Champion in Love (bxb)

CHAPTER 23. The Backwater Celebrity

Next morning, Morpheus released me from his clutches to the sound of rhythmic noise, like that of a distant surf. I sat up groggily, but without having to ask for a winch. The surf wasn't a surf, but a bustle of human activity all around me. That's right, I slept at the dormitory, and the bastards didn't wake me up. Not even Quintus...

"Es tu, Quintus?" I groaned. One groan should have been enough groaning for one day. Yet, I made an even longer, even louder, and definitely more obnoxious sound once I crawled out of the school: Rufius Fulgentius waited for me on the street, looking mighty important.

Worse, he pointed at a curtained litter. "Junius said that you needed to travel like a virtuous matron, Maximus."

I groaned for the third time and pulled my cloak tighter around me, despite the warm summer morning. I could have been fighting today. Instead, I fastened my sandals without crying and took pride in it. I felt ravenous too—after I slept for ten hours—but the litter was waiting to carry me to the Colosseum. If I ran back inside to grab a bite to eat, they would call me the matron-mother till the end of my days.

Naturally, Arsenius and his quad were on hand by the Colosseum to see me descend from the contraption.

"Not too shabby for our pretty damsel Maximilla," Arsenius said. He was tall and finally approached age when his wispy almost-white hair looked natural. The scoundrel even bowed to me.

"We aren't fighting him, I take it?" asked the guy who had worked next to me to free Victor on the Night of the Behemoths.

I would have sighed, if sighing didn't hurt my ribs. Since it did, I responded with stoic silence.

"Lanista's taking a holiday," Quintus said.

"Yeah, let's call it that." I started smiling at the bastards, when my glance was intercepted by someone I had never seen around the arenas of Fidelium before. He didn't bother with psyching us out, because he didn't have to. Malice that slithered behind his eyes was enough to unnerve anyone. He directed it at me with the intensity I reserved for mortal foes.

I did a double take to make sure I hadn't run across him until today. I hadn't.

The way Quintus bristled, however, told me I was looking at another frontier child. Only, unlike my young trickster, he rolled a luckier dice roll with his appearance. His coloring was that of Fidelis, brown skin and brown hair, but his blue eyes belong on either Nanciscor or Earth.

Where Quintus was noticeably lankier than a Fidelis, this guy had a stout torso, short legs, square jaw and a unibrow, nothing out of the ordinary. Aside from blue eyes, the only other sign of barbarian blood were his arms, muscular and too long, hanging almost to his knees.

So, this man was Arsenius' secret weapon from the provincial circuses. The more I studied him, the more my empty stomach squeezed. I should have tried him on for size first, then taught Laurentius. Shoulda, woulda, coulda...

As soon as our quad settled into the break room, I clapped Laurentius on the shoulder with a fake smile. "I'll go see Arsenius' jesting routine."

"Should I carry you?" the giant quipped.

"No. Warm up properly." I limped down the tunnel, watched the show for a minute, then barreled back as fast as I could in the stupid, lurching gait.

"Laurentius! Junius! You all!" I shouted before even stepping inside the room. "They'll cheat. Their shield-wall's a secret aggressor and they'll try to overwhelm Laurentius."

He huffed. "Let them try."

I punched the closest thing—a bench—with my unhurt fist. "Laurentius! Clean sand out of your ears! If they risked this bullshit expecting to fight against me, the asshole is good."