***
Marius knew something was happening because the Kin had become chaotic again, almost deliberately throwing themselves on the spears in their determination to free Junius. All pretence at order was gone, and they no longer worked in unison. He suspected it meant that Junius was no longer directing them, and Marius was anxious to know why his attention had lapsed because Junius should’ve been locked away with nothing else to do. He felt a nub of fear deep in his stomach and he charged to the other side of the mound, but before he got there, an earth-shattering cry of triumph rent the air, which was immediately followed by ear-splitting shrieks from the Kin, who simultaneously stopped fighting.
Abruptly the night became ominously quiet and Nasir’s men were looking around in bewilderment wondering what had happened or was happening elsewhere. Marius stared around the battlefield trying to make sense of the silence, and then it all fell into place. He didn’t have a moment to lose and he continued his now desperate dash to the door of the mound.
The glow from the entrance illuminated the night and caused Marius to stop in his tracks when he saw what was happening. The entrance was obscured by one of the Kin, who was standing in a patch of concentrated moonlight. Marius peered with growing fear at the intense light and realised with horror that his friend was standing in the centre, but a changed Junius, one that his family and friends would struggle to recognise. His hair was fading and losing colour before Marius’s eyes, becoming like the bleached tangled mess of the other Kin, and his eyes seemed to glow with a red malevolent radiance that Marius could see even from a distance. But the worst changes were taking place to his face and form. It was if the light of the moon was drying out and desiccating his body; already, he looked emaciated and his head had become almost completely skeletal. But the dark black tendrils streaking out across his body, running like poisonous shoots through his bloodstream, were the most insidious. Marius instantly recognised the slow black ichor that flowed in the veins and arteries of the Kin and knew that it was now spreading its toxic venom through Junius.
He’d wondered before about the warning regarding the moonlight and now he understood why: Junius was absorbing the light and changing.
Marius had no choice, for most of the night he’d believed that they could get through this. Their friendship might’ve been destroyed, but Nasir and the progress of the battle had convinced him that they could survive. That hope was lost now, Junius was gone, and he couldn’t allow this new creature to lead his horde to Rome. Abruptly, Marius realised that he was still holding a spear in his hand from the supply line. Without thinking he reached up and used all the experience and strength of a legionary officer to throw the javelin. It hit home and the emergent Kin collapsed in a heap.
Instantly the moonbeam faded and the Kin began to shriek and then continued their attack. For a moment Marius stared at the place where Junius had been standing, trying to come to terms with the implications of his action, but almost immediately Nasir and several others came running up to investigate, so reluctantly Marius forced himself to join them.
To his surprise Junius wasn’t a bundle of dried-out bones. He was lying at the foot of the steps with a spear sticking out of his side snarling and hissing at the men who surrounded him.
Nasir noticed Marius. “I don’t know if you meant to kill him or not, but you did stop the metamorphosis.” He called out to the people hovering: “Get some material.”
“What are going to do with it?” Marius asked, taken aback. “Aren’t you going to kill him?”
Nasir looked at him. “We are men of our word. Your officer might be saveable.”
“But you saw him, didn’t you?”
Calla answered. “We don’t think he’s ingested blood yet.”
“We won’t know until the morning,” Nasir added as one of his men came back with a thick sheet of cloth. “We need to get this over his head and move him back into the chamber.”
As a group they dropped the material on top of Junius who struggled and fought for all he was worth, but the combined strength of the men was sufficient to hold him down whilst Korkute removed the spear and gave it to Nasir to examine. Then they pushed Junius back inside the chamber and shut the door.
“Get another plank. He’s weak, but desperate. We’ll hold it in the meantime,” Nasir told his men.
As if in answer, the heard a snarl from inside and Junius banged against the door. Marius joined the men holding it shut until a substitute plank was found, and Nasir set a guard of ten men to man the entrance as well.
“What happened to the men you assigned?” Marius asked as they watched as the wood was slipped into place.
Nasir took a deep breath and looked grim. “We thought we had him contained. I sent them to join the others. I’m sorry, I don’t know how he broke the bonds.”
Marius didn’t say anything. Next to him Nasir examined the spear and smeared some of Junius’s blood on the material.
“Well?” Marius asked.
“Not sure, “ Nasir said and sniffed it, then to Marius’s horror he touched the point with his finger and then tasted it with the tip of his tongue. “ Blood.”
“Are you sure?”
“Do you want to try?” Nasir queried with a smile.
“I’ll take your word for it,” Marius answered and turned back to look at the men who were holding the door in place against Junius’s repeated and increasingly desperate shoves.
When it became clear that Junius wasn’t going to give up, Nasir began to change his men on rotation whilst the Kin kept up their disciplined attacks. It was only when dawn was almost upon them that the remnants of the Kin army finally gave up and drifted away, and after that even Junius fell silent.
With the light came relief and the realisation that somehow against all odds they had gotten through the night and the Kin wouldn’t come again.