Season of the Gladiatrix

by David Adkins

  “That is vague,” I offered. “Concerning what?”

  “Some of the men,” he said.

  “The men,” I exclaimed.

  “Yes. There are a few who are keeping quiet about something and it makes me nervous.”

  “Who are they?” I asked.

  “Vincinius, Cetius, Casperius, and Lucan to name but a few,” he answered.

  “Have you asked them?”

  “I have and they just clam up.”

  I pondered over his words. “It is probably nothing. Perhaps an argument over a lady from the tavern across the road,” I suggested.

  “Perhaps. Trouble often stems from the whores across the road.”

  “Have you mentioned it to Paulinus or Macro?” I asked.

  “No, what would I say?” he said, and walked away shaking his head.

  Another day was passing and I was getting ever more desperate to see Corelia. I slept badly that night for I knew that there was only one more night before the great contest in the Colosseo. Then just when I started to believe that her summons would never arrive I was told there was a woman asking for me at the gate. I quickly rushed to the gate wondering if it might be Aria but it was not. I did not recognize the woman waiting for me.

  “I am from the gladiatorial school,” she said. “Corelia has sent me.” She lowered her voice. “Corelia says that you are to come to the school tonight after dusk when it becomes dark. She will meet you at the gate. She said it was time for your reward.”

  Before I could answer the woman hurried off leaving me consumed with excitement but shaking with fear. It was all too much for me. I was meeting Corelia tonight. I was watching her fight Amina tomorrow and then to round matters off I was going to help to assassinate Marcus Gracchus. However, what made me most frightened was Corelia fighting Amina in the arena. If Corelia was killed then what would I do? My life also would be at an end.

  Chapter 24

  I waited impatiently for dusk and then made my way in the fading light to the gate. I told the two guards on duty that I was going out for the evening and, being their senior guardsman, they did not question my intention and they probably believed the taverna across the road was my destination. Once clear of the palace I made my way rapidly down the dimly lit cobbled streets towards the gladiatorial school. I could feel the pent-up tension in my body as I neared the school and my long anticipated meeting with Corelia, but it was difficult to keep the contest of the following day out of my mind. When I arrived I peered inside through the gate but there was no sign of Corelia. It was not yet completely dark so it seemed I would have to wait for a while for the wonderful gladiatrix to appear. I did not have to wait too long.

  “Hylas, is that you out there?” I heard her inviting voice.

  “Yes, it is me,” I replied.

  The gate opened and I slipped inside. “I could not make out if it was you in the darkness,” she explained. “Follow me quickly.”

  We hurried across the courtyard towards one of the buildings on the far side. She looked all around her and then opened a door and ushered me inside. She had another look up and down the courtyard and then followed me inside and closed the door behind me. “My father would not be pleased if he knew I was entertaining the night before the big contest,” she smiled.

  “Should you be? Perhaps you should be reserving your strength.” My words caused me some embarrassment.

  She laughed. “You cannot stay all night. After you leave I will try to get some sleep and I expect you need to get back to the palace well before daybreak.”

  “I do. I have to leave with the guard for the Colosseo early in the morning.”

  “I have arranged for you to sit with Aria in my father’s reserved seating. Are you able to do that?”

  I realized that with all the turmoil in my mind I had forgotten to send Aria a message confirming that I would join her. “Yes, Paulinus has given me permission to sit with Aria though I will also be on duty if he needs me.”

  “Good, I will tell her, she will be pleased.”

  “Do you still love Solanus? Do you know where he is?” I blurted out. I didn’t know where those questions came from.

  “I will probably always love Solanus, but it is not relevant. I do not know where he is and he doesn’t love me and that is an end of it. He has no doubt returned to his beloved Kotys. Why do you ask?”

  I think I detected bitterness in her tone. “You went to see him with Glyca. You persuaded him not to give evidence against Gracchus.”

  “I took Glyca to see him and she persuaded him. I was protecting my father. If Gracchus falls my father falls with him. I am not on the side of Gracchus if that is what you are going to ask next. I am on my own side and I am on your side too. Do we have to talk about this, Hylas?”

  I looked at her and she was so beautiful. I regretted questioning her. “I am sorry Corelia. There has been so much on my mind, particularly the contest tomorrow.”

  “It is your job for a few hours, Hylas, to take my mind off the contest and everything else. That is why you have come here isn’t it?”

  “I have loved you ever since I first saw you in the palace gardens. You were so beautiful that day as you strode towards the palace, your blonde hair blowing in the breeze. I was lost in your beauty. A man enchanted and bewitched.”

  “I knew you were watching me. Many times I saw you watching me before I spoke to you. When I spoke to you, Hylas, I knew you were mine.”

  “I am. Do you love me, Corelia?” My voice was almost pleading.

  “Sit on the bed and I will answer your question,” she said. She looked at me with tender, understanding eyes, and then as I watched transfixed she let her clothes tumble to the floor. She stood there before me naked, the most beautiful vision I had ever witnessed. Her beauty in this wonderful reality was even greater than the many past visions conjured up by my adoring mind. I could hear my heart beating with the knowledge that she was truly to be mine. I threw my clothes aside as she stood watching me like a goddess from Mount Olympus. Then she joined me on the bed. “Are you ready to claim your reward, Hylas?”

