Aries Fire (38 page)

“Wait,” she said, out of breath.

“We cannot delay long,” Paulinus said.

“What is it?” Alexander asked.

“I don’t know. Something,” she whispered.

Alexander looked about. Paulinus nodded and put his hand up to keep them from advancing.

“I’ll go ahead and see if the way is clear. Stay here. Stay quiet.”

And he was gone. Alexander put his arms around Seira and held her tightly. She had just begun to shiver and felt comforted and warmer by his touch. She nuzzled her face into his neck and sighed.

“Would you like to tell me about Venus?” he whispered quietly into her ear.

She snorted and held in her laughter. Seira suddenly wondered if Alexander had any lovers or…

A wife? She pulled away.

“Are you married?” she asked him.

“Are you?” he quipped.

She gave him a sly grin as Paulinus reappeared.

“The way is safe to pass,” he said.

Seira grabbed Alexander’s arm and they ran toward the torch that lit the way to the vault. Freedom was at hand. Seira felt infinitely more excited than scared.

Cyril suddenly stepped out of the vault, not twenty paces away, preoccupied with his gold. Seira gasped. Cyril startled at the sound and reached for his knife.

“Who goes there?” he asked.

Paulinus shrank into the darkness of the earthen walls. Everyone froze. Seira felt immobilized. Alexander took one step in front of her.  Cyril’s eyes adjusted to the dimness quickly. Their identities were no longer hidden in the diffused light of the torch flame.

What’s HE doing here?

Cyril dropped the bag of gold and assumed a defensive pose. Although taken aback slightly Alexander kept his wits and quickly thought of a tactic to safety.

To their left a passageway back to the church, but unknown to them. To the right were stairs to freedom.  Behind them lay the tunnel. They either had to turn back or push past Cyril toward the steps. Alexander scanned for Paulinus. He was gone. No doubt back the way they had come.  Alexander understood that their guide could not and would not wait for them. The tunnel through which they came would yield a dead end.

Cyril sneered and his eyes glinted yellow in the light. Seira prepared to lunge for his knife. Out of the dark passageway to their left Bleda suddenly appeared. Cyril looked incredulously at him.

“Wha…”

At seeing Bleda, Seira was surprised to feel nothing except warrior prowess.  Alexander acted. He flew at Bleda, still half in the dark, with bare hands. They engaged in a powerful struggle. Seira’s sharp wits and training drove her instinctively. She dove through the air plummeting toward Cyril, her eye on Bleda with rage intact.  Cyril fell backwards, tripping over his bag of gold.  Her adept hands that ripped life from hundreds of Roman soldiers held him down by his throat.  Something stopped her from breaking Cyril’s neck. She grabbed his hilt and pitched it hard at Bleda: a penetrating stab through the left arm.

Bleda tore the blade from his arm with a devilish shout. Blood spilled. Alexander took Bleda’s hair and wrapped it around his neck to strangle him. Swift footing laid a lock on Bleda’s wound and kept him on the ground for a moment. The walls of the tunnel crumbled and a heap of dust fell on all of them. Bleda choked on it and coughed as he wrenched his hair from his neck.

Cyril hissed and threw Seira across the hallway toward the steps, past the vault entrance.  Seira’s legs wobbled as she tried to rise. She felt dizzy and nauseas as if she were at sea. It confused her. In her hesitation, Cyril lunged at her but lost his balance as well. He fell sideways into the wall.

“Alexander!” she said.

Bleda grabbed Alexander’s head and hurled him forward, over Bleda’s massive shoulder. Alexander’s body rose into the air and his muscular chest smashed into the low ceiling. He hit the ground, smashing his pack. He groaned and rolled toward the steps. Blood spurted from his nose.

The ground shook violently. More earth fell all around them. Seira looked up and saw the ceiling crack and crumble.

“An earthquake!” Seira screamed, grabbing Alexander’s collar.

She pulled him toward the steps with all of her strength just as the ceiling fell and entombed them all.

Chapter Fifteen

The long journey home

Or Saturn conjunct Jupiter in the 9th

S
EIRA LAY ON
her stomach and spit dirt from her mouth, her legs weighted down by something other than the ceiling. She looked back over her shoulder and saw Alexander, unconscious, atop her.

