To test out how much his aim had improved thanks to this new ability, Karl looked around the cinematic view, seeing the Circus Maximus just beyond the Aventine Ridge. Right before it was a small watchtower about three stories high. It was made of stone and fitted with bronze grooves in its middle, and a metal railing around the walkway where the guards could observe at the top.

  He drew another arrow and aimed for the triangular roof of the watchtower. It must have been about 250 meters away, and as he activated his Eagle Eye Shot, he could see dramatically closer to the target, making for a better shot. His arrow flew and landed exactly where he wanted.

  Elf Leap (+lvl 25). Instantly teleport up to 250 meters after successfully hitting your target with artillery. Line of sight required. Cooldown: 12 seconds. Hit beyond 260 meters to reduce cooldown by 2 seconds.)

  Glory (+20): 1,640

  Level: 38 (160/390)

  I’m so close, Karl thought. What surprised him most was how good it felt to grow in his archery power. He knew that if he became ever more powerful, he could better protect Kara here. It radically increased his motivation to continue excelling in his abilities.

  A cough sounded beneath Karl.

  The guard leaning against the railing beneath him didn’t seem to notice him, as Karl’s stealth was good enough not to be detected. Alone for the first time, Karl let himself take a moment to look at Rome from the vantage point.

  From here, he could see the Circus Maximus directly below, which was bathed in golden sunlight. The racing tracks were currently in use by what could only be described as steam-powered horses. They looked like something out of a steampunk nightmare. With glowing yellow eyes and bodies made of bronze and iron, they raced against each other to the thunderous applause of their audience.

  Never thought I’d see that, Karl thought.

  He could also see the Palatine Hill directly opposite the watchtower, which was crowned by Domitian’s Palace. There, the dragon, Umbra, rested on one of its bronze towers, thankfully not seeing Karl from this distance. It was a beautiful sight, yet terrifying. Hopefully, Karl would never have to face that dragon. He could only pray that the Emperor was not considering the Dragon to join the games.

  Karl shivered at the thought.

  Farther east, he could see the Colosseum rising above the skyline. It would be there tomorrow that he would face the first of many challenges, though he had no idea what to expect.

  But he wasn’t afraid. He was thankful that he couldn’t feel fear anymore, and even if he did, it was greatly dulled because he was with his friends.

  Karl let his eyes fall downward to look at the Aventine Hill slopes, which were glowing green with cypress trees, olive groves, slanted terracotta rooftops, and garden terraces buzzing with bees. A plethora of quiet, noble homes tucked between trees was calming. He found that he liked this part of Rome compared to the congested, chaotic nature of the city.

  And as he lay looking at the industrial Rome in all of its glory, his mind drifted to the Pack Link that was always active with Kara. Through it, he could see what she experienced, even feel as if he were her.

  After all, they were one.

  To say that Kara was impressed by Titus’s forge would be an understatement.

  As they walked into the Roman workshop, which was built into the rear of the townhouse, she could hardly contain her excitement as she looked upon the walls lined with smoke-blackened brick and reinforced by veins of Dwarven dark-steel brackets.

  At the center of the room lay a double-bellows forge that looked classically Roman, attended by a Greek male slave. One was manual leather and oak, while the other appeared steam-assisted with pistons, which fascinated Kara.

  Before it, the coals burned white hot.

  The anvil sitting in front of the forge stood waist-high and was decorated with laurel engravings. It sat on a block of hardened oak reinforced with bronze bands.

  Along the walls were racks of blacksmith hammers, tongs, chisels, and fine dental-sized picks. On the side of the anvil was a quenching trough.

  But that was not what held Kara’s gaze as they walked into the room, with Titus trying to keep Justus from touching the impressive display of weapons on one of the walls. Her eyes fixated on the two war hammers that were somehow attached to a metal rack without needing anything to mount them. It was as if they were stuck to it.

  One had a simple look to it, with an oak handle and leather wrap. But as she drew closer, she felt its power pull her toward it, specifically the metal rivets of her chainmail.

