Fire of the Inquisitor
Chapter 21

Titus had held out as long as he could, but Decius refused to wake up and the others were desperate for food. Their captain was determined to replace food close enough to camp that his men could call for him if needed, but the maze of thorns had other ideas. He foolishly allowed himself to get farther and farther from camp until he was forced to admit he had become lost. Titus had to make the difficult decision to give up the hunt for food for the sake of replaceing his men again.

“Why not leave your men?” a voice as dark as tar said.

Titus withdrew his sword and searched the voice’s owner. Through gritted teeth he said, “Who are you?”

“They don’t trust you anymore,” the voice said. Titus looked straight up and in the corner of his eye he thought he caught the wing of a large bird fly by. “Why not leave them to the fates they deserve.”

“I will not abandon them,” he said, unable to keep his feet from shuffling below him.

The voice groaned. “You only say this because you’ve lost hope of ever leaving this place alive.”

“You don’t know me,” Titus barked.

“Don’t I?”

Suddenly, the ground began to shake and the very walls of the labyrinth started to twist and change. Titus watched the nearest wall to him as the vines ground against themselves sending so much of the metallic like thorns into the air. There was not much he could do to shield himself from the projectiles as they tore into his flesh, but soon the shaking had stopped and Titus was staring at an open passage to freedom.

“You humans are all the same.”

Titus was speechless as a soft ray of light touched his skin for what seemed an eternity. The trembled and took a step toward the light, feeling tears start to fill his eyes. Then their faces flashed before his eyes, the faces of the men whose lives he was given responsibility for.

“What’s wrong?”

Titus blinked the tears from his eyes and took up his sword again. “You may think you know all humans, but you have never met me.”

“Hmm, the delusional type.” Titus watched helplessly as the passageway to the outside closed again and he was left in darkness, with only the torch held opposite his sword his only source of light. “Then come replace me, hero, maybe you’ll make it as I’m tearing out their hearts.”

Titus began to run, trying to retrace his steps from earlier, but everything looked different. In front of him, the shadows started to swirl. “Leave them alone!” he shouted. “If it’s blood you want, take mine but leave my men alone.”

The captain could hear the sound of laughter coming from up ahead. He followed it hoping that it would lead him in the right direction. “I want so much more than one man’s life.”

“What do you mean?” Titus said.

“I want to correct the mistake of your people’s relocation to this world.” The voice came from the right of where Titus was running, causing him to change directions.

“I don’t suppose you mean you have a way of sending us home?” Titus said.

The owner of the voice laughed again. “Not even I have that kind of power.”

Titus followed the voice, starting to recognize where he was. “So, what are you really planning?”

“I know what you are doing.” This time, the voice seemed to come in every direction. “But I promised you a vision when you returned to your men and I will deliver.”

“I’ll stop you!” Titus cursed and fell to the ground hard. Around him, the wall of vines started to twist and surrounded him until they nearly suffocated him. “Stop it!”

In the distance, he heard a scream and he knew that he was going to be too late. Desperately, he swung his sword and torch back and forth, trying to get past the thorn-covered vines. Exhausted he fell down, unable to even hold his head up anymore he watched as his torch hung on a nearby vine unable to burn through the vicious plant. He cried and swore as he listened to the sounds of pain and inhuman growls.

He was unsure if he actually fell asleep lying there in the grasp of the vines and if he did for how long. When his eyes opened again the sight the caught his attention first was that of one of the vine fruit hanging in arms length. He reached out painfully with his muscle sore arm grasped the small prize. Titus brought the fruit to his mouth in bite into its hard skin, sucking as much of the juice out of it. Only as he finished the juice and started biting into the flesh did he noticed that vines in front of him had receded.

Titus slowly got to his feet and made his way toward the opening in the vines. Immediately, he recognized the small outcropping where the contubernium had made their camps for what seemed like a lifetime. With a great amount of dread, he made his way toward it, bracing himself for what he was about to see.

