Red Rising — Chapter 32: Antonia

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Antonia

I passed this test. The interminable war with House Minerva is done.

And I’ve also trapped House Diana.

House Diana had three choices before the battle. They could have

betrayed me to Minerva and taken my House as slaves, but I had

Cassius send pickets to intercept any rider. They could have

accepted my proposal. Or they could have gone to our castle and

tried to take it. I could care less if they chose that option; it was a

trap. We left no water inside and could have besieged them easily.

Now they have the Minervan fortress and we are outside in the

plains. They could honor their agreement. We would get the

standard; they would get the city and all its inhabitants. But I know

they’ll become greedy. And they do. The gates close and they think

they’ve a strategic bastion. Good. That’s why I have Sevro inside

with them.

Smoke plumes soon rise. He destroys the food stores as they

enslave the Minervans and guard the walls from my army. Then he

fouls the wells with feces and hides with his Howlers in the cellars.

House Diana is not used to this sort of warfare. They have never

really left their woods behind. It is hardly an eort to wait them

out. Three days in and they are apparently still surprised we do not

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leave. Instead, we camp north and south of the city with our horses

and light bonres all around so they cannot slip away in the night.

They are thirsty. Their leader, Tamara, does not receive me. She is

too embarrassed at being caught in her betrayal.

Eventually, on the fourth day, Tamara oers me ten Minervan

slaves and all our enslaved soldiers if I allow her passage home. I

send Lea to tell her to go slag herself. Lea giggles like a child when

she returns. She ips her hair, grabs my arm, and leans in close to

mock Tamara’s desperateness.

“Have decency!” she cries. “Are you not a man of your word?”

When they try to break out the fth night, we capture every last

one of them. Except Tamara. She fell from her horse and was

trampled to death in the mud.

“Her saddle was cut through underneath.” Sevro shows me the

cleanly severed strip of leather. “Tactus?”

“Probably.

“His mother’s a Senator, Father’s a Praetor.” Sevro spits. “Met him

when we were children. Beat a girl half to death when she wouldn’t

kiss him on the cheek. Mad bastard.”

“Let it slide,” I say. “We can’t prove anything.” Tactus is our

slave, as is all of Diana and Minerva. Even Pax. I sit with Cassius

and Roque atop our horses as we watch our new slaves labor in

stacking wood and hay throughout the Minervan fortress. They set a

massive blaze and we three toast each other in victory.

“This will be your last bar of merit,” Cassius tells me. “That makes

you Primus, brother.” He pats my shoulder, and I see only a twinge

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of jealousy in his eyes. “Couldn’t be a better pick.”

“Lord on high, I never thought I would see this side of our

handsome friend,” Roque says. “Humility! Cassius, is that truly

you?”

Cassius shrugs. “This game is but a year of our lives, maybe less.

After that, we have our apprenticeships or academies. After that, we

have our lives. I’m only glad that we three were in the same House

—just rewards will be there eventually for all of us.”

I squeeze his shoulder. “Agreed.”

He’s still looking down, unable to meet our eyes till he nds his

voice again.

“I … may have lost a brother here. That pain won’t fade. But I feel

like I’ve gained two more.” He looks up ercely. “And I mean that,

lads. I gorywell mean that. We’ll have to do ourselves proud here.

Beat some more Houses, win the whole damn thing; but my father

will need ocers for the ships in his armada … if you are interested,

that is. The House Bellona always needs Praetors to make us

stronger.”

He says that last part timidly, as though we’d have something

better to do.

I grip his shoulder once more and nod even as Roque says

something smartass about being a politician because he’d rather

send people to their deaths than go to his own. The Sons of Ares

would drool if I became a Praetor to House Bellona.

“And don’t worry, Roque, I’ll mention your poetry to Father,”

Cassius laughs. “He’s always wanted a warrior bard.”

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“Of course,” Roque embellishes. “Be sure to let dear Imperator

Bellona know that I am a master with metaphor and a rogue with

assonance.”

“Roque a rogue … oh God,” I laugh as Sevro rides up with Quinn

and a girl on a type of horse I have not seen before. The girl wears a

bag over her head. Quinn announces her as an emissary from House

Pluto.