  The other looked like it had been forged in a volcano, as the war-hammer head was darkened iron streaked with crimson-gold veins that pulsed like the embers of the forge.

  “That’s the Dream Hammer!” Justus cried out with excitement as he rushed in front of Kara and picked it up. Although it was taller than him and much heavier, the young man strained beneath its weight but held it up triumphantly.

  Mýra approached beside Kara and looked with curiosity at the volcanic war hammer.

  “Do not activate the enchantment, son,” Titus said as he slowly lifted the hammer from Justus and attached it back to the rack, where it seemed to stick without anything else holding it up. “This is Paterna Superbia,” Titus explained, stroking the war hammer with a sense of reverence.

  “He made it in the dream world with his dad,” Justus said as he leaped onto Titus’s back, though Titus hardly flinched at the extra weight on him.

  “Dream world?” Kara asked.

  “It’s a long story,” Titus said, smiling. “It was when Julius Caesar enthralled us all with the Orb of Morpheus.”

  Kara remembered hearing about that phenomenon with her sister Frigg, in what felt like forever ago. It was hard to believe that it had happened to all of Rome’s territories, let alone that her sister was dead.

  Because of me, Kara thought, though she pushed the dark thought away.

  “Any of my tools are yours to use,” Titus said as he motioned to them, with Justus still on his back, giggling with glee.

  “Thank you,” Kara said as she laid out Karl’s Moltenveil armor on one of the workbenches.

  She saw from the corner of her vision that Mýra touched the volcanic war hammer. The moment she did, Kara could have sworn she saw a tiny knot of dark thread flash at the base of the handle.

  Mýra snapped her hand back as if shocked, but she said nothing.

  “You okay?” Kara asked as she turned to look at Mýra.

  “Yes, I’m fine,” Mýra said as she joined Kara at the workbench.

  At Karl’s request, Titus retrieved for her the clamps and hammers she needed to help repair Karl’s armor. As she had so many times before with her own armor—and now with Karl’s—she softened the underlayer of the Moltenveil Cuirass with heated oil. Using the Roman clamps, she tightened the Dwarven steel mesh. As for the bracers, she hammered dented segments flat along Titus’s anvil.

  She let herself be absorbed in the work.

  Her focus came to an abrupt end as she shifted toward Karl’s Hrimnir’s Crown and began using a Roman pumice stone to polish the Dwarven-steel rim. She turned to ask Titus for oil to help with the metal, but her eyes caught something she hadn’t noticed before.

  On the wall near the entrance to the forge were several kids’ drawings on paper. They were of Livia, that was certain—one showed a woman archer hunting a crudely drawn deer, and another showed Livia cooking a big meal for a very large drawing of Titus, a petite Constantia, and a totally inaccurate drawing of Justus, who looked just as strong as his dad.

  “If you think that’s cool,” Justus said as he caught Kara’s eyes on his drawings, “wait till you see these.”

  He withdrew a leather book he kept in his pocket and proudly displayed its pages to Kara. The pictures he sorted through were absolutely terrible, though Kara didn’t say it.

  “Those look impressive,” she said, widening her eyes for extra effect.

  Justus beamed at her compliment. He happily showed her crude drawings of various monsters from presumably Roman life, along with several others she didn’t recognize, including one that looked like a floating head.

  “These are the monsters I’m going to fight one day,” he said with a toothy grin. “Especially that one,” he added, pointing to the flying head.

  “You’d have to go to America for that one,” Mýra said, giving a motherly glance toward Justus.

  “You know of the flying-head monster?” Justus asked, surprised.

  “I know a lot about what lies in the forest,” she replied with a smirk.

  Justus, now completely enthralled after Mýra admitted she was a former Huldra, assaulted her with a barrage of questions about all the different monsters and things that lurked in the woods, which Mýra happily obliged.

  “You seem distracted,” Titus said as he approached Kara and handed her the oil she had meant to ask for but which he had already assumed she needed.

