I told Marcianus the tale in a mumble. He listened avidly, taking a seat on the stone bunk as though we were in a comfortable tablinium instead of a dank cell beneath a patrician’s home.
“Very likely snake venom of some kind, as you suspect,” Marcianus said when I’d finished. “Or perhaps spider. As you are already regaining feeling, and you can breathe, I suspect it will eventually wear off. It must be a subduing poison, not a killing one, at least in small doses.”
“Delightful.” Regulus shook Vestalis. “See what kind of man your lackey is?”
“He meant to help me,” Vestalis said in a weak voice. “I am proud that he did.”
I gestured to Silvanus, who lay in a half-insensible heap across Regulus’s feet, where Aemil had finally dropped him. “He is the man who murdered Ajax and Rufus.”
A shriek sounded. “Hekilled Rufus?”
Martolia bounded into the cell, a knife gleaming in her hand. She broke from Merope and Gaius, who were trying to hold her back, and hurled herself at Silvanus.
“Ilovedhim,” she screeched as she stabbed.
The knife was stopped at the last minute by Aemil, who took it away from her. Martolia fought him, but she was no match for the strength of the seasoned Aemil.
“Help me bring them out,” Aemil ordered as he removed a struggling Martolia from the room. He nudged Silvanus with his foot. “We’ll take this one to the cohorts.”
The sound of tramping feet, followed by shouts, cut through Aemil’s orders. Most prominent households employed their own guards, from lictors to ex-soldiers and former gladiators, and I’d known hazily that it was only a matter of time before Vestalis’s bodyguards searched for him.
The hulking men reached us. One grabbed Silvanus and hauled him up and over his shoulder. Aemil backed away warily, but Vestalis only stood still—Regulus gripping him—resigned.
I expected to see the large men who surrounded Severina, but these guards wore leather breastplates and carried swords, and I didn’t recognize any from Severina’s household.
One big man leaned down and hauled me up and across his back as though I weighed nothing. Unnerving.
Cassia stayed close, following me out of the cell as I hung over the man’s shoulders like a sack of turnips. I had a view of rough-hewn steps as he jogged up them, which became polished stone steps and then segued into the mosaic tile floors of Severina’s giant house.
The man carried me all the way out into the night before dumping me onto a bench next to the villa’s front door. I was on the street, a cold breeze on my face. The air smelled damp—rain was coming.
Regulus fell heavily to a bench next to mine, unloaded there by another guard who’d carried him. Cassia sat down beside me and pulled out her inevitable tablet.
One of the guards seemed familiar. I couldn’t quite place him until I saw his master walking toward me with an easy stride, moonlight glittering on the gold wristbands he liked to wear.
“Sextus Livius.” My voice was a weary scratch.
“I am glad to see you alive, Leonidas.” Livius halted before me, his cloak hanging in pristine folds over a fine linen tunic. “When I received the message that you were in great danger, I feared the worst.”
“You sent for him?” I asked Cassia in surprise.
“I sent for everyone.” Cassia sat very close to me, her tunic-encased leg touching the length of mine, her warmth permeating my numb flesh.
I wasn’t certain what she meant byeveryone, but I was glad she’d decided to disobey my orders to stay home. When she’d saidI found help, I assumed she meant the boy who worked for the wine merchant who fetched the dancers and Marcianus.
I didn’t realize the extent of her network until the street outside the villa again rang with footsteps, and this time, men of the Praetorian Guard marched to the door. With them came the small form of Hesiodos.
I’d seen the lead guard at the Palatine before, and he knew me. “You are to come,” the guard told me.“Now.”
* * *
I’d never before riddenin a litter, and I decided I didn’t like the experience. The stuffy tent that stank of perfume swayed with the out-of-step stride of the men who bore it, bumping me along from the Caelian Hill to the Palatine. Livius had decided it was the best way to convey me, and purloined one of Severina’s for the purpose.
By the time I was lowered in a marble courtyard, I could stand, if shakily. The journey up the steep Palatine had been the worst part, the bearers struggling and swearing. One had stumbled, and I’d been certain we’d all go tumbling back down the hill.
Hesiodos, the man as neatly dressed and shod as ever, watched critically as a guard took my arm and walked me into the domus. The sturdy guard conveyed me through open courtyards and closed ones, past fountains and gardens, and along vast colonnades.
Cassia walked beside me. I heard her quiet footfalls between the thump of Praetorian boots and was glad of her presence.
