Chapter 32

Every path they had taken now led to this.

Approaching quietly through the undergrowth, Felix knelt behind a thick bush and gazed up the slight incline.

The scouts had found them.

After a month of marching and travelling, Felix had discovered their camp. The gladiator that stood atop the hill, spear in hand as he watched the perimeter, was a marker.

Krista was here but they would not stay in one place for long.

“Remain here,” Felix whispered to the scout as he walked backwards, keeping low.

“Send a message to Commander Aurelius,” Felix spoke when he reached his men, a safe distance from the camp, “Tell him we have found the rebellion.”

After dismissing the foot solider, Felix turned and gazed back towards the direction where Krista and her men remained unaware.

They would bring the force of Rome down onto their heads and they would never see it coming.

This would be the end of their rebellion.

* * *

Grasping the chalice from the table, Gaius through the cup against the side of his tent; dousing the fabric in red wine.

“How long?” Gaius asked through gritted teeth.

He needed to salvage as much of this as possible.

When the man did not respond, Gaius turned and stared him down. “How long!?”

The small man jumped at the rage Gaius’s voice, “They shall reach Rome within the week.”

Gaius’s fingers found the wine vase and the pottery accompanied the chalice into oblivion.

“Leave.” Gaius ordered the man, hearing his feet scuttle away.

Oh, Pompeia, Gaius closed his eyes as he heard the damning news.

The Empress would soon have two of Krista’s generals in her grasp. And all by the hand of a barbaric Gladiator.

Gaius Aurelius, Commander of the Roman Legion, would be humiliated before the senate and the entirety of the Roman Empire.

The Commander who could not defeat an enemy, Gaius felt anger rise in his chest.

The Empress did not trust her own commanders to carry out her tasks. She no longer trusted Gaius Aurelius.

His worst fears were becoming reality; he shall be dispatched as easily as his predecessor if he did not earn a bounty bigger than that of the ‘Champion of Greece’ soon.

The task seemed impossible when a soldier interrupted his thoughts.

Gaius barked at the man for his intrusion, swiping the message out of his fingers for his own eyes to read.

Glancing across the text, Gaius felt his dark mood take flight and an excited anticipation take its place.

“Order the men to move out,” Gaius crumpled the parchment and threw it in the fire, “Tell them to take only their weapons.”

“Where do we march?” The man asked.

Gaius curled his fingers around the hilt of his sword that rested atop the table and unsheathed his blade, bringing the sword to rest vertically in front of his face.

Gaius looked across at the soldier, “To war.”

* * *

The road to Rome seemed to never end.

The ground beneath them changed from mud to hay to grass before finally turning to dry gravel.

Pushing the feeling of sharp rocks beneath his bare feet to the back of his mind, Artorius continued his topic with Frieda.

The only thing they could now covet was distraction.

Distraction from the hell they were marching back towards and the hot sun beating against their backs.

“My brother was named Markos,” Artorius’s throat was dry, the dust from the ground assaulting his voice.

Frieda noted the word ‘was’ but said nothing, they each had their own pasts they did not wish to linger on, “What about Lycus?”

Artorius licked his cracked lips, “Little wolf?”

Frieda smiled at the way Artorius seemed to take on her suggestion but when he did not respond Frieda glanced across at him.

Artorius was grasping at his fingers and Frieda realised that the topic was difficult.

“They shall be fine,” Frieda reassured him but even now she could tell he didn’t believe her.

“We have been walking for nearly a month and a half,” Artorius took a deep breath and looked across at her, “It shall be any day now.”

“Helga reassured me before we were- Well, just before,” Frieda did not care to linger on the thought of their capture and Dianna who now rested within the camp like a snake, “Krista should not go into birthing before this month is over. There is still time.”

Artorius offered her a small smile.

“But if it’s a girl,” Frieda bumped his shoulder with hers, offering moral comfort, “Frieda is also a good name.”

It had the desired effect. Artorius lifted his head and gave a small chuckle of laughter, “I shall remember tha- What is it?” Artorius frowned as he noticed her eyes grow large and her jaw clench in fear.

Following her gaze, Artorius looked towards to the front and he too paused.

His heart seemed to drop inside of his chest and his breath grew unsteady. His knees felt like they would collapse beneath him.

They were here.

They were at the gates of Rome.

The city loomed large in the distance, a high wall surrounding the capital and the filth within.

Softly treading down the long straight road, Artorius and Frieda were consumed by a new horror.

Lines of crosses had been erected on either side of their path, the bodies of the victims guiding them into the capital as well as offering a warning.

Argus slowed the convoy until they were walking at a crawl, forcing them to stare at each person until their faces were burned into their mind.

One boy was barely old enough for facial hair before his hands and feet were nailed to a cross whilst another had seen too many winters for his life to be cut short in this way.

Reaching the city gates, opened for trading, Frieda heard a soft mewling.

Glancing around her, Frieda could not see the source of such a sound and pushed it from her mind.

But there it was again. A soft pitiful noise that caused the hair to raise on the backs of her arms.

Something inside Frieda made her turn her head, and look above her to the left.

Blinking slowly, Frieda’s eyes travelled up the length of a cross, noting how strong the wood was, before she came across feet, bound and nailed.

The soft crying was growing more insistent as her eyes passed the bloodied feet, ankles bound to the wood with rope, past the woman’s pale legs, across her abdomen and up to her face.