  “I am, Corelia,” I gasped. “I am more than ready.”

  *

  Her beauty was unmatched and I tried to tell her so but my words were stumbling and my speech hardly eloquent. She put her finger over my mouth and then lay down on the bed. I closed my lips on hers, drinking in the very essence of her. My heart burned with desire and with my lips and tender hands I explored her body from her toes to her mouth. The voyage of exploration had been the stuff of dreams and now those dreams were at last being fulfilled. She kissed me back with passion and drove me towards the giddy heights of ecstasy. Forgotten for a brief moment were the contest and the assassination attempt, for all there was in this world was Corelia and the world was so much richer for it. This night she was offering her body and soul to me in a few magical hours that erased the world around us. She was moist and ready as I penetrated her. “You are so beautiful,” I groaned.

  She pulled my face towards her breasts and I fondled them as I entered deep inside her. The bliss of that moment, the motion that followed and the release were overpowering – as if I had just been given permission to enter paradise. She, too, gave a scream of pure pleasure and I lay there, panting, my face buried in her inviting breasts. “Hold me, Hylas. Hold me as if you will never let me go,” she pleaded.

  I enveloped her in my arms and held her tight. I did not intend to ever let her go for if I continued to hold her then I thought tomorrow might never come. As I held her the only sound that I could hear was the high pitched mating song of the cicala coming from outside in the courtyard. It was a kind of fitting background to our lovemaking. “Do you hear it?” I asked.

  “They have an even shorter life than a gladiatrix,” she replied. “They mate and soon they die.”

  “Do not say that, Corelia. Let us leave here tonight and ride out of Italy to a new life.”

  “I cannot do that, Hylas, as much a
s it appeals. I have my pride and I have my destiny.”

  I nodded; I knew that her mind was made up. We continued to lie on the bed in each other’s arms. We kissed, we stared at the ceiling, we listened to the cicalas and we kissed again. Time passed and I could not hold back the torrent of words. “I love you so much Corelia and my life will be over too if you are defeated. I cannot bear to think of losing you.”

  “It is perhaps the last night I will hear the cicalas sing and the last night I will be able to gaze upon the moon, but it was wonderful to pass what could be my last night with a man who truly loves me.”

  “Please do not talk as if you might lose,” I begged.

  She looked at me sternly as only Corelia could. “If I were killed then your life would not end too. You must promise me that.”

  “How can I?” I groaned. She had always been stronger than me.

  “Your life would just begin. I have something to demand of you, Hylas.”

  “I will do anything you wish.”

  “I have always known, since we first spoke, that it felt as if you belonged to me and, knowing that, I took advantage of you. I gave you orders and you obeyed them. I have one more order for you and you must promise to obey and then, sadly, it will be time for you to leave.”

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “How do you feel about Aria?”

  “Aria is my greatest friend. We went through a lot together in Asia. In fact she is like a sister to me, the sister I never had.” I was puzzled by the question.

  “How does she see you, Hylas?”

  “She sees me like a brother,” I replied.

  “Sometimes you are hopeless.” She shook her head.

  “Aria says that too,” I said, smiling.

  “Aria is in love with you.” Corelia shook her head again.

  How could that be? Her words were unfathomable. “You are mistaken, Corelia.”

  “I am not,” she replied firmly.

  “She likes women,” I added.

  “She also likes to tease, Hylas.”

  “She worships you, Corelia, as I do.”

  “I know that you both do as I require and I have at times been guilty of taking advantage of that, but it does not mean that she doesn’t like men too or, in your case, love them. She is my greatest and most loyal friend but not my lover.”

  I was staggered by this revelation. I stared at Corelia open-mouthed. “Has she said this?”

  “She does not need to say it. I know and if you had been more aware so would you.”

  “What is the promise you require of me?” I asked.

  “If I die tomorrow then you will no longer belong to me. Instead you will belong to Aria. That is the promise I require.”

  “You want me to love her as I love you?” I was bewildered.

  “I want you to love her, stay with her, look after her, and be faithful to her. Make sure she never fights in the arena again. I want you to return her love. I want to know that the two people, other than my father, most dear to me in this dangerous world will always be together. Do you promise, Hylas?”

  I stared at her again. “You will not die tomorrow.”

  “If I do,” she replied.

  “I do not know,” I stuttered.

  “It is hardly a hardship I am asking of you. Is Aria not beautiful? Is she not eloquent and clever? Is she not fun? She may tease and flirt but that is part of her charm. She deserves your love.”

  I thought back to how I had missed Aria when she had returned to Rome from Asia. “She is all those things,” I agreed.

  “Then obey me this one last time, Hylas.”

  “You will not die tomorrow,” I reiterated.

  She stood up in all her naked beauty and looked down at me. “I certainly do not intend to but the gods might decree that I will. I am waiting, Hylas. You will not regret it. I promise you that.”

  I fell to my knees and kissed her hands. “I will do as you require.”

