don’t scare me. You’ll have to fend for yourselves. Get out.”
“I didn’t kill him,” Fabia said.
“Oh? Then why are you running away? Because no one will believe you? I don’t blame them.”
Like a punctured bladder, the air seemed to go out of her. She sank down on Silvanus’ one chair and buried her face in her hands. “I’m afraid—not for me, for the boy.”
“A little late for that, murderess,” Silvanus sneered. With his small black eyes, beaky face, and thin lips he resembled a tortoise that had bitten into something nasty.
“She didn’t kill my father! A—a Persian killed him, I saw a letter—” Aulus shook himself from his torpor with a wrenching effort like the snapping of invisible cords that bound him. For hours he had been going in and out of small seizures, hardly knowing where he was.
“The idiot speaks? Stay in the corner there, you filthy thing, don’t come near me.” Silvanus spat.
“It’s all to do with Mithras,” Aulus whispered.
“What’s he raving about?”
“Hush, Aulus, that’s enough,” Fabia warned.
“It’s true. We must go back and tell the governor. He understands, he explained—“
“Be quiet! Silvanus, please. We won’t stay here if you help us to get away. If you don’t they’ll catch us all!”
“Murderess!” Silvanus balled his hands into fists as if he would strike her. Lurco stirred but it was Aulus who stepped between them. “Don’t you dare!” he said.
“Or you’ll what?”
“I am the man of this family.” His legs trembled, his head began to jerk. No! He wouldn’t faint, he would hold on. He had always needed his mother—now she needed him.
Silvanus snorted. “Fabia, if it were possible to pity you I would, just for having such a son.” He paced the little room. “All right. Listen to me. There’s a fishing village not far from here. Fishermen won’t be happy about putting out at this time of year but enough silver might change their minds.”
“You’ll guide us there?”
“Certainly not. I’ll give you directions.”
“The money.”
He dragged one chest from under his cot, being careful to place himself between it and Fabia so that she could not see how full it was. He scooped up a handful of coins and, with a sour look, tossed them on the table. “If I were you, I’d make for the coast of Thrace. You’re from there, aren’t you? Live among the savages. How fitting.”
***
They were tacking northwest along the coast, nearly out of sight of land, when the wind began to blow strong and the boat to pitch and roll in a confusion of waves. Rain drove in their faces, the deck was awash; the four sailors and their three passengers hung grimly to handholds wherever they could. Aulus’ stomach heaved. He felt his bowels loosen. His mouth filled with saliva. Jagged flashes of light exploded behind his eyes. He couldn’t breathe. He had fought it down for hours but it would have its way at last. The sailors looked at him with horror, at the whites of his turned-up eyes, his jerking limbs.
“Look, he has a demon in him!”
“Fling him overboard or we’ll all drown!”
Chapter Thirty-three
The 14th day before the Kalends of December
Sophronia chose a plump snail from the silver platter, dipped it in savory sauce, and placed it between Suetonius’ lips. They reclined side by side on a couch in her elegant dining room. He swallowed and burped appreciatively.
“What’s he like, your governor?” she asked.
“Pliny? Hard to sum him up, really. He’s one of the most generous men I know. He has a great talent for friendship. If you ever need a favor he’s your man.”
“Rather dry, though. Not like you.”
Suetonius laughed. “He publishes his letters, you know. Quite delightful little pieces, there are even one or two to me. I think they reveal more of the man than perhaps he suspects. For example, he witnessed the volcanic eruption that devastated the bay of Naples when he was seventeen. Terrible calamity. His uncle, who commanded the fleet at Misenum, asked him if he wanted to come with him to help rescue people who were trapped along the shore. And young Gaius said no, he’d rather stay home and finish copying out some passages of Livy! Can you imagine?”
“Because he was afraid?”
“No, it wasn’t that. I just think, in a sense, he was never a boy. But he’s a good man and, trust me, he will solve this case however long it takes.”
“And the hunt for Fabia goes on?”
“It does. We’ve got every soldier and lictor we can spare visiting every