Gladiators of Rome:Short Stories

II

                                                                                         II

Lazarus lowered his sword down towards Krista's head, knowing that he would never truly strike her, but she simply raised her own wooden blade to block his attack.

"You have been practicing little one," Lazarus chuckled as she spun out to the side from underneath his blade and struck him against the thigh.

The skin on his leg tingled from where she had hit him. She was growing stronger, Lazarus thought with pride.

"I'm not little anymore," Krista chastised him as she took a step back and looked up at him, "I'm taller than my brother now."

Sensing that the session had drawn to a close, Lazarus stepped out of his fighting stance and gave a small bow, before he reached out and ruffled her hair, "You are still little to me."

For a moment Lazarus felt her soft hair beneath his palm before it disappeared. By the time he realised that she had ducked out from underneath his hand, Krista had raised her wooden sword and pressed the tip of it against his side playfully.

"Dead!" Krista laughed, her carefree voice infectious to all those who heard it.

Reaching down, Lazarus coiled an arm around her waist and lifted her off the ground until he was carrying under his arm, "Time for you to go home."

Lazarus ducked out the door of his hut and onto the street outside where the torches in the cradles now burned brightly against the dark night sky.

Krista sighed and crossed her arms over her chest, keeping a tight grip on her sword as she did so, "Can we practice again tomorrow?"

Lazarus barely heard her over the raucous which came from the next street but his focus was on the girl tucked under his arm that he paid no attention to the noise.

"Of course," Lazarus chuckled as he turned the corner and set her back on the ground, "You are my best pupil."

"I'm your only pupil," Krista reminded him with a smile and a nudge against his side.

Lazarus's lips had begun to stretch into another smile, it felt like he was always smiling when Krista was with him, when he glanced up and something at the end of the street caught his eye.

His brows drew together in confusion as his eyes took in the broken pottery that littered the street, the food that had been dropped in haste and the people that were running from doorways on either side of the street and filling the space in between.

Lazarus realised now that the people were not walking languidly like they did most nights but were running.

The noise he had heard was not the cheerful laughter he had assumed but terrified screams as men upon horseback came cantering down the street, the hooves of the beasts sounding like a war drum as they thundered against the cobbles.

They were not slowing down for the people in their path and that was when Lazarus saw the swords in their hands.

"Krista," Lazarus gripped her shoulders and pushed her towards the alley that led her home, away from the guards, "Go home now!"

Krista sensed that something was wrong and looked back at him, her eyes wide with fear, "But Lazarus-!"

"Now, Krista!" Lazarus shouted as the horses drew nearer.

He knew he should have gone with her but Krista was not far from home where they were and Ibicus would keep her safe, whereas Cardea and Patroclus had no one to protect them. He needed to find his family.