The Gladiator

Macro had to concentrate hard for a moment. Even though he had been keeping count, for some reason he doubted the number he had in his head. He counted back just to check. 'I make it sixteen.

Yes, sixteen, I'm sure of it.'

'Sixteen days,' Julia sighed. 'Feels like sixteen years... I wish I was dead.'

'Don't say that,' Macro replied in a kindly tone. 'While we're alive, there's always hope.'

She uttered a cracked laugh. 'Alive? You call this being alive?'

'Yes, yes, I do.' Macro did his best to sit up straight and stare at Julia. 'We will get out of here, Julia. Don't let go of that thought.

I swear it to you, in the name of all the gods. We will get out of here.'

She looked at him hopefully, then nodded with a sad smile. 'You're right, of course. They'll drag us out of this cage to kill us. Or maybe we'll be left to die in here and one day some one will pull our bodies out and throw us into a ditch for the rats and dogs and crows to feast on.'

'Stop that!' Macro snapped, then forced himself to smile gently.

'You're making me hungry.'

Julia stared at him intensely for an instant and then burst into laughter. Macro joined in, roaring with mirth and desperate relief that some spark of the old Julia still lived on. A handful of the nearest rebels turned to look curiously at the filthy figures in the cage, and then one of the gladiator's bodyguards came over and poked the butt of his spear through the bars and into Macro's back.

'Quiet, you!'

'Fuck off,' Macro growled back, and the man rammed the butt home again, much harder this time, sending a searing pain round Macro's ribs. He snatched a breath of air and gritted his teeth as he rode out the pain. The guard grunted, spat through the bars and then slowly strode back to the shade of a stunted olive tree.

'Macro, are you all right?' Julia was looking at him anxiously.

'I'll live,' he winced. 'But that bastard won't, the moment I get out of here.'

'Brave words.'

'I mean it. I'm going to take that spear and ram it so far up his arsehole I'll knock his fucking teeth out... Sorry, pardon my Gallic, miss.'

Julia shook her head. 'Don't worry. I think we've gone some way towards outgrowing social niceties in recent days.'

'Somewhat easier for me than you, I imagine.'

'Yes...' Julia shifted and then let out a low groan, trying to find a more comfortable position as she leaned her back against the bars.

Macro turned his head and examined the scene down in the bay again. The cargo ships were large, bulky affairs that would be completely at the mercy of any Roman warships that they might encounter. However, the rebels would have plenty of warning that the warships were coming. The peninsula stretched out for the best part of two miles before it reached the narrow straits leading out to the sea. Ajax's men would see immediately if the Roman warships approached the entrance to the bay. There would be enough time to burn or sink all the grain ships.

He was suddenly aware of a light snuffling sound and turned back to see that Julia was trying to hide her tears again.

He opened his mouth to offer some comfort, but found there was nothing he could say. There was no comfort to offer. None at all, he realised.

'Macro?'

'Yes, miss?'

'Sometimes I wish you had killed me, back when you had the chance.'

Macro felt a surge of guilt at her words. There were moments when he too wished he had not hesitated, that he had killed Julia with a quick sword thrust and then had time to turn his blade on himself.

But he despised himself for even considering such an end when there was always a chance, however slim, to escape or get revenge. He cleared his throat. 'I would have done it, but I was knocked down before I could strike. Perhaps the gods spared us for a reason.'

'Really? And what reason would that be? To see how long we could endure this?' Julia let out a dry laugh, then coughed for a moment before she fell silent. At length she spoke again, in an anxious tone.

'Do you think Cato will still want me if we get through this?'

'Of course! Why would you ever doubt it?'

She bit her lip and glanced down at her body.' Look at me. I'm disgusting. I am dirt. This... filth is so ground into me that I shall stink of it for ever.'

'It's nothing that a good scrub won't deal with,' Macro replied lightly. 'You'll see. When it's all over you can have a bath, a scrapedown and a hot meal and the world will be a completely different place. And there'll be Cato. You'll be a sight for his sore eyes, I can tell you.'

'There are some things, some kinds of dirt, that no amount of scrubbing can erase, Macro.' She looked quickly at him. 'I'm no fool, you know.'

'I never thought you were.'

'Then don't humour me. If — when - the time comes that Ajax tires of keeping us in here, he's going to torture us, isn't he?'

Macro's silence was eloquent enough for Julia, and she continued.

'I overheard some of his guards one night, soon after we were taken.

They were talking about a woman who had been kept in this cage before us. The wife of Hirtius. When Ajax tired of keeping her, he turned her over to his men.' Julia shuddered.' They used her all night, in whatever ways they could imagine. She was begging them to kill her before the end, but they ignored her and continued, until finally they left her to bleed to death. Macro, I can't face that. Even if I lived through it, I could never be with another man again. No one would have me. Not Cato anyway. I would be dishonoured and he would look at me with disgust in his eyes and turn away' She gulped back her emotions and spoke so softly that Macro could barely hear her.

'I might survive the rest of it, but not that. Not losing Cato.'

'You underestimate him, miss. Cato is not some chinless wonder.

He has a deeper sense of honour, and compassion. I tried to beat that out of him in the early days, but he was a stubborn bastard. Still is.

He loves you, and that's all that will matter to him when he finds you again.'

'You really think so?' She looked at him with hope in her eyes.

'I know it. Now, that's enough crying.' Macro nodded his head towards the nearest rebels, clustered about a camp fire as they watched a suckling pig turn slowly over a pile of embers. 'We have to appear strong and fearless in front of those bastards. You can do it, miss. Just remember, you're a Roman aristocrat. You have a tradition to uphold.'

'But I'm afraid.'

'And so am I,' Macro admitted. 'But you can choose not to let them use it against you. That is the only way we can defy Ajax at the moment. So, chin up and keep a brave face on for those bastards over there.'

'I'll try.'

Macro sensed a shadow at his shoulder and then a voice spoke close to his ear. 'Fine words, Centurion. We'll see how brave you can be when the time comes to do to you what you did to my father.'

Ajax moved round to the end of the cage and squatted down where they could both see him. He had a chicken leg in one hand and raised it to his mouth to take a bite. Then his nose wrinkled and he tossed the leg to one side. Almost at once, a pair of seagulls whirled down and began to fight over the meat, pecking away at each other savagely.

'You stink, the pair of you. More than enough to put me off my food.' He stared at his captives for a moment and sneered.' Who would believe that two such disgusting examples of humanity could belong to the great Roman empire? You are like swine, rolling in your own filth. I wonder what your emperor would say if he could see you now? And you, woman, what would your father, the governor, think if he beheld you now as I do? I would not blame him if he disowned you. After all, you are not fit for decent company. And that's before I let my men loose on you.'