“You may have to if you want to get out of the Forum alive.” He points to the water. “Wash your alupi’s snout. All traces of blood. And check yourself again.”
“We don’t have time—”
“Arguing will only make it take longer.”
I growl but do as he says, recognising the importance of it. Once we’re done, Ostius inspects us both thoroughly, again showing no apparent fear of Diago as he pulls back his lips to examine his teeth. “Good.”
It’s five minutes of tense hiking back up the hill after that. The chill of the night air helps, restores some of my lacking focus. My mind, slowly, catches up.
“How does ceding still work, if I’m here and my Septimii are in our world?” I ask it suddenly as it occurs to me.
Ostius shrugs. “The worlds are still intertwined. Whatever separates us, it’s not enough to sever the connection.” He eyes me. Sees I’m more cognizant. “I’m sure you’ve realised by now that things are about to become very, very bad in Caten. And I know you’re going to want to help.”
“But you don’t want me to.” I say it flat and angry.
“Quite the opposite. But I want you to do it wearing that mask and that arm. Do that, and I will keep your identity a secret. Which in turn, will keep your friends safe from the consequences of simply knowing you. I will even feed you some information, now and then, when I come by it. We can’t have your side losing the battles to come, after all this.” He sees my confusion, my reluctance. “They are going to do horrible things to the people of that city, Vis. They are going to take the Will from every man, woman, and child they can, and they are going to kill the rest. You know it’s true. And you can help. You can stop some of it. Or, I can reveal who you are, and you can stop none of it. What’s to decide?”
We walk, Diago occasionally pressing against my leg, and I don’t respond for a while. Try to see his purpose through the exhausting miasma of tonight’s events. All of Caten will be hunting the man in that mask. Hunting me. But Ostius clearly doesn’t intend to have me captured or my identity revealed, either. So. A distraction? No. Not a worthwhile one, anyway, if there’s already a gods-damned civil war going on. But he wants attention drawn. He wants the hunt.
I can think of only one other reason for that.
“I’m bait.” But not for anyone in Caten, surely.Vek. “You’re trying to draw out the man who’s going to cause the Cataclysm, aren’t you. You’re trying to draw out Ka.”
With what has transpired tonight, I can put little more emotion than dead resignation into the words.
Ostius pulls me to a stop beneath a lonely, crooked olive tree, and smiles tightly. Draws a chained medallion from his pocket, stone worked into the pyramidal symbol of the Hierarchy—or whatever it actually symbolises, I suppose—and loops it over my head. “As long as you don’t take this off, I’ll be able to protect you.”
He puts one hand on my shoulder and one on Diago’s.
Thrum.
I sway and stagger as empty hillside becomes a carefully manicured walled garden. Ostius releases us and steps away, unaffected. “We are about three streets over from the Forum. Is your alupi joining you?”
I hesitate through the dizziness, though the question’s been uneasy in the back of my mind since we left the town in Luceum. Can I really risk bringing Diago into a crowd of people, after what he just did? As protection against the violence that is sure to be on its way, he would be invaluable. And he seems calm. Under control.
But then, he seemed under control up until the moment he killed everyone in that room.
“Yes.” The decision is heavy from my lips. No time to second-guess myself. Word of the Basilica will be travelling fast. “I’m ready.”
“Not quite. Your arm, Vis.”
I frown, then understand. Reluctantly draw the metal shards back beneath my shirt, settling them into hidden armour. My heart palpitates as I catch sight of my unfamiliar clothes. Not suspicious in and of itself, a more comfortable garb I may easily have decided to change into as soon as I got to Domus Telimus. But will it seem suspicious?
Ostius examines me, then taps three fingers to his heart three times. “Luck, my boy. One day, we’ll laugh about all this.”
Thrum.
I’m left uneasy, nauseous, disoriented. And with no time to recover from any of it.
I run.
The streets are too quiet. Citizens move in packs rather than groups; twice I think I would have been stopped if it were not for my being recognised, if it were not for the alupi loping at my side. My discomfort at his presence is immense but I cannot send him away now. He is less likely to do harm if I am nearby, at least, of that I feel certain.
Despite my tiredness, the knowledge that I’m trying to outrun information lends desperate strength to my legs. Faster.Faster. I’ve come more directly than anyone possibly could in the maze of Caten, but not by much. And I had to wash, to change. There will be a short window before the Magnus Quartii act. A very short window.
They will surely see this as an attack on Military by the rest of the Senate, the only ones capable of such a strike. As the new leaders of Military’s senatorial pyramid, they will feel threatened. And as one of twelve equally powerful new leaders, they will now also be vying for Princeps among themselves. For any who desire the position that means action, swift and decisive.
That means retaliation.
