The Portal
Author: a_delacroix@hotmail.com
Chapter 27
Disappointment. That was Lex's first thought upon seeing Emperor Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus for the first time. Somehow you just expect the most powerful man within thousands of miles, if not the whole planet, to be handsome, dashing, and charismatic. But Caligula was none of those things. Lex knew he was a young man somewhere in his mid-twenties, but he looked more like forty with thin, balding, prematurely gray hair, stooped shoulders, and a gaunt, pale face. If Lex had met him back in the 21st century, he would have guessed he was the guy who drove the old beater car delivering morning newspapers or, if generous, perhaps a greeter at Wal- Mart, not that Lex had ever been in a Wal-Mart before arriving at the wonderful shopping Mecca known as Smallville.
However entering the covered imperial box with him was an incredibly stunning woman. Dark hair. Tall, at least five seven and towering several inches over the emperor. Bright, intelligent eyes. Lex realized some things never change; men with power could always attract 'trophy' women.
Given the grand scale of the Circus Maximus, the Imperial Box itself was of epic proportions to not look out of place. The box, with close to one hundred feet of frontage on the race course, gave the appearance of a Greek Temple to a modern eye not trained in the subtleties of Roman Architecture. Several rows of traditional Greek-style columns supported the tall, shallow-pitched roof designed to provide shade from the pounding Roman sun.
Lex and his group were standing near the railing at one end of the box when the emperor arrived. Lex almost expected Caligula, no he must think of him as Gaius so he didn't make a mistake at the wrong moment, to head straight over to greet Clark and Chloe after hearing the whole 'God' scenario. However Gaius and the woman with him first went over to the small group standing at the railing in the center of the box. After shaking the hand of the man who Chloe told them was Senator Severus Gallus, the sponsor of the day's games, Gaius went up to the railing and waved to the cheering crowd. At this point, early in his reign, the general public still felt he was a worthy successor to the Emperors Augustus and Tiberius and gave him their respect and support. It wouldn't be until later that his true nature would come to light and his grip on power would only be maintained by his control of the military.
After several minutes the crowd quieted down and Senator Gallus escorted the emperor over to their party. Senator Gallus was an old acquaintance of Coelia, however he hadn't yet heard about the events at the forum since he had been at the Circus all day. In his capacity as host, Gallus began the introductions.
"Your Highness, may I present Coelia Dionysia Flavius and her party. Coelia, it has been way too long since I have last seen you and I am afraid I don't know your guests."
Chloe smiled to Gallus. "Yes, it has been way too long. Unfortunately, I have been traveling extensively for the past six months and only returned to Rome a couple of days ago. You will have to come out for dinner some time next week."
Then Chloe turned to the Emperor and gave a modest nod of her head; not the bow of a subordinate, but the sign of acknowledgement to an equal. Tilting her head to indicate Clark she began, "Gaius, I am sure you remember Ares from this morning." Then motioning towards Lex and Lana, she continued. "These are a couple of friends I met during my travels and who are staying with me while they are in Rome. May I present Lana, the Crown Princess of Caledonia, and Alexandrum Germanicus Luthorius, her Royal Consort."
Both Lana and Lex performed the deep bow traditionally given to the emperor, although anyone who knew Lex well would have seen the slight hint of annoyance on his face.
'Royal Consort, indeed,' thought Lex. 'Did I really treat Chloe so badly before this trip; she feels some need to get even with me? Lana gets to be a Princess. Clark and Chloe get to be Greek Gods. And me? Royal Consort. Why not just make me the Royal Concubine?'
The Emperor nodded politely to Lana. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Lana. You will have to tell me all about your Kingdom." Then turning to Chloe, he said in a stage whisper, "Aphrodite, are they also, you know. . ." and he trailed off with a raised eyebrow.
Chloe answered with a quiet, "No," but then gave the Emperor a quick wink and a small grin to leave the whole question of whether Lana and Lex were two more Gods intentionally hazy.
It was written all over Gallus' face that he was dying to ask why the Emperor called Chloe 'Aphrodite', but since no one was stepping forward with an explanation he concluded his introductions. "Coelia, may I present the Emperor's sister, Drusilla."
The Emperor's beautiful companion gave them a friendly smile and a small nod of the head. Finally getting to see her up close, Lex was most intrigued with her eyes. The left eye was a crystal clear light blue, but the right eye was hazel, almost leaning towards brown. Once he had noticed her eyes it was almost difficult to look away. He could imagine how in some primitive societies she would be considered a witch or to have some mystical powers with eyes like those. Lex could only remember meeting people with different colored eyes a couple of times before in his life, but never on a beautiful woman. Lex had read the ancient stories of incest between Caligula and his sisters, but based on first impressions, he had to wonder who the instigator was and who had the actual power in their relationship.
Seeing the Emperor intended to spend some time with Coelia and her party, Gallus made his departure saying he needed to see to the start of the next race. Lex pulled his attention away from Drusilla and watched Gallus return to the center portion of the railing where several men with signal flags waited to communicate with the distant starting gate.
