Читать книгу Soul Song - Shawna Bennett - Страница 8

Chapter 1

Marcus had been only seventeen when he had decided to join the Roman army. He had not been born to a wealthy family in Rome, and his options were limited. His father had been a soldier in the army since he was a young man and made a career of it. To become a Roman citizen, he had to join the army so he could provide a future for himself and whatever family he might have one day.

Julius was only sixteen but couldn’t stand the idea of being left behind without his brother. So he went with him that day and joined up also. Their father, Marcellus, balked at the idea of Julius joining, and of course, a fight ensued. Any male at the age of sixteen was welcome to join though, and his father could do nothing to stop him. This had infuriated his father so much that he had gone to his own commander and demanded his sons be placed in a different regiment than his own. Usually fathers and sons were placed together, but they had no ordinary father. If it had just been Marcus who had joined, he would have immediately had him assigned to his own regiment. Julius though was another story. So even though he knew he would lose serving with Marcus and being able to keep an eye out for him, he chose to turn his back on both.

Julius had grown up with his mother and father treating him as if they despised him, but Marcus, who had always been treated as their favorite, was shocked. He had spent his entire life trying to shield his brother from the abuse of his parents. He knew his father didn’t care for Julius but hadn’t understood how deep his hatred was for his youngest son until that moment.

It wasn’t so bad when their father was off fighting in some Roman campaign, which was more often than not. Their mother only treated Julius with complete indifference, but that seemed to bother Julius more than the beatings he took when their father was home. From the moment he had been born, their mother, Albina, had wanted nothing to do with him. His sister, Cassia, had only been four when he was born but kept him like a child would a doll, although she soon learned a baby was a greater responsibility than a doll. When his mother refused to breastfeed him, Cassia would dip a rag in goat’s milk to feed the crying baby. His mother relinquished full care to Cassia when he was only three months old. She had lost all interest in her baby and couldn’t be bothered with keeping him alive. Marcus and Cassia became his whole world, and they tried to protect him as much as small children could. He grew and became taller and bigger than even their father. He grew into an angry young boy and a very bitter young man. He was constantly fighting, first with the neighborhood boys and, as he grew, with any man who dared look at him wrong. He grew not only in body but in reputation. No one in their cramped neighborhood would fight him, and he had to travel deeper into the city to find a challenge.

While Julius was volatile, Marcus was always calm and levelheaded. He had wanted to join the army to secure citizenship and a stable future. He had plans that he and his brother would have a grape farm and make wine for Rome. Julius only wanted to fight and be by his brother’s side. Julius also was concerned for Marcus. While he knew he could hold his own in a fight, killing was different. He wasn’t sure the passive Marcus would have the killing instinct when the battle called for it. He wasn’t sure Marcus would be capable of inflicting death when he was commanded to, so he wanted to make sure he was by his side in every battle. Both brothers worried for the other. They also worried that they had to leave Cassia behind but knew she would be okay until they returned.

The brothers were assigned to a different regiment than their father and prepared to leave. Marcellus had been so angry he had gone to stay at the soldiers barracks and refused to see his sons before they left. The night before they left, Albina wept and hugged Marcus. Then she turned abruptly and didn’t say a word to Julius. Cassia took him in her arms and gave him what comfort she could. It was only the three siblings together when it came time for them to go.

For four years the brothers fought side by side in campaigns for Rome. Julius became well regarded for his fighting abilities and always led the attacks. Marcus became well regarded for his strategic ability and could plan an attack with as few casualties as possible. Rome liked to take slaves when they sacked a village or town, and Marcus ensured the most profit for them. They rose through the ranks quickly, but their only caveat was they must remain in the same regiment together. As long as they could fight together, they remained an unstoppable force.

They went home infrequently, but their mother was never happy to see them when they returned. She now treated Marcus with the same indifference as she did Julius, and Marcus finally understood why Julius hated it so much. Cassia had gotten married during their time away but had yet to bear children. Her husband, who had married her for her beauty, quickly grew tired of her when she failed to produce an heir for him. Julius and Marcus both worried for her, especially since they were not allowed to visit her in her new home and had yet to meet her husband. When they were finally allowed to visit after she had been married for two years, they saw bruises all over their beloved sister. No one had to tell them what was happening, Cassia’s fat husband was at least thirty years her senior and a disgusting man. He welcomed them and spun tales of his wealth and many holdings. Without regret, Julius stole into the night and made his sister a widow.

They came across their father only twice in those years. His regiment had been assigned to the same campaign as theirs. Marcellus had always struggled to improve his rank, although he had devoted his life to the empire. While he was a brutal and lethal soldier, he didn’t have the ability to control his temper. His many commanders tolerated it because he was great in battle, which was what the army desired the most. He was usually overlooked when it came time to promote, because he couldn’t be trusted to do anything but kill.

So when he came across his sons, they both outranked him. He was made to show respect to them, and it made him seethe with rage inside. He avoided them, and during the second battle that he fought with them, he tried to turn on Julius during the fighting. He thought he could rid himself of the boy once and for all. He thought it wouldn’t be noticed since battles were meant for killing, and Julius would be just another Roman casualty. With his back turned to his father and while he was fighting another man, Marcellus attacked. He was going to stab him in the back when Marcus tackled him from the side. Marcus had seen what his father intended and protected his brother. Their faces were only inches apart with Marcus lying on top of his father. The hatred his father felt for his brother was clear, and Marcus made his choice that day. His father would never give him another thought. He now was held in the same regard as his younger brother. Marcus never told Julius what had happened that day. He felt he had already known too much hatred from their parents. He did not need to know that his own father had tried to kill him.

