| |
THE REMUS INVITED US to stay on the Aventine while we were figuring this out. He reasoned that if someone wanted us dead, we’d be better off in a place that was difficult to infiltrate. Because legends had been known to assimilate into human society without anyone realizing for years, even decades. Often, they were never found out at all, or so the Remus claimed.
Which meant that there might have been legends, even now, living within the safety zone. In my neighborhood of Trastevere. As we didn’t know which House wanted us dead, it was better to be safe.
Dr. Berti accepted the invitation on all of our behalves (even after hearing that the Aventine would occasionally host guests from other Houses, who the Remus totally insisted he could protect us from). That meant, in order to get any peace of mind, I needed to convince myself that the House of Remus didn’t do this. I spent the rest of the day figuring out what to do, planning my next move.
We could have been targeted for a number of reasons. For being one of the few groups to regularly and freely travel outside the safety zone, like Hayley suggested. Or for our research—they could have been unhappy about the progress of human science in general, the study of legimals specifically, or the demystifying of magic.
But what if the real target was Dr. Berti? She’d branched out from a scientific career, to political consultation on science, to political consultation in general. She’d been making waves ever since. No doubt she had complicated stances on all kinds of issues which I didn’t know about.
None of that should have anything to do with our research, but we—me, Carter, and Tony—were all associated with Dr. Berti. Had been for years. So if anyone wanted to get at her, we made for an obvious target, what with our constantly leaving the safety zone. I couldn’t see how going after us would actually disrupt any of our mentor’s political plans, but someone on the outside might think it would.
I didn’t know how likely any of these possibilities were, but I needed to know whether the last one was possible. Could this have been a move against Dr. Berti, or could I rule that out as the motive? I had a general sense of my mentor’s political goals. Communication between all Italians. An understanding of the animals that had recently come to occupy half the country. She was definitely in opposition to the kill-it-with-fire party.
Why our legend neighbors might dislike any of those things, I couldn’t guess. Still, as my brother kept reminding anyone who’d listen, sometimes perception matters more than reality. So I needed to know how our local legend communities perceived these policies.
By the next morning, I’d turned the problem over in my mind long enough to realize all the thinking in the world wouldn’t overcome one intrinsic problem—I didn’t have a window into those communities. But Pradip might.
Unfortunately for me, Pradip hated all of us. So I needed to give him some incentive to talk to me, which obviously amounted to coffee and cookies. Not many people couldn’t be bribed with a really good cup of coffee.
There was a place run by human followers of the House of Remus, near the historical Circus Maximus. It was close enough to the Aventine to be relatively safe—regular buses out of Trastevere made stops in the area. It was also a popular location for both Romans and the House of Remus.
Pradip thrived on stimulants, and had a soft spot for this place in particular. But he never got to go unless he was getting something for Dr. Berti. Or Hayley. Or any of the rest of us.
Note that I never said that I didn’t understand why he hated us.
Since the location was relatively safe, I wouldn’t need Tony to drive. That was good, because he was guaranteed to refuse. He studied the culture of legends, after all, and I was sure he was having a field day getting to stay in the Aventine among the legends of the House of Remus. After the deal with the chimera, he could use a break, so I was happy for him. Especially since it meant I wouldn’t have to deal with his bad attitude. At least, not after I’d finished shaking him down for the keys to Dr. Berti’s car. (Pradip had the keys to the pick-up, which I would not be asking him for. For obvious reasons.)
Still, I needed backup of some sort. Just in case. And Carter would be perfect.
I found him in the same park where we’d met the Remus, standing by the edge of the balcony, looking down the same cliff I’d been terrified of. The pent-up energy practically radiated off him, and I knew he was probably bored here.
As he spotted me heading his way, a grin broke through his placid expression. “What’s up?” he called.
“Coffee run, to that place by the Circus Maximus.”
That lit a spark of interest behind his eyes. “Awesome. Wait, I thought you didn’t drink coffee.” Sometimes, people managed to be surprising. I wouldn’t have expected Carter to remember that.
“I’m going to use it bribe information out of Pradip,” I explained.
“Then I’m totally in,” he said, already on the move, obliging me to follow suit. Yep, he’d definitely been bored. “Can I drive?”
“Sure, why not?” What was the worst he could do? It was a five-minute drive. And anyway, I hated driving. I didn’t used to, but then I’d come to Rome. There was a huge difference between driving on dirt roads with no one else in sight, and driving on crowded paved roads or (horrors) cobblestones. Why not foist the responsibility off on my partner?
