I conceded that she had a point. But it was far less dangerous to continue to make offerings to Hercules, who had helped me survive to this day, then to try to join a sect that made Nero nervous.
“You still have not told me why you don’t want to return the money to Drusus,” I said, steering us back to the subject. “Do you think he stole it from someone else?”
“No, but I believe he meant to give it to someone else, someone he’d meet at the Circus Gai. And not for a noble reason.”
My brows rose. “Fixing the games, maybe? Aemil would never take a bribe like that, but other gladiators might.” Regulus was the first name that sprang to mind.
“I am speculating on something more sinister.”
“If so, he wasn’t very secretive about it,” I mused. “He had a tantrum when he found his money gone, drawing attention to himself.” Nero’s attention, which could be hazardous.
“Drusus is the sort of man who believes nothing can touch him,” Cassia said. “Which makes him so dangerous.”
Cassia opened the pouch again, lifting out the coins and stacking them into five neat piles of four each. She noted the amount on one of her tablets then leaned in to study the gold.
I gazed at it as well, captivated. I rarely saw an aureus, even a denarius for that matter. A brass sestertius or a few copper asses were the most I usually held in my hand.
“Whatever he needs it for must be very expensive,” I said, my voice quiet.
“So much money.” Cassia’s voice was equally soft as she remained rapt on the coins. “No one but Epikrates and his family knows we have it.”
I stilled as I caught her meaning. Epikrates and his family would be unlikely to tell anyone they’d ever seen Drusus’s sack of gold, let alone that we’d taken it away with us.
The sum on the table would enable us to leave Rome, to travel far from our mysterious benefactor and the whims of Nero. Once we were in some remote outpost of the empire, I could pay an official to declare Cassia a freedwoman, or we could simply say she was, so that no legal trail would follow us.
We’d be wise to change our names, but as I hadn’t been born Leonidas, that would be easy for me.
“The cities of the east are beautiful places, my father told me.” Cassia’s voice held longing. “Ephesus is a jewel on the sea, and Smyrna and Pergamum hold luxuries never seen in the backwater of Rome. Then there’s Halicarnassus, Antioch, Tyre. They are even farther away, warm and beautiful.”
I’d never heard Cassia speak like this. Most of the time she focused on practical matters, such as how much bread to fetch from the baker and how much wine to purchase for the week. She recorded the wages I earned, sequestered the money, and doled it out sparingly to keep us fed and the rent paid.
Now her voice took on a dreamy lilt, a yearning for the places of her ancestry. To be free in the warmth of an eastern city filled with fountains and citrus trees, where we’d lounge in the sun and eat dates covered with honey.
This pile of gold could take us there and keep us in comfort for a long while.
We’d have to carefully plan how we’d get away without notice, but Cassia was clever enough to come up with some scheme.
Then we’d be fugitives. If we simply disappeared, Drusus would likely tumble to the fact that we’d run off with his money. A senator prominent enough to have seats at the Circus next to the princeps’ could afford to hire men to hunt us down.
If Nero grew annoyed at us for our departure, whether or not he cared about the inconvenience to Drusus, he had even more resources for finding us. He’d bring us back to Rome to face terrible deaths.
But if we planned well, we might escape, never to be seen again.
Cassia let out a sigh and began sliding the coins back into the pouch.
“Perhaps someday,” she said, resigned. “When we can go without fear of reprisal.”
I sucked in a sharp breath, not in disappointment, but because she’d said we.
I cleared my throat. “Do I take the money to the princeps, then?”
“No.” Cassia raised her head and gazed at the wall behind me. She often did this when thinking hard, so I was not alarmed. “You will return it to Drusus. Then we will watch him, to see what he is up to.”
Chapter 6
I slept uneasily that night, knowing that a fortune rested in the niche under our floorboards, where Cassia kept our funds. I heard Cassia restless on her pallet by the shutters, uneasy as well.
In the morning, I climbed a narrow street up the Oppian Hill, making for the large domii at the top. I had to walk through the Subura to reach it, which I did as swiftly as possible, aware that I carried more money than the people who lived here might see in a lifetime.
