AN EYE-POPPING ADVENTURE

In The Deadliest Hate, Miriam sneaks into that netherworld below the arena to search for her brother after his gladiatorial debut:

As I descended through the narrow passageway, torches stared out at me and splayed my furry shadow against the soot-streaked walls. The insufferable reek of rotting flesh, so unbearably sweet, crowded the air and settled on my lips while a pulsating heat rushed out to parch my skin. Able at last to see for some distance into this netherworld and feeling the slope of the tunnel leveling off, I figured I was approaching the hypogeum, the vast network of cells and chambers beneath the arena.

At first the hairs at the nape of my neck would prickle whenever a soldier snared me with his gaze and darted a flame of suspicion at me. All were hulking brutes with leathery faces and hands the size of shovels. Some stood guard like fence posts. Others tromped through the passageways, their heavy boots beating a steady rhythm of thuds against the hard stones as they hastened to carry out the orders spooling out of the chief officer’s quarters. One by one they’d appraise me with their needle eyes only to dismiss me with the trace of a smirk as nothing more than a bedraggled whore sent to entertain the victors. So soon enough I realized I could wander through the tunnel and its branches with impunity.

You too can experience that eye-popping adventure in the hypogeum. To go there, just click here.