by Glover, Nhys
‘So you survived, as I did. Is it necessary to talk about it? Talk doesn’t fix anything.’
She tipped her head to the side, as she considered his question. Somehow, saying it out loud for the first time, in the darkness, to someone who had experienced it … was freeing.
‘I’ve never told anyone before. It actually feels… better…’
‘Never told anyone, either. Can’t say it feels any better to me. I… thought I’d die that first night. It hurt so bad. But when I didn’t, I learned to …not think about it. I learned to survive. Shit happens. To everyone. You can cry about it, or you can live through it.’
‘You’re stronger than me.’
‘You’re alive. So you lived through it. And with any luck you’ll live through this. Fuck …’ She could hear his teeth chattering again. ‘Not again. I’m starting to think I might not live through this.’
Without thinking, she reached out and put her arm around his shaking shoulder. For a moment he hesitated, as if not willing to show his weakness, especially after what they’d shared. Then, she felt him relax into her, his head dropping onto her chest so she could wrap herself around him. His arms wrapped around her.
‘I told my partner I’d take this girl we’re hunting, if her protector made it too difficult. Don’t think I would have. Forcing myself on someone weaker… that’s the act of a coward. I haven’t sunk that low yet...’
‘Hunting?’
‘Mmmm… it’s a job, an assignment. Kill the man, return the girl to her mother. Don’t mistake me for something I’m not. I’ve been making my way in the world by shedding blood for most of my life. A pirate, a gladiator, and now a private contractor.’ He gave a little self-derogatory laugh, between shivers. ‘Gods my head hurts. Feels like Vulcanus is bashing his bloody anvil between my eyes.’
‘Killer for hire?’ Ninia asked, her mind suddenly crystal clear.
There was a scar on the other side of his face. When she’d panicked, she’d seen it outlined by crusted sand, but not understood what she saw. She’d only glimpsed it fleetingly.
Hadn’t one of the men at Palinurus had such a scar? His partner had missing fingers.
‘It’s a living like any other. And I’m good at it.’ He drew back a little, as if trying to read her expression in the dark. ‘I won’t hurt you. You’ve got nothing to fear from me. And if we live through this, I’ll get you back to your people. I won’t leave you unprotected…’
‘Why?’
‘Why what?’
‘Why would you do that for me if…if you’ve got a job to do?’
‘I pay my debts. You’ve been kind to me. I’d be dead now, if not for you. I’m not… all bad. Yet.’
A short time later, the rigidity set in and he curled up in a ball, his head on her lap. It was hard to see him as anything but a sick and damaged man, even after what he’d told her. But as she held him, the reality began to sink in. She had washed up on a deserted beach with a killer who meant to deliver Anni back into the hands of her mother. A killer, who had considered raping his quarry.
Ninia had lost her father, her only protector. All their money and possessions had gone down with the ship. All she had was the slip of vellum that was her manumission, enclosed in a small, waterproof bag around her neck. Her father had insisted on that.
How could she save Anni now? Leave this one killer to his fate here on this rocky beach, as he’d suggested she do? But that left one man still in play. And that man could hire any number of cutthroats he needed, when the time came to take Anni from Vali.
If they’d survived the wind storm. Only a day ahead of them, they would have to have been subjected to its fury. Ninia’s ship had gone down, Scarface’s may have gone down too, after he was washed overboard. There was every chance Anni’s had not made it through.
No, she wouldn’t think about that. Her companion was right. Thinking about painful things was a bad idea. They weakened you. She couldn’t afford to be weak now.
Sometime later, the chills turned into fever. Scarface began to sweat and burn. In his delirium he started to mumble and cry. Was he ten years old again? He didn’t fight her. Instead he clung to her. At one point, when he clung particularly hard to her thighs, burying his head into her lap, she thought she heard ‘Mama…’
When had he lost his mother? He only mentioned his father dying to save his life. Whether she was dead when he was taken didn’t matter. He’d lost her then, anyway. So young to be all alone. So young to be tortured, over and over again, in that debased way. Who wouldn’t become violent, after a childhood like that? Even she had considered killing after just one such episode, and she’d been three years older, and had Anni and her parents to care for her. He’d had nobody.