Her name is Lilath and they found her waiting near the edge of

the woods. She wishes to speak with Cassius.

Lilath was once a moonfaced girl with cheeks that did smile but

now don’t. They are drawn and newly burned, pocked and cruel.

She’s seen hunger, and there’s a coldness to her that I don’t

recognize. I’m frightened. I feel like Mickey when he looked at me. I

was a cold, quiet thing he didn’t understand. So is she. It’s like

looking at a sh from an underground river.

Lilath’s words come slow and linger in the air.

“I come from the Jackal.”

“Call him by his real name, if you will,” I suggest.

“I did not come to speak with you,” she says without a hint of

emotion. “I came for Cassius.”

Her horse is small and lean. Its hooves nicked. Extra clothing

makes her saddle fat. I see no weapons other than a crossbow. They

are a mountain House—more clothing for colder climates, smaller

horses for harder rides. Unless it is deception. I make her show me

her ring. It is a mourning tree—the cypress of Pluto. Its roots leak

into the ground. Two of her ngers are gone. Burns seal the stumps,

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so they have ion weapons. Her hair clatters when she moves. I don’t

know why.

She looks me over quietly, as though judging me against her

master.

Apparently I am lacking.

“Cassius au Bellona, my master desires the Reaper.” She goes on

before either of us can say a word. We’re too surprised. “Alive.

Dead. We don’t care. In return for him, you will receive fty of

these for your … army.”

She tosses him two ionBlades.

“You can tell your master he should come face me himself,” I say.

“I make no words with dead boys,” Lilath says to the air. “My

master has put the mark on the Reaper. Before winter comes, he will

be dead. By one hand or another.”

“You can go slag yourself,” Cassius replies.

She tosses Cassius a small pouch. “To help you make your

decision.”

She does not speak again. Quinn raises her eyebrows and shrugs

her confusion as she leads Lilath away.

I look at the small pouch Cassius holds in his hands. Paranoia

overwhelms me. What is inside?

“Open it,” I say.

“Nah. She’s mad as a Violet, that one,” Cassius laughs. “Don’t

need her to infect us.” Yet he tucks the pouch in his boot. I want to

scream at him to open it, but I smile as though there is nothing to

worry about.

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“Something was wrong in her. Didn’t seem human,” I say

casually.

“Looked like one of our starved wolves.” Cassius gives the

ionBlade a swing. The air shrieks. “At least we got these two. Now I

can teach you how to duel properly. These’ll go straight through

duroArmor. Dangerous things, really.”

The Jackal knows about me. The thought makes me shiver.

Roque’s words are worse.

“Did you notice how her hair clattered?” he asks. His face is

white. “Her braids were laced with teeth.”

We must prepare to meet the Jackal’s army. That means

consolidating my forces and eliminating lingering threats. I need the

remainder of House Diana in the Greatwoods destroyed. And I need

House Ceres. I send Cassius with the Howlers and a dozen horsemen

to destroy the remainder of Diana. The rest of my army and slaves I

take back to our castle to prepare for the Jackal. I’ve not yet devised

a plan, but I’ll be ready for him if he rears his head.

“After sleeping in dead horses, our Howlers will probably stink

them out of the Greatwoods!” Cassius laughs as he spurs his horse

away from the main column. “I’ll sick Goblin on them and be back

before you’re even in bed.”

Sevro does not want to go without me. He does not understand

why Cassius needs his help to mop up the remainders of Diana. I tell

him the truth.

“Cassius has a pouch in his boot, the one Lilath gave him. I need

you to steal it.”

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His eyes do not judge. Not even now. There are times when I

wonder what I did to earn such loyalty, then others when I try not

to press my luck by looking the gift horse in the mouth.

That night as Cassius lays siege to Diana in the Greatwoods, the rest

of my army feasts behind our tall highland walls in Mars Castle. The

keep is clean and the square merry. Even the slaves are given June’s

thyme-roasted goat and venison drizzled with olive oil. I watch over

it all. The slaves look down out of embarrassment as I pass, even

Pax. The howling wolf on his forehead has crushed his pride. Tactus

alone meets my eyes. His dark honey skin is like Quinn’s, but his

eyes remind me of a pitviper’s.

