The Gladiatrix

"Hey, nothing but Latin and Greek here. Watch it." The guard pointed his short sword at Panhsj.

Panhsj bowed his head slowly, "I was asking for her name, to assist her new mistress. The girl's name is Meda."

Amelia, easily delighted, clapped her hands, "Oh how wonderful, you speak the same tongue as the girl! But I thought you were from the Egyptian side of the North African territories Panhsj? How can it be so that you and the Ethiopian share a language?"

Panhsj shuffled his sandaled feet evasively, "I am a learned man, and the girl speaks Meroitic, found towards the south-east of Egypt, in the Kushite lands. Apart from that I know nothing of their small villages and primitive ways. I am born and raised Egyptian stock, in the towering might of their cities."

Gerulf raised an eyebrow, "Too loud a protest perhaps."

Panhsj, "Pfft! And what would you know barbarian of civilisation and good breeding? All your people care for is fighting, jewellery, sleeping and fucking."

Before Gerulf could respond sharply to Panhsj derogatory remarks, Mena looked at Panhsj and said something to him. Panhsj looked at both Gerulf and Amelia deviously and said something in response to Mena.

Mena then looked at Amelia and Gerulf, placed her hands to her face and then taking steps back, burst into tears, muttering in her language.

The guard stepped towards her but then pointed his blade at Panhsj, "Tell her to shut it, or I shall cut both your tongues out."

Panhsj had quiet words with the girl. The girl sobbed quietly to herself, her body shaking.

Gerulf took a step toward the girl, wishing to comfort her with a sympathetic touch, but when he stepped towards her, she was horrified.

Gerulf growled at Panhsj, "What did you say to her?"

Panhsj smiled smugly, "She asked me what she was being bought for. I told her that whilst she had nearly been sold to be an entertainer to a well respected and kind man who treats his entertainers as one treats their kin; she had actually been bought by a half-mad whorehouse madam with a reputation for making some of the sweetest of slaves mad from despair, crippled from cruelty. As you can imagine, she received the news of her fate well."

Amelia glared at Panhsj and wagged a finger at him, "No whores for you if you tread the steps of Venus Kisses!"

Panhsj laughed hollowly, "Ah, how sad, to be denied the fruit of melancholy women. My life is better and longer for it, I am sure. Farewell."

He turned his back on them and flapped his hand as if to shoo them away, then gazed afresh at the Greek slave that had earlier caught his eye.

Gerulf clenched his fist, wishing to quarrel with Panhsj. But instead he let his shoulders sag. Panhsj was right; it was preferable to be a cargo mule than to be one of Amelia's prostitutes.

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Gerulf had been surprised by the girl's compliance as he lead her through the streets. However he noticed her eyes dart, and mutter silently to herself. He knew that look, it was the look that he too had possessed when he had been led from auction block to the gladiator training quarters. It was the look of one plotting their escape. He said nothing to Amelia who was uncharacteristically quiet on the walk home. Undoubtedly she was annoyed by Panhsj's insults.

As they neared the House of Venus Kisses, Amelia said loudly, "My women are very well cared for. Joyful, far more so than I was than when I was in their predicament. I hope they have not been spreading lies to their clients, sullying my reputation as one of the most generous women of this town. Perhaps I will beat them all until they learn to appreciate their good fortune for having such a motherly mistress. For what is a mother if she does not beat her children?"

Gerulf stared at Amelia, he had to remind himself that she was his last blood relative alive, "You accuse the women of betraying you without evidence, and wish to beat them until they behave as if they were happy?"

Amelia nodded, "Why not?"

Gerulf sighed, "Have you not thought that perhaps there are more obvious ways to make them joyful?"

"How so?"

"The first year when you had your brothel, can you remember how you used to take them to the baths, allow them time away from the clients? They were happy then, and you had more clients too."

Amelia rubbed her lead-clotted cheek, "Perhaps I should tie them to the beds and have sacks placed upon their heads. Then the clients will not see their miserable faces."

Gerulf rolled his eyes at his cousin who had evidentially become mad from profit, "Perhaps Amelia, if you treat your girls in a good manner, they will also treat their clients better."

"They like their clients well enough."Amelia shrugged stubbornly.

They turned the corner; Gerulf could see Venus Kisses close by. One of Amelia's slaves, a red-haired woman called Freda, lay naked outside, save for a small robe around her waist. She was supposed to be an advert for the brothel, however her body was covered in bruises and she appeared to have passed out. Gerulf flinched in disgust.