As the fever intensified, and his skin burned hot as a flame, she decided she had to get him cool. She remembered a physician from Africa telling her mother to cool a fever, or it would lead to madness. Being stuck on this rock with a madman was her nightmare come to life.
When his delirium abated for a time, she shook him awake and coaxed and bullied him onto his feet. Then, one torturous step after another, bearing the bulk of his weight on her shoulders, she got them down to the water’s edge. There, she had him lie in the water, deep enough so that it covered him. She sat in the shallows, and placed his head in her lap, keeping it out of the water. Then she began to sprinkle the cool liquid onto his forehead and hair, stroking the drops away with the tips of her fingers.
The water was inky black and not cold, after the first few moments. But the night breeze cooled her wet skin, as it seemed to do for her companion. Over the hours, Ninia kept up her vigil, moving them a little further out as the tide dropped lower, all the while trying not to think about the future. Trying not to think she was keeping her friend’s nemesis alive.
Sometime around first light, his body began to cool, and the fever broke. With the first rays of the rising sun, he opened his eyes. They were clear and dark, but vaguely confused. He lifted his arms, and realised he was in water. Frowning, he levered himself onto his side in the shallows.
‘Why am I here?’ His voice was croaky, and he cleared his throat.
‘You were burning up. I had to get you cool.’
He looked at her as if he couldn’t quite believe she was real. ‘You got me down here by yourself? Have you slept at all?’
She shrugged and looked away, embarrassed by the expression forming in his eyes. She had done only what needed doing. Why was he making it seem as if she was some kind of hero?
His bare, wet arm reached up and he cupped her cheek in the palm of his roughened hand. ‘Thankyou… I don’t even know your name.’
‘Ninia.’
‘Thank you, Ninia. You saved my life.’
She felt her face begin to burn, but she didn’t move away from his hand. Nor did she break eye contact. Something strange was happening in her chest, and she didn’t understand it. This man made her feel tenderness. Not like she felt for her parents, or even for Anni, but something different… more. The feeling was fragile, vulnerable, and didn’t bear examining too closely. But it made her heart hurt. So she stayed where she was, until he could hold his arm up no longer, and he slid back into the water to rest his head back on her submerged lap.
‘They call me Braxus.’
She ran her fingers over his forehead, in just the way she had for the long hours of the night. As it become lighter, the ugly scar that ran from his eyebrow to his chin on the left side of his face became more defined. Absently, she let her fingertips run the length of it.
His hand came up to stop her, but never got there. As if thinking better of it, he relaxed and let her touch him.
‘You want to know how it happened.’ His voice was hard and brittle.
‘I have asked more than my share of personal questions. And you might force me to reveal more of my painful past, if I did.’ She let a smile play on her lips, to let him know she was joking.
‘Then I’ll tell you
without asking, so you aren’t obliged to reveal more than you want to of your past.
‘I did it myself. One night, after they were finished with me, one of them called me a pretty boy. “Almost as good as a girl, with a face like that…”, or some similar words. I was mad with pain and self-loathing, and grabbed a dagger from somewhere. I sliced the side of my face open. I think I thought it would make them lose interest in me. All it did was make them laugh.’
She let her fingers sooth the angry scar. Her heart was breaking for the child he’d been. Such a pretty boy, with long black hair and big brown eyes that were surrounded by girlishly long eyelashes. The image of him back then was crystal clear in her mind.
‘You know…’ he said, after a long moment. ‘I do feel better after telling you. Maybe it’s because you’re a kind stranger. Maybe it’s because you know what it’s like… Or maybe it’s just time.’
‘You make me feel weak for giving in to the darkness… What I went through doesn’t compare …’
He shifted off her lap, and came up on his knees in a sudden wake of water. ‘Don’t!’
