“I found you, Nic. By joining those children, you have chosen them to die with you.”

“No!” I fell to my knees, and lowered my head enough to get my hands over my ears. But covering them only made the sound louder.

“If you give yourself up now, I promise to let them live. If you don’t, there is no escape for any of you.”

I looked up at Aurelia, who was staring back at me as if a horn had sprouted from my head. I pointed to the doorway. “How many exits out of here, into the main sewer line?”

“Only one,” she said. “But nobody else —”

The same girl who had manacled me rushed into the room. “Aurelia, I hear sounds in the tunnels. Men’s voices. Lots of them.”

Her eyes darted back to me, full of alarm. “How far away?”

The girl shrugged.

“They’re here for you, right?” Aurelia didn’t say it as a question, and didn’t need my nod for an answer. She pressed her lips together for only a moment before saying, “I’m sorry, Nic. I have to give you up to them.”

“They’ll kill me if you do!”

“They’ll kill all of us if I don’t. Including you!” She tugged on my chains.

But I wasn’t going to budge. “I can get us out of here.”

She turned around the room. “I told you, there’s only one exit, from the outer room. And that will take us directly into the sewers with those men!”

“What’s above us?”

She rolled her eyes. “Dirt.”

Well, obviously. “No, above that!”

Aurelia shrugged. “An olive orchard, I think.” Then her eyes narrowed. “Don’t even think about it!”

“Give me the bulla.”

“Is that how you did what you did in the amphitheater?”

“Yes. I think so.” Somehow.

She shook her head. “I tried using it and nothing happened.”

“And when I use it, big things happen, so do you want to debate why or let me have it?”

Then her eyes widened further. “I only think it’s an open field. What if I’m wrong?”

“What if we do nothing? Do you really believe Radulf will take me and leave the rest of you alone?”

Aurelia reached for a familiar strap that had been hidden beneath her tunic and lifted out the bulla, which she shoved into my hand. It was heavier than before, which meant either I was weaker, or the magic in it was growing. I immediately began to feel its strength flow into me, moving through my chest, down my legs and arms, up my back and into my mind. The magic dug deeper, burning its way through my blood with a power I had never noticed before.

The children who had been in the outer room came running in, far more of them than I had expected. I counted at least a dozen heads, some of them quite young, and all of them looking to Aurelia for answers. “They’re here!” one of the younger boys cried.

“Get behind me,” I said, only because it seemed safer there. Maybe it wasn’t.

I turned until I had a direct view of the doorway into the sewer. Radulf entered the outer room flanked by six large soldiers. I saw the amusement on his face grow as he scanned my shackled arms and legs.

“They got you ready for me,” he said, smiling. “How kind of them.”

“You saw what I did in the amphitheater,” I warned. “Stay back.”

“That was an accident.” Radulf stepped forward, daring me to act. “You have no idea how you did that.”

The bulla was becoming hot in my hands, but with the manacles, I couldn’t get it around my neck. “I do know. And I’ll do the same thing here if you don’t leave.”

It was a badly told lie. I didn’t know how I’d used the magic before, or whether I could use it again. I didn’t even know if I should use it again. Collapsing wooden beams and a fabric canopy was one thing. Several feet of earth and rocks lay above our heads now.

“Right now, you’re an untrained boy with a sword, swinging wildly in any direction you want and calling it success if you happen to hit something.”

“That’s right,” I countered. “So get back, or I might happen to hit you.”

“Give me that bulla.” Radulf’s face darkened. “Now.”

“No.” I kept my body square to him and hoped he couldn’t see the way my legs were shaking. “Leave. Before I use the magic.”

A wicked smile stretched across Radulf’s face. “You’re not the only one who can use magic, you know.”

Then he raised a hand, and punched it forward. It sent an invisible wave of air toward me. Even if I couldn’t see it, I definitely felt it, like he’d thrown a boulder at my chest. I took the hit directly, but it traveled to my shoulder, igniting the Divine Star with pain.

I yelled, but flung out my chained hands as if to empty the pain somewhere else. There was no reaction from him, so for a moment, I thought perhaps I hadn’t done anything. He started forward, but then a large cracking sound came from above the doorway between us. Heavy chunks of bricks fell, along with the dirt and rocks they had held back. It was similar to what had happened in Caesar’s cave, shortly after I’d first put the bulla around my neck. But that magic hadn’t come through me then, or if it did, I was feeling it far more powerfully now. The falling rocks forced Radulf back, but once everything settled, he and his men would be able to climb over the debris to get to me. Radulf ordered the soldiers forward, but then other loosened bricks started falling as well. No one obeyed his order.

“Where’s my archer?” Radulf yelled through the dusty air. “Fire into that room!”

“I’m as good as any of them!” Aurelia yanked the bow off her back and fit it with an arrow, which she immediately released. It hit the hand of a man who had been reaching for his own bow, and he yelped with pain.

More rocks continued to fall, until the doorway between the two chambers was completely barricaded. So much brick had come down that the entire cistern looked in danger of collapsing, and escape was impossible now.

With the children huddled around her, Aurelia glared over at me. “That was a great move, Nic! Solve a big problem by creating a bigger one. I should have given you up!”

“You should have listened to my warning!”

“Aurelia!” One of the girls pointed above her head where the end of a large pipe stuck out from the rocks and mortar. The rushing sound of water was easily heard, and growing.

“We disconnected that pipe!” Even as Aurelia cried out the words, water gushed from the pipe. “How is this happening?”

“What a mystery!” I yelled back. “Do you think maybe they reconnected it?”

“Why would he do that?”

“That great man of yours, General Radulf, intends to drown us in here.”

“In a room you just sealed off!” she yelled. “I should’ve turned you in after you FAINTED!”

“Open this doorway,” Radulf said, directly into my head. “The water will empty out. You can still save them.”

I had no intention of opening that doorway to him. But I would do everything I could to save the others in here with me. All of them were innocent, even Aurelia, I supposed. The water was rising fast. If we were to have any chance of getting out, I needed magic.

Water poured down on all of us, and seemed to be filling the room faster than it should have. The children were holding one another and scrambling away from the falling water, and I knew from their cries that I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t swim.

“Everyone stand back!” I yelled above the noise. I had little strength, but plenty of anger at what Aurelia had just said. Out of spite alone, I raised my hands again, imagining my fingers were grabbing the dirt itself, and pulled downward. Large clumps of earth, roots, and rock came with it. They fell into the water, which was already up to my knees, splashing mud all over us. I didn’t figure the mud was a problem. Dirt was nothing, especially compared to drowning.