Steven Saylor - Roman blood

'Tiro, bring one of the lamps. Here, hold it just above the railing, where I can have a closer look.' The light quavered and I looked up to see Tiro blenching at standing so near the edge. 'If you can't hold it steady, then hand it to Rufus.' Tiro surrendered the lamp without hesitation. 'Here, Rufus,' I said, 'follow me and keep the light directly over the railing.'

'Don't scrape your nose,' Rufus said, feeling my excitement and reacting with a joke. 'What are you looking for, anyway?'

We traversed the full length of the rail twice, without success.

I stood up and shrugged. 'It was only an idea. If Sextus Roscius actually did jump by his own choice, it only makes sense that he might first have stepped onto the railing and jumped from there. I thought perhaps there might be some ghost of a footprint in the fine dust. But no.'

I turned my hands over in the lamplight and looked at the powdery dust on the heels of my palms, flecked here and there with a few grains of gravel that adhered to the flesh. I was about to clap my hands clean when I noticed that one speck of debris was quite different from any of the others. It was larger and glossier, with smooth, sharp edges; instead of a bleached grey, it shone dull red in the lamplight. I turned it over with one finger and saw that it was not a piece of stone at all.

'What is it?' whispered Rufus, squinting beside me. 'Is there blood on it?'

'No,' I said, 'but something the colour of dried blood.'

'But this is blood!' said Tiro. While Rufus and I examined the railing, he had taken his own lamp and surveyed the flagstones of the balcony at a safer distance from the edge. At his feet, so insignificant that we had not noticed them before, were a few scattered drops of dark liquid. I knelt and touched them. The beaded drops of blood were, dry at the edges but still moist at the centre.

I stepped back and indicated a straight line with my hand.

"There, on the floor of the balcony, are the drops of blood. There, just before them, is the place on the railing were I found this object.' I held the red fragment carefully between my finger and thumb. 'And directly before that, down below, is the spot where Sextus Roscius struck the stairway.'

'What does it mean?' asked Rufus.

'First tell me this: who else has been on this balcony tonight?' 'Only Roscia and myself, so far as I know. And of course Sextus Roscius.'

'None of the slaves? Or Roscius's wife?' ‘I don't think so.' 'Not even Caecilia?'

Rufus shook his head. 'That I'm sure of. When I brought her the news, she said she wouldn't even come near this wing of the house. She ordered the slaves to bring Sextus's body to her sanctum for purification,'

'I see. Take me to see his body now.'

'But, Gordianus,' Tiro pleaded, 'what have you learned?'

'That Roscia did not murder her father.'

His brow smoothed with relief, then clouded with sudden doubt. 'But if he jumped, how can you explain the blood?'

I placed my finger to my lips. Tiro obediently fell silent, but I wasn't gesturing for him to hush; I was superstitiously kissing the tiny shred of evidence I held between my finger and thumb, and praying that I was not mistaken.

The doors to the sanctum of Caecilia's goddess were tightly shut, but the odour of incense and the wailing of her slave girls penetrated to the corridor without. Ahausarus the eunuch stood guard and sombrely shook his head when we tried to enter. Rufus gripped my arm and pulled me back.

'Stop, Gordianus. You know the rules of Caecilia's household. No men are admitted to the goddess's sanctum.'

'Unless they're dead?' I snapped.

'Sextus Roscius the son of Sextus Roscius has been claimed by the Goddess,' crooned Caecilia, who suddenly stood behind us. 'She has summoned him to her bosom.'

I turned to see a woman transformed. Caecilia stood very straight, with her head thrown proudly back. In place of a stola she wore a loose, flowing gown dyed deepest black. Her hair had been undone for the night and hung over her shoulders in long, crinkled tresses. The various layers of makeup had been washed from her face. Wrinkled and dishevelled, she nevertheless displayed a vigour and a determination that I had not seen in her before. She looked neither angry nor pleased to see us, as if our presence were of no significance.

'The goddess may have summoned Sextus Roscius,' I said, 'but if I may, Caecilia Metella, I should appreciate the opportunity to examine his remains.'

'Of what possible interest could his body be to you?'

'There is a mark I wish to search for. For all I know, it's the mark of the goddess, calling him home.'

'His body is twisted and broken inside and out,' Caecilia said, 'too mangled for the eye to discern any single wound.'

'But my eye is very keen,' I said, fixing it on her and refusing to look away.

Caecilia drew herself up, looked at me sidelong, and at last gave her assent with a nod. 'Ahausarus! Tell the girls to bring Sextus Roscius's body here into the corridor.' The eunuch opened the doors and slipped within.

'Are they strong enough?' I asked.

'They were strong enough to bear him up the stairway and through the corridors to this room. The moon is full, Gordianus. The power of the goddess invests them with a strength greater than any man's.'

A moment later the doors to the sanctum swung open. Six slave girls bore a litter into the corridor and lowered it to the floor.

Tiro hissed and drew back. Even Rufus, who had seen it already, drew in a sharp breath at the sight of what remained of Sextus Roscius. His clothing had been cut away, leaving him naked. The sheet beneath him was soaked with blood. He was covered all over with bruises and gashes. Numerous bones had been broken; in some places they speared through the torn flesh. Some attempt had been made to straighten his limbs, but nothing could be done to disguise the ruin of his skull. He had apparently landed headfirst His face was a wreckage, and the top of his head was a confusion of blood and phlegm held together by shards of bones. Unable to look at him, Tiro turned his back and Rufus lowered his eyes. Caecilia gazed down steadily at the body with no expression at all.

I knelt and pushed the broken chin aside; cartilage and bone grated beneath my touch. I ran my fingers down the throat, past mottled bruises and clumps of blood, and found what I sought by touch. 'Rufus, look here, and you too, Tiro. See, where my finger is pointing, the hole in the soft flesh just below the larynx?'

'It looks like a puncture wound,' ventured Rufus.

'Yes,' I said, 'such as might be made by a very sharp, slender object. And if we turn him on his side — here, Rufus, push with me — I believe we'll find the exact twin of this wound in the back of Roscius's neck. Yes, there, see it — just to one side of the spine.'

I stood and wiped my bloodied hands on a cloth offered by one of the slave girls. I choked back an abrupt surge of nausea and caught my breath. 'A strange wound, wouldn't you agree, Caecilia Metella? Not at all consistent with a plummeting headfirst collision and a tumble down stone stairs. Nor is it the type of wound that might be made by a knife. It seems to have gone straight through his neck — in the front and out the back, or the other way around, I wonder? Such a sharp, slender object, made of such strong metal that it plunged all the way through and then was pulled free. Such a clean wound that only a few drops of blood fell from the instrument onto the floor of the balcony. Tell me, Caecilia, was your hair already down when you encountered Sextus Roscius on the balcony? Or was it still up in a coil, held in place by one of those long silver pins you wear?'

Rufus gripped my arm. 'Hush, Gordianus! I told you already, Caecilia was never on the balcony tonight.'