It was hard to believe that Anna was there, heading straight for the city. What would she think if she knew we were watching her right now, that we were going to save her? Or did she feel like we abandoned her? Just seeing the image on the screen gave me a reason to go on. It was something.
Ashton pointed to the north. “I can drop you off there, behind that mountain. The ship needs to remain hidden. If you hurry, you all can make it to Central Square before they do.”
“Head that way, then,” Samuel said.
Ashton changed the trajectory of the ship, carrying us above the clouds once more.
Chapter 14
We landed on an empty road behind the mountain. As soon as we exited the blast door, Gilgamesh lifted off. We received no radio, not wanting to risk our messages being intercepted. Instead, Ashton would keep an eye on this spot for when we were ready to be lifted out.
It wasn’t perfect, but it was the best we could come up with.
The morning was gray and misty, the wind cool up in the green mountains. We followed the dirt road as it curved through a pass, leading to the valley below where the city was situated. We passed a farmer, his donkey, and cart on our way down. He eyed us strangely, but said nothing as we passed.
Samuel began to jog as the road sloped even more downhill. As the sun rose higher, it burned through the mist. Before us was the city of Nova Roma, spreading throughout the entire valley. There were thousands of buildings, through which hundreds of stone streets crisscrossed. I could even see people walking in massive crowds in the distance, all of them tiny dots from my distance. The Coleseo stood clearly in the center of the city. Its three tiers of stone arches rose above the other buildings, forming a perfect circle. Unlike the rest of the big buildings in the town, this had been built from scratch. It was amazing that Augustus could have achieved such a feat.
“Almost there,” Samuel said. “Keep moving!”
We ran down the rest of the way down the mountain. We came across more people walking both toward and away from the city — people dressed in robes, and the poorer ones dressed in rags. At one point, a set of guards came up the road. We ducked out of the way and hid behind a boulder until they passed, not wanting to risk questioning.
When we got back on the road again, we left the highlands and entered a thick forest. After running another couple miles, we were there. Before us was an ivy-clad stone gatehouse that led into Nova Roma. The tall, wooden doors were wide open, and crowds of people passed both in and out of the city. Some of the people had to pause before a set of guards to answer questions.
“How are we supposed to get in there with those guards?” I asked.
Julian stepped up beside me. “I don’t see any way to avoid it. Your skin color and clothing alone will give you away. I’m the only one of us who could pass through.”
“Is there a way you can talk to the guard?”
Julian shook his head. “The fact you only speak English will tell them you are slaves. English is the slaves’ language.”
“So, we need to avoid confrontation,” Samuel said.
Julian nodded. “Exactly.”
We stood there for a moment, thinking of how we might get inside.
“Is there another gate we could go through?” I asked.
“There are five gates into the city,” Julian said. “All of them are watched. All we can do is hope to sneak by and not get noticed.”
“That doesn’t seem like a good idea,” I said.
“I don’t know of any other way,” Samuel said.
“Wait,” Makara said.
She pointed to a large group of people, walking toward the gate from a dirt path leading into the forest. They seemed to be together in some sort of a religious procession. They were dressed in dark, fine robes. In the center, a silver tray was carried, spilling out smoke from an urn. The smell of incense tingled my nostrils. The urn was wreathed in colorful flowers of red and yellow. There were about twenty in the procession. Many held their heads low, as if in mourning.
“A rich man’s funeral, most likely,” Julian said. “There is a cemetery within the forest they are likely returning from. It’s not likely that the guards will stop them. If we can somehow attach ourselves to them without anyone noticing…”
“That’s our way in,” Samuel said.
Samuel walked forward boldly, and we followed him. As we neared the gate, the crowds thickened. It was early enough in the morning that anyone living outside the city would still be making their way in — and that worked in our favor. It wasn’t hard to attach ourselves to the tail of the funeral procession. By the time we were that close, there were enough people around us to where we didn’t stick out. We neared the gate, keeping our heads low like the mourners.
I tried not to think of how we would stick out, being so differently dressed from them. But a moment later, we were out of the sun and in the shade of the gatehouse. The chatter of the crowd echoed within the confines of the entrance, and I didn’t dare glance to my left, where a group of people separated us from the guards. Finally, we were through the gates, walking into the sunlight of the city. Before stopping, we walked on with the procession for another moment.
I glanced back toward the gate. The guards were there questioning a new group of people.
“We made it,” I said, hardly able to believe it.
But no one was listening. They were gazing in awe at the buildings surrounding us. The street was bursting with people, flowing down a long, stone avenue like a river toward the city’s center. Tall, stone buildings lined each side of the street, and green trees occupied a median in the center of the avenue. Carts filled with sundries, anything from produce to glassware to clothing to household goods, lined the building fronts, behind each of which a merchant hawked his or her wares. The people were dressed in robes of white and brown, the richer wearing more vibrant colors of yellow, red, and purple. Head scarves covered the faces of most of the women, obscuring almost all of their features except the eyes. The richer and more colorful the woman’s clothing, the more her face was hidden. The poor wore simple tunics of burlap or cotton, all undyed and dirt brown.
The morning air smelled of unwashed flesh and animal dung. The thrum of human life was near deafening.
As we walked ahead, a contingent of guards marched down the street, regaled in leather armor and carrying long, pointed spears. Standing at the head of the contingent was a leader wearing a yellow and black-spotted jaguar headdress. The crowds parted before them, giving them plenty of space to continue walking. The guards marched past us without even a glance. As soon as they passed, people filled the void they left behind. It was a scene of confused chaos.
In the distance, the Coleseo towered above the other buildings. A large temple rose on our left, marble steps leading to an altar surrounded by both green trees and pillars. Smoky incense drifted from the temple’s open doorway, trailing down the steps and into the street below. A vendor to our right shouted, hawking a sugary pastry which carried the scent of cinnamon. Despite my breakfast that morning, my stomach growled.
The entire city was overwhelming, and boasted the wealth and power of the Nova Roman Empire. The amount of things to see was a bit overwhelming, and it made Raider Bluff, the largest city I had seen to this point, look like a tiny dot.
“Come on, we’re not here sightseeing,” Samuel said, marching ahead. “We have to make it to Central Square.”
I followed Samuel, along with the others, but I could not keep myself from not looking around.
“Hide your weapons,” Makara said. “They might be as lenient here as in Raider Bluff.