Steven Saylor - Last seen in Massilia

"But the current-"

He shrugged dismissively. "And a single man, swimming at night, especially on a moonless night, can easily get past sentries. I quickly learned which sections of the harbor were least heavily guarded, and the Massilians have been terribly careless about keeping shut the gates that open onto the wharves. So it was no great challenge for me to get in and out of Massilia."

"But when Domitius and his men chased you onto the wall and forced you to jump into the sea-Domitius was certain that you were dead."

He shook his head. "The fall could have killed me-if I didn't know how to dive or if I'd struck a rock. But I headed for that particular stretch of wall because I'd scouted it out beforehand and I knew it was the safest place to make a dive. I knew I might have to make a quick escape one day, and I planned ahead accordingly."

"You'd been wounded by a spear."

"Merely grazed."

"They shot arrows at you."

"They missed. Not a decent archer among them!"

"But they saw your body floating off on the current."

"Not my body; my tunic. When I struck the water it inflated with air. I tied it off so that it would float for a while, and at that distance they mistook it for a body. People see what they want to see, and the wise spy takes advantage of that; something Caesar taught me. Meanwhile, I held my breath and swam along the wall toward the harbor. By the time I surfaced, they had no idea of where to look for me. The sun was in their eyes, and they were already looking elsewhere. I took a quick breath and ducked back under the surface. I kept swimming until I crossed the harbor mouth and reached the shore on the far side."

I stared at the dregs in my cup. "Who sent me the anonymous message telling me that you were dead? Was it Domitius?"

He shook his head. "No. I'm almost certain it was Milo. I thought I could win him over to Caesar, but that was a very serious miscalculation on my part. Milo lacks the imagination to see the future; all he can think of is getting back into Pompey's good graces. That's why he almost got me killed. If he could flush out a dangerous spy, that would earn him points with the Great One.

But Milo wanted to capture me alive, and he was never satisfied that Domitius's men had killed me. He suspected-correctly-that I was not only still alive but back in Massilia, and he wanted to flush me out again. How better to do that than to lure my dear father to Massilia, where sooner or later I would surely try to make contact with you. Those were Milo's men following you and Davus whenever you left the scapegoat's house. They weren't interested in you; they were hoping to catch me. Once, they almost did. It was after you left the house of Gaius Verres and paused in the street near that black market."

"Yes, we saw you, dressed in your soothsayer's rags. But then you vanished."

"I had to! Milo's men appeared out of nowhere. They very nearly caught me."

I nodded slowly. "And that was you, as well, waiting at the foot of the Sacrifice Rock on the day of the sea battle."

"Yes." He shook his head disdainfully. "I couldn't believe you had the temerity to climb up there! Did you imagine that no one could see you? I watched you for hours, expecting at any moment to see the priests of Artemis come drag you off. When you finally started to climb down, my only thought was to get to you first and try to hide you somewhere-but once again, I had to flee. Apollonides's troops arrived to whisk you back to his house. Just as well, as that was the safest place for you. Otherwise the mob in the street would have torn you limb from limb, along with the scapegoat."

I was not satisfied. "Surely, Meto, you could have made contact with me at some point. After Domitius told me that you were dead, I went through… a very bad time. I didn't leave Hieronymus's house for days. If you couldn't come to me in the flesh, then you might have sent a message. Not even a written message, merely some sign that you were still alive. The anguish I felt-"

"I'm sorry, Papa, but it was simply too dangerous. And frankly, I've been too busy. You have no idea!" He smiled at me indulgently. "That day, when you and Davus stepped inside the temple of xoanon Artemis outside the city-where I was accustomed to leave certain secret reports for Trebonius, if you must know-and I heard two voices babbling on and realized it was you, I thought: What in Hades is Papa doing here? Well, obviously, you'd come to find me. But there was nothing for you to do here except get in the way. So I tried to warn you off, tried to send you back to Rome."

"While still disguised as the soothsayer!" I snapped, a flash of anger finally creeping into my voice.

"I could hardly have revealed myself to you in front of those two guards. They'd have told everyone in the camp-and who knows what spies the Massilians have among our own men? No one but Trebonius knew of my mission and my disguise. Absolute secrecy was essential."

"You could have revealed yourself to me, Meto!"

He sighed. "No, Papa. My only thought was to send you back to Rome where you'd be safe. After I left you on your way to the Roman camp, I doubled back and went directly to Trebonius; he promised me that he'd send you straight home. Even if you managed to thwart him, at the very worst I thought you'd simply spend the rest of the siege in the Roman camp, pestering Trebonius. I never imagined you'd actually find a way to get inside Massilia! And yet, here you are. I have to give you credit for ingenuity. Like father, like son, eh? Perhaps Caesar should use you as a secret agent."

At that moment, the very idea filled me with such loathing that the great thundercrack that abruptly shook the room seemed, for a peculiar instant, to be a manifestation of my own fury. But the thunderous booming and the earthshaking vibrations came from outside the room. Meto rushed to the window. "Great Venus!" he muttered.

Billowing clouds of dust, weirdly backlit by the lingering flames, rose from the wall-or more precisely, from the places where sections of the wall had previously stood. The fissure now gaped far wider than before. On either side of the original breach more sinkholes had abruptly given way, swallowing all the rubble piled into the breach, along with the makeshift structures meant to shore up the wall and any of the engineers who were still working there. Then, as we watched, a bastion tower caved in on one side of the growing breach, to the sound of crashing stones and the screams of archers on the collapsing battlements.

Where before there had been a breach that by some supreme effort might have remained defensible, now there gaped an enormous opening in the wall, leaving the main square of the city completely vulnerable. The walls of Massilia were hopelessly breached.

From within the house of Apollonides there were sounds of men shouting and running through the hallways. Abruptly the door opened and the First Timouchos stood staring at us, wearing a stunned expression.

My time alone with Meto was over.

His face pale, his hands trembling, Apollonides ordered me to leave Meto's cell. He stepped into the room, followed by several bodyguards, then slammed the door behind him. With the collapse of the wall, my son-Caesar's agent-was the first person Apollonides wanted to talk to.

I wandered down the hall. Around a corner I came upon a group of furiously whispering guards. They scarcely noticed me and made no effort to stop me as I stepped into the main part of the house. I wandered through the hallways until I heard a cry of joy and turned to see Davus, who likewise had been released and apparently forgotten. He laughed for joy and hugged me so hard he squeezed the breath from me.

Tired and confused and at a loss for what to do next, I decided to look for Hieronymus. The door to his quarters stood open. We stepped into the small anteroom, then into the bedchamber beyond. There was another room beyond that, with a balcony looking out on the street. There was no one in any of the rooms, not even a slave. Exhausted, I reclined amid the plush cushions strewn across the scapegoat's bed, thinking to rest for only a moment. I fell fast asleep. Davus stood guard in the anteroom for a while, until exhaustion overcame him as well. He joined me on the bed and he, too, fell asleep.