‘They’re giving her easy matches. Achillia would take the Amazon, I reckon.’
Sorina stopped, her brown eyes sweeping the crowd, searching for her accuser. She spotted him, a skinny, unwashed fellow sporting a yellow tunic. She growled and leapt towards the stalls, bashing her sword on the bars that separated fighter from audience. Many spectators yelped and leapt away, falling over themselves at this sudden, violent reaction.
‘Get yourself in here, you little bastard,’ Sorina screamed. ‘Achillia is nothing! Do you hear me? Nothing!’ She was going to say more, but the arena attendants rushed over and tackled her, bearing her to the sand. She did not struggle as they disarmed her and dragged her to the tunnel.
The jeers rang loud and long.
Balbus blanched at the crowd’s reaction. After such a spectacular showing in Aeschylus’s games he had wanted to prove that this was merely the beginning. But the truth was inescapable: the other lanista’s could not provide women of quality to match his own or else were reluctant to send their best fighters against his. Gladiatrices cost money, and there seemed to be a wide-spread belief that to face a woman from Balbus’s ludus was to invite death — hardly a sensible proposition for any man of business.
That Sorina’s popularity appeared to be on the wane was only of slight concern to him. She had served him well but her time was coming to an end. She was getting old and he now had Lysandra. Fortuna had indeed smiled on him when the arrogant young Spartan had come his way. For a long time, he had viewed Eirianwen as the natural successor to the old lioness. But it was Lysandra now who carried all his hopes.
Sorina was, he decided, becoming a spent force. Not her fault that the opposition had been poor; not her fault that the crowd reacted badly. But he had a reputation to think of and it was a problem that he would have to address.
More pressing, however, was the fact that Lysandra was due to fight a woman from the same ludus that had produced Sorina’s opponent. Given that the Spartan’s reputation was growing, it was apparent to Balbus that the lanista would not send out one of his best to probable death at the hands of the rising star of Halicarnassus. He called Stick to him and bade the Parthian contact the opposition school’s owner. He had a plan. Of course he did. That was why he was successful. He rubbed his hands together gleefully, pleased with his own invention.
‘No problem.’ Danae flexed her neck as she returned from the arena. After Sorina’s bout, the Athenian had put on a good display against her own opponent. With the previous fight in mind, she had gauged her opposition well and not gone all out to finish her. Rather, she eked out the battle, allowing the other woman a sniff at victory before sending her to Hades with a blow to the head.
‘You fought well,’ Lysandra acknowledged, unlacing her manica.
‘Too easy,’ Danae said. ‘I had to carry the bitch.’
‘True enough,’ Thebe broke in. She had not fought yet that day and was in good spirits. Their opposition looked easy and that meant in all probability that they would come out of the spectacle alive.
‘That is the result of your training,’ Lysandra reminded them.
‘You are learning the Spartan ways and this is an improvement over anything you have been taught thus far.’
Danae refrained from comment but Thebe winked at her when Lysandra was not looking.
‘How are you feeling?’ Stick sauntered into the Hellene women’s cell.
‘I am quite well, and ready for my bout,’ Lysandra informed him, tossing Danae’s manica at him.
‘Not you.’ Stick snagged the piece from the air, and tossed it back immediately. ‘Danae.’
‘I’m fine, Stick,’ she replied. ‘The bout was easy.’
‘Good.’ Stick gave her his buck-toothed grin. ‘You are fighting again.’
Danae was taken aback. ‘Why?’ she said. Though her bout had gone smoothly no one wished to risk her life twice in the same day.
‘The crowd is getting restless. This other ludus is in the shit because they’ve brought novices and thrown them in against you lot. Anyone with an eye for the fight could see that you carried that useless trollop all the way through. It wasn’t as bad as Sorina’s showing, but…’ he trailed off.
‘When?’ This from Lysandra.
‘Later,’ Stick said. ‘There’s no easy way to tell you this, so I’m just going to come out with it. Frontinus has decreed that the other school is voided from the games. That means it’s just our ludus providing the fighters from now on.’
There was a collective gasp from the Hellene women. Almost instinctively, Danae took a step away from Lysandra. They all knew what this meant. If the lots came out badly, the two could end up facing each other.
‘The governor has rescinded some pardons due to be given to the local criminals,’ Stick went on. ‘He’s having them fight each other now, by way of an apology to the spectators for the shit they’ve seen so far. This is while we work out the new schedule.’
The women looked helplessly at each other, even Lysandra seemed taken aback.
‘These things happen,’ Stick said shortly. ‘I expect you to be professional about it.’
‘But, Stick…’ Thebe broke in.
‘No buts. There’s nothing we can do.’ He hesitated for a moment.
‘I’m sorry.’ The shock was that the women could see he meant it. He said no more — just turned on his heel and left.
The silence was heavy in his wake.
XLI
‘An excellent solution,’ Frontinus said, saluting Balbus with his wine goblet.
Balbus inclined his head in acknowledgement. ‘I thank you, Your Excellence. Business partners they may be, but the lanista knew that he could not overstep the boundaries between them.
‘The other lanista was not put out by your suggestion?’
‘No, sir, he was not.’ Balbus smiled. ‘Positively enthusiastic in fact. Yes, I gain his purse for this spectacle, but he stood to lose much more in facing my troupe. It would have been a fiasco.’
‘But you also stand to lose out, is that not so? If your best are killed by each other?’ Frontinus’s gaze was hard.
‘That is true,’ Balbus acquiesced. ‘But it is my hope that they will fight well enough to gain the missio from you.’
The governor fixed him with a withering stare. ‘I hope you are not suggesting that our plans for the future will influence my vote in this matter.’
Balbus flushed. This had been precisely his hope. However, he cleared his throat and steeled himself. ‘All business is risk,’ he said.
‘I have a reputation to maintain and cannot deprive the loyal spectators, and yourself, of the entertainment they desire. There are many good fighters in my school, sir. If I lose some, it is the will of the gods. I am shocked that you think I’d expect you to be anything other than honest in your voting,’ he added.
This seemed to placate the governor. ‘I should hope not. Who is Lysandra to fight?’
Balbus spread his hands. ‘I don’t know,’ he answered truthfully.
‘I am an honest man, my lord. The lots will be drawn and she will fight whom the gods decree.’
‘She will win,’ Frontinus declared confidently. ‘How does her ‘army’ progress?’
‘Well, sir. She is training her coterie at the moment, and I am having the ludus expanded to house our new ‘recruits’. Once her own women are sufficiently trained, she will have a chain of command, as she calls it. Her women will pass the skills on to our new slaves.’
‘Just like a real army.’ Frontinus beamed.
‘She is taking it all very seriously,’ Balbus said. ‘There is good news on the market, too. Falco, my promoter, has been working hard. Many lanista’s have bought into your excellent idea, so there will be no shortage of women for the grand battle.’
‘A bloodbath.’ Frontinus nodded. ‘The Emperor will love it.’
‘As will the populace. I salute you, sir. The idea was genius.’
