Shortly after that, the man was silent.

Taras continued to tear into the body, not realizing or caring that he was dead. It wasn’t until his claws struck the cobbles underneath that he realized what he had done. Beneath him, the man lay in a lump of blood and gore that was barely recognizable as human. Blood pooled out from the mutilated corpse, forming a large puddle in the street. At the center of the puddle knelt Taras, his hands and arms covered in blood.

“I knew you had it in you,” said a voice behind him.

Taras whirled. There, not ten paces distant, was Theron.

***

Herris! Here? Damn him! Baella’s eyes narrowed as she watched Herris walk the horse through the burning city. For once, she was thankful for the fires that raged through Londinium. The smell of smoke stung her nostrils, but it would hide her scent from Herris, as well. If she could just get close enough without him seeing her, she might be able to grab the reins and run. This close to sunrise, she doubted Herris would come after her. It was a slim hope, but sunrise was too close for her to plan anything elaborate.

Herris passed her location-hiding behind the only remaining wall of a blacksmith’s shop-and kept going. He hadn’t seen her. Excellent.

Baella stepped out from the cover of the wall and crept up behind him. She resisted the urge to use a Psalm of Silence to mask her footsteps. With all the noise in the city, Herris would sense such a thing the moment she used it. Far better to rely on her own stealth, cultivated over four thousand years of hiding from agents of the very being she now stalked. Her skill should be enough to get her close.

It wasn’t.

Herris stopped, lifted his head, and made a show of sniffing the air. “I knew I would find you here,” he said.

Baella stopped in her tracks. Curse his ears! “Hello, Herris.”

Herris turned to face her, the horse’s rope gripped tightly in his left hand. She had not seen Herris in over a thousand years, but he had not changed. His eyes still shone red in the pre-dawn light, and he still had the same head of short, brown hair. His skin seemed a little lighter, and his frame had filled out a bit, but otherwise he looked exactly as she remembered him, although the bemused expression on his face was new.

“That’s Headcouncil Herris," he said. “You should try to remember that, Baella.”

Baella spat in the street, showing Herris what she thought of his title.

“As you will,” Herris said, his eyes unreadable as ever. “Count yourself fortunate that I do not have time to kill you right now. The sun is near and Ramah is due back in the Halls of the Bachiyr. You are welcome to follow us inside, if you wish.”

“He’s mine, Herris,” Baella said. “He’s always been mine.”

Herris stared back at her, the glow of his eyes rivaling the flames around them. Power thrummed through the man, so loud she could almost hear it. It crackled from him like lightning around a thundercloud and made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. His expression never changed, but the shift in the air between them was unmistakable. “Unless you are prepared to take him from me by force, I think you are mistaken,” he said.

Baella almost did it. The sight of Ramah slung over the rump of her horse nearly broke her. She had come so close, so gods-damned close! She checked the sudden urge to launch herself at Herris and wrap her hands around his ancient, smug throat. She was just as strong as he, despite his bravado. But he was right. The dawn had come. The edge of the sun had already crested the horizon, casting the tops of the building into early morning light. A fight with Herris would take far too long, and the sun would kill all three of them before a victor could emerge. And that would be a terrible waste.

She took a step backward, raising her hands toward the sky to show him she would not fight. Not today, anyway. The air around him calmed, no longer vibrating with barely-contained energy, and she knew he’d relaxed a bit. Never completely, though. Not that one. Not while I am still near enough to cause trouble. She took another step backward.

“I will have him eventually, Herris,” she said, unable to keep the fury from her voice. “You can’t keep me from him forever.”

“As always, Baella, you are welcome to come into the Halls. The Father would welcome you to our ranks. You would even supplant Ramah as Second of the Council. Of course, you would have to kill him first, but I should think that a small price to pay, considering the gains you would make.”

She didn’t miss the sneer he placed on her name, or the intent. Herris had wanted to remind her that he knew, as if she could ever forget. No matter. If he had not told Ramah or any of the other Councilors the truth in four thousand years, she doubted he would do it now. “Someday, Herris. I will take a great deal of pleasure in killing you.”

“Until then,” Herris said, smiling that insufferable grin, “good bye.” With that, the oldest Bachiyr in the world turned and walked away from her. He didn’t even try to guard his back; so secure was he in his belief that she would not risk an attack. It would be easy, and fast. One blow in the right place and she would be rid of Herris-and very likely the Council of Thirteen-forever. If she missed, Herris would not hesitate to attack, and the resulting delay would kill all three of them. Was it worth the risk?

One blow.

In precisely the right spot.

Baella cursed and turned away, headed for her own portal.

31

Taras sprang to his feet, his claws already out and ready. Theron! The last time he’d fought Theron, they had been in Jerusalem and Taras had not yet come to realize his many new abilities. Back then Theron had escaped while Taras struggled with Ramah. Even Taras knew it was Ramah that sent Theron running, and not him. But this time, the two were alone, and Taras meant to make a better impression.

