Luke Devenish - Nest of vipers

Not feeling any need to inform my domina, I had taken it upon myself to record the condemned young man's memoirs before he expired, just as I had already recorded, with no real purpose in mind, the memories of a number of others who also feature in this history. And I would do so again, with quite a few more.

I looked down at the words I had written and felt doubly privileged to have been the scribe. Drusus had told me that when his hunger pangs had been at their most unbearable, he had heard a persistent voice in his ear.

' One brother's crime sees him dine at leisure of his bed…'

But now that he was eating again, Drusus had told me, the voice had gone away.

Feeling Death's wings beating close, Agrippina slipped in and out of consciousness. The gladiator was in her cell, bending to kiss her lips.

'Flamma,' she whispered.

'The afterlife awaits you, Lady,' he said, his hair golden in the light from the open cell door. 'We will live there as lovers.'

'But I can't go yet, Flamma. Tell them — '

'The decision isn't yours, Lady,' he smiled. 'When Death decides, you must go.'

'Please… Not while my children's fates are unknown.'

Flamma was reassuring. 'Nero and Drusus have already passed and are waiting there for you.'

A tear fell from her ruined eye. 'It is so unjust for them.'

'Ssh, now,' Flamma comforted her. 'It could not be helped. But Drusilla and Julilla are alive and safe, with their brother Little Boots to protect them.'

She held this to her heart. 'What of Nilla? I fear her fate in such a marriage.'

Flamma assuaged her. 'Nilla has two more marriages ahead of her, Lady, and each union will be more auspicious than the last. Ahenobarbus's time will be forgotten.'

She sighed, relieved.

'But you must know,' Flamma added, 'that the men who will love her most will not be her husbands. Yet they will never leave her side.'

'Not her husbands? How can it be?'

'Because they are her slaves, Lady. Yet not slaves at all. One is the lost grandson of Augustus.'

She was awed. 'And the other?'

Flamma said my name.

Hearing Death's wings directly above her now, Agrippina kissed the gladiator's hands. 'Have the gods spoken to you of these things?'

'A goddess has. Cybele…' His image began to melt in her fading vision. 'She told me what you must know about Nilla's golden future.'

When Flamma had told her everything, he spoke words she had heard once before: ' One would-be queen is one-eyed too until the truth gives comforts.' It all made sense to her now, and she was comforted truly.

Flamma kissed her a final time, before turning to leave. 'Don't go,' she whispered. But as he stepped into the light that streamed through the cell door, his softening, shimmering appearance dissolved into Livia's.

'You?'

My domina looked humble.

With her final moments ebbing, Agrippina found she wasn't shocked to see her enemy. With all she had been told of the golden future, she realised now why her father and mother, her brothers and husband had all had to die at my domina 's hands.

'I am no longer filled with rage for their deaths,' she said, closing her eyes.

Livia left the prison cell behind her, serene in all she had achieved. She hoped this might be the moment when the tiny voice would come to her ear. She had been expecting it and the timing seemed right. She was not disappointed.

' Your work is done, it's time to leave — the sword is yours to pass…' the voice told her.

She corrected it. 'My work is almost done,' she said. 'I must retain my sword a little longer.'

Macro was standing near her litter in the square, and Livia's demeanour changed as she approached him.

'I am tired of this waiting,' he announced.

'Too bad,' said Livia. 'Find patience.'

'My patience has expired. I want to put things into play with Little Boots before we die of old age.'

Livia was stern. 'He is nowhere near ready, and he will not be ready until he realises the move for himself.'

'The stupid boy hasn't the head for it.'

Livia stepped into her litter. 'Well, of course he hasn't — yet. But he will, I can promise that. When he does, your time will also come, my lover, but not a second before.'

Macro chewed at his lip, bristling.

Livia went to flick the curtains closed against him but then thought of something. 'There is another plan you can put into play.'

'For your great-grandson?'

'For my great-granddaughter, Nilla.'

'She's a recluse. She never leaves her house.'

Livia's look was cynical. 'I see threats to us in the girl. Her life of seclusion and grief is an act.'

Macro raised an eyebrow as the bearers lifted the litter, bringing Livia's face level with his. She leaned in close to him, her lips brushing his. 'Nilla has a hold on Little Boots that could destroy everything we've achieved so far.'

Macro considered this. 'Do you want me to kill her?'

Livia made a show of pondering his offer before coming to a 'decision'.

As the litter carried her away, Livia was surprised to hear the whispered voice once more. ' The end, the end, your mother says — to deception now depend…'

This annoyed her. 'I have never depended on anyone more than Deception,' she replied. 'And yes, I will continue to depend upon him once I am gone,' Livia added, silencing the insistent voice.

Lena placed a veil across her face and stepped out the door of Calypso's Spell, looking up and down the street for a public litter. She spied one at the place where the road turned at a sharp angle. The bearers swilled honeyed wine at a tavern, waiting for trade. Lena whistled, catching their attention. In no great hurry they drained their cups and ambled towards her brothel with the transport.

'I'm going to the temple,' Lena yelled behind her to the whores.

'Which one, Lena?'

'None of your business.' She patted the contents of the little bag she carried and fired a parting shot. 'Wash all your damned holes in salty water while I'm gone, and try to stay away from the wine.'

'Screw you.'

She moved well away from the shopfront, not wanting the girls to hear the destination she gave to the litter-bearers. When she had said it, the bearers weren't bothered, merely naming their price. Lena felt deflated. 'Did you hear me?'

'Like a bell,' said the leader.

Dignified, she climbed into the litter.

A new friend she had made in recent weeks had assured Lena that this temple offered exactly what she needed. But with the bearers' lack of surprise, Lena hoped she had not been lied to. Yet, considering again the arts that this friend, Martina, seemed to know, Lena felt sure the visit would prove profitable.

She arranged herself comfortably in the transport for the trip across the city. A gust of wind blew the curtains aside just as the litter reached the Forum; Lena clung to her veil, not wanting anyone outside to recognise her. She didn't fear they'd guess her purpose, only that they'd laugh and point at her. Who was she, after all, a rotten old whore, to go around Rome in a litter? People would call her Cleopatra if they knew, or worse, the Augusta Livia.

Flicking the curtains closed, Lena caught a glimpse of someone she knew would never laugh at her. She waved without thinking. Startled in the midst of an errand, I waved back. But my jaw had dropped. Lena drew the curtains shut then, but it occurred to her that I may not have recognised her at all. She was wearing a veil.

It was gloomy beneath the trees as Lena paid the bearers and waited until they had gone, nervous of being observed. When she was quite sure she was alone, she took a long, uneasy look up the slimy, crooked steps and told herself she had no other option but to go inside. Skill and endeavour had failed her. She needed the help of the god to rebuild herself now.