Barry Sadler [Casca 28] The Tony Roberts (epub)

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.They looked round, saw him standing there, then went back to hammering the wheel.Casca felt the stirrings of anger in him but kept silent.After three more lusty blows the two men stood up and backed off, studying their work.Apparently satisfied one of them turned to face the waiting man.“Who are you and what is it you want?”The manner in which the words were spoken were clearly designed to insult, so Casca obliged by grabbing him by the throat, picking him up off his feet.“A piece of advice, you ill-mannered scum, show some courtesy to your guests.”The man’s face turned red, his eyes bulged, and he began making some curious noises so Casca released him, dropping him onto his feet.The man staggered to the side of the repaired chariot and clung to it, gasping for breath.The other man had wielded the hammer at Casca's actions, but a look from him was enough to stay the hammer wielder for there was something in his eyes that said this was death.“All I was going to ask is who the trainer for the Blues is? A simple question requiring a simple answer.”The hammer man grunted and lowered the tool.“That's Hadramon.Why do you want him? The Greens would be a better choice.”Casca shook his head.“Can’t stand them; besides, the Emperor favors the Blues and I don’t want to be out of favor with him.What does this Hadramon look like?”The two men scowled, obviously disliking this boorish stranger with terrible taste – who would in their right mind favor the Blues? The man Casca had throttled replied: “white haired, tall, thin, large nose.Sits with the drivers by the trackside.”Casca grunted and turned to go.“My thanks,” he said ironically, “but by your manners I assume you belong to the Greens.Watch out for me in the coming months, my name is Rufius.”Leaving the two fuming men in the workshop, Casca grinned to himself as he walked back down the passage towards the exit.If he was going to get a name for himself, it would be better not to use a name the Brotherhood was familiar with, so a variation of his middle name would have to do.Rufius was sufficiently anonymous for his purposes.Now to find this Hadramon and introduce himself.After paying his entrance fee he walked up the stairs into the stadium and his ears were assailed with a wash of noise.The Hippodrome could hold one hundred thousand people and looking at the sea of faces and colors all around he could well believe it.He stood for a moment at the top of the stairs and orientated himself.Down by the track would be where the competitors were most likely to be found, and sure enough he caught sight of a number of people milling around down there way off to the left.He looked up and opposite from where he was standing saw the imperial presence in their box, accessible directly from the palace which adjoined the Hippodrome.As he began walking down towards the front, he surveyed the stadium track itself, shaped not in a circle like Rome’s Coliseum, but in a huge elongated ‘U’ shape, being of two long straights connected at the far right or southern end by a sharp turn.The other end of the stadium was where the races began and also where the horses, chariots and riders entered the Hippodrome through a series of arched openings.The track turned short of this.Although the two long straight pieces would allow great bursts of speed, it would be at the turns that the races would be decided, the better strategists making sure they would be first out of the bends and therefore able to take the inside for the next bend.Memories came flooding back to Casca and he smiled fondly at the arena.He’d fought in the Circus Maximus in Rome in Nero’s day, a stadium very much like this one.He was familiar with the design and layout.There was a long dividing arrangement in the center – the spina - which divided the race track in two so that the chariots could race round.Each end of this had two huge circular turning columns called metas.Casca recognized the design as being copied almost faithfully from Rome's Circus Maximus, and a wry smile passed over his lips.The memory of his gladiatorial bouts in that arena flooded over him for a moment, but he forced them out of his mind.The spina was about fifteen feet high so no chariot could possibly cross it, and was adorned with statues of animals and two spectacular erections; a stone obelisk adorned with carvings and an iron column in the shape of a twisted snake.Casca thought the obelisk was Egyptian.He pushed his way past those already seated at the front, attracting annoyed looks or comments about his ancestry, but he cared not.Eventually he reached a point directly behind the Blues' enclosure and leaned over, spotting the figure of Hadramon at once, talking earnestly to one of his charioteers who was preparing to mount up and race.The crowd became more excited as the time for the race drew nearer and soon the chariots were lined up at the start for the race.This one was over ten circuits and the crowd were taking bets as to who would triumph.Apparently the Greens' elite driver, Manius, was racing and he was the hot favorite for this one.The Blues had been struggling this day and there was a pessimistic air from their supporters but at least they had won two of the races.Each faction had four chariots in this race so the eight chariots were placed in the eight westernmost arches out of the twelve, the horses snorting and pawing restlessly, impatient to be off.With a huge roar from the crowd the referee gave the signal and the race was on, Manius immediately surging forward to take a narrow lead from one of the Blue charioteers.At the first turn the inevitable crush caused an accident, one of the Blue chariots colliding with a Green, both vehicles cart-wheeling off to the outside of the curve to destruction, spilling their occupants out, one right in the path of the second Blue chariot which ran straight over him, horses and all.The crowd roared in excitement, reminding Casca of the gladiatorial games in Rome and Milan he had taken part in.Although those had been stopped, the people still got as high from seeing blood now as then.Race officials ran on after the last chariot had cleared the corner to bring under control the two teams of horses and to pick up the broken figure of the rider.The wreckage of the chariots was left on the outside of the curve as there wasn't time to clear it up before the leading chariots began to approach again for the second circuit.By this time Casca could see that, barring a catastrophe, Manius would easily win this race.The only other challenger was the Blue rider he had seen Hadramon talking to before the race, but he was trailing quite badly even this early in the race.As an exercise he studied Manius closely as he raced around the circuit.The Green rider would approach a bend by guiding the horses slightly away from the inside of the track, then suddenly pulling his four horses round in a skidding turn, accelerating through the last part of the curve.Although this gave him a greater burst of speed out of the bend, it made him slightly vulnerable to anyone hot on his heels who could nip in the inside.However, Manius had too great a lead to be caught like this, although the Blue rider was able to cut the lead slightly at times.As they approached the last bend before the finish, the Blue rider made a supreme effort to nip in but Manius, anticipating this, slid his chariot across thus blocking the Blue's route.This had the effect of crushing the luckless charioteer against the inside track wall, smashing the chariot and sending the man hurtling out across the dirt.As he lay stunned there the following chariots came into the turn, unable to avoid him.The crowd roared again, either from delight or outrage.Manius easily won much to the delight of the Green faction supporters and to the obvious displeasure of the Emperor and the Empress who promptly got up and vanished from view [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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