The Depths of Neptune - Chapter 16

Devnum

“This is a terrible idea,” Ky said for the thirtieth time.

“Mmm-hmmm,” Lucilla mumbled quietly.

Surrounded by a half dozen people on the raised platform, a crowd of citizens spread out in front of her, she couldn’t exactly reply, which gave Ky the chance to make his feelings known without her shutting him down.

They’d argued for two days, which was how long it took her to put her insane plan into action. He’d argued against it, Ramirus had argued against it, and even her father had tried to talk her out of it, but she wouldn’t budge. She would have been furious, regardless, by the death of an entire Roman squad of legionnaires and the theft of gunpowder, especially after her recent warnings to Ramirus, but she was taking this personally. This was the same squad that had recently captured an insurgent and she’d made a point to visit them and congratulate them on their good work. The fact that she’d met these men, shaken their hands, and looked them in the eye meant these weren’t just names, they were her people.

Ky understood that, but he also understood that in war you couldn’t let your emotions override your senses. Soldiers died. Often your friends died, but you still needed to do your duty. He actually wasn’t that worried about the stolen gunpowder. Even if they managed to get it shipped from Britannia, across the continent and all the way to Africa, without fouling it or otherwise ruining the gunpowder with something like salt water, it was extremely unlikely they’d be able to take that mixture and work out its exact components. In a world without microscopes or spectrographs, it was going to be difficult to reverse engineer the explosive enough to not only know what went into it, but the exact ratio of those components or the methods needed to combine them. Nor were they likely to work out the physics behind the weapons to take advantage of gunpowder even if they did.

What it did confirm, at least for Ky, was that they hadn’t managed to learn the secrets of gunpowder from more traditional sources, like turning someone who worked on it or getting copies of the instructions he’d given to Hortensius to make it. It also suggested that their precautions on guarding the documents with that information were working.

This was by far the largest move made by the insurrectionists since the actual insurrection. Twenty-one of the thieves had fallen in the battle with the guards defending the storage building, which according to Ramirus, would be a huge part of the remaining manpower the insurrectionists had. The sudden shift of targets from stealing documents and destroying storage buildings to all-out assaults was notable, and spoke to their desperation.

Besides, the first thing the insurgents would have done after getting their hands on the gunpowder would be to get it off the island and on its way to the Carthaginian capital. Even if her plan worked, they weren’t stopping anything, and yet she was willing to risk her life, which would have massive consequences for the Empire, and him personally. He knew she knew it and he knew that she didn’t care.

“We could have at least used someone else. Your nanites do not make you invulnerable. You got lucky last time. You could have at least let me do it. I’m not sure there’s anything they could do that my system couldn’t repair.”

“Shut up,” Lucilla said.

She’d been trying to stop herself, but he kept nattering in her ear. She’d heard him out, but she wasn’t changing her mind. He needed to know that. These men, they fought and died for her. Well, maybe that was an overstatement. They served her father, but she was his daughter and felt every obligation he carried. After her time with the Caledonians and guardsmen, she felt a connection to the soldiers. They were her people. Ky kept saying not to take it personally, but she was, and she wasn’t planning on stopping just because he thought she should.

“My lady?” Faenius said beside her, looking a little startled.

“I’m sorry. It’s … the noise from the crowd. I just have a bit of a headache.”

“We don’t have to do this, my lady. I still think this is too much of a risk for you. You’re too exposed.”

Ky should be happy he wasn’t the only one arguing against her plan. She was practically the only one who thought this was a good idea. Her guards, Faenius, Ky, even her father, they all thought it was a mistake. She didn’t care. She’d managed to at least get her father to back down. The rest of them, they worked for her, so they didn’t get a say.

“We’ve been through this,” she said, both to Faenius and Ky. “No other bait is going to work and we need to put a stop to them before anyone else dies. You just make sure you’re ready for their attack.”

“My lady,” Faenius started to say, but she cut him off.

