23 AD

The condescension in Marcus Sabinus's baritone as he said the word, 'boy' was thick enough to make Helix want to punch him. Swallowing the urge, he forced his expression into amicability.

"Apologies consul. The commander general is the only one who can command my sword. You will have to speak to him regarding her execution. Meanwhile, if it please you my lord, I will take her to my commander for your safety and that of your guests."

Color rose across Marcus's neck and cheeks. "It does not please me! Kill her now!"

Every sore muscle protested as Helix turned away from the outraged man. He needed something to bind her with. He also needed help to get her to the barracks, especially if Marcus was going to fuss about his disobedience, and the man did seem like the fussing sort.

Helix rubbed his forehead, so many things were wrong or unusual with this whole day that he could not keep up. Remembering the men he'd come with he looked up and scanned the rail above. The angle was steep allowing very little of the room to be seen from this spot. Surely Aldis would know he'd fallen into the pit. Where was he then? For that matter where were the four he'd sent to help with pit security?

Ignoring the consul, Helix raised his voice and shouted, "Aldis!"

"I will have your station for disobeying me. You will be dishonorably discharged!"  Marcus stormed away from the rail, his facial coloring reminding Helix of the wine so liberally scattered above.

After a moment of waiting Helix shouted again. "Aldis!"

Grumbling under his breath he turned his attention to binding the woman before she awoke. Looking down at his soiled and bloody white linen tunic, torn black trousers and entirely disheveled matching boots Helix's eyes fell to his waist. Lacking chains or rope he slipped his belt off and bound her hands with it. It was not near secure enough for someone with her strength and talents. Still, it would slow her down some.

Studying the smooth pit walls Helix internally groaned. When he got out and found Aldis he fully intended to thrash him. Fighting in the ranks was prohibited, but right now, Helix did not care. To his relief red haired Festus appeared at the barred door, key in hand.

"Where are the others?" Helix asked as he hoisted the woman across his shoulders with a grunt.

"The damn house guard tried to arrest us."

Had the consul lost his mind? "What? What do you mean? On what charge?"

"He did not say. Aldis was wounded in the scuffle. The others are helping him get back to barracks and fetching the general. Dax and I stayed behind to get you out."

There was something both unsettling and amusing about one woman being the cause of such an uproar. Still, Sal had taught him that one person, and especially a woman could be more dangerous then appearances portrayed. Helix only hoped Ynyr could explain some of what had happened and get Marcus to calm down.

"Let's get out of here."

Nodding, Festus led them into the torchlit passages. As they progressed an overpowering aroma of unwashed body's, ammonia and copper filled the air. Helix's stomach flopped at the stench.

"Damn." He muttered as an exceptionally strong wave of smell induced nausea struck.

"It gets worse." Festus warned.

Hard wood doors, at equal intervals lined the torchlit corridors. As they walked farther in the doors became barred and with the bars the smell did, indeed worsen. Men and few women filled the cages. Wide eyes, some angry, some scared watched them pass by. Helix schooled his face into an emotionless mask, but underneath his carful expression he seethed. How could someone treat another like this? No one should be treated like an animal and these slaves were being treated worse then that. Most did not even have a bucket in which to relieve themselves. Let alone a bed or any kind of comfort.

As they approached the stairs that led up into the main house, Helix stopped in his tracks. Four children, three little boys and one girl, all of them under ten sat huddled together against the filthy back wall of the last cell.

"Come on Helix. We must not linger. Marcus's guards will be coming for us."

"Give them your cloak."

"What? It won't change anything?"

Eyes burning in anger, Helix shifted his gaze from the children to Festus. "I don't care. I'll buy you a new one. Give it to them!"

Festus met his look, questioning, considering. After a moment he nodded. "Yes, sir." In a fluid motion the soldier had unclasped his cloak and pushed it between the bars. One of the boys scooted forward and grabbed it, quickly retreating back to his friends. "Now we have to go."

