The Gladiator

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Macro stared out through the bars, down the slope of the hill into the bay. It was late in the morning and sunlight streamed through the bars of the cage, casting stark shadows across the grim interior. Around them the slaves settled into their new camp, which sprawled across the slopes of the hills. Ajax had chosen to have his tents erected on the narrow rocky peninsula that shielded the bay from the open sea. The men of his war band, together with their women and children, were camped around him in a rough circle, and Macro could see no way to escape from the camp, even if he and Julia could get out of the cage. Thanks to their filthy state they would instantly attract attention and would be quickly hunted down and recaptured the moment the alarm was raised.

Down in the bay, he could see the rebels hastily setting up defences around those ships that had been beached. A crude palisade was under construction a short distance inland, with towers at regular intervals. The crews of the grain ships, and the small marine contingents that had been put aboard to protect them from pirates, were being held in a stockade in the heart of the main camp. The ships themselves were now under close guard by the rebels. The most heavily damaged by the storm were beached, while the rest were rafted together and lay at anchor out in the bay. Ajax was taking no chances with his precious prizes, with good reason.

Turning his head, Macro could glimpse the sea between two of the tents that comprised the rebel leader's headquarters. The unmistakable lines of three Roman warships lay hove to a mile from shore. That was something at least, he mused. Ajax might have captured the grain fleet, but he would not be able to use the ships to escape the island.

Macro's gaze flickered to Julia as she leaned into the opposite corner of the cage. Her head hung forward and was shrouded by the matted hair that hung down across her shoulders.

'You awake?' Macro asked softly. 'Julia?'

She looked up slowly, and he could see from the glistening streaks over the grime on her face that she had been crying again. She swallowed and licked her lips.

'I'm thirsty,' she croaked.

'Me too.'

They were given water at dawn, noon and dusk, along with a greasy thin gruel. It had been that way since they had been put into the cage, and each day of the march since the rebel army had suddenly quit the siege of Gortyna. Ajax had ordered that his prisoners be fed on the same diet that had been provided to slaves on the farming estates. At the appointed time the same old crone and a burly member of the rebel leader's bodyguard came to the cage to feed them. The routine was always the same. The man would order them to shuffle to the back of the cage before unlocking the door to admit the old woman. She quickly set down two battered copper pots with ladles, gruel in one, water in the other, and then retreated from the cage. On the first day even Macro's iron stomach revolted at the terrible smell of the stew of rancid gristle, fat and barley. But hunger had a way of making things palatable, and he soon grew to savour the small quantity of food that he was allowed. The water be came increasingly precious as well, and the heat during the day was a torment of dry throat, leathery tongue and cracked lips.

The conditions of their imprisonment were made immeasurably worse by the lack of any arrangements for their sanitation and they had to live with the stench of their own filth. It had been bad enough for Macro to be stripped of all his clothes in front of Julia, and to have to live under such conditions, but Julia had never suffered any indignity like this, nor even imagined such an intolerable existence.

Macro had tried to help her in any way that he could, by looking away when she needed to go, and by deliberately avoiding looking at her except straight in the eye. Fortunately she had been given a torn cloak by the old hag who brought them food. It had been thrust at her and Julia had seized it at once, wrapping herself in its rank, ripped folds. Even with this small comfort she had quickly be come numbed by the grimness of it all and retreated into long periods of silence.

Macro regarded her suffering with a growing burden of sorrow. She was young and beautiful, and in love with Cato. She did not deserve such a fate as this.

As he thought of his friend, Macro's sorrow increased. The girl was as dear to Cato as anything else in the world. Her loss would break the lad's heart. And, Macro was human enough to realise, his own death would be a hard blow for Cato. They were as close as brothers, though sometimes Macro felt they were more like father and son, and he dreaded Cato doing something rash once he discovered that they had been taken prisoner. Assuming that Cato was alive, he mused grimly.

Ajax had constructed their torment perfectly, Macro reflected.

They were permitted to live, but stripped of every dignity, kept like animals — no, worse than animals. With little possibility of escape, and no seeming chance of being freed as a result of negotiations, a grim future awaited them, until the day that Ajax tired of their torment and had them butchered. Until then Macro watched for any opportunities and tried to keep his muscles exercised as far as possible in the confined space, so that his body wasn't stiff and hobbled if he needed to act swiftly.

He turned to Julia and forced himself to smile.' Not long until noon.'

'Long enough,' she whispered, leaning her head back against the bars and squinting at the brilliant sunlight lancing through the slots overhead. She shut her eyes and was silent for a while before she spoke again.' How many days have we been in here?'

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.'

Macro saw Julia recoil at the thought, pressing herself into the far corner of the cage. Ajax laughed at her reaction and Macro felt a surge of rage sweep through his veins.

'You leave the girl alone, you bastard! If you want your fun, then take it out on me. She's just a girl. But me? I'm a centurion, a man of the legions. I'm your challenge, Ajax. Try and break me, if you dare.'

Ajax had an amused expression on his face during Macro's outburst, and he shook his head mockingly. 'It's as I thought. The best fun to be had is in letting you watch the governor's daughter die first, in front of your eyes. Something for you to dwell on before we come for you, Centurion. Then, while you are left to rot on the cross, you'll have plenty of time to remember what happened to her. And you'll know it's all your fault. If you had not killed my father and sold me into slavery, none of us would be here now '

'If your father had not been a murdering pirate bastard then I would not have had to crucify him in the first place.' Macro smiled.

'Credit where credit is due, eh, sunshine?'

For a moment Ajax's features froze into a mask of bitter hatred, then he breathed in and took control of his feelings with a slow smile. 'I think I might just nail you to the crosspiece in person, Macro. Yes, I think I should like that a great deal.'

'Is that what you are keeping us for? I thought it was because we might be useful hostages.'

'Oh yes, that was the reason once. But then the girl's father decided that stubborn defiance was a greater virtue than paternal affection. And now I have hostages infinitely more valuable than you two.' Ajax edged to one side and gestured towards the captured ships.

'At one stroke I have the power to feed Rome, or let her starve. Once the emperor knows that I have his grain fleet, he will have to discuss terms with me.'

Now it was Macro's turn to sneer. 'And what makes you think he should bother with you? Those are Roman warships outside the bay. You cannot escape with those cargo ships, and you cannot defend them adequately if they remain in the bay. The navy will pick its own time, then sail in bold as brass and take those ships from you.'

'Really? You must think I was born yesterday,' Ajax mocked him.

'Those warships will not dare to enter the bay, because the moment they do, I shall give the order to burn the grain fleet. So, my dear friends, you can see the situation for yourselves. I have got your emperor by the balls. Sadly, that makes you two little more than a detail, an entertainment, and the time is fast approaching when I will have no further need of you.'