Cassia flushed, but her chin was up, her shoulders square. “I asked Hesiodos if he would guide us to Nero, as he has done in the past.”
“When he summoned you, and someone from the Palatine summoned me,” Hesiodos said irritably. “I can’t rush to his domus and demand he see you.”
As I had no idea why Cassia wanted to speak to Nero, I could contribute nothing to the argument. I unlaced the pouch at my belt and set it on the table, then dropped onto a stool and poured myself a cup of wine. Cassia had, as usual, bought some that morning.
“Do not forget who you are, Leonidas,” Hesiodos said to me.
As I was in no danger of forgetting, I didn’t bother to answer.
“You are beholden to your benefactor, who expects you to be ready whenever you are summoned,” Hesiodos continued, his words encompassing both Cassia and me.
“As we will be,” Cassia cut in. “I find it rude that this person will not tell us who he or she is.”
Hesiodos’s face pinched. “It is a condition of Leonidas’s freedom. A condition of my employment as well. I am not your messenger. Good day to both of you.”
Hesiodos took himself out of the apartment, his body rigid with indignation. He banged the door at the bottom of the stairs behind him, and I heard his even tramp on the street as he hastened from our home.
Once I’d bolted the door downstairs, I returned and waited for Cassia to explain.
Cassia sank to her stool behind the table, her scrolls and tablets like a barrier between her and the world. “I did not tell Hesiodos why I wished an audience with Nero. I want to take the ring to him.”
I hadn’t thought she’d disclosed everything. Hesiodos would have been either more anxious or more dismissive if so.
“You are very concerned about it,” I said. Cassia was no fool, and if she thought the ring would bring us misfortune, I would listen to her.
She habitually began straightening her tablets. “I fear that if we are found in possession of such a ring, and anyone believes what is written on it, we could be in grave danger. Prophecies can be powerful things.”
A qualm twinged my stomach. “But if we rush to Nero, waving the ring at him, he’ll consider us innocent?”
Cassia sent me a wavering smile. “I believe he’ll be highly suspicious, but he’ll be even more so if we hide it from him and he finds out later. Too many already know about the ring. If Vibius talks about it, or Gallus mentions the odd writing on it to a friend, tales may reach the Palatine. Nero has many eyes.”
And he sometimes wandered into popinas, listening to what people in Rome were talking about.
“We’ll go then,” I stated.
“I’d hoped Hesiodos would smooth the way,” Cassia said glumly.
I rubbed my hair and glanced idly out the balcony to sunshine fading behind clouds. “I’d guess Hesiodos doesn’t want to endanger his standing on the Palatine. If he constantly takes us to Nero’s domus without summons, they might bar the gates to him.”
Cassia sighed. “I know. Well, we will just have to take a chance that someone will let us in.”
The last several times we’d had an audience with Nero, we’d brought him bad news or revealed a killer. Once, I’d nearly destroyed one of his beautiful rooms with a fight. He could not look forward to our presence.
But Nero liked Cassia. She’d once praised his musical skills, and he’d been very pleased with her for that.
“It is still daylight,” I pointed out. “We could go now.”
Cassia shivered but nodded. “I agree. Better to have done with it right away.”
She rose and moved past me to kneel before the altar we’d erected to our ancestors. I thought she would whisper a prayer for her father—a drawing of him was propped there. Next to that was a scroll inscribed with his name and that of Xerxes, my closest friend. I’d never known my father and had lost my mother when a child, so I’d substituted Xerxes as my family. He’d have laughed at me for it but possibly understood.
Cassia shoved the table a few inches to the right then plucked up a loose tile, thrusting her hand into a small hole beneath it. She came out with the bag that held the ring, replaced the tile and table, and unbent to her feet.
She held the bag out to me. “Will you carry it? You will be better at fending off robbers.”
I accepted with a nod, noticing Cassia carefully didn’t brush my hand as I took the bag. Both of us were wary of touch, and I wondered if we’d ever overcome it.
Cassia fetched her cloak, as the clouds had brought with it a cool breeze. Not wanting the bother of mine, I left it hanging on its peg and led the way downstairs to the street.
