Chapter 12
On the appointed day, Lea returned to the imperial palace for her first lesson with Drusilla.
The payment had been agreed upon—five hundred sestertii per lesson, as promised—and the first fee had already been sent to the ludus.
Lucullus took half, and Lea added the remaining half to her growing stash of coin.
She was still pitifully far from the forty thousand she needed, but every sestertius helped.
This time, Lea was clothed much more comfortably in the loose knee-length tunic she wore most days, which allowed for easier movement. She didn’t bother binding her breasts, as she didn’t anticipate undertaking any significant exertion.
When she arrived, a guard showed her to the grassy courtyard with the fountain at its center that she’d visited last time. While she waited for Drusilla, she paced around the space, searching for the most even patch of grass for them to use.
Only a short time passed before Drusilla entered the courtyard.
Kallias flanked her, and a jolt went through Lea at the sight of him.
She hadn’t expected to see him today. Maybe she’d hoped she wouldn’t see him, so she wouldn’t have to reckon with the strange feelings that filled her as her eyes ran over his lean figure.
She had spent far too much time thinking about him since their kiss…
especially at night, when she was alone.
She despised feeling so out of control of her thoughts, no matter how delicious they were.
Thinking about him was one thing, but she had resolved to keep her distance.
She and Kallias came from different worlds.
For as long as she was a gladiator, she could never allow herself to get close to someone in that way.
Furthermore, she had no business getting involved with someone like Kallias, someone who lived in a palace steps away from the emperor. There was no future in it, especially not as long as she was enslaved, and the closer she allowed herself to get, the more it would hurt when it inevitably ended.
She tore her gaze away from Kallias to greet Drusilla. Lea was pleased to see that the young woman was clothed similarly to herself, in a shortened tunic that left her legs unencumbered below the knee.
“When is your next fight to be?” Drusilla asked excitedly after they exchanged greetings. “I want to make sure I won’t miss it.”
“Next week,” Lea replied. “Wednesday.” Lucullus had asked if she was fit to fight with her injury, and she’d assured him she was.
Her arm was healing well, though it still ached.
She hadn’t so much as picked up a sword, and the idleness gnawed at her.
Today’s light exercise would be a good test of her fitness.
Kallias drew closer, a frown pulling at his mouth. “You can’t fight. It will have been barely two weeks since your injury.”
He was probably right, but Lea wouldn’t give up the chance at another win—and another gift of prize money. “It’s not your concern.”
His eyebrows rose in haughty indignation. “It unequivocally is, as your physician. Is your manager forcing you?” he pressed. “I could have a word with him.”
The last thing she needed was Kallias interfering, convincing Lucullus to pull her from the match. “I’ll figure it out,” she lied, ignoring the itchy feeling that came over her at the deception. “Why are you even here?”
His mouth twitched, and she realized the question might have come out sounding much ruder than it did in her head. “Gaius Caesar asked me to supervise. To keep an eye out for any injury that might befall his sister at the hands of a bloodthirsty gladiator.”
Drusilla rolled her eyes. “Do you have a brother, Penthesilea? They’re very tiresome.”
Lea shook her head.
“Be thankful,” Drusilla muttered.
Kallias retreated to sit on a bench in the shade of a slender tree.
Lea glanced over at him as she showed Drusilla some warm-up stretches.
He affected an easy posture, legs stretched out in front of him, but there was a tension to his shoulders and a tightness to his mouth.
Likely he was imagining all the better things he could be doing with his time than supervising two women’s exercise.
Well, his annoyance wasn’t her problem. As Lea finished leading Drusilla through a short series of exercises, she tried to decide the best place to start.
Drusilla had mentioned wanting to learn wrestling and archery.
Lea had not brought bows and arrows, as drawing a bow took strength that Drusilla would have to build, so that left wrestling as their first lesson.
An idea occurred, something she could teach Drusilla that might actually be useful to her.
Most wrestling consisted of bouts between evenly matched opponents, but it was useful for a woman to know how to take down an opponent larger than herself.
Lea had sparred enough against much bigger men that she’d figured out several strategies to vanquish them.
These techniques were fairly basic, relying on simple, decisive action to level an assailant.
Well-suited for a first lesson, Lea thought.