“I am entering the camp,” he announced, hoping his men would reply. Nothing, and as he entered the campsite it seemed to that no one was around, not even the small goth boy. Titus had hoped that it meant that his men had escaped somehow, but he wasn’t too optimistic.

Everything else in the camp had remained as he when he had left, the torches, the supplies they had brought from home, and areas where they made their beds. It was then when he noticed that there was at least one person remaining in the camp. Decius was still lying unconscious where he had been since the men had dragged him back to camp. He was silent now, a rare pause in his constant moaning. Decius laid so motionless that Titus feared that the soldier had finally passed in sleep. Titus kneeled down next to the man and put his hand on his cold chest.

Titus could feel the muscles suddenly pull inward and the man gasped loudly and convulsed. Through a garbled voice, the man said, “She weaves the future separated.”

Titus watched in horror as the man’s head fell back on the rocky ground with a loud crack. The legion captain jumped up and backed away as drew his sword. Behind him Titus heard the sound of footsteps approaching him, causing him to spin around wildly. He nearly separated the head of Flavius from his body.

“How could you leave us?” the soldier cried. He was covered in wounds ranging from cuts on his face to a large gash in his chest. “Why did you leave us?”

“What happened?” Titus asked, but it was like talking to a wild animal. Flavius flung his limbs at Titus and continued to ask why over and over again. “Get a hold of yourself Flavius.”

But there was no reaching the man. Titus could hear laughter in the distance and knew the it was the voice he had spoken with before. Titus had no choice, but to circle around his delirious subordinate and smash him on the head crying.

“Ow!” the man cried, but he fell to the ground nonetheless. Flavius cried and kicked like an upset child as Titus searched the gear for some rope. Successful, Titus ran to Flavius and tied his legs and hands as the man screamed for his mother, he gagged him as well.

“What have you done to the others?” Titus said out loud.

The dark voice answered. “Come and replace out.”

“No!” Titus shouted. He stood up and raised his sword. “I’m not going to play your game, you want me to wander your maze just so I can replace the bodies of my men with their hearts torn out, but I’m staying right here.”

“Then I will come to you.”

The shadows began to move in front of Titus and merge into one large shadow in the shape of a man. Then, two red eyes appeared in the shadow and set their gaze on the roman captain, trying to make eye contact with him. Titus resisted staring down at the shadow’s lower half that was less like a man and more like the tail feathers of a bird.

“You are the most stubborn opponent I have ever gone up against,” the shadow figure said. “I respect that so I want to make you an offer.”

“What kind of an offer.” Titus gripped his sword tightly and approached his enemy.

“Give me your body,” the shadow said. “Let me take you out of here and back to your village so I can show you what I’m going to do to it.”

“Forget it.” Titus spat on the ground. “I won’t betray my people.”

“You don’t understand.” Those red eyes of his seemed to sparkle in pleasure. “I am already there in body, I just want you to survive to see my victory.”

Titus felt his heart sink. “You are already there?”

“Yes.” The shadow seemed to grow double in size. “You know great warriors are remembered by their physical strength, but wars are won by the geniuses who control the warriors.”

“Our war is over,” Titus snapped. “We’ve moved on, it’s your fault that you were too late to the battlefield.”

The shadow growled and swiped at Titus with its large claws. The soldier swung his sword through it and it passed through his entire body like a shadow would have.

“You can’t touch me,” Titus said to himself.

“No, I can’t,” the shadow said. “Like I already explained to you my true body is already in your village, waiting to be released when they execute that naive woman, but do you want to know something truly tragic?”

“What’s that?” Titus said, returning his sword to its scabbard. He hoped to keep the creature talking, keep him divulging his scheme

“He can touch you.”

Titus turned around, reaching for his sword, but it was too late. Something had grabbed him from behind, sinking their sharp needle-like fangs into his skin. Titus felt a cold take over him like he was being filled with ice water. He fell to the ground, the vision of Nova Edenis being laid to waste in his mind.