  “Thanks,” Kara said before dabbing it onto the helmet and beginning to buff out its edges. “I just—” She stopped, then shook her head. “Never mind. Thank you.”

  “You’re with child, aren’t you?” Titus said as he pulled up a wooden stool to sit beside Kara, while the male slave left the room to give them privacy. Even though he sat down, he was still taller than her as she stood. Kara’s eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

  “How did you know that?”

  “You carry yourself a bit differently now that you’re with child,” Titus said. “Livia was much the same way when she became pregnant. All I ever knew of her since our days in the arena was her relentless ambition in fighting. Although she had been a mother for most of her life, she seemed to change once she became pregnant with my child.” Titus then went on to explain Livia’s origin stories—how she had been enslaved in this life after finding her two children, who were sold to different masters, only for both of them to be found after Maximus became emperor of Rome.

  But hearing that Livia had changed did not bring Kara any comfort, as she did not get the sense that Livia was a warrior any longer.

  “That sword’s going to need some work,” Titus said, pointing toward her Baldr-blessed sword.

  Kara frowned. “I sharpened it just last night.”

  Titus gave her a gentle glance. “Let’s see if it’s as true as you say it is.”

  Titus grabbed a thin bronze rod, suspended it on a string, and attached it to one of the rafters above.

  As he fitted it to the rafter, he spoke up.

  “It is nearly impossible to be two things at once,” he said before finishing and stepping aside, motioning for Kara to test the blade against it. “Although there is a fine line you can walk to be both. Here, draw the sword across it with no pressure. If it is perfect, the edge will sink. If it is flawed, you will know.”

  Kara did just that, being careful not to apply too much force. But to her chagrin, the blade hissed as she swept it halfway down.

  “An easy fix,” Titus said as he grabbed the blade from her without asking and activated a steam-piston grinding stone so he could sharpen her blade for her. Once satisfied, he tested it himself, and the blade made no hissing sound.

  “There,” he said, handing her back the sword. “Many fail in the balance between two worlds. Do not be troubled that it is a difficult path to walk.”

  Kara thanked him and sheathed her sword. Justus was still asking Mýra a never-ending number of questions, which she continued to answer, pleased with the attention.

  “I believe Maximus has dented such a razor’s edge of being a good man and a good ruler,” Titus said, his eyes downcast as he sat back in his chair and clasped both of his strong, scarred hands together.

  “Do you talk to him?” Kara asked. “Do you mention any of your concerns to him?”

  “He’s not willing to listen,” Titus said, looking at her. Though she couldn’t help but feel he had a double meaning to his words, causing her to blush with shame.

  “But Livia listens,” he said, nodding appreciatively. “That’s how we’re able to make it work. Blending our past life, which was filled with violence, with this new one.” He nodded at Justus. Pride twinkled in his eyes as he looked at his son.

  “You live a very blessed life,” Kara said. Though she unknowingly pressed her left hand against her stomach, where her child was growing, suddenly feeling very afraid that she would be more like Maximus and not be able to blend her past and new life.

  “It’s a good life,” Titus said, smiling at her. “I pray you find it after these Games.”

  Kara gave a soft but pained smile. “Me too.”

  Karl watched all these things through their Pack Link from the top of the roof tower. For a moment, he forgot he was himself as he seemed to live through Kara. He was still getting used to this intense Pack Link where they shared every feeling and thought, but he was glad they did.

  It helped him understand her more.

  He could see clearly now that they were both struggling with the arrival of parenthood, which seemed just around the corner, although they still had many months ahead. But the black thought of the Games, which could end their future of having a family, darkened his mind.

  You think of her too much, Fenrir growled with dissatisfaction in his mind.

  Aren’t you the one who has been incessantly encouraging me to produce more offspring? Karl thought with anger.

  You don’t need one woman for that, Fenrir said. A harem is fit for an alpha.

  Go away, Karl thought, clouding out the wolf-god’s presence.

