‘In gladiator school we practise against stakes. This will have to do. I want you to imagine that this is a man. Try and picture a face at the same height as yours. Think of it as a man desperate to kill you. But you have to kill him first. That means that you must strike hard and strike quickly. Understand?’
Lupus nodded and made to strike.
‘Stop!’ Marcus commanded. ‘You wait until I give the word. I want you like this.’
He stood a sword’s length away from the tree and lowered himself into a half-crouch with his weight distributed evenly over his boots. ‘Keep balanced on the balls of your feet and your toes so you can move quickly in whichever direction you need to.’
Marcus demonstrated with a few springs to the side, as well as forward and back, each time returning to the same position in front of the trunk. Then he gestured to Lupus to give it a try. The scribe did his best but was not nearly as agile and swift as his friend. But Marcus nodded encouragingly and then took the training sword and lowered himself in front of the trunk, making ready to strike.
‘There are three basic blows. The thrust, and then cut to the left and to the right.’
He sprang at the trunk and hit it in the centre, withdrew, attacked again, both sides with sharp cracks as the wooden weapon struck the bark. He repeated the moves and handed the sword back to Lupus.
‘You try.’
Lupus settled himself into place and then tried to do as Marcus had shown him. The blows were roughly on target but did not land heavily and the sound of the impacts was merely a muffled thud.
‘No!’ Marcus snapped at him. ‘That won’t do. This isn’t a bloody game, Lupus. You’re learning how to fight for your life. A sword is not a toy. You can’t break it. You must treat it like an extension of your arm. When you strike, you are the one making the blow and you’ll throw all your weight behind it. If not, then you’ll barely scratch your opponent. And he will kill you. Put down the sword.’
Lupus did as he was told and Marcus stood directly in front of him, in a crouch. He raised his right hand and placed his palm on Lupus’s chest. ‘This is what you are doing at the moment.’
He gave a firm shove and Lupus lurched back slightly and recovered.
‘And this is what you need to do.’ Marcus braced himself and punched his hand out, twisting slightly as he threw all his weight behind the blow. Lupus went flying back and thudded to the ground. He lay there a moment, gasping, and then struggled up on to his elbow and stared at Marcus with a hurt expression.
‘What did you do that for?’
‘To teach you a lesson,’ Marcus replied sternly. ‘If you don’t strike properly in a fight then you will lose. You will die. Better to learn that here and now. Get up and have another go. This time strike the target like you mean it. That trunk is Decimus. Him or any other person that has ever given you cause to hate them. Hit it hard, with your whole body thrusting through the sword. Pick it up and get to work.’
Lupus rose to his feet and looked at Marcus with a flash of hurt pride and anger in his eyes. He reached down for the wooden sword and resumed his place in front of the tree.
‘Begin!’ Marcus ordered.
‘Hah!’ Lupus grunted as he stabbed forward and the point struck the tree loudly. He drew the blade back and hacked at the side with a sharp thwack. Then the other side, then another thrust, grunting each time with the effort.
‘That’s it.’ Marcus nodded. ‘Keep doing it just like that until I say stop.’
He watched a moment longer and then moved off to stand beside Festus who had been looking on.
‘What do you think?’ he asked quietly.
Festus was silent a moment before he replied. ‘I think you would have made a formidable gladiator instructor, young Marcus. You might want to think about that when this is all over.’
Marcus shot him a surprised look. ‘No. I’ll never train a person to fight another to the death just to entertain a crowd. I swear it by all that’s sacred.’
The earnestness with which he spoke seemed to amuse Festus and he chuckled and shook his head. ‘A pity.’
Marcus did not think so. Inside his stomach churned as he recalled the terror that had gripped him each time he’d been called upon to fight for his life. No one should have to endure that just to amuse other people. No one. He felt disappointed in Festus for even suggesting that he might want to be a part of the dark world of the professional gladiators. And a slight doubt crept into his regard for the man. Over the last few months he had come to assume that Festus believed in the same things as he did. He reminded himself that Festus had been Caesar’s man long before Marcus knew him, so his first loyalty would always be to the Roman aristocrat. There was a fundamental difference in outlook between Festus and himself. One that could prove very dangerous if ever Festus discovered that Marcus was the son of Spartacus.
He drew a deep breath and forced himself to turn his thoughts to more immediate matters. ‘I meant, what do you think of Lupus? Has he got the right stuff?’
Festus regarded the other boy as he ferociously attacked the tree trunk. ‘It’s too early to say. Keep him at it, and he might make himself useful one day. Work him hard until dusk, and then we can all rest, ready for the road tomorrow.’
He turned and began to stride off.
‘Where are you going?’ Marcus called.
‘I’ve something of an appetite for those hares. I’m getting some more. Make sure you keep the fire going.’
Marcus watched him disappear into the trees and returned his attention to Lupus whose blows had begun to slacken.
‘Keep at it! Use all your strength. You can rest when I tell you, and not before!’
Lupus tossed the slender bones of the hare aside and used the hem of his tunic to dab the grease from his mouth.
‘That was delicious.’ He smiled contentedly. ‘Best thing I’ve eaten in months.’
He lay back on the ground and stared at the night sky, a pool of stars fringed by the trees surrounding the clearing. Every so often a brilliant red spark swirled up to join the cold, steady pinpricks of the stars before swiftly fading out. Around them the forest was pitch-black, but the occasional light crack of a snapping twig, or rustle of undergrowth, revealed the animals who were abroad under cover of darkness. At first Lupus had been nervous, thinking the noises to be the sounds of men stalking them. Born and raised in Rome, he had little experience of the natural world. But he was growing used to it, and starting to enjoy the experience. Even the shrilling of the cicadas no longer bothered him.
‘I could learn to live like this,’ he muttered happily.
Festus grunted, chewing slowly on a morsel of meat. When he swallowed he wagged a finger at the scribe. ‘It makes a nice change right enough. But that’s because summer is coming. You wouldn’t want to be out here in the winter. Believe me.’
Marcus had already finished his meal and sat staring into the flames. He nodded as he recalled the winter that had just passed, and the cold of the Apennine mountains that had seeped into his bones. He shivered at the memory. But he could understand Lupus’s feeling. Sleeping under the stars on a warm night filled his soul with a tranquillity he had rarely known since being torn from his previous life.
‘Anyway,’ Festus continued, ‘we can’t stay here. Too close to Stratos. Word of Pindarus’s death and the hunt for his killers will spread out. We have to stay ahead of that and then find a way of disappearing from view. We should be able to manage that in a city the size of Athens.’
‘But we didn’t kill him on purpose,’ Lupus protested. ‘We’re not murderers.’
‘That’s not how it looks,’ Marcus interrupted. ‘It’s hardly as if we were invited into his house. No one will believe it was an accident. The only thing we can do is make sure we are not caught.’
‘He’s right.’ Festus nodded. ‘We’ll have to travel as far from Stratos as we can tomorrow. Better if we get some sleep. We’ll need all our strength for the road.’