The Shadow Archer Twins

As soon as Tox told me the idea, I thought it was ridiculous. Assassination of a Roman official? That sounded like something straight out of a Shakespeare play, not an action to be taken by the mortal ambassadors of the gods. I tried to explain that to him, but he had this light in his eyes, a little twinkle of crazy that scared me more than the chimera. It made him look like a serial killer after his first murder, who had now become hooked on blood. And besides, even though the plan had come from Chiron, I didn’t trust the centaur on this topic. He was being unusually aggressive, not his usual, calculated self, always finding the best and safest option.

Trying to formulate the best sentence, I explained to Tox, “You forget that we want to unite the two camps, not find out which one is better than the other! We can’t just kill one of the highest-ranking officers in the Roman camp because he’s a bit unsavory!”

“A bit unsavory?” Tox asked angrily, “All he wants to do is start a war! And with the girl praetor gone, we have no allies to call on to engage in peaceful conversation. His death would be preventative. It would save lives.”

“Save lives? All it’s going to do is start the war early and cause more death. We have to wait this situation out. We have to be patient.”

“Chiron has been doing this job for 3000 years. If he’s giving me the green light this fast, he knows what he’s doing! And besides, I’m waiting for a couple days to act. Octavian hasn’t been dangerous enough to warrant an attempt on his life. Yet. But, the option is still on the table, and you’re going to have to accept that.”

Tox finished his monologue and breathed slowly, calmly. I still didn’t like the idea of having that crazy of a Plan B, even in such crazy times. But what was our Plan A? What exactly were we supposed to do against an army that was unlike anything we had ever fought before? When the Romans had shown up for the first time, they had had murderous looks on their faces, and were ready to kick some serious butt. Even though nobody wanted to admit it, we were on the brink of war.

Trying to think, to come up with any idea other than an assassination, I asked, “What exactly did Chiron tell you? What did he show you?”

“Well” Tox replied, thinking, “He told me that all you need is one well-placed shot, and then proceeded to destroy one of the archery target’s tripods by intentionally missing low. After that, I told him that it would be stupid to aim for the lowest part of the Roman chain of command. He then explained to me what I told you.”

“Lowest part,” I echoed softly, “Aim for the lowest part! Tox, you’re a genius! Or, you’re stupid for wanting to assassinate Octavian, but you’re a genius!”

“Don’t start going crazy on me, Malcolm,” Tox said, with a concerned warning in his voice, “What are you talking about?”

Laying it all out for him, I asked, rhetorically, “What if we did aim for a lower part of the chain? What if we decided to talk to some of their lower-ranking officers, people who are smart enough to see reason, powerful enough to do something, and vulnerable enough to listen to our words. We know Octavian would never talk to us again if we mentioned a peace treaty to him, but if could convince a few of his officers to approach him with the idea for us, we could avoid war altogether. We could even tell them that we would be able to take out Octavian if it meant being free enough from his reign to sign that treaty.”

“Romans being corrupt and ganging up together against a leader they all dislike? That is straight out of Julius Caesar,” Tox said, “And I like it! But, how do we convince Brutus to kill Caesar? I mean, how do we convince the officers to rebel against Octavian?”

I laughed at his Shakespeare reference, and continued, “We hold another meeting. We invite all of the Roman centurions, including Octavian, and have Octavian go to a separate meeting. A meeting that he thinks is special, unique, that only he should be allowed into. We pitch the idea to the centurions separately, and we give Octavian the most boring meeting of his life. If the officers agree, they won’t tell Octavian when they get back to their camp, or they’ll lie to him, and he’ll be non the wiser?”

With a hungry light in his eyes, Tox said, “I love the idea! You should pitch it to Chiron. But, I have one question. What happens if the Roman officers don’t like our idea?”

“Plan B,” I said, looking right into his eyes, “We deal with the Romans as if they were a snake.”

Scarily, Tox said the quote that I was just about to. “Kill the head and the body dies. We take out the officers and Octavian.”

“Unfortunately, yes. Without any leaders, the Romans won’t be able to mount a counter-attack, and we can mop up the rest of them. Leave no trace.”

The hungry look came back into Tox’s eyes, as he rubbed his hands together in anticipation. Like a kid in a candy store he said, in a sinister way, “Both options sound great, and I can’t decide!”
“Tox,” I warned him, trying to keep my voice down, “We only use Plan B if Plan A doesn’t work, okay? It isn’t a choice. War is something that should be forced into happening only in a worst-case scenario. Peace should flow naturally. Understand?”

Looking a little disappointed, Tox mumbled, “Yeah, I understand. I’ll go pitch the idea to Chiron,” Clearing his throat and speaking up, he said, “The idea for Plan A, not B.”

“Thanks,” I said. I breathed in, and felt a sense of confidence, and hope that the plan would work.
“Athena always has a plan,” I said to myself. I chuckled. “Always has a plan.”

I thought about Izzy, and how wonderfully relaxing our picnic had been a couple weeks ago. I then thought about how I had seen Katie crying that same day, after we had gotten back. I still was confused about that. But, I decided to let that go. Katie seemed happy now, focused on learning healing and becoming the best that she could. I was proud of her determination. It made her look powerful, fierce even.

With that thought, I got up from the bench that Tox and I had been talking on and went to the Hermes cabin to look for Izzy. I had an idea to pitch to her, and I didn’t like it.

Notes

Sorry it took so long to post, I will try for a higher rate of chapters per day, but it's kind of hard with school. It's not that I'm losing ideas, but I have no time to write them. On the weekend, I will post like 5 or 6 of these because they are so short.