Descendants of Rome (#3 in Gladiator Series)

Chapter 55

Chapter 55

Lazarus was bleeding. The wet substance was trickling down his cheek from a cut to his head, which he must have sustained in the battle with Hadrian.

His cheek was numb from running in the cold night air that the warm liquid felt like it was scolding him as it travelled down the side of his face.

Reaching up to wipe the blood away, Lazarus was breathing heavy and the cold air hit the back of his throat as he ran. It felt as if they had been running for days when Dareios slowed beside them.

Marcia ran for a few more steps before she realised that neither Lazarus nor Dareios were beside her. Looking back, she saw Dareios peering into the forest questioningly, Lazarus lingering beside him.

Marcia remembered Philyra and Petra waiting for her and hurried back to Dareios, "I thought you said we had to hurry?"

Dareios snapped his head around to look behind them, his lips moving but no sound came. It looked as if he was counting.

Whatever number he reached it must have been satisfactory as Dareios suddenly let out a long breath and straightened up, "I think we are safe now."

Marcia scoffed. Safe? She doubted, remembering the Emperor's words, that she or Lazarus would ever be safe again.

Lazarus was looking at her and she could tell that he was thinking the same. Marcia only now saw the extent of his injuries and it felt as if someone had enclosed their fist around her stomach without her noticing.

"We should be far enough from the Romans now," Dareios explained, interpreting her behaviour.

"Where is the fort?" Marcia asked, turning in a circle as she tried to gain her bearings.

Dareios pointed behind them and towards to their right.

"Right," Marcia began to walk in that direction.

"Wait!" Dareios called.

Marcia turned and saw that Lazarus was closer. The corner of her lips tilted upwards in a smile as she saw that he had followed her without hesitation or question.

"Wait," Dareios hurried over, "There is nothing up there- It is was the first place I went after I woke up on the battlefield-" Dareios gave his head a little shake, as if dispersing bad thoughts, "There is nothing there."

"Yes, there is," Marcia spoke softly because Dareios wasn't wrong. There hadn't been anything there when he had looked, but now Philyra, Petra and the others should have reached the fort, "Trust me."

Marcia could not wait to see whether they did trust or not. She turned in the direction of the fort and pressed on.

Lazarus caught up a few seconds later and led her around the back of the stronghold, directing her through the rear entrance which he had left through with his siblings a million years ago.

The fort looked derelict and deserted as they entered into its narrow streets; even the straw strewn across the floor looked dead and no longer crunched beneath his boots as they walked.

The air was colder, and darker, here than in the forest and a shiver ran through his body as if ghosts now inhabited the crumbling ruins.

Marcia and Lazarus could not contemplate that only a few days prior this fort had been near to bursting with the amount of people that had poured into her walls.