Guardian of Rome (#2 in Gladiator Series)

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

They rode for four days and four nights to reach Calabria.

Very little words passed between them as they galloped through the forests and woods, passing villages and temples along their way.

But neither of them stopped to pray because they knew the place they were heading to was long bereft of worship.

The medicine for the camp was tied safely around the buckle of her sword strap, bouncing against her hip as they hurtled down the path, the moon lighting their path.

It would be a few hours until Krista and Diomed located the road which connected the north with the southern provinces.

A few miles from the small town of Cirò, Krista slowed to a comfortable pace and directed her horse down the path.

The sun was rising over the hills behind them bathing their backs in warmth but despite this a cold shiver ran down Krista’s spine.

Sensing they were close, Krista was not prepared for what she saw as they followed the bend and came to a sudden halt at what lay before them.

Krista had seen carnage in her short life but this was something even Pluto would have shrunk from.

Krista gazed at the bodies of men, women, and children that littered the ground before them.

The blinding sun illuminated all of their faces, forcing Krista to see each and every one of the people she had failed.

Their blood had soaked into the ground. It covered the trees and dried upon the victim’s bodies until their skin looked more red than pale.

“Oh, Jupiter,” Diomed whispered in grief as he slipped from his horse.

Krista joined him upon the ground to mourn the death of over a hundred innocent people, slaughtered for trying to reach her.

They could barely walk a few feet without stepping upon another young person that been cut from their life so abruptly.

Mothers were cradling their infants; husbands were holding their lover’s hands and all the while they were being slaughtered.

Their bodies acted like a map as they stretched further down the path but it was when Krista raised her eyes skyward that she saw the true horror.

Oh Gods.

She paused and gazed at the bodies before she closed her eyes, hoping against all odds that this was nothing more than a bad dream.

But as her eyelids fluttered open, she was once again affronted with the vision of people nailed to trees.

Dozens of people had been shot with arrows, nailing their bodies to the tree trunks forcing them to look upon their families that lay dying on the ground beneath them.

One woman had an arrow pierced through her eye just for fun whilst a man beside her had been castrated with his genitals stuffed inside of his mouth.

And still, he was forced to hang there; his hands tied behind his back as he choked to death.

Turning in a circle, Krista saw not only one atrocity but half a dozen; people were hanging from ropes, others had their limbs hacked off and more.

Diomed sensed that she had stopped and followed her gaze to look upon the same horror with outrage.

“Krista,” Diomed whispered forcing her to turn towards the archer, “Look,” He nodded to a piece of wood that had been nailed to a tree beneath the corpse of a young girl.