“Are you trying to bribe me into telling you where the fights are taking place?”Barthus asks.
“That's such a direct way of putting it,” I reply.“My mistress merely wishes to spectate, and would like to purchase access to the fights suitable for someone of her station.”
Barthus laughs.“So, your employer sent you to me to place a bet on a fight that doesn't exist just to get information about how to get into the fights?It occurs to me that if she doesn't know where they are or when, she probably doesn't need to know.Mybackers have been very determined about that.”
He's being stubborn about this.I try to think of anything else that will persuade him.
“I think your backers would be interested in my mistress attending,” I say.I lean closer to him, conspiratorially.“I'm not meant to say this part, but from what I understand, she's looking to invest in the matches.She wants to see what she's buying into before she makes any offers.”
“My employers have plenty of money already,” Barthus says.His employers, which means that this gambling operation and presumably others around the city are connected more strongly to the death bouts than I initially assumed.I came here thinking that this bookmaker would simply know where they were.Now, it seems he's part of a broader network.
The way he's talking about it suggests that he has noble backing.The gangs don't have enough money or control for this kind of thing, not within the main city.If the fights were all happening out in the slums, it might be a different matter but here?No, it doesn't make sense.
“Enough that they can turn down the opportunity of more?”I say.“How do you think they'll react when they find out that you turned me away?”
Barthus looks thoughtful.He's also looking at me strangely as if he can't quite place me.Perhaps my disguise isn't working as well as I'd like.
“Go and enjoy the rest of the gaming here,” he says.“I need to think about this.”
I could argue, but arguing it doesn't fit with the character I’m portraying.Instead, I nod and step back into the crowd, watching Barthus as he sits there pondering.He whispers something to a servant who runs off, presumably to check with his employers.Desperately, I stretch out my powers, trying to look through the eyes of any animals close by to follow the young man.
But I can't find anything close enough, and by the time I reach out for one of the birds above, it's impossible to pick him out from the crowd outside the gambling establishment.I stand and wait, pretending to watch the wrestling while making sure I still have a clear view of the spot where Barthus is waiting.
He glances my way occasionally, looking at me with suspicion.I feel certain there's some part of him that's recognized me.He whispers something to the guards beside him, and there is at least a rat close enough to him that I can hear through its ears.
“…not happy about all this.Someone coming out of the blue like this?I don't trust it.I don't trusther.Who is this mistress she claims to have?I think it's better if we ask her a few more questions pointedly, and if we don't like the answers, maybe she can disappear.”
I realize that not only am I not going to get answers here, I'm in danger.I don't want to have to fight my way out of here, so as the guards make their way towards me, I slip into the crowd, keeping moving.I push one man from behind, spilling his drink and keeping moving as he rounds on the man behind him.The sounds of the argument start to cover my escape and block the route of the guards.
I make my way outside quickly.I'm convinced Barthus doesn't know exactly who I am, but he's suspicious nonetheless.It's clear I'm not going to get the information I want here so I hurry away from the gambling establishment, keeping the hood of my cloak up and trying to lose myself in the streets of the city.
I curse myself for not learning more, but at least I have confirmation of what Thalia told me: that there truly are death matches taking place in the city.I still need to find them, though, and I need to work out exactly what they have to do with the disappearance of three gladiators so far.
If I don't find answers, I have the feeling that there's worse dangers waiting.This is clearly part of something bigger, and I need to find out what before it affects the whole city.
CHAPTER FIVE
“Take over the watch, Devin.I need to go see if Crassus has the money he owes me.”
I look to Bern, my fellow gate guard, in a certain amount of disbelief.He's a big man, the uniform of the guards barely fitting him.He was a soldier under the emperor, so presumably once he wore the purple and gold of the imperial guard.Now the colors are white and gold, for the Republic.They make him look too flushed and ruddy.
“You're planning to abandon your post?”I say, with a certain amount of disbelief.
“Crassus lost fair and square on that last pit fight.I told him the bigger man would always win, and he didn't believe me.He still hasn't paid me what he owes me, so I need to go collect.”
“Now?In the middle of our watch?”I say.
Bern shrugs as the morning sun spreads over the city.“What?You think we're going to be invaded in the five minutes it will take me to find him?He's in the watchtower, and the longer I leave this, the more he'll deny ever having owed me.You know what he's like.”
Idoknow what our fellow guard is like, just as I know what Bern is like.He won't let this go.He’ll keep badgering me about it until I finally give in.He's spent so long in the guard that he knows all the tricks to make his life easier.He knows how to waste time when no one’s around and how to look busy when anyone important is watching.He knows which merchants will pay small bribes to be let through without their cargoes being examined.He knows how to shift the work onto someone else.
I should complain about him, but he also knows all the ways to make someone else's life difficult, and I don't want that trouble.So, it's easy to go along with things and let him do the job the way he wants.Bern’s right, it's not as though someone's going to invade.
I'm not sure what prompted me to become a guard in Aetheria in the wake of the revolution.Some of it was just that I was a young man right around the time the city changed, and I needed a job.Part of it was that I was swept up in the waves of fighting for the city, and after that excitement, it seemed natural not to want to go back to work in my father's slaughterhouse.Part of it was that I liked the idea of protecting Aetheria.Even during my training, a part of me imagined what it would be like to stand and fight against enemies trying to break into the city, what it would be like to take down dangerous gangs and catch thieves.
Of course, most of my time now is spent standing around.My armor doesn't even fit properly.I'm too tall for it, too gangly, and my mop of dark hair barely fits under the helmet that I've been given.
“Go on then,” I say.“I'll keep an eye on things until you get back.”
