CHAPTER SIXTEEN: HUNTERS

  Cassius Null

  Legionnaire (F)

  Level 7

  Strength: 14

  Dexterity: 7

  Endurance: 16

  Perception: 6

  Intelligence: 7

  Mana: 10

  Skills:

  Thrust

  Reinforce

  March

  EMPTY

  EMPTY

  Cassius walked out of the class stone room, passing through a wall of [Guardsmen] and the few standing [Legionnaires] who were healthy enough to walk through to claim their blessings. Most of the century had already reached the pinnacle of the class, level ten, but those few who hadn’t had managed today. Cassius was the last of the survivors not to reach capstone.

  The beautiful elegance of the manor had been transformed in a single day. Every fruit or vegetable had been stripped bare, eaten by passing soldiers or servants. The lawns had been packed with wounded as even the citizens of the city had come through the gates to find healing and their voracious hunger had suppressed the fear of stealing from one of the strata.

  It looked more like the slums of Aurum now than the wealthy slice of paradise Cassius had seen yesterday. A piece of him mourned the cultured paradise that had been consumed, but the majority of him felt more at home as he passed through the thick crowds toward where the small pack of healthy legionnaires were.

  Pius and Valeria should have managed to find those healthy for duty and scraped together what weapons and armor there were. The rest of the legion, the walking wounded, were being used to gather the dead and try to account for supplies. Cassius rubbed at his temples as he tried to remember the list of items the two senior legionnaires had given him.

  “Weapons, armor, boots, water, food, bedroll. I am missing something,” Cassius muttered to himself as he broke free of the throng and entered a small bubble of clear room as he kept pushing toward the edge of the estate. He didn’t have time to wonder why he had room to move before a strong hand grabbed his bicep, tugging him to a stop as Vira’s smiling face filled his vision.

  “You can be a hard man to find, legionnaire.” Her voice was raspy and she still had dark rings under her eyes, but she had managed to vacate her armor for a simple dress belted around the waist with her swordbelt. Standing side by side, Cassius noticed the height difference for the first time as he was several inches taller than the imposing woman.

  “My apologies, my lady. I was receiving my blessings,” Cassius said. The fear of talking to the strata had thoroughly been broken, at least speaking to Vira had been. Statia or Hadranius were different, but for now he could speak easily enough to the young noble.

  “You must be closing upon the cap. I finished my own years ago, but even for a noble it is hard to pass into the second tier,” Vira said as she threaded her muscular arm around his waist, pulling him tight as they slowed their walk toward the temporary camp. Cassius could feel the weight and heat of her bare skin through the thin tunic he was wearing, the strength that dwarfed his own.

  “Even receiving a class was beyond myself until I submitted myself to the legions,” Cassius said as he fought not to think about her closeness and how she smelled of floral soap.

  “I took mine upon my celebration of womanhood. It was a night that’s hard to forget, feasting and drinking as I left behind my childhood name and became Viridina. Feeling the rush of power mixing with the wine and food. A beautiful night,” Vira said, voice trailing off as she thought about it.

  “We were marched through as fast as possible after we swore our oaths and gave our blood to the stone,” Cassius said. He remembered more of the searing pain as the world had noticed him, power surging through his body as he was gifted his class.

  “The legions have always preferred function over pageantry,” Vira said, though it was without any scorn. She spoke again before he could say anything.

  “It is that function that I worry about now. There have been many losses to your century here. I understand the wrath you must feel, the desire to wet your blades for you brethren, but this undertaking is foolish,” Vira said. Cassius suppressed himself before he made an ill-comment or even a twisted face at her words. He let himself think as they slowly walked across the grounds, Vira leading them with subtle twitches of her arm.

  “The longer the summoner and his monsters are about, the stronger they will grow. Now is the time to end the threat before it grows beyond us. Their strength is nearly as spent as ours, but if they manage to retreat to their defenses, then we shall be left in an inferior position,” Cassius finally said.

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  “You speak well and know how to properly argue,” Vira said, swinging the subject away. Cassius smiled thinly as he recognized her attempt to buy herself time.

  “A state-sponsored orphanage until I was fifteen. The consuls and senate recognize the importance of knowing letters and how to argue properly,” Cassius said.

  “They are better suited than I thought they were then,” Vira said as she angled them back toward the edge of the estate where the camp was.

  “Why argue in our defense if you think it folly?” Cassius asked her.

  “I do not do well sitting and waiting. I am a borderlord and that is something my family takes seriously. Our people have been injured, been bled out upon the ground, my family wounded and slain. Vengeance must be had.”

  Vira spoke slowly, carefully enunciating every word. She spoke of wrath and vengeance, but her tone was cool, collected, without the weight of emotion behind it. Cassius doubted she was truly as enraged as her words were meant to lead him to believe. That or she was one of the few he had met who could master their emotions.

