Amazonia-The Wager

"Today is a good day to die."

Sitting on one of the scarred wooden benches in the waiting hall, I pressed my head against the rough concrete wall as I looked up at Titan. "You ugly, fukin bastard. Every time they stick us together in the arena, you always say the same damn thing. Just once I'd like to hear you say something else."

Titan stood eight feet tall, his earth brown skin covering the cords of muscle on his large frame, badly scarred from decades of fighting. His rough hands gripped the rusty iron bars of the long window looking out onto the sand as he turned his bald head my way. "If I said anything different," his voice rumbled as he grinned, showing yellowed fangs, "you would worry that something was wrong. I would never get a moment's peace."

I stamped my sandalled feet on the concrete floor. "Next you're going to accuse me of nagging you."

Titan laughed and continued staring out the barred window. Beyond him, a blond haired gladiator wearing an enchanted slave collar like we all wore, except for Titan, was fighting a nomad warrior out of the Khitian wastes. The nomad race had dark blue skin and four arms, with the two at its shoulder human sized and wielding scimitars, while the child sized arms at its hips carried sword catchers. Flakes of rust fell from a bar as Titan pointed out at the sands. "If you bet on Albinus to win against the Khitian, you are going to be out a few coppers."

"What?" I leapt to my feet and joined Titan at the window. Outside of our holding cell was the arena, a large round area with ten foot high walls before the stone benches began. Every space was filled with an empire citizen, or a resident, or a slave, yelling as the gladiator in battle harness stumbled. White sand flecked with red sprayed as he recovered, slamming his round wooden shield into the nomad's chest and driving it backwards. Albinus raised his iron sword and stalked forward.

He swung, as the Khitian recovered, evading the blow with fluid grace while its slender scimitar dug a chunk out of Albinus' shield. For a moment, the wood held the blade fast. “No, don't try pulling back, use your strength and strike... Damn!” The nomad jammed its spiked shield catcher into Albinus' thigh, and his scream of pain rose above the crowd's roar. His leg gave out from under him and he fell onto the sands.

Even in the wastes, nomads are supposed to have a sense of honor, and this one was no exception. He wrenched his blade from the shield and stepped back to give Albinus a chance to rise. Titan reached over and grasped my hand, his earth brown fingers gently wrapping around my ebony ones. "You always bet on the underdog."

With calloused fingers I squeezed the hand that could crush my bones like rotten twigs. "Pure self interest. The odds were something like thirty to one, which meant I would've had a fistful of silver for what, the cost of a few coppers?" Albinus staggered to his feet, clearly favoring the leg streaming blood from its thigh as he raised his shield. I spat between the bars onto the sand. "Though if I'd known he was going to ignore all the advice you gave him, I'd have bet on someone else."

Titan chuckled and patted my hand before letting go, wrapping his own around the rusted bar once more. Brushing a few errant flakes of rust off my stained tunic, I returned to the others. Io, an olive skinned Greek with curly black hair, nervously tapped his sandalled foot as he always did.

Before coming to the Ludus, he’d been a rich man’s bed-slave until his master died. The man’s brother didn’t care for his older brother’s ways, and decided selling Io to the Ludus so he could die horribly in the arena would be justice. Except Io didn’t see it that way. He latched onto me the day we met and has been my partner, in more ways than just on the sands, ever since.

Cotus, a reddish haired Gaul with his mustache hanging down over his lip, leaned back against the wall with his legs out and eyes closed. He’d been part of the Ludus before I got there, and taught me all the dirty tricks he knew to help me survive. He was a great drinking companion, but trust him? Not as far as I could throw Titan.

The twins, T'ang and Julu, human males from the Khitian city-state on the edge of the wastes, sat together throwing bones to determine the outcome of the match. Thin and wiry, they kept to themselves so I knew little about them, except that they had the honor of the Khitian Nomad out there, fighting on the sands.

Ragnar was new, a flax haired Norseman who ran up such huge gambling debts that he had to sell himself into slavery. He was larger in frame than the other four, though roughly my size, relying on strength rather than speed to win his fights. As I moved to join Io on the bench, he said, "Amazonia, I'd like to ask you a question, but Io tells me that if you're in a bad mood, you'll chop off my manhood and fry it up with yellow lotus petals and onions."

