Luke Devenish - Nest of vipers

'The druid told me it was best to keep things anonymous with the customers,' said Martina. 'I don't know you from Apollo's prick. Let's keep it that way, shall we?'

In any other circumstance Sejanus would have run Martina through with a sword. 'Show it to me.'

Martina fumbled in her cloak and brought out a small, square bundle bound in calf skin. 'I wrapped it up nicely for you,' she told him. 'The druid was very particular that I should. He told me you liked your fancy packaging.'

'Give it to me.'

Martina threw it to him. Sejanus pulled his knife from the scabbard at his belt and stuck the point into the calf skin. Then he pressed his thumbnail into the hole and withdrew it again, licking it with his tongue. He savoured the taste.

'No one knows where the stuff comes from,' Martina mused. 'Makes you wonder what sort of a place it must be, doesn't it?'

Sejanus felt the surge of the flower's magic and loosened the money pouch at his belt. He tossed it to Martina.

'I'm sure I don't need to count it,' she smiled, tucking the pouch into her cloak.

Sejanus turned on his heel.

'Do you think we'll ever be seeing the musica muta again?' she called after him.

Sejanus stopped and looked back at her over his shoulder. His pupils were huge.

'I miss all their fun — don't you?' said Martina. 'And now the Emperor's got the hump against the Ludi too. No more gladiators in Rome. Seems a shame, if you ask me. What are people meant to do for entertainment?'

'They can travel five miles up the Tiber to Fidenae.'

Martina dismissed this. 'A little bird told me Fidenae will be a one-off.'

Sejanus just stared at her.

'Be seeing you again soon?' she asked him.

But Sejanus was already outside and mounting his horse.

When the Prefect and his Praetorians had gone, Martina stirred the iron pot that simmered gently on the fire. The fleshy remains of hands and genitals arose to the surface before settling into the broth again. Martina's friends emerged from the curtained backroom together, Plancina keeping her handless arm hooked through Apicata's good limb, as she always did now.

'What will it do to him?' Apicata asked when she had taken a seat near the fire.

'Nothing much, to begin with,' said Martina, scratching her hump.

Plancina laughed. 'Like all your best poisons, Martina.'

The sorceress agreed. 'The best ones build their strength slowly — but this one's not a poison. It's not going to make him ill.'

'What will it do to him?' Apicata asked again.

'It'll make him careless,' said Martina. 'Very careless.' As an afterthought, she added, 'It'll make poor old Tiberius a bit careless too.'

Martina and Plancina's cackles spilled through the hovel's door, echoing in the narrow Suburan alley. But Apicata's laughter did not join them.

Septimontium

September, AD 26

Seven months later: Lucius Calpurnius Piso, governor of Nearer Spain, is attacked and murdered by a peasant from Termes while riding unguarded The Emperor cannot be blamed for taking stern action against those who accuse him of poison.

Whenever this graffiti was whitewashed from a wall or replaced by a pro-Agrippina slogan, it would return within hours. Eventually, when only a few of Agrippina's known supporters remained in Rome, people stopped removing the words. Lygdus was not as effusive about these developments as I wished him to be.

'What's wrong with you now?' I snapped.

He shook his head. 'Nothing.'

'You ought to be glad.'

'Ought I?' said Lygdus.

'Elation is what you feel — we have removed an obstacle.'

He looked depressed. 'I have never known a domina like Agrippina before,' he said.

'She is very different from Livilla,' I agreed.

'She is courageous. She is… more like a dominus.'

I agreed this was also true. 'But she is not charged with treason. She is not dead on the Stairs,' I said, repeating the official line. 'She is merely under guard for her own protection.'

'Don't insult me, Iphicles. She's not allowed outside her rooms. No slaves can attend her. Not even her children can visit.'

'She's still very much alive,' I said, 'and so is Nero. He's free to roam the city as he likes. And I dare say he likes it a lot. Keep taking plenty of notes on his adventures, Lygdus.'

We left the defaced wall and walked a little way down the hill towards the Forum before Lygdus stopped again. He looked so pleadingly into my eyes that I pulled him roughly into an alley, where no one could overhear us. 'All right — what is it?' I said.

'Can't we… spare some of them?' he asked.

'What are you talking about?'

'Not all of them deserve it — not all of our masters. Some have qualities that… surprise me.'

I could only laugh. 'Castor wasn't a bad man but you were still happy to poison his footbath.'

'I wasn't happy.'

I scoffed.

'All right, I was only happy before,' Lygdus tried to explain, 'before I knew — '

'Knew the truth about murder?' I sneered. 'Well, you know it now and you wanted to know — let's not forget that, Lygdus. And the other truth about murder is that once you've started, there's no going back.'

'I joined you in this because I wanted to hurt them, to punish them, but now…'

I didn't say another word until he dared to look me in the eye again. 'Too late.'

'No, it's not — '

'Things will move like lightning because of everything we've done, and there's no stopping it now.'

'We can save some of them — one or two of them.'

'We can't! They're damned — do you hear me? Every last one of them is damned by the gods, except the one the gods have chosen.'

'So one of them will be spared?'

'I have told you many times who that will be — it's Little Boots.'

Lygdus said nothing more for several moments, until, just as I concluded that our discussion was done, he whispered, 'What if we'd do better sparing another?'

I raised my hand to strike him but he didn't even flinch. He merely stared me in the eye with a look of hope on his face. I heard a tiny voice of doubt in me, a voice I had heard before. I had ignored it before, and easily. But this time its call was clearer, sharper, and painful in my heart. 'What,' the voice asked me, 'what if the question to be asked is not whether the prophecy is right — about that there is no question — but whether the prophecy is good?'

Lygdus waited.

'It's not meant to be anyone else but Little Boots,' I said at last. But he saw the effort that saying this cost me.

The eunuch followed me as I left the alley, but he did not walk at my side. He stayed several paces behind, so that I couldn't see his face and he couldn't see mine. When we had descended the hill and were facing the Forum throng, he called out to me. 'You're going on holiday, Iphicles.'

I turned. 'What are you talking about?'

'You're being sent away. I heard them talking about it.'

'No, I'm not.'

'Yes, you are. Tiberius is doing a tour of the countryside with Sejanus and he wants you among the slaves.'

I stared at him. 'Why does he want me?'

'I've no idea,' said Lygdus. 'But that's what the order was. Like I said, I heard them talking.'

I was bewildered.

'It could be worse — at least you'll be near the seaside.'

'But what about the domina?'

Lygdus shrugged. 'She'll be with Nero. And me.'

I was too startled to reply, but when I finally thought of something Lygdus was walking away ahead of me.

'What do you mean she'll be with Nero? Where is he taking her?'

'To Fidenae,' Lygdus called over his shoulder. 'Since Tiberius has gone sour on the Ludi now, Nero thinks Rome has become boring. He's right. Rome is boring. But there's a new wooden amphitheatre five miles up the Tiber, so Nero wants to attend the inaugural games there. At Fidenae they still appreciate entertainment.'