Theron, for his part, had not moved an inch. He hadn’t even drawn the blade at his hip or grown his claws. No matter. Taras would kill him regardless of whether he was armed or not. Honor had no place between them.

“Finally,” Taras said. He took a step toward the oddly calm Bachiyr. The time had come to avenge Mary’s death, and Abraham’s, and every person Taras had killed in the last twenty-seven years because of what Theron had made of him. “It is past time I killed you, Theron, and Ramah is not here to cover your escape this time.”

“Put those away,” Theron replied. “I will not fight you, Taras. Neither of us has the time for it.” He nodded toward the east. Taras didn’t need to ask what he meant. He could already feel warmth on the back of his neck as the sun rose over the horizon. Once it gained enough sky, the shadows of the city would no longer be able to protect him. Theron was right, neither of them had time.

“In any case,” Theron continued, “if I wanted to kill you I’d have done it while your back was turned.”

True enough, Taras realized. He looked again at the rising light behind him, wondering if he might be able to strike fast and kill Theron before the sun rose. Probably not, he decided, unless he was willing to die this morning, as well. He glared at Theron, then put his claws away. Revenge would have to wait.

“What do you want?” Taras asked. “And be quick about it.”

Theron took a step forward, a crooked grin on his face. “I want to know where you will spend the day.”

Taras snorted. Of course he did. “I think not.”

“You misunderstand me,” Theron replied. “I seek shelter from the sun, the same as you. I did not have enough time to make my own before we were captured by Ramah, but you have been here for years, at least according to Baella. You must have a nice, safe place to wait out the day.”

Taras nodded. “Indeed I do. But I’ll not share it with you.”

Theron’s confident smile grew. “Oh, I think you will. You’ll have to. I will not allow you to leave this street until you agree to share your sanctuary.”

“You might find that harder than you think,” Taras replied. “I am not the same Bachiyr that I was in Jerusalem. You will not kill me easily, I assure you.”

“I don’t need to kill you,” Theron replied. “The sun will be up in a few moments. I only need to keep you busy until then.”

Taras swore under his breath. Theron spoke the truth, of course. The sun would kill him soon enough if he didn’t get off the street. “But then you would die, too.”

“So I would. But without your sanctuary I will die anyway, so it really doesn’t matter. This way, I at least get to take you with me.”

Damn. Taras looked over his shoulder at the bright tip of the sun, which had just crested the hills to the east. The light stung his eyes, but soon it would do much more than that. A few minutes after it rose fully into the sky, Taras would be nothing more than a pile of ashes in a city full of them. But at least Theron would die, too. Taras turned back toward his Bachiyr creator. The older vampire’s evil was great, indeed. He could do the entire world a service by letting the sun burn them both.

There is always a choice, even if it is not always a good choice.

Taras had made his a long time ago. He had chosen to live rather than to die, and he’d done so again earlier, when he forced his body up from the metal rod Ramah had used to impale him. But this was different. In both previous cases, his death would have accomplished nothing except to remove him from the world. But now, with Theron’s life hanging on Taras’s decision, he could finally die with dignity, and do the world a favor at the same time.

Taras made his choice.

“So be it, then. I would rather die burning in the sunlight than share my sanctuary with you. At least I will rid the world of your presence.” Taras advanced on his oldest enemy, claws once again at the ready. Now that he had a purpose, he was anxious to get started. In the back of his mind, he wondered how long it would take the sun to kill them and how much it would hurt. He’d never seen a Bachiyr burn to death before. With luck, he would get to see Theron burning, as well. That would be a wonderful last sight.

“I thought that would be your answer,” Theron said, still smiling. “But you are forgetting something.”

Taras paused, suspecting a trick. “What?”

“Her,” Theron pointed to the woman on the ground. “I saw you protect her. I’ve been following you for a while now. She is not dead. Not yet. Would you let her die in the street like a dog?”

Taras looked over at the woman. She lay in the street amidst a growing pool of blood, both hers and the legionaries’. Her right arm was outstretched, reaching for her dagger, which lay a foot beyond her reach. She looked dead, but her heart still beat a faint rhythm in her chest. The heartbeat was weak, but it was there. Even so, she would not be alive for much longer. The brigands had seen to it she would die a slow, painful death, but there was nothing he could do to help her.

“She is dead no matter what I do,” Taras replied. “Stop wasting what time we have left and let’s get on with it.” He sprang forward, closing the distance between them in the blink of an eye. Before Theron had even raised a hand to defend himself, Taras had his claws pressed into his throat. They drew a thin line of blood from the flesh, but Theron seemed not to notice. He didn’t even move.

“She doesn’t have to die,” Theron said.

“What?”

“She doesn’t. I can save her.”

“What are you playing at?” Taras kept the tip of his claw at Theron’s throat, just in case it was a trick.

“Do you remember how I healed you in Jerusalem,” Theron asked. “After that fool Gordian had you stretched on the rack?”