She drew back sharply, almost falling backwards into the shallows. His face was a mask of fury, and she was suddenly terrified.
‘Don’t compare yourself to me. I was willing to sacrifice all that was good, gentle and beautiful in me, to survive. This scar is evidence of that. You didn’t have to. You found another way through. I wouldn’t be alive now, if you hadn’t.’
Suddenly the path was clear. Ninia knew exactly what she needed to do. She had to count on the fact that there was still something good and gentle inside him, just as there was still beauty in his face.
‘I need your help. Will you give up your job, and take another one on for me?’
Chapter Twenty
17 September 79 CE, Narbo GAULIA
Daylight was seeping in through the open window like a thief, stealing Lara’s comfort and peace. She groaned loudly, and turned away from it.
‘Come on, slug. You’ve had two days abed. Time to be on the road again. The wagon train leaves at sunup.’ Vali’s cheerful voice was annoying.
She covered her ears with her hands, and squeezed her eyes more tightly shut. His laughter only made her more annoyed with him. Why did he have to be such a slave driver? They had ridden a gale for six long hours, careening across the sea at speeds too fast for man to travel, been knocked black and blue by the bucking decks, and still managed to survive to tell of it. Surely she deserved a few more days to recover before going out for more?
But she kept her complaints to herself. She knew why Vali was driving them so hard. The sand storm was evidence of that. They had a long way still to go, and more sea to traverse before the season ended. The longer they took, the higher the risks they ran.
She felt a big hand tearing her fingers from her left ear. Then her husband was dragging her out of bed, laughing all the while. In the end, she gave up and laughed too, throwing her arms around his shoulders and kissing him deeply, until she felt his arousal pressing hard against her.
‘None of that, sweetling. I know what you’re trying to do, and it won’t work. We’re going! Up. Get dressed. You can eat when we’re settled in the wagon.’
Giving up her thwarted seduction, she scrambled off the bed, and began throwing on clothes. But before she got very far, he stopped her, and pulled her over to the window where there was more light.
‘The bruises have turned purple. God I hate seeing your skin like this.’ He stroked the painful flesh down her side.
‘You’re sporting a few bruises yourself, husband. But you don’t hear me complaining. We’re lucky to be alive. Didn’t you say there were stories coming in of shipwrecks?’
‘Yes. More every day. The Baal was a wise choice. The skill it took to keep that ship angled just right was amazing. I doubt many men of my people could have done as well.’
‘The Ship’s Master had made all the right offerings, obviously. And he’d experienced these storms before. He knew what he was doing.’
He smiled down at her, letting his fingers run down the purple bruise on her side again. ‘The gods are with us, wife. I just hope they stay that way.’
Thabraca AFRICA
Menolus drained the last of his brew, and slammed the mug down on the rough, wooden bench in front of him. His vision was blurred and his mind was sluggish. It was the way he liked it. If he was sober, he’d have to remember losing Braxus. He’d have to think about taking to the sea again in search of his quarry. Alone.
So it was better to stay this way, while his money held out. Maybe he’d take a lesson from Braxus, and start choosing the easy life. Sometimes doing it hard was not just a challenge, it was defeat.
It was death.
Damn, he missed the bastard already. He’d taken on the young gladiator, his manumission still fresh in his hand, and given him a new life. He’d given him a new position in the rigid hierarchy of the Empire. It was interesting work that required as much brains as it did brawn. That was why he’d chosen the young fighter. He’d seen him in the arena. Seen how he used his head, as much as his skills, to win. That was what he’d needed. His own brain was good, but Braxus’ was better.
With Menolus’ experience and connections, they had made a great team. For five years. A long time in the life of a man who dealt daily with death. But not long enough. Braxus was going to be hard to replace.
His next brew arrived in front of him. He’d trained the slave girl well by now. How many days had he been here? Two. He knew that because he’d been forced to take a bed twice in the time he was here. Back where he started. The whole of the Tyrrhenian Sea still to be crossed.
