tunnel beneath the palace walls,” he told her. “It allows our emperor a quick exit should he find he needs it. I’ve always thought it an excellent place for an ambush, but there is really nothing one can do should that occur.”
“Cailin!” A young woman had entered the box behind them.
Cailin turned and recognized Casia, looking particularly radiant in scarlet and gold silks. Cailin held out her hands in welcome. She had wondered how she would feel seeing Casia again, but the young woman had always been kind to her. “Fortune has smiled on you, I am told,” she said, greeting Casia. “I am happy you could come.”
“My lady Casia,” Aspar said with a smile, and Cailin felt a surge of jealousy race through her. His eyes were too warm and too knowing.
“My lord, it is good to see you once again. I owe you a debt of gratitude for introducing me to my prince. I had not intended to buy my freedom from Villa Maxima until next year, but when the prince offered me his favor, I surprised my masters and purchased myself from them, that I might avail myself of the prince’s munificence.” Casia smiled warmly at them both, and settled herself comfortably next to Cailin.
Aspar bowed again and replied, “Then you are both happy with the arrangement, and for that I am glad, Casia. You are wise enough still, I trust, to look to your future? Princes are often fickle.”
Casia laughed merrily. “I am a frugal woman, my lord. If Jovian and Phocas had had the slightest inkling of what I had saved during my three years with them, they would have set my price higher. They did not, however, and I came away quite comfortably fixed. The house in which I reside is also mine. I insisted. Basilicus understood, and was generous. I will not end my days in the streets like a foolish woman.”
“I would be unhappy were it so,” he answered her.
There was no time for Cailin to interrogate her lover, for the rest of their guests were entering the box, being introduced, and bowing over the ladies. Bellisarius, the famed classical actor, and his current lover, the ribald comic actor Apollodorus, were first. Elegantly attired in white and gold dalmaticas, and both quite witty, they awed Cailin at first. She was not used to such men, but Casia chatted easily with them, trading gossip and insults as easily as if she had known them her entire life. Anastasius, the great Byzantine singer, arrived and spoke to them in a bare whisper, which was, Aspar explained to Cailin, his custom. Anastasius spoke little, if at all, saving his glorious voice for song.
John Andronicus, the ivory carver, and Arcadius, the sculptor, arrived almost simultaneously. The former was a shy man, but sweet-natured. He greeted his host and hostess politely. The latter was his opposite, a bold fellow with a bolder eye. “Casia I recognize, so it must be this ethereal beauty you want me to immortalize, my lord.” Arcadius stared hard at Cailin. “The body, I can see,” he continued, mentally stripping her clothes away, “is obviously every bit as beautiful as the face. You will make my summer a joy, lady, for there is nothing I love better than sculpting a lovely woman.”
Aspar smiled, amused, as Cailin blushed again. “I thought her a perfect subject for your classical hands, Arcadius. She is Venus reborn,” he said.
“I shall certainly gain more pleasure from the work you have commissioned me to do, my lord, than all the saints I have been sculpting as of late,” the sculptor admitted.
Suddenly the crowd roared noisily, and the inhabitants of Aspar’s box turned to see the emperor and his party entering their box. Leo had a severe yet serene face, but even in his elegant rich robes, one could not have called him distinguished or regal. It was Cailin’s first glimpse of Byzantium’s ruler, and she had to remember that Aspar had chosen this former member of his household staff for greatness because of his other qualities. The empress, however, was a different matter. She was a blazing star to her husband’s calm moon. The rest of the royal party were made up of men and women among whom only Basilicus’s face was familiar. The clergy in their black robes had already taken their place before the imperial party arrived, but Cailin had been too busy with her own guests to notice them before now.