She gave a small cheer as Aquilia stumbled, then Valens followed up with a sword thrust. Aquilia raised his trident and pushed away the sword.

The boisterous crowd grew silent as the intensity of the battle in the arena increased.

Julia tried to hide her eyes, to look away, but it was impossible. Every fibre of her being was intent on watching Valens battle for his life.

The net hissed, this time striking Valens on the shoulder, coiling around his midriff. Aquilia started to reel him in. Valens used his shield and knocked Aquilia sideways.

'Who's winning?' Julia whispered to Strabo. She had to know! Her nails made half-moon shapes on the palms of her hands as she waited for his answer.

'Hard to say,' Strabo answered. 'They have both scored points on the other But it is a good match.'

A good match? It was a life-and-death struggle! The man she loved was out there fighting for his life, for the amusement of others. Julia felt sickened to the core.

The fight continued with all its awfulness. With each blow, she was certain Valens would receive a mortal injury. She tore the top of her thumbnail off with her teeth and then proceeded to chew each of her other fingernails to the quick before going back to her thumb.

'Are there rules?' she asked.

Strabo laughed. 'The rule is there are no rules. We wait until one of them makes a mistake. The power and the grace of two gladiators in their prime. It makes me proud to be a Roman.'


Sweat poured down Valens's face as he began to feel the full force of the injury he had received last night. Aquilia's last parry had hit him squarely in the back of his helmet, sending green lights before his eyes. He fought to keep his footing in the sand that was slippery from the earlier bouts.

Valens staggered, and tried to regain his balance. He heard the siren call of the ground asking him to fall down, to give up and embrace the darkness.

He stumbled to his knees, felt the net strike his back and instinctively rolled away. He heard Aquilia's triumphant laugh against the blackness in his head and he struggled to right himself. The crowd began to shout 'He's had it' and knew they were talking about him.

'That's right,' Aquilia sneered. 'Give in to me—you Romans always do. Nobody cares whether you live or die. Tomorrow I will be their hero.'

Valens wiped his hand across his mouth and tried to hang on, too exhausted to keep trying. Aquilia's words started weaving a spell around his thoughts, tying them up, making him powerless to resist.

The chanting grew louder, filling his body. Aquilia's trident was poised to strike. Valens wondered if he had the strength to roll to his side, to avoid the prongs.

A woman's scream tore through his consciousness with one word—no. Valens lifted his head and saw Julia, her face pale as snow, her green gown vivid against the blue of Strabo's box. She was here! The inner reaches of his soul uncurled.

Strength flooded through him, a crazed strength from knowing that Julia was there. She had made her choice and had made it known in the most public way possible. She had chosen him. He had someone to fight for.

Valens used his shield and forced the trident back. The impact shuddered through his arm. He reached and grabbed the trident, sending it spinning from Aquila's grasp.

The crowd stopped chanting, as it held a collective breath. Aquilia stood, stunned, a bemused expression on his face. Then he snarled and flung the net, aiming over Valens's head.

With one motion, Valens brought his shield up and around, catching the net on the edge of the shield. He pulled it out of Aquilia's arm and with a great tearing noise, the net ripped in half.

Aquilia stood, deprived of his weapons, a blank dazed look on his face.

'Now who has had it?' Valens asked, grimly advancing with his sword outstretched. He had hated the thought of attacking a defenceless man, but Aquilia had not made any sign of surrender.

He took another step forward.

Aquilia fell to his knees, grovelled in the dirt and made a gesture of supplication, putting one finger of his left hand into the air. The crowd start to chant again—this time screaming Aquilia had had it, Aquilia was done for.

Valens nodded, lowered his sword then took a step backwards. The match had finished. Aquilia had appealed to Caesar for mercy.

Turning to face Caesar and wait for the signal to tell him what to do, Valens tensed, and willed himself not to think about the job he'd have to do if Caesar decided not to spare Aquilia.

Caesar paused, hand held out, thumb held horizontal to the ground. Politician to the core, he was waiting to hear the crowd's verdict, Valens thought, struggling to regain his breath.

