'You're talking to men who've stared death in the face many times,' growled Ahala. 'We have nothing to lose. But you, Gordianus, on the other hand…'
'He'll have to die,' said one of the men. 'Like the others who've discovered out secret.'
'The skulls decorating the gateway?' I said.
Ahala nodded grimly.
'But we can't kill him!' protested Zanziba.
'He lied about his purpose in coming here,' said Ahala.
'But his purpose was to bring Zuleika to me… '
So began the debate over what to do with me, which lasted through the night. In the end, as was their custom, they decided by voting. I was locked away while the deliberations took place. What was said, I never knew; but at daybreak I was released, and after making me pledge never to betray them, Ahala showed me to the gate.
'Zuleika is staying?' I said.
He nodded.
'How did the voting go?'
'The motion to release you was decided by a bare majority of one.
'That close? How did you vote, Ahala?'
'Do you really want to know?'
The look on his face told me I didn't.
I untethered my horse and rode quickly away, never looking back.
On my first day back in Rome, I saw Cicero in the Forum. I tried to avoid him, but he made a beeline for me, smiling broadly.
'Well met, Gordianus! Except for this beastly weather. Not yet noon, and already a scorcher. Reminds me of the last time I saw you, at those funeral games in Saturnia. Do you remember?' 'Of course,' I said. 'What fine games those were!' 'Yes,' I agreed, a bit reluctantly.
'But do you know, since then I've seen some even more spectacular funeral games. It was down in Capua. Amazing fighters! The star of the show was a fellow with some barbaric Thracian name. What was it, now? Ah, yes:'Spartacus, they called him. Like the city of warriors, Sparta. A good name for a gladiator, eh?'
I nodded and quickly changed the subject. But for some reason, the name Cicero had spoken stuck in my mind. As Zuleika had said, how strange are the coincidences dropped in our paths by the gods; for in a matter of days, that name would be on the lips of everyone in Rome and all over Italy.
For that was the month that the great slave revolt began, led by Spartacus and his rebel gladiators. It would last for many months, spreading conflagration and chaos all over Italy. It would take me to the Bay of Neapolis for my first fateful meeting with Rome's richest man, Marcus Licinius Crassus, and a household of ninety-nine slaves all marked for death; but that is another story.
What became of Zanziba and Zuleika? In the ensuing months of warfare and panic, I lost track of them, but thought of them often. I especially remembered Zuleika's comments on Roman slavery. Were her sympathies inflamed by the revolt? Did she manage to persuade her brother and his comrades, if indeed they needed persuading, to join the revolt and take up arms against Rome? If they did, then al-most certainly things went badly for them; for eventually Spartacus and his followers were trapped and defeated, hunted and slaughtered like animals, and crucified by the thousands.
After the revolt was over and the countryside gradually returned to normal, I eventually had occasion to travel to Ravenna again. I rode out to the site of Ahala's compound. The gate of bones was still there, but worn and weathered and tilted to one side, on the verge of collapsing. The palisade was intact, but the gate stood open. No weapons hung in the armory. The animals pens were empty. Spider webs filled the slaughterhouse. The gladiator quarters were abandoned.
And then, many months later, from across the sea I received a letter on papyrus, written by a hired Egyptian scribe:
To Gordianus, Finder and Friend: By the will of the gods, wefind ourselves back in Alexandria. What a civilizedplace this seems, after Rome! The tale of our adventures in Italy would fill a book; suffice to say that we escaped by the skin of our teeth. Many of our comrades, including Ahala, were not so lucky.
We have saved enough money to buy passage back to our native land. In the country of our ancestors, we hope to find family and make new friends. What appalling tales we shall have to tell of thestrange lands we visited; and of those lands, surely none was stranger or more barbaric than Rome! But to you it is home, Gordianus, and we wish you all happiness there. Farewell fromyour friends, Zuleika and her brother Zanziba.
For many years, I have saved that scrap of papyrus. I shall never throw it away
POPPY AND THE POISONED CAKE
'Young Cicero tells me that you can be discreet. Is that true, Gordianus? Can you keep a confidence?'
Considering that the question was being put to me by the magis-trate in charge of maintaining Roman morals, I weighed my answer carefully. 'If Rome's finest orator says a thing, who am I to contradict him?'
The censor snorted. 'Your friend Cicero said you were clever, too. Answer a question with a question, will you? I suppose you picked that up from listening to him defend thieves and murderers in the law courts.'
Cicero was my occasional employer, but I had never counted him as a friend, exactly. Would it be indiscreet to say as much to the censor? I kept my mouth shut and nodded vaguely.
Lucius Gellius Poplicola-Poppy to his friends, as I would later find out-looked to be a robust seventy or so. In a time wracked by civil war, political assassinations, and slave rebellions, to reach such a rare and venerable age was proof of Fortune's favor. But Fortune must have stopped smiling on Poplicola-else why summon Gordianus the Finder?
The room in which we sat, in Poplicola's house on the Palatine Hill, was sparsely appointed, but the few furnishings were of the highest quality. The rug was Greek, with a simple geometric design in blue and yellow. The antique chairs and the matching tripod table were of ebony, with silver hinges. The heavy drapery drawn over the doorway for privacy was of plush green fabric shot through with golden threads. The walls were stained a somber red. The iron lamp in the middle of the room stood on three griffin feet and breathed steady flames from three gaping griffin mouths. By its light, while waiting for Poplicola, I had perused the little yellow tags that dan-gled from the scrolls which filled the pigeon-hole bookcase in the corner. The censor's library consisted entirely of serious works by philosophers and historians, without a lurid poet or frivolous play-wright among them. Everything about the room bespoke a man of impeccable taste and high standards-just the sort of fellow whom public opinion would deem worthy of wearing the purple toga, a man qualified to keep the sacred rolls of citizenship and pass judgment on the moral conduct of senators.
'It was Cicero who recommended me, then?' In the ten years since I had met him, Cicero had sent quite a bit of business my way.
Poplicola nodded. 'I told him I needed an agent to investigate… a private matter. A man from outside my own household, and yet someone I could rely upon to be thorough, truthful, and absolutely discreet. He seemed to think that you would do.'
'I'm honored that Cicero would recommend me to a man of your exalted position and-'
'Discretion!' he insisted, cutting me off. 'That matters most of all. Everything you discover while in my employ-everything-must be held in the strictest confidence. You will reveal your discoveries to me and to no one else.'
From beneath his wrinkled brow he peered at me with an intensity that was unsettling. I nodded and said slowly, 'So long as such discretion does not conflict with more sacred obligations to the gods, then yes, Censor, I promise you my absolute discretion.'
'Upon your honor as a Roman? Upon the shades of your ancestors?'
I sighed. Why must these nobles always take themselves and their problems so seriously? Why must every transaction require the invocation of dead relatives? Poplicola's earth-shattering dilemma was probably nothing more than an errant wife or a bit of blackmail over a pretty slaveboy. I chafed at his demand for an oath and con-