  As the sun began its slow descent over the Eternal City, Karl cast his eyes once more to the Colosseum, where their fate awaited them.

  If he wanted to keep Kara and their child alive, then he needed to grow stronger than ever before.

  13

  AN ARROW’S PERSPECTIVE

  Karl spent the rest of the day relentlessly training with Livia. She pushed him to take farther and farther shots as they trained upon the Aventine Hill, using their neighbors’ homes for long and trick shots.

  Given their prominence in society, their aristocratic neighbors didn’t mind, instead choosing to watch Karl practicing on the roof with fascination.

  Sporus, too, joined him in training, competing against him for the most accurate and quickest shots. Sporus was extremely talented, just like him, and several times he bested Karl. Constantia clapped enthusiastically when he did.

  They ran along the Aventine Hill, shooting targets that Justus had happily set up for them.

  He’s beating you, Kara said through their Pack Link.

  Karl growled in frustration as he leapt off one of the homes and fired his shot in the air, just as Sporus had done a second before, who had landed his shot perfectly. Karl’s arrow split Sporus’s, and he hit the ground before rolling and sprinting after Sporus, who was ahead.

  It’s because he hit me in the groin, Karl muttered to her, which only seemed to make her laugh.

  Too bad you can’t do the same to him, she replied.

  “That eunuch has some balls,” the Trickster joked as he ran along one of the garden walls of the house they were next to.

  “Go away,” Karl grunted.

  To get out of second place, he decided to cheat. He used his Elf Leap to shoot himself in front of Sporus by a hair’s breadth and swept behind him to unleash ice on the ground. Predictably, Sporus slipped, but he recovered well, making them neck and neck.

  They ended up tied at the end of the day, and Karl was absolutely drenched in sweat, his tunic sticking to his skin as the sun set. He had increased dramatically in his strength since he had been practicing his archery for about six hours at this point, but because of all the running, he had also increased in his Stamina, which was a nice addition since he had sorely neglected that. It would be beneficial to his ability to use more of his skills for archery. But for now, he was content with his progress and exhausted.

  Strength (+60): lvl 12 (100/130)

  Stamina (+60): lvl 4 (30/50)

  Stamina is now 96/96

  Glory (+260): 1,900

  Level (+1): 39 (30/400)

  Skill Points (+1): 4

  “Did you level up in Skill Points?” Sporus asked, a little out of breath as he took off the sweat-soaked black tunic that he’d been practicing in, revealing rather pale olive skin.

  “I did,” Karl said, as he took off his own as well. He was not oblivious to how Sporus looked at him with a controlled level of desire. Ignoring him, and without hesitation, Karl purchased the next ability, Arrow Will Guidance, with his four Skill Points.

  Skill Points (-4): 0

  “It might make you nauseous,” Livia said as she, Justus, and Kara approached the two archers resting their backs on the aqueduct that towered above them. It was one of several that watered the Aventine Hill, and like the others they had seen, it was outfitted with bronze pipes that snaked down the arches for reasons unknown to Karl.

  “Ooh, I want to see!” Justus shouted with joy as he raced ahead of them and handed Karl one of his arrows.

  “Give him a second, son,” Livia said as she and Kara caught up with him.

  “Here, take some of this,” Kara said, handing Karl and Sporus silver goblets of water. The two of them downed it in seconds as the sun set beyond the Aventine Hill.

  “That is so refreshing,” Karl said, as his mouth had felt like a desert a second ago, before handing it back to her. “Thank you.”

  “Justus,” Livia said, handing her son a ripe tomato, “climb up onto that aqueduct there and go until I tell you to stop. Place it on the ridge.”

  Justus gave a toothy grin. “Sure thing,” he said, snatching the tomato from her hand before leaping up the aqueduct, climbing with the grace of a feline.

  “I can only imagine what his skills will be when he reaches of age,” Sporus said as they watched Justus peek the top and begin running down the aqueduct, which was surging with water.