Time stood still. The crowd became silent. One or two white handkerchiefs fluttered in the breeze. Caesar made no move as a trickle of sweat coursed down Valens's face. His own being concentrated on Caesar's hand.

'A dagger! Valens, watch out! Behind you!' Julia's cry echoed in his ears. 'He has a dagger!'

Valens reacted without thinking and spun with his sword held out. In slow motion, he watched Aquilia hurl his body towards him, a dagger in his right hand.

Aquilia's charge led him straight on to Valens's sword. Valens's arm shuddered from the impact and he dropped the sword as Aquilia fell backwards. The crowd roared its approval.

Julia collapsed back down on her seat, hardly listening to the crowd. Every muscle trembled. Only her eyes shifted, following every move Valens made as he stood before Caesar's box.

She saw Aquilia's body being dragged away by the guards dressed as guardians of the underworld and shuddered. It could have so easily been Valens lying there.

She had no idea whether she could face seeing Valens in the arena again, and yet she knew, should he fight, that she would be there, willing him on.

She passed a hand over her brow and pushed the thought away. The only thing that mattered was that Valens lived and breathed. He was alive! And she would hold him in her arms again.


Caesar held up his hands, signalling for silence.

'Gladiator, take off your helmet, in order that I might look on your face and know your name.'

Valens slowly lifted the steel helmet. He held up his head and met Caesar's clear gaze. His father stood at Caesar's elbow, his visage sterner and older than Valens remembered, but there was a queer half-smile on his lips. Valens drew a deep breath and knew what he must do.

'I am Gaius Gracchus, the son of Marcus Graccus Quintus, who is sometimes known as Valens the Thracian.' His voice rang out through the arena, echoed and bounced off the seats.

A few catcalls of shame echoed around the arena.

'How came you to be a gladiator, Gaius Gracchus? I remember you as a junior tribune in Zama.' Caesar's question silenced the crowd.

'Pirates captured me and sold me to a gladiatorial school when my ransom failed to arrive.'

'A ransom should always be paid.' Caesar turned towards Senator Gracchus as if expecting an explanation.

'My father mistakenly believed I had died, Caesar. And I wished to live. There is no honour in dying in a pirate's hold.'

'Agreed, and have you avenged your capture?'

'The pirate who captured me died a coward's death.' Valens nodded towards Aquilia's body.

The crowd roared its approval. The sounds of thousands of pairs of feet stamping shook the arena. Caesar held up his hands again and waited for silence. This man will go far, Valens thought, he knows the people.

'Gaius Gracchus, I cannot give you your rightful place back in society. Our laws are such that no man who has fought in the arena may become a senator. I regret I cannot change them, even for a captive.'

'I understand, Caesar.' Valens bowed his head. There would be no miracle happy ending for him.

'However,'Caesar continued, 'after that performance you just gave, that performance that gave honour to my father and his death—ask a boon and if I can grant it I shall. An estate? Jewels? What you would like? What is it that is in my power to give?'

Valens looked at Caesar and then turned to look where Julia stood, hands clasped together, a pleading expression on her face. He knew what she wanted him to ask for, what Caesar expected him to ask for. But the wooden sword was no guarantee of Julia's hand. Valens knew with every beat of his heart that Julia mattered above everything else in his life.

'I would ask for the hand of Julia Antonia in marriage. There is no one or nothing that I want more on this earth than to have her by my side.'

Caesar frowned, and the crowd sat in stunned silence. Valens felt the prickle of sweat cascade down his back as he waited. The tension was worse than waiting for his bout with Aquilia to begin.

'I don't know if I can grant that,' Caesar said at last, his voice sounding less sure than previously.

'Why not? You are her father's patron. Surely you can ask? My suit will hold more weight if you are backing it.'

Caesar motioned to Julius Antonius, who stood up and stepped forward. They had a brief whispered conversation. Valens could see Antonius pointing to where Julia stood and shaking his head.

'I cannot give you the answer you want, Gaius Gracchus Valens,' Antonius shouted. 'My daughter is a free woman and makes up her own mind. You will have to ask her!'


'And I say yes! Yes, I will give my hand to you,' Julia shouted across the arena, hoping her voice could be heard above the din of the crowd.