Descendants of Rome (#3 in Gladiator Series)

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Out of Rome and back in Greece, they were half a day’s ride from their home when they decided to settle for the evening.

They had ridden their horses as hard as they dared and Artorius had suggested their rest before they return to their village, to allow Lazarus time alone before he handed Damocles’s ashes back to his family.

The tavern in which they stayed was friendly and offered them plenty of rooms for the evening but despite this, Frieda still remained on alert.

“So,” Leonidas asked around a mouthful of food as they each enjoyed a meal not cooked by Diomed for first time in nearly seven days.

Krista tore her eyes off of Lazarus, who had secluded himself to a table by the fire, his expression pensive, and back to Leonidas.

“What, precisely, was on the parchment you saw in Octavia’s office?” Leonidas asked.

Krista sighed as she re-told the information she had learnt which had led to the Romans wishing to assassinate them once again.

“Octavia and her generals have learnt the location of the rebellion’s leader.”

“Argyle?” Cato remembered the man who had been chosen as the people’s leader against the Romans; a man who had been a slave in the eternal city himself a lifetime ago.

He was a stark man, wise, and strong that demanded respect and fear everywhere he went but Cato had seen a moral softness to him. Argyle would not see any one suffer on his behalf.

Cato rather thought he had liked the man but they had barely spent any time together before he and Leonidas were shipped off to a new location to help the resistance.

Krista gave a solemn nod, “At the stronghold in Alesia.”

Leonidas paused in his eating, his throat working against him, “What does she plan to do with this information?”

Krista felt sad for Leonidas; she knew that he and the Gaul had become fast friends through his time in Gallia after they had parted ways. Like Leonidas, Argyle too was trying to defeat the Romans and protect their homeland from invasion.

“She is planning a twenty-thousand strong attack against the stronghold,” Krista murmured, seeing the words from the parchment swimming before her eyes, “They will come by land and sea.”

Leonidas and Cato, the only two that had been to Alesia, knew the devastation it would cause.

“We need to warn him,” Diomed stated as he slumped his wounded arm on the table where his hand ought to be, “Before the Romans can get to there.”

Krista nodded her head, “We will send a messenger-”

“-No,” Leonidas snapped his head up, “I shall go. Argyle knows me. He will trust what I say is true.”

“Leonidas,” Krista spoke his name with worry, “You cannot go through Gaul alone, the Roman’s will be looking for you.”

“He will not be alone,” Cato stated as he reached out and slipped his hand into Leonidas’s.

Leonidas looked upon Cato with a warm gaze as he gripped his lover’s hand tightly, thankful for every moment he got to spend with him.

Krista said nothing but her dislike for this plan was obvious. She did not want her friends walking into Roman territory alone.

She knew that they have been doing exactly this for nearly two decades before but there was something different about it when Krista knew what they were doing.