Frieda gave a start when she saw that it was a young girl, with curled blonde hair, looking directly at her with hooded eyes.

It appeared as if Frieda was staring into a reflection of the past as she gazed up at the girl, a younger version of herself when the girl moved.

Her blond hair, a mass of curls, shifted over her shoulders as her lips, cracked, parted in a soft moan.

The girl was still alive, Frieda paled, and she was saying something.

Voices from the front of the gate blocked the young girl’s words so Frieda stepped closer, her eyes glued to the woman’s poor figure.

“Pl- Plea- Please,” The girl begged as her head hung forward, too weak to support herself.

Frieda’s eyebrows pulled together in pain for the girl. She wasn’t begging to be let free.

The tone of defeat and pain in her voice, made Frieda’s inside churn.

She was begging for release. She was begging for death.

“Get back!” A soldier suddenly hit Frieda across the back of her shoulders, lurching her forward towards the ground.

Stones bit into the soft palms of her flesh as the chains pulled tight around her neck.

Drawing the attention of others, Frieda stumbled back to her feet.

Rheia was waiting for her as Argus spoke with the soldiers at the gate.

“Quiet!” Rheia shouted up at the crucified girl who was still crying for them to kill her.

“You can hit me all you like,” Frieda shook her head to the side, pushing her hair away from her face, “But if there is any part of a true gladiator left inside of you, you will show some compassion to that girl.”

Rheia narrowed her eyes at Frieda, her eyes searching for something.

“You can turn your back on your own kind, you can sleep with the Romans,” Frieda grew angry, “But that girl does not deserve this pain. She did not ask for it.”

“All of these slaves,” Rheia scoffed, “They’re here because they rioted against the food shortages. Shortages incurred by your rebellion.”

Frieda stumbled back at the news, her eyes looking towards Artorius.

He was listening intently to Rheia’s words.

“You are right,” Rheia leaned in close to Frieda, condemning her, “The girl did not deserve this.”

Rheia lifted her hand before stalking back to the gates.

A few seconds later an archer stepped forward and sunk an arrow into the girl’ chest, halting her heart.

Frieda silently apologised to the girl, praying she finds her way to her family in Elysium, before the convoy started to march again.

Those last few steps outside the city walls seemed the most crucial to Frieda.

This was their last opportunity to escape; once they were within those walls they would be caged.

But just as the thought entered her mind, Frieda and Artorius took their first true step back into slavery.

They had left gladiators. They now returned as slaves.

* * *

They had been marching for over a month and now, with every day that passed, Krista grew further disheartened as a new fear entered her thoughts.

They had been tracking Argus and Rheia for over a month; their small company of soldiers made them agile and they were able to move fast.

Whilst Krista had over three hundred people following her and most of those had been house slaves, they had not held a sword a day in their life except for now.

She could not blame them but it was slowly dawning on Krista that she would not reach Artorius or Frieda.

Her stomach had now grown rapidly; she could no longer see past the sphere of her abdomen to her boots.

The muscles in her back ached and she could not walk as much as before.

But as her insides were pulled in all directions and her heart felt like it was on fire, the night around them was still.

The archer to her side had not removed an arrow from his sheath all evening.

“I do not think,” Diomed paused and took a drink from his water skin, “We shall find any game around here.”

Krista bit her lower lip in confusion; she had hunted with Leonidas here only a few days prior. The woods had been filled with deer and rabbit.

“I suggest we head south,” Diomed tied the water skin around his belt, “There is a river that way. There should be some- Krista?”

Diomed frowned as he gazed upon her face; her head was turned to the side like an animal that had heard something in the undergrowth.

And just like an animal that heard the sound of an approaching predator, Krista reacted.

Diomed spotted the slight bend in her knees before she launched herself into the air and flipped backwards.

Arming his bow, Diomed trained an arrow on Krista’s destination as she landed in the brambles of a thick bush.

In the shadow of the night, the flickering moonlight against the gold scales of her armour allowed her to be visible to Diomed.

The branches rustled and the sound of a short fight hit his ears before a body suddenly came flying towards him.

Stepping back a few paces, the body of a Roman soldier landed at his feet, blood marring his jaw.

Training the arrow on his head, Diomed glanced up and saw Krista following on foot, a small smile playing on her lips.

“It’s a scout,” Diomed noted by the uniform whilst they both took in the meaning.

A scout this close to the camp?

The Romans had found them.

Krista knelt by the man’s side and sunk her fingers into his hair. Pulling his head back to expose his neck, Krista placed a small dagger against his skin.

“Where are the others?” Krista growled in his ear, “Tell me,” she snapped as she pressed the dagger into his skin, blood starting to trail down the column of his throat.

“It- It’s too late,” the man laughed manically, “They are already here.”

Krista and Diomed shared a mutual look of shock.

Gripping the dagger tighter, Krista thrust the blade into the man’s throat, severing his vocal cords, before slowly getting to her feet.

“We need to warn the others,” Diomed kept his bow armed and his eyes on the trees as they headed back to camp.

Krista followed close behind, her sword drawn and heart thrumming loudly when a new sensation gripped her body.

It started low, tightening around her waist before travelling upwards.

Krista winced, glancing down at her stomach, but as quickly as it came it was gone again.

Turning from such thoughts, Krista hurried back to Diomed’s side.