Cassia’s urgency was acute.I’d be happy to sleep the day and night away—I could not run up expenses if I ate and drank nothing.
I complied because I was curious about who she expected me to work for and what I’d be doing.
I led Cassia to a nearby barber’s shop and ducked into the tiny interior.Cassia informed me she had further errands, and I watched her go in her uncertain gait, her head bent as she tried to avoid others in her path.
“Leonidas!”The greeting surged at me from the barber, Paulinus, whose voice filled the small room.Several men who occupied a bench outside, awaiting their turn under the razor, also hailed me.The man on a stool being scraped by the barber sent me a grin.
I returned the greetings and took my place on the end of the bench.Because the entire shop’s front opened to the street, the bench flowed halfway inside.
“Freedman,” Paulinus went on in his ear-splitting voice.He reveled in gossip, and repeated it as loudly and as often as he could.“Why are you inmyshop?You could have your ownludusnow.”
I shrugged, remaining mute.
“You’ll have to go back to the games,” Paulinus went on.“Life won’t be the same for me if I can’t look forward to watching you.”He winked.“And winning plenty of money on you.”
The other customers laughed their appreciation.They knew me as a regular but were avid followers for my career.“You could teachushow to fight,” one of the men on the bench suggested.“Charge a sestertius a round to learn what you know.”
I flexed my hand, the one still sore from clutching the woodenrudis.A few splinters remained in my palm.
I didn’t want to speak of it, and in fact, would rather walk away than try to explain I didn’t want to train others to kill.I wanted nothing to do with any of it.
But if I jumped up and left, I’d have to explain to Cassia why I hadn’t stayed for the shave.I knew she wouldn’t understand why I’d jeopardized the chance to make money to pay for what she’d already purchased.
I realized that I’d have to pay Paulinus today.He’d always sent the bill to Aemil.
Paulinus finished with the man on the chair, who rose, cupping his red cheek with one hand.Paulinus wasn’t the most gifted barber, but he was quick and cheap.
He invited me to the stool, ahead of the others.The men on the bench waved me on, not minding I cut them out.They never did.
Paulinus sharpened his half-moon shaped razor against his stone while I seated myself on the small stool.He lifted a dipper from a bucket of water, poured the water over the blade and then into his palm, and smoothed the water onto my face.
Then he began.The process was never pleasant, but my skin was tough.The blade scraped off the day and a half growth of beard, nicking and cutting as it went.
“Now it’s Regulus,” Paulinus observed.“Asprimus palus, I mean.He’s good, but not in your style.Think he’ll be defeated?He only ever fell under you.”
I remembered the hatred in Regulus’s eyes when I’d raised him from the sand, refusing to slay him.He’d wanted to die, and I’d denied him.Hadn’t I been obliged to end his life, as a friend?Did my wishes outweigh his?
I’d never had to ponder such things before, and it made my head ache.
“Regulus is a prime fighter,” I said, hiding my troubling thoughts.“He will be a good—”
I broke off as Cassia passed the door of the shop.She carried several bundles, and as I watched, a man on the street tried to relieve her of them.
Cassia jerked away, turning on him with the imperiousness of an upper-class slave.The man simply snarled at her and lifted her from her feet.
I was off the stool and out the door, Paulinus giving a startled cry as he snatched the razor from my throat at the last second.I stormed into the street, an animal-like noise leaving my throat, and wrapped a giant hand around the assailant’s neck.Cassia, released, skidded on muddy stones and dropped her bundles.
I shook the assailant, a Roman freedman with greasy dark hair and a prominent goiter.He’d gone wide-eyed and limp, like a rabbit caught in a wolf’s mouth.He wheezed, trying to breathe.
“You should let him go, Leonidas.”Cassia’s clear but quiet voice cut to me through the buzz in my head.
Passers-by had halted, and Paulinus and his customers crowded the doorway of his shop.The street filled, and it was only a matter of time before a cohort or concerned citizen tried to drag us off to a magistrate.
I gave the man a final shake and flung him at the wall across the road.He crashed into it, pushed himself up, and ran.Most in the crowd laughed, men waving fists in appreciation.
Cassia struggled to pick up her packages.I gathered them for her and guided her with a firm hand into Paulinus’s shop.He and his customers scuttled back as I sat her on a spare stool.
“This is Cassia,” I told them.“She will wait for me.”
