Roma Victrix — Russell Whitfield

 

Four years have passed since Lysandra's epic but inconclusive battle with her hated rival Sorena in the arena of Halicarnassus, after which both combatants were granted their freedom. Now Sorena leads a vicious troop of horsewomen. Into her hands falls the young tribune Gaius Minervius Valerian, and she ponders whether to deal him a slow and painful death, or release him to journey back to Rome in shame as the sole survivor of the empire's most humiliating defeat for half a millennium. Meanwhile, Lysandra has become accustomed to easy living and suffered an insidious addiction to alcohol that, together with her unabated hubris, is sapping both her self esteem and friendships. But now the Emperor Domitian has called for a command performance at Rome's newly built Flavian Amphitheatre. Lysandra is invited to fight Rome's adored Gladiatrix Prima, the beautiful and deadly fighter known as Aesalon Nocturna, the Midnight Falcon. Her record is devastating: 30 bouts; 30 wins -- no draws or losses. Lysandra has to face up to all that she is and all that she must become as all roads lead to Rome.