Champion in Love (bxb)

CHAPTER 20. A White Lie

The Appian Peaks snuggled in the wool of clouds to ward off the morning chill as I marched to Fidelium from the Temple. Headache dug in behind my eyeballs like it was going to stay. The overgrown snake left me with such pain in my bones after our dream fight, that I swore off wrestling an actual serpent should I ever come across one. And I whistled, squinting at the washed-out spot of sun in the overcast sky. Victor was alive, on the mend, and it was downhill almost all the way.

I reached the school before noon and knocked on the wall of Rufius Fulgentius' office, to attract his attention to my return without stopping by. Let him follow me, if he were so inclined, even though I was his slave. The weight of this realization collapsed on me, burying me under, like that shoddily built tenement that had nearly killed Albus and his brother. At the Asclepius' temple, I worked hard and obeyed, sure. Yet there I could pretend that it was a penance served by a free citizen out of his own volition. At the school it was different.

Rufius Fulgentius' sandals thumped against the packed dirt of the gallery's floor right behind me. I picked up the pace to stay ahead of his huffing and puffing. When I burst into the training yard, my breath hitched in my throat.

It felt like I was gone for a year and returned—of course, I returned, where else would I go?—and found everything as it used to be: the sand-covered ring, the rough wall, the straw dummies, and the racks of the training weapons. Nothing had changed, except the configuration of the obstacle course. Even that hadn't been altered much, because my men were slackers. How I loved these idiots... not that I would tell them that.

One by one, men abandoned their sparring, those who faced me did it first, except for Quintus. He couldn't have possibly seen me from where he was, not unless he had an owl's ability to turn his head backward. Yet before I even finished my first step on the sand, he whirled. "Lanista!"

Quintus stuck his rudis into the ground, tossed his net aside and dashed toward me.

His limp was barely noticeable, but I yelled, "Tat! What are you doing running on that ankle?"

My scolding was useless, because Quintus came to a skidding stop in front of me.

"Ma... Maxi—!" His mouth worked, unable to finish my name, and his indigo eyes widened so much, they overtook half his face. It was clear he couldn't decide if he wanted to throw himself at me, wrapping his arms around my neck, or cry from guilt.

I resolved his dilemma by giving him the most innocent hug I could manage. Despite his lankiness, his body shrunk somehow and his forehead bumped into my shoulder. Keeping my hands hovering above his back and his fly-away hairs out of my mouth, I shouted, "Victor is recovering!"

Junius stepped forward, applauding. "Viva Maximus!" he screamed, like it was my achievement, not Victor's amazing constitution and the temple's magical bite-of-life medicine.

The rest of my students didn't question Junius' assumptions. They took up his cry and converged on me. Why did they cheer my idiocy? And why, O why was I grinning like the biggest idiot of them all?

I'd won duels and tournaments, I won the Great Games, but my heart had never palpitated like this. Claudius Caesar handed me my rudis and my freedom to the roar of twenty thousand throats—and it wasn't the same triumph.

Quintus stepped back, clapping so hard I feared he'd have bruises on the palms of his hands. The pebble of his throat bobbed up and down, choking off any yells he might have tried to produce. It was for the best. In the small yard, echo bounced from the walls, multiplied. The ovation was deafening, and some invisible hand clutched my windpipe to shut off air.

Why was this happening? Nobody had bothered with cheers the first time I sold my person to the arena, not even my lover for whose sake— Not now! I tilted my head back... not even my lover! The sky revolved majestically over me. Another moment, and the old heartache on top of the amazement would have toppled me off my feet.