“He’s a better fighter than I am.” I could state this without rancor because it was true. “Tell me who the woman was—someone very wealthy is luring gladiators to their deaths.”
“Well, it couldn’t have been the woman I visited, because here I am. I ate, drank, and took her in every position I knew and some I didn’t. She’s highly educated.”
“I won’t betray her, if that’s your worry.”
“Betray her.” Regulus laughed up at the scarred ceiling. “I’m not worried aboutherreputation. She’s a widow enjoying herself and doesn’t care who knows it. I’m worried about Herakles breaking all my bones. She’s his special benefactress. At least, he thinks so.”
“Domitiana Sabinus?” I asked quickly. I heard Cassia move behind me, but she remained silent. “Herakles won’t learn this from me.”
“Such a loyal friend, is Leonidas. Will do anything for his comrade, except kill him when begged to, or help him out of a locked cell.”
I regarded him stubbornly. “Both times to save your life.”
“So you say. Yes, Domitiana. If Aemil is locking us all in the ludus now, she’ll be more than willing to welcomeyou. She likes gladiators. Can’t get enough of them.”
“Did she put anything into your wine?” I asked, ignoring this suggestion. “Did you feel groggy or lethargic?”
“Only after I used my rod for the seventh time. The woman has stamina. But no, she did not have to get me drunk or lace my sweetmeats with a soothing concoction.”
“We believe this is how Rufus and Ajax were felled.” I held Regulus’s dark gaze. “Given food and drink tainted to make them drowsy, before they were coshed from behind. I only hope they were dead before they were butchered.”
I assumed they had been because even a half-conscious gladiator had the instinct to fight. Marcianus said Ajax showed no signs of grappling with anyone, and I wagered Rufus didn’t either. But I wanted Regulus to worry a little more than he was.
Regulus’s eyes widened slightly, but his words dripped with scorn, “You’re not good at terrifying men, Leonidas.”
I stepped to the bars, hardening my heart, and sent him the stare that made other gladiators falter when they faced me in the arena.
“I am very, very good at it.” My voice was quiet. “Stay in the ludus and live. The gods obviously want you to.”
“Either that, or they’ve cursed me withyou.”
I moved my attention to the remaining two stick figures on the ceiling, etched too deeply to gouge out. “Why did you erase Xerxes’ drawings?”
Regulus glanced at them then away. “I didn’t. Aemil did.”
That surprised me, but I forced myself not to react. I simply unwound my hands from the bars and stalked away from him.
Cassia scurried a few paces ahead of me, and we emerged into the open air of the practice field. Aemil was bellowing orders at the fighters in training, chivying them with shouts and threats. The gladiators obeyed him without argument, hacking at posts in the spattering rain.
Aemil broke from them and met Cassia and me at the gate. “They’re all accounted for now. Regulus was the last. I’ll keep them locked in, and there won’t be any more deaths.” He held me in place with his mismatched eyes. “Youlock yourself in when you go home. I don’t want anyone stumbling overyourdead body.”
I had no intention of letting them. “Regulus claims you scratched out Xerxes’ pictures.”
Aemil’s gaze flickered at my abrupt statement. “I did. Before you strike me, I did it because they were the last things Xerxes drew—the last prank he pulled. Regulus doesn’t deserve to look at them.”
I said nothing. Aemil kept his emotions close, except for rage at disobedient gladiators, and I hadn’t realized until this instant that he’d felt a fondness for Xerxes, and was sorry to have lost him.
Fondness was a lethal thing in our business. Death destroyed every friendship, every love. Gladiators strolled with death every day, and we’d be gutted by constant despair if we let ourselves care.
I sent Aemil the minutest of nods before I closed my hand around Cassia’s shoulder and steered her out of the gate ahead of me.
* * *
We didn’t speakmuch until we reached our apartment. Cassia shed her cloak and I went out to sit on the edge of the balcony in an attempt to pull my thoughts together. The rain had ceased as we’d walked, the clouds rolling away to let sunlight through. The balcony was dry, shielded from the rain by our wall, and now warm from the sun.
Cassia’s soft footfalls sounded, and soon, she sank down next to me, both of us dangling our feet over the edge of the flat roof.
I assumed Cassia would begin discussing all we’d discovered this afternoon at the warehouse and the armorers, but she studied me a moment before asking quietly, “Do you intend to work for Gnaeus Gallus?”
