I slowly pushed myself up but remained kneeling, my backside on my heels, not wanting to anger Nero by towering over him. Cassia adopted a similar posture.
“You uncovered an assassin after me before.” Nero rested one hand on his hip, his wrist encased in a jeweled armband. “Did what all my Praetorian guards and my personal servants could not.” He flashed a derisive glance around the room, and I heard feet shift uncomfortably. “I command you to do so again.”
I decided not to argue that there was no evidence this killer targeted Nero, but then again, we did not know for certain. It might be, as Nero said, an attempt to make theprincepslook incompetent and in a roundabout way, rid Rome of him.
Nero wanted an answer, so I inclined my head. “I will do my best, sir.”
“You will do more than your best. You will find this killer and bring him to me. The courts will decide his fate, which will not be pleasant. Shall I assign a man to assist you?”
I hesitated. I did not want an agent of Nero’s breathing over my shoulder, arresting any person I spoke to or had already spoken to. That meant Chryseis, Merope and her family, and possibly Herakles’s lover Domitiana, the basketmaker, and the impoverished family at the top of Chryseis’s insula.
“No need.” I tried to sound humble and deferential. “But it might help to let me talk to Rufus’s wife. She was arrested last night, but she did not commit this crime. She might have seen who did, even without realizing it.”
“Rufus was a good swordsman,” Nero said nostalgically. “Didn’t have the form you did, but he was spirited and fought with all his heart.” He trailed off in sorrow. Many patrician Romans disdained Nero for his vast enjoyment of the gladiatorial games, chariot races, the theatre, and musical entertainment, but the lower orders liked a ruler who shared their enthusiasm.
Nero snapped back to the present. “I will have her released. But question her closely. Better still, have Cassia question her.”
Nero had been taken with Cassia upon their first meeting, when she’d admired his musical selections. He’d recognized immediately that Cassia had a quicker mind than I did.
I bowed my head in acquiescence, as did Cassia. Nero returned to me, feet close together in a perfect line.
“If I am waspish today, Leonidas, it is because I do not like disorder in my city. To discover that a killer has been wiping out gladiators—strong men and trained fighters—does not please me. That you did not tell me of this right away does not please me either.” His toes curled in the sandals, tight sinews of irritation. “Find this man, and tell me immediately who he is. Find him before he kills again. He might even targetyou.”
Nero barked a laugh, and I ventured to glance up at him. He wasn’t looking at me but at the far wall, his lips twisted in ironic mirth.
“I shouldn’t like to lose you, Leonidas. I might have need of you …”
He trailed off, then took a smart step back. “Leave me now.” His tone returned to brisk annoyance. “Do not return until you bring me the killer.”
Nero marched out between Cassia and me as we returned our faces to the tile. The hem of his toga brushed my shoulder, bathing me in the scent of sweat-touched wool.
Cassia and I remained abased while the guards marched out around us, followed by the scurrying attendants. We didn’t raise our heads until Hesiodos’s voice told us dryly that everyone had gone and it was time to leave.
* * *
Before we descended the Palatine,I took Hesiodos aside and asked him what I had thought about regarding Cassia. Hesiodos frowned at me but I made him promise to inquire.
Cassia eyed me curiously once we rejoined her, but I waved her off, telling her it was not important. Hesiodos deserted us at the bottom of the hill, and Cassia and I returned home.
Once there, Cassia glumly hung up her cloak. “If we do not find this killer we might have to flee Rome.” She paused reflectively. “I suppose life in exile wouldn’t be so bad, depending on where we go.”
I tried to feel mirth at her statement, but Cassia watched me in all seriousness. She did not joke. Theprincepsmight well punish us if we did not do what he wished.
“Howdo we find him?” I dragged my stool to the wall, plunked myself onto it, and stretched out my legs. My sandals were coated with mud from our walk, nowhere near as pristine as Nero’s, which had probably been made to be worn only indoors. “He flits through the Subura unseen and lurks in a crowded insula with no one the wiser.”
“The family that moved upstairs …” Cassia pulled out her tablets and read through them until she found her notes on what we’d discovered last night. “They must have been told to vacate the apartment. They’ve seen the killer or at least whoever transported the body.”
“They might tell me about him, if they are frightened enough.” I curled my toes, unable to imagine sitting still while someone buffed my feet. “I hope they took my advice and sought Avitus and another home.”
“They have children—I imagine they’ll do what they must to protect them.”
“Maybe.” I did not explain to Cassia about poor and wretched parents who sold their children into slavery or to lupinari in order to pay paralyzing debts.
“Chryseis too might have met this killer,” Cassia said. “Perhaps some of her fright at finding Rufus is because of such knowledge. We should question her, as theprincepscommanded.”
“True,” I conceded. “I also must find Regulus.”
I worried very much for the idiot. Regulus believed himself indestructible, but I did not want to find his lifeless eyes peering at me through a provacatur’s helmet.
