The King's Gambit (28 page)

"A sword would have been much better," I agreed. "But a good citizen isn't supposed to bear arms within the
pomerium
. The
caestus
is sporting equipment." Perhaps I should explain that in those days the
pomerium
was still the ancient boundary marked out by Romulus when he plowed the circuit with a white bull and cow. boundaries are now a mile beyond those in all directions.

"Hmm. You'll be a lawyer yet."

"The woman, Chrysis," I said urgently, "did she confess?"

"Certainly she confessed. You don't think I'd have bothered to haul you out of prison if you'd dragged an innocent woman into my court, do you?"

"Wonderful!" I said. "And has Claudia been arrested?"

"Eh? What Claudia are you talking about, boy? Publius's sister? What has she to do with this?"

My heart sank as suddenly as it had soared. "But what did she--"

My father silenced me with an impatient gesture. "Quit babbling. This is important and we have little time. I have used all my influence to get the charges against you dropped. I am convinced that you acted out of blundering stupidity instead of the outright villainy I might have expected. Young Cicero has told me that you went to him for advice on points of law. That is good, although our patron Hortalus knows more of the law than Cicero ever will, and is bound to give you legal advice without recompense."

"I didn't want to bother him," I said. Better to leave Hortalus out of this entirely until I knew where I stood. I was beginning to feel as if I were standing on thin air.

"How you can get into so much trouble over a dead foreigner and a couple of murdered freedmen I cannot understand, but I am trying to get you released from your committee a few weeks early to precede me to Hither Spain as my legate. If you can stay out of Rome and out of trouble for a couple of years, all this may blow over and you can come home when I return to stand for the Consulship."

This was better than nothing--a temporary banishment instead of a permanent execution. I had fantasized about dragging all of them into court and charging them with treason. Now I saw that for just what it was--a fantasy. I would see justice, but I now admitted that it would take years, not just a few days of investigation followed by some flashy jurisprudence. Well, I was only beginning my career; years were among the very few things I had. If I could just live through this.

We reached the Curia and went up the steps. Beneath the colonnade, we stopped.

"I will wait for you here," my father said. "Remember, your very life depends upon how you comport yourself in there." He placed a hand on my shoulder, a rare gesture of affection from him. Roman fathers regard paternal affection rather the way most people regard loathsome, foreign diseases. "Be humble, talk small, swallow your pride. Legal formalities mean little to the men in there. They respect only power, and you have none. Such family influence as you have I have already exercised in your behalf. The men who control the Republic these days may be moved against only from a position of great strength and highest office. That takes a great deal of time and work. Now go, and for once in your life behave wisely."

I said nothing to this, merely nodding before I turned away from him to enter the Curia. I did not hear the usual murmur of subdued talk from the Senate chamber and wondered what was amiss. When I entered the chamber itself, I thought at first that some sort of elaborate prank was being played on me. It was empty.

Then I saw that it was not quite empty. Two men sat on the lowest bench. A single, multi-wicked lamp illuminated them both. They were our two Consuls for the year that was almost over: Marcus Licinius Crassus and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus. They seemed to be discussing some documents that lay on the bench between them. One looked up as I drew closer.

"Ah, young Decius. Come join us." That was Pompey.

Crassus looked up and studied me with chilly blue eyes. "Now what are we to do with you, Decius?"

"If you have charges," I said, "the proper procedure would be to take me to court so that the case may be examined."

"You are living in the wrong generation for that, Decius," Pompey said. "The courts are well enough for civil matters, but you have involved yourself with foreign affairs."

"It was my belief that foreign policy was the province of the Senate," I said.

"It still is," Crassus said, "but the Senate votes as we direct now."

"If that's true," I rejoined, "then why do you operate in such secrecy?"

"For some time now," Crassus said heatedly, "your life has hung by a thread. You have pulled that thread apart one strand at a time. You are down to your last strand and it ill behooves you to tug very hard just now."

