I looked into her brown eyes and felt a pang of guilt, thinking of Bethesda's suffering, thinking of Cassandra…
'I shall buy you more than one radish, Wife. I shall buy you the whole bunch of them. Davus, you're carrying the money bag. Hand it to Diana so that she can pay the man.'
'Papa, are you sure?' said Diana. 'It's so much.'
'Of course I'm sure. Pay the scoundrel!'
The vendor was ecstatic. Bethesda, clutching the radishes to her breast, gave me a look to melt my heart. Then a shadow crossed her face, and I knew that she suddenly felt unwell. I touched her arm. 'Shall we go home now, Wife?'
Just then, there was a commotion from another part of the market. A man yelled. A woman shrieked: 'It's her! The madwoman!'
I turned about to see Cassandra staggering toward me. Her blue tunica was torn at the neck and pulled awry, her golden hair wild and unkempt. There was a crazed expression on her face, and in her eyes, a look of utter panic.
She ran to me, reaching forward, her gait uneven. 'Gordianus, help me!' She fell into my arms and dropped to her knees, pulling me down with her.
'Cassandra!' I gasped. I lowered my voice to a whisper. 'If this is some pretense-'
She clutched my arms and cried out. Her body convulsed.
Diana knelt beside me. 'Papa, what's wrong with her?'
'I don't know.'
'It's the god in her,' said Bethesda. 'The same god that compels her prophecies must be tearing her apart inside.'
A crowd gathered. 'Draw back, all of you!' I shouted. Cassandra clutched at me again, but her grip was weakening. Her eyelids flickered and drooped.
'Cassandra, what's wrong? What's happened?' I whispered.
'Poison,' she said. 'She's poisoned me!'
'Who? What did she give you?' Our faces were so close that I felt her shallow breath on my lips. Her eyes seemed huge, her blue irises eclipsed by the enormous blackness of her pupils.
'Something-in the drink…' Cassandra said.
A moment later, she was dead.
XVI
Davus and I left Clodia on the banks of the Tiber, gazing at the sunlight on the water, alone with her memories. We retraced our steps past the riverside gardens of the rich and back into the city.
Davus was refreshed from his swim, but the heat of the day oppressed me. I was weary in mind and body. By the time we made our way up the slope of the Palatine to my house, I wanted nothing more than a few quiet hours of rest in a shady corner of my garden.
I had spoken to them all now-all the women who'd come to see Cassandra end in flames-except one.
Would Caesar's wife deign to see me? The more I thought about it, the less likely it seemed. Calpurnia would be surrounded by an army of advisors and attendants and bodyguards to protect her both from those who sought her husband's favors and those who sought his destruction. There was the complication that she might consider me an enemy since I had turned my back on Caesar along with Meto in Massilia.
From what I knew of Calpurnia, she was not the sort to act on a sudden whim or a sentimental impulse or out of prurient interest. She was sensible, discreet, and utterly respectable-precisely the qualities that had convinced Caesar to marry her. Everyone knew his famous quip about his previous wife, whom he had summarily divorced after she became the subject of gossip: 'Caesar's wife must be above suspicion.' Calpurnia was said to be so devoid of even petty vices that no scandal could ever be attached to her; not the sort of woman, I thought, to admit the likes of myself into her presence, even for a formal audience. People might talk.
And yet, she had come to see Cassandra burn.
I sat on my folding chair in the shade and leaned back against a pillar. I narrowed my eyes and watched a hummingbird flit from flower to flower. I shut my eyes and listened to the buzzing of his wings as he circled the garden and flew over my head. I must have dozed, for the next thing I knew, Androcles had hold of my arm and was shaking me awake.
'Master, there's a man at the door asking for you, and a great litter out in the street, and bodyguards, lots and lots of bodyguards, and-'
'What? What are you talking about?'
'A visitor for you, Master.'
I blinked, cleared my throat, and brushed my fingers through my hair. 'Very well, send him in.'
'No, he says that you must come to the door.'
I felt a sudden chill. A great litter, an army of bodyguards, a high-handed summons to come to my own front door-who could it be? Only one person would be so presumptuous, I thought: the man who would own this house himself soon enough, once all my debts came due and I was found to be penniless. Why had Volumnius come to harass me now on this particular day?
'Where's Davus?' I asked.
'With Diana, in their room,' said Androcles.
'Napping?'
'I don't think so. The door's shut, but I'm pretty sure they're not asleep.'
'How can you tell?'
'All that noise they make! I'm surprised you can't hear them out here. He grunts and squeals like a boar with a spear in his side, and then she-'
'Enough, Mopsus! Never mind fetching Davus. Surely even Volumnius won't dare to have a Roman citizen beaten on his own doorstep,' I declared; but as I rose, unbending my stiff knees, I had my doubts.
I made my way across the garden and through the atrium, with Androcles scurrying after me. The man in the foyer didn't have the look of a debt collector; he was too old and too small. He had the self-assured, sophisticated air one associates with slaves who act as personal secretaries to citizens of wealth and taste. With relief, I knew that it was not Volumnius who had come calling on me. Who, then? Something in the slave's manner suggested that he waited upon a mistress, not a master. A woman in a sumptuous litter, attended by many bodyguards…
In my experience, the gods in their whimsy so fashion the world that sometimes the thing that seems most unlikely is precisely the thing that occurs. I knew at once, and with absolute certainty, whom the slave represented.
'Will your mistress do me the honor of stepping inside?' I said.
The slave raised an eyebrow. 'Alas, much as it would please her to grace your household with her presence, her schedule today will not permit it. But she very much wants to speak to you. If you'll follow me, there's a litter waiting. We think it best if you come alone.'
'Of course. Androcles, when Davus and Diana… reappear… let them know that I've left in the company of Caesar's wife. And I shall be returning…?' I looked at the slave.
'You should be gone for no more than an hour or so,' he assured me. 'That's all the mistress can spare. May I?' He extended his open hands, almost touching me, and I realized he intended to search my person. I nodded and allowed him to run his hands over my tunic. Satisfied that I carried no weapons, he stepped back and allowed me to walk out the door ahead of him.
Two identical litters were waiting in the street, each fitted with a resplendent canopy made of ivory poles and white draperies that shimmered with golden threads, hemmed with a purple stripe. The drapes of the first litter were closed, concealing its occupant. I was ushered into the litter behind it. The slave joined me, closed the drapes, and settled back into the pile of cushions opposite me.
With a steady gracefulness that did credit to the bearers, the litter rose and began to move forward.
'Where are we going?' I said.
