Steven Saylor - Catilina's riddle

'The child is not here.'

'But she was brought here,' I said. 'It's no use lying, Claudia. Congrio has betrayed you. Go ahead, stamp your foot and struggle; if you cut your throat it'll be your own fault.'

She growled, and I felt the vibration of her throat against the blade. 'It has nothing to do with me if your cook has been lying to you!'

'Not a lie but the truth, Claudia. Yesterday you sent one of your men to my house, a kitchen slave, ostensibly there to trade some of your goods for mine, something that happens all the time, something so common that no one even notices the man coming and going. But in reality he was there to plot your next design with Congrio, something that's happened several times before. According to Congrio, your latest scheme has something to do with poison. That was too much for Congrio and he wanted nothing to do with it, or so he claims, and so your man proceeded to argue with him. No one else was in the kitchen, Eco was out of the house and Bethesda was napping, so they spoke freely in hushed voices, until they suddenly looked down to find that Diana had been standing no less than a foot away, listening to them for who knows how long.

"They panicked. Congrio stuffed her mouth with a rag and they wound her in a long cloth. Your man had arrived with a handcart They carried her outside and managed to fit her inside it and tie her down, and then he left as quickly as he could. My watchman claims he saw the man leave, but I think he's lying to keep from being punished, unless he's deaf and half-blind; even bound and with her mouth stuffed, I imagine Diana must have been able to make some noise and to shake the cart Even so, the man got away without anyone's noticing. My slaves hardly even remembered his being there, he's become such a regular visitor. Your agent, Claudia, conspiring with my cook! So you see, I know the truth, or enough to have tracked Diana to your door. Now where is she?'

'Ask Congrio,' she cried. 'The lying slave! Don't you see he's done something unspeakable with your little girl and won’t admit it? Instead he makes up this ludicrous story. How dare you suspect me?'

'How dare you go on lying!' I said, barely able to keep from drawing the blade across her throat.

'If you think she's here, then find her. Go on, search to your heart's content. Your daughter is not here. You'll find nothing, I tell you.'

I suddenly realized that she must be telling the truth. Diana had been brought here, of that I had no doubt, but had she remained here? No, Claudia was too clever and cautious to risk having Diana found on her property. Where then? Where would she hide a child — or a child's body?

In my abstraction I must have loosened my grip, for she suddenly slipped free. When I tried to seize her, she bit my hand. I cried out and Meto and Eco came running out of the house, but too late to catch her. She dashed into the midst of her slaves, who made a circle around her and held up their weapons.

Eco called out and his men came running. 'We can take them, Papa. Her slaves will scream and run at the first drop of blood.'

'Attack me and I won't be responsible for what follows, Gordianus,' said Claudia, breathing hard. - Do you really want a blood feud with the Claudii?’

'Say the word, Papal' said Meto, gripping his dagger so hard that his knuckles turned white.

'No, Meto! No bloodshed! Retribution can wait. The only thing that matters now is finding Diana, and I think I know where she is. Eco, stay here with your men. Make sure that Claudia stays where she is until we return. Meto, mount your horse and come with me.'

Claudia must have known of the mine all her life. As a place of remote concealment, it would have come to her mind at once. So I reasoned as we went thundering up the Cassian Way. So I hoped, and dreaded.

We rode past the hidden trail Catilina had used. It would be too slow, and I had no cause for concealment. Instead we took the open way onto Gnaeus's land, up into the foothills and the woods, past the house of the goatherds where poor Forfex had dwelled, past Gnaeus's gloomy villa, where his hounds stirred and howled to announce our passage.

We came to the end of the road, tethered our horse and proceeded on foot. Neither of us spoke a word. Our thoughts were too close, and what we were thinking we did not dare to say aloud.

The stream above the waterfall flowed quick and cold. The water came to our knees. When I stepped onto the farther bank, my feet were numb with pain, but I forgot it quickly enough as we rushed up the gruelling series of switchbacks and then across the flank of the mountain.

What if she wasn't there? My heart was pounding too hard and my breath was too laboured to think of what we would do next. And what if she was there? Surely she could have survived a single night, I told myself. She could go without eating, and she would have been out of the wind, shielded from the worst of the cold. But in what condition had they left her, and what sort of terrors had she faced alone in the darkness? What if she had gone wandering, and stepped over an abyss—

Every step I took became a greater and greater torment, until I could no longer tell whether the anguish came from exhaustion or dread. Meto ran on ahead of me. For a moment I wanted to drop to my knees, to wait passively, to let him find what there was to find and come back to tell me. But to stop now was impossible. I trudged on, cursing Claudia, hating the gods and whispering prayers to Fortune.

At last the entrance to the mine came in sight. Meto was not to be seen. He must have already scrambled over the wall that had been built to keep out wandering goats and that would easily keep a little girl prisoner inside. I began to run, though I thought my chest would explode. You've become an old man and a fool, I told myself You turned your back on the world, and look how the world struck back at you! Everything you love has been brought to the edge of disaster through your own neglect and your stubborn refusal to see clearly. Your vanity overwhelmed your judgment, and now you pay the price. You laid down your wits like a gladiator lying down his weapons; but a gladiator has no choice but to fight or else die, and you have no choice but to go on finding your way through the deceits of this vicious world or else be destroyed. What folly, fleeing from Rome, when this is where the flight led you. Diana!

I came to the wall. I wanted to shout out her name, and Meto's, but I was afraid of the answer. I reached the top of the wall and fell against it, too tired to pull myself over. I took a deep breath and hoisted myself to the top. On the other side I looked down on Meto, holding something in his arms. He turned his face up to me, and I saw tears glittering in his eyes.

'Oh, no, Meto!' I wailed.

'Papa, Papa, you've come for us! I knew you would!' The thing in Meto's arms began to wriggle wildly until Diana freed herself from his embrace and reached up to me. I dropped from the wall and fell to the ground, holding her.

'I told them you'd come, I told them!’ she cried. I held her away from me to have a look at her. She was filthy and her clothes were torn, but there was nothing wrong with her. I held her close to me and sat back against the wall, my face covered with tears, so weary and relieved that I thought I might melt into the stone.

'I told them, I told them,' she kept saying, until I asked her whom she meant.

"The others!' she said. 'Others?’

"The other little boys and girls.' In the gloomy twilight of the mine, she pointed to a collection of skulls carefully stacked against one wall, the remains of long-dead slaves.

'I don't remember seeing them stacked up like that when we were here with Catilina, do you, Meto?' I said, puzzled.

'No,' he whispered.

'I did it,' said Diana. 'I gathered them all up.' 'But why?' I asked.