“That is unclear,” Cassia began, but Nero shook his head, his wiry curls dancing.
“A horoscope cast for me a few days ago said a man would endanger me near the time of the festival of Ceres. He would bring a token from the past.” Nero switched his glare to me, as though I’d climbed the hill today to overthrow him.
“I only found the ring by chance,” I said rapidly. “We decided that if you keep it hidden, no harm will come to you.”
Anger burned in his eyes. “It is too late. This is the first piece in the foretelling. The second cannot be far away.” Nero snatched the ring from me and closed it in his fist. “Find him for me, Leonidas.”
“Find who?” I asked in perplexity.
The rage in Nero’s eyes nearly flattened me. This was a dangerous man, no matter that the common people admired him for being young and lively.
“The usurper,” Nero snapped. “He must be out there, plotting. Mocking me. Sharpening his knife.” He shuddered. “Cerealia begins eight days hence. Find him before then.”
My jaw went slack. How could I search all of Rome for a man who might know of this ring and had plans to overthrow the princeps? In a week? That I’d stumbled upon the ring at all had been pure chance.
“I’m not sure I can, sir,” I ventured.
“You must. It is why I—” Nero broke off, as though choosing different words. “It is why I trust you. You have found killers before, Leonidas. You and Cassia.”
Cassia and I had unmasked them, yes, but after the deed had been committed. We hadn’t located a person who’d only been contemplating a crime.
“See that it’s done,” Nero said. “And bring him to me. If he is already dead when you drag him in, that will serve too.”
I continued to gape until Nero answered my confusion with a scowl. I dropped my gaze, not wanting to be struck down on the spot.
“We will do our best,” I said, trying to sound humble.
“You will succeed.” Nero’s tone was flinty. “I will have this man, or I will have you. Do you understand?”
I understood the fear behind the command. Since his accession, Nero had been terrified of losing the power his mother, Agrippina, had schemed and murdered to give him. He’d become afraid even of Agrippina’s ambitions, which was why she was now dead as well.
Several times since his reign had begun, Nero had suspected conspiracies against him and had all in question put to death. Some of the plots him had been real, but others had not. Rumor alone was enough to make him arrest men and execute them.
I managed a nod. I had no doubt that if Cassia and I did not find a would-be assassin for him, we’d forfeit our lives.
“Go then.” Nero gave my shoulder a hard shove.
Instantly, a roar filled my ears, and the room wavered. The hand on my shoulder became one of a gladiator’s, he trying to impel me backward. The move put me under Nero’s reach—a thrust upward with my sword into his armpit would fell him.
My hand clenched as though around the short sword I hadn’t held in months, my arm coming around to make the stab.
At the last moment I smelled perfume instead of sweat and leather, and sweet wine from a banquet. The large chamber rushed back into view, sending the sand and cement walls of the Circus Gai crumbling into mist. I sucked in a breath and lowered the fist I’d half raised.
A brush of fabric at my side shattered the rest of the vision. Cassia had drawn closer to me, the warmth of her cloak a comfort in the sudden chill.
Nero had already turned his back on us and was moving swiftly out of sight, his praetorian guards swarming into formation to surround him.
The guard called Servius remained. “Follow,” he commanded, then marched away. He showed no curiosity about why we’d come to see Nero or what Nero had said to us. Cassia and I hastened after him.
“You put Lucanus Faustinus’s nose out of joint,” Servius told us as we caught up to him. Lucanus Faustinus was Nero’s shaved-headed majordomo. He gave a humorless laugh. “A good day.”
We followed Servius through the hushed, opulent corridors toward the evening light. At the gate, he ushered us out.
“I owe you a favor, Leonidas,” Servius said as he took his leave. “You lightened my burden for a few minutes.”
I wasn’t certain how I’d aided him, but I gave Servius a noncommittal nod, which he took with good cheer. The gate banged behind us with an ominous sound.
The sun was sinking as we descended the hill and entered the flat area of the forums.
