His body ached, yet he did not want to lose Marius, so he broke into a stiff jog, cutting further conversation short. Luckily, once the Roman reached the shadow of the gatehouse, he had stopped to wait for them.

“Hurry, we must reach camp before nightfall,” the man said. “But take a moment to bind your wounds.”

Cade sighed with relief. This Roman, at least, had some empathy.

He was a tall man, with a chiseled, shaven jaw, wide blue eyes, and mouse-brown hair. It was a face Cade instinctively trusted, and any friend of Quintus’s was surely a friend of his.

“Your commander,” Cade said, his Latin broken and stilted, “he did not seem … happy to see us.”

Marius lifted a finger to his lips.

“Not here,” he said. “We will speak on the way.”

Cade’s eyes widened. Marius had answered in English.

CHAPTER

14

The grass was sticky-damp against their legs as they trudged through the grasslands, but Cade was grateful that their way had already been trampled by the Romans on their journey to the fort.

Their path was a clear swath through the purple sea, and Cade wondered how Marius would have navigated the landscape without it. They had walked for a good half hour by now, but Marius had not stopped for one minute, seemingly eager to get as far from the fort as possible before continuing their conversation.

They had hardly introduced themselves before Marius had outpaced them, his skinny legs belying a wiry strength and stamina that they could not match.

Trix and Yoshi, especially, were struggling to keep up, for both had superficial yet painful cuts to their legs. And Cade’s own wrist was pulsing with every beat of his heart, where a spear had somehow slipped through the hinge of his armor.

“Marius,” Cade called, this time in English. “We’ve got to slow down. Some of us are wounded.”

At those words, the Roman held up a hand, halting the procession.

“Come,” he said, sidling off their path and into the grasses. “We rest here, away from any that follow.”

He lifted each foot with care as he walked, taking long steps and carefully threading through the grass so as not to disturb it unduly. Cade mirrored his movements, and soon the group was seated amid the grass, close together and off the beaten path.

“I am sure you have many questions,” Marius said before Cade could open his mouth. “But first, I must ask you to answer mine. Who are you, and how did you come to know Quintus?”

To Cade’s surprise, he could almost detect a slight French accent among the more typical Latin one that he had first heard in New Rome.

Cade paused, struggling to encompass their past year in as few words as possible.

“We come from a time far beyond your own,” Cade said. “Brought by the gods to replace you as contenders. I assume you were with Quintus’s legion?”

Marius nodded.

“We have successfully won two rounds in defense,” Cade continued, “but now we’ve been forced to attack. The eight of us were sent on our own.”