If he was to keep going.
Maybe he’d just find a nice little business here. Did they have a Gladiator School? He’d been a lanista for a while, after he’d stopped fighting in the arenas. But he hated watching, rather than fighting. It made him feel old. So he’d turned his skills in other directions.
But those directions had led him here. And here was not an appealing place: too hot, too alien, and too many languages spoken around him that he didn’t understand. It was dangerous. Who knew if the man sitting next to you was discussing the weather, or talking about taking you down? He didn’t.
Maybe if he’d stayed a lanista he could have taken Braxus on there, and he’d be alive now, living his easy life.
Menolus drained the mug again and placed it on the table more carefully this time. He always did that when he started to feel the effects of the alcohol.
One more day. He’d give himself one more day. Then he’d make some serious decisions. Then he’d start to take up his life again.
Sparrow Hawk Island SARDINIA
‘What can I do?’ Braxus met her gaze, unblinking.
‘Your patron for this job. Who was it?’ She asked tentatively, letting her eyes slide away from his, watching distractedly, as she let water trickle through her fingers.
‘I can’t tell you that.’ Braxus scowled suspiciously down at her, making her flinch with nerves.
‘I’m not sure…’ she started, twisting her hands together. ‘It was something you said. I started putting it together...’
She watched him flinch out of the corner of her eye, but he hid his reaction fast. He watched her like a snake, ready to strike, waiting for her to go on.
‘My master is… was… G. Annius Bibulus. His wife, Salvia, threatened to divorce him and take her daughter, which she was legally able to do. She wanted to marry her to Emperor Titus. So my master sent Anni away with a slave she trusted. The slave was to take her to Pompeii, so she could marry someone she liked, before her mother got the chance to carry through on the divorce.’ She shot a glance in Braxus’ direction, to see if she could read his thoughts so far. She couldn’t. He was still staring at her, unblinking.
Swallowing, she went on. ‘Then Vesuvius erupted, and my master found out Vali had sent a message back to him. Salvia intercepted the missive, and she said
the message concerned damaged goods, which she had told this V to return to Rome. Master lied, telling her it was carpet. He was terrified Anni was hurt from the eruption. So he sent my father and me after them. We thought Salvia might have sent her own people after Anni too. I started to think that you might have been the one sent…’ She let her voice play out into silence.
‘This Anni is the one who had to watch…’ He didn’t finish the statement. They both knew what she’d been forced to watch.
‘Yes. We… picked up her trail in Palinurus. She wasn’t hurt and Vali wasn’t taking her back to Rome. We didn’t know where she was going. I still don’t know for sure. But I have to find her. I have to get her away from Vali. I have to make certain she isn’t taken back to her mother, to be given to Titus. My master said she’d be dead in a year if she ever married him…’
She looked at Braxus directly then, hoping not to see anger and rejection in his eyes.
‘Your Anni thinks her father is dead. She’s passing herself off as the wife of this Vali. He slaughtered five men in the streets of Carthago.’
Ninia swallowed again, and nodded. ‘He’s a bad man. Violent and cruel. My master never saw that side of him. Neither did Anni, back then. But he did awful things to Salvia. Awful things like what happened to you and me. I’m terrified for her. You have to understand… she’s the sweetest, kindest person I’ve ever known. We’ve been best friends since we could walk. What … what her brother did to me… she blamed herself for. Vali will break her, and she won’t have anyone to help her pick up the pieces. Like she did for me… Will you help me?’
Braxus climbed to his feet in the shallows, water streaming off him. For a horrible moment, she felt he was going to walk away, and leave her there. But then he reached out his hand to help her up. She took it gratefully.
‘I’ll help you. It won’t be easy. We’ve got nothing but the rags on our backs. Even if we can get back to civilization, we’ll have to get money, if we’re to follow them. I can fight. It’s the fastest way I know to get funds. And I’ve still got my manumission, so I can travel unhindered. But it means delays. If my partner survived the storm, then he’ll already be back on their trail…’