SCARLETS DOMAIN

She is dressed now in her full chainmail battledress,
not the skimpy cavegirl outfit that Gladius insulted
her with. Beside her stands a flame-haired Amazon,
wearing a leather jerkin and leggings. This, I assume,
is the Mistress of Verna.

The crowd gasp in amazement, and Maximus's jaw drops,
but I am only surprised that she and her guardian are
still here.

It was after all, quite easy for skilled warriors to
enact Karelia's death. A pigs bladder full of blood
concealed under her crude apron was easiley penetrated
with the right blow, and a clever device in her hand
simulated the sound of a neck snapping. The stupid
slaves will not have realised that their victim was
still alive untill it was too late, probably when they
started tampering with her 'corpse'. They will have
paid with their lives!

"Antiope, bring her this way!"

I glare at the two women. Why did they not simply run?
Why do they not leave me to the death I deserve?

"Go!" I yell. I do not want them to die, nevertheless.

They stand their ground and the Flame-haired one
notches an arrow in her bow. Karelia glances at her.

Losing patience I drive the sword down into my
hostages body, feeling the blade cut through the
gristle of tubing between her lungs. Her body jerks
and I hear the patter of liquid on the ground between
her legs. With a twist of my blade, her soft pampered
heart is stopped forever.

I expect to feel the bite of metal in my body at that
instant, but instead the soldier nearest me gurgles
horribly, one of the Vernan arrows through his neck.
Karelia and her copmpanion are now advancing on the
soldiers as they advance on me. I realise that I must
help them, and pushing the quivering form of the
Senators wife away from me, Quickly, I stoop to
reterieve the sword of the dead soldier, whipping it
up into the belly of the next man just in time.

Slowly, I move towards Karelia, as I fend off the
soldiers. It can't be long. Already reinforcements are
entering the arena. I catch a glimpse of Maximus
weeping over his dead wife, and feel a pang of sorrow,
but it doesn't distract me from the task in hand.

The soldiers, fortunately, are not seasoned warriors,
in accepting arena guard duty they thought they were
in for a soft option - poor fools. I can see that old
reticence in their eyes as they face us. They cannot
easily bring themselves to kill women - a common
weakness in male soldiers, and they pay for their
hesitation with their lives.

"This way!" Karelia is backing towards one of the
exits. We group together, edging towards it with her.

I slash at a soldier, but before my point hits home, I
feel a restrining hand on my sword arm. An arm wraps
itself around my neck, and my erstwhile victim grins.
I can see from his face that he is not going to give
me an easy death.

Ah well, so be it. As long as the brave Karelia and
her friend escape.

I have been here before. I know the sense of helpless
fear when death seems inevitable at the hands of a
cruel enemy. I know also that there are other
sensations which are so unlikely in the face of doom
as to be grotesque. It seems almost as if nature is
laughing at us when we feel lust.

My breasts feel sensitive against my jerkin, and I
feel my loins pulse within me as my body seeks to
betray itself. Unlike before, however, I don't fear
death now, and so I am free to enjoy the sensation as
I anticipate the invasion and subsequent destruction
of my soft body by unyielding steel.

The cruel, delicious pain never comes. Instead I feel
blood spray over my face and hear a gurgling scream.

"I will not let you die today, amazon!"

Karelia's read-haired companion stands before me, her
sword bloody, and the soldier behind me loosens his
grip and flees in panic.

We three retreat into the entrance of the arena, as
the reinforcements press towards us. There are barrels
standing in the archway, and the Mistress of Verna
pushes them over as Karelia and I battle against the
Romans. The oil, meant for the heretics later on,
spills across the stone floor.

"Flee, sisters!"

Our red-haired guardian seizes a burning torch from
the walls and flings it into the flowing oil.

The heat hits us as the flame balls suddenly, trapping
many of the soldiers in its fiery embrace. They scream
horribly as they burn and one or two emerge to flail
madly in their fiery agony.

Only two remain a threat to us, and one is despatched
quickly by Karelia's sword thrust. The other, faced by
the three of us, immediately throws down his weapons,
cowering in panic, his fear fuelled by the unearthly
screams behind him.

The mistress of Verna raises her sword to end his
life, but I hold her back. I don't have the will to
see an unarmed man die.

"Do you think he'd hesitate if it were one of us?" she
snarls. But it is too late. We must hurry and there is
no time for killing.

"This way!" yells Karelia.

We turn from the a main passage where pursuit will
surely concentrate, into a side-room. Immediately the
smell hits me, and in the half-light I see it's cause.

Valeris body, lies on its back, spreadeagled over the
corpses of Lollia, Lucia, Mercedes and Dominia. Her
intestines mingle with Lucias to decorate their bodies
grotesquely. The noble Mercedes stares passively as
strings of gut passover her mouth and Lollias dead
hand appears to press more of the grey offal against
her crotch. It is clear from their positions and their
glistening rawness, that many of the corpses have been
violated. This is the lot of the defeated female
warrior.

I am used to the rank stench of death, it no longer
assails my sensibilities as it did. Indeed many
warriors who live long enough to retire, relish
carrying out latrine duties as it reminds them of past
glories!

We leave the room by the door to the outside where
carts come to take the corpses to the charnel houses.
The streets are clear, but as smoke rises from the
arena and the anguished cries of the mob are heard,
they won't be for long.

We flee from the city as the sun sets, and finally, in
a secluded cave, we find the opportunity to rest, and
the three of us, Karlia, the Mistress of Verna, whose
name is Gudrun, and I form our tentative bonds of
comradeship. Bonds that are to be tested to the
limits.

And so we three came to be here under the starlight,
on a journey to who knows where. Gudrun and Karelia
believed I was guiding them to Amazon lands. They
needed me since I was the only one of our group who
had any idea where to find them, but I would not go
near the place if I had a choice. I needed them
because. because I wanted to be close to them. or to
die in their company.

Yet I was an outsider, and that jealousy gnawed at me,
especially when I felt that Gudrun had been reckless
in allowing Streeths magic to cure Karelia. It seemed
to be sapping her very soul even as it healed her
body.

Karelia was not sleeping easily. It seemed that night
demons wretsled with her soul, and she moaned and
writhed, uttering unearthly sounds in her
half-slamber. Gudrun, in the meantime, slept soundly,
untroubled by her lovers suffering. How could she?
How could the Hunnish bitch claim any affection for
Karelia? This would not have happened if I had taken
care of her.

I stood up, and walked over to Gudrun as she slept. I
placed the point of my sword delicately in the base of
her throat.

Immediately she was awake, hissing, reaching for her
own sword.

"Your watch," I said.

Will continue in chapter 8...