Gladiator
Page 10
Cy felt a sudden prickling of the skin on the back of his neck. He stared hard at the statue. ‘Excuse me,’ he said. ‘Do you think that the material has a pattern?’
The guide peered more closely.
‘A stripe?’ suggested Cy. ‘Like a school tie?’ Chloe and Eddie giggled. Cy ignored them.
‘You know, it does look a bit like that,’ the guide agreed.
Cy looked again at the two figures. Then he reached forward and, with the tips of his fingers, he touched the outstretched hands.
The guide noticed this and smiled at Cy. ‘Our everyday custom of shaking hands has been passed down to us from two thousand years ago. When you met someone you stretched out your hand. It was to show that you were not reaching for your sword.’
‘I remember,’ said Cy under his breath.
‘Then you would greet the person by saying, “Ave.” It is Latin and it can mean welcome or farewell.’
‘Ave,’ said Cy softly to the figures on the wall plaque. ‘Ave, Linus. Ave, Rhea Silvia.’
The class went on to the next exhibit and Cy began to turn away. Then he stopped and looked back quickly. Right on to the outside edge of his vision there was the briefest of movements. For a shaving of a second of Time it seemed to him that Rhea Silvia’s and Linus’s hands had reached out, and their fingers fluttered farewell.
But that was only his Imagination.
Wasn’t it?
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Epub ISBN: 9781446452615
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DREAM MASTER: GLADIATOR
A CORGI YEARLING BOOK: 9780440865018
First published in Great Britain by Doubleday,
an imprint of Random House Children’s Books
Doubleday edition published 2003
Corgi Yearling edition published 2004
3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Copyright © Theresa Breslin, 2003
Chapter head illustrations copyright © David Wyatt, 2003
The right of Theresa Breslin to be identified as the
author of this work has been asserted in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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