When he turned back he found Caligula, no Gaius, chatting with Clark. "So, Ares, would you like to compete in one of the upcoming races? I am sure any of the drivers would be honored to let you drive in their place."
Clark appeared to think about it with a longing expression on his face for several seconds before finally shaking his head. "Thanks for the kind offer, but I think I will have to decline. You know of my reputation. If one of the other charioteers beats me badly, I will feel obliged to kill him for his arrogance. If the other drivers just let me win, I will have to kill them for that, too. I have learned from long experience competing in games against mortals always ends up with someone getting badly hurt or killed. And I am here looking to make allies, not to kill people."
Caligula nodded, but his disappointment showed in his voice. "I understand. It's just I was telling Drusilla about the events this morning and she was hoping for a small demonstration of your gifts."
Chloe grinned. "Maybe we could do some kind of demonstration after the next race. I used to be renowned for my archery skills. Of course, that was a very long time ago and perhaps no one remembers, but if one of your men would locate a bow, I could give it a go."
As the Emperor called to one of his guards and sent him to fetch a bow, Lex wondered if she was going to do the arrow catching trick she had mentioned in one of her stories. Then he remembered the Aphrodite of legend was the God of Archers in addition to being the God of Love. Just to hear her response he asked, "Aphrodite, is it true that you lived for a time with the Amazons?"
Chloe gave Lex a look saying she could read what his real question was. Then with a little twinkle in her eye she answered, "Oh, I guess you could say I lived with them for a time, but it would probably be more accurate to say I founded the order. However the whole 'cut off your right breast to improve your archery abilities' tradition developed after I was long gone." Here Chloe shook her head for a moment implying how crazy she thought that procedure was. "In my time, we might bind the breasts of particularly well developed girls or put them in metal breastplates for archery practice or actual combat, but I never condoned the self-mutilation approach."
As he listened to her talk, Lex once again marveled at the sense of truth and believability she was capable of projecting. Either she was the world's greatest actress or she had at some point in her life been involved with the women on whom the legends of the Amazons were based.
At this point the conversation was interrupted by trumpets announcing the next race was about to begin. Caligula turned to watch the start of the race and the others followed suit. As they looked down past Gallus towards the starting gate they saw Gallus' arm sweep down with a gold and purple stripped flag, the starting signal to the gatekeeper. Immediately the twelve gates snapped open and twelve chariots pulled by four horses each sprang forward.
The central barricade, which separated the two sides of the track, began one hundred yards from the starting gates. With four horses pulling in parallel these rigs were extremely wide, at most five teams could run abreast once they were past the start of the central barricade. Therefore the first hundred yards was the most dangerous, disaster filled portion of the entire four mile long event. Some drivers felt the need to lead the race from the very beginning particularly since almost as much money was bet on who would be leading at the first turn as on who would win the entire race. Others held back to conserve their horses until they were properly warmed up and could therefore retain sufficient energy for a final, flat-out sprint. With the random assignment of starting gates, it was never clear until the starting gates opened who would be striving to be first and who would be holding back.
As often happened, the driver in gate 1, who had the furthest to go, was the one most desperately trying to take the immediate lead. His rightmost horse bumped the left horse of driver number 2 which caused the horse to trip and drag down the rest of that team. In the process of going down the number 2 chariot slew out to its right and brought down the number 3 team as well.
Similar jostling further down the line brought down the number 6 chariot leaving only nine teams still in the race by the time the leaders were passing the start of the central barricade. Lex felt Lana gasp at all of the hurt horses lying out on the track. When they had arrived near the end of the previous race there were several teams down, but it was a lot worse seeing them actually go down and knowing numerous legs were being broken and that many of these horses would have to be put down.
Lex put his arms around Lana, pulled her tight, and whispered into her ear. "It's okay. If it helps, close your eyes and I will tell you when it is over."
Lana wrapped her fingers around his and whispered back. "No, I need to get used to things here. Too bad it is not like the movies where they roll the end credits and the message comes up saying 'No animals were hurt in the making of this film'."
"Yeah," whispered Lex. "I wish this was all a movie and it would end soon so we could get back to our real lives. And deal like more important and perhaps more challenging issues like telling Nell about us."
Lana realized it seemed like days since she had thought about her Aunt Nell and how they were going to tell her about their apparently sudden, unexpected new relationship. If they did manage to get back home on the same day they had left, how would she explain falling madly in love with Lex during a short encounter on a one day fieldtrip to Metropolis University? Something that would appear to have happened in a few short hours but which had slowly evolved over a course of weeks while secretly trapped in the ancient Roman Empire. Perhaps they could let Nell in on the secret of the time-travel device, but could she even believe it? Or would Nell think she had gone crazy?