“That wasn’t a suggestion.”

Faenius sighed but bowed and climbed down from the platform. The crowds were starting to gather and the sun was just reaching its apex, which is when she’d told the praeco to announce her public address. Showtime, she thought.

“It is a dark day for the Empire,” she said, starting her speech.

***

Ky stopped pestering her as she began her speech. This might all be a ruse, but word had already spread about the annihilation of an entire contubernium and the possible theft of military supplies, and tensions were high. Most of the citizens of Devnum, not counting the new arrivals since the formation of the Empire, had lost friends and family during the insurrection, which had damaged huge sections of the city. People were scared and needed to be reassured.

That was one of the main points Lucilla had used in her arguments. The people needed to see her, or her father. They needed to hear that the Empire was taking these deaths seriously and that there was no threat to the safety of the Empire as a whole. Ky couldn’t help but think if someone did manage to attack her, it would do the exact opposite, but she wasn’t swayed by that argument.

He had to give it to her, she was very good at these speeches. Much better than he’d ever be. He’d already heard pieces of it when she’d been practicing the night before, but he was still impressed by how much presence she had when she kicked her performance into high gear.

Unfortunately, Ky couldn’t pay that much attention to it. His attention was on the crowd and the windows overlooking the large plaza in front of the palace complex. He was in one of those windows, behind where the stage had been strategically set up, so he could see everything. It meant he had a small blind side at the back, but that was the least likely place for an assassin to try and strike, considering all of the legionaries and praetorians lining the front and back of the stage.

“Anything?” Ky asked Sophus.

“No Commander, although it will be impossible to tell if an assassin is in the crowd until they begin their attack. The only member of the insurrectionists we have a description of is their leader, who is unlikely to be used in a direct action.”

“I know. Just keep your eyes peeled. I want to know the moment something happens.”

“I do not have eyes, Commander.”

Ky rolled his eyes. Sophus was sentient, but he was very bad at understanding colloquialisms. He didn’t, however, feel the need to get into an extended conversation with the AI over that at the moment. He knew Sophus was watching the situation from the drone he’d borrowed back from Lucilla, which was at the moment under Sophus’s direct control high above the crowd where it was unlikely to be spotted. Ky could have watched the feed himself, but he couldn’t truly split his focus like Sophus could, so he continued to scan the crowd using his enhanced vision instead.

The AI was assisting him, constantly highlighting potential threats. The whole time Ky watched over the sights of a crossbow, ready to fire the moment an assassin appeared. With Sophus’s help and his enhanced reflexes, he was confident he could hit anyone headed for Lucilla before they got into range to actually hurt her. Which was one of her other reasons for arguing this plan wasn’t as dangerous as it seemed. He appreciated her faith in him, but …
“Commander,” Sophus’s voice rang out, almost sounding panicked. Almost.

A box appeared over a figure in the back of the crowd, in a direct line with Lucilla below. Ky zoomed in on him just in time to see the arcuballista spring up to his shoulder, his finger pressing on the trigger.

Ky saw the calculation Sophus was doing and the targeting profile and was glad that he and the AI were so in sync. Ky pressed the trigger on his crossbow and dropped the weapon, reaching for a second loaded weapon on a table next to him as he watched the take from the drone's feed, which was following the flight of the arrow as it raced towards Lucilla.

***

Lucilla didn’t know what was happening. One moment she was in the middle of her speech, looking out across the crowd, and then there were screams. She looked towards the back, where people looked to be panicking, just in time to see a man pointing an arcuballista directly at her.

The whole scene felt like it was playing out in slow motion. She saw the man fire and the arrow snap out of the weapon, hurtling toward her. She started to duck, although she knew there was no way she’d move more than a hairs width before the arrow hit her, when the unthinkable happened.

