Power(78)

And even the dramatic fight taking place in the middle of it all could not take away from the glory of it.

“Go!” Janus shouted at Marius, who had heard and was already in motion. It had not been difficult to convince his body to move, averse as he was by instinct to the lightning that was being hurled between the columns at the moment.

They were columns of marble. Just as Marius dodged behind one, it exploded with the force of a blast above his head, showering him with dust and fragments. He ran on, seeking cover behind the next column, only to have it explode above him as well.

Marius hesitated as chunks of marble rained down on him. The fine dust of caused him to cough. It settled in grains in his mouth and he nearly choked on it. His eyes were squinted tight, and a thick white powder hung all around him in the air. This is not exactly how we planned it.

They had planned the attack to be a surprise. To be a subtle assault on Jupiter, one in which he would not realize the peril he was in until Marius had him firmly by the hand and Janus had his guards lulled into a sense of absolute security.

That plan had ended before they had even finished walking through the door. It had ended on the tip of the spear that the phalanx of soldiers lying in ambush had applied to Janus’s servant Tullius, who had led the way into the room.

And now we fight against innumerable odds, all pointed against us.

Marius ran for the next column, sticking his head out only briefly to catch a glimpse of the center of the room beyond the column he was skirting. There was another series of columns holding up the other side of the room, and both helped support the massive center of the building, which rose up higher than either side. He caught a glimpse of the figure before the throne, but only a glimpse before a shock of blue lightning flew at him and he ducked back behind the ruined marble.

The impact of the bolt roared in his ears and another cloud of dust exploded around him. Marius kept his head down, eyes nearly closed, waiting only a second before jumping out and sprinting to his left. He crouched behind the next column, the blood rushing in his ears helping to lessen the sound of a full-fledged battle raging at the rear of the room.

“You think I am so doddering as to fail to notice treason under my very nose!” Jupiter’s deep voice filled the hall. “You think me so decayed that you would try to push me off the throne as though I were already a corpse?”

Marius ran to another column. Two more to go until he was at the far edge of the room, only a simple rush from the throne and the figure in front of it. He cringed, considering his options at that point. My power takes the better part of a minute to work. His lightning comes in the better part of a second. He was no mathematics student, but his calculations did not give him hope.

“I think you have lost your mind!” Janus’s voice came from the fray at the back of the chamber. “You have killed good people—decent people—whose only crime was to disagree with your selfish whims!”

“You are a fool, Janus,” Jupiter said, “and I was a fool to let you and your sister live after destroying your parents. I thought you could fill their roles, see the wisdom and know your own places in our order. But you don’t know power when you see it, boy, and you’re far too ignorant to be allowed to live now.”

Marius ran again, finding himself covered behind the next column. Jupiter was focused on the battle at the back of the room now, and Marius heard the lightning roar in that direction. “You think that you can gather your weakling allies against me? Against me?” The rage in the god’s voice shook the room. “I, who put asunder Cronus and took his place? I, who united our people in these lands long before you were even thought of? I, who am worshipped, who directs Emperors and tells gods in other lands what to do and when to do it?” Thunder roared once more. Screams followed, and Marius wondered who had succumbed.

“Discordia. Venus. Vulcan. I see you slithering alongside Janus. Diana! Fool, to follow in your brother’s wake, to share his idiocy in this challenge!” Jupiter was bellowing now. Peeking briefly out from behind his column, Marius could see him striding about the throne room. “And your little stableboy, who you send at me with nothing more than the strength of a weakling in his hands and naught but the power to fly.” Jupiter’s voice turned his way. “Fly away, little servant. Or fly to me and I will show you what my dominion of the skies feels like.”

Marius held his position, listening, and almost missed the soft crunch of boots just behind him—

Lucretius had him by the throat. He knew the man mainly by reputation and only little experience. Lucretius was bestial, practically feral, his teeth showing. Marius felt his body dragged from behind the column, Lucretius’s hand firmly wrapped around his neck as tightly as if a serpent had coiled around it. His feet only brushed the ground and he was pulled, without fight, from his hiding place.