She turned to Drusilla, who was already wiping sweat from her brow after that light exertion. “Has anyone ever taught you how to defend yourself?”
Drusilla tilted her head. “Whyever would I need to do that? I’m surrounded by guards everywhere I go.”
Lea shrugged. “It can be a useful skill to know how to deal with someone much larger and stronger than yourself.”
Interest sparked in Drusilla’s hazel eyes. “You mean I could beat a man?”
Lea nodded. “With the proper training, and under the proper circumstances.”
“Oh, yes!” Drusilla crowed. “I want to learn that.”
“Perhaps I should demonstrate first. So you can see what it looks like before I teach you.” Lea’s gaze swept toward Kallias. She required a man, and he was the closest one at hand. She waved him over. “We have need of you, medicus.”
He made his way over with a cautious stride. “Please tell me you’re not about to ask what I think you’re going to ask.”
“I want you to grab me from behind,” Lea announced.
“Pretend you’re trying to drag me over to that column to have your depraved way with me.
” She couldn’t hide the smirk that took hold of her lips as she spoke.
Honestly, she wouldn’t mind being ravished by Kallias against a column, but she was also going to enjoy flattening him.
“Oh, how sordid!” Drusilla exclaimed with a delighted flutter of her fingers.
Kallias glowered at Lea. “I hardly think this is seemly.”
“Afraid you’ll hurt me? How gallant.”
“No,” he muttered. “I’m afraid I’ll never walk again.”
Lea grinned. “I promise not to do any permanent damage.”
Still, he paused. “This could hurt your arm.”
His concern was endearing, but unnecessary. “Most of the force comes from the legs with this technique.” She turned around, facing away from him. “Whenever you’re ready.”
He hesitated a moment, then slid one arm over her shoulders and his other around her waist. His touch was much too gentle for this demonstration, and for a brief, heady moment all she wanted to do was sink into the pleasure of his embrace.
But that was not what this was for. “Harder,” she snapped.
He tightened his grip, his body pressing forward behind her, moving her toward the nearest column.
Still not quite the level of force she wanted, but it would have to do.
She anchored her good hand around the forearm nearest her throat, preventing him from getting a chokehold on her.
Then, she dropped her weight, sinking into a crouch as she pulled him with her.
From there, it was the work of a moment to shift her knees behind his, grab the backs of his legs, and throw him to the ground.
Kallias landed hard on his back with a yelp. He rolled onto his side, gasping for breath.
Drusilla clapped and cheered.
“From here,” Lea said, approaching Kallias’s prone body, “your options are either to flee straightaway or add a swift kick to further disable your opponent. Head, stomach, or groin are the best options.” She swept out her foot to demonstrate, grinning as Kallias flinched, as if he really thought she was going to kick him.
“That was wonderful!” Drusilla surveyed Kallias as he struggled to his feet. “But I don’t think he was trying very hard.”
“No, he wasn’t,” Lea agreed.
Kallias dusted off his tunic with a glare toward her. “Forgive me for not being in the habit of assaulting women.”
“Let me demonstrate more slowly.” She beckoned Kallias closer. “Grab me again.”
A muscle in his jaw twitched, but he did as she asked, anchoring both arms around her. As Drusilla watched in fascination, Lea explained each step she took to disarm him, ending by throwing him to the ground once more—though she tried to do it more gently this time.
“Would you like to try on me?” Lea asked Drusilla as Kallias hauled himself to his feet.
Drusilla opened her mouth to answer, but the entrance of four people made her pause. It was the emperor, flanked by three Praetorian Guards. Within the palace, the guards wore togas, not armor, but she had no doubt that the woolen folds concealed weapons.
Lea took an instinctive step back, eyes lowering to the grass as Gaius greeted his sister with a kiss on the cheek.
“I thought I might see how the lesson was progressing,” Gaius said, his tone light. “You should know, Penthesilea, that my sister is to be my heir. Until one of us has a son, of course. The official announcement is forthcoming. So it’s imperative that she not come to any harm.”
Lea slid her gaze toward Drusilla, who smiled sweetly. Lea hadn’t realized it was possible for a woman to inherit the imperial throne, but perhaps the emperor could do as he liked. “These exercises are very basic. She won’t be injured.”