An arrow appeared from above and behind her, smashing into the head of the arrow flying towards her, driving it into the ground, barely missing a woman who was starting to run with the other people in the crowd. Lucilla was shocked but didn’t have time to think about it as another arrow shot out of the building behind her, catching the assassin in the shoulder as he turned to run away.

The man stumbled and was just getting up when Ky appeared, sailing out of the window he’d been in, crossing half the plaza, and landing a short distance from the man. The crowd froze at the sight of him and his inhuman feat, as did the assassin, who fell back on his butt, staring wide-eyed at Ky, who now loomed over him.

For a moment, Lucilla thought Ky was going to kill him. She couldn’t see his face, but she could see his body language and knew what it looked like when Ky was furious. Instead, he reached down and lifted the man by his neck using only one arm, the man’s feet swinging as he came off the ground. Praetorians came on the run and Ky practically thrust the man into one of them before turning and stalking back to the stage, a serious look on his face.

***

“You can’t still be mad at me,” Lucilla said to Ky hours later, as they waited outside of one of Ramirus’s interrogation cells.

“I can be. I told you this was dangerous. Do you know how close you came to dying today?” Ky asked, his words curt and short.

“But I didn’t,” Lucilla countered.

“Lucilla …”

“Ky, it was worth it. We got him and no one was hurt, well, no one other than the assassin. I knew you could protect me, and you did.”

“We got lucky. I appreciate your faith in me, but the number of variables for a shot like that is astronomical. Sophus is good, but it’s not infallible.”

“I’ve seen some of the things Sophus and you have done together. I had faith in you.”

“He is correct, Lucilla. There was a fraction of a second available to run those calculations and the smallest change in air currents or humidity could have altered the projection enough to cause our projectile to miss. This was, as Ky likes to say, a fortunate happenstance.”

“Luck,” Ky corrected. “Yes. It worked out, and I’m happy it did. Hopefully, this guy knows something and we can take care of this insurrectionist problem once and for all, but you can’t take chances like that. I almost lost you once, I won’t do it again.”

“You’re right,” she said. “I’m not sorry I did it and I do think the fact that it worked proves it was the right decision, but I am sorry for making you worry. You’ve put your life on the line multiple times for us, I think it’s only fair I’m allowed to do the same.”

Ky sighed, “I’m not winning this argument, am I?”

“No, but I think it’s cute you keep trying.”

Ky just shook his head. He couldn’t stay mad at her. He would be damned if he ever let something like this happen again, but he couldn’t fault her for her bravery or determination to get the job done.

“You realize your little display today is going to make it a lot harder next time you try to tell someone you weren’t sent by the gods.”

“I doubt most people could even see what happened to the arrows,” Ky said.

“No, but they could see you jump clear across the plaza. That was beyond the ability of anyone who’s ever lived. Only the Sword could do something like that.”

“You know …”

“Yes, I know, but most of our subjects don’t have the same kind of relationship you and I have, or Sophus talking in their ear.”

“Damn it. I was just starting to get people to quit it with all the Sword stuff.”

“They only quit it around you, my love. Most of the people have never stopped believing you were sent to save us. That’s a side effect of, you know, constantly saving everyone.”

“Not everyone,” Ky said.

“No, not everyone. But most of us.”

Their conversation was interrupted when the door opened and Ramirus came walking out, wiping his hands on a piece of cloth.

“That went faster than expected. Apparently, he’s convinced he’s angered the gods, swears he believed the people who told him you were a false avatar, and he just … gave up everything.”

“See,” Lucilla said, nudging Ky with her elbow. “I told you that little display was going to convince people.”

“Since I was specifically ordered not to be there,” Ramirus said, giving Lucilla a look. “I assume you’re talking about the Consul jumping clear across the city.”

“It wasn’t that far,” Ky said defensively.

“Nearly all the way across the palace plaza.”

“Impressive,” Ramirus said, actually sounding anything but impressed. “It worked on him. He’s convinced he was following false prophets and is desperate to keep from angering Jupiter.”