Carter visibly restrained himself so I wouldn’t have to run to keep up with him. Once, I had seen him stay in the same position for four hours, while he waited for a muscaliet to pop out of its burrow, just so he could take the perfect shot. It baffled me how the same person could be so restless one day, and perfectly still another.
We found Tony talking animatedly to a group of legends, probably questioning them about their belief systems or whatever. As we approached, I heard him ask, “How does the original Remus’ story affect your way of life?”
The woman he was addressing sighed with exasperation, and one of the girls took out...a phone? And started texting? Weren’t legends supposed to be all magic, no tech?
But the man next to them smiled, as if amused, and answered the question. “The original Remus was fair, and a supporter of the people. He contrasted with the elitism of his brother.” Well, that was an interesting way to interpret his character. I was pretty sure he wanted to be king as much as Romulus did. Probably shouldn’t mention that to anyone in this House, then. “As such, we maintain close relations with the city of Rome, and deal fairly with everyone. We don’t seek to control anything, but to help everyone around us reach their potential. To be part of that, instead of above it. That is the mantra of our House.”
I stifled a snort. The House of Remus: spreading peace and understanding throughout the world.
“So you emulate Remus’ personality and values,” Tony continued. Oh boy.
Time to get this over with, before he became too engrossed in the conversation. I put on a smile, trying to look pleasant and undisruptive. I probably failed, but at least I made the effort. “Sorry to interrupt.” Tony glared at me as I approached, because of course he did. “We just need car keys, and we’ll be out of your way.”
Since he wanted to be rid of us as fast as possible, Tony handed over the keys without any fuss. Good. We could go on our way and stop distracting his poor research subjects.
The woman who hadn’t answered Tony’s questions looked over at Carter and me. “You are Simonetta’s Americans?”
Uh oh. Better deflect questions before Tony killed us. “Yeah, that’s us.” I lifted up the keys. “We’ll bring these back when we’re done.” I grabbed Carter and pulled him after me as we left, off to drive Dr. Berti’s nice car.
I glanced back once, sighing in relief as both legends turned back to Tony to continue the conversation. Friction between us was something I wanted to avoid. We barely got along enough to get our jobs done as it was, and the last thing I needed was for Tony to hold a grudge because we’d come in between him and the one thing he really cared about.
Besides, this was keeping him occupied. I had no idea if he’d hold it together or not otherwise, with the pressure we were under now that we knew someone wanted us dead. He had something to do, and we weren’t interfering. If he kept calm for now, and didn’t carry any extra animosity towards us in the future, everything would be fine for when we finally got through this.
Yes, when we got through this. Because I needed to believe it was ‘when’, instead of ‘if’.
#
ONCE, THE CIRCUS MAXIMUS had been Rome’s oldest racing venue, capable of containing an audience of 250,000. It hosted chariot races, and at times even animal hunts or gladiatorial battles. Stone and wooden seating had surrounded the track, and decorations such as obelisks had adorned the central area, around which the racers circled.
But that was a long time ago. Now, it was pretty much a large field of dirt.
From our vantage point, driving along a road that ran parallel to the Circus, the land to our right dipped down. At the bottom of that dip, out of our sight, was the field. Beyond it lay the ruins of the ancient Roman palace on the Palatine hill, home of Emperors and (allegedly) kings. We were minutes away from our destination—I could see the shop, on the other side of the Circus Maximus, the ruins on the Palatine towering over it.
My eyes caught a stream of water running down the road, as if it’d been raining. For a moment, it didn’t register as out of place. I breathed in the fresh air, felt the warmth of the sun on my skin. Then realized the air I’d breathed in was dry and moisture-free, and the sun shone unobstructed through the clear skies—all things that shouldn’t have been, if it’d rained recently. Turning my gaze back towards the running water, the flow seemed a bit heavier than it had a few seconds ago. I wondered if maybe I was imagining it.
“That’s weird,” Carter said. Yeah, no kidding.
This was probably too much. It was excessively paranoid. But considering that someone had recently sicced a chimera on us, I couldn’t shake the feeling of unease.
“We should get out of the car,” I told Carter. In case it wasn’t my imagination, and the water flow really was getting worse.
“Yeah,” Carter agreed softly, pulling up and turning off the engine. We hopped out, meeting towards the front of the vehicle. I strained my eyes in the direction that the water was coming from. Just in case.
Carter saw it first, because I felt him grab my hand a fraction of a second before I realized what was happening. Ahead of us, where I hadn’t seen anything unusual before, a wall of water appeared, lunging towards us with momentous power.
