The Birth Of The Beta

22. FADING AWAY

Pepin had prevailed (although Aoife continued to train the gladiators) rather than spar with the men, she would demonstrate the new skill she was teaching, by going through the motions and modelling how it should be executed. The gladiators would then copy her, and luckily the slower pace had benefitted the men more. For the early stages of her pregnancy, Pepin and Aoife had agreed on two conditions: firstly, eggs of any variety must not come near her, secondly, she wasn’t to spar with any of the gladiators. She would teach Pepin the combat positions the night before, and where needed, Pepin would pair up with the gladiators until the move was accomplished perfectly.

Cornelius seemed to be deteriorating daily again. Some mornings he would sit on the balcony and watch the progress of the gladiators, but this once diligent habit was becoming more infrequent. He had lost a lot of weight, more than before, his cheek bones were protruding from his face. Conversely, his cheeks were sunken in and hollow. His face had adopted the grey, ashy complexion again, and he had started to shuffle rather than walk. Even more worrying than all these things was the constant wet cough that announced his arrival instead of his steps. He was aging before her eyes. Pepin once again urged her to speak to him about her contract, but she felt like she was being disloyal, so she pushed the topic back for a better time. Despite his poor health, Cornelius continued to come to meet with her every morning. She would sit on the table and he would listen to her advice. Unlike all the meetings of the past, Cornelius would often fall asleep on his chair before the end, and she would settle him on his couch to make his reprieve from pain more comfortable.

Surprisingly, Cornelius was on the balcony this morning, observing the training as he nibbled on the food presented on the table. Antonia reached out to fill his goblet full of water, passing it to him as he tried to stifle a coughing fit. Aoife was re-teaching a sequence that the gladiators were continuously getting wrong, when she heard plates smashing on to the balcony floor. Mind linking Pepin to bend over, she leaped in the air, and used his back to push herself onto the balcony. Kneeling down, she turned Cornelius on to his back, only to see blood running down his chin.

“Call the physician!” She called out to anyone who was listening.

She carefully slid her arms under his knees and her other arms around his back before lifting him from the ground. Shocked by how fragile and weightless he was, she carried him to his bed, clasping his hand while waiting for the doctor.

Although Aoife wanted to stay with him, the doctor made her leave the room. She was half way across the atrium when she was obstructed by Antonia.

“How dare you give me an order, you dirty wolf!” She screamed, in her face.

Aoife was confused for a moment as she didn’t realise she had ordered Antonia. Then, like a fog lifting, she realised she was talking about calling for the doctor.

“Why did I have to tell you to call for a doctor? How isn’t that the first thing you do?” Aoife raised her eyebrows as a challenge. “It’s as if you wanted to let him suffer, and withhold help,” She continued to accuse her.

The comment had been said to antagonise her, but the panic on her face made Aoife wonder if there was a little truth to her flippant damnation.

“You will stay away from him. You are an employee, for now, but you are not family. If you ever jump on the balcony again as you did today, I have the guards spear you down before you land!” Antonia promised her.

“If Cornelius calls for me, I will be there. The Gods and Goddesses couldn’t stop me, so you have no chance,” Aoife returned, and walked to the culina, robbing Antonia of the last word.

Pepin was waiting for her on the bottom step, and reached out his hand when he saw her. She stood on the step above, and used the extra height to wedge her face into his neck, as the tears poured over both of them. Her sobs were so heavy and laborious, that her whole body trembled. He continued to hold her, encouraging her to use his scent and let peace run over her. Neve was still present, which was unusual because this amount of emotional pain would normally result in her forcing a block up and hibernating until equilibrium had been restored.

“I won’t leave this time, Aoife, I’ll stay to protect our pup,” Neve reassured her, and Aoife let herself hope it would be true this time, because she would need Neve to fight Antonia.

In the upper house Antonia was sitting by Cornelius’ bed, helping Cornelius sip on the cool water that the kitchen maid had brought. His awareness flickered like a candle flame, but was fading out more than shining through. Heavy foot falls thumped in the atrium as Magnus ran to his father’s bedside, hoping that he would be alert enough to speak to him. Alas, he was shocked by the skeleton-like figure that was laid out on the bed, and knew that any conversations would be a rarity from this point on. He had missed the best last days of his father's life. The skin on his father’s hand felt like chalk under his fingertips, as if it would crumble away if he held it too tightly.

“How did the gathering go?” Antonia asked him, his eyes narrowed with incredulity.

“My father is dying, and that is your first question? Let me ask my question first: why is he this ill again? Why didn’t you tell me?” Magnus seethed.

“It happened suddenly, he picked up a cough and it got worse from there. I didn’t know he would be this poorly, it was very sudden,” She answered, exasperated.

Magnus placed his father’s hand on the blanket, and forcefully gripped onto Antonia’s upper arms.

“Don’t ever lie to me! He looks as if he has already died. Why didn’t you tell me in the countless letters you have sent that my father was dying? Answer me!”

“He told me he was OK. When he fell this morning he was on the balcony watching the gladiators, we both thought that he would be well again,” She grimaced at the pressure on her arms.

“If you believe that, then you are an i***t. To answer your question, now that Heaton House has indicated we will support the serfdom state bill, when I have control of the Ludus, it will be passed in the next senate meeting. I just didn’t realise that the very last thing I would do to my father before he died was demolish everything he stood for, and dedicate himself to. I thought I’d have some time to make amends.” Magnus was genuinely troubled by what he had done, even though he convinced himself it was inevitable. He let his guilt sooth his anger and released Antonia’s arms.

“Your father won’t recover from this, Magnus. We need to start running this house like it should have been run from the start. I’ve ordered a gate to be fitted to keep the wolves from our home, they have no reason to be up here, and we should discuss other liberties that the slaves have been granted,” Antonia continued her decimation of how badly she felt the Ludus had been managed by the man who had raised him.

Magnus pulled up a chair, and completely ignored his soon-to-be wife. He realised at some point that she had left, and he was thankful that she had enough intelligence to know when she was unwanted. This was the longest time he had spent in his father’s company without an argument since he was a child. Inevitably, he recalled the happier days when his father taught him how to ride his first pony, how he taught him to count and read in the evenings, the stories he would tell about the glory of the wolves, and the packs they would live in. When did he start to resent those stories? What sparked their first argument? Was it the night Aoife had decided to become a gladiator? He knew it didn’t matter. When the last conversation was so near to happening, all the bad times just faded away.