Luke Devenish - Nest of vipers

'Lygdus!' I hissed. The eunuch took his cue from me and scuttled between the furniture to begin scooping up the mess, breaking Tiberius's attention from it.

'I don't blame you,' Tiberius said to Agrippina, smiling widely. Several of his teeth had fallen from his gums since the last time she'd been granted one of his grins. Beads of perspiration formed at her temple. 'I don't blame you at all,' he said.

Agrippina blanched, but her barely buried anger took control. 'Blame me, Caesar? Blame me for what?'

He looked a little surprised by her tone. 'For having no appetite for this food. It's substandard. Even my mother won't eat it.'

Agrippina just stared at him.

'Here,' said Tiberius. 'Why don't you try what I have?' The breath audibly left Agrippina's chest as Tiberius reached for a bowl of ember-roasted eggs from the low table in front of him. He held them out before her. 'These are not too heavy upon the stomach,' he said. 'Not spicy or rich — will you have one, daughter?'

This was my moment. I left my domina 's side, walking quickly around the other couches towards Agrippina as she stared at the bowl of eggs.

'From my own chickens,' Tiberius went on. 'Laid especially for me and prepared only for me too. No one else is given them.' In an action reminiscent of a shade awning being slowly lowered and then raised on a balcony, he laboriously winked. He was hideous. 'They're my little secret!' he whispered.

I saw the fear in Agrippina's look as her hands stayed frozen at her side. As I reached the couch, I caught Lygdus's worried eye from where he squatted in the mess. I shot out my hand and plucked an egg from the bowl that Tiberius offered. 'Let me try one for you, Lady.'

In the moment of bewilderment that Agrippina and Tiberius shared, I had shelled the thing and popped it in my mouth. I kept my eyes on Agrippina as I chewed the leathery treat. 'Mmm,' I said, my mouth full. 'It's delicious, Lady.'

A wave of relief washed over Agrippina's face. She took an egg from Tiberius and began delicately shelling it.

But to Tiberius there seemed to be a secret drama being played out before him. 'Why did you eat my egg, Iphicles?'

I bowed deeply to avoid looking directly at him. 'The Lady Agrippina's stomach is weak,' I said. But my voice held just the right note to suggest there was another reason.

'But my eggs are mild. I told your mistress that.'

I deliberately met Agrippina's eye again — and let Tiberius see that I was meeting it. Her fingers paused in shelling the egg. 'I would hate my Lady to fall ill,' I whispered.

'You can return to the Augusta now, Iphicles,' Agrippina said quickly.

I bowed deeply again, and as I did so I placed my hands at my stomach. Righting myself, I kept them there. Then I turned to move back to my domina 's high-backed chair. I had only moved several paces before I stopped again, as though a private thought or some other sensation had compelled me to stillness. I knew that all eyes were upon me.

'Agrippina — ' Tiberius started to say.

I fell to my knees and vomited.

Agrippina sprang from her dining couch. 'Iphicles!'

Lygdus leaped up from the floor and ran to me. 'What is it?' He turned me over and the spewed-up egg was seen by all.

'I'm unwell,' I moaned.

The look that Agrippina gave to Tiberius blazed with a hatred so fierce he shrank into his cushions.

'What's wrong with the slave?' he stammered.

'Could it be your "little secret"?' she said.

Tiberius was beyond bewilderment, and suddenly Agrippina was too. She looked into his eyes and saw not malice in them but hurt. She had wounded him. He knew nothing of what she insinuated. He was completely innocent. With a lurch of her heart she knew she had been lied to. Another pair of staring eyes made her spin around. Sejanus was at the door.

'There is news, Caesar,' he said. 'The Lady Claudia Pulchra is dead.'

Agrippina threw her hand to her mouth. In her grief she had been blind to the truth. Tiberius had not murdered Germanicus. His killer was the 'son'. And now she, too, saw death rushing forward at his bidding.

'Who?' said Tiberius.

'Claudia Pulchra. Her own slaves fished her out of the Tiber. It was suicide.'

'Was she a traitor?'

Sejanus looked directly at Agrippina. 'Traitors take on many forms. To some she was a friend.'

Agrippina snatched her shawl from an attendant and Tiberius looked at her again.

'Do I know this woman?' said Tiberius, now impatient.

'Perhaps not, Caesar,' Sejanus shrugged and turned away.

The hurt Agrippina had seen in Tiberius's eyes evolved into something else. Deep behind the mists of the Eastern flower burned rage. 'Are you leaving me, daughter?'

Agrippina stooped to where Lygdus cradled my head in his lap. Her look of deep and humble affection for me was so moving that it almost made me falter. 'I will recover,' I whispered. 'I feel sure of it.' My own part was done.

She walked quickly from the room and was gone.

In the excruciating silence that followed a single hand-clap rang through the room.

'Mother?' said Tiberius.

Alarmed, I signalled to Lygdus to raise me so that I could see my domina in her chair. Her curled, dry hands were now in her lap, palm touching palm. A single clap it may have been, and not much of a clap at that, but she was applauding me for my performance.

'Run. Just run.' Agrippina dragged the terrified girls from their beds.

'But what has happened?'

'There is no time. Just run. As fast as you can. Your brothers are safe but you are alone. Run into the night and along the little street to Antonia's house. Bang on her door as loudly as you can. Beg her to hide you. She will do it. She loves you.'

'Please, what has happened, Mother?' said Nilla.

Agrippina stared into her eldest daughter's eyes. 'The time has come,' she whispered.

'Then I will stay and fight.'

'You will protect your younger sisters.'

'I will never leave you.'

Agrippina slapped her daughter hard. 'You will do as I say.'

She bundled the younger girls into her arms, kissing Drusilla and Julilla desperately. 'Flamma,' she called.

The gladiator ushered Burrus into the room. 'The boy will escort them.'

'Good.'

'Then I will return,' said Burrus.

'You will not,' Flamma said.

Burrus saw the mark on Nilla's cheek where she had been slapped by Agrippina.

'Why let us train for this moment,' said Burrus, angry, 'if now we must run away like rats?'

Flamma went to strike him but Agrippina stayed his hand. 'This is not your moment, Burrus. It is mine — and my men's. We are outnumbered. The guards will crush us. But we will fight with all we have. Your moment will come later — and Nilla's with it. It will come when you avenge us.'

Nilla started to weep. 'No, Mother, you will win. Your supporters will beat all those guards.'

Agrippina smiled. 'Perhaps I am being pessimistic.'

'You are. The people will rise up when they hear the battle. They will rush to your aid.'

The sounds of running feet echoed from the street outside. Somewhere beyond them, hobnailed boots could be heard ascending the Palatine. The Praetorians had been dispatched from the Viminal Gate.

Agrippina kissed her oldest daughter tenderly. 'Take them, Burrus. Now. Slip out through the sewers.'

The slave-boy nodded and then turned to look soberly into the eyes of his mentor.

'You have a killer's skill now, boy,' Flamma told him. 'Use what I have taught you well.'

Burrus saw the fatherly love Flamma had for him and knelt and kissed the gladiator's great hands. 'I will never forget it,' he said. Then he swept up the girls and was gone.

Emerging with Burrus from the sewers to flee along the back lanes, the sisters' need was so desperate that they did not see the first daubed message on the walls. But when they passed a second, with its paint still running down the stucco, they realised that what little still remained of their childhood was over. They were women now. In a world that was cruel with men. The Emperor cannot be blamed for taking stern action against those who accuse him of poison.