The Emperor's Daughter

Chapter Six: Caius

"Ave imperator. Morituri te salutant." The shout cried out through the arena to the accompaniment of cheers from the audience. It didn't matter how many times they had heard it, they were excited each time. The promise of bloodshed was thick in the air.

They'd already gotten their appetites teased by deaths of enemies and traitors to the throne. Tied up to a post and fed to animals that had been starved for the event, four bodies were being removed from the arena.

Caius watched as one bloody corpse was dragged away, his body well feasted on by whatever animal they'd chosen for the event. Half his face was a bloody mess, mangled by claw marks. The other half that remained intact was stuck in a look of shocked horror. The sneer that Caius had seen on it was gone now. Auster's bravado had gone with whatever animal had eaten him alive.

An enemy to the throne. What had Auster done in the last day that had brought the ire of the emperor?

Caius looked about the gladiators now dispersing for the first match to see if any other men were missing from the ranks. Perhaps a group of gladiators had all been involved in something together that resulted in the punishment.

He didn't see Evander among them which was a bit strange since Caius had found out this morning that it was Evander he'd be fighting in the first fight. He was bound to be a challenge after yesterday. He wondered how the man was being that his apprentice had just met his early death –and not in the honorable way.

Romilius looked grave as the corpses were dragged away. Lucius approached them. "I've just heard from one of the other men; Evander's hand was broken by a rock just before we came out."

Caius' mouth fell open slightly. A gladiator's hand being broken by a rock just before a fight was a punishment. Not as bad as being tied up and fed to animals, but not exactly better either. The gladiator had to decide whether to endure using his broken sword hand to fight, or use his non-dominant hand and risk a clumsy, weak defense.

Just what had Evander and Auster gotten up to after he had saved Aurelia from them? Obviously whatever it'd been had displeased the emperor.

"Did anyone else get their hand broken?" Caius asked peering around at the men walking back towards the tunnels. Some would go back to the cut openings in the walls to watch his fight, others would go to prepare for their own. Today it seemed that all remained though, zealous to see the unequal fight.

"No. Only him. No one seems to know what he did to anger Emperor Tatius, not even him." Lucius shook his head and left to watch.

Caius looked up at the emperor's seat. He was swathed in a ceremonial purple chilton. That alone told him something had happened. The emperor wanted justice to be served and he'd chosen Caius to be the bringer of that justice.

Beside the emperor, his son and heir sat. Caius had seen him at many fights, as pleased as his people to watch the gladiators fight for their glory.

On the other side of the emperor sat a girl, either Cato's wife or the emperor's daughter. Neither woman appeared much at the Colosseum for the fights, but when they did they were always richly dressed and swathed in a white veil to keep unworthy eyes from seeing their faces.

Today the girl at the emperor's side was cloaked in a black veil and what little of her face Caius could make out was directed down into her lap, refusing to watch. She looked like she was in mourning. Perhaps she was Cato's wife and she'd lost a child in the womb. There was talk –among those who cared enough to talk about it- that the heir's wife couldn't produce a child. For this wife, Caius hoped it wasn't true; it was a dangerous thing to be a royal woman unable to bear children.