Taras did remember. He had felt so strong and so indebted to Theron, whom he knew then as Ephraim, that he had raided his dead friend’s gold and paid half of Jerusalem to vote for Jesus’ execution over Barabbas. It was not something he remembered fondly. “You should have let me die,” he said. “Your damned healing touch has brought me nothing but regret.”

“I probably should have,” Theron agreed. “But I made you an offer, and you accepted it. Jesus’ life for your own. Living was your choice. What would her choice be?” He pointed to the woman in the street. “Do you think she would choose death? Or do you think she would rather see the sun rise tomorrow? Is your pride worth her life? And please hurry. The sun is starting to tip the lower buildings.”

Taras looked again at the woman in the street. He’d gone to a great deal of trouble to try and keep her alive. Not because she was useful or important, but because he felt he needed to help her, somehow. Because it was the right thing to do. “How do I know you will not try to kill us once we arrive at my sanctuary?”

“What if I gave you my word?”

“I would say your word is worth less than the dirt under my feet.”

“Then I have nothing else to offer you,” Theron said. “And you are wasting time.”

Taras stared at the woman, listening to the shallow sound of her breathing, and asked himself if he had the right to make that choice for her. To allow Theron to die would be a good thing, even if it meant his own death. But could he die with a clean conscience if killing Theron meant she had to die, as well? Granted, his morality had become skewed over the last three decades. Maybe Theron’s death was worth her life, but it felt wrong to leave her to such a fate.

A gleam of light across the street caught his attention. The sun had breached the rooftops and now shone brightly on the surface of a shiny coin. Dawn had arrived. He was out of time. “Very well,” he said. “I will accept your terms. But I will have your word that you will leave tomorrow night and that you will leave both of us alive and unharmed.”

“I thought my word was worth less than dirt,” Theron said.

“Do I have it or would you prefer to die?”

“I swear by The Father that I will leave your sanctum tomorrow night and will not harm either of you. May he judge me unfit to live should I break my oath. There, will that do?”

Taras nodded. “I will be watching you, Theron. If you try to harm her in any way I will kill you, regardless of what will become of her.”

“Save your threats. We should be going now.”

Already the shaft of sunlight had moved several feet deeper into the street, soon it would reach the woman and Taras would have to burn himself to save her. He hesitated a moment, unsure of whether saving Theron was the right course of action, then he scooped the woman up in his arms and ran toward his shelter.

Theron ran alongside him, a satisfied smile on his face. “I knew you couldn’t do it, Roman. That is the difference between you and the rest of the Bachiyr. I would have been in my sanctuary long before you could have forced me into a deal.”

Taras did not reply. He had no interest in entering this debate with Theron. Instead he concentrated on getting to his hiding place. The going was difficult, as he had to dodge several spots where the sun shone on his path, but fortunately it wasn’t far.

“Do you even know her name?” Theron pressed.

Taras ignored him.

“I thought not,” Theron said, shaking his head. “You would risk everything, even death, for someone you don’t even know.”

“And you would kill a complete stranger for no reason at all,” Taras countered.

“As should you. You are Bachiyr, after all. Whether you are willing to admit it to yourself or not. I saw what you did to that legionary. There was nothing left of him but pulp and blood. What’s more you enjoyed it, to judge by the look on your face.”

“Spare me your cackling. I-”

“Do you deny that you enjoyed it? Tell me true, and I will leave you be.”

Taras opened his mouth to argue, but closed it again. Theron was right, he had enjoyed killing the legionary. He didn’t know if it was because of his nature or because the bastard deserved it, but he could not deny the elation he felt when the Roman’s blood sprayed him in the face. “I am not you,” was all he said.

“The truest thing you have said all night!” Theron replied, laughing. “You are starting to remind me of Ephraim. Near the end of his life, he turned into a fool, too.”

Taras grunted, unwilling to dignify the remark with words.

Soon they arrived at the door to the building that hid the smuggler’s tunnel. So far it seemed unscathed from the ballistae attacks and the invading Iceni, but that would change soon enough. The sounds of men screaming and dying grew closer by the second, it seemed. It would not take long for the barbarians to reach this place. When they did, they would probably loot the building and then set it alight, which seemed to be their preference.

He set the woman down and allowed the nail of his right index finger to grow, then he stabbed it into his left wrist, waiting for the blood to pool. Once the blood formed a tiny puddle on his wrist, he dipped his finger into it and brought it to the door, tracing a rune he had learned in Greece. The door opened into the street, and he picked the woman up and ran inside.

Theron came along behind, his eyes on the door. “The Locking Psalm,” he said. “You have not been idle these twenty seven years.”

Taras walked to the back of the room and lay the woman down. Then he sifted through the dust on the floor until he found an edge. He strained for a moment, but soon lifted up a slab of stone several paces wide and over a foot thick, revealing the tunnel entrance. He propped up the stone with a thick metal rod he kept nearby for just that purpose, then grabbed the woman and carried her into the shadows. Theron followed, removing the rod and letting the stone close back upon the entrance. The tunnel plunged into blackness.

Taras could see fine, however, and he knew that Theron could, as well. He stepped aside, indicating that the older vampire should pass.

