Lucius stopped before plunging into the doorway and turned toward the goddess who’d marked him as hers. Holding his hand over his heart, where the moon she’d carved into his armor lay, he bowed to her, conveying his deepest respect and admiration. She smiled and nodded gracefully. There was nothing to do now but follow his friends and see what fate had in store for him outside.
SEVENTEEN
It took Lucius a moment for his eyes to adjust to the dark night sky of the Armenian mountains, though the stars blazed above and Selene graced them with plenty of her light. They’d emerged on a wide shoulder of the mountain. In summer, it might be a grassy meadow.
“To the right, north!” Lucius called to Tigran and Mylitos.
The cold winds whipped about them, picking up snow from the deep piles and flinging them about. Lucius hated that they had to descend out of the mountain at night. The conditions were made worse by their haste. The demons that had doggedly haunted their movements at night wouldn’t give up simply because they fled into a cave protected by the gods, especially if the protection ended at the exit.
“Centurio!” Mylitos called, pointing to the southeast.
Lucius pulled his gladius and turned. The insidious fear he’d felt before returned, threatening to choke him. Taking a deep breath of the bracingly cold mountain, he gathered himself. It didn’t matter who it was, blood drinker or Parthian or even a bear, this wasn’t the time or place for company. Out of the shadows, thin figures rose over the rise, their cloaks flapping in the cold wind. Most appeared to be unarmored. Death rolled off them, nearly overwhelming Lucius’s senses. Parthians they were not.
Before, when the di inferi came, he’d felt an uncomfortableness one gets when presented with something otherworldly or underworldly that quickly escalated to fear needing to be tightly contained. They’d felt like something from deep in Dubnos, something old that humans shouldn’t know the truth about. Something hidden way from and older than time. Now, after his brush with gods, he felt the utter alien wrongness of the creatures.
He could feel them coming, feel them advancing in a wave, shifting over an uneven shore. At this range, he could almost feel the individuals in the surge. He longed to do battle, to remove them from this plane of existence, to send them back to the deep places where they could no longer bother humans, where they couldn’t find their away to the between lands.
“Stay along the ridge, don’t let them flank you. Keep moving north,” Lucius shouted over the rising winds.
Lucius tried to split his attention between keeping his footing and moving away from the creatures and looking over his shoulder to ensure they didn’t sweep up on them, though he could feel their proximity in his bones.
“Careful, Lucius. The path narrows here,” Mylitos called.
Forcing himself to rely on his new sense, Lucius kept his attention on the path. There were no gentle tumbles on this mountain. Not from these heights. When he got to the end of the narrow pass, he turned, giving himself space, and drew his gladius. It caught the moonlight, birthing a reflection more intense than mere light on metal. Bringing his shield in front of him, he gave the gladius a little twirl. The blade sang in his hand.
It had been a fine blade from its creation, commissioned from one of the finest blacksmiths in Belgica, but now it was perfect in its balance. It felt like a piece of him, alive and filled with soul, connected up his arm, through his chest to his heart.
The demons moved fast but were forced to slow down and go over the narrow pass only a few at a time. With his wide scutum and his body vibrating with speed and strength, he could hold the pass. The wind tugged his cloak out behind him, the cloth flapping noisily in the wind.
The first monster approached him with a raised war axe. Lucius knocked it aside with the edge of his shield and thrust his sword into the demon’s guts, pulling it out with a hard twist. He stepped back, pivoted, and shoved out with the scutum, knocking the creature off the ledge. Its scream was devoured by the hungry wind. The next one was on him before the scream had even faded.
He parried a low thrust and punched out with the shield, catching the fanged monster in the face. Striking fast, he shoved the gladius into the creature’s side and with scutum and gladius, pushed him after his friend. After seeing two of his cohort swiftly cast down upon the mountain, the next one came in slower and more cautiously. With a feigned charge, Lucius spooked him backward into his friends.
Now that he had a moment that wasn’t kill or be eaten, he inspected his enemy for the first time. Their clothing came from various cultures and lands. Some wore armor. As the crowd shifted some, the gleam of moonlight off steel drew his eye.
“No…”
One of the creatures wore Roman armor. As his eyes flashed over the crowd, he saw more evidence. A helmet. A crest. Banded shoulder plates. He couldn’t force his eyes to seek out faces in case they were men he’d known, men he’d led.
Not wanting to be cautious, the di inferi’s companions hurled their comrade over the edge. Lucius took a couple steps back so he didn’t get too close to the abyss. It was a double-edged weapon he’d prefer not to have turned on him. The next several tried speed of foot and hand, but Lucius’s speed matched theirs and more, refocusing his mind on the fight and who might be about to attack him.
A laugh escaped his lips, his emotions leaping about like the wind, as he met and overcame his enemies, striking them down with alacrity and speed. For the first time since he’d fought against the monsters, he saw fear creeping into their eyes. Fear of the centurion besting them with ease and a laugh on his lips.
When the next one rushed him, an axe raised above his head, Lucius darted forward and punched the edge of the shield into the chin of the demon, knocking him back and exposing his chest. He plunged the gladius into its ribs and through its heart.
Light exploded out of Lucius’s hand and down through the gladius, disappearing into the body of the creature until it exploded into dust. Lucius’s eyes flew open wide as the laughter died on his tongue, too shocked to do anything but stare agog. The light kept going though, finding the next di inferi and striking it in the chest as the light forked and arced through the creatures until every one of them exploded, some into dust and others into a nasty black sludge that stained the white snow with their filth. He’d smote them all, smote them as if he were a thunder god hurling forth a bolt of lightning.
He stared over the battlefield, looking at the piles of ashy dust swirling about with the snow and the dark splatters steaming in the frigid snow on the ground. Something yanked at his shoulder, and he spun about. Mylitos jumped back, barely avoiding Lucius’s blade.
“Sorry, Mylitos.” Lucius still felt utterly stupefied at the devastation he’d wrought.
“We need to go before more come,” the soldier shouted.
“Yeah… Right…” Lucius shook his head and stumbled after Mylitos.
Tigran stood against the rock face, waiting for them. When they drew near, he turned and continued along the mountain path winding north. Shock faded, replaced by cold that shivered his body and chattered his teeth. They couldn’t stay out in this kind of weather for long, but they couldn’t stop, not with more of the creatures potentially chasing after them. He couldn’t feel any more, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there lurking, waiting to strike.
He was thankful for the heavy woolens he wore, though he wished for fur. He’d have to keep moving, warming his body from within. The wind bit at his exposed face and ears.
“Halt!” Lucius called.
He untied his helmet and let it hang down on his chest as he grabbed a scarf and wound it around his head, covering his ears, nose, and mouth. It would have to do. He shoved his helmet back on, trying to get it to settle over the scarf and tied it back in place.
“Lucius,” Tigran said, pointing toward the south.
Squinting, Lucius stared off in the direction of the boy’s hand. “I don’t see anything.” He reached out with his new sense and still didn’t feel anything.
“There!” Mylitos pointed off in the same direction.
“I see it.”
A faint flicker of torch light escaped into the darkness. They stared into the darkness until another light flickered followed by several others.
“I don’t like this,” Lucius said.
“Could it be the boy’s sister?” Mylitos asked.