And what about Whitney, her boyfriend for the past two years? They had had their problems lately, particularly with the recent death of his father, but could she just walk up to him and say, 'Hi, Whitney. I know you saw me yesterday, but for me that was weeks ago and during that time Lex and I have fallen deeply, hopelessly, insanely in love and I know we are meant to be together always.' Yeah, girl, that's the way to break up with your boyfriend. If anyone was keeping score, she would at least get points for originality.
Of course, the biggest shock to Whitney would be how it was Lex she had fallen for. If it had to be someone, she knew Whitney's money would have been on Clark. Ever since she found out about Whitney and his jock friends turning Clark into the scarecrow for this year's homecoming game, she knew it was Clark's attention Whitney feared the most. And it was largely because of Whitney's treatment of him on homecoming night that Lana had started to spend more time around Clark to make up for things a little. But she had never had strong feelings for Clark and now that Clark and Chloe were together and she and Lex had found each other, everything felt so right.
Turning within Lex's arms Lana pulled his head down until his ear was next to her lips. "Let's go find a spot to sit and let's talk a little about how we are going to handle things like Nell when we get back home."
Lex pulled his head back until he could look into her beautiful soft brown eyes. Had he made a mistake mentioning Nell's name? He hadn't yet learned all of the smallest nuances of her expressions, was she truly okay with things? Lex nodded, but could still feel a fluttering deep in his gut. Perhaps it was time to start talking about how they would handle things after they got back home.
So Lex and Lana found an out-of-the-way divan in a back corner of imperial box and spent the remainder of the race making some tentative decisions about the future.
---------------
The roar of the crowd was dying down after the end of the race when the emperor waved forward the guard who had been standing by for the past few minutes with the bow and the quiver of arrows. As the bow was handed to Chloe she requested a table be brought up to the railing. After running her hands up and down the bow several times and closely examining how the string was attached, she gave it several experimental pulls and then momentarily handed to Clark. Turning to the arrows, she spread them out on the table before critically examining each one.
As she worked, she explained. "I hope you will forgive me for taking a couple of minutes to examine the arrows. Usually if I am going to try this I prefer to make my own arrows so I will know exactly how they will fly."
"So, what is the demonstration to be?" asked Caligula with a barely concealed glee in his voice.
"Hmm," said Chloe as her eyes first went to the emperor and then scanned around the box. "Ares, could you have someone fetch a couple of those bowls of oranges and then round up Gallus, Lex and Lana. Counting you three, that makes six which is about right." After Clark nodded and headed off, she continued. "If the six of you would each take two oranges and toss the out over the track as quickly as possible, I thought I would give a little demonstration of marksmanship."
"Twelve shots at once. It hardly sounds possible," responded the emperor.
As she lined up the twelve best arrows on the table, Chloe answered. "Normally, I wouldn't try that many, but this box is quite a ways up from the floor of the track and if everyone tosses their oranges fairly high, there should be enough time to get all of them."
As a couple of slaves brought up the bowls of oranges Chloe looked up to see Clark returning with Gallus, Lex and Lana in tow. One glance at Lex and Lana and it was apparent to her something had happened between them after they had disappeared near the start of the race. Both of them looked so happy, much happier even than they had seemed earlier. Based on her own experience of having raised hundreds of children, Chloe could easily guess their relationship had taken some new and significant step forward. Chloe smiled; perhaps some good would come to Lex from this whole little adventure. Having all the money in the world wasn't as important as good friends, as she knew from long personal experience.
As everyone gathered around, Chloe handed each person two oranges. "Okay, on the count of three I want everyone to throw their oranges as hard and as high as you can. Well, everyone except Ares. Ares, please throw yours a reasonable distance, if you throw them clear out of the circus, there is no way I am going to be able to hit yours."
Everyone including Clark nodded their agreement. Lex hefted his oranges and then looked out across the circus. Straight across would be the shortest distance to throw an orange out of the stands. To clear the stands on the far side would require a toss of close to 500 feet. Could Clark really throw an orange that far or was the comment part of Chloe's scam? How much did she know about Clark's secret and could he really do it? If Clark had ripped the top off of the Porsche to get him out when it was at the bottom of the river, perhaps he could toss an orange 500 feet.
Chloe had Clark, the emperor, and Drusilla line up on the other side of the column to her right and Gallus, Lex, and Lana on the far side of the column to her left, leaving her plenty of room to work without impedance from the others. After everyone was in position, Chloe picked up and positioned the first arrow and then called out. "Ready? One . . . two . . . three . . . throw!"
As quickly as they could everyone threw both of their oranges. Some threw theirs straight out while others angled theirs in front of Chloe to make it easier. All in all, the twelve oranges formed a complex criss-crossing pattern. Chloe relaxed and let her nanobot-enhanced body take over.
Fire.
Grab the next arrow.
Pull and fire.
Grab the next arrow.
Pull and fire.
And so on it went. Chloe's eyes never left the sky as her 'bot network calculated trajectories and plotted intercept points. Her hand never faltered as it blindly reached for the next arrow lined up on the table.
