Gladiator of Rome (#1 in Gladiator Series)

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Krista sat on the edge of her feather bed, her feet growing numb from the cold stone, but she had far worse things on her mind to worry about. She had risked a lot by stepping in and saving that one slave girl, who most probably had been raped her entire life since entering servitude. And now Krista had placed a marker upon her back for the Gauls. 

The Gauls made up nearly half of the gladiator numbers whilst Krista numbered only one. And if they were willing to rape a girl surrounded by people, confident no one would intervene, then Krista would bet that they wouldn't mind killing her either. And all because, deep down, Krista was too soft hearted to see one bad deed being done against another, even though that girl had probably grown up being raped. One more act of violence would not have scarred her any more than her past already had and because Krista could not sit idly by she now lay awake at night, her back pressed against the wall with her eyes fixed upon the door.

She had no doubt of the Gauls prowess that they could slip through the lines of sleeping women and kill her whilst she slept and barely create a ripple. They would find her dead in the morning with her throat slashed and body mauled. No one would stand up for her or pay for her body to be given proper burial. Lazarus would not be able to afford it by himself and Commander Niclaus had forbidden them from entering into any union which aided in the ceremonious burial of their bodies. She would be fed to the lions instead. 

Krista trembled as she felt how isolated she had become. Her stomach knotted as she thought of all the bridges she had burned and the enemies she had made. She was stood all alone with people beginning to surround her. She wished the games would come sooner so that she could either meet her death or meet her freedom. Closing her eyes only briefly to stem the insistent urge to sleep, Krista was jolted back awake when the women outside her room stirred in their sleep.

Someone was coming. Krista could hear the soft pad of their feet on the stone. Never let your guard down. Artorius's words rang louder in her mind than ever before as she got to her feet and crossed the room. Pressing her back against the wall beside the doorway which led into her room, Krista kept herself well hidden and waited.

It had passed midnight and the torches were burning low in their cradles. The darkness aided Krista by covering her position for those few seconds longer as the restless moans of sleeping women drifted into her ears. 

Krista was only mildly surprised that Rheia and Lydia could still be sleeping; she absentmindedly wondered how they had ever survived.

But it was more likely that they did not care for her fate.

Turning her attention back to the Gaul that was coming to kill her, Krista pressed her cheek against the wall and gazed out at the faint shadow that was approaching.

Krista guessed that he was barely a few feet from her door.

A brief pause by her attacker and Krista feared they would hear her heart racing inside her chest.

But then the footsteps resumed once more and Krista had barely blinked before their figure was blocking her doorway, their body mere inches from hers.

Krista could see their head starting to turn, looking for her, and deemed it was time to strike.

Keeping her movements quick and lethal, Krista stepped up onto the step, until she was level with her attacker, and coiled her arm around their neck.

Krista was struck by how slender the Gaul's neck was and the fact that he was nearly a full head shorter than her.

Something didn't seem right to Krista but nothing yet gave her reason to release her tight grip on their windpipe, blocking off their oxygen, when a pure feminine squeak sounded from the person in her arms.