I did not care, though I knew that I should have.
“Lilia.” Before I had moved more than two paces, the dominus was at my side. “Come.” Casting an anxious look back over my shoulder at Christus, I did as I was told, following the dominus away from the yard and down the corridor that led to the small room where the medic worked. The dominus sat at the absent medic’s desk and poured two cups full of wine from the ever-present jug, then offered one to me.
“Gratitude.” I accepted the cup, but I did not sit. I was full of nervous energy, and the implacable stare that my owner had fixed upon me was only exacerbating it.
“Lilia, you have already been chosen to compete in the Battle of Gaius.” The news hit me like a blow—after the reaction of the men outside, it was information that I had not been expecting.
“So soon? Did the man not announce his games just this afternoon?” I swallowed thickly, found my mouth dry, and drank deeply from the cup that the dominus had poured for me.
The man seemed troubled, and his emotion made me apprehensive.
“Lilia, when we saw Gaius in the market today—I do not think that that was an accident.” He peered into his own cup, as if hoping to find answers in its ruby depths.
“I do not understand.” I thought back to the brief flash that I had seen of the man, hidden as he was behind the curtain that decorated his litter. The only thing about what I had assumed was a chance encounter that had stuck with me was the excitement that I had seen on the man’s face. “And if you knew of this earlier, in the market, why did you not speak plainly then?”
I had dismissed the look on the strange man’s face as excitement over seeing a gladiator outside the walls of the arena—many patricians had the very same reaction. I had not thought more about it. But now I saw that that excitement could have a far more sinister meaning for me.
“I was not permitted to do so, by order of Gaius himself.” The dominus seemed to consider his words before he again spoke. “I think that his excitement at seeing you today, in the flesh, has made him move rather more quickly than he had originally intended to. I believe that Gaius first became aware of you after your win in the munera that were held to celebrate the wedding of Lucius Quintus Manius and his second wife, Miriama, daughter of Baldurus. Your show of strength that day impressed many, I think, but he is the only one who spoke to me of it after.”
I remembered that day well—I had not fought alone, but with Bavarius and one of his friends. They had tried to send me to my death at the hands of the gigantic beast of a man we had been fighting.
I had not died. I had killed the man myself, and made my two ludus brothers appear the fools.
“Do you recall that there was a party afterwards, to toast the newlyweds? The victors of the day, including yourself, were there to provide demonstrations. In fact, Christus was there, albeit briefly, due to injury. I do not think the two of you met.” It was not uncommon for a gladiator to be invited to attend the party of a patrician, especially one with a win freshly in his belt, though we were not considered guests. Often we merely stood in a line at the side of the room as decoration, something for the rich to admire, to ponder, to discuss. Other times we fought one on one, with wooden training swords for the safety of the patricians. Often the male gladiators were approached by women at the party who wanted the pleasure of their bodies, though the decision belonged not to them, but to their dominus.
That particular party had remained in my mind because, for the first time, it had not been one of my brothers who was approached, but myself. Still somewhat new to the ludus, and still raw from my treatment at the hands of Bavarius, I had not understood much of the unspoken expectations.
I had learned quickly that, as a slave, I was to follow the orders of those higher in class than myself, whether they were my dominus or not. A man called Brutus had told me to go with him, and so I went. When he had moved to lead me from the hall in which the party was being held, Darius had pulled me back. His excuse had been that the dominus would not permit me to be touched in such a way. It had been the start of my friendship with the man, for he had saved me when he did not have to.
It had made quite a scene. Brutus had not been pleased to have what he wanted taken away. My dominus did not care for the man, and would not give me to him. I had been the uncontested center of attention for the entire night, the gladiator that the rich fought over.
“Gaius was at that party.” I tilted my head, certain that I would have remembered the handsome man with the eyes of a snake, but I did not. “The scene with Brutus brought you to his attention.”