Over and over until twelve arrows were in the air at once, the first five having already struck their targets by the time the final one left the bow. In the end she had judged the number of oranges and arrows just right as the final arrow speared its target a mere two feet above the hard packed sand of the race course floor far below.
As the remainder of the arrows thudded into the ground, each with an orange halfway up its shaft, a roar of applause arose from the stands in the immediate area of the imperial box. And then the round of applause was taken up by the occupants of the imperial box as well. Quickly everyone gathered around making ohh's and ahh's of appreciation.
Lex quickly joined in with the congratulatory remarks, but he couldn't get out of his mind Chloe's comment to Clark about not throwing the orange out of the stadium and Clark's earlier admission to the big 'secret', which he still hadn't gotten around to divulging.
So it was Lex, rather than the emperor, who asked. "Ares, do you want to take your turn with the bow?"
As all eyes turned to him, Clark looked at Lex for a moment and then shrugged. "I suppose I could, but I have always preferred the spear to the bow. I mean the bow is good for fast, close-in work, but its range is strictly limited." Clark glanced around the box and then focused on one of the guards by the main entrance.
When he spoke next his voice was directed towards the guard and had assumed the powerful commanding tone Lex had first heard outside the Circus. "You, guard, bring me your spear."
The guard blanched at the attention and then started to walk over. The walk quickly broke into a trot as he saw the expression on Ares' face. When he arrived he went down on one knee before raising the spear to Ares.
Clark took the spear without another glance at the guard and then walked over and pulled another orange out of the bowl.
"If everyone would step further down along the railing to give me some room and then look towards the starting gates."
Lex watched as Clark took the orange in his left hand and swung his arm for what at first looked to be a light underhand toss. Then his arm seemed to blur forward and the orange screamed out down the length of the race track in the direction of the starting gate. Looking back towards Clark he saw him pause for a second and then taking two steps forward he hurled the spear like a javelin thrower at the Olympics. However the speed of the spear was way beyond any javelin Lex had seen in a college track meet or even during his visit to the Sydney Olympics the year before his arrival in Smallville.
The spear raced down the length of the track, its metallic head giving off flashes of light from the afternoon sun as it slowly spun on its course. Further and further until the spear looked like a toothpick and the orange would have been nearly invisible except for its bright color. Finally, a mere ten feet from the far end of the circus the spear caught up to the orange and punched through it, dead in the center. Then the spear itself impacted in the center of the farthest starting gate, penetrating through the heavy wood until the point of the spear stuck out three feet on the far side and the orange was pressed firmly up against the near side of the gate.
More applause erupted from the crowd, but Lex just stood there in shock. The Olympic javelin competition was held inside a football or soccer stadium and there was no concern about javelins being thrown into the crowded stands. Lex couldn't remember the World Record for the javelin, but it couldn't be much over two hundred fifty feet, tops. And that was with a modern javelin with its weight, materials, and length optimized for distance. The throw Clark had just made with a wooden spear topped by a heavy iron head had to be pushing one thousand feet, at least four times the world record. And it wasn't just the distance. The Olympians were focused on distance, but their tosses landed all over a fairly wide arc. Clark's toss had just intersected a small moving target at a thousand feet. How far could Clark have thrown that spear if he wasn't limited by the dimension of the Circus or the need for accuracy? Lex suddenly felt the need to sit down. Suspecting Clark's abilities based on the wreckage of the Porsche was one thing, but actually witnessing this feat was something else entirely.
Lex had at least been slightly prepared based on Clark's comment outside the Circus, but Clark's performance caught Lana totally off guard. She hadn't heard the rumors of the morning's events at the forum and wasn't expecting this sudden turn. Still, there was Clark's 92% correlation factor to weird events back in Smallville that she and Chloe had discussed on several occasions before this whole adventure began.
Chloe was the only one of the travelers prepared for Clark's actions since she was already in on his secrets. From the moment Clark had asked for the spear she had known he was about to reveal his secret to the others. She knew how tough this decision had been for Clark after keeping everything hidden for so many years, but inside she was glad the subterfuge would finally be over. Without the continual need to keep different stories for Lex & Lana and the rest of the ancient Romans they contacted consistent and with the freedom to fully exploit Clark and her abilities, the rest of this adventure should go faster and easier.
As both Lex and Lana stood thunderstruck by this latest revelation and Chloe waited patiently to see where Clark intended to take this next, Clark turned to the emperor and said. "Well, I, for one, feel I have seen enough chariot racing for today. I am ready for that feast you mentioned this morning."
The emperor, who was the only one present other than Ares and Aphrodite to have witnessed the morning's events, was quickest to recover from this latest exhibition. Taking Ares' arm he turned towards the exit from the imperial box. "Yes, yes, it is all being set up back at the palace. Perhaps along the way you could tell me a little about Olympus, I am so looking forward to visiting there one day."