To my right was the door sized gate leading into the bowels of the arena, with a pair of guards we all knew and were friendly with. They laughed as did Cotus, Io keeping his face serious as he gave me a wink. The twins stopped throwing knuckle bones to watch, while Titan's rumbling chuckle told me he was listening, even as his gaze remained fixed on the arena fight. I stopped in front of Ragnar and placed my foot between his legs. "At the moment I'm not very hungry," I told him as I leaned forward, "so how about a wager instead?"

Io's laugh flowed like quicksilver as Ragnar licked his lips. "I know I shouldn't... but what kind of wager?"

I motioned towards the window where Titan stood. "Today's match is an Imperial game, which means the emperor's supposed to be in the royal box. However, he's probably not there as it's well known he doesn't like watching them, so odds are that it's his son Arcadia taking his place."

Ragnar looked puzzled. "So?"

"So, when Albinus finally loses the match, the Khitian nomad will ask for the emperor's traditional thumbs up or down. If it's the emperor in the box, Albinus will be spared, but if it's Arcadia, the nomad will tear his heart from Albinus' chest and eat it raw in front of the crowd."

"The heart is the source of all magical energy within mortal creatures," Julu said. "Nomads are a race of magic users, who need that mana to provide the energy for the casting of their spells."

"So here's the wager." Ragnar's eyes focused back on me as I continued. "If Albinus lives, I'll tell you anything you want to know. But if he dies, you shave all the hair from your body and face, which means your beard comes off, and you become my bed-slave for the night."

He reared back. "I'm not doing that."

"You don't know what you're missing," Io said with a hungry smile. "Young men of noble blood have paid our Dominus in gold to have Amazonia do that to them."

When the mood struck us and Titan wanted to sleep alone, Io knew that better than anyone. But we kept the knowledge off our faces as Ragnar's screwed up worse than if he'd just bitten deep into a lemon. "This is a decadent place."

"There are far worse ones in the world," Titan's deep bass voice rumbled. "Before you ask, I will make sure both of you keep your sworn word, but if you are going to wager, do it now. Albinus is on his knees with a sword at his throat."

Ragnar put the heels of his hands over his eyes as he bounced on the bench in time to his words. "Shite... shite... shite... Yes!" He uncovers his face. "I agree to the wager."

We slapped our right hands together and made a fist over our hearts, sealing the bet as Titan said, "The nomad is playing up the moment by raising his sword... he raises the other one..." I could tell by Ragnar's expression he knew he should've never taken this bet, but the goddess Fortuna had her fingers deep into his soul. I'm going to make this a night Ragnar never forgets- Wait, Titan's laughing. "Albinus lives."

"What?" Whirling about, I strode up beside him and stared out through the rusty bars. The Khitian had both his scimitars in his left hand while helping Albinus get to his feet with his right. I grabbed the bars with both hands and pretended to bang my head against them as the chamber behind me erupted in laughter.

When I turned around, Ragnar's face dripped smugness like water from the ends of his beard. "Heminja's finally turned her face towards me."

"Who's that," I asked, dragging my feet as I walked towards him. "One of your ice cold bitch goddesses?"

He folded arms larger than mine across his chest. "I believe I get to ask the questions, Ja?"

"Fine, fine," I grumbled, hoping for a reprieve as I glanced over at the guards. "How long before we need to arm ourselves?"

"A couple hours," one of them called back, getting more laughter from the others. Bastards. "I can dip you a ladle of watered wine for your throat if you want."

That was something, anyway. Crossing the chamber, I headed for the door-gate set within more iron bars, the guard dipping a bronze ladle into a barrel before handing it over through the bars. "Sorry, Az," he said as I took the ladle and drank. "I would've told you the emperor's here today if you'd asked."

Of course you would've... though to be fair, I should've thought to ask. I let the last drops dribble out into my mouth and handed it back. "In truth, Dominus likely wouldn't have allowed it anyway."

"Now that's a wager I would've bet silver on."

"Yeah, me too." I turned around and stopped in front of Ragnar, leaning against the wall opposite him as I folded my arms underneath my breasts. "Well, ask away."

Ragnar unfolded his arms and leaned back as well. "Is it true you were once a man, but got changed by a Daemo sorceress into a woman?"