“I just wanted to…”
My response was cut short when she pulled the gauze tight around my chest. This time it felt like Santino had shoved his scimitar through my rib cage.
“Never mind,” I wheezed. “I’ll just shut up now.”
Helena nodded curtly, offering me a humph.
Ignoring the increasing pressure and pain Helena was inflicting upon my chest, I tried to ease myself into a comfortable sitting position. Santino pulled his chair near the bed while she worked on me, and Gaius and Marcus joined us as well. We all just stared at each other, everyone wondering the same thing.
“So what the hell are you guys doing here?” Santino asked, never one for awkward silences and always speaking what was on everyone else’s mind.
Both members of Agrippina’s Sacred Band squirmed in their chairs, before Gaius, the slightly older of the two, stood and paced around the room. Only a year or so younger than me, his face was hard, like any Roman soldier’s and seemed far older than even my own, which had seemed to age a decade in the past few years.
His chiseled features, small nose, inquisitive eyes, dark hair and perpetual five o’clock shadow gave him a look that belonged on the cover of a Harlequin romance novel, even if he was only five and a half feet tall. Like Marcus, he was short by modern standards, but his height was ideal for his kind of work. Marcus had a similar complexion, but his face was round and more akin to cheery expressions.
Gaius was still pacing, so I gave him some prompting.
“Why don’t you start with…” but I winced again when Helena adjusted her wrapping to go around my right shoulder.
“Sorry,” she apologized.
I gave her a doubtful look before turning back to Gaius. “Why don’t you start with why you’re dressed like that and why you and your buddies seem so… not Roman.”
“Well, Hunter,” he said nonchalantly, flipping a hand over his shoulder, “you have you to thank for that.”
“Me?” I asked.
“All of you,” he answered, never one for nonsense. “Agrippina had some interesting ideas for her new Sacred Band after you fled Rome. Ideas she learned from you. She had these black suits fashioned after your own combat clothing, although obviously not as advanced, and ordered us to develop a new fighting method that made us more spies and assassins than soldiers. We even work in pairs, just like you do, as well as in a larger group of eight people. An octetus.”
I assumed an octetus was the term for their new squad, taken from the Roman term octet — eight legionnaires who shared a tent in a legion camp.
“We may not have your rifles or gear,” he finished, “but we have groomed ourselves into a formidable group.”
“So,” Santino mumbled, pinching the sides of his forehead, “Agrippina has some grand idea for better bodyguards and makes you figure it out for yourself on how to do it?”
I raised a hand in the air. “What part of that was confusing?”
Santino shrugged. “Just inefficient is all. And lazy on her part.”
“Basically, you are correct,” Gaius clarified. “She gave us very loose orders to develop something more akin to your method of waging war. Subterfuge, infiltration, stealth… assassination. We were to become something she could use more indirectly than a legion. We borrowed heavily from what you taught us during our days in the Primigenia’s camp, but also hired out experts from Persia, Egypt, Germany, India, and as far as the Orient to teach us whatever techniques they knew.”
“Very thorough,” I complimented.
“What about you two?” Helena asked. “Why is it that of every member of the Sacred Band, you two are a part of this new group of thugs?” She paused to tie off my wrap as tightly as possible. “There, Jacob. I also recommend that you stay off your feet for a day or so,” she finished as she slid off the bed to sit next to me, her shoulder touching mine.
Gaius and Marcus looked at each other before Marcus spoke up from his chair.
“We are not embarrassed to admit that we are… well… in awe of you. From the day you defended Caligula with your life, owing him nothing, we both knew you were something special. Our only regret is that we know we’ll never be as good as you are.”
“You two handle yourselves just fine on your own,” Santino offered. “You’re handier with a blade than I am, and that’s saying something.”
“True,” Gaius answered, now leaning on the back of his chair, “but you have abilities we don’t even understand. That is why when Agrippina called for volunteers for her new unit, we left our command positions and spent the next few years after you left training. Our entire force was ready only a year ago.”
“So if you’re not Praetorians, then who are you?” I asked.
“We have no name,” Gaius said with a slight shake of his head.
“Right,” Marcus picked up, right where his friend left off. “We are still technically members of the Sacred Band, and will serve alongside the Empress should we need to go to war, but unofficially we are on special assignment. We have no new title, and while we no longer carry the rank of primus prior, we are still Praetorians.”
“Interesting,” I said.
It really was. Here was another deviation from the timeline. Rome had always employed assassins, thieves, and spies, but never had there been an official group of well-trained ones, specifically not on the payroll of the empire. As far as I knew, they’d never had anything akin to something like the CIA or the Hashishin employed by the Ottomans. Not only that, but they were using fighting techniques we had taught them, and being the crafty Romans they were, had built upon them, probably creating something pretty impressive. A head of state with these men at their disposal, especially since they were so devoutly loyal, as the Sacred Band most surly was, would have quite an asset at her disposal.
No one said anything for some time.
“I think the real question,” Helena said slowly, “is what are you doing in Byzantium, if you’re not trying to kill us?”
That was a great question. I shifted my look from her to the Romans, waiting for their response. Both men glanced at one another once again, looking very worried. Gaius sighed, moved around his chair, and retook his seat.
“We’re looking for the orb,” he said.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Santino said, punching out open hands with each “whoa”, “you mean the blue one? The one that got us here?”
“You mean as opposed to the red one?” Helena joked, inciting Santino to smirk at her.
“The one that there are actually two of,” I reminded.
“That is correct,” Gaius continued. “We seek the orb stolen on the battlefield just after Rome was retaken in Caligula’s name. No one is sure where it is, but one of our tasks is to find it and retrieve it for the Empress. She has given us substantial free reign to track it down and obtain it, however we see fit.”
“You mean steal it back?” Helena scoffed.
“That was not to be our first approach, no,” Marcus answered. “We hope to purchase it legally.”
“That is correct,” Gaius said. “We have a lead here in Byzantium, and the two of us along with the rest of our octetus have been asking around the city for any further information.”
“So we ask again,” I said, insistently. “Why were you chasing us?”
“We were not lying when we said that we didn’t know it was you until you fired on us,” Gaius assured. “We work in eight person squads and there are three octeti here. The way we work is with one pair from each squad blending in with a crowd, while the other six shadow them on rooftop in this clothing. These are permanent postings. Our two crowd operatives were chosen for that roll because they are well versed in numerous languages, while we are not. Additionally, to keep our chain of command succinct and efficient, those two are in command of the octetus, and are privy to more information. They must have either been given secondary orders by the Empress to capture you, or they recognized you from your Wanted posters scattered around the empire. When we saw them chasing you, all we saw was a man and a scantily clad woman, and followed as best we could.”