End of Chapter 27
Author: a_delacroix@hotmail.com
Chapter 27
Disappointment. That was Lex's first thought upon seeing Emperor Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus for the first time. Somehow you just expect the most powerful man within thousands of miles, if not the whole planet, to be handsome, dashing, and charismatic. But Caligula was none of those things. Lex knew he was a young man somewhere in his mid-twenties, but he looked more like forty with thin, balding, prematurely gray hair, stooped shoulders, and a gaunt, pale face. If Lex had met him back in the 21st century, he would have guessed he was the guy who drove the old beater car delivering morning newspapers or, if generous, perhaps a greeter at Wal- Mart, not that Lex had ever been in a Wal-Mart before arriving at the wonderful shopping Mecca known as Smallville.
However entering the covered imperial box with him was an incredibly stunning woman. Dark hair. Tall, at least five seven and towering several inches over the emperor. Bright, intelligent eyes. Lex realized some things never change; men with power could always attract 'trophy' women.
Given the grand scale of the Circus Maximus, the Imperial Box itself was of epic proportions to not look out of place. The box, with close to one hundred feet of frontage on the race course, gave the appearance of a Greek Temple to a modern eye not trained in the subtleties of Roman Architecture. Several rows of traditional Greek-style columns supported the tall, shallow-pitched roof designed to provide shade from the pounding Roman sun.
Lex and his group were standing near the railing at one end of the box when the emperor arrived. Lex almost expected Caligula, no he must think of him as Gaius so he didn't make a mistake at the wrong moment, to head straight over to greet Clark and Chloe after hearing the whole 'God' scenario. However Gaius and the woman with him first went over to the small group standing at the railing in the center of the box. After shaking the hand of the man who Chloe told them was Senator Severus Gallus, the sponsor of the day's games, Gaius went up to the railing and waved to the cheering crowd. At this point, early in his reign, the general public still felt he was a worthy successor to the Emperors Augustus and Tiberius and gave him their respect and support. It wouldn't be until later that his true nature would come to light and his grip on power would only be maintained by his control of the military.
After several minutes the crowd quieted down and Senator Gallus escorted the emperor over to their party. Senator Gallus was an old acquaintance of Coelia, however he hadn't yet heard about the events at the forum since he had been at the Circus all day. In his capacity as host, Gallus began the introductions.
"Your Highness, may I present Coelia Dionysia Flavius and her party. Coelia, it has been way too long since I have last seen you and I am afraid I don't know your guests."
Chloe smiled to Gallus. "Yes, it has been way too long. Unfortunately, I have been traveling extensively for the past six months and only returned to Rome a couple of days ago. You will have to come out for dinner some time next week."
Then Chloe turned to the Emperor and gave a modest nod of her head; not the bow of a subordinate, but the sign of acknowledgement to an equal. Tilting her head to indicate Clark she began, "Gaius, I am sure you remember Ares from this morning." Then motioning towards Lex and Lana, she continued. "These are a couple of friends I met during my travels and who are staying with me while they are in Rome. May I present Lana, the Crown Princess of Caledonia, and Alexandrum Germanicus Luthorius, her Royal Consort."
Both Lana and Lex performed the deep bow traditionally given to the emperor, although anyone who knew Lex well would have seen the slight hint of annoyance on his face.
'Royal Consort, indeed,' thought Lex. 'Did I really treat Chloe so badly before this trip; she feels some need to get even with me? Lana gets to be a Princess. Clark and Chloe get to be Greek Gods. And me? Royal Consort. Why not just make me the Royal Concubine?'
The Emperor nodded politely to Lana. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Lana. You will have to tell me all about your Kingdom." Then turning to Chloe, he said in a stage whisper, "Aphrodite, are they also, you know. . ." and he trailed off with a raised eyebrow.
Chloe answered with a quiet, "No," but then gave the Emperor a quick wink and a small grin to leave the whole question of whether Lana and Lex were two more Gods intentionally hazy.
It was written all over Gallus' face that he was dying to ask why the Emperor called Chloe 'Aphrodite', but since no one was stepping forward with an explanation he concluded his introductions. "Coelia, may I present the Emperor's sister, Drusilla."
The Emperor's beautiful companion gave them a friendly smile and a small nod of the head. Finally getting to see her up close, Lex was most intrigued with her eyes. The left eye was a crystal clear light blue, but the right eye was hazel, almost leaning towards brown. Once he had noticed her eyes it was almost difficult to look away. He could imagine how in some primitive societies she would be considered a witch or to have some mystical powers with eyes like those. Lex could only remember meeting people with different colored eyes a couple of times before in his life, but never on a beautiful woman. Lex had read the ancient stories of incest between Caligula and his sisters, but based on first impressions, he had to wonder who the instigator was and who had the actual power in their relationship.
Seeing the Emperor intended to spend some time with Coelia and her party, Gallus made his departure saying he needed to see to the start of the next race. Lex pulled his attention away from Drusilla and watched Gallus return to the center portion of the railing where several men with signal flags waited to communicate with the distant starting gate.
