Ovid

35

My next stop was the gym, to talk to Scylax. Dad would handle the official side of things, but if the emperor was responsible short of waving the white flag for me I knew there wasn't a lot he could do. With Scylax's help I could start from the other end. Scylax had contacts that spread throughout the city's underground as deep and as far as an oak tree's roots. If anyone could track Perilla down, or put the finger on who'd taken her, then Scylax could. First, though, I had to persuade the guy I was serious. In Scylax's book women ranked somewhere between mules and chickens. Even then on a good day the chickens had them beat three times out of four.

I found him in the tackle room he used as an office, putting an edge on a dagger.

'What makes you so sure she's been kidnapped?' His leathery thumb worked spittle into the whetstone's surface. 'Time's nothing to these bubbleheads. Maybe she just decided to stay over with friends and forgot to mention it.'

'She didn't.'

He scowled. 'Hey, that's good, Corvinus! Nice touch in certainties! You got your own Thessalian witch tucked away somewhere? Or do you do the palm readings yourself?'

Before I knew what I was doing I'd grabbed the whetstone away from him and thrown it into a corner.

'Look, you bastard,' I shouted. 'Are you going to help me or not?'

He didn't move; just looked at me and held out his hand until I'd picked up the stone and given it back.

'Take it easy, boy,' he said quietly. 'That was a joke. Remember jokes?'

I swallowed; my nerves were scraped raw. 'Yeah. Okay. I'm sorry. No, I don't know that she's been kidnapped. Not for sure. But she has disappeared. And if she was visiting friends she'd've told me, or at least told her house slaves. That I am certain of.'

Scylax frowned. The dagger slid across the stone with a swchhh! swchhh! that set my teeth on edge.

'Okay,' he said at last. 'I'll help. Sure I will. Only if I end up looking ten kinds of fool when she comes home tomorrow trailing a new boyfriend I'll break your neck.'

'She won't. She won't, believe me.'

'You'd better be right, boy, because that's no joke. So let's have the details.'

I told him as much as I knew, which wasn't a lot.

'You've checked with the Watch?'

'Of course I've bloody-' I stopped. 'Yeah. No corpses.'

'And you haven't been contacted?'

'No. Nor have her family.'

'Early days yet. They want you to sweat.'

I stood up and moved to the door. Out on the sand, Scylax's chief trainer was giving a dandified young narrow-striper hell for dropping his guard. I watched with dull eyes.

'So who took her?' Scylax spoke softly.

I spun round.

'How the hell should I know? That's what I want you to find out!

'You know, boy. Not the names of the guys who actually grabbed her, no. That's my end. The big guy, though, the one who gives the orders, the guy you've been having all this trouble with. You know who he is, don't you?'

'Maybe.' I'd no intentions of springing the names Tiberius and Livia on him, not unless I had to.

'There's no maybe about it.' Scylax tested the edge of the dagger against his thumb and laid it aside. 'Listen, Corvinus, because I'll only say this once. I don't turn my back on a friend, and if he asks me to hold my tongue then I don't blab. But it cuts both ways. You want my help, you pay my price.'

'Which is?'

'Trust me. Tell me the whole thing from the beginning. The whole thing, not the edited highlights. Then we'll see where we stand.'

'We've been through that already. I can't do it.'

He shrugged and got up.

'Okay,' he said. 'If that's the way you want it.'

'Look, you don't understand! Just knowing about this could get you killed. There're big names involved.'

'I said it was okay.' He picked up a wooden training-sword and made for the door. 'Good luck anyway. I'll see you around.'

I stood in the doorway, blocking his path.

'You mean you're not going to help?' He said nothing, just kept on coming. 'Answer me, you bastard!'

His shoulder caught me in the side of the chest like the business end of a battering-ram. I fell winded, and he stepped over me. I thought he'd simply keep on going but he stopped and looked back.

'Never mind the names, Marcus,' he said. 'Just trust me. That's all I ask.'

I lay on the dirt floor gasping and kneading my ribs. They felt like they'd been crushed by a runaway marble column.

'Okay,' I said when I