Rivals on the Track by Annelise Gray

Author:Annelise Gray [Gray, Annelise]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781800240629
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

XXII

‘No!’

Hanno threw up an arm in exasperation while Abibaal struggled to pull up his team.

‘You’re going too early, son,’ said Scorpus as Abibaal cantered back. ‘You have to wait for your brother’s back wheels to cross the line in the sand.’

‘He’s slowing down right before he gets there, to throw me off.’

‘I am not…’

Behind them, at the back of the track near the starting gates, Bodo and I circled, trying to keep our horses from fidgeting.

‘I suppose you can see why Glabrio thought this event would entertain the crowd,’ said Bodo, as we watched Scorpus try to cool the boys’ tempers. ‘It’s certainly different.’

‘It’s a stupid race,’ I answered, urging Jewel to keep moving. ‘What’s wrong with the usual seven laps of the track?’

We had come to the old abandoned circus on the outskirts of town in order to continue practising for the channel race. A chalk line opposite the turning posts at the near end of the channel marked the point where the first driver’s wheels had to cross before the second driver could start their run to the end of the straight and back. Scorpus had told us the trick was to time it perfectly, so that the second person in the team was already cantering towards the line before the first had crossed it. ‘That way, you won’t lose momentum between each changeover,’ he’d explained. But Abibaal, eager to force the pace as always, kept setting off too soon.

As he and Hanno prepared to try again, I noticed a man watching our practice from the road above the circus. It had been several days since Cassius Chaerea’s visit to the stable. I’d said nothing about it to Scorpus, knowing his reaction would be to insist on us leaving Thugga. There’d been no sign of Cassius in the meantime and I hoped that meant he had gone back to Rome. But I hadn’t forgotten his warning about the bounty hunters on my trail. The man on the road soon moved on and I guessed, from the timber cart he was driving, that he was probably taking building materials to the new circus. I breathed more easily. Moments later, a clanging noise made me jump. Hanno and Abibaal had just failed to complete another changeover, and Muttumbaal, who was watching from next to the starting gates, had hit his walking stick against the rusting metal barrier in frustration. Jewel threw up her head in alarm.

‘Steady, girl,’ I said.

Muttumbaal came and put a hand on Jewel’s bridle. She calmed down at once. It irritated me how easily my grandfather could manage both her and Porcellus.

‘Bodo needs to go out second instead of Abibaal,’ grunted Muttumbaal. ‘Scorpus is a fool if he thinks those two idiots can work together.’

‘They’re young,’ I heard myself saying.

‘Young. Why is that always an excuse for everything? If you’re young, you should be willing to listen. To learn from your elders, who know better than you.’ He jerked a thumb at Abibaal, who was now storming off the track, ignoring his father’s attempts to call him back.

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