Of course, Ramirus wouldn’t be impressed. He probably had reports of everything Ky had ever done that was beyond the normal range of human ability. Not that he wanted the attention, but Ky oddly found himself wishing Ramirus showed just a little bit of astonishment, instead of complete apathy.

“He isn’t going to get away with trying to kill Lucilla,” Ky said.

“We shouldn’t execute him, though,” Lucilla added hastily. “I know that’s been the standing policy, but I think we need to use this. Use him to convince some of the others they are wrong. I’m not suggesting we set him free, but I think he could be a valuable piece of propaganda.”

“Maybe,” Ky said begrudgingly. “For right now, though, the big question is does he know anything or is this another errand boy.”

“He got his orders directly from Decius himself, although it seems Decius has some kind of inner circle that was also there.”

“Excellent. So we know where they are and can round them up.”

“It was a meeting place. Apparently, they have several and rotate to keep from being in one place consistently. He also couldn’t give us the names of most of the inner circle, since he doesn’t know but one or two.”

“Fine, we round up the one or two and get them to talk,” Ky said.

“We don’t know which meeting place they’ll be at,” Ramirus said. “We can raid them, but we might just get lower-level people.”

“Then let’s …” Ky started to say, before being interrupted by Lucilla.

“I assume you have a suggestion,” Lucilla said.

“I do. We put men on the houses we know about, follow anyone leaving them and if they go to a new meeting place, put people on those. Once we have as many of the insurrectionists identified and located as possible, we take them all.”

“That is going to require some pretty complicated coordination,” Ky said. “What if we lose them or tip them off?”

“We’ll find them again. Some might get away, but we’re going to take everywhere they’ve used for refuge and all of their resources we can get our hands on, and we’ll know the names of more of Decius’s associates. But we won’t lose them. My trap may not have worked well, but this … this I know how to do. Following people, gathering information, this is what my people do. Have some faith, Consul.”

“Fine. If I …”

“No,” Lucilla said.

“No?”

“No. You have things to do, or did you forget? Valdar’s ships are loading right now to join the transports and legions. You’ve pointed out, several times, how tight the timeline is for operations before winter sets in. We can handle this, Ramirus and I. We can watch over the operation, just as well as you can.”

Lucilla stressed the ‘we’ and ‘watch over’ in that sentence, making hard eye contact with Ky, hoping he’d get what she was saying. After a beat, he nodded, understanding. He still had the drone, but he’d been planning on returning it to her before he left, since she still needed it to let Sophus examine the progress of work so it could make recommendations. Similarly, Sophus could control the drone through her comm unit just as well as Ky could, and tell her what was happening.

“Fine. You’re right. You two have this. Just be careful. This is our moment to put all of these distractions behind us for good.”

“We’ll do our duty, Consul,” Ramirus said.

***

“So this is the capital of your Empire,” Medb said, looking out the window onto the city as the sun slowly set, coloring everything in an orangish light.

“I guess, although I don’t know if I’d say it was my Empire. We’ve only just joined them,” Cormac said.

“You commanded their armies in the field though, right? When you crushed the Carthaginians?” She said, turning from the window to look at her husband who was sitting on their bed.

It had been a whirlwind several weeks. His father had been good to his word and married them two days after announcing it was happening, and then promptly stuck them on a ship bound for Devnum. He understood the reasoning behind his father’s actions, and he’d even agreed with them when his father initially told him about his concerns, along with the need for him to be the one to marry her. After spending time with her, though, Cormac was no longer sure.

He’d been worried about having to deal with her even before the wedding. She was older than him, had been a queen in her own right, and a seasoned warrior. Cormac talked a lot, but he could at least be honest with himself. His father was the hero, winning the right to rule the kingdom and then defending it against what seemed like the world crashing down on them. He’d negotiated a strong position in the new Empire and already was seeing their people begin to rebuild.

