My blood was still cold from my vision when Nero had pushed me. I’d come very close to attacking him. Though I hadn’t carried an actual weapon, I could have hurt him badly enough. Even now my head could be in a pool of blood on his intricate marble floor, Cassia falling dead next to me. I’d returned to my senses just in time.
I sped my pace as the streets grew darker. People hurried to get indoors. Litters surrounded by guards pushed through those of lesser status in their haste to reach safety.
The wine shop on the Quirinal had already closed its shutters by the time we reached it. I silently unlocked and opened our door and went upstairs ahead of Cassia, scouting for intruders. I found none, and no evidence anyone had entered our apartment while we’d been out.
Cassia scuttled inside behind me, and I closed us in for the night. She unwound and hung up her cloak, but instead of bustling about as usual, cobbling together supper from the remains of our midday meal, she sat down on her stool and bowed her head.
“I am sorry, Leonidas.”
I turned from where I’d been checking the solidness of the closed shutters and regarded her in surprise.
“Why?”
“If I’d not wanted to rush the ring to the Palatine, you would not have been charged with this impossible task.” Cassia’s voice was quiet.
I folded my arms, gingerly rubbing the large bruise I’d sustained last night. “But, as you said, what would happen if we’d not given Nero the ring, and he’d found out we had it? Paired with the horoscope his augur made for him, he might have believed we wanted to assassinate him. We’d be in the Tullianum before the end of the week.”
“I know,” Cassia said softly.
“I should have sold the ring to a goldsmith right away instead of bringing it home in the first place.”
“Why didn’t you?”
I felt my face warm. I’d carried it home because I’d wanted to give Cassia a trinket, a valuable one I’d never be able to afford. Though the ring had been made for a man, I’d imagined Cassia resizing it for her slimmer finger, having it melted down and beaten into earrings, or worn around her neck as I’d envisioned.
“I always bring you my wages,” I said, trying to sound offhand. “That ring could have paid our rent for a year.”
“Or, as you mentioned, sent us to the Tullianum.” Cassia gave me a thin smile. “I wish the inscription had been worn to nothing, and that I’d not been so interested in it.”
“Or that there’d been no inscription at all. A plain ring with nothing connected to it would have been welcome.” I rubbed my bruise again. “I will sleep on the floor again tonight, in case the robber tries to come back.”
“If he’s a competent thief, then he would have watched us journey to the Palatine and back,” Cassia pointed out. “He did not break in while we were gone, so he must have realized we’ve rid ourselves of the ring.”
“Or he is not a skilled thief, and will try again,” I countered. “If he does, I will keep hold of him this time. If someone sent him, I will pry out of him who.”
“That would be useful,” Cassia agreed.
“I suppose I can start finding out about the ring at the building site,” I said, moving to the wine jug. The walk and worry had made me thirsty. “I will discover what sort of building stood there before. If the ring was simply discarded or lost centuries ago, there will be no conspiracy now.”
“Nero might believe that, if not for the horoscope,” Cassia said. “He will want absolute proof he is safe, no matter what this ring does or does not signify.”
I turned the filled wine cup in my hand but did not drink. “Anyone else charged with this task would simply drag the first person he saw on the street to Nero and proclaim him the culprit.” An easy way out of our dilemma. Nero would execute the unfortunate man, and Cassia and I could return to our daily routine.
“I believe you are correct,” Cassia said. “But I know you will not do that.”
“No.” I myself had been accused, tried, and convicted for a crime I had not committed. I refused to do that to another person.
“Then we must discover the truth of this ring.”
Cassia stated this as though the task were simple.
I rubbed my forehead. “We will need to ask questions about the inscription, but we no longer have the ring. I am not certain I could describe it well.”
Cassia turned to a box of scrolls, her energy returning. “That is no matter. I took rubbings of the crest and copied out the inscription, along with its translation.” She unrolled a papyrus and showed me, the letters she’d written much clearer than those on the ring.
I could only admire her foresight. “You will have to teach me to read that.”
“I will,” Cassia said in all seriousness. “There isn’t much to the prophecy, and it is rather repetitive. I belonged to Tarquinius. The man who wears me will be king again, and the like.”