“Well, I think Kallias may be a bit sore tomorrow,” Drusilla said with a laugh.
Lea dared a brief glance up to see Gaius’s focus swing toward his physician. “How did you get roped into this, Kallias?”
“Penthesilea required someone to display her skills on,” Kallias replied. “It seems I was the most convenient option.”
“You should have seen how she flattened him!” Drusilla said.
“I could do it again, if you like,” Lea said, aiming another smirk at Kallias.
Gaius waved a dismissive hand. “Kallias is hardly a worthy opponent for a gladiator.”
Lea looked toward the three Praetorians. “I could do it with one of your men, if you like.” Any of them would certainly be a more challenging opponent, especially as they’d hate to be bested by a woman in front of their master.
Gaius considered for a moment. “I’d rather offer myself for the demonstration.”
Behind him, Kallias’s eyes widened in alarm.
Drusilla laid a hand on her brother’s arm. “Surely you have more important things to do than join our silly pursuits,” she said with a light laugh. “One of the guards will suffice, as Penthesilea suggested.”
“I find myself with no more compelling occupation at the moment,” Gaius replied.
Lea carefully avoided meeting his gaze, instead fixing her eyes on the bubbling fountain behind them. She wasn’t afraid of facing him, but the prospect of toppling an emperor felt rather dangerous.
“I won’t go easy on you, Penthesilea,” the emperor warned. “And I don’t wish to be responsible for injuring one of our best female gladiators.”
He seemed to be giving her the opportunity to gracefully back out. For a moment, she considered it. But this was the man who had nearly caused Ferox’s death, and suddenly all she wanted was to see the emperor on his back in the grass, vanquished and gasping for breath.
“I think it will be instructive for Drusilla to show that my techniques work on any man,” Lea said. Even an emperor.
Her eyes flicked to Kallias. His handsome face bore its usual calm, composed expression, but a touch of panic heated his dark eyes.
Likely he didn’t believe she could truly hold her own against the stronger and more ruthless emperor, and feared she’d aggravate her injury or acquire a new one.
She gave him a slight smile, hoping to reassure him.
“Very well.” Gaius removed the golden bangles that decorated his wrists, along with a collection of jeweled rings, and handed the bounty to Drusilla for safekeeping.
“This technique works best to counter an attacker at your back.” Lea turned around. “Perhaps you wish to pretend that you’ve come upon me from behind, sir?”
“As you wish.” A moment later, he was on her. He took a different approach than Kallias, raking one strong hand through her hair and holding tight, jerking her head back, while his other arm coiled around her waist.
Ironically, his instinct to pull her in close was helpful, as both his hands were occupied and he couldn’t strike her.
Instead of trying to pull away from his hold on her hair, she thrust her head back, slamming into his nose, then snaked her arm over the one holding her hair, pressing down on his elbow to break his grip.
Then she drove her own elbow back into his stomach, dropped her weight to pull him off balance, and swept his legs out from under him.
He hit the ground just as Kallias had done.
A satisfied smile spread across her face. She was breathing hard; toppling him had taken significantly more effort than Kallias, and her arm did ache a bit, but the exertion felt good after so much forced inactivity. She’d missed the thrill of a fight, even a short and bloodless one.
Lea opened her mouth to explain what she’d done to Drusilla, but before she could get a word out, she was seized in a tight, painful grip by the two Praetorians closest to her.
Lea thrashed, but there were two of them, and they’d caught her unawares. “Let me go!” she hissed. “It was just a demonstration.”
The third Praetorian was helping the emperor to his feet. Lea waited for Gaius to brush it off, order them to release her, but he only leveled a murderous glare at her. Drusilla’s easy smile had vanished, and Lea could no longer see Kallias from this angle.
Panic welled as she realized she’d grievously miscalculated.
She’d been so stupid. She wasn’t supposed to win this little play-fight. She was supposed to put up a good fight, give him a chance to show off his strength and skill in front of his guards and his sister.
She was supposed to lose.
A more intelligent person might have been able to figure out that when pitted against an emperor, a graceful defeat was one’s best option. Lea had never felt like more of a fool.
This was what Kallias had feared, she realized: he hadn’t been concerned about an injury. He’d been afraid she’d win.