“Don’t trust me at your back, Roman?” Theron asked.

“No,” Taras replied bluntly.

“Very well.” Theron stepped around Taras and took the lead, following the walls of rough-hewn stone deeper into the earth.

“So you have saved this woman-who is an Iceni princess, by the way,” Theron said. “Now what? You will still be Bachiyr. Her blood will still sing to you. And when she wakes up she will either try to kill you or run from you. Either way, you are not likely to receive anything in the way of thanks.”

“Her thanks are not needed.”

“She will not bring Mary back to you,” Theron said, looking over his shoulder and nodding at the swatch of blue cloth on Taras’s belt. “No matter how many you save,” he continued, “it will never bring her back.”

Taras stopped, the muscles on his arms tightening to the point of pain. His vision swam in a red haze as he stared at the back of the creature who had murdered his Mary all those years ago. The urge to drop the woman in his arms to the floor and drive his claws into Theron’s back was so strong he actually started to let go of the Iceni princess.

He caught himself just in time, and tightened his grip on her. If he killed Theron now, the woman would die. Of course, Theron knew that as well, which is probably why the bastard mentioned it. He swallowed his anger and his retort, preferring to walk in silence rather than goad Theron into mocking him further.

Up ahead, Theron chuckled.

“Enough,” Taras said, laying the woman gently on the ground. “We have gone far enough to be safe. Heal her, as you agreed.”

Theron stopped and turned around, favoring the walls of the tunnel with a skeptical glance. “How deep are we?”

“Deep enough that the sun will not find us.”

“And the humans?”

“Have been unable to locate this place for over a decade. I doubt they will find it today.”

“Very well.” Theron stepped up to the injured Iceni and knelt next to her head. He bent down and put his mouth on her throat. The woman moaned, and Taras grabbed Theron by his shoulder and jerked him upward. Two bright red holes marred the skin of the woman’s throat.

“What are you doing?” Taras asked.

“Healing her, as we agreed.”

“It looks like you’re about to feed on her.”

“I am. I did this to you, too. Did you never wonder why you healed so quickly in Jerusalem?”

Taras realized he was grinding his teeth, and forced himself to calm down. “You will not turn her into one of us. I will not allow it.” He pulled Theron’s shoulder back, but the older vampire shrugged out of his grip and glared back.

“How did you survive thirty years while knowing so little?” Theron asked.

“If you don’t begin to make sense soon-”

Theron got to his feet and shoved Taras’s hand away. “For her to change, she would have to drink Bachiyr blood. As long as she doesn’t do that, she will be fine. As you would have been had I not spilled some of my own blood in your mouth by mistake. Your fault, by the way. You stabbed me in the back. The blood from that wound is what fell on your face. You have only yourself to blame for your change.”

You have only yourself to blame, he thought. I did this to myself? Taras looked from Theron to the woman on the ground. “I was not already a Bachiyr that night?”

“Hardly,” Theron sneered. “You were a human with enhanced physical abilities, nothing more. The effects would have worn off in a month or so.”

A month or so. He would have been human again in a month or so. In his anger over Mary’s death and his role in the crucifixion of the Nazarene, he had sealed his own fate. Twenty-seven years of hiding, running, and killing, all because he stabbed Theron in the back. Yet he would do it again, he knew. Theron had deserved to die that night. Who could have known he would live through a sword in his back? If he had it to do all over again, however, this time he would close his mouth.

“So all you have to do in order to heal her is feed on her?” Taras asked.

“Correct.”

Taras scowled. “I could have done that.”

“Of course you could have,” Theron said. “Now that you know, you still could. But it would mean breaking our deal, leaving me free to act on my own while you tried.”

“Get on with it, then.”

Theron barked a laugh, then knelt by the woman again. Just before he sank his teeth into her throat, he looked up at Taras and grinned. “You always were easy to manipulate, Roman.” Then the renegade Bachiyr bit the woman on the neck and began to drink.

After a perhaps a minute, he lifted his head from her throat. Blood dripped from his jaws onto the punctured, swollen flesh of her neck.

“Is it done?” Taras asked.

Theron nodded. “It is. When she wakes up she will be completely healed.”

“Good.” Taras drove his clawed hand into Theron’s back, making sure to keep his mouth shut tight.

***

Boudica stared at Heanua’s body, lying in a pool of half-dried blood. “I warned you,” she said. Strangely, she felt no pity. Heanua had gone against her will and chosen her course, with predictable results. “I told you the Bachiyr was dangerous.”

The sun shone through the bars of the cage, casting her dead daughter in a surreal, orange light. She looked peaceful, almost angelic. The effect was marred somewhat by the shadows of the cage bars, which striped the corpse at regular intervals. The bloody red tear in her throat also ruined the illusion.

She would have to burn the body before nightfall in order to make certain her daughter did not rise again as one of the Bachiyr. To think she had survived being raped and beaten by the Romans only to die in a foolish attempt to make a deal with the dead. Such a waste. Particularly since Lannosea was surely dead by now, as well. Who would assume leadership of the Iceni if anything happened to Boudica?