It was during the winter of their fifth year that everything changed for them. Marcus was now twenty-three, and Julius was twenty-two. The winter had been especially brutal, and their provisions had grown scarce. A supply wagon that had been headed for them had been taken, and the soldiers were too far from Rome to return. The commander made the decision to dig in for the season and try to return in spring. They were barely surviving and near starvation. They probably would have made it, albeit weak and near death, but sickness swept through their camp. The rodents they had been eating to survive carried with them a terrible disease. Half of the regiment were already dead and starting to rot, because the other half were too weak to bury them. The stench in the camp had become nauseating, and they were watched helplessly as the same rodents they had been eating began to eat the dead.

Julius and Marcus had managed to help one another make it to a tree nearby, downwind of the smell. They huddled together under their meager blanket and waited for death. They had not said final words to one another because their throats were too dry to speak anymore. They had intended to die together as they had lived, side by side. They prayed for the end to come quickly to end the suffering now.

It was during this time a woman appeared out of the tree line. She was walking barefoot through the snow wearing only a tattered dress. She had long black hair and the pallor of death. When she saw Julius, she walked closer to get a better look. Julius was sure he was hallucinating and death must be near now. She bent to examine his face, and Julius noticed her hair was scattered with twigs and leaves, like she had been sleeping on the ground for months. He just looked into her eyes and wondered why his hallucination didn’t speak but then reasoned that hallucinations probably didn’t talk. His fevered brain just accepted what it was seeing.

Her name was Nicia, and she had been taken at the age of three as a slave. She had been a kitchen slave and then a body slave. She had known nothing but pain and fear her whole life, so when a man appeared in her room one night many years ago, she submitted. Only this time he wasn’t there to harm her but to change her. She had never been the same since the change, and her fragmented mind had turned her into something feral that roamed the woods. She fed on fallen soldiers after battles, and she lived like a wild animal in the forest. She had smelled the rotting dead and had come to feed.

She crouched down in front of Julius and turned her head to the side. She normally would have fed upon the two dying men, but this one was different. His eyes were familiar although she could not understand why. She had been shown one kindness in her entire life. She had gone to the market with the cook when she was nine. She had been brought along to help carry the food as the lady of the house was having a large party that night. She was tall for her age but undernourished. She was like a stick figure she was so thin. She had been following behind the cook quietly when a soldier approached her and held out his hand. He held an apple on the palm of it and was offering it to her. He had seen the child and was disgusted by how thin she was. He knew slaves had no rights, but most were at least kept fed. This one looked like she was barely fed scraps. The cook noticed him offering the girl the apple and slapped her for looking at it. He was enraged and slapped the cook and made the girl take the apple. The cook had no choice but to let her keep it. The soldier had more rights than she did. Nicia never forgot the taste of the apple or of the man who had shown her kindness, and now as she looked upon Julius, she saw he had the same eyes as the soldier from so long ago. She decided to now do an act of kindness herself and save him. After she had changed him, he begged her to save his brother, and so she did. She spoke little to the brothers and only stayed for two days after the change. She told them what she could, but her speech was just as fragmented as her mind. She stole away one morning, no longer able to keep anyone’s company. She needed to be alone and away from people.

The brothers stayed in the forest for the rest of the winter. They were unsure of their new power and its limitations. They tested their strengths and weaknesses and fed upon the soldiers one by one as they lay dying.

Julius loved his new power and embraced it like a child with a new toy. Marcus was more reasonable about their newfound power and treated it cautiously. They both realized though that if the rats carried the disease, it would find its way to Rome. They wanted to save Cassia and even their mother, who probably didn’t deserve their concern.

They tore their way through the countryside, feeding on anyone in their path. In later years they would learn to control their hunger, but in villages already war-torn, they held no such self-control. They left a trail of bodies in their wake as they made their way home.

By the time they reached Rome, the disease had already started. They later learned it had originated in the densely populated city. They found their mother on her deathbed and their sister trying to tend her while she herself had started the early symptoms of the sickness. They turned them both immediately. To their dismay though, their mother only became more bitter day by day after the change. She blamed Julius because he had been the first to be changed and called him cursed. She told him he had brought evil upon their family and she would have rather died than to live like a monster. She left one day and never said goodbye. She just simply vanished. They waited for her to return, but after two decades, they had to leave. The people around them had started to notice they never aged. They had heard their father died in a battle, and they accepted their mother, if still alive, was never returning.

They began to travel the world together and never stayed anywhere longer than a decade. Their appearance would never change, so their home would have to. They learned to blend in and leave no trace of their feeding. They learned to use their full powers and made no lasting connections. Eventually they would learn of others of their kind, many who were much older than them. They learned to avoid their kind as it was easier to be solitary to keep themselves safe. They never turned anyone; it was a pact they made when they all first were changed. They survived because they stuck together and made few mistakes, and if they did, the other two would clean it up for them.

They survived this way for centuries, until they came to meet with the woman at the bar.