"No," Brutus said. "You tricked me."
"But you must make this bargain," I said. "I'm not giving you a choice."
"Oh?" Brutus was amused again. "I'm surprised to hear you taking your mother's life so lightly."
"I am absolutely serious about saving her," I said. "As serious as you are about getting the Malice."
"No, Nic." Radulf stepped toward me, but I turned away from him.
"This is my bargain to make, not yours," I said to Radulf. To the rest I added, "What I'm offering is my decision, and only mine."
"So the slave boy can think for himself after all." Brutus smiled. "Let's hear it, then."
"I do have the key. With it, I will get the Malice of Mars" -- I flashed a glare at Radulf -- "on my own. I am the only one who knows where it is. The Malice was created by the gods and cannot be destroyed by a human. But something else created by the gods could destroy it." I raised the bulla, and Brutus's smile fell.
He said, "So your bargain is that if I spare your mother, you will spare the Malice. That puts us at an impasse."
It was my turn to smile. "In four days, the Ludi Romani begins, honoring the might of Rome, and also Julius Caesar, who was assassinated by some coward senator you might know, Marcus Brutus."
Decimas Brutus shook his head. "There are no cowards in my family."
My gaze never left his eyes. "If that's true, then the games are the perfect place for you and me to settle our differences."
Brutus chuckled. "You want a chariot race? But you have magic."
"I won't use it, not to help me or to hurt you. This is to be a fair race. Put up any competitor you want, with any team of horses you choose. If I win, you will free my mother and vow never to come after me or my family again. The Praetors will abandon their quest for the Malice."
"And if you lose?"
I refused to look at Radulf, whose glare at me was like the heat of the sun. And there was no way I dared look back at Aurelia. She would be equally angry, though for different reasons. "If I lose, I will give you the Malice, and use it to help you make a Jupiter Stone."
"Creating the Jupiter Stone will probably kill you," Brutus said.
"I know that. Which means our bargain favors you."
"No tricks?"
"No tricks."
Brutus could not have looked more pleased. "All right, Nicolas Calva, we will meet again in four days. I agree to your terms."
Once the agreement was settled, I freed Brutus, who quickly left the field before I came to my senses and backed out. Except that I wasn't going to back out. I had just bought myself four days to find the key.
"Arrogant fool of a boy!" Radulf's face was so pinched with anger that I decided to keep my distance from him, even with a shield in place. "You know where the Malice is hidden? How?"
"Valerius told me, before he died." That wasn't entirely true, but it was close enough without giving away to Radulf that he was nearly standing on top of it.
Radulf's argument shifted. "And you are risking all of that on a chariot race? You've only done practices, which are nothing to the real thing, and certainly nothing compared to the Ludi Romani. The Praetors will choose the finest racer in the empire, one who has probably sent a thousand other charioteers to their deaths in the circus."
"I'm a good driver!" I countered.
"The circus spits out good drivers with every bend of the track! You could not have offered him a worse deal."
"Train me," I said. "We have four days. So train me to race."
"It won't be nearly enough time."
"But it's all I have." I was reduced to begging now, which I hated, but I'd be even more pathetic if I denied that I needed his help. "Radulf, I understand better than anyone what happens if I lose. So help me now."