A Sword Of Wrath, Book I: Blood And Dust

  ***

  "No!" Euric angrily rose to his feet from his seat within the Emperor's box in the arena. "You're still not doing it right, you filth!"

  Juko, sweating in the midday sun, held out his hand to his teammate, Kai, who lay on his back in the dust of the arena. The Golden Man took it with his free hand and nodded, saying in a broken accent, "Thank you." In his other hand he held a spear.

  Juko looked up to Euric in the stands and shouted, "What's wrong?"

  "You're not convincing! What about to you, Felix? What does it look like from over there?" He shouted at the trainer who was standing at ground level against the back of the arena.

  "I think Kai needs to hit the ground harder."

  Euric then gripped Posides, who was standing beside him holding on to his ubiquitous sun umbrella, and pushed him a little ways over from the royal box. "You stand there," he barked and then shouted back down to Juko, "do you see where I have Posides standing?"

  "Yes."

  "That is where the Decanus will be! If there is any doubt of the authenticity of this fight, this man, the Centurion beside him and the Legate beside him will see it. And those are not the men we want to be able to see through our little ruse!"

  Juko stared up at the Emperor's seats and, picturing the Decanus standing where Posides was, took Kai's spear from out of his hand and launched it into the stands. It landed just a hair's breadth from Euric's servant, bouncing uselessly off of the seats.

  Posides face went pale as Euric laughed deep and loud, "My boy, if you can manage to do that before anyone suspects anything, the Decanus won't know what hit him!"

  "Though I sincerely hope that he does," Juko brooded.

  "Well, once you do manage to do that, the entire arena will be thrown into chaos. We will have, at most, mere minutes to get down below into the catacombs where the High Priestess will be waiting for us." He addressed the rest of the gladiators out on the field, "Once Juko and Kai take to the dust the rest of you had better be well enough away with your freedman papers in hand. I might can guarantee your freedom but I will not be able to guarantee your safety." The lanista then looked gravely upon the figure of Juko, "Son, I hope this is what you wanted."

  The N'bari fighter nodded stoically and Euric muttered, "Then gods help us all..."