  “Now, let us get our clothes on and I will walk with you to the gate,” she said. We dressed in silence, the immensity of the day to follow weighing heavily upon us. We walked across the courtyard to the sound of the cicalas and as we neared the gate Corelia stopped. She kissed me on the lips and I kissed her back desperately. “Hylas, you and Aria must watch me together in the Colosseo and you must both send your combined strength in waves across the arena to me and then, together, we will defeat Amina. I have met her briefly and I know how formidable she is, but together we will have victory. I am sure of it.”

  I nodded. “You will have all the strength and will that we can muster at your disposal.”

  “That is all I ask,” she replied. One more kiss and then the gates were opened. I walked through them and looked back and Corelia waved. I waved back at the woman I loved and then strangely I thought about the woman I might have to love, and I knew Corelia was right; it would certainly be no hardship to love Aria. However, I reiterated one more time in my mind: Corelia will not die. Corelia cannot die. I walked back to the palace in a trance because there was so much on my mind, so it was just as well that there were no Gracchus assassins around to take advantage of the fact.

  The gate was opened for me. “Did you have a good time?” asked Guardsman Laetus grinning.

  “I had a wonderful time,” I replied.

  I walked across the gardens to my quarters. The palace cicalas were also singing their mating song and I was once again holding Corelia in my arms. I forced myself back to unwanted reality. Now I would have to try and get a few hours sleep, because the next day held so much for me and I needed strength to face it. I knew, though, that it would be almost impossible.

  Chapter 25

  The Praetorian Guard left early that momentous morning. There were about thirty of us which included Paulinus and Macro and our main job was ostensibly to escort the Emperor and Empress to and from the Colosseo and protect them while they were there. We were to help the stewards provide security for the whole Colosseo during the games but the safety of the Emperor took precedence. The remainder of the guard was left to look after the palace in our absence. The Emperor was dressed in all his splendour and travelled in a carriage carried by some of his personal slaves. It was autumn but the sun was still hot; the weather looked good for the annual festival of Jupiter and the streets were already thronged with very excited people. The festival had been in progress for nearly a week and there had already been contests in the arena, but today was going to be one of the highlights. It was the first time that a contest between two gladiatrices would be regarded by many as the main event, though there were a host of seasoned gladiators on display. It added to the uniqueness of the occasion and it was the first day so far that the Emperor himself had attended.

  I had never been to the Colosseo before because previously I had been left behind as one of the guards selected to look after the palace. I could not believe that now, when I was to go for the first time, there would be so much at stake for me: the life of the woman I loved. We entered the Colosseo through the main north entrance. It was the entrance for the rich and the elite and led down to the main seating area and the boxes reserved for the privileged. It would seem that Petronius was not ranked high enough for a box but he did have reserved seating. The Colosseo was empty except for a few early arrivals but even empty it was hugely impressive. It even dwarfed the remarkable amphitheatre at Ephesus. It was an arena that was said to hold fifty thousand spectators so it would be even more splendid later in the day when it was sure to be full.

  The Emperor and his wife were enjoying refreshments and he was making himself ready for the long day of entertainment ahead. It was noticeable that he had not been joined yet by any other members of his family. In fact, his wife, Domitia Longina, looked as if she would have been much happier somewhere else. I wondered if it was Domitian or the impending bloodbath that she wished to get away from. When I thought of blood I thought of Corelia and I felt sick with fear for her. As the next couple of hours
passed the great theatre began to fill and the atmosphere began to grow in intensity. The crowd had come to see spectacle and blood and there was no doubt that Domitian was going to give them exactly what they wanted. I studied the Emperor with some hatred for he was a man who had given me so much grief. For a brief moment he seemed to see me looking at him and I looked quickly away. He then went on talking to his bored wife.

  It was to be the greatest games ever seen in a city that was well used to great games. As I listened to the chanting and the excitement it was evident that Corelia was the darling of the Roman crowd even though her contest was several hours away. I watched as Marcus Gracchus took his seat in his box not far from the Emperor’s and it reminded me of the assassination attempt that was on the agenda for later. He cut a fine figure dressed up in all his finery and I shuddered at everything this day held in store for me. He bowed to the Emperor and Domitian, smiling broadly, acknowledged his greeting. Then I saw the senator Valerius Massala, who had walked with us on the Via Sacra, enter his box. The Colosseo was now filling up fast and at last I saw Petronius and Aria walking down the aisle towards their seats. They were accompanied by three other men and one woman and, to my surprise, I recognized one of them. It was Stephanio, the manager of Amina, who had obviously been invited by Petronius to join him as a guest.

  “Aria and Petronius have arrived,” I said to Paulinus who had not moved from the Emperor’s box. Domitian felt more secure with Paulinus close by.

  “You may go and join them, Hylas,” he replied. “The contest between the two gladiatrices is the last contest today so when it is finished you will quickly join the others at the entrance where we came in. You know the rest and Macro will be there and in charge of the operation. In the unlikely event that you hear anything I should know then make an excuse and return to me here. Good luck, and I hope everything goes well.”

  “As do I,” I replied with some feeling, though he did not know that I had Corelia in mind much more than the assassination attempt.