Rise of the Wolf (Mark of the Thief 2)

I got to all fours and crawled there now, near the window of his room. Outside, the rain had begun falling heavier, which I appreciated as I gripped the edge of the marble and tilted it upward. It gave way without too much noise, but when I reached down for the bulla, I found nothing there. I looked inside, certain there must be a mistake, but no, it was empty.

And when I lowered the marble again, Radulf stirred. This time when he rolled, I saw the bulla, loosely clutched in his hand. The snake had gone to sleep with it!

I cursed under my breath, then crawled to the edge of Radulf's bed. It was made of ivory and gilded with gold insets and draped with golden cloth. If the gods slept, then I doubted it was in a bed as fine as Radulf's.

I wrapped my hand over the face of the bulla. The gold had gone cold now, which m

ade me want it all the more, because I knew how to make it work again. The side of the bulla facing me had a griffin engraved on it. I thought again of Caela and how easy my escape would be if she were here now.

His sleeping hand easily released the bulla, but the chain was wrapped in the other. Careful not to make the slightest sound, I unwound it from his fingers, then crouched low to pull the last link free.

When I did, his hand curled over the chain, and the other hand reached out and grabbed my tunic at my neck.

"So," he snarled, his eyes fully open, "after all I've done for him, my grandson is still a thief."

I put both hands on the bulla to prevent him from pulling it away from me, but did so at the expense of my neck, which he was choking in his clutch.

"You fool of a boy!" he said. "Did you think I couldn't sense your magic? In the circus today, when you nudged your horses to safety, and all the times before when you've used it. When you freed yourself just now."

Then I really was a fool, because of course he would know. He had been waiting all this time for me to try something just like this.

"Did you think I wouldn't guess you were coming here to steal my bulla?"

"My bulla!" I said through gasps for air. "I'm stealing it back!"

He tugged at the amulet, and I pulled harder at it, though his grip tightened around my neck until splotches of darkness filled my vision. I was going to faint. Which meant I was going to lose, and that made me furious.

"I brought you into my home," he said. "Fed you, clothed you, gave you the horses for the chariot races. I gave you and your sister everything."

"Everything but freedom," I said. "Which is all I ever wanted."

And with that, I sent magic from the Divine Star toward him. It hit him in the chest, throwing him against the far wall. Both the bulla and my neck were free, so I turned and started running.

He threw a ball of magic at my heels, and I fell to the ground when it hit me but scrambled to my feet again to stumble into the atrium. Then I sent out more magic to collapse his doorway.

By then we had made enough noise that every guard in his house was running toward me. I shot out magic at anyone who got in my way, though I wasn't practiced enough with the Divine Star to do much more than trip them or cause a vase or marble bust to fall in their path.

Radulf's baths were at the far end of his home. His tepidarium wasn't nearly as nice as the one Valerius had, but I had practiced in it whenever possible to get better at swimming. For all those efforts, I was still a miserable swimmer, but at least I knew enough to keep myself from drowning.

Livia was waiting for me at the far end of the pool with two sacks in her hands. I knew how heavy they must be, so it had been no small thing for her to quietly drag them all the way in here. Her eyes were wide as she saw Radulf's guards on my heels.

"Jump in!" I yelled at her. "Livia, jump!"

She immediately dove in with one sack while I raced around the pool for the second one.

"Stop!" a guard yelled at me. "Or you will die."

I did stop, but only long enough to say, "I have no plans to die today."

Then I grabbed the second sack and dove with it into the water. The sacks were filled with the lead curse tablets that I had gathered from the circus, and with their combined weight, I sank like a rock to the bottom of the deep pool. Livia was already there, and I was sure she needed air soon.

I aimed the last of the magic in my shoulder toward the plug for the pool. Radulf had the water changed out every month, and I knew from watching it drain that Livia and I could fit through the pipe, if we had enough weight to carry us out.

Once the plug exploded from its place, the water began flowing. Livia was carried first through the pipe, and then I followed behind her. It was a tighter squeeze than I had expected, but I held the lead-filled sack ahead of me, which kept pulling me lower.

My lungs finally burst apart, and I had no choice but to swallow in water, which hurt like I was exploding from within. The pipe was longer than I had anticipated, or else we were moving slower. No, we really were moving slower. Maybe the pipe was narrowing, or the pressure of the water above was lessening, even with the leaden sacks. Or maybe there was a grate below that would trap us in the pipe. The water would eventually empty, but if we survived this, we'd be forced to climb back up through the pipe and into Radulf's home. I could only imagine what he would do to us then.

It was a grate. Livia landed on it first, and I landed on her. She was thrashing around below me, and my heart fell with a sense of my carelessness. Because even as my own life was fading, I knew hers must be fading also, and I felt terrible. I had done worse than fail to save her. I would be the cause of her death.