“Though most nights I only sleep.”
Many believed gladiators lived to enjoy sticking themselves into any woman or man available, but we spent the bulk of our time training or recovering from injuries.Carnal relief was an occasional indulgence, not a way of life, and most of us had our favorites for that.When I was younger I hadn’t been as discriminate, but as I matured, I kept to the woman I liked.Marcianus had explained to me about catching diseases from being too promiscuous, and I needed to be strong to stay alive in the arena.Also, Aemil would turn out a man too sick to fight.
I don’t know if Cassia understood but she bent her head over her tablet and ceased speaking.
I left the apartment after our supper and walked to Floriana’s to see how that lady fared.Young Marcia was there to care for her, but Lucia had gone out.
Floriana was better, Marcia told me, though weak.Marcia still didn’t understand how Floriana had eaten the rhubarb leaves, because no one had found any remains of them in the house.
I looked into Floriana’s cell to see her sleeping, and snoring, and departed.“Tell her I’ll pay her when I return from Ostia.”
Marcia only nodded and went back to Floriana.
Rome was shutting down for the night, the sun setting.Shops had closed long before, and even the baths were emptying now.At night all would grow pitch dark, and the wise were indoors by then.Shopkeepers would stay awake, awaiting deliveries, which were only allowed at night, and the rest of us would sleep until dawn.
I heard footsteps behind me as I made my way to what was now my home.I tensed as the footfalls matched mine and kept pace with me—this was not someone simply going the same way as I did in the dusk.
I turned a corner and halted, putting myself against a wall.My follower came around the same corner but stopped before he blundered through and sprang my trap.
He was a man, but that was all I could see in the deepening darkness.He wore a cloak, a fold of which was draped over his head, like a priest, but I doubted he was one.A priest had no reason to follow me so stealthily.
With a roar, I charged him.If he were a robber or assassin, I’d make him fight for his spoils.
The man spun to meet me, competent on his feet.I had no weapon, but I knew how to fight without one, my fists and kicks as powerful as any sword blow.
I swung my giant fist, but hit empty air.The man melted back into the shadows, avoiding my attack, and then he fled.I heard his boots click on the stones, the sound dissipating.
I shook out my hand, puzzled.Why follow me and then run?Maybe he’d thought he’d found an easy mark to rob and then realized I was a fighting man, not a weak target.He hadn’t expected me to attack.
I continued on my way down the now-empty street, my back itching as I strode along.
When I entered the apartment, I found the detritus from supper gone, the bowls, which I assumed were ours now, stacked neatly, my stool against the wall.Cassia sat at the table, stifling a yawn as I entered.
“You should sleep,” I told her.“You don’t have to wait up for me.”
I was bone tired, ready to fall on my pallet and not wake until I had to.Cassia rose and took my cloak, again shaking it out and hanging it from its peg.Then she returned to the table, opened her ever-present tablet, and made a note.
“What are you writing now?”I asked irritably.
“The time you came in.”
“Why?”I found all this writing baffling.What was the point?Was she making notes to show Hesiodos?And why?
Cassia shrugged.“It might be useful later.”
“Go to sleep.”I untied my sandals and stepped out of them, shuffling my way to the pallet in the alcove.
Cassia pattered behind me, retrieved the sandals, and placed them against the wall in a neat line.
I started to admonish her for tidying up after me, but then decided that would be senseless.I also had the feeling she tidied not because she believed it her job, but because a shoe out of place annoyed her.Cassia liked a sense of order I didn’t understand.
“I will wake you before the first hour,” she said as I collapsed onto the bed and settled on my back.“We are to meet the senator at the Porta Trigemina at sunrise.”
I rose on my elbows.“We?You cannot come with us.”
“I think I had better.The senator spoke of grave danger, which means there is a chance we won’t be paid.It is important we retrieve our fee as soon as possible and protect it until we settle our accounts.”
Cassia was the most puzzling woman I’d ever met.“I’m the best fighter in Rome—no one will take my payment from me.”
