memory of Cassandra, and the wreath I had seen on Fulvia's door still marking her grief months after Curio's death. This wreath made a mockery of those others. No doubt I would find her wearing black, with her hair undressed. Did it amuse her to put on the trappings of a bereaved widow? Did she think of her widowhood as an honor she had earned?
Even the gone-to-seed gladiator who answered the door was wearing black. 'Hello, Birria,' I said. 'That color flatters you. It hides your fat.'
He scowled at me, then saw I was not alone. It was not Davus who stood behind me, but a troop of Calpurnia's bodyguards. From Clodia's house, I had gone straight to Calpurnia's. After a brief audience with Calpurnia, I had come here.
'I'll tell the mistress you're here,' Birria said, and skulked off.
A little later he returned and invited me to follow him. The bodyguards remained outside; but when Birria tried to close the door on them, one of them blocked it with his foot. The fellow was every bit as big as Birria and surrounded by ten more like him. After a brief staring contest, Birria relented and stepped back. The door remained open with the bodyguards standing at attention just outside.
Birria led me to the chamber called the Baiae room, then stepped across the hallway into the garden, looking nervous. Fausta stood just inside the room, dressed in black. Her masses of ginger hair were unpinned and hung about her shoulders. Beside her was a little tripod table set with a small pitcher of wine and a single cup. As on the previous occasion when I had called on her, she indicated that I should take a chair at the far end of the room.
'I'd rather stand,' I said. 'And I'd rather stay here where I can see you in the light. Black suits you, Fausta. It matches that bruise under your eye.'
She winced at my rudeness and touched her face self-consciously. 'You've come without that handsome son- in-law of yours, Gordianus?'
'I didn't have time to fetch him. I've come here straight from Calpurnia's house. She was very interested to hear what I had to tell her. She sent some of her men with me.'
'So Birria told me. Is she trying to frighten me? I can't imagine why. My husband is dead. Poor Milo! He never posed much of a threat to the state, anyway.'
'He incited a great many slaves to revolt. Along with Milo's gladiators, they caused considerable havoc in the region around Compsa.'
'Yes, that was unfortunate. But all Milo's gladiators are dead now, and so are all those slaves, aren't they?'
'Yes. They either died fighting or else were crucified, thanks to Milo and the false hope he gave them.'
'A tremendous waste of manpower, I'm sure.'
'A tremendous amount of suffering!'
'Do slaves really suffer like the rest of us? I'm not sure the philosophers are agreed on that subject, Gordianus. But certainly Milo had a lot to answer for-property damage, lives lost, wasted slaves, not to mention the scare he threw into everyone! But he paid the price, didn't he? He cast the dice, and they came up dogs, and now his lemur is wandering about Hades without a head. But what has any of this to do with me? Since when is a wife held liable under Roman law for her husband's actions?'
'You conspired with Milo against the state.'
'Nonsense!'
'You encouraged him to raise the insurrection. He might have balked at doing so, but for your meddling.'
She looked at me coldly. 'You can't prove that.'
'Calpurnia didn't require proof. I merely had to convince her. I explained what I knew, and she insisted on sending those men along with me to make sure you don't try to slip away before Isauricus and his lictors come for you. Conspiring against the Roman state is a crime punishable by death.'
Fausta laughed shrilly. 'Will they put me on trial, then?'
'They won't have to. The Ultimate Decree is still in effect. The consul Isauricus has the authority to take any steps necessary to safeguard the state. That includes the summary execution of traitors.'
She looked at me with fear in her eyes. 'Damn you, Gordianus! Why are doing this to me?'
'You did it to yourself, Fausta. Why couldn't you leave Milo to his fate without interfering?'
'Because he was a hopeless bungler and a fool and a coward!' she cried. 'Left to his own devices, he'd still be hiding in some hole in the Subura waiting for the right omen to come along. He needed a nudge-no, a kick in the back side! — to get him moving.'
'And you gave him that kick by arranging for Cassandra to utter a prophecy of success for the insurrection.'
'Yes! And it worked like a charm. What an actress she was! She delivered a performance that convinced even Caelius. It must have been quite magnificent. I only wish I'd been there to see it, but I'd surely have laughed and given her away.'
'Where did it happen? When?'
'In her shabby little room in the Subura. She stalled them until nightfall-the visions she described were always more convincing by lamplight, she told me-and then she delivered the last performance of her life. While you were upstairs, sleeping off the drug they gave you, Cassandra was groveling on the dirt floor of her room, foaming at the mouth and uttering the words Milo most wanted to hear. I'd told her just what to say, of course. I knew the images that would appeal most to Milo's brutish imagination. Describe it thus, I told her: An endless triumphal procession with Milo and Caelius at the head, the acclamations of the people like thunder in their ears, Trebonius and Isauricus and all their other enemies in chains behind them, and statues of solid gold in their likenesses installed in the Forum, while somewhere in a gray void we see Pompey and Caesar reduced to the size of dwarves, ripping open each other's bellies with their teeth, devouring one another's entrails in an endless circle, like the worm that eats its own tail. Imagine the dreams that vision put into Milo's head! The next morning he could hardly wait to set out. Caelius was just as eager. They met with their closest supporters, took some with them, left others to manage affairs in their absence, and off they went, convinced that Fortune and the Fates were firmly on their side.'
'While I still slept,' I whispered, 'alone in that room upstairs.'
'Not alone. Before he left that morning, Caelius told Cassandra what had become of you. She looked in on you, then left Rupa to look after you.'
'Where did she go?'
'She came to this house, of course, to collect her money.'
'Money,' I said dully. 'That was how you persuaded her to go against Calpurnia's wishes? All it took was a little gold?'
'No. It also required a great deal of persuasion. When I told her what I wanted her to do-to encourage Milo to get on with his hopeless insurrection-she resisted. For a while she kept up her pretense of being a genuine seeress. I told her it was no use trying to fool me, and whatever Calpurnia was paying her-that was an educated guess on my part, that she was Calpurnia's agent-I would pay her more. I kept harrying her and offering more gold, until at last she weakened. Put yourself in her place, Gordianus. Here in Rome, thanks to all the skullduggery surrounding the war, Cassandra found herself in a position to make a great deal of money-probably the only chance in her lifetime for such a woman to make so much money. Can you blame her for seizing the opportunity to maximize her fortune? 'Where's the risk?' I asked her. 'If Milo wins, he'll shower you with riches and honors. If he dies, he'll be silent forever. Whatever happens, you'll receive your pay from both of us, with Calpurnia never the wiser.' '
I shook my head. 'Then it's just as I said: in the end, all it took was a little gold.'
'Not a little gold, Gordianus, a great deal of it! That's what I promised her, anyway. And it wasn't entirely for herself. She said she needed the money… for you.'
'For me?'
'So she said. When she came here to collect her money, she seemed to think she had to justify herself to me-as if I cared about her sense of honor. 'I would never have done it,' she told me, 'except that I need more money. I need it for the man I love. He's in a great deal of trouble. He's accumulated an enormous debt. It's crushing the life out of him. If I can free him of it, I will.' You didn't know, Gordianus? Cassandra was thinking of you.'
I felt a fire in my head. 'But instead of paying her, you poisoned her. Why, Fausta?'
'Because I had no more money! The partial payment I had given her in advance was all I had. She came here looking for the balance, but I had nothing to give her, not even a token payment. I stalled her for as long as I could;
