myself with distress. I’d just seen dozens of people senselessly murdered. But I didn’t know them. I’d felt a connection with Star. She couldn’t be allowed to die.
But someone was already vaulting over seats to get to her. It wasn’t the lanista or a uniformed official. It was Orlando and when I saw his expression, I felt like I was falling through space. All these months I’d been waiting for this beautiful boy to realise I was his special someone. But he’d found her already and it wasn’t me.
Chapter Seven
I hurled myself over the barrier and raced across the arena. Tiny grains of burning-hot sand stung my bare legs as I ran. Down here the smell of blood was suddenly suffocating.
Orlando was already kneeling beside Star. The lanista, Festus Brutus, limped down from the stands to join Orlando. A doctor attached to the gladiator school hurried after him.
Star kept trying to lift her head.
“Lie still!” Festus growled.
Orlando looked appalled to see me. “Mel, you’re not supposed to be here.”
“Will Star be OK?” I asked in a small voice.
“Too early to say,” he said tersely. “Now go take care of Aurelia like you’re supposed to” A flicker of worry crossed his face. “She’s OK, isn’t she?”
As OK as you can be when you’ve just watched thirty human beings slaughtered in public, I thought. But I just said huskily, “She’s fine.”
“Well, you shouldn’t leave her too long.”
Star didn’t look like a warrior queen lying crumpled on the sand. She looked small and vulnerable. She’s no taller than Aurelia, I thought.
But the gladiatrix was a warrior to the core. When the doctor ripped her blood-soaked skirt, Star didn’t so much as murmur, even though the leather was sticking to an open wound. The doctor began to probe inside the wound with metal instruments, trying to discover the extent of the damage. It must have been agony but she didn’t flinch.
Up close I realised that Star’s arms and legs were peppered with bruises and tiny healed scars; through the slits of her mask, her closed eyelids were deathly pale.
“We should get her back to the barracks,” the doctor told Festus. “She’s lost a lot of blood.”
Orlando hovered anxiously. I wanted to believe that his concern was strictly professional, but paranoid worries swarmed through my mind.
Had Orlando met Star on his previous trip and fallen head over heels-in-love with her? Did he organise his task force purely to save her from a bloody death in the arena? Was that why he couldn’t tell us the purpose of the mission?
I stared down miserably at my rival. She was everything l could never be. Sexy, fearless, mysterious…
Reuben came up behind me. “You should come back.”
“Just give me a minute,” I pleaded.
Orlando and the lanista were helping the dazed gladiatrix to her feet, with some assistance from Juno. Between them, they half-carried Star out of the arena. There were confused murmurings from the crowd.
I went back to my seat like a zombie.
“You missed my brother,” Aurelia said in a bright voice. “He brought Titus Lucretius to meet me.”
“Didn’t stay long, did they?” Reuben murmured in my ear. “You’d almost think they’d been waiting to get her by herself.”
“So who was that beautiful boy you were talking to?” Aurelia asked me with that same fake brightness. I told myself she wasn’t thinking about what she was saying. She didn’t know how I felt about Orlando. She couldn’t know the last thing I needed right now was for him to have another female admirer.
Through my fog of misery I sensed that Aurelia’s meeting with her future husband had distressed her. It was sweltering in the amphitheatre, but I saw her shiver. She drew her thin shawl more closely around her, and for the first time since I’d known her, she spoke like a haughty mistress addressing her slave. “Find our bearers, Mella. I wish to leave. At once!”
That night I helped my mistress get
But someone was already vaulting over seats to get to her. It wasn’t the lanista or a uniformed official. It was Orlando and when I saw his expression, I felt like I was falling through space. All these months I’d been waiting for this beautiful boy to realise I was his special someone. But he’d found her already and it wasn’t me.
Chapter Seven
I hurled myself over the barrier and raced across the arena. Tiny grains of burning-hot sand stung my bare legs as I ran. Down here the smell of blood was suddenly suffocating.
Orlando was already kneeling beside Star. The lanista, Festus Brutus, limped down from the stands to join Orlando. A doctor attached to the gladiator school hurried after him.
Star kept trying to lift her head.
“Lie still!” Festus growled.
Orlando looked appalled to see me. “Mel, you’re not supposed to be here.”
“Will Star be OK?” I asked in a small voice.
“Too early to say,” he said tersely. “Now go take care of Aurelia like you’re supposed to” A flicker of worry crossed his face. “She’s OK, isn’t she?”
As OK as you can be when you’ve just watched thirty human beings slaughtered in public, I thought. But I just said huskily, “She’s fine.”
“Well, you shouldn’t leave her too long.”
Star didn’t look like a warrior queen lying crumpled on the sand. She looked small and vulnerable. She’s no taller than Aurelia, I thought.
But the gladiatrix was a warrior to the core. When the doctor ripped her blood-soaked skirt, Star didn’t so much as murmur, even though the leather was sticking to an open wound. The doctor began to probe inside the wound with metal instruments, trying to discover the extent of the damage. It must have been agony but she didn’t flinch.
Up close I realised that Star’s arms and legs were peppered with bruises and tiny healed scars; through the slits of her mask, her closed eyelids were deathly pale.
“We should get her back to the barracks,” the doctor told Festus. “She’s lost a lot of blood.”
Orlando hovered anxiously. I wanted to believe that his concern was strictly professional, but paranoid worries swarmed through my mind.
Had Orlando met Star on his previous trip and fallen head over heels-in-love with her? Did he organise his task force purely to save her from a bloody death in the arena? Was that why he couldn’t tell us the purpose of the mission?
I stared down miserably at my rival. She was everything l could never be. Sexy, fearless, mysterious…
Reuben came up behind me. “You should come back.”
“Just give me a minute,” I pleaded.
Orlando and the lanista were helping the dazed gladiatrix to her feet, with some assistance from Juno. Between them, they half-carried Star out of the arena. There were confused murmurings from the crowd.
I went back to my seat like a zombie.
“You missed my brother,” Aurelia said in a bright voice. “He brought Titus Lucretius to meet me.”
“Didn’t stay long, did they?” Reuben murmured in my ear. “You’d almost think they’d been waiting to get her by herself.”
“So who was that beautiful boy you were talking to?” Aurelia asked me with that same fake brightness. I told myself she wasn’t thinking about what she was saying. She didn’t know how I felt about Orlando. She couldn’t know the last thing I needed right now was for him to have another female admirer.
Through my fog of misery I sensed that Aurelia’s meeting with her future husband had distressed her. It was sweltering in the amphitheatre, but I saw her shiver. She drew her thin shawl more closely around her, and for the first time since I’d known her, she spoke like a haughty mistress addressing her slave. “Find our bearers, Mella. I wish to leave. At once!”
That night I helped my mistress get
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