The torch fire was smote by the earth and lack of air. She coughed and strained to see anything encouraging: a way out, Bleda dead, Cyril crushed.

“Mmm,” groaned Alexander.

Seira wiggled her toes and sighed. Nothing felt broken. Of Alexander she was unsure. Outstretched arms grabbed rock debris and pulled the weight of both of them. It was difficult. Alexander lay under a mass of clumped, dry soil and that heavied the load upon her.

“Ah!”

Where was Attila in this moment? She searched her intuition and knew he was safe.

Fine for him!

A scraping sound echoed faintly. Seira stopped to listen. It posed no immediate threat so she ignored it for the moment and concentrated hard on pulling Alexander off of her legs.

A large crag jutted from the ground where once lay the floor. With arched back, arms flung and held to it tightly. She took a puff of breath and focused on her intention.

“Pull, woman,” she muttered to herself. Seira attempted to slide her legs out from under Alexander. He began to moan.

“Seira,” he barely said.

She kept pulling and let out a pained grunt. Alexander began to push the earth from his body. It loosened the space around their bodies. The scraping sound became a dragging sound. Seira and Alexander looked at each other.

“Cyril or Bleda?” she asked.

“No,” he coughed. “It comes from that direction.”

He pointed toward his recollection of the stairs.  All at once the ground below them opened up and they plummeted into the hole. She screamed and held tightly to the crag and let go seconds after Alexander fell. She landed on top of him, her face in his groin. Dust rose in every direction.

“Not now, my love,” he coughed. “You can have me after a bath.”

Seira wiped dirt from her face and laughed. She scrambled to face him and looked about. A fierce sneeze followed by another and Seira blew spit into Alexander’s face.

“Thank you. Is that a Hun mating practice?”

Seira laughed and held him.

“Are you hurt?”

“No. Save perhaps a broken nose and a split rib or two.  Are you all right?”

“We’re on the stairs!” Seira said.

The scraping sound reappeared.

“Do you hear it?”

“Yes,” Alexander said.

He slid out from under Seira and rolled to his hands and knees and grumbled in pain.

“Well, we won’t fall any farther down. I think we’re at the bottom of the steps.”

“What is it?”

He looked at her pondering the possibilities.

“Someone is digging,” he finally said.

Seira clamored and dug dirt like a dog. She pawed at the wall of earth toward the sound and Alexander followed.

A mound of soil disappeared. Light spilled into the hole that remained. A man’s head popped through dimming the light behind him.

Seira and Alexander jolted back. The stranger blinked the dust away and looked at them.

“You are here! Magnificent. Yes,” he said.

Seira was dumbstruck.

“Isaac?”

“Tis I. The Jew.”

He pulled his head out of the hole and quickly popped it back in.

“Kick the earth in to freedom. Hurry. If there is another quake then we shall all say our prayers together,” he said.

Alexander and Seira spun around to sit on their backsides. Alexander groaned and grabbed his side. Lifting their legs they counted in unison to three and slammed their legs into the wall of dirt. He let out a wail of pain and grimaced. The soil crumbled and made the hole bigger.

“Again,” Seira said.

“You counted in Hunnish,” Alexander said, staring at her.

Seira shrugged and focused on the hole. Again they unified their strength and pushed the wall down. Seira scrambled out of the opening into another tunnel that had suffered far less damage in the quake.

While Alexander climbed through after her with some difficulty, Seira threw her arms around Isaac. She held onto his neck tightly and silently thanked God for her rescue.

“Isaac,” she said.

He pulled her arms down. They gazed at each other for a moment in the darkness. Seira felt his brotherly charm and it felt like she had come home.

“We must go now,” he said.

The three of them pushed their way past fallen rock and earth. Seira ran in the shadows toward the opening that would lead them past the gates. She prayed that there were no more tremors. Just then the tunnel shook and they ran faster.

She suddenly believed that if sheer will could keep her alive, she could keep the walls from falling by pushing her energy outward.

Of course!

Isaac was here. Kiki and Isaac taught her how to use her energy, her prana. They gasped for air as they ran. Seira could barely believe she ran between two of the three men she loved most in life.

‘As a man thinketh in his heart so is he and so is the world wherein he dwelleth,’ Eudocia’s voice echoed in her head recounting the words of Jesus.