My instincts were to freeze, the shock overtaking me. I’d have expected the same from Carter, but either I was wrong or he recovered faster, because he was pulling me behind him as he erupted into a dead sprint.
The flash flood at my back, Carter at my front, I pushed myself numbly forward. A rising panic threatened to overtake me as the danger of the moment truly began to set in. I had no idea where I was going, guided only by the tug on my arm, until I heard a voice.
“In here!” someone yelled.
And suddenly we were running through a door that slammed behind us. I took a few moments to catch my breath before I turned to see the person who’d closed it. A woman with dark hair and tan skin, not much older than us. She wore denim shorts and...flip flops? Seriously, who wore flip-flops? I couldn’t remember the last time I’d even seen a pair.
She pointed towards a flight of stairs, and we all silently ascended, the mood grave. Once we reached the roof, Carter headed straight to the edge to survey the area. With nothing better to do, I joined him. Giving myself a clear view of what was happening to Dr. Berti’s lovely vehicle.
The funnel of water bashing against the car shouldn’t have existed. It should have been spilling over onto the lower ground of the Circus Maximus, but instead, it was like an invisible barrier had been erected. Channeling the flow directly down the road Carter and I had been driving on. The shops we’d been heading to, on the other side of the field, remained completely untouched. A small gathering of people formed on that street, all of them staring at the unnatural disaster in awe.
I watched with a curious detachment as the water gushed past the sides of the car, spilling into it through the open doors. Garbage drifted past at alarming speeds. If we’d still been down there when the water had hit, I didn’t think we’d have gotten out of the car without being swept up ourselves.
A cold dread settled inside my bones. We wouldn’t keep getting lucky if something like this happened too many times. This had to stop. I had to make it stop.
All of us—me, Carter, the mystery woman, and the distant crowd outside the shops—waited for the flood to die down in shocked silence. I felt like I was in a trance. Nowhere to go, nothing to do, except wait for it to be safe.
The mystery woman came up beside us at some point, running her eyes over the scene with a disaffection I wished I could emulate. Just in time for the rise in water level to start physically pushing the car back, slowly sweeping it away.
“On the bright side,” she said. “The water isn’t crushing your car into a tin can. Hi, by the way. I’m Jessie. The Remus asked me to keep an eye on you.”
The House of Remus was keeping tabs on us? I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. Actually, on second thought, I didn’t feel so bad about it, since I was still alive. “You made it just in time,” I told her, letting the relief seep into my voice.
A surprised chuckle escaped from her. “You have no idea how appropriate that is. I always make it just in time. It’s what I am.”
Carter and I exchanged a look, her statement actually managing to draw our attention away from the car we could have been trapped in. “It’s what you are?” I asked.
“Oh, that’s right,” she said. “You guys don’t know how that works. I don’t know what it’s like for other legends, but for the Roman ones—and the Greeks, too—our powers derive from something to do with the legend we’re descended from. As in, something from their abilities or adventures, as told in their stories, have passed on to us.”
I remembered Tony talking to that group of legends when we got the keys from him, the discussion they’d been having. “Like how the culture is derived from your ancestors’ personality?”
Shit, if she answered that question and Tony found out we’d had this conversation without him, he’d definitely kill me.
Jessie nodded, pleased. “Yeah. Our identity depends on that legend. So, here in the Aventine, we stay as true to the original Remus as we can. Some people even believe we’ll lose our power if we don’t.”
That was super weird. Having abilities that depended on holding to a certain lifestyle? That sounded ridiculous—
Well actually, now that I thought about it, that might not have been so different from being an athlete and having your strength depend on your workout schedule. Or being a scientist and having your knowledge depend on keeping up with the literature.
“So,” Carter said, with apparent interest. “You said you make it in time? What does that mean, and where does it come from?”
“When Remus and Romulus chose their hills, Remus was the first to see a sign from the gods. So one of the powers we gained from him is timing. I never miss out because someone beat me to it. I can’t.”
“What does that even mean?” I asked.
“It means I would always have gotten to you in time to usher you away from the flood. That wasn’t luck, it was destiny. It means if you ever get attacked again, I’ll be there in time. You can count on me, because so long as I’m looking out for you, I literally can’t not be there for you.”
“That sounds useful,” Carter said.
And completely nonsensical. How did something that happened once due to luck, or coincidence, get passed down to someone’s descendants? Maybe all of the Houses claiming this prestigious sort of ancestry really were frauds. Maybe they looked to those old stories, and drew connections that weren’t really there, because they wanted to believe in their illustrious lineage. But that wasn’t something I planned on mentioning, ever.