He winks at me.

After my victory over Pax, my highDrafts seem to have nally

fully embraced my leadership, even Antonia. It reminds me of how I

was treated on the streets after Mickey carved me. I am the Gold

here. I am the power. It’s the rst time I’ve felt this way since

sentencing Titus to death. Soon Fitchner will come down and give

me the Primus hand from the stone and all will be well.

Roque, Quinn, Lea, and now Pollux eat with me. Even Vixus and

Cassandra, who normally sit in commune with Antonia, have come

to give their congratulations on the victory. They laugh and clap me

on the shoulder. Cipio, Antonia’s plaything, is counting the many

slaves. Antonia herself does not venture my way, but she does tilt

her golden head in approval. Miracles do happen.

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I am Primus. I have ve golden bars. Soon Fitchner will come to

bestow the honorics. In the morning, House Ceres will fall. They

have less than one-third our number. With their grain to feed my

army and their fortress to use as a base of operations, I will have the

power of four Houses. We will sweep away whatever is left in the

North and then descend upon the South before the rst snow even

falls. Then I will face the Jackal.

Roque comes to stand beside me as we watch the feast.

“I’ve been thinking of kissing Lea,” he says suddenly to me. I see

her laughing with several midDrafts near one of the res. She’s cut

her hair short, and she spares us a glance, coquettishly ducking her

head when Roque holds her gaze. He blushes too and looks away.

“I thought you didn’t like her. She follows you about like a

puppy,” I laugh.

“Well, yes. At rst I she didn’t intrigue me because I thought she

was attaching herself to me as one would to a … life raft to stop

from sinking. But … she’s grown …”

I look over at him and laugh. I can’t stop laughing.

We look like blond wolves. We’re leaner than when the Institute

began. Dirtier. Our hair is long. We have scars. Me more than most.

I’m likely too dependent on red meat. One of my molars is split. But

I laugh. I laugh till my molar can’t take it anymore. I’d forgotten

that we are people, kids who have crushes.

“Well, don’t waste the rst kiss,” I say. “That’s my only advice.”

I tell him to take her somewhere special. Take her somewhere

here that means something to him, or them. I took Eo to my drill—

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Loran and Barlow made jokes about that. The thing was o and in a

ventilated tunnel, so we didn’t have to wear frysuit lids, just had to

watch for pitvipers. Still she sweated from excitement. Hair clinging

to her face, to the nape of her neck. She gripped my wrist so hard,

and only let go when she knew she had me. When I kissed her.

I grin and slap Roque on the butt for luck. Uncle Narol says it’s

tradition. He used the at of a slingBlade on me. I think he was

lying.

I dream of Eo in the night. I do not often sleep without dreaming

of her. The castle’s high tower bunk beds are empty. Roque, Lea,

Cassius, Sevro, the Howlers, are gone. Except for Quinn, all my

friends are o. I am Primus, yet I feel so alone. The re crackles.

Cold autumn wind comes in. It moans like a wind from the

abandoned mine tunnels and makes me think of my wife.

Eo. I miss her warmth in the bed beside me. I miss her neck. I

miss kissing her soft skin, smelling her hair, tasting her mouth as

she whispered how she loved me.

Then I hear feet and she fades.

Lea bursts through the dormitory door. She talks frantically. I can

barely understand her. I stand, towering over her, and put a hand

on her shoulder to calm her. It’s impossible. Manic eyes look at me

from behind her short-cut hair.

“Roque!” she wails. “Roque has fallen into a crevice. His legs are

broken. I can’t reach him!”

I follow her so fast I don’t even bring my cloak or slingBlade. The

castle is asleep except for the guards. We y through the gate,

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forgetting the horses. I shout for one of the guards to come help me.

I don’t watch to see if she does. Lea runs ahead, guiding me down

into the glen and then up over the northern hills to the highland

gulch where we made our rst res as a tribe. The mists are thick.

The night is dark. And I realize how stupid I am.

It’s a trap.

