David Wishart - Germanicus

'You've got me there, lady.'

'Your friend Nonius Asprenas.' She smiled again. 'You remember him, don't you?'

I sat back. Sure, I remembered Asprenas. I wasn't likely to forget that bastard. And I knew now what Livia was driving at.

She'd surprised me, even so. It'd never crossed my mind that Asprenas might be involved with Sejanus, crook though he undoubtedly was, even although the Libo case had suggested that forgery was a distinct possibility. So now the guy was freelancing. Or maybe just riding on what he hoped was the next emperor's coat tails. That was good to know. 'You're sure, Excellency?' I said.

'I'm sure. And if Asprenas's fake suicide letter fooled you, then it must have been good. Very good indeed.'

'Gee thanks.' I couldn't help grinning.

'I mean it. But as I said that was a digression. Go on, young man.'

I'd noticed a tray of wine cups and a jug on a side table. It wasn't exactly etiquette, sure, but after all the old harpy had put me through these last few months I reckoned I deserved the right to a liberty or two. Besides, we were practically old friends by now. Or whatever. 'You mind if I have a cup of wine while I talk, Excellency?' I said. 'It greases the rollers.'

She smiled slightly. 'Ah, yes. I'd forgotten. It's only there for show. Help yourself, but none for me, I'm afraid. Doctor's orders.'

'Yeah. I know the feeling.' I got up and poured.

'Take the jug with you,' she said.

I sat down again in the chair and took a sip. The wine was genuine five-star Caecuban, rich and smooth as velvet; probably, from the way it kissed the tongue, laid down when the Divine Augustus was plain ordinary Octavian and Actium was just a lump of rock sticking out from the Greek coast. Liquid poetry. It almost made coming to the palace worth the pain and anguish.

'Okay.' I held the cup carefully: this stuff you didn't even shake if you could help it. 'So Piso is out of the picture. Plancina too. That was a nice stroke of Sejanus's, because by getting the emperor to beg her off the charge he increased the suspicion that she'd been the one actually to arrange the poisoning.'

'Plancina was unfortunate,' Livia agreed. 'However, I had very little choice. I knew, of course, that in protecting her I was helping Sejanus, but she did have certain claims on me as a friend. And after all she was innocent. I saw no reason why she should die for nothing.'

'Very laudable, Excellency.'

She stiffened. 'Corvinus, I have never killed for no purpose. You should know that better than anyone. Nor has the emperor. Piso's death was a political necessity, but it would have been both criminal and immoral to extend punishment gratuitously to the other members of his family.'

'Hence the pardon for his son. Yeah, okay, I can see that. I'm sorry.' I was: Livia might be a murderess ten times over but she had her own code of values. It wasn't fair to judge her by normal standards. 'So. Let's get back to Sejanus. He's got the emperor where he wants him. Sure, the empire's safe: Germanicus is dead, Agrippina's checkmated, the plot's cold. Only at a price, and that's been largely Sejanus's doing. Tiberius has come out of this thing smelling higher than a Raetan cheese in midsummer, he's in hock to his right hand man and being Tiberius he takes it hard. Nobody likes him, everybody hates him. The only friend he's got left in the world is Sejanus. Am I right?'

Livia said nothing. She was doing her dead Etruscan act again. I went on.

'So. Sejanus begins to worm his way further in. The only wrinkle is a guy called Regulus, who's been in on the scam and knows Sejanus has been two-timing. He tries a bit of blackmail, which is stupid but then I suspect Regulus thought more of himself than was healthy. Naturally Sejanus has him chopped.' I took a sip of the Caecuban. Nectar! 'Sejanus has just about everything he needs, as much as a commoner can decently ask for. There's only one way now he can go, but he's created a situation where even that's possible. Tiberius owes him. He owes him a lot and, like I said, he's clinging onto him like he was a life raft. So Sejanus starts badgering. He's the partner of the old guy's labours, he's sweating his guts out for Rome just as much as Tiberius is. Why shouldn't he get his just recognition? Meaning, of course, a marriage alliance through his daughter with the imperial family. It's only Claudius's son, after all, only poor idiot Claudius. No great deal, the guy's been kept under wraps for years. And Tiberius agrees.'

'Yes,' Livia said softly. 'My son agreed. It was silly of him. Very silly.'

'Only luckily,' I picked up the jug and casually refilled my cup, although it didn't need it, 'the marriage didn't come off. The poor little bastard died just after the engagement. An accident. He choked on a pear.'

'He choked,' the empress's voice was still soft, 'on a pear.'

I set the jug down. This time I looked at her directly. 'And he did it for the good of Rome. Right, Excellency?'

'For the good, as you say, of Rome.' Her chin came up. 'If it helps, Drusus always was a very disagreeable child.'

'Yeah.' I took a mouthful of wine, held it and swallowed. 'Yeah, well. So. End of Drusus, end of marriage hopes, end of story. At least as far as I know. But where does that leave us?'

'It leaves us with Sejanus. Still. That's a pity, but then it can't be helped.'

'Can't it?' I was still looking her in the eye.

She smiled and ducked her head. 'Unfortunately not. Corvinus, I am in my eightieth year. I can't expect to live much longer and I don't particularly want to. My son and I are for all practical purposes estranged, certainly I have no influence over him now except what a little…shared guilt can give. Sejanus is young, able, unscrupulous and extremely clever. Perhaps, and this is my one hope, too clever for his own good. Time will tell, but time is something I do not have very much of.' She paused. 'Nor, for that matter, does the emperor, who is no spring chicken himself and may not survive me by much in any case.'

I shifted in my chair. 'What you're saying, lady, is that Sejanus has got you beat. You may've won one battle but you'll lose the war.'

'Exactly. And that state of affairs is neither one that I am used to nor can I bring myself to tolerate it.'

'Hence me?'

'Hence,' she smiled again, 'you. Oh, there's nothing you can do immediately, and you'd be a fool to try. I know about my son's silly warning, and I also know that Sejanus will go from strength to strength because he's the only person now whom poor Tiberius trusts. As you said at the beginning, his eventual succession to the purple will be…legitimate. Soon he'll be emperor in all but name, and finally the name will come too, because he'll have disposed of my grandson Drusus and Germanicus's three boys and there will be no one left to hand over to except him. But then there's nothing either of us can do about that.'

'So where do I come in?' Shit, this was depressing as hell. Worrying, too. I couldn't think of a worse fate for Rome than to have Sejanus emperor after the Wart.

'As I said, Corvinus, my one hope is that before my son dies Sejanus will become too self-confident and overreach himself so badly that even Tiberius will recognise him for what he is. I want someone to be there when that happens, and who is equipped to go to the emperor and present him with categorical proofs which he will have to accept. I've given you' — her mouth twisted — 'a small start with Germanicus. As you can appreciate.'

'And if Tiberius doesn't accept these categorical proofs of yours? Or if they aren't good enough?'

'Then you're dead, young man.'

'Hey, thanks, lady!'

She laughed: the sound like the dry rustle of winter leaves in a graveyard. 'You're a gambler, Corvinus. So am I. The difference is that I bet only on certainties. And I'm betting now on you. Tiberius may be a difficult person to convince, but his mind isn't completely closed. He is fair, even harshly fair, to himself as much as to others. Above all he feels he has a duty to Rome, however much she rejects him. If you can show him that Sejanus is a threat to the state then my son will squash him like a cockroach.'