"Amelia that is what I mean. Freda, you have only had her for two months and already she looks well on her way to Valhalla."

"Elysium." Amelia corrected snootily.

Gerulf turned towards Amelia in irritation. He growled at Amelia, "Listen to me, have you lost every last thread of your virtue? Can you not remember how it was to be a slave, to be at the mercy of another?"

Amelia's lower lip quibbled, and she blinked, her eyes becoming glazed with self-pity, "Go hang yourself Gerulf! Today I have allowed you to keep my company, my company! And now you tell me what to do with my purchases-bought with my money! Damned you, and damned Freda! "

Amelia walked up to Freda and kicked her in the stomach, the girl moved sluggishly, groaning in pain. Gerulf flexed his fists which he would have used instantly, had Amelia not been his cousin.

Amelia turned round and smiled, "See? She is alive. Elysium will have to wait another day for her. "

She then shouted at the brothel, calling for her male prostitutes, "Hey Demetrios you lazy vulva licker! Come out here and take Freda in, the girl cannot take the sun. Drag Pyreneus out by his too-fat-arse while you are at it. Seeing as no man, woman or goat want to fuck him these days the least he can do is to help me with my new purchase!"

Two heavily-oiled men wearing net fashioned into loin cloths so that their cocks were visible came running out, one picked up Freda and the other took the rope that bound Meda's hands together. Meda looked back at Gerulf, her eyes wide in fear.

Gerulf ran his fingers through his hair in frustration; something about the girl had awoken a feeling in him he used to have as a gladiator, the frustration of not having control of one's own fate.

Amelia barked out more orders, "Pyreneus! Pyreneus you ugly oaf! Take the Ethiopian to the salon. Now you ugly bastard!"

"The salon, right now? You will not feed her first?" Gerulf said in concern.

Amelia screwed her mouth up and looked him up and down in disdain, "Pfft! Food indeed! I need her to look pretty, not bloated. Now why don't you go Gerulf, let your patron stroke your cock as always rather than concerning yourself with the affairs of women. Run along hang dog. "

Gerulf growled in exasperation, "I am coming back Amelia."

"Yes yes, no doubt when you are so drunk that you see twin whores everywhere. Go away Gerulf, you have really annoyed me today."

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"Come now Gerulf, she is not the first to be enslaved to prostitution and she will not be the last, throw the dice why don't you? Then drink your mulsum and sooth your ails." Nikanor said, his blotchy face crumpling as he focused on the dice. He placed a reassuring hand on Gerulf's hunched back before letting it drop to his own skyphos cup filled with mulsum wine. Holding both handles Nikanor drank the sweet alcoholic beverage down like a thirsty fish, inadvertently tipping some of the mulsum wine onto his trimmed grey beard.

Gerulf repositioned his large body on the small wooden stool, as he played dice for coins with his three friends, all ex-slaves who had found success after their freedom; Nikanor, Varius and Rufus. Nikanor and Varius were both furniture makers, and Rufus was the owner of the tavern that they were sat in, called "Coruncanii's Finest Vines". All his friends were nearly old men, with Gerulf as their youngest friend and associate. They had met when they attended a dinner at their local college of the Augustales, a society for ex-slaves and freedmen. He had met them through their patron Gaius Iunius Norbanus- a humorous, virtuous man who himself was the son of a freedman, and was running for office of plebeian aedile.

"So what is this girl like then? An Ethiopian? Woolly or straight-haired? Not that it matters, I prefer the Greek women, they are not so loud as these Roman women." Varius said, dipping a chunk of bread in the garum sauce that they shared. Gerulf still had not become accustomed to the pungent, fishy taste of garum that the Roman's loved, but he was trying.

Gerulf smiled at the memory of Meda, he picked up the three dice and placed it into the clay cup, shaking them so they made a rattling sound, "Her hair is woolly and sweet, like a little lamb. She is beautiful with a dark complexion that is reminiscent of the finest bronze, and a figure moulded by...how would you say it?... Venus herself. And the eyes, they are almond-shaped with a fire in them, beautiful dark eyes."

Gerulf's sighed, "But I should not think of such things, a few more days at Venus Kisses and there shall be nothing in her eyes but dull smoke." He kept rolling the dice in the cups as he wondered what mistreatment she would suffer at the hands of Amelia and Venus Kisses lowlier clients.

