Robert Fabbri: The Dreams of Morpheus

‘Four thousand, six hundred,’ Magnus corrected.

‘How so? There are twenty-four of the tablets.’

‘We negotiated a special price; the full deal was five thousand denarii each, but twenty-four tablets for the price of twenty-three.’

Gaius squeezed Magnus’ shoulder and looked at him sidelong. ‘I’m sure Antonia won’t fuss about two hundred aurii here or there. Get a message to the purchaser that the exchange will be at dawn tomorrow at the Temple of Asclepius.’

Magnus was about to argue but then paused and nodded slowly in approval. ‘Marius, go to the House of the Moon and tell them dawn at the Temple of Asclepius on the Tiber Island.’ As Marius ran off Magnus inclined his head to his patron. ‘That’s very clever of Pallas, sir; if I have my lads covering both bridges, Menes will find it very difficult to double-cross us and get away.’

‘We’ve a big problem on our hands,’ Servius announced, not looking up from the abacus and the scrolls of accounts he was working on as Magnus walked through the door of the tavern, refreshed from a few hours at the baths. ‘Our aedile has evidently not taken too kindly to the city-wide inspection of measures.’ He pointed over his shoulder to a man slumped in a dark corner of the bar.

Magnus approached him, frowning. ‘Duilius?’

There was no reply.

‘It was Duilius,’ Servius informed him, still not looking up as the abacus clicked rapidly, ‘until about an hour ago.’

Magnus cupped Duilius’ chin and examined the face; there were no marks of violence. A swift perusal of the rest of his body showed no wounds, bruising or blood. ‘There’s not a mark on him! How did he die?’

‘We’re meant to believe that he died of natural causes; we found him-’

‘Natural causes?’

‘Yes. We found him sitting on the pavement just outside with his head between his legs as if he was being sick. Nobody can remember seeing him left there, although a drunken rabble did pass by just before, so it must have been them with arms round Duilius’ shoulders as if he was insensible with drink.’

Magnus examined the body again with a grudging respect. ‘What do you make of it?’

‘It’s a declaration of war; this is about who has authority in the South Quirinal. We may have managed to manoeuvre the Urban Prefect into an inspection of every measure in the city, forcing Brutus to quit his scam or face being exposed and humiliated; but in return he has shown us that he can get his revenge without attracting suspicion and accusations of murder. I would guess that Duilius won’t be the only sudden natural death around here.’

Magnus sat down, still looking in fascination at the unmarked corpse. ‘I think you may be right, brother; Brutus threatened our senator with a natural death very soon. I promised a guard round his house; have half a dozen stationed up there. If there is going to be another natural death, then it ain’t going to be us or Senator Pollo; and what better way to get rid of a magistrate with no questions asked. How was it done?’

‘Ah! It took me a while, but I think I’ve worked it out.’

Terentius walked through the tavern door as the sun slid into the west; Magnus rose from his table and indicated that he and Servius should follow him through to the back room.

‘Well?’ Magnus asked as they sat.

Terentius placed a wax writing-tablet on the table. ‘Each tablet weighs two and a half libra; with twelve uncia to a pound, that’s a total of thirty. Each one of those little balls weighs an obolus, which is forty-eight from each uncia, so from a tablet that’s one thousand, four hundred …’

‘… and forty from each tablet.’ Magnus whistled softly. ‘How much do you think you could charge your clients for one?’

‘For that luxury and including the boy, ten denarii easily.’ Terentius pointed to the writing-tablet. ‘It’s all in there, Magnus.’

Servius picked it up and read it quickly. ‘How much can you get a tablet for, Magnus?’

Magnus shook his head, unable to believe his luck. ‘I’ve just got one for free plus the half I have already, that’s-’

Servius flicked some beads on his abacus. ‘Twenty-one thousand, six hundred denarii or eight hundred and sixty-four aurii.’

‘But it’ll take some time to realise that money; at least a year, probably more,’ Terentius pointed out.

‘With no initial outlay to cover, that doesn’t matter, my friend,’ Magnus said, leaning back in his chair and beaming. ‘You take as long as you like and we’ll go fifty-fifty, five denarii each per sale.’

‘That’s generous, Magnus.’

‘I’d say it’s fair. You provide the boys and the premises and I’ll provide the resin; you can settle up once a month with Servius. In the meantime I would be very grateful if you could ensure that Aedile Brutus samples the new pleasure next time he frequents your establishment; in fact, encourage him to have two of those balls and then send me a message at whatever time of day or night it is.’

Terentius looked quizzical. ‘Certainly, Magnus.’ He stood to leave.

‘I’ll send a couple of my lads back with you to pick up the rest of those tablets.’

‘Of course, Magnus; will I see you later?’

Magnus was aware of Servius’ eyebrows raising a fraction and shook his head, waving a hand in dismissal. As the door closed behind Terentius, he turned to his counsellor. ‘Well, I had to sample the goods before I could decide whether to invest in them or not.’

‘Very wise. And what do you think?’

‘I think that it’s wasted on doctors; it’s much more than just a medicine.’

‘Will we really make that sort of money?’

‘Oh, yes, my friend; once those who can afford it try it, they’ll find it hard not to go back for more.’

‘And you?’

‘Now I know how good it is I daren’t have it again; not if I want to get things done, if you take my meaning?’ Magnus got to his feet, stretched and yawned. ‘Have all the lads assembled here two hours before dawn; wake me then.’

*

‘Magnus, wake up.’

Magnus roused himself and opened an eye to see Servius standing over him, holding a lamp. ‘Are all the lads downstairs?’

‘No, there’re still a couple of hours to go yet.’

‘Why wake me then?’

Servius indicated with his head to the door.

Magnus sat up in bed and squinted, trying to focus. ‘Rufinus! What are you doing here?’

‘Yesterday, after the festival, I went to tell my intermediary to stop making inquiries about selling the resin.’

‘Good. And?’

‘I couldn’t find him.’

‘Shit!’

‘It’s worse than that; he was found about an hour ago. It was all round the cohort very quickly because of the state he was in.’

‘Go on.’

‘He’d been tortured before they cut his throat. It was made to look as if they wanted to get the keys for the stores off him because some stuff was missing, but not enough in my opinion to warrant murder. Besides, I know Aetius-’

‘Aetius? Of course, who better to act as an intermediary; he can buy or sell anything.’

‘Could. But he wouldn’t have risked his life for a set of keys.’

‘But he would have risked it to keep his reputation for discretion.’

‘I’d asked him to approach a couple of doctors to see whether they would be interested.’

‘And one was the Urban Cohorts’?’

‘Exactly.’

‘Who went straight to the Urban Prefect, who immediately had a little chat with Aetius and, because he was killed having been tortured, we can assume that he gave them what they wanted.’

‘Yes, Magnus; they know my name.’ Rufinus handed his half-tablet of resin to Magnus. ‘This is no good to me; I need cash. I’m disappearing until all this dies down.’