She shook her head and turned away. The city of Londinium lay in smoldering ruins before her, spread out across the horizon like a huge, gray stain on the country side. Smoke hung thick in the morning air, heavy with the smells of charred wood and burned flesh. Her men marched through the streets, putting any survivors to the sword. The screams of the dying dotted the air, punctuated by the sounds of her army setting up for the day ahead. To judge by the sky, it would be bright and cloudless.

There would be little time to rest. Once her men finished their grim work in the city, the Iceni army would have one day to recuperate, then they would be off again. Boudica was determined to take back as much of Brittania as she could before Nero mustered a coordinated military response. They had made it this far slaughtering primarily civilians. Suetonius had abandoned the city before they arrived, and had taken most of his troops with him. Had he stayed, the battle would not have been so easy. Though she had little doubt the eventual outcome would have been the same. She looked across the burning remains of the city, as if she could see past it to the countryside beyond, and silently wondered when Suetonius would strike back.

Cyric appeared at her side. He took a knee, then bowed his head in respect.

“Did you find him?” she asked.

Cyric stood and nodded. “Captain Haegre has been located. He and his men were on the northern wall. Haegre claims it was Heanua herself who sent him there, on your orders.”

“Mine?”

“He gave me this.” Cyric handed her a folded sheaf of parchment. The seal had been broken, but it was still easy to read. Heanua had gone into her tent and forged the document, using Boudica’s own seal to make it look official.

“This is my large seal,” she noted. “From my tent. But you knew that already. Didn’t you, Cyric?”

He nodded. “I noticed it the moment he gave me the parchment.”

“I’m sure you did.” Boudica looked back at the seal. “Haegre should have noticed it, too.”

“He is young, my queen, and not terribly experienced. That is why you left him behind, if I remember correctly.”

“True enough,” she sighed. “It would have been a moot point if she had not been so stubborn. Still…”

“What are your orders?”

Boudica turned to look at Heanua’s corpse. Blood had pooled on the floor of the cage and dripped onto the ground beneath it. A cloud of flies, not satisfied with the many bodies in and around the city, buzzed madly about the cage, feasting on Heanua’s flesh.

“Lock him in the cage with my daughter’s body,” she said, “so he might look upon the cost of his disobedience.”

Cyric saluted, then turned to carry out her orders.

“Cyric,” Boudica called.

He stopped and turned to face her. “Yes, my queen?”

“Once you have locked Haegre in the cage, set it on fire.”

“Yes, my queen,” he said, and turned to leave.

Boudica turned to regard Heanua’s body one last time. With Lannosea undoubtedly dead, as well, she no longer had an heir. Perhaps after the war she would remarry. She was young enough to bear more children, and she had no shortage of suitors. In any case, she owed it to her people to provide an heir.

That is a problem for another day, she thought. She turned away from the body and walked toward her tent, her mind already on the next city. The dead could wait. Suetonius would not.

32

Taras drove his other fist into Theron’s back, as well. The claws tore through Theron’s flesh and emerged from his chest in a spray of gore. Theron sputtered and cursed, and tried to squirm free, but Taras held him fast. “This is for Mary,” he said.

“We had a deal, Roman,” Theron replied, a trickle of red pouring from his mouth.

“The deal was that you would not harm either of us,” Taras replied. “Nothing was said about me killing you.”

Theron chuckled. It came out a thick, wet gurgle. The sound of it set Taras on edge. He drove his knee into the small of Theron’s back.

“What is funny?” he asked.

“You,” Theron replied. “This is the second time you have attacked me when my back was turned.” He spat a wad of blood on the floor near the woman’s shoulder. “You are a true Bachiyr, after all. You just don’t realize it.”

Taras stared at the blood pooling on the floor, then lifted his eyes to his claws. They dug into Theron’s back, leaving holes that oozed crimson in neat little lines. Was Theron right? Was he a coward? Did he only attack when Theron’s back was turned because he knew he could not defeat the older vampire in an honest fight?

He looked at the woman lying in the dust, and his mind traveled back to Mary’s tomb. The two looked nothing alike, but he now realized why he had saved the Iceni princess. Her spirit and determination had reminded him of Mary. He could not have borne to see her come to harm, not when he could do something to help.

But in the end, the woman owed her life to Theron, not Taras.

Taras pulled his claws from Theron’s back and watched as the other vampire fell to his hands and knees. The wounds were not fatal-not to a Bachiyr, at least-but they would slow Theron down long enough for Taras to take the woman and leave. He had no idea where he would take her, but he would not leave her here with Theron, who would probably feed on her to heal himself if the opportunity arose.

He reached down and picked her up, then rose to his feet. Theron remained on his hands and knees, dripping blood onto the dusty floor of the tunnel from eight holes in his chest. Already the flow had lessened. Soon the holes would close completely and Theron would fall into a healing sleep.