  “I reiterate though, that we are drained of resources here. Our strength spent, our numbers few. To go beyond the Shifting Wall invites an untimely end,” Vira finished.

  “You still haven’t said why you supported us,” Cassius reminded her. She blushed and rolled her eyes.

  “It’s not often that people are so blunt when they encounter misdirection. I supported you because that is what is expected of me. The Custos are family, but Statia leads them and offers fealty to my mother because of what the Triticum represents and promises. We promise protection and if that fails, we promise wrath. If I don’t support those promises made, we risk souring the relationship,” Vira said.

  “Lady Custos did not appear slow of mind to me,” Cassius said slowly. Vira snorted and shook her head, loose braids bouncing as she chuckled.

  “No, Statia Custos is nobody’s fool. She knew why I volunteered and that is why it is mostly my blood who will go out beyond the wall with you. She will send one or maybe two of her own sworn blades, but nobody from her direct family. This is a death trip,” Vira said.

  “But duty dictates that it must be done,” Cassius finished for her. The noblewoman nodded slowly as they reached a pair of legionnaires who stood sentry before the rest of the small tents.

  “Yes. But if you rescind your plans, then I can back down. We save ourselves until your tribune or my uncle arrives,” Vira said. She turned him, looking up at him and Cassius was struck by the vulnerability in her eyes. The fiery and proud warrior was gone and in her place was only a young woman who had experienced death for the first time.

  Cassius knew death. Had known it before he had joined the legions. It was cold and frozen in the morning, lips blue and limbs stiff. It was the hunger that turned men into animals. It was sickness that wasted the body away. It was stones sharpened to blade points, blood spilled for a heel of bread.

  Fighting monsters had been different, facing their savagery a challenge he’d never survived. Cassius could see in that moment that Vira was scared. She had trained and fought before, killed monsters, but had not fought something like that chain devil before. Had not seen those of her own strata scythed down, fodder to the killing fields. She had never been affected by the fights she’d participated in, they hadn’t held weight to her.

  “I will speak to Marcus, but his heart is determined as is my own. We should hunt the beast who has slain so many of ours. Crush his army before they grow stronger. That is our duty,” Cassius said. The soft hope in Vira’s eyes faded and died away, a hard cast coming over her features as she straightened, arm sliding off of his waist as she nodded.

  “Duty must come first, I agree legionnaire,” Vira said. There was a coldness in her voice that had never been there before, but Cassius knew it was the fear that spoke through her. She dipped her head in the shallowest acknowledgement to him, then spun and left before he could say anything else.

  Cassius walked past the sentinels who kept their mouths sealed and entered the small camp and headed toward where the centurions’ tent would be. There were few people out and about, most of the tents had shapes in them, snores rumbling out or curses as the rasp of swords and spears being sharpened and weapon oil being applied filled the area.

  Marcus had taken Lucilia Durum’s tent, but without Hostus there to watch the entrance, Cassius was able to enter without challenge. It was messier than it had been before, gear spread out as Valeria and Pius were piled upon cots, fast asleep. Marcus was perched above a small, foldable table, red-rimmed eyes sweeping over a map as he absently bit at a piece of bread.

  “You said you were going to sleep,” Cassius accused him. Marcus didn’t even bother to look up as he made a rude hand gesture.

  “I encountered Viridina Triticum outside,” Cassius began. Marcus barked a laugh and looked up from the table finally.

  “No longer Vira, is it? I assume she asked you to petition me to not do this?” Marcus said, pointing at the map in front of him.

  “Correct,” Cassius said, standing next to Marcus and looking at the map. The markings on it were the same that Hostus had put on it. There were a few others and that was what Marcus had been looking at, tracing lines from roads to where he needed to go.

  “We put her in a bad spot when we announced our little expedition. I still believe it is the right course. Here, there is a gate not far from the old lumber camp,” Marcus said, pointing toward one of the small markings on the map.

  “Does anyone know what lays beyond it? The Shifting Wall?” Cassius asked. The map did little to help them as they were so close to it, only a few hours walk before they’d arrive at the border and cross it.

  “Some in the lumber camp may have known. People do go through the gates, but it is dangerous. If the gate collapses while you are beyond it, then you are trapped with the monsters that prowl the woods.”

  “They are all dead or fled through the gates. How long do the gates stay open?” Cassius asked. Aurum had been as far as one could get from the Shifting Wall while still being on the peninsula. What he knew of the wall could be summarized in a single breath.

  “Longer and longer. The Shifting Wall’s gates have become more stable over the last year. Easier for us to deal with the beasts, but harder as it allows them more time to cross through. They used to stand for less than a week, but now will last as long as a moon’s cycle,” Marcus said.

  “Do we know how old these gates are?” Cassius asked.

  “Eleven days. A day to march there, then we shall have fourteen days to find the summoner, kill him and his army, and retreat back,” Marcus said.

  “Two days extra time?” Cassius asked.

  “Two days for when something inevitably goes wrong,” Marcus corrected.