Yes and as a woman thinketh, too!

Soil sprinkled down over them. The earth was less sandy here. Seira looked up as they ran.

“We’ve passed the gates,” she called.

Almost free.

She laughed with joy as she ran. Her life had been so much harder than she ever imagined it would be. How else could it be? Attila once asked her. If she carried anger as breath, stubbornness as shelter, and impatience as a guide, there could only be one way to live.

They turned a bend and the walls shook again. Seira fell into Isaac and they tripped. Alexander lifted her easily and gritted his teeth for the pain in his ribs. Isaac rushed to his feet as they rounded the curve. There, at the end of the tunnel was the gray light of liberty.

Isaac slowed and they followed his lead resting for a moment at the mouth of the cave.

She bent over to catch her breath. Sweat dripped from her temples. Matted tresses clung to her forehead.  Seira’s cheeks flushed in the damp air. Outside the tunnel pale green mountains and walnut trees arranged the landscape. The rain battered the ground but it all looked beautiful to Seira. Alexander slid his arms around her waist.

Isaac huffed, “We’ve come half a league, yes, truth be told, ready for the Olympic games.” Alexander and Isaac looked at each other.

“And you, my Friend. You have found her for us.”

Seira was stunned, yet oddly relieved by her men. Isaac peered from the cave’s mouth then closed his eyes. He inhaled deeply, the way he used to do before meditating. Seira watched and remembered. More pieces of her life returned to her like old friends.

He’s using his intuition to detect danger.

She wanted to ask him about Kiki but didn’t.  Alexander took watch over the field but saw nothing. Seira looked at the rain and thought of Attila. He must be searching for Bleda now with curses on his tongue. Seira inhaled deeply and searched her senses, too.

Yes. Bleda lived. She could feel it. She knew the Huns would soon be sailing back to their army beyond the Scutari Range. And then?

“We must move. Behind the grove of walnut trees is a grain cart,” said Isaac.

The three darted into the storm, stung by icy raindrops. Chilled fingers protected her eyes as she turned to see Alexander. They grabbed each other’s hands and ran faster.

They rested under the protection of the tree’s drooping leaves. Seira wiped her face with her sleeve. Alexander wiped his face with her sleeve, too, and that made her laugh.

Isaac immediately tore into the sack on the cart and pulled out clothing.

“Here. The finest in escape garb,” he said with a laugh.

Seira was glad to be rid of the blue tunic. She lifted the sweat and rain soaked fabric that marked her as a Jewess and tore it off.  The blue tunic fell onto muddy earth. Seira stepped on it dismissing it from her mind. 

Alexander stood nearly two paces away, transfixed. Forgetting all about his aching bruises, he stared. Naked bronzed skin glistened in the rain. Seira glanced over her shoulder and saw Alexander watching her. It didn’t stop her from dressing.  But she suddenly felt older and wiser: having lived a wild life, ready to be with him now.

Where once modesty would have dictated, she felt casual in her fellowship.  Alexander eyed a raindrop and followed it across the contour of her shoulder blades as it slid down her skin.  Seira’s form was smoother and more muscular than most women’s and this in particular held his eye. He watched the droplet trickle unpredictably down the left side of her back. The droplet rested just above her hip before suddenly gliding to the right and disappearing down the middle of her back into that forbidden space just above her buttock.

Alexander stared at the shape of her curved hips. He let his eyes lift just enough to witness a round, full breast barely covered by her arms as the juppe dropped over her figure.

Seira glanced briefly at her right shoulder and paused. She felt his desire for her ignite. Isaac felt it, too.

Isaac gripped Alexander’s forearm and it startled him.

“We must go. Take the old clothes. We leave no trace.”

“As scratchy as ever, Isaac,” Seira mused as she tugged her juppe down over her knees.

The three jumped into the cart.  Isaac kneeled on a sack of chaff and grabbed the reigns.  With one snap the horse that stood quietly suddenly thrashed and trotted.

Seira lay curled on her side with Alexander over her like a blanket, his back protecting her from the driving rain. His cheek barely resting on hers, they felt each other’s breath, warm and steady. She wanted him more than her fire for Attila. She clenched her teeth and inhaled him.