A Gladiator Dies Only Once Read Online Free PDF

just the horses’ names.”
    “Suspicion—that was the first race. Then Lightning. . . Straight Arrow . . . Bright Eyes. . . Golden Dagger . . . Partridge . . . Oh! By Hercules! Gordianus, you don’t think—that item in the Daily . . .”
    I quoted from memory. “The bookworm pokes his head outside tomorrow. Easy prey for the sparrow, but partridges go hungry. Bright-eyed Sappho says: Be suspicious! A dagger strikes faster than lightning. Better yet: an arrow. Let Venus conquer all!’ From ‘Sappho’ to ‘Sparrow,’ a list of horses— and every one a winner”
    “But how could that be?”
    “I know this much: Fortune had nothing to do with it.”

    I left the crowded stadium and hurried through the empty streets. Decimus Brutus would be detained by the closing ceremonies. I had perhaps an hour before he would arrive home.
    The slave at the door recognized me. He frowned. “The master—”
    “—is still at the Circus Maximus. I’ll wait for him. In the meantime . . . please tell your mistress she has a visitor.”
    The slave raised an eyebrow but showed me into a reception room off the central garden. Lowering sunlight on the fountain splashing in the courtyard outside sent reflected lozenges of light dancing across the ceiling.
    I did not have long to wait. Sempronia stepped into the room alone, without even a handmaiden. She was not smiling.
    “The door slave announced you as Gordianus the Finder.”
    “Yes. We met. . . briefly . . . this morning.”
    “I remember. You’re the fellow who went snooping for Deci last night, poking about at the Senian Baths and those awful places around the circus. Oh yes, word got back to me. I have my own informants. What are you doing here?”
    “I’m trying to decide what I should tell your husband.”
    She gave me an appraising look. “What is it, exactly, that you think you know?”
    “Decimus Brutus thinks that you and the charioteer Diocles are lovers.”
    “And what do you think, Finder?”
    “I think he’s right. But I have no proof.”
    She nodded. “Is that all?”
    “You husband thinks you and Diocles were plotting to kill him today.”
    Sempronia laughed out loud. “Dear old bookworm!” She sighed. “Marrying Deci was the best thing that ever happened to me. I’m the consul’s wife! Why in Hades would I want to kill him?”
    I shrugged. “He misunderstood that blind item you put into the Daily Acts.”
    “Which . . . blind item?”
    “There’s been more than one? Of course. That makes sense. What better way to communicate with Diocles, since you’ve been confined here and he’s been banned from your house. What I don’t understand is how you ever convinced Diocles to fix today’s races.”
    She crossed her arms and gave me a long, calculating look. “Diocles loves me; more than I love him, I’m afraid, but when was Venus ever fair? He did it for love, I suppose; and for money. Diocles stands to make a tremendous amount of money today, as do all the racers who took part in the fix. You can’t imagine how much money. Millions. We worked on the scheme for months. Setting up the betting circle, bribing the racers . . .”
    “ ‘We’? Do you mean your whole circle was in on it?”
    “Some of them. But mostly it was Diocles and myself.” She frowned. “And then Deci had to throw his jealous fit. It couldn’t have happened at a worse time, with the races less than a month away. I had to have some way to communicate with Diocles. The Daily was the answer.”
    “You must have extraordinary powers of . . .”
    “Persuasion?”
    “Organization, I was going to say.”
    “Like a man?” She laughed.
    “One thing puzzles me still. What will you do with millions of sesterces, Sempronia? You can’t possibly hide that much money from your husband. He’d want to know where such a windfall came from.”
    She peered at me keenly. “What do you think I intend to do with the money?”
    “I think you intend to . . .