“You can indeed,” Marcianus answered before Aemil could. “I have a cart to bring here and I could use the assistance.”
He meant for Ajax’s body. I’d planned to offer to help but Livius’s guards would be able to do the job swiftly.
“I would be happy to,” Livius said. “If I learn anything about this horrible business or find what has become of the other two men, I will send word to you, Leonidas.”
We inclined our heads cordially at each other. Livius even nodded to Cassia, whom he’d met in our rooms at the end of our last adventure. Then he and Marcianus moved off toward the Aventine, the guards closing in around them.
I turned back to Aemil. Herakles’s mention of sorcery had stirred an idea. “Do you know if you’ve been cursed? Or maybe the ludus itself has?”
Aemil folded his thick arms. “I thought of that this morning. I’ve looked for scrolls, but found nothing, though we haven’t had time to make a thorough search yet.”
Anyone could pay a priest or a vendor of such things for a curse—they supplied the leather or papyrus scroll, stylus, and the words of the incantation, assuring the purchaser that the magic would work if they followed a certain formula.
The curses weren’t always successful—if the incantation was done wrong, or the god called upon wasn’t pleased, nothing might happen. But many families had been ruined or businesses failed because of curses.
“Go away, Leonidas.” Aemil rubbed his forehead, drawing his broad hand down to his chin. “Thank you for finding that vermin, Herakles. Now if we can lay hands on Rufus and the blasted Regulus, so much the better.”
He turned away without a good-bye, striding toward the cells, chivying men with his shouts.
Cassia and I were left relatively alone. “Should we retreat or continue searching?” she asked.
I thought of the two young women and their cousin Gaius who vowed to leave no stone unturned until they found Rufus. I had the feeling they could search the Transtiberim better than we could.
As for Regulus …
A chill touched me when I thought of him, but at the same time, I didn’t really believe anyone would be able to kill him. Ajax could have been lured to his banquet, promised riches, or patronage, or sex. Seduced. Regulus never would be. He was suspicious of everyone and liked to have the upper hand in any situation. An assassin would more likely be laid low by Regulus than he by him.
“Home for now,” I told Cassia. “You can write down all we’ve learned.”
Her eyes crinkled again.
“Leonidas.”
Herakles approached from the cells on swift feet, glancing over his shoulder, but Aemil could be heard berating unfortunate men in the far wing.
“You,” Herakles barked at Cassia. “Wait outside.”
Cassia did not move until I gestured to her. She bowed her head and slipped out the gate, though she was anything but meek.
I braced myself for Herakles to berate me once more for wresting him from his cushy accommodations, but he put his hand on my shoulder and turned me aside.
“I’d watch that slave of yours.” His hazel eyes held vicious glee. “She’s in thick with Domitiana’s menials. One of them is her lover.”
Chapter 7
Iregarded Herakles stonily. He was inebriated from whatever wine he’d imbibed at the villa and angry at me for bringing him to the ludus to face Aemil’s wrath. My skepticism must have been obvious, because Herakles leaned closer, his breath pungent.
“I saw them together,” he said with conviction. “She’s sleeping away, Leonidas. With a spindly nobody. I’d take a strap to her.”
With that, he sent me a derisive sneer and sprinted back to the cells.
I exited through the gate, answering Septimius’s farewell. Cassia hovered a few paces down the road, having stepped against the wall to stay out of the way of passers-by. No one paid much attention to her, an unmoving slave in a plain cloak.
She fell into step behind me as I moved on. I couldn’t turn in this narrow passageway and demand to know what Herakles meant unless I wanted us to be amusement for the street. I clamped my mouth closed and led the way home.
We went over the bridge to the Insula in the middle of the Tiber, shuffling along with those crossing back into Rome. From there we skirted the Theatre of Marcellus, passed the temples to Fortuna and Mater Matuta, and moved under the towering Temple of Saturn toward the Basilica Julia and the forums.
The crowds had dispersed from the Forum Romanum, as most men headed for the baths in the afternoon, informally continuing business they’d begun in the Curia or the basilicas. The roads became relatively quiet as we left the flat areas around the forums of Julius and Augustus and wound our way to our apartment.
