I pushed past the sailors, drawing my sword, and moved to intercept the running man.
“No.”A touch on my arm pulled me to a halt.Cassia had appeared next to me, and she held my sword arm with her light fingers, her eyes wide.“No, do not kill him.”
Chapter 8
The young man tore at us.His eyes were wide, his tunic soiled and tattered.Cassia tried to drag me out of his way, but she could no more move me than she could the construction blocks on the other end of the harbor.
Priscus drew his weapon as the sailors surrounded us.I shoved Cassia toward an empty building and safety, and turned to defend Priscus.
Priscus moved to the donkey and now used his sword to slice through the harness, letting the caskets of gold aurei drop to the ground.He then pushed past me, competently elbowing me in the ribs as I grabbed for him, and he slipped from my grasp.
The sailors surrounded the crazed young man, trying to reach him and disarm him.Priscus shoved his way through, oblivious to danger.
The assailant stilled in confusion when he saw Priscus, then he flung aside his knife and burst into tears.A rope, frayed, dangled from the young man’s slim wrist.
Priscus caught the young man and crushed him in a desperate embrace, kissing his hair, his face, tears raining down his cheeks.
“Son,” Priscus said hoarsely.“My dearest son.”
I stopped in amazement, the events of the past days clicking into place.This was no purchase of expensive goods by a careful patrician—this was a ransom.The precious cargo was Priscus’s son, now weeping in his father’s arms.Priscus’s speech that money meant nothing if one was alone became even more clear now.
I stepped back, my heart pounding, awareness heightening.This wasn’t over.It all still could go wrong, Priscus and his son in no way safe.
The men who’d run out behind Priscus’s son were more of his captors.They now joined the sailors who’d led us here.
I backed up to Priscus and the young man, who were locked in happy reunion, and pointed my sword at the thick gut of the lead man.
Cassia peered fearfully from the shadow of the doorway I’d pushed her through.None of the sailors noticed her, but they could at any time.
“He’s paid you,” I told the lead man.“We leave.Now.”
Hard faces regarded me, a dozen men honed by their profession, none concerned about fighting an enraged gladiator.There was only one of me, after all.
I would teach them to be afraid.
Fighting in the legions, I’d been told, was brutal but precise, each man doing an exact job so that the group fought as one.Melded into a machine that could mow down an enemy army, no matter how powerful that enemy might be.Thus, Rome conquered the world.
Gladiatorial fighting was entirely different.We fought alone, and we fought to win, with no mercy.We threw precision to the wind if we saw another way to be victorious.This was why freed gladiators made poor soldiers.We embraced the unexpected to survive.
I demonstrated this by kicking the lead man swiftly in the chin with my heel, at the same time spinning to plunge my sword into the man on my right.
The lead man stumbled back, grunting in pain.The second man yelped and dodged, taking a graze against his abdomen.The others rushed me.
I heard Cassia shout, and then the sailors ducked and cursed as rocks pelted them, hurled by Cassia.
Priscus lifted his head from his son.Rage flared in his eyes, the determined anger that had once terrified armies in far-flung lands.
He gently pushed his son toward the street end of the dock.The donkey, free of his burden, was already trotting that way.
“Kill them all, Leonidas,” Priscus said, his voice hard as he raised his sword.“Leave their bodies to warn others of what happens when they lay hands on my family.”
I couldn’t possibly kill them all myself.I’d fend them off and make them pay dearly, but if the sailors surrounded and tackled me together, they could stab me and shove my body into the murky water.
But the command made them pause, and gave me an opening.
I struck, kicked, stabbed, and whirled, my training making me come alive like a mindless killing beast.
I heard again the roar of the crowds, felt the chanting pulse of my name, the hot sand under my feet.Win, stay alive, and give them a show.The blood of a gladiator was said to heal, but while it beat inside my body, it gave me strength.