When he turned back he found Caligula, no Gaius, chatting with Clark. "So, Ares, would you like to compete in one of the upcoming races? I am sure any of the drivers would be honored to let you drive in their place."
Clark appeared to think about it with a longing expression on his face for several seconds before finally shaking his head. "Thanks for the kind offer, but I think I will have to decline. You know of my reputation. If one of the other charioteers beats me badly, I will feel obliged to kill him for his arrogance. If the other drivers just let me win, I will have to kill them for that, too. I have learned from long experience competing in games against mortals always ends up with someone getting badly hurt or killed. And I am here looking to make allies, not to kill people."
Caligula nodded, but his disappointment showed in his voice. "I understand. It's just I was telling Drusilla about the events this morning and she was hoping for a small demonstration of your gifts."
Chloe grinned. "Maybe we could do some kind of demonstration after the next race. I used to be renowned for my archery skills. Of course, that was a very long time ago and perhaps no one remembers, but if one of your men would locate a bow, I could give it a go."
As the Emperor called to one of his guards and sent him to fetch a bow, Lex wondered if she was going to do the arrow catching trick she had mentioned in one of her stories. Then he remembered the Aphrodite of legend was the God of Archers in addition to being the God of Love. Just to hear her response he asked, "Aphrodite, is it true that you lived for a time with the Amazons?"
Chloe gave Lex a look saying she could read what his real question was. Then with a little twinkle in her eye she answered, "Oh, I guess you could say I lived with them for a time, but it would probably be more accurate to say I founded the order. However the whole 'cut off your right breast to improve your archery abilities' tradition developed after I was long gone." Here Chloe shook her head for a moment implying how crazy she thought that procedure was. "In my time, we might bind the breasts of particularly well developed girls or put them in metal breastplates for archery practice or actual combat, but I never condoned the self-mutilation approach."
As he listened to her talk, Lex once again marveled at the sense of truth and believability she was capable of projecting. Either she was the world's greatest actress or she had at some point in her life been involved with the women on whom the legends of the Amazons were based.
At this point the conversation was interrupted by trumpets announcing the next race was about to begin. Caligula turned to watch the start of the race and the others followed suit. As they looked down past Gallus towards the starting gate they saw Gallus' arm sweep down with a gold and purple stripped flag, the starting signal to the gatekeeper. Immediately the twelve gates snapped open and twelve chariots pulled by four horses each sprang forward.
The central barricade, which separated the two sides of the track, began one hundred yards from the starting gates. With four horses pulling in parallel these rigs were extremely wide, at most five teams could run abreast once they were past the start of the central barricade. Therefore the first hundred yards was the most dangerous, disaster filled portion of the entire four mile long event. Some drivers felt the need to lead the race from the very beginning particularly since almost as much money was bet on who would be leading at the first turn as on who would win the entire race. Others held back to conserve their horses until they were properly warmed up and could therefore retain sufficient energy for a final, flat-out sprint. With the random assignment of starting gates, it was never clear until the starting gates opened who would be striving to be first and who would be holding back.
As often happened, the driver in gate 1, who had the furthest to go, was the one most desperately trying to take the immediate lead. His rightmost horse bumped the left horse of driver number 2 which caused the horse to trip and drag down the rest of that team. In the process of going down the number 2 chariot slew out to its right and brought down the number 3 team as well.
Similar jostling further down the line brought down the number 6 chariot leaving only nine teams still in the race by the time the leaders were passing the start of the central barricade. Lex felt Lana gasp at all of the hurt horses lying out on the track. When they had arrived near the end of the previous race there were several teams down, but it was a lot worse seeing them actually go down and knowing numerous legs were being broken and that many of these horses would have to be put down.
Lex put his arms around Lana, pulled her tight, and whispered into her ear. "It's okay. If it helps, close your eyes and I will tell you when it is over."
Lana wrapped her fingers around his and whispered back. "No, I need to get used to things here. Too bad it is not like the movies where they roll the end credits and the message comes up saying 'No animals were hurt in the making of this film'."
"Yeah," whispered Lex. "I wish this was all a movie and it would end soon so we could get back to our real lives. And deal like more important and perhaps more challenging issues like telling Nell about us."
Lana realized it seemed like days since she had thought about her Aunt Nell and how they were going to tell her about their apparently sudden, unexpected new relationship. If they did manage to get back home on the same day they had left, how would she explain falling madly in love with Lex during a short encounter on a one day fieldtrip to Metropolis University? Something that would appear to have happened in a few short hours but which had slowly evolved over a course of weeks while secretly trapped in the ancient Roman Empire. Perhaps they could let Nell in on the secret of the time-travel device, but could she even believe it? Or would Nell think she had gone crazy?
