Runes by Richard Monaco

Author:Richard Monaco [Monaco, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Venture Press
Published: 2016-12-09T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XIX

“Caesar is preparing to come back,” Antony was telling the two senators, standing in the pale autumn sun-splinters that sprayed through the trees lining the front steps of the forum.

Cassius, thin, nervous, with slit, downturned lips and restless eyes; Casca, stocky and hairless, not looking at anything while he listened and rubbed his front teeth together gently back and forth.

“If he comes with troops,” said Cassius, “then we’ll have civil war.”

“And if we do nothing?” Antony asked, hands on hips, looking up the slope at the white, bright blue, and yellow painted capitol buildings and triumphal statues. The sky was cool, faded blue with streaks of high clouds. He watched a flock of birds circle slowly above the wooded hill dotted with estates. Iro lived near the top there. He idly wondered if the birds were vultures or buzzards keeping hopeful vigil above his house. Iro continued to obsess him. He’d dreamt of him a few nights ago, trapped in some cave, naked, feeble, at the mercy of the little monster.

He squinted. It had to be a trick of the atmosphere, he decided, because the birds seemed too large and dark and ominous for a moment and put him in mind of some deadly omen.

“Then we work out our differences,” suggested Cassius, “and keep the peace.”

“No,” said Antony. “I don’t think so. If Pompey and

his —” He paused. What was Iro, properly speaking? “ — his creatures, come to power, there’ll be blood shed one way or another. They’ll pick us off one at a time.”

“Hah,” said Casca, “did your little whore witch prophesy this, too?”

Antony wasn’t amused. He brushed a curly oiled lock of hair back behind his ear and set his lips.

“She is nothing to jest about.”

“Are you in love again?” pressed Casca, smirking.

Antony blinked. Who could fall in love with a woman who could stop you with a glance, read your future, and draw down spirits? He shook his head.

“She’s a tool,” he responded. “A valuable tool.” Except he knew there was a problem. He kept asking what she could see, pushing her because she’d been getting fragments, flashes, blurs: a scene where a Roman general in some obscure and misty forest, his army around him, was in deadly danger. Antony believed she was seeing Julius Caesar on that Gaulish island. But the threat crept behind a shadow in time she could not penetrate. Perhaps she was just too young in her art. He didn’t pretend to understand nor she to explain. There were blurs wherever she looked with her strange senses and she felt things, beings, lurking even in Rome, whose actual form and purpose were lost in the same shapeless shrouding.

He sensed she needed help. But then they all needed help. Some tremendous climax was building and strange things leaked into even his solid Roman, normally pornographic dreams, so that lately he’d been waking up in a sweat, clutching the covers, startling Dia, his bed companion of the moment, the woman from the banquet with hooked nose, tight ringlets, dark skin, and honed tongue.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.