The other men looked at him, "Go on then, throw the dice. Not much good still being in that cup."

Gerulf had forgotten about the dice, so he took his hand off the mouth of the cup. The dice tumbled onto the table. Much to his disappointment, his was the lowest score, this made him the dog, making Nikanor the Venus for having the highest score.

Nikanor grunted triumphantly, "Dog- your score was the lowest. Perhaps if you ate more garum, Fortuna would think 'this is a real Roman!' and smile more kindly upon you."

Rufus leant it and said in his usual low and coarse manner, "Do not worry Gerulf-even a dog can fuck like a wolf. Aditi my barmaid has been talking of how fine a man you are, perhaps I can ask her to keep you company on your pillow for tonight?"

Aditi was Gerulf's barmaid from India who had indeed been gazing fondly upon Gerulf, once even dropping an expensive glass cup when she was staring too keenly upon him.

"No no, not necessary. Dog in this game, dog in this life." Gerulf responded bitterly.

It had only been six months since he was given a wooden sword in the gladiator arena and won his freedom, finding employment as a trainer. However, as with all other ex-slaves in Rome after manumission, he had gone from being a slave with a master, to a client with a patron. He forever held a social debt to his former master and lanista who was called Manius Aquilinus Taurus. For most slaves, this might mean political support, as it did with his three friends, for others they were expected to remain employed with their patron's business or affairs. However for Gerulf, it meant sexually pleasuring his patron. In return, Manius kept Gerulf employed as a trainer at Manius's gladiator school.

Laying with Manius was not too difficult as his patron was a handsome and prestigious man, enough to harden the cock for a small time. All the same it was not Gerulf's preference, "A dog, that is what I am. A dog, even with a dice game."

"Oh come now Gerulf, I know that look, you are thinking of Manius again. He will grow bored of you one day, you just need to be a little less handsome. He falls easily in love with men with muscles and golden locks." Nikanor, to emphasise his point, scuffled Gerulf's curly blond hair. Gerulf jerked away humourlessly.

"Perhaps this is why you like the Ethiopian, her situation reflects your own; forced to fuck men that she cares little for. The only thing lacking for you of course, is the tits." Rufus patted his own chest cheekily.

"Manius never forced me, he gave me a choice, and with that choice came better food and sturdier armour for the arena. He was very good to me when I was a gladiator, he is good to me now." Gerulf scooped some goat's cheese from the bowl with his bread. It was delicious. The company of friends and good food were the simple pleasures he had enjoyed the most since becoming a freed man.

"If you insist, but it is evident that you are troubled Gerulf. I do wish you would come to the temple of Isis. You are a man in need of a goddess." Rufus smiled, pleased as he watched one of his barmaids disappear to the upstairs bedroom with a regular. He did not force his barmaids to sleep with the regulars, but he certainly gave them a generous tip for doing so.

Gerulf laughed, "Not my thing I am afraid."

Rufus looked at Gerulf, " Many freed men go there, you are not made to feel inferior as with the other temples."

"Being in a darkened room whilst pots of frankincense and myrrh are swung over my head and Panhsj the Nubian looks at me smugly as if to say 'I got to Isis first Barbarian!'? No, I would rather not. "

Nikanor and Varius looked at each other, "Suit yourself, but Panhsj is not so bad at the temple, you will never hear him speak so little."

"We will see. I still find this idea of temple worship, and worshipping a god in human form very weird. So this new girl of Amelia's, Meda, I do not think she should-"

His friends groaned, and even through the flicker of lamps he could see their eyes rolling in exhaustion.

"Gerulf, you have gone so long without a woman that you have now become utterly obsessed. Quell your cock, before it quells you." Rufus stated with crude aplomb. They all chuckled at the various images Rufus's words conjured, before returning their attentions to their next dice game.

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Gerulf mused that he had probably drunk too much mulsum as he staggered down the road, nearly being ran over by an abusive merchant in his cart. Venus Kisses was down a newer part of the town so the road was still earthen and many of the inhabitants had not developed the finesse of their better-established town friends. He heard a clay vase smash behind him, dropped from a second floor, clearly whilst the occupants had tried to deposit their household waste onto the street under the cloak of night. He thanked the gods that he had missed the vase, for stronger men than he had been greeted into the afterlife early that way.

Venus Kisses...left from Cornelius's Street Foods, straight ahead at the fountain... Gerulf rarely experienced such issues finding Venus Kisses, but in his drunkenness, his senses were in chaos, like intoxicated bacchantes dancing for their wine god.