And what about Whitney, her boyfriend for the past two years? They had had their problems lately, particularly with the recent death of his father, but could she just walk up to him and say, 'Hi, Whitney. I know you saw me yesterday, but for me that was weeks ago and during that time Lex and I have fallen deeply, hopelessly, insanely in love and I know we are meant to be together always.' Yeah, girl, that's the way to break up with your boyfriend. If anyone was keeping score, she would at least get points for originality.
Of course, the biggest shock to Whitney would be how it was Lex she had fallen for. If it had to be someone, she knew Whitney's money would have been on Clark. Ever since she found out about Whitney and his jock friends turning Clark into the scarecrow for this year's homecoming game, she knew it was Clark's attention Whitney feared the most. And it was largely because of Whitney's treatment of him on homecoming night that Lana had started to spend more time around Clark to make up for things a little. But she had never had strong feelings for Clark and now that Clark and Chloe were together and she and Lex had found each other, everything felt so right.
Turning within Lex's arms Lana pulled his head down until his ear was next to her lips. "Let's go find a spot to sit and let's talk a little about how we are going to handle things like Nell when we get back home."
Lex pulled his head back until he could look into her beautiful soft brown eyes. Had he made a mistake mentioning Nell's name? He hadn't yet learned all of the smallest nuances of her expressions, was she truly okay with things? Lex nodded, but could still feel a fluttering deep in his gut. Perhaps it was time to start talking about how they would handle things after they got back home.
So Lex and Lana found an out-of-the-way divan in a back corner of imperial box and spent the remainder of the race making some tentative decisions about the future.
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The roar of the crowd was dying down after the end of the race when the emperor waved forward the guard who had been standing by for the past few minutes with the bow and the quiver of arrows. As the bow was handed to Chloe she requested a table be brought up to the railing. After running her hands up and down the bow several times and closely examining how the string was attached, she gave it several experimental pulls and then momentarily handed to Clark. Turning to the arrows, she spread them out on the table before critically examining each one.
As she worked, she explained. "I hope you will forgive me for taking a couple of minutes to examine the arrows. Usually if I am going to try this I prefer to make my own arrows so I will know exactly how they will fly."
"So, what is the demonstration to be?" asked Caligula with a barely concealed glee in his voice.
"Hmm," said Chloe as her eyes first went to the emperor and then scanned around the box. "Ares, could you have someone fetch a couple of those bowls of oranges and then round up Gallus, Lex and Lana. Counting you three, that makes six which is about right." After Clark nodded and headed off, she continued. "If the six of you would each take two oranges and toss the out over the track as quickly as possible, I thought I would give a little demonstration of marksmanship."
"Twelve shots at once. It hardly sounds possible," responded the emperor.
As she lined up the twelve best arrows on the table, Chloe answered. "Normally, I wouldn't try that many, but this box is quite a ways up from the floor of the track and if everyone tosses their oranges fairly high, there should be enough time to get all of them."
As a couple of slaves brought up the bowls of oranges Chloe looked up to see Clark returning with Gallus, Lex and Lana in tow. One glance at Lex and Lana and it was apparent to her something had happened between them after they had disappeared near the start of the race. Both of them looked so happy, much happier even than they had seemed earlier. Based on her own experience of having raised hundreds of children, Chloe could easily guess their relationship had taken some new and significant step forward. Chloe smiled; perhaps some good would come to Lex from this whole little adventure. Having all the money in the world wasn't as important as good friends, as she knew from long personal experience.
As everyone gathered around, Chloe handed each person two oranges. "Okay, on the count of three I want everyone to throw their oranges as hard and as high as you can. Well, everyone except Ares. Ares, please throw yours a reasonable distance, if you throw them clear out of the circus, there is no way I am going to be able to hit yours."
Everyone including Clark nodded their agreement. Lex hefted his oranges and then looked out across the circus. Straight across would be the shortest distance to throw an orange out of the stands. To clear the stands on the far side would require a toss of close to 500 feet. Could Clark really throw an orange that far or was the comment part of Chloe's scam? How much did she know about Clark's secret and could he really do it? If Clark had ripped the top off of the Porsche to get him out when it was at the bottom of the river, perhaps he could toss an orange 500 feet.
Chloe had Clark, the emperor, and Drusilla line up on the other side of the column to her right and Gallus, Lex, and Lana on the far side of the column to her left, leaving her plenty of room to work without impedance from the others. After everyone was in position, Chloe picked up and positioned the first arrow and then called out. "Ready? One . . . two . . . three . . . throw!"
As quickly as they could everyone threw both of their oranges. Some threw theirs straight out while others angled theirs in front of Chloe to make it easier. All in all, the twelve oranges formed a complex criss-crossing pattern. Chloe relaxed and let her nanobot-enhanced body take over.
Fire.
Grab the next arrow.
Pull and fire.
Grab the next arrow.
Pull and fire.
And so on it went. Chloe's eyes never left the sky as her 'bot network calculated trajectories and plotted intercept points. Her hand never faltered as it blindly reached for the next arrow lined up on the table.
