Part 11 (1/2)
”A gladiator's life is not so bad if he behaves himself, and while it lasts,” Narcissus said
He was sitting beside sextus, son of Maxi school of Bruttius Marius, which ell known to be the eh maintained in the name of a citizen There was a stone seat at the end where sunlight poured through a barredhigh up in the wall To right and left facing a central corridor were cells with doors of latticed iron Each cell had its own barred , hardly a foot square, set high out of reach and the light, piercing the latticed doors, made criss-cross patterns on the white wall of the corridor Narcissus got up, glanced into each cell and sat down again beside sextus
”The trouble is, they don't,” he went on ”If you let theet into poor condition; and if you keep them in, they kill themselves unless they're watched These men are reserved for Paulus, and they know they haven't a chance against him”
”Paulus' luck won't last forever,” sextus rerimly
”No, nor his skill, I suppose But he doesn't debauch himself, so he's always in perfect condition”
”Haven't you a h to kill him?” sextus asked ”They would kill the ht undertake to enrich his relatives”
Narcissus shook his head
”One ht have a chance with the sword or with the net and trident, though I doubt it But Paulus uses a javelin and his ai Only yesterday at practise they loosed eleven lions at him from eleven directions at the same moment He slew them with eleven javelins, and each one stone dead Soed them, I can tell you In the second place, they know Paulus is Coo into the arena frankly as the emperor, for all the secret it is That substitute who occupies the royal pavilion when Coer looks very h a year ago you could hardly tell the two apart Even the h nobody dares to acclailadiator and even though he may know that the other man can split a stick at twenty yards, he will do his best But let hiainst the eht; he suspects his own three javelins and his shi+eld and helmet have been ta notsuperstitious about killing emperors, who are Gods, not men, or the senate and priests wouldn't say so It is the sa aside Caesar's skill, which is simply phenomenal, the other charioteers are all afraid of him”
”If he isn't killed soon, Severus or one of the others will forestall us all,” said sextus ”Pertinax has only one chance: to be on the throne before the other candidates knohat is happening”
Narcissus' bronze face lighted with a sudden smile that rippled all around the corners of hisof killing,” he said, ”Marcia has ordered me to kill you the moment you make up your mind the time has come to strike!”
”You promised her, of course?”
”No, as it happens ere interrupted But she relies on ins to suspect me I would rather die in the arena than be racked and burned!”
”Why not then? How is this for a proposal?” sextus touched him on the shoulder ”Substitute yourself and ainst hiet him I am lucky I believe the Gods are interested in me, I have had so many escapes from death”
”I haven't much faith in the Gods,” said Narcissus ”They may be all like Commodus I heard Galen say that e”
sextus s, I suppose, to Marcia and her Christians”
”Listening, yes, but I don't lean either way It doesn't seem to me that Christianity can do much for a man when javelins are in the air And besides, to be frank with you, sextus, I rather hope to h he is said to be, I would like to see Commodus killed for I loathe him But I hope to survive him and obtain my freedom Pertinax would manumit me That is why I applied for the post of trainer in this beastly ergastululoo for a chance to kill the the sand to have one's liver split, one's throat cut, and be dragged out with the hooks I have fought ht, but I liked each one less than the last”
He got up and strode again along the corridor, glancing into the cells, where gladiators sat fettered to the wall
”This whole business is getting too confused for ain ”You want to kill Commodus, as is reasonable Marcia has ordered me to kill you, which is unreasonable! Yet for the present she protects you Why? She knows you are Commodus' enees Pertinax, who doesn't want to be eht because Marcia helps Cornificia to persuade him! Isn't that a confusion for you? And now there's Bultius Livius As I understand it, Marcia caught hi on her No woman in her senses would trust Livius; the man has soboth in his veins and slow fire in his head Yet Marcia now heaps favors on hi,” said sextus
”Are you mad then, too?”
”Maybe! I have persuaded Marcia that, now she has possession of the journal Livius was keeping, she can henceforth hold that over hiratitude-”
”He has none!”
”-and at the same time hold over him the threat of exposure for connection with the Severus faction, and the Pescennius faction, and the Clodius Albinus faction He had it all down in his journal He can easily be involved in those conspiracies if Marcia isn't satisfied with his spying in her behalf”
”Gemini! The man will break down under the strain He has no stamina