I stop following Lea. I don’t tell her. I don’t know if they’ll come

from behind me, so I dive to my belly and shue to a gulley so that

I am lost in the mist. I put ferns over myself. I hear them now. The

sound of swords. Of feet and stunpikes. Curses. How many are

there? Lea calls my name frantically. She is not alone now. She’s led

me to them. I hear crooked Vixus. I smell Cassandra’s owers. She’s

always rubbing them on her skin to cover her body odor.

Their voices call to each other in the mist. They know I

discovered their trap. How can I get back to my army? I dare not

move. How many are there? They look for me. If I run, would I

make it? Or would I end up on the end of a sword? I have two

knives in my boots. That is it. I pull them out.

“Oh, Reaper!” Antonia calls from the mist. She’s somewhere

above me. “Fearless leader? Oh, Reaper. There’s no need to hide,

darling. We’re not mad at you ordering us about like you’re our

king. We’re not indignant enough to bury knives in your eyes. Not at

all. Darling?”

They call taunts, playing on my vanity. I’ve never had much, but

they can’t understand that. A boot steps near my head. Green eyes

peer through the darkness. I think they see me. They don’t.

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NightOptics. Someone gave them nightOptics. I hear Vixus and

Cassandra. Antonia grows frustrated.

“Reaper, if you do not come out to play, there shall be

consequences.” She sighs. “What consequences, you ask? Why, I will

cut little Lea’s throat to the bone.” I hear a yelp as Lea’s hair is

seized. “Roque’s lover.…”

I don’t come out. Goddammit. I don’t come out. My life is more

than my own. It is Eo’s, my family’s. I cannot throw it away, not for

my pride, not for Lea, not to avoid the pain of losing another friend.

Do they have Roque too?

My jaw aches. I clench my teeth. My molar screams. Antonia

won’t do it.

She can’t.

“Last chance, my darling. No?” There’s a meaty sound followed by

a gurgle and a thump as a body crumples to the ground. “Pity.”

I loose a silent scream as I see the medBot whine through the

night’s mist. For all the power in my hands, in my body, I’m

powerless to stop this, them.

I do not move until the early morning, when I am sure they are

gone. The medBots did not take Lea’s body away. The Proctors left it

so I would know she died, so I could not hold on to hope that

somehow she lived. The bastards. Her body is fragile in death. Like

a little bird that has fallen from the nest. I build a cairn over her.

The stones are high but they will not keep the wolves away.

I do not nd Roque’s body, so I do not what has become of him. Is

my friend dead?

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I feel a ghost as I pick my way along the highlands, circling

around the castle to avoid Antonia’s henchmen. I put myself in the

path Cassius will take in returning from the Greatwoods, hiding

beneath shrubs to stay from sight. It is midday when he returns at

the head of a small column of horse and slaves. He kicks his horse

forward to greet me as I come from the shrubs.

“Brother!” he calls. “I brought you a gift!” He hops o and gives

me a hug before pulling out one of Diana’s tapestries and wrapping

it about my shoulders. He pulls back from me. “You’re as pale as a

ghost. What’s the matter?” He picks a leaf out of my hair. Maybe

that’s when he sees the sadness in my eyes.

Sevro rides up behind him as I tell them what has happened.

“The bitch,” Cassius murmurs. Sevro is silent. “Poor Lea. Poor

Lea. She was a sweetheart. Do you think Roque is dead?”

“I don’t know.” I say. “I just don’t know.”

“Gorydamn.” Cassius shakes his head.

“A Proctor must have given Antonia nightOptics,” Sevro

speculates. “Or the Jackal bribed her. It ts.”

“Who cares about that?” Cassius cries, inging out his arm.

“Roque may be wounded or dead out there, man. Don’t you

register?” He grips the back of my neck and brings my forehead to

his. “We’ll nd him, Darrow. We’ll nd our brother.”

I nod, feeling a numbness spreading in my chest.

Antonia never returned to our castle. Neither did her henchmen,

Vixus and Cassandra. They failed to kill me and must have ed. But

to where?

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Quinn ings her hands up in the air and shouts at us as we come

through the gate.

