“Retiring? Gladiators don’t retire. They die.”
“Maybe in Kula. In Deimos, Geoxus lets gladiators retire when they’ve fought for him well. He’s benevolent.”
Ash’s skin prickled.Benevolent.
Before Ash could ask more, Cassia snatched the scroll back from her. “That’s enough. These records are yours only if you promise to forget what you know about Madoc.”
Ash’s eyes dropped to the scroll. Would this information be useful?
I can’t have a gladiator involved again, Ignitus had said.
Maybe the other Deiman gladiators who had disappeared in the past were connected to Kula. She could still look for those ties. She could still find something that could help.
Ash sighed, defeated, and took the scroll. “Fine. I won’t tell anyone about Madoc.”
She scanned the parchment with bleary eyes. She didn’t know how she would begin to—
Amyntas Fulvius, another entry said.
FIRST WAR, YEAR 886:
STAKES:TWO HARVESTS OF KULAN WHEAT
FINAL WAR MATCH:TWO-HOUR FIGHT, GEOXUS VICTORIOUS
SECOND WAR, YEAR 888:
STAKES:THREE YEARS OF KULA’S MEAT TRADE WITH CENHELM
FINAL WAR MATCH:NINE-HOUR FIGHT, GEOXUS VICTORIOUS
TITHED:YEAR 894
DEATH:YEAR 898
More—
STAKES:KULAN LUMBER EXPORTS. GEOXUS VICTORIOUS.
STAKES:KULAN MEDICINAL IMPORTS FROM LAKHU. GEOXUS VICTORIOUS.
More and more. The stakes, Kula’s dwindling assets; the victor, Geoxus.
At the very bottom, outlined from old faded ink to crisp black, was a record of Kula’s resources, laid out like a shopping list that a servant might take to a market. Some items had notes beside them—Won by Aera; Won by Biotus—while more than a dozen items had lines through them, all the things Geoxus now owned from Kula.
Ash had never seen Kula’s losses laid out so succinctly before. It was infuriating, her country’s reality scratched on parchment as though it was just some footnote in history.
But three items were not yet struck through. Kula’s rights to the Telsa Channel; their two remaining fishing ports; and their glass trade.
All the resources that were at stake in this war.
Ash’s chest seized. “They’re bleeding us dry,” she breathed.
“Who?”
“Geoxus.” Ash frowned up at Cassia. “Biotus. Aera. The other gods.”
Leave me out of his squabbles with Geoxus, Biotus, and Aera.