Jessie’s eyes fell on me with a strange intensity. “You’re from the American frontier,” she said.
I blinked at the non sequitur. “Yes?”
“The wild lands at the edge of civilization, on the verge of driving the humans out. Where local law rules, higher authority barely has a hold, and each community is alone against the world.”
Nobody liked to hear the disasters that shaped their lives outlined in such stark terms, and I wasn’t an exception. I narrowed my eyes at her. “What’s your point?”
“Tell me about your legends,” she said. “They don’t have Houses, do they? Tell me about them.”
My guard was up, and I already felt defensive about the questioning. But all three of my family members would have answered her, in my position. Dad, to rack up points for friendliness. Mom, because it cost nothing and might gain something. Tommy, because intellectual discussion and the sharing of knowledge...blah, blah, insert something abstract here.
“I don’t know about any all-human or all-legend communities on the frontier, though that doesn’t mean that they don’t exist,” I said carefully. We had legends everywhere, not just the frontier, mixed in with the general population. They would have immigrated in the same ways everyone else had, or been there already among the indigenous people.
“And they cooperate?” Jessie asked, a serious light in her eyes. “Do they really cooperate, those legends and those humans?”
“Within the same community, generally yes,” I told her, a little confused about why this mattered to her. “Though each one is different. I can’t speak for any communities except my own, and maybe some of our more steadfast allies.”
She turned away, her eyes clouding over as she retreated internally. Meanwhile, I looked back at the street to find the car completely gone. The current had actually swept it away. How did we miss that? On the plus side, the water was receding. I didn’t know what sort of damage the flood could do further along the road, but the source had probably been cut off. I tapped Carter on the shoulder and pointed out the missing vehicle.
“Whoa,” Carter said. “Now that’s a flood.”
Jessie craned her head, then laughed, the sound deep and rich. “They managed to destroy your car, but barely got your feet wet.” Then suddenly, her smile turned into a grimace. “I’m going to have to assess the damage, aren’t I? Back to work, huh?”
She trudged towards the exit with a beleaguered sigh. Overly pointed questioning aside, I decided I kinda liked her. She’d fit right in with the rest of my team, sure enough. I would pay money to watch her interact with Hayley, though I imagined Tony might pay money for the opposite.
I turned to Carter. “You don’t think it’ll start again if we try to leave, do you?” They’d already tried to kill us twice. Why not once more?
“Well, we noticed it the first time,” he replied.
“Good point.” It had taken them too long to cause the flood, and if they could’ve done a better job of it, they would’ve. This was their second attempt, and we’d caught it in time even when we didn’t know what to look for. We headed out of the building.
“Looks like our ride’s missing, now.” Carter extended his arms in a stretch. “Can we still get coffee?”
He was pulling off the casual thing much better than I thought I was capable of at the moment, but I tried to match it anyway. “The shop looks okay, so why not? We’re here, anyway. And people are watching now. That was a pretty shoddy assassination attempt if it wasn’t supposed to attract attention.”
I winced when I realized that last sentence would have tipped my hand. Criticizing the attempt to murder me like it didn’t matter wasn’t going to fool anyone, least of all Carter. Mercifully, he chose not to comment.
At least it was less likely, now, that the Remus had anything to do with it. This wasn’t technically his territory, but his people owned shops here and he had an interest in keeping it safe. Even though no one got hurt, business would probably suffer for some time, and even the people working here might stay clear for a while. Until the Remus reassured them.
I took a moment to think things over, determine where we stood. “The thing to worry about is that they might still be around,” I said.
“We’ll have to walk back, but that could make it easier to hide. So we’ll take an obscure route, make sure we lose anyone trying to find us. No big.” He sounded like he was trying to reassure me. Well, it was working. The panic had passed, and the knowledge that Jessie was around—and literally couldn’t not make it in time—helped settle my nerves. In that moment, I really believed we’d make it back okay.
I was starting to get pissed off, though.
We headed to the crowd across the Circus Maximus, our shoes squishing along the way. I tried to ignore the weird, soggy feel against my feet. When we got close enough, people started approaching us, asking if we were all right. I recognized the owner of the shop we were headed to, pulling his wheelchair up to us so he could express his concern.
We barely had a chance to respond, before Jessie materialized again, practically out of nowhere. “They’re fine. They’re tough. Any chance we could get coffee?”
He didn’t even charge us.