She nodded and bowed her head to him. "Good luck, Subtribune. And thank you for the warning."
"Good luck, Mistress," he said, returning her bow. He nodded to the silent presence of Bors, then headed back to town at a steady if uncomfortable jog.
In the outbuildings before the town's walls, Tavi heard a movement to his right a fraction of an instant too late to allow him to evade. Something hit his side in midstride, and sent him to the ground on his face. Before he could rise, what felt like steel bars wrapped around one of Tavi's wrists and pinned the wrist high up on his back. The fury-assisted pressure was painful in its own right, and one of the banded plates of Tavi's armor ground against his ribs.
"All right, Scipio," hissed a voice. "Or whatever your name really is. Hand over my mother's purse."
"Crassus," Tavi growled. "Get off me."
"Give me her purse, you thief!" Crassus shouted back.
Tavi clenched his teeth against the pain. "You're making me late for an officers' meeting. We're mobilizing."
"Liar," Crassus said.
"Get off me, Sir Knight. That is an order."
Crassus's grip tightened. "You're a fool as well as a liar. You've merely annoyed her, and you think what she's done so far is bad? You haven't seen what she can do when she's angry."
"The crows I haven't," Tavi spat. "I've seen Max's back when he changes his tunic."
For whatever reason, the words hit Crassus hard, and Tavi felt him rock back from them, almost as if they'd been a physical blow. The pressure on his wrist eased just enough that Tavi had room to move-and he was in a position to make a real fight of it. The incredible strength offered by the use of an earth fury was enormous, but earthcrafters often forgot its limitations. It did not make its user any heavier; and one's feet had to be on the ground.
Tavi got a knee under his body and slithered out of Crassus's loosened grip. He seized the Knight's tunic at the throat, twisted with the weight of his whole body, and used arms and legs both to throw him up onto the wooden porch of a nearby shop. Crassus hit hard, but rolled back up onto his feet, his face dark with rage.
Tavi had followed Crassus onto the porch, and when Crassus lifted his head to glare at him, Tavi's kick was already halfway to the young man's head. His boot struck Crassus on the mouth, a stunning blow, and he reeled back.
Tavi slipped aside a clumsy counterblow with one hand and struck Crassus with closed fists, nose and mouth, followed by a hard push that slammed the back of Crassus's head against the shop's wall. The young man wobbled and fell. When he growled and started getting up, Tavi struck him again.
Crassus staggered up again.
Tavi sent him crashing to the wooden floor again with precise, heavy blows.
All in all, he had to beat Crassus back to the ground four times before the young Knight let out his breath in a groan, blood all over his face and nose, and lay on his back.
Tavi's hands hurt terribly. He hadn't been wearing his heavy fighting gloves, and he'd ripped several knuckles open on Crassus's head. Though he supposed he shouldn't have been surprised that it was at least as thick as Max's.
"We through?" Tavi panted.
"Thief," Crassus said. Or so Tavi supposed. The word came out mushy and barely understandable. Which was the expected result if one's lips were split and swollen, one's nose broken, and when several teeth may have gone missing.
"Maybe. But I'd die before I lifted a hand against my own blood."
Crassus looked up and glared, but Tavi saw a flicker of shame in the young man's eyes.
"I take it this is about the red stone?" Tavi asked.
"Don't know what you're talking about," Crassus said sullenly.
"Then I don't know anything about a purse," Tavi said, frowning at the beaten young man. Tavi didn't have the advantages of a skilled watercrafter, but he was as good as anyone without that advantage could be, when it came to reading people. Crassus wasn't lying to Tavi about the stone. He was sure of it.
"You'll get what you want now," Crassus said quietly. "You'll report me to the captain, won't you. Have me cast from the Legion. Sent home in shame."
Tavi regarded Crassus for a moment. Then he said, "You don't get dishonorably discharged for falling down a flight of stairs."
Crassus blinked at him. "What?"
"Sir Knight, just what the crows do you think those drums are for? Lulling the fish to sleep? We're mobilizing, and I'm not going to do anything that robs the Legion of a capable Knight and our Tribune Medica." Tavi extended his hand. "As far as I'm concerned, you fell down some stairs, and that's the end of it. Come on."
The young man stared at Tavi's hand for a moment, blinking in confusion, but then hesitantly reached out and let Tavi help him to his feet. He looked frightful, and while Tavi knew the injuries were painful, they weren't serious.
"I take it your mother sent you to speak to me?" Tavi asked him.
"No," Crassus said.
Tavi arched a skeptical eyebrow.
Crassus eyes flashed with anger. "I'm not her valet. Or her dog."
"If she didn't tell you to do it, why are you here? "
"She's my mother," Crassus said, and spat blood from his mouth. "Trying to look out for her."
Tavi felt his eyes widen, as he suddenly realized the young man's motivation. "You didn't do it to protect her," he said quietly. "You were trying to protect me."
Crassus froze for a second, staring at Tavi, then looked away.
"That's why you didn't draw a sword on me," Tavi said quietly. "You never intended for me to be hurt."
Crassus wiped at his mouth with a corner of his sleeve. "She's... got a temper. She's reached the end of it. She left earlier tonight. I thought to find you and return the purse to her. Tell her I found it on the ground." He shook his head. "I didn't want her to do anything rash. Sometimes her anger gets the better of her."
"Like with Max," Tavi said.
Crassus grimaced. "Yes." He looked back toward the camp. "Maximus... some of those scars he took for me. Confessed to things I had done, trying to protect me." He glanced at Tavi. "I don't like you, Scipio. But Max does. And I owe him. That's why I came here. I wanted to reconcile us somehow. I thought if we could..." He shrugged. "Spend some time together, and not back at Antil-lus. Mother told me she was going to offer him an apology for how she has treated him."
Tavi felt a surge of anger for Max's stepmother. She'd offered him something, all right. She'd tried to kill him again. But Tavi had a strong suspicion that Crassus's opinion of her was anything but objective. He felt sure that the young knight would never allow himself to believe that his mother had Max's murder in mind.