Eventually, after a few wrong turns, he had managed to find Venus Kisses. The light of the lamps flickered, winking into the night, only challenged by the stars that shone above. Sat outside on a bench was Demetrios speaking to a lady who had veiled her face to such an extent that she could only have been a lady of reputation doing disreputable things. Judging by Demetrios's wide smile, this assessment was fairly accurate. Other prostitutes sat outside naked save for robes around their waists, some appearing more defiant or broken than enticing.

One of the prostitutes caught his eye and looked away abruptly, clearly hoping to be left in peace for the night. Gerulf suddenly felt some shame sweep over him. What was he thinking?

He was about to turn to go when he heard a screeching sound, all of those sat outside turned around in concerned surprise. The cries sounded very much like Meda and Amelia.

Gerulf's fierce but precise instinct took over, and despite his intoxicated state, he regathered his thoughts. He jogged towards the brothel, darting into the open door where the smell of sex intertwined with incense. He accidentally stood on a small oil lamp, snuffing it out and seriously cutting his toe on the sharply-tipped nozzle. He exhaled sharply and limped towards the commotion.

The sounds became more immediate as he reached the door of the salon where Amelia had her new girls prepared.

What he saw shocked him, for Meda held a shard of a broken clay pot to Pyreneus's throat despite Pyreneus's tall and muscular build. Amelia was gazing on in sheer shock, pointing a large bone needle at Meda defensively. Gerulf assessed the room for a hint as to how the situation transpired. Next to Amelia was a monopodium table with a pair of rusty shears and what appeared to be a bright red wig, styled in an elaborate curly bun.

"Amelia? What is going on here?"

"Ah brother, I am glad you have come."

Gerulf raised a dubious eyebrow at Amelia, from being called hang dog to being called brother, his cousin was clearly desperate for his assistance.

" This woman, she is completely ungrateful. I brought her a beautiful wig to replace her hair, and look at this, she tries to kill us! Well if it death she wants, then death you shall give her!" Amelia gazed at Gerulf hopefully.

"Amelia, I am not killing anyone. Certainly not her, certainly not for you."

Meda growled fiercely at Gerulf as if he too were an enemy, pressing the clay shard more closely against Pyreneus's throat. Pyreneus squeaked in pain as the shard began to cut the tanned flesh of his neck. Gerulf wondered ( mostly in admiration) how she had managed to hold Pyreneus hostage as the man was large.

"Well something has to be done, I don't want Pyreneus getting killed as he really knows how to style women nicely. Never again will I buy another Ethiopian! They are troublemakers!" Amelia said mournfully, the bone needle she was clutching drooped as her panicked grip weakened.

Gerulf assessed the situation; an angry woman who had a man literally by the throat, a mad brothel-madam wielding a needle. As a gladiator he had learnt that the element of surprise was a potent means of gaining the upper hand.

He quickly picked up the monopodium table and threw it against the wall close to where Meda stood. Meda reflexively jerked as her attention was broken and she dropped the clay shard. Pyreneus squealed and ran out of the door in terror. Gerulf leapt towards Mena and then taking both her wrists wrapped her in his arms and pinned her wrists against her chest, as if he were forcing her to hug herself. She struggled wildly, stomping on his already punctured toe. Gerulf groaned in pain.

Amelia approached with the needle as if to stab Meda. Gerulf instinctively kicked Amelia in the shin, sending her staggering backwards.

"Ow! Ow! You bastard! Why?"Amelia cried in pain.

"Because you were going to hurt her." Gerulf said. Oddly Meda had stopped struggling as much and he could feel her body relax slightly.

"I wasn't going to hurt her, not by very much." Amelia grumbled.

Gerulf was unconvinced "If I were to tie her wrists, and leave her to you, what would you do with her?"

"There is a merchant I know of who takes pleasure in dispensing with others. I might offer her to him. Not only will he do the job you refuse to do, he shall pay me handsomely for the privilege." Amelia said, completely straight-faced and serious.

Gerulf felt nauseous, and in his mind Panhsj's earlier words echoed 'Now she is a rabid dog.'

He thought quickly though also somewhat drunkenly, "Amelia, you paid a lot of money for her. I understand you wish for her to suffer, but do you not wish to make a good return on her as she does so?"

"Ha! Clever, clever man. I am glad the cousin I love so much is not a fool. How so?" Amelia said, still rubbing her shin.