BINYAMIN COMES HOME AFTER TEN YEARS IN THE ARENA

The Deadliest Sport opens with Binyamin’s return to Alexandria to fight his last bout after ten years in gladiatorial arenas all over the Empire. And guess what? He brings home a comrade, Tychon, who has a share in Binyamin’s plans.

Miriam spots them spilling down the ship’s gangway:

Two men, an odd pair but apparently together, spill down one of the gangways; their faces, arms, and legs marked with tattoos; their bodies virile; their postures aggressive. The burly one, wearing a coarse, gray woolen tunic, his thickset arms arcing from his body, has a long, leathery face scored with savage lines, hands like huge grain scoops, and feet like enormous flatfish. The other one dressed in a gaudy, Chinese silk tunic, crimson with a geometric border print embroidered in gold, must be Binyamin. He’s lambasting a shame-faced, bowlegged porter for being rough with his luggage, something Binyamin would surely do.

A few moments later, in the flurry of greetings, Binyamin introduces me to his beefy companion.

“Just think, Sis, in two weeks, Tychon and I will be released. He’s from Caesarea, but he’ll be staying on to be a trainer for me at the gladiator school here. I have big plans—wait till you hear them—to take over that pigsty of a school and expand it into something we can actually be proud of.”

That’s why this story is called The Deadliest Sport and that’s why Binyamin will need your help. You see, his plans don’t go so smoothly. Oh well, you’ll find out all about it later this year. In the meantime, click here to learn about the murder along the way (Ooops! Have I said too much?): http://www.junetrop.com/the-deadliest-sport.