“I am not you,” Taras said, “and I am not afraid of you. I would kill you right now if I didn’t owe you her life. Live on, then. Walk your black path if you like, but don’t come looking for me again. The next time we meet, I will kill you.”

He turned to leave. The tunnel would take him outside the city and exit in a heavily wooded area. He would leave the Iceni woman near the tunnel exit, then double back to one of the secure chambers to wait for nightfall. If Theron happened by during the day, Taras would make good on his threat. If not, he had just allowed a great evil to walk free. Would Mary have understood? Maybe. Maybe not. He wasn’t sure he understood it himself.

Theron’s weak, gravelly laughter followed him down the tunnel.

“That was too easy, Roman,” Theron said.

Taras ignored him and rounded the corner, the Iceni woman cradled in his arms.

He walked the length of the tunnel, ignoring several doors along the way. These doors only opened into rooms where the smugglers hid their cache until it was time to move it into the city. He had killed the smugglers several years ago, but the rooms still contained casks of wine, spoiled exotic foods, spices from the east, and even weapons and armor. Enough wealth lay in the tunnel to make a human’s eyes grow wide at the thought of a life filled with every possible luxury, but Taras had no use for any of it, and so he left it where it was.

There was one room in the tunnel that Taras did think useful. In it, the smugglers kept a trio of straw pallets, some dried goods, extra clothing, and most important of all, a freshwater well.

The woman stirred in his arms, and he looked down to see she had awakened somewhat. Her half-open eyes stared up at him.

“Where am I?” she asked.

“You are safe.”

“You’re a Roman?” Her eyes widened a bit, but still only managed to open three quarters of the way. Taras hadn’t realized he’d spoken to her in Roman, but it didn’t matter. Roman was the language most comfortable to his tongue, and thus the one he used most often.

“I was,” he replied. Not anymore. Now I’m not even human.

Her eyes closed. “I was a princess,” she said, her head lolling back in his arms.

“I know.”

She opened her eyes again. “The baby…”

Taras shook his head, remembering the bloody mess back in the street. There had been a lump amidst all that blood. His eyes weren’t playing tricks on him. “Gone,” he said. “The baby is gone.”

She sighed, then her head rolled backward and went limp, bouncing along as he walked. He couldn’t tell if she was happy about the baby or sad, but he supposed it didn’t really matter. Dead is dead.

Except for me, he thought.

33

Lannosea awoke in a dark, moldy place, which surprised her. The last thing she remembered was lying in the street, waiting for the pain in her belly to kill her as a Roman legionary approached. She must have lost consciousness afterward, because her next recollection was of a blonde Roman carrying her through a tunnel. He’d told her she was safe, but how could she ever be safe in Roman hands? Now he was gone, and all she could see was a dark room with a wooden door. Bright light shone around the doorframe, and the sounds of birds and other animals came through it.

She rose to her feet, amazed at the fact that nothing hurt. The brigands who’d tried to rape her had punched her repeatedly in the belly, causing the baby…

The baby! She looked at her belly, marveling at how flat and smooth it was. She checked the area between her legs and caught her breath. The blood on her thighs was gone. Someone had cleaned her up and left her by the door.

But who?

The door looked solid and heavy, but the smell of clean air that flowed from under it was too great a temptation. She put her hand on the wood and shoved. It swung outward much easier than she had expected. Overbalanced, she fell through the doorway and into the foliage beyond, landing in a clump of tall grass speckled with red and yellow flowers. A bee buzzed away, angry at the interruption of its work.

All around her were trees. Maples, birches, and oaks surrounded the door on all sides. The sounds of the woods came at her from all directions. To her left, a mouse rustled in the dried leaves. Up ahead, a falcon flapped it’s wings as it coasted through the sky. Behind her, more bees buzzed and droned in their never ending search for nectar.

In addition to sounds, the smells of the woods came to her nose in force. The musty reek of a bird’s nest, the earthy smell of the forest floor, and the fresh, pleasant smell of green leaves filtered through the air, magnified a thousand times their normal strength. And hidden among the natural smells of the woods, like a viper in a basket of rope, was one other.

Smoke.

Lannosea followed the smell of smoke to the edge of the woods, marveling at how clearly she could pinpoint it. She’d never been able to do that before, at least not to such an extent. During the time she was pregnant smells had been magnified to nearly intolerable levels. Was this an extension of that, perhaps? Or would that have changed with the death of the baby? For that matter, how was she even alive?

The Roman, she thought. He had something to do with it. I know it. But why?

She came to the edge of the woods and peered through the trees. A huge scorch mark marred the earth about a hundred yards distant, with a few charred timbers sticking up here and there from the ashes. People moved among the timbers, collecting whatever items they found and, every once in a while, raising a sword to strike at something on the ground. She recognized their garb as that of her people.

Which meant the scorch mark was all that remained of Londinium. The Iceni had won, her mother had razed the city. Her people were searching the rubble for survivors and putting them to the sword, just as they had done in Camulodunum. Her mother’s orders. None would be spared, not even the children. Her hand instinctively went to her belly. With the curse of the Roman bastard gone, she could rejoin her people and take her place as princess of the Iceni.