Heart heavy with the knowledge that Festus was right, one cloak wouldn't change anything, Helix tore his gaze away from the kids and followed his friend.

"Took you long enough." Dax's gravelly high pitched drawl met them as they stepped onto the first floor of the house. "I led most of the ass holes upstairs. Won't take long for them to realize I slipped away though."

"Nearest exit? Any guards there to worry about?" Helix asked as he shifted the woman's weight on his shoulder.

"Servants entrance through the main kitchen is unguarded. I'm friends with the cook. She'll let us out."

The exodus from the house took less then five minutes. True to his word, Dax's friend let them quietly out through the kitchens. Dax thanked her with a long kiss, making Festus impatient and Helix uncomfortable. The phantom, dream like memories of Sal caressing and touching him against his will four years earlier, still lingered. He wondered briefly if he would ever be comfortable with such intimate gestures. He did not think so.

*~*~*~*~*~*

"In here. On the couch." Ynyr held the door open to his office, allowing Helix and his burden inside. "Festus, Dax when Marcus's messenger arrives bring him to me immediately."

Helix grunted as he laid the woman out on the floor as gently as he could. His muscles burned from the fight, followed by carrying her all the way back to the barracks. Turning, he watched as the commander closed and locked the door.

Ynyr strode to the woman's side, looking down at her. "Tell me everything."

Obeying, Helix recounted the entire day from when they entered Consul Marcus's mansion to the moment the left through the kitchen door. When he had finished the strange tale, he waited. When Ynyr remained silently staring at the prone woman, still restrained by Helix's own belt, he cleared his throat and asked, "What was that sir?"

"Be specific."

Something in the commander's tone made Helix shift uncomfortably. "How were you there sir? Do you know why she... her eyes looked wrong and why she was so strong?"

Ynyr grinned ever so slightly, his eyes never leaving the woman. "What do you think she is?"

The way he asked the question was so bazar it took Helix a moment to process it. Not who she is, what she is? "I do not know, Sir?"

Finally turning away from the woman, the commander strode across the room and pulled a particularly old looking wooden box down from the top his book shelf. The box was only about twelve inches long and six inches wide. It was built of plain unstained, dented wood. Setting the box on his desk, Ynyr pulled a key from around his neck and unlocked the box. Shifting a few items around he pulled a small scroll free.

Curious Helix scooted a few steps closer to the desk. Only to recoil as Ynyr's sharp voice thickened and spread across the room. Tension, like the feeling back at Marcus's mansion filled the air. "Do you feel that?"

Helix could only nod as the air seemed to be sucked from the room, and his lungs as well.

"That is what a witches power feels like when it is being called upon."

Spots began filling Helix's eyes as he struggled to understand what was happening. His hands came to his throat as he gasped, becoming desperate for air. In les then the time it took to blink, the commander was inches from his face. Helix stumbled backwards, partly from the shock of him appearing so close, and partly from the realization that in those dark eyes he could no longer make out the mans barely perceptible pupils.

Ynyr grabbed his shoulder steadying him. "Look in my eyes. Good, now breath softly and stop gasping."

Willing his panic down, Helix tried and found that he could indeed get a little air, if he took soft breaths and soft breaths only. "She is a witch?"

"Yes."

He remembered Sal's answer when he'd asked if she was a witch. Witches being real did not surprise him, but what did surprise him was the commander. "And you?"

Ynyr grinned. Air filled Helix's lungs and the room returned to normal as a knock sounded.

"The messenger is here sir." It was Dax's voice.

Glancing at the door he loudly bellowed, "A moment." The commanders face turned solemn. "Say nothing while he is here."

"Yes Sir. I-"

Ynyr cut him off with a squeeze to the shoulder, before letting go and walking first to his desk to lock the box, then to the door. Throwing it open he revealed Dax and Festus standing on either side of a wiry, disheveled house guard. "This is my answer to the consul." The commander extended the small scroll he'd been holding.