“I didn’t know where the goryblazes anyone was! The slaves

outnumbered us four to one till you got back. But it’s ne. It’s ne.”

She grips Cassius’s hand when we tell her what’s happened. The

tears well in her eyes for Lea, but she refuses to believe Roque is

dead. She keeps shaking her head. “We can use the slaves to search

for Roque. Probably wounded and hiding out there. That’s it. That

has to be it.”

We do not nd him. The entire army searches. Not a sign. We

convene in our warroom around the long table.

“He’s probably dead at the bottom of a ditch,” Sevro says that

night. I almost hit him. But he’s right.

“The Jackal did this,” I mutter.

“Tough shit,” he says.

“Come again?”

“Doesn’t matter if he did it, is what Sevro means. We can’t do

anything against the Jackal now. Even if he tried to take your life,

we’re not in a position to hurt him,” Quinn declares. “Let’s deal with

our neighbors rst.”

“Stupid,” Sevro mutters.

“What a surprise. It looks like Goblin disagrees,” Cassius snaps.

“Speak up if you got something in your craw, pygmy.”

“Don’t talk down to me,” Sevro sneers.

Cassius chuckles. “Don’t piss on my foot because you only come

to my knees.”

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“I’m every bit your equal.” The look on Sevro’s face is such that I

lean forward suddenly, frightened a knife will suddenly appear in

Cassius’s eye.

“My equal? At what? Birth?” Cassius grins. “Oh, wait, I meant

height, looks, intelligence, money? Shall I stop?”

Quinn kicks his chair hard with her foot.

“What the hell is your problem?” she snaps at him. “Never mind.

Just shut the hell up.”

Sevro looks at the ground. I have the sudden urge to put a hand

on his shoulder.

“What were you saying, Sevro?” Quinn asks.

“Nothing.”

“Come on.”

“He said nothing,” Cassius chuckles.

“Cassius.” My voice alone shuts him up. “Sevro, please.”

Sevro sighs and looks up at me, cheeks ushed with anger. “Just

thought we should not pick our butts here while the Jackal does

whatever he wants.” He shrugs. “Send me south. And let me cause

trouble.”

“Trouble?” Cassius asks. “What you going to do, kill the Jackal?”

“Yes.” Sevro looks quietly at Cassius. “I’ll put a dagger in his

throat and then carve a hole till I see his spine.”

The tension is enough to make me uneasy.

“You can’t be serious,” Quinn says quietly.

“He’s serious.” Cassius’s forehead creases. “And he’s wrong. We’re

not monsters. Not you and I, at least, Darrow. Bellona Praetors

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aren’t knives in the night. We have ve hundred years of honor to

guard.”

“Piss and lies.” Sevro dismisses him with a wave.

“It’s in the breeding.” Cassius elevates his nose ever so slightly.

Sevro’s mouth twists cruelly. “You’re a Pixie if you buy all that.

Think your papa cut his way up to Imperator by being honorable?”

“Call it chivalry, Goblin,” Cassius sneers. “It wouldn’t be right

trying to murder someone in cold blood, particularly not at a

school.”

“I agree with Cassius,” I say, breaking my silence.

“Small wonder.” Sevro stands to leave very suddenly. I ask him

where he is going.

“You obviously don’t need me. Have all the advice you can

handle.”

“Sevro.”

“I’m gonna search the ditches. Again. Bet Bellona wouldn’t do

that. Wouldn’t get his precious knees dirty.” He bows mockingly to

Cassius before leaving.

Quinn, Cassius, and I remain in the warroom until Cassius yawns

something about catching a bit of REM before the dawn hits in six

hours. Quinn and I are left alone. Her hair has been cut short and

jagged, though the bangs hang just over her narrow eyes. She

slouches boyishly in her chair and picks at her nails.

“What are you thinking on?” she asks me.

“Roque … and Lea.” I hear the gurgle in my mind. With it echoes

all the sounds of death. Eo’s pop. Julian’s silence as he twitched in

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his own blood. I am the Reaper and death is my shadow.

“Is that all?” she asks.

“I think we should grab some sleep,” I reply.

She says nothing as she watches me leave.

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