Pompey raised a hand in a calming gesture. "Decius," he asked mildly, "just what do you think you have on us? Quite aside from the absurdity of a mere commissioner attacking not one but both Consuls, I fail to see that you are in possession of any evidence against anybody. Perhaps you could explain."

"Murders were committed in my district. I sought justice."

"And apprehended the perpetrator," Crassus said. "Most commendable, and I congratulate you. The woman Chrysis made a full confession of her crimes, how she committed them and at whose behest."

"Then I wonder that Claudia Pulcher has not been taken into custody," I said.

Pompey expressed amazement as exaggerated as that on an actor's mask. "Claudia? Surely you are under some delusion brought about by your detestation of the lady's brother.
C hrysis told us she acted under the orders of Prince Tigranes of Armenia, something about sorting out some pirate business, apparently."

"The prince, it seems, has fled the city," Crassus added.

"I want to question her myself," I said.

"You are in no position to make demands," Pompey said. "In any case, you are a bit late for that. The wench is dead. She was being kept in a cell in the old barracks down by the Campus Martius. Hanged herself with her own hair."

"I see," I said. "Resourceful to the last."

"Wasn't she?" Pompey agreed. "Unfortunate, but by then we had the whole story out of her. We made our report to the Senate this morning."

"I take it that you conducted the interrogation?" Both nodded. "And was there a praetor present?"

"Certainly," Pompey said. "All was done according to the law. Marcus Glabrio presided."

Glabrio was one of Pompey's clients and a military subordinate when Pompey was commanding. "And who was the court torturer?" I asked, suspecting that I already knew the answer.

"Marcus Volsinius," Crassus said. "One of my old centurions, a most competent man."

"He's certainly qualified by experience," I said, "having supervised six thousand crucifixions."

"We wouldn't employ an amateur," Pompey said. "Anyway, the case is closed. The woman came to Rome from Delos in the household of Paramedes of Antioch. When Tigranes came into Rome incognito and resided in the house of Paramedes, he suborned her, first with the awe of his birth and rank, then with temptations of wealth. Apparently her talents were well-known among the pirate brotherhood and Tigranes was anxious to have them at his disposal. At any rate, when he went to live in the house of Publius Claudius, she went there with him."

"And why did he go to Claudius?" I asked, knowing that they were closing the doors on all of my investigations.

"Decius, you shock me!" Pompey said. "He couldn't very well murder a man while living under his roof. That would be immoral. Even a greasy Armenian princeling has more respect for the sacred laws of hospitality than that!"

"He went to Claudius because I sent him there," Crassus said, unexpectedly. "I knew the boy slightly from when I had to deal with the pirates during the Servile War. He came to me awhile ago and asked if I knew of a suitable household where he might reside in Rome. Obviously, considering the delicate state of relations between the Republic and his father's kingdom, he could not very well beg hospitality of a Consul and did not want his presence officially recognized. I knew that Publius had the run of the town house since his elder brother and sister were in the East. Lots of room in the house, and the Claudians always love to hobnob with royalty. Seemed perfectly innocent at the time."

"Nothing about the Claudians is innocent," I said.

To my amazement, both men burst into laughter. "They are a difficult lot, to be sure," Crassus said.

"And now Publius is to be your cat's-paw in Lucullus's army, to sow dissent and mutiny among the troops."

"Now, Decius, how do you expect people to believe that? The boy needs military experience if he's to stand for office. What more natural than that he should join Lucullus? The eastern army is where the action is, where reputations are to be made. And why should Publius want to attack Lucullus's authority? His elder sister is married to Lucullus. His elder brother, Appius, has been with Lucullus for years and has served loyally all that time. All logic says he would serve his own best interests by pushing Lucullus's fortunes to the best of his ability. If in spite of all that, Publius should rebel against his brother-in-law..." Pompey shrugged and smiled. "Well, then, that's just Publius being Publius, isn't it?"

"The night grows late," Crassus said, "and our Consulship grows shorter. Decius, do you really think that you have any evidence of wrongdoing to bring against my colleague or me?"