The image of her mother’s eyes came to her, then. Her mother had not tried to stop her, though she surely knew Lannosea’s plan. Why had she let her daughter march to her death? The answer came to her as soon as the question entered her mind. Honor. Her pregnancy dishonored her mother as well as herself. Lannosea’s death would have been convenient for the queen. The fact should have made her sad, but it did not.

As another soldier raised his sword, she heard the cry of a child. The cry was silenced as the soldier brought the sword down. Even from this distance, Lannosea heard the wet thud as the sword sliced into flesh, and caught the sudden shriek as the life on the receiving end of the blade was extinguished.

Killing children. Where was the honor in that? Her mother was driven by vengeance, not justice, and Lannosea and Heanua had gone along with her plans because neither could tell the difference. Until now.

Lannosea shook her head. She could not go back to her people. She did not belong with them anymore. Heanua would have to assume leadership of the Iceni, if there were any of them left to lead once the Romans came. Her mother led her people onto a path that would only end either when Rome or the Iceni were destroyed. Despite the smoldering ruin that was Londinium, she knew Rome would eventually prove the victor. Suetonius was probably planning his attack even now.

“Good luck, mother,” she whispered. “I hope you find what you need.”

With that, Lannosea turned her back on her people and walked away. Brittania was a large country. Surely there was a place for her somewhere.

***

Taras watched her go from the shadows of the tunnel. The dawn had made him weak and drowsy, but he fought the urge to sleep long enough to see the princess step through the doorway and into the woods beyond. It took several hours and used up a considerable amount of blood, but he refused to sleep until he knew she was all right. Now he knew. Theron would not catch her. It was up to her what she would do next.

He had done his part. She was safe.

He thought of Theron, and Ramah, and Baella, and all the other Bachiyr in the world who would love to see him dead, and felt a stab of self pity. The princess might be safe, but he would never be able to say the same for himself.

He reached into his pack and pulled out the strip of blue cloth, running it between his fingers and bringing it up to his nose. He liked to imagine that he could still smell Mary’s perfume on it, but it was a lie. The cloth smelled like the inside of his sack. Nothing more. At times like this, he wished he could still cry.

When sleep took him, he was still holding the scrap of cloth to his face.

***

Theron stumbled from the doorway and into the night. The sounds of the forest surrounded him. Owls, frogs, and crickets sang their songs of night to him as he trudged through the damp foliage toward the sound of voices. Mixed in with the smells of the forest was another smell. Blood. From two sources.

Lannosea and Taras had both passed this way.

Do not come looking for me again, Taras had said. The next time we meet, I will kill you.

No chance of that, he thought. I am finished with you, Roman. Theron had initially considered chasing after the tall Roman. However, his weakened state and his practical nature stopped him. He would gain nothing by going after Taras again, and in his current condition, he would probably lose. Better to keep going and live long enough to experiment with this new method of using blood. He had a feeling that altering the thickness of his wrists was just the beginning. How much more could he do that the Council had never taught anyone? The implications were staggering.

Perhaps someday I will come for you again after all, Taras.

But not any time soon. First, he would need to live long enough to develop this newfound power, and in order to ensure that, he needed blood. Lots of it. He’d lost quite a bit to Taras’s claws in the tunnel, and he would need extra blood to use in his experiments. So he continued walking among the trees, looking for any sign of people.

Before long, he spotted a flickering orange glow among the trees.

A campfire.

He stalked to the edge of the fire’s light, stopping on the edge of a clearing in the woods. Ahead, two men sat drinking around the fire. Neither of them carried anything so much as a sack of clothes. Wherever they had fled, they had done so in a hurry. The clothes on their backs were tattered and black with ash, and both of them bore numerous scrapes and scratches on their arms, legs, and faces. Running through the woods, Theron realized. Probably survivors of the Iceni attack.

Both men were injured, by the looks of it. One sported a bloodstained bandage around his head, and the other carried his left arm in a makeshift sling. They looked hungry and thirsty. They had probably not eaten since the day before. How they had managed to sneak past the Iceni surrounding the city was a mystery, especially unarmed. But they were alive, and they had blood.

That was all he needed.

When he was finished, he felt much better. The blood of two humans was more than enough to heal his wounds, with plenty left over for experimentation. He turned to the west. The Iceni army had gone that way, he was sure of it. Doubtless they would be marching down the long road the Britons called Watling Street. They could not be far away, probably less than a day ahead. Armies tend to move slowly.

Theron turned to follow them.

After all, he had made a deal with the princess.

***

Herris sat in an uncomfortable chair in Ramah’s private chambers, waiting for his second in command to regain his senses. The chair was hard, coarse stone, purely functional and utilitarian, much like all Ramah’s appointments. Nothing but the bare essentials, and even then only items chosen for their function rather than their appearance. By contrast, Herris’ own chambers were soft and plush, with every conceivable luxury. Ramah could have furnished his chambers with more style, but opted to keep the place as Spartan as possible. Stark, much like the Bachiyr himself.

