The Last Sacrifice (The Last Disciple Book 2)

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. The Last SacrificeBy HANK HANEGRAAFF SIGMUND BROUWERTYNDALE HOUSE PUBLISHERS, INC.Copyright © 2005Hank HanegraaffAll right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4143-6498-8Chapter One HORA OCTAVA THE EARLY AFTERNOON sunshine blazed down on a large pen out of the sight of amphitheater spectators. The bestiarius began covering the eyes of the hobbled bull elephant he had selected to kill Gallus Sergius Vitas. Perched on its neck, the beast master hummed as he did his work, patting the hide of the massive animal, trying to settle and soothe it. In his mind, he saw clearly how it would happen. He would remove the blinds only after he strapped Vitas to a tusk and led the beast to the center of the sand. Then, while two bears fought the elephant, another condemned man would be forced to dart between the elephant's legs to release the chains that kept it hobbled. After the bears had killed the condemned man, and after the elephant had killed the bears with Vitas still on its tusk, it would finally redirect its rage to shake and scrape Vitas loose, then stomp him into a red smear. The process would, with luck, entertain the crowd for half an hour. It was routine, actually, except that the man who was to die today once had Nero's ear. So the bestiarius knew it needed to be done properly. From below, a voice interrupted his thoughts: "Nero wants Vitas so close he can taste his blood." The bestiarius, a small, dirty man with no teeth, secured the blinders and patted the animal's head before looking down to answer. At the side of the elephant, he saw the former slave most citizens in Rome recognized. Helius, Nero's most trusted adviser. In his late twenties, Helius was a beautiful man, with smooth, almost bronze skin. His hair was luxuriously curly, his eyes a strange yellow, giving him a feral look that was rumored to hold great attraction for Nero. Helius wore a toga edged with purple, and his fingers and wrists and neck were layered with jewelry of gold and rubies. "Did you hear me?" Helius said, impatient. He sniffed the air cautiously and wrinkled his nose at the smell of the elephant. The bestiarius would have answered any other man with derogative curses. "No man alive," the bestiarius finally said, "can direct or predict the movements of a raging elephant." "Nor can any man dead," Helius told him. "Make sure Nero is not disappointed." The bestiarius cautioned himself that this was Helius, who had almost as much power over the lives and deaths of Nero's subjects as Nero himself. "I'll have two women chained in the sand below the emperor's place in the stands," he said after a few moments' thought. Once the bull was in a rage, he knew it would attack everything in sight, including those women. It would rear on hind legs and stomp with the full force of its weight, something that would surely excite Nero. The bestiarius would also strap Vitas on so tightly that the elephant would not be able to shake him loose too soon. That would bring Vitas in close enough to the emperor. "He will get the blood he wants." "Ensure that the women are Christians and see it's done properly," Helius snapped. "You don't want me back here again." * * * Nearby, but in a world removed from blue skies and fresh air, Gordio and Catus, the two soldiers assigned the task of finding and escorting Vitas, had already entered the labyrinth of prison cells below the stands of the amphitheater. While both were large, Catus was the larger of the two. In the flickering light of the torch, they gave the appearance of brothers, each with dark, cropped hair, each with a wide face marked by battle scars. They were old for soldiers, sharing a common bond back to the days when they were both recruited from neighboring farms north of Rome, sharing survived battles in Britannia and Gaul and all the years of monotony between them. As they traveled through the dark corridors by torchlight, the rumbling of the spectators