Last Gladiatrix, The by Scott Eva

Author:Scott, Eva [Scott, Eva]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780857990396
Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises Pty Ltd, Australia
Published: 2013-04-01T00:00:00+00:00

Xanthe peered at the horrible little man holding her arm, wondering if all Roman citizens smelled this way, or just the ugly ones. He chatted to her in a friendly voice, his words meaningless. Once or twice, he poked his grimy finger at her tattoos and it took all her self control not bite at him. Only the fear of catching some sort of sickness from the dirty man stopped her.

The man led her down the stone corridors to her cell. Unshackling Xanthe, he cheerfully shut the cell door, saluting her with mock respect as he left.

Xanthe studied her new surroundings. Fresh straw had been strewn on the floor of the cell and a bucket of water had been provided. She inspected the bucket’s contents and found it to be fresh: a small mercy. She sat cross-legged on the floor, her back against the cold stone wall and tried not to think of Titus.

‘So you are the Scythian warrior woman?’ A female voice, in a dialect surprisingly familiar to her, sounded through the gloom. Xanthe spotted the speaker in a cell farther down the corridor.

‘I’m Sarmatian,’ she replied.

‘Whatever you are, you will be dead by tomorrow.’

She chose to ignore the woman’s pessimistic forecast. ‘And you? Who are you?’

‘I am Klara. A Hun. They keep me here because I am … untrustworthy.’ The woman laughed, dirty and low.

‘Truly? Where else would they keep you?’

‘The gladiator training school of course, but I don’t like doing what I am told. I won’t have to after tomorrow. It will be my last fight and I will be free.’ The woman sounded so confident. If she had survived to buy her freedom, maybe it would not be so hard for Xanthe to do so also.

A thought occurred to her. ‘Perhaps we will fight each other.’ She hoped not. Clearly the Hun tasted victory already and would make a fierce opponent.

Klara laughed again. ‘I don’t think so. You are to fight a man. A big spectacle. Everyone is talking about it. This almost never happens, so the crowd will go wild. Of course, you cannot survive such an encounter but no doubt you will fight hard. Why else would they bother pitting you against a gladiator? It would be no sport at all if you could not hold your own.’

Titus had prepared her well for this outcome, but the knowledge did not stop her stomach churning and the muscles in her neck from becoming ridged. ‘My advice to you: kill as quickly as you can. Do not hold back. He will be fighting for his life; never forget that. Now, you should sleep while you can.’ Her eyes burnt with a blazing fierceness. Klara withdrew to a shadowy corner of her cell, wrapping herself in a blanket. Before long, the sound of her soft snores could be heard echoing off the walls.

Xanthe sat a while longer, her thoughts full of Titus and the morrow. What if he did not survive his fight? A world without him would not be worth living in.

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