Over and over until twelve arrows were in the air at once, the first five having already struck their targets by the time the final one left the bow. In the end she had judged the number of oranges and arrows just right as the final arrow speared its target a mere two feet above the hard packed sand of the race course floor far below.
As the remainder of the arrows thudded into the ground, each with an orange halfway up its shaft, a roar of applause arose from the stands in the immediate area of the imperial box. And then the round of applause was taken up by the occupants of the imperial box as well. Quickly everyone gathered around making ohh's and ahh's of appreciation.
Lex quickly joined in with the congratulatory remarks, but he couldn't get out of his mind Chloe's comment to Clark about not throwing the orange out of the stadium and Clark's earlier admission to the big 'secret', which he still hadn't gotten around to divulging.
So it was Lex, rather than the emperor, who asked. "Ares, do you want to take your turn with the bow?"
As all eyes turned to him, Clark looked at Lex for a moment and then shrugged. "I suppose I could, but I have always preferred the spear to the bow. I mean the bow is good for fast, close-in work, but its range is strictly limited." Clark glanced around the box and then focused on one of the guards by the main entrance.
When he spoke next his voice was directed towards the guard and had assumed the powerful commanding tone Lex had first heard outside the Circus. "You, guard, bring me your spear."
The guard blanched at the attention and then started to walk over. The walk quickly broke into a trot as he saw the expression on Ares' face. When he arrived he went down on one knee before raising the spear to Ares.
Clark took the spear without another glance at the guard and then walked over and pulled another orange out of the bowl.
"If everyone would step further down along the railing to give me some room and then look towards the starting gates."
Lex watched as Clark took the orange in his left hand and swung his arm for what at first looked to be a light underhand toss. Then his arm seemed to blur forward and the orange screamed out down the length of the race track in the direction of the starting gate. Looking back towards Clark he saw him pause for a second and then taking two steps forward he hurled the spear like a javelin thrower at the Olympics. However the speed of the spear was way beyond any javelin Lex had seen in a college track meet or even during his visit to the Sydney Olympics the year before his arrival in Smallville.
The spear raced down the length of the track, its metallic head giving off flashes of light from the afternoon sun as it slowly spun on its course. Further and further until the spear looked like a toothpick and the orange would have been nearly invisible except for its bright color. Finally, a mere ten feet from the far end of the circus the spear caught up to the orange and punched through it, dead in the center. Then the spear itself impacted in the center of the farthest starting gate, penetrating through the heavy wood until the point of the spear stuck out three feet on the far side and the orange was pressed firmly up against the near side of the gate.
More applause erupted from the crowd, but Lex just stood there in shock. The Olympic javelin competition was held inside a football or soccer stadium and there was no concern about javelins being thrown into the crowded stands. Lex couldn't remember the World Record for the javelin, but it couldn't be much over two hundred fifty feet, tops. And that was with a modern javelin with its weight, materials, and length optimized for distance. The throw Clark had just made with a wooden spear topped by a heavy iron head had to be pushing one thousand feet, at least four times the world record. And it wasn't just the distance. The Olympians were focused on distance, but their tosses landed all over a fairly wide arc. Clark's toss had just intersected a small moving target at a thousand feet. How far could Clark have thrown that spear if he wasn't limited by the dimension of the Circus or the need for accuracy? Lex suddenly felt the need to sit down. Suspecting Clark's abilities based on the wreckage of the Porsche was one thing, but actually witnessing this feat was something else entirely.
Lex had at least been slightly prepared based on Clark's comment outside the Circus, but Clark's performance caught Lana totally off guard. She hadn't heard the rumors of the morning's events at the forum and wasn't expecting this sudden turn. Still, there was Clark's 92% correlation factor to weird events back in Smallville that she and Chloe had discussed on several occasions before this whole adventure began.
Chloe was the only one of the travelers prepared for Clark's actions since she was already in on his secrets. From the moment Clark had asked for the spear she had known he was about to reveal his secret to the others. She knew how tough this decision had been for Clark after keeping everything hidden for so many years, but inside she was glad the subterfuge would finally be over. Without the continual need to keep different stories for Lex & Lana and the rest of the ancient Romans they contacted consistent and with the freedom to fully exploit Clark and her abilities, the rest of this adventure should go faster and easier.
As both Lex and Lana stood thunderstruck by this latest revelation and Chloe waited patiently to see where Clark intended to take this next, Clark turned to the emperor and said. "Well, I, for one, feel I have seen enough chariot racing for today. I am ready for that feast you mentioned this morning."
The emperor, who was the only one present other than Ares and Aphrodite to have witnessed the morning's events, was quickest to recover from this latest exhibition. Taking Ares' arm he turned towards the exit from the imperial box. "Yes, yes, it is all being set up back at the palace. Perhaps along the way you could tell me a little about Olympus, I am so looking forward to visiting there one day."
End of Chapter 27