CHAPTER FIVE
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The sunlight streaming through the open door woke me. I blinked sleepily for a minute, the tendrils of dreams clinging to my mind.
Shifting on the bed, squinting toward the figure that stood framed in the light, I felt soreness between my thighs. The events of the previous evening came flooding back in one large rush, and I sat bolt upright, my face suddenly warm.
“Lilia. Get dressed. Come with me.” It was not Christus who stood in the doorway, but the dominus. He cocked his head to one side as I blinked sleepily at him, then looked across the room and scowled.
I looked, too. The other bed was empty.
“Where is Christus?” I felt my face flush even deeper at the sound of the gladiator’s name on the dominus’ tongue.
“I do not know, Dominus. Apologies.” I did know that he would be nearby, since the makeshift leather locks on the door had not been on. I knew that the man would never have gone far and left me unprotected.
It was that knowledge that had led to such a sound night’s sleep, the best I had had in years.
“No mind.” The dominus returned his stare to me and gestured impatiently. “I will meet you at the gate.”
Meeting at the gate meant that the dominus was taking me to the market with him. It was not a common occurrence, but it had happened before. Hurriedly I shed my sleep tunic and tied my leathers around me, rubbing at my eyes sleepily as I did.
I had been dreaming of the day when I had first taken a stand against Bavarius. That day, so many years earlier, when I had won my first battle. High on the victory, infused with my strength, I had come back to the ludus with determination set in every limb.
He would not touch me again. When he had tried, he had found not the young girl who was uncertain of her strength, of her worth, but a champion who refused to be used any longer.
It seemed like a lifetime ago. As I ruminated, I gingerly stepped down on the ankle that had been injured the night before. It was sore, but seemed all right to bear weight, which was a relief. Stretching quickly, I tied my hair back in one long tail.
Though my sleep had been deep, it had also been filled with sweaty dreams about Christus, his body twined around me. Shuddering at the memory, I did my best to push it down.
The dominus fetching me to accompany him to the market showed that I had not yet fallen from his favor, even with Christus’ new displays of strength. It would not do for me to keep him waiting.
I was nearly to the gate when the skin at the back of my neck began to prickle. The dominus was tapping his foot impatiently on the sand, yet I still turned quickly to see where the sensation had come from.
Bavarius stood little more than an arm’s length from me, watching me with an intent stare that emanated from his starless eyes.
“Oh!” Startled, I clutched a hand to my mouth, hurrying my steps forward. The man did not move, did not speak, did not attempt to apologize for frightening me.
With my heart hammering in my chest, I deliberately quashed the fright. Bavarius was clearly unhappy about the events of the previous evening, and had resorted to childish methods to undermine me. The manner in which the man looked at me sent a chill down my spine, an icy finger trailing over the bone.
Movement from across the sand caught my eye, and Bavarius’ as well. Shielding my eyes from the sun with my hand, I saw that Christus was standing by the entrance to the dining area, his arms crossed tightly over his chest, his subligaculum looped loosely around his hips.
I shivered as I remembered what his body looked like naked, and at the memory of him inside of me. The shiver was calmed by the warmth that his presence wrought.
Somehow, in the brief time that we had known each other, and though I had fought it as hard as I could, he had come to represent safety to me.
“Lilia!” Though the dominus smiled at me, his tone was fraught with impatience. Gritting my teeth together at his tone, I wiped hands that were suddenly slick with sweat on the hips of my leathers and deliberately straightened my spine before striding the last few steps toward the dominus.
“Apologies, Dominus.” I assumed the quiet, expressionless posture of a humble slave, though in my head I was anything but. But if the dominus forgot that I was there, then I would not be required to answer questions. This was good, because at the moment my head was full.
It took great will and a whispered prayer to Providentia, goddess of forethought, not to pepper the man with questions about his newest acquisition to the ludus.
As we closed the gates to the ludus, I forced my fingers to relax, to fall back to my sides.
“To which god do I owe the pleasure of this journey, Dominus?” I inhaled deeply of the fresh air—air that did not hold the stink of sweat, flesh, or blood. Most times, being outside the gates of the ludus was an enormous pleasure in itself.