Blood of a Gladiator - Ashley Gardner Page 0,67

crowds of the imperial fora. We passed a crossroads shrine and took the Vicus Salutis, which returned us to the Vicus Longinus and our tiny street off it.

When we reached our apartment, I sat glumly down to the soup, lukewarm now, and the leftover bread from breakfast. I could not see that we’d made any headway in our tedious search.

“I suppose we at least learned that Marcia knows something,” I said after a time. “And that Marcianus won’t let us shake it out of her.”

“He will tell us if it’s important, as I said.” Cassia ate serenely, spilling not a drop.

“You believe in him.”

“So do you,” she countered.

I could not argue. Marcianus had kept me alive when I’d been a raw recruit, full of bravado and energy but lacking in skill. I studied a scar on my upper arm, where a sword had sliced it to the bone. I still had the arm, with only the scar cutting across it to attest to the injury, because of Marcianus.

“I trust him, yes.”

But I wished I knew exactly what had happened to Floriana instead of having to rely on trust. I’d trained hard as a fighter so that I could compensate for the uncertainty of the arena. It was better to be over-prepared and never use half the moves I knew than not prepared enough—which could spell certain death. Knowing was better than guessing.

A thought struck me. I dropped my spoon into my bowl, sending dregs of soup fountaining to the table. Ignoring Cassia’s look of dismay, I jumped to my feet.

“I know where she is.”

Before Cassia could form the word, Where? I was out the door, my passage fluttering the cloaks on their pegs.

Chapter 19

We’d been so close. I cursed under my breath as I tramped back the entire way we’d come after leaving the gardens.

The Saepta Julia loomed, glittering under the afternoon sky, its colonnades dwarfing the line of shops where Cassia had hounded landlords and their servants.

Beyond that and Agrippa’s baths, I passed the stables that held the chariot racing teams, and crossed the bridge to the far side of the Tiber. From there I charged to the wall and the gate that closed off Aemil’s ludus.

I hammered on the gate. The guard opened it, but when he recognized me, he tried to block my way with the gate and his body.

I shoved both aside and stormed into the ludus.

The open training area within was lined with wooden posts on which gladiators practiced stabbing and hacking. The practice swords were wooden—the real weapons were safely locked away until the games.

Men who were stripped to loincloths, their skin ruddy from the wind even as they sweated, battered at the posts. When I barreled inside, they ceased, straightening up and wiping brows to watch this new drama.

Aemil, who’d been scrutinizing a clumsy recruit, jerked upright and started for me. I outpaced him as I made for the sleeping quarters and strode unerringly to my old cell. I yanked open the cell door even as Aemil caught up to me.

Lucia rose from the bunk inside, her bright red hair tumbling down her back, her eyes wide with fear. Regulus was nowhere in sight.

“Leonidas—”

The word was cut off by a roar behind me, and then Regulus had me by the neck. He dragged me backward out of the cell and into the practice area, and I let him, wanting to face him out of close quarters. Winter wind struck us as we emerged, Regulus’s hands hot on my skin.

I was glad I’d rushed out without grabbing a cloak. Regulus would have strangled me with it by now. I slammed an elbow at his windpipe, and spun from him when he jumped from the blow.

“She’s mine now.” Regulus glared at me, breathing hard. “Get out, Leonidas.”

“Lucia is a freedwoman. She can go wherever she wants.”

Regulus’s answer was to come at me again. I caught him by the arms, mine straining to hold him off.

Aemil sprang into us and jerked us apart.

Aemil was smaller than either of us, but he’d been training gladiators for many years, and knew exactly how to control them. Not that Regulus calmed. He snarled, baring his teeth like an animal.

“Praxus!” Aemil shouted at one of the gladiators who had gathered to watch the spectacle. “Bring two swords.” He had us in his grip, which was as strong as I remembered from my green youth. “You two are settling this, now.”

Regulus transferred his glare to Aemil. “I want to kill him,