Another soldier was raping Hathli, one hand around her throat. She was silent and unresisting. One of her arms appeared crooked and broken. The slap mark on her cheek was crimson.
Semni tore her attention away, scanning the room for the children, expecting them to be cowering in a corner, or worse, lying dead. She was confused to see no sign of them.
Arruns raised his dagger and threw it at the soldier who was holding Hathli down. It pierced the man’s temple, driving into his brain. He slumped over his victim. Before Perca’s assailant could react, the lictor sprinted across the room and stood behind the rapist, jerking and twisting his head until his neck cracked. He wrenched him to the side before the man could fall on the girl.
Semni ran and hugged her. Perca clung to her, unable to speak. Arruns dragged the Roman off Hathli. She lay motionless. Bile surged in Semni’s gorge as she realized the wet nurse was dead, choke marks reddening her throat. The bastard had killed her as he violated her and then kept going.
In a spark of rage, Arruns kicked the dead man on the jaw. Then he focused on Perca, placing his hand on her shoulder. “Where are the children?”
The girl’s chest heaved. “A pithos. Hathli made them hide in one while we waited for you.”
Semni scanned the room of sunken containers. The day of the game of hide-and-seek returned.
Arruns glanced toward the corridor. “Close the door, then find the boys while I break open the hatch.”
She eased the door shut and then raced to the pithos in which the boys had once hidden. Its lid was sealed. Her heart sank. Which one were they in? Then she noticed the ladder propped up next to a container in the back corner. She ran to the pot, rapping on its side, relieved to hear it was empty. “Tas, are you in there?”
A muffled voice replied.
She climbed the ladder and peered inside. Four sets of eyes stared up at her. Nerie stretched his arms and called to her from the depths. At his plaintive cries, the others erupted into a chorus of anxiety.
“Arruns,” she hissed. “I need your help.”
He was levering the first board with the iron bar. The wood splintered, the nails popping and flying outward. The plank thudded to the floor. Hearing her plea, he strode over, stepping onto the ladder, then leaning over to extend his hand down into the pot. One by one, each boy clung to the lictor’s arm like a monkey, then dropped to the floor. Nerie was last. His father pulled him out, then tucked the toddler under his arm before backing down the rungs. The blond child reached for his mother, his grip so fierce around her neck she thought he would strangle her. Larce and Arnth clutched her skirts, eyes brimming with tears. Tas huddled close. He was dry eyed but fretful. Semni placed a hand on his shoulder. “Well done, Tas. That was brave of you.”
He did not reply, his attention straying toward the front of the room where Perca and Hathli lay.
Semni pressed the younger brothers’ faces against her legs, shielding them from the disturbing view. How much had the children heard? How terrified they must have been as they cowered in the dark pithos.
“I heard Hathli trying to stop them hurting Perca,” said Tas.
She stroked his hair. “And now we all have to be as courageous as her, little master.” She herded the boys over to Arruns, pointing at the Medusa’s face that the lictor had now uncovered. Semni had forgotten the blankness of the gorgon’s eyes and her gaping, cruel-lipped mouth.
Arruns hefted the bar again and prized off the second board. Then he raised the metal rod high, ready to smash through the terra-cotta, but Tas stepped forward, releasing the hidden clasp with one finger. The hinge creaked open. The dark void beyond was revealed. Semni shuddered, remembering the vanth.
“I’m scared to go in there,” said Larce. “It’s too dark.”
Arruns pointed to the workbench. “Semni, get the lamp. I’ll get a wall torch from the corridor.”
All of them froze at the sound of footsteps thudding along the passageway. To their relief, no Romans crashed through the cellar door. Arruns darted into the hallway to retrieve a brand.
Lighting the lamp, he handed it and the torch to Tas once the boy had clambered through the hatch. His brothers followed. Arruns lifted Nerie across to them.
Semni looked around, realizing Perca had not moved. She hurried toward her.
The nursemaid sat dumb, staring at Hathli. Virginal blood stained the thirteen-year-old’s lap. A fresh wave of pity surged through Semni. She leaned down and clasped the girl’s elbow. “Come,” she urged. “Hathli has gone to the Beyond. There’s nothing more we can do for her. We need to hurry.”
Perca rose, moaning in pain, and hobbled to the hatch. As Semni turned to follow her, she noticed a sack lying next to the pithos near the dead Romans. She picked it up and opened it, gasping as she recognized a jumble of the queen’s amber beads, pearls, gold earrings, and bangles. Semni stared at the plunder, undecided what to do.
Impatient, Arruns joined her. “Take what you can. We’ll need money to pay our way to safety.”
“But they’re Lady Caecilia’s.”
“Do you think she’ll ever have need for them again?”
She flinched at his practicality, ruing that he spoke the truth. Pushing aside thoughts of her thievery, she shoved a handful of necklaces and bangles down the front of her chiton, tightening the sash around her waist to hold them secure.
Arruns ducked his head and stepped inside the secret room, offering his hand to help her through. The catch clicked. The torch and lamp flickered in the blackness. All of them were now in the lair of the vanth.
There were shouts as Romans broke into the storeroom. Their conversation sounded puzzled to find their comrades dead. One stopped outside the portal. Semni prayed he could not hear them breathing through the terra-cotta. She heard the word “Medusa” in a cautious tone, then retreating footsteps. The gorgon had warded off evil after all.
Semni felt the eyes of the vanth staring at her in the darkness. Tas raised the lamp. The demoness loomed, the pile of burned bricks beneath her. As Arruns raised the torch, Semni noticed a flicker of apprehension.
Tas swung around to face the opposite wall. “There’s the passageway to the temple.”
Semni was relieved to see only a few nails were loosely hammered into the second terra-cotta Medusa. The carpenters must have lost their nerve when it came to working in the cursed room. Arruns gave her the torch and began forcing the hatch door open with his dagger.
Suddenly she realized their fate was in an eight-year-old’s hands. Tas’s prior stealth and disobedience were now going to help them. But could the boy navigate the tunnel system to lead them to safety? And what purpose would be served in reaching the temple? The sanctum must be occupied by now. Lord Mastarna would not be in a position to help anyone.
Sharp, loud knocking on the other side of the cover startled her. Perca screamed. The children babbled in terror.
The rapping grew frantic. “It’s me, Aricia! Let me in!”