Cormac had done little. Until Llassar showed up, he’d been kept in Emain Macha, for his protection. He’d never seen battle, never led anyone. When he did get the chance, he’d screwed it up. He could still remember Llassar looking at him on those battlements like he was something unpleasant the older man had stepped on. He hadn’t been wrong, either. A lot of his soldiers had died in that assault. At the time, Cormac had thought it valiant. Worth the sacrifices to show their enemy who was really in charge.

But they’d bypassed two other fortifications after that on their way to Medb’s capitol, isolating them without losing a man. Both of those forts had given up once Medb surrendered. They could have done the same for that first fort, he wouldn’t have lost any men, and they would still have taken the city in the end. His father had left him with Llassar to learn, and he had. He’d learned how much he didn’t know.

“No. I watched while Llassar and the Roman, uhh, Britannian, I guess, legates led the men. My one time in combat was … less than spectacular.”

It had been difficult, ever since. He’d taken to berating himself in the quiet moments, starting to doubt his own abilities.

“Only because you didn’t get the support that you needed. Your father might have left you with that old goat to learn, but what you got was someone keeping you from learning.”

“Llassar’s not that bad. He involved me in councils of war and explained why they were making this decision or that.”

“But he never actually gave you a chance to make your own decisions. I know you like him, and I’m sure he’s a fine person, one on one, but as a teacher, I’ve seen his type all my life. When my father died, his advisors, men my father left to teach me how to rule, tried instead to take my throne from me. I’m a woman, they declared, and not fit to lead. Trust me, I know the type. Men who use the hand of friendship to hold you back.”

“We took your throne too,” Cormac pointed out.

“Yes. Yes, you did, but that was my fault. I’m not sure I’d ever say this to people like Llassar or your father, but here with just you, I’ll admit it. I made a mistake. I saw the Carthaginians and how they’d handled some of the other kingdoms. I knew I’d be crushed if I didn’t join them, so I decided to try to make the best of the situation. I thought maybe I could get a good place for my people when the dust settled. In my defense, how was I supposed to know the Romans would form this alliance, develop staggering new weapons, and clear both islands of the Carthaginians in less than a year?”

“You’re a rare person, Medb. I’m not sure if I could forgive the people who deposed me, if I was in your place.”

“I’m a survivor,” she said, moving from the window, to sit next to him. “Besides, it hasn’t been so bad. When Fergus fell, I thought I was next, but here we are. We get along well and we have a real chance to make something for ourselves in this new Empire, probably more than your father does, away from the real power. Seeing everything happening in this city, especially the tour of those factories outside of town and those massive ships in the harbor, my loss was a foregone conclusion. I think, maybe, this is where I was destined to be. I love my people and I won’t lie, I liked being queen, but we would have been a small backwater in this new world.”

He smiled at her. It was strange. Instead of being difficult, challenging, and looking down at him, she’d been supportive. They’d talked like this every night. She never talked down to him and always treated him like an equal. That might have been expected with most married couples, but they were not most married couples. She was an impressive person, and she treated him as if he was just as important. It was … exciting, really.

“Maybe, although it’s hard to see how that destiny will play out. I mean, they already made it clear I wasn’t to leave the ships during the battle coming up. I haven’t even gotten to see any of the training yet.”

“Give it time,” she said, putting her hand in his and intertwining their fingers. “They’re not going to give you anything' you’re going to have to take it. Just bide your time. When the moment comes, stand up and take what’s yours.”

“How will I know when it’s time?”

“You’ll know. You’ll see something, something the others will have missed, and you’ll step in and show your quality. They’ll have to give you a place of power after that.”

“You think so?”

“I do. We have to be ready, though. They’ve made it clear they don’t plan on giving you the place you deserve, so when the time comes you’re going to have to demand it. And when you do, we’ll make sure they can’t push either of us out again. We’re going to be unstoppable, you and me.”

Her eyes were like fire, and Cormac felt himself get swept up into them.