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They had been seen.

There was no pretending otherwise.

Rumours were rumours and satire was satire, but kissing her gladiator-guard at a party full of people could not be plausibly denied.

Claudia had exposed herself, and denied anyone else the power.

It was strangely liberating.

17. SOME DARK AND MONSTROUS MAGIC

Back at the palace, all was eerily quiet. When the chariot driver saluted her, Claudia noticed that his uniform was dishevelled, as if it had been hastily removed, while a smear of make-up showed on his cheek.

‘What is your name, sir?’ she asked.

‘Amir.’

‘Thanks, Amir, you’re a legend,’ said Gia, shaking his hand. ‘An absolute legend, of the ages.’

‘I may ask for you again by name,’ said Claudia,

‘It would be my honour,’ he said.

Only a few guards were awake to patrol the grounds. Claudia wondered which of them might be working for the general, or serving Jupiter. She felt the net closing in around them.

She told herself she just had to get through the night. In the morning, the traitors would be called to stand before her and she could remove the threat they posed – whatever it took to do so.

It was almost over.

‘Come on, you,’ said Claudia, steering Gia inside.

As Gia clumsily attempted to make some food in the kitchen, Claudia explained how Darius had shown her who was conspiring against her: the senators and the general who brought Marcellus to Rome. Tacitus. Thelonius. Aquinas.

‘It has been them, working for my cousin all along,’ Claudia said, as she snacked on olives. ‘The Pantheon, the knife you found, the attempt at the Circus Maximus: they were behind it all.’

‘How does Darius know all of this, though?’ said Gia.

‘His goddess, Anahita. She guides him, as Minerva guides me. He has a talisman that gifts him with visions of the past.’

‘I hope his gods will not go to war with ours.’

Claudia shuddered. ‘Do not speak of it.’

They scavenged a meagre spread of leftovers, taking their feast up to Claudia’s room, which was really their room. She sent Nadira and her guard away, not caring if they found it suspicious or not.

‘I fear Darius is right and Marcellus will return. But if I can prove his treachery, I can make sure my cousin never comes close to touching the crown.’

‘Then what?’

‘I could have him arrested,’ said Claudia, ‘or order one of the leagues to capture him overseas and bring him here.’

‘His allies might aid him.’

‘I could even kill him, if I had to.’

‘You cannot kill every man who stands in your way,’ said Gia.

‘Says who?’