I thought of the documents in the Temple of Vesta. They could be subpoenaed, of course, but only at the cost of compromising the
Virgo Maxima
, my great-aunt and a lady of such irreproachable worthiness that I would not have endangered her reputation to save myself from the cross. I thought of the document in my house, proving Hortalus's extra-legal freeing of Sinistrus. I dismissed it As part of a far larger case, that document would have been a solid stone in the wall I was building. By itself, it was proof of a petty corruption too minor to warrant attention.

"There was an amulet among my effects when I was arrested, a bronze camel's head."

"I am aware of no such object," Pompey said. "These items were taken from you." He gestured to my dagger and
caestus
, which lay on the bench beside him. "Quite improper, going armed within the
pomerium
, but we'd have half the population up on charges if we tried to enforce that law strictly." Somehow, I wasn't surprised that the token of
hospitium
had disappeared. They were right. I had nothing. With the two murderers, Sinistrus and Chrysis, already dead and a legal confession from Chrysis, I would look like a fool if I tried to reopen the case. I had no proof of criminal conspiracy, no proof of treason. What I did have, for the moment, was my life. All I could do now was try to keep it.

Crassus studied me with his cold eyes. "Decius, we have tolerated your irrational and pernicious behavior thus far out of respect for your family and your father, the Urban Praetor. He has requested that you be released from further duties and precede him to Hither Spain as his legate. We have decided to grant that request." He handed me a small scroll bearing both the senatorial and the consular seals. "Here are your orders. At first light, when the gates are opened, be on your way to Ostia. You will leave on the first cutter heading west."

I took the scroll. "Taking ship in December might be interpreted as a death sentence," I commented.

"There are less pleasant ways to die than by drowning," Crassus said. "A generous sacrifice to Neptune might help."

"Of course," Pompey put in, "just getting from your house to the gate might be a bit of a problem. Publius Claudius, or rather Clodius, as he's taken to calling himself, is a man who holds a grudge. You might have to make your way through quite a few of his supporters tomorrow."

"And," Crassus said, "I hear that Macro has ordered all his men to stay out of it. He's reined in that rascal Milo. That being the case, you'd better take these." He tossed my dagger and
caestus
to me and I caught them. "You are going to need them at first light."

Pompey returned to his paperwork. "That will be all, Decius. Best of luck."

My father was stone-faced when I came out, but I could hear a muted sigh of relief. To my astonishment, Titus Milo was with him. "I was told you were let out of the Mamertine tonight and came here. Thought I'd join you."

"Does anything happen in this city without your knowledge?" I asked.

"I try to keep up on things."

"What happened in there?" Father asked.

"I received a suspended death sentence, of sorts." As we walked, I explained what had transpired, although for my father's sake I left Hortalus's name out of it.

"Better than you might have expected," Father said. "Sea travel at this season is risky, but you can sail north along the coast and put ashore at the first sign of bad weather."

"I expect to be quite occupied just in getting to Ostia," I informed him.

"I'm afraid I won't be able to help you there," Milo said.

"So I heard."

"Surely Claudius won't try to murder you in public!"

Father protested. Milo and I both got a good laugh out of that one.

"I still wonder why they were so lenient with me," I said. "Granted, I did nothing wrong and pursued my duties diligently, but that never stopped those two from killing anyone."

Milo surprised me by answering. "It's because they're in a good mood. You would be too if you enjoyed their good fortune."

"Yes, that's why I pressed for this interview tonight," Father said. "It seemed a fortuitous occasion."

"What happened?" I asked, mystified.

"The will of Sergius Paulus was read this morning," Father told me. "He left the vast bulk of his estate to the Consuls and the other magistrates, including"--he tried not to gloat--"a rather generous bequest to me."

"And freed all his slaves," Milo said. "Every one of them, and the man owned thousands. He left each one a small cash stake to set them up as freedmen and gave all the rest to the Consuls and praetors."

I let the implications of this seep in for a few moments, then whooped: "Sergius Paulus, you clever freedman bastard! No wonder you filed a new will every year! Cut your estate up among each year's magistrates and no one will question all those manumissions."