"But you haven't even heard-"

"I do not need to. I have received a full account from Helix. Take that message to Marcus at once. Tell him it is the only outcome if he wants my continued support."

After a slight bow the man was escorted out by Dax and Festus. Helix watched the door close, his thoughts churning. Sal had all but told him, four years ago, that she knew the commander. Sal, maker of witches. She had promised Ynyr would train him properly. It was far to coincidental that the general had a pre-written answer to this predicament. And the entire appearing and disappearing act at the pit?

Moments of his training flitted through his mind. Ynyr's unreasonably fast strikes, just like the woman. Marcel's joking comment about not knowing if the commander was human. The times Ynyr had lifted something far heavier then should be possible.

Helix's thoughts were unceremoniously invaded by the female sound of snarling and grunting. The woman had awakened and begun violently thrashing trying to get her hands free. Ynyr beat Helix to her side.

To his surprise the commander crouched next to her, speaking, not in Roman or Greek, but in the lilting foreign tongue she had been screaming out the day Helix had first seen her at the infirmary.

She went entirely still, fear flooding her expression in response to whatever Ynyr was telling her. As the commander reached out to her bound hands she flinched. Helix let the details soak in. The dramatic change in her demeanor, from wild, frantic and kill hungry, to terrified and meek, when faced with the strange man next to her only served to intensify his desire to know more about Ynyr.

After a few more unintelligible words, questions he figured since she replied, the commander stood and looked at Helix. "Pack your belongings. We are going to Carthage then to the Gaetulia boarder."

"Gaetulia?"

Gaetulia bordered with the African provinces. He'd heard there was some growing trouble in that area with some of the Berber tribes. The Misulamii, Mauri, and Garamantes were the three main culprits and also the largest coalition of organized resistance in the North African province's. The area had been through four consuls in nine years.

Ynyr nodded. "Marcus no doubt wants you killed. The message I sent him declares you will  be sent to join a different legion so as not to disturb him. I will escort you personally, and see that she," his eyes flicked to the woman, "Is properly taken care of." Helix started to speak, to protest, to ask more questions about witches and Ynyr. The commander cut him off his tone turning firm but not cold, "Our journey will give me more then enough time to complete your training and answer your questions."

Capitulating, Helix brought his hand over chest then saluted. "Yes Sir. Permission to say my good byes to my friends here?"

"Granted. We will leave tomorrow morning."

*~*~*~*~*~*

The healer Marjani was the first one Helix went to see. His boots clicked on the white stone floor with a disconcerting finality as he inhaled the wave of cedar and herb laden air. For all the years he had spent working for the Sea Guild, neither Elias's house, nor the floating vessels he was so often on, had felt like home. But here, in Aquila, with the people he had grown to care about? This felt like home. He was leaving home and he did not think he'd ever return. A knot formed in his stomach as he approached Marjani's private office. The door stood ajar.

She stood, her back to him as she leaned over a work table meticulously organized. Herbs, jars, mortars and pestles all in rows, with open books here and there. Leaning against the door frame he knocked on the cedar.

Marjani turned a bottle in one hand, the other hand flying up to her heart. "Child! You put my heart at risk!"

He grinned, "Your heart is big enough to handle it I think."

She beamed back at him, the crinkles in her aging face making her bright brown eyes sparkle all the more. "Ha! Sweet talker. What can I do for you today?" Her gaze appraised him quickly. "Save for those arms who look like they are starting to bruise you don't look injured."

"I'm not." Helix glanced at his arms. He could not see any bruises, but they certainly hurt, as did other parts of him, from the beating the woman had dished out.

Her nose wrinkled up. "Why is it sadness I hear in your voice? Come in child. Sit." She motioned to an over sized chair in one corner of the room. "Tell Marjani what troubles you,
while I rub some liniment into those arms."

"There's no need-"

"Tsk! Tsk! Sit!"

Helix obeyed, the corners of his mouth tilting upward. Sinking into the plush chair he sighed heavily, realizing just how tired he really was. Marjani meanwhile scurried to a cabinet along the wall and pulled a round tin out. Crossing to the young soldier,  she opened the tin, balanced it on the arm of the chair, took his arm in hers hands and began rubbing in a creamy white substance that smelled vaguely  of peppermint and eucalyptus. The relief was instant.

"Better?" She flashed her white teeth at him. He groaned in answer, eliciting a chuckle from her. "That be a yes. Now tell me why you actually came."

Helix watched her work on his muscles as he swallowed, "I came to tell you good bye."

Her deft fingers did not hesitate, but flicker of questioning sadness was in the look she shot at him. "Oh?"

"The commander general is taking me to Gaetulia. Partly because I may have seriously pissed off Consul Sabinus. And partly for some other reason he hasn't said yet."

"What did you do to the consul child?"

"Long story made short, I refused to kill someone."

She smiled slightly, "A brave man you have become Helix."

"Does that mean you will finally stop calling me child?"

Marjani squeezed one of his sore muscles tight enough to make him wince. "No! Never!"

"Worth a try."

When she was satisfied that he was properly rubbed down, he stood. Marjani looked up at him, liquid brown eyes becoming a little watery.

"Ah now, don't go crying on me." Helix wrapped her small form in a tight hug. He had never seen the healer cry. She was always either happy or serious around him.

"Don't go ordering me about!" The words were soft but jovial. Pulling back from him, she rubbed her eyes and quickly cleared her throat. You be careful now. The commander general is a good man, listen to him."

"I will."

"And when you are done with a soldiers life, come find me. I would very much like to see you again."

Helix did not tell her that he doubted she would live long enough to see him out of the legion. Instead he humored her and grinned. "Of course!"

*~*~*~*~*~*

"I hope you were planning on saying good bye?"

Marcel Gratien grinned as Helix jumped and spun away from the bag he'd been packing, his fist already flying. The captain, expecting the blow, ducked away.

"Damn idiot." Helix met the captains grin with one of his own.

"Touchy bastard." Marcel walked up beside him, his gaze taking in the items spread across the bed waiting to be packed. "Try to keep it light. Long way to Gaetulia."

"You know then?"

"Commander Ynyr just told me. He's leaving me in charge of the place while he takes you to the far reaches of nowhere."

Helix's smile broadened. "Congratulations."

Marcel nodded and then looked at him seriously. "I am more then a little curious about Sabinus's party. What happened? Rumor is flying around the barracks like wild fire that you bested a devil woman?"

Running his hand through his almost black hair, Helix nodded. "Don't know about devil woman, but she was quite the fighter. The commander has her in custody now."

"You suck at story telling. By the gods, can't you liven it up a bit?"

Both men chuckled but, Helix obliged. He told the captain about the fight, Consul Marcus Sabinus's threats and actions, then ended the story with escaping the house. He left out most of the strange parts, including the commander appearing and vanishing, as well as the parts about her being a witch.

"Well, I'm sure Ynyr will figure out what to do with her. Can't say as I would have spared her if I was in your position. Pretty risky going against the Consul, just to bring her to the commander."

Shrugging, Helix quickly ran through a mental catalog of what he'd packed, and what he still needed. Not much. "I did what I thought was best."

"Fair enough. Hey, you have time for dinner? Might be the last big meal you eat for awhile." His tone was conspiratorial.

Helix grinned. "Sure. As long as you don't try to get me drunk again!"

Marcel laughed as the two made their way to the dinning hall.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Authors Note: So this took me forever to get out! And I know it may not be the most exciting chapter ever. It has details of great importance however that you will need/want to know later.

I struggled with this chapter a lot, so if there are more errors then usual, or less then the standard of description, I apologize. I had to research places and ancient geography between work and trying to write! I also had to find some details about Ancient Rome to make my story go where it needs to. Y'all... fantasy world are so much easier then real world places!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy and please give me feedback! Thanks!