was an almost certain death. Only the gods had assured it hadn’t happened to me.
I stumbled out of the line of cells to the gate, the sword’s wooden hilt driving slivers into my hand. I still couldn’t release the thing.
The guard at the gate, a man I’d known for years, said good-bye to me as I walked out. The gate creaked closed behind me, the only noise in the silence.
Graffiti on the wall outside showed a crudely sketched figure with too-long legs and an optimistic phallus, my sword raised while I destroyed a retiarius. The letters beneath the figure spelled my name in crooked capitals.
The click of the gate held finality. Leonidas “The Spartan,” was no longer a gladiator, adored by crowds in the arena.
I was free, homeless, and alone in the Roman night.
I went to Lucia. She lived in a house with seven other ladies in the Subura, run by a lean woman called Floriana. They were used to me there, coming and going when I pleased, with Aemil’s blessing.
Lucia had a soft body, a wide smile, and eyes that could be kind. Her hair was dyed red, which made it brittle, but some customers liked a woman to resemble the barbarians of the north.
I was tired, drunk, and bewildered. I said nothing at all, only took Lucia to her cubicle and drove into her like a man drowning.
I woke alone, with my hand fast around the wooden sword. I hadn’t let it go, even when I’d coupled with Lucia on the low bed, using the thing as a brace on the floor.
Lucia was gone. Sunlight stabbed into my eyes from a crack in the wall—no windows for Lucia. My hand ached but I could not make myself open it and set the rudis aside.
“Leonidas.”
The voice belonged to Floriana, scratchy and thin, like the rest of her. Very black hair curled around her sharp face.
“Bring me breakfast,” I said. My head ached like fury, and I wasn’t happy to be alone. Lucia usually stayed with me until I was ready to leave.
“Do you have the coin for it?” Floriana demanded. “And for Lucia?”
I rolled over. I wore nothing, but Floriana, who had seen any number of males with all sorts of bodies, didn’t blink.
“Coin?” I asked muzzily.
Floriana folded her arms. “You’re a freedman. Means your masters don’t fund your meals and your women anymore. I need paying.”
She had a point, one I hadn’t given a thought to. Aemil had paid Floriana handsomely for me to march to Lucia whenever I wished. I always chose Lucia, she with her quick smile and skilled hands. I pretended to myself that she liked me, and I knew I liked her.
Now I’d have to pay Floriana and buy my own breakfast, but I hadn’t the least idea what it would cost or where I’d get the money.
I lay back down and put a hand over my eyes. The sun was merciless and my head throbbed. “I’ll find the coin.”
The smooth end of a stick poked me in the ribs. I growled and lunged for it, but Floriana danced away.
“Out, Leonidas. I need the bed.”
I sat up. Out where? I dimly remembered Regulus stealing my cell last night. Now Floriana was turning me out of this one.
So this was freedom. Nothing to eat, nowhere to sleep, and no money to buy even my basic needs.
Aemil had offered a solution to me. Remain at the ludus, train others to kill, fight a few exhibition matches to show off my prowess. That was what former gladiators did, Aemil among them. Perhaps one day I’d start my own ludus.
No more death.
I growled at Floriana. Any number of men, gladiators included, shrank from that growl, but not Floriana. She knew me too well.
Smothering a grunt of pain, I heaved myself from the bed. I towered over Floriana, filling the cell, but she never flinched.
“Man outside wants to speak to you,” she said as I reached for my tunic. “Wants to hire you, perhaps. If he does, first person you pay with what he gives you is me.”
I gave her a nod, finding this only fair. I couldn’t imagine who waited for me, and I didn’t much care. I wanted only to sleep and not wake for several days. I’d done that before, after horrific matches. When Xerxes had died, I’d not emerged for almost a month.
It was not easy to don my tunic while I still held the sword, but even now I could not make myself release