The Kin

  ***

  Junius strode away heading for the bath-house to wash and then to change his clothes, but as he walked past the stables several horses were being prepared for a routine patrol. They were tethered to a wooden strip and had been left ready for their riders. This was too good an opportunity to miss. Quickly, he walked up to the closest one and gently stroked the velvety face, whilst untying the knot. Then he threw the reins over the horse’s head, mounted, and had urged the horse into a canter before they’d even left the stables. Moments later they were weaving their way between the wagons that were coming in to supply the fort via the back gate. Once past the Porta Decumana, they were in open country.

  Junius was heading for the mine, which was where most of the Kin were based. Once there, he’d find Isher–Dan and would do his best to persuade the leader to give up the idea of infiltrating Rome. After that they could lead the rest of Kin away into the east.

  There was no question that part of him was ashamed of what had happened last night and what he was planning to do. He was still a Roman solder and a citizen and that side of him was appalled at his choice. But after joining with them again, it had struck him that he’d been scared and wary to let himself go, terrified of what he was capable of becoming.

  Only when he’d been with the girl had he felt fully alive and able to let himself experience pleasure and exult in his existence. It had made him realise that no matter how hard he tried, he wasn’t the same person, the scars were deeper inside him then he’d ever imagined and worse than Nasir had claimed. He honestly couldn’t comprehend how other survivors had gone on to live normal lives. Since Parthia it had been one long nightmare, living in a twilight world where he didn’t belong fully in either camp.

  As he rode he reached out to the Kin. At first he received no response, obviously they were all asleep, but he kept on calling to them. Eventually, as he came closer and the sun moved across the sky, someone answered his call.

  “Something’s wrong,” he told the only conscious mind available to him. “Tell Isher–Dan that I’m coming to you, but I can still travel and walk in sunlight.” The other’s mind acknowledged his message, then slid out of his thoughts.

  Junius knew that he was coming close to the fort; he could feel their presence in the hills around the area. They weren’t only in the mine, there were other caves scattered around the place where some chose to sleep, as well as the ones in the fort.

  “Marcus, your body has some resistance, but my blood is stronger, I will help you Become. You know where we are?”

  Junius heard the words, but they scratched his mind and didn’t capture his thoughts.

  He couldn’t worry about that now, he had to warn Isher-Dan. “You have to leave this place. They know that you’re here. My friend will destroy any Kin in Apulum. He’ll bring the legion and kill you all. You must go east, away from Rome. The Emperor and his Generals know of you now and understand the signs. You say that I saved you once, listen to me now and leave tonight and go east away from here.”

  Isher-Dan’s response was instantaneous. “Marcus, you panic. We are strong, we’ve infiltrated the army. Come to me, we’ll talk and discuss what we do next.” The voice was gone and Junius realised that the leader of the Kin had fallen back into his daylight slumber.

  He rode on in silence; by the middle of the day he could see the fort appearing between the trees on his right. From the map and his heightened senses he knew that the mine was on the left-hand side. As he came closer, he slowed the horse to a walk and then pulled up. Junius jumped down and tied the reins so that the horse would be free to wander; it was close enough to the fort and the main road that someone was bound to find the animal and take it in. Then he struck off through the trees to the abandoned mine where most of the Kin were resting.

  The sun was low in the sky when he spied the opening to the mine between the branches. It appeared as a gaping maw of blackness, which could easily have been an entrance to the underworld, and considering the creatures that lived in it, to any sane person, it probably was.

  As he drew closer, he surveyed the entrance, and noted that it was huge and cavernous: at least ten metres high and as wide, with smooth water-worn sides and a soft sandy floor. Only as he went further inside did he see the rough cuts and nicks made by the men who had dug away at these caves and made them bigger as they prised out the silver in the rock. In the blackness he could see at least three dark tunnels leading further into the mountain side; he didn’t need any extra sense to tell him that this was where he would find the Kin.