. Instead, I gathered every bit of magic I could into the core of my body.
When she lowered her head to check on me, I reached up and grabbed her neck, then yanked downward, pulling both of us into the waters of Lake Nemi.
This was a deep lake. Deep enough for Emperor Caligula to float a temple and palace, and, I assumed, for the ships to carry him there from shore. Also deep enough for a boy and a dragon to battle underwater.
The Malice breathed for me and gave me strength to pull the Mistress far beneath the surface. She snorted, either searching for air, or a way to revive her fire breath, but neither of those would happen. Her neck flailed about, trying to propel me off her. When that didn't work, she tried grabbing me again with her claws, but she was floundering around so much just trying to avoid sinking any farther that I had the advantage.
Well, I sort of had the advantage. I knew I'd eventually need air too. But I also had a plan. Because I knew where to find air this far underwater, and I was pulling the dragon in that direction.
The Mistress began rolling her body in the water, hoping that would force me to let go. I kicked at her throat, which made her stop for a moment, but also increased her rage. Even with the Malice, I was having trouble keeping hold of her neck, and especially having trouble forcing the dragon in the direction I was trying to swim. We weren't too far away. We couldn't be.
Then I saw the opening I wanted. It would be a tight squeeze to get the dragon inside that tunnel. On the other hand, it would be a tight squeeze for the dragon to escape the tunnel too.
"No, please!"
It wasn't the Mistress whose cry entered my head. That was Atroxia, the cursed vestalis within the dragon. The human. She understood where we were going, and the tension in her voice betrayed the terror she felt.
The Mistress rolled again, and this time I was shaken loose from her neck. She swerved around as if to make for the surface, but I was not about to fight her on land again. So I grabbed the dragon's tail and used the Malice's strength to continue toward the tunnel. We were headed to the place where it had all begun for me.
To Caesar's cave, where I had found the bulla. Where Caela had given me the Divine Star. Where I had first gotten magic.
And the closer I came to the cave, the more my magic strengthened. Enough that against the dragon's will and with all her resistance, I was still pulling her forward.
I put my feet down on the wet tunnel floor, then gave a hard yank to tow the dragon behind me. It was nearly out of air and had lost most of its fight. Thanks to the Malice, I had not.
"Do not bury me again," Atroxia cried into my head. "I beg you not to take me here."
I remembered my fear when I first realized I was trapped inside Caesar's cave, lost in a darkness so black that I couldn't see my hand in front of my own eyes. Even for all my past crimes, I had never deserved to be here, but Atroxia did. I wasn't sure how she had helped in Caesar's assassination, but it must have been bad enough that Rome passed a sentence of death upon her. It made no difference whether her sentence was carried out in a tomb on Senator Valerius's property or here in Caesar's cave. Either way, she would get the punishment she deserved.
The tunnel took us uphill, most of which I spent in dragging the Mistress as she fought to resist me. Even with the Malice, it was exhausting work. Once we came to the stale air from Caesar's cave, I felt stronger, but worried she would too. Would she try to fight me in this dark, enclosed place? Maybe not. I felt the tremor of her heavy body collapsing onto the ground and heard her harsh panting. Hopefully, she had given up. The sooner she accepted her fate, the better.
I dropped the dragon's tail inside the cave, then found someplace a little farther on where I could heal myself from the wounds along the side of my body. From the clinking of metal below me, I was sure that I was resting on a large pile of gold coins. The first time I had seen them, I'd believed that a few gold coins could have bought my freedom, which I still wanted more than anything.
Now I doubted there was enough gold in this cave to buy me even an hour of freedom. The only way I would ever truly be free was to leave the empire behind and leave my magic with it. Or at least make the empire believe that's what I'd done.
"Nicolas Calva, are you still here? Please speak, and tell me I'm not alone again."
The voice that spoke was not the deep voice of the dragon. It was a woman's voice, young and fearful. But it did not come inside my head. Somewhere in the absolute darkness of this cave, the dragon had returned to her human form. Atroxia was speaking to me.
I didn't move, didn't want Atroxia to have any chance of finding me. In some ways, I feared the human vestalis more than the dragon.
I understood the Mistress. I had felt her rage, her absolute loyalty to Diana, and her sole desire to take the Malice away from me. It was easy to fight what I understood.
But Atroxia was different. The only other vestalis I'd met was the older woman who saved me and Aurelia in Caesar's temple, who showed me how to find the Jupiter Stone and who told me that there were things I had to learn from the Mistress. From Atroxia. Considering how our battle had gone so far, I had serious doubts about that.
"Nicolas?" Atroxia asked again. "Please answer me. I'm afraid."
Coins clinked beneath her feet as she walked. I couldn't tell how far away she was, but probably not as far as I would've liked. Yet the slightest move would give away my position, so I remained just as frozen as before.
Finally, she stopped walking, or at least, everything went silent in the room. "Will you at least tell me where we are? I don't like the air." After another moment of silence, she added, "Caesar's ghost roams this place. I can feel him here."
Cautiously, I sat up, though my hand was on the bulla and I was ready to defend myself if necessary.
"His death was so long ago, and yet he still cannot rest," I said. "Why not? What was your crime?"
I waited for the sound of her footsteps coming toward me, but there was nothing. After a moment, she said, "My crime was to fall in love with Marcus Brutus. It is forbidden for vestals to fall in love."
Marcus Brutus had descended from Diana. The man he killed, Caesar, had come from the goddess Venus. I'd been told of Diana's jealousy because Caesar was the favored of the demigods. After all, if Brutus was the lesser heir, did that make Diana a lesser goddess? Perhaps Marcus Brutus was also jealous of Caesar. Jealous enough to want him dead.