She shifted restlessly, but calmed when she recognized the slightly uneven stride of the man who held her: Ferox.
“Put me down,” she croaked.
“In a bit.”
He carried her into the back space of the arena and set her carefully on the ground, arranging her so her back was propped up against a wooden beam, feet stretched before her.
“Thanks,” she muttered. The noise of multiple people talking in the enclosed area made her head throb. She groaned and pressed clumsy hands to her ears.
“Quiet,” Ferox barked over his shoulder, and the noise reduced by at least half.
Lea tried to send him a grateful smile, but feared it looked more like a grimace. The side of her face was damp, and she rubbed a hand across it. Her fingers came away smeared with blood. She stared at it for a moment.
Then, the physician—the regular one from the ludus, not Kallias—was at her side, poking and prodding at her head. She shied away from him, but he grabbed the uninjured side of her head to hold her in place.
“Ouch,” she complained as he dabbed a cloth over the wound.
“Is she all right?” Velia’s voice, quiet but concerned.
The physician poked and prodded some more. “The skull does not appear to be broken,” he decreed with satisfaction. “She’ll feel like utter shit for a few days, though.”
Lea closed her eyes as the physician bandaged her up. Kallias would have done something special, adding some foul-smelling herbal concoction that somehow made everything heal faster. And his hands would have been much gentler.
“You didn’t see Kallias anywhere, did you?” she asked Ferox and Velia after the physician left.
Velia shook her head. “No.”
“He was supposed to visit me last night. And then today, he’s nowhere to be seen…” Lea swallowed hard against the tide of worry that still plagued her. “I’m afraid something’s wrong.”
Ferox frowned. “Is that what happened out there? You were so worried about that physician that you allowed yourself to nearly get killed?”
His incredulous tone made prickles of shame rise over her skin. That was exactly what had happened. She should have known better than to allow herself to get so close, to feel so much, to want so hard. It had led her here—to a bleeding skull, apounding head.
A defeat.
“If I ever see him again, I’m going to strangle him,” she muttered. It was easier to be angry rather than let herself be consumed by fear and worry over what might have happened to him.
“Let me know if you need a helping hand,” Ferox said blithely, which made her laugh.
But laughing only hurt her head more, so she stopped. Another question occurred to her. “Did the emperor really spare me?” Obviously he had, given that she was alive at this very moment, but she might have expected that he wouldn’t have been able to resist ordering her death, given their past contention. But maybe he really had forgiven her.
“He took longer to think about it than I liked,” Ferox admitted. “But you were still unconscious, and there’s little thrill in watching someone like that be killed. Besides, the crowd was calling for mercy.” His tone was casual, but Lea knew him well enough to hear the intensity humming beneath his words.
A hefty dose of guilt added itself to the shame she felt over her conduct in the arena. It was one thing to be out there, fighting and struggling. It was entirely another to watch from the side as someone you cared about came within spitting distance of death. It wouldn’t have been easy for him to watch her lose, not after Hector’s death.
But that was the life she led—a life where her very existence rested on the whim of one erratic emperor.
Not forever,she promised herself. She’d find some way out of this, whatever it took. She only hoped Kallias would be by her side when she did.
29
Asduskfell,Kalliaslit the lamps in his office. There was a small blessing in being prevented from attending the games, though he would have given anything to see Lea. But with the emperor away all day, he’d had plenty of time to tend to others in the palace. He’d dealt with a recurring itchy rash, a case of stomach flu, an infected tooth, and several other ailments.
The work helped distract him from his worry about Lea. But now, as the day waned, his self-reproach crept back. He had to figure out some way to see her.
Kallias debated scaling the walls, as she’d done once to see him. He was taller than her, even if he lacked the strength of a gladiator. Surely it couldn’t bethatdifficult.
But if he were caught…The prospect made icy fear run down his spine.