When Ramah began to stir, Herris rose from the chair and stood by the side of the bed, watching as his old friend opened his eyes. Ramah sat bolt upright, reaching clawed hands for Herris’ throat almost too fast for the leader of the Bachiyr to see. But Herris, no novice to melee combat, threw up his right hand and knocked Ramah’s fingers aside.

“Calm, Ramah,” Herris said. “It is only me.”

Recognition dawned in Ramah’s eyes, and he withdrew his hands and put them at his side. “Headcouncil Herris,” he said. “I did not know it was you.”

“I should think not,” Herris replied.

“My apologies.”

“Unnecessary.” Herris waved his hand to dismiss the apology. “Do you know where you are?”

Ramah looked around the room. “I am in my chambers. How did I get here?”

“What is the last thing you remember?”

“I was trailing the traitor Theron in Londinium, as well as that blasted Roman, Taras. But Baella was there. She freed Theron while I battled her minions. I remember that Theron was captured by an army outside the city, and I was standing by a tree trying to think of a way to go in and get him when… when…”

“When what?”

“That’s where my memory stops,” Ramah said. “It must have been Baella. Only she could have snuck up behind me so effectively.”

Herris leaned over, putting his arms on Ramah’s shoulders. “Did you see her?”

“What?”

“Baella,” Herris said. “Did you see her? Could you describe her?”

Ramah blinked, then looked at his feet. “No,” he replied. “I did not see her.”

“That’s too bad,” Herris said, dropping his hands. “We would have liked to have the description to give to our Enforcers.”

“If I had captured Theron, he could have told us,” Ramah said bitterly.

“Perhaps,” Herris said, and turned to go. “Rest a while, then visit The Larder. I had the hunters bring in a fresh group of humans tonight, so there should still be plenty for you when you are ready.”

Ramah nodded, but didn’t look up. Herris couldn’t believe it, he’d never seen Ramah this way. He looked so lost, almost… defeated. But it couldn’t be helped, the disorientation Ramah felt was part of the spell she had used on him. The effects would have made him more tractable and open to suggestion when he awoke. Herris knew; he had taught the bitch the spell himself over four thousand years ago. The strange feeling would would wear off in a few nights and Ramah would be fine, Herris was just glad the Blood Letter had awakened to see him and not Baella.

He left Ramah’s chambers and closed the massive oak and steel door behind him. Only when he was outside did he allow himself a relieved smile.

Ramah hadn’t seen her face. He didn’t know.

His secret was safe.

His mood as he left Ramah’s chambers was a great deal better than it had been when he arrived.

Epilogue

Mistress Baella walked through the door to her keep. Feyo stood just inside the entryway, a large glass of red liquid in his hand. Blood for the Mistress, altered via a special psalm-developed by Mistress Baella herself-to still be viable long after the host was dead. She kept a store of it downstairs. She took the glass and quaffed it, then stormed through the room. Feyo followed close at her heels in case she needed him.

“It did not go well?” he asked.

Baella turned around and reached up to grab him by the shoulder, then she pulled, forcing him to bend down to her height. Her nails dug into his cheek as she grabbed his face and shoved it to the side, then buried her fangs in his neck.

Feyo did not struggle at all. They had been in this position many times before. He knew his role and dropped to his knees to give her a better angle. It only hurt for a moment, and afterward he slept for a night and a day as his body recuperated. But when he woke he would be as strong as five men, and faster than a deer. It was a good trade.

He realized something was wrong when he started to feel dizzy. Normally, Mistress Baella stopped drinking after a minute or so, but this time she’d gone on much, much longer.

Realization struck him like a hammer.

“No,” he whispered. He grabbed her head and tried to pull her mouth from his neck, but it was like trying to move a bronze statue. His arms bulged with muscle, enhanced by the strength she had lent him, but he could no more move her than he could move the mountain on which her keep was built.

“Why, Mistress?” he asked. His vision faded, and the strength left his limbs. In far too little time, his arms fell to his sides and his legs buckled. He simply lacked the strength to keep them functional.

“Why?” he asked again, just before he closed his eyes for the last time.

***

Baella stood and wiped the blood from her lips with the back of her sleeve. She looked down at the body. It was much paler than she thought it would be. She had not planned to kill him when she arrived, but his question irked her, and she was in no mood for it. Besides, she had a powerful psalm to work tonight, and fresh human blood was far stronger than the stuff she stored in her cellar. Tonight she would need all the extra energy she could get.

Feyo’s blood coursed through her veins, igniting her nerves along the way, and the warmth made her feel better. Her plan had failed, but there would be other opportunities. After all, she had an eternity to try again.

But for tonight she would have to content herself with something else. She strode to the stone stairs on the far side of her foyer, headed for the topmost room of her keep. There she would find the mystical items she needed for tonight’s work, as well as the means to send the effects of her psalm across vast distances.

Time to send Ramah another dream.

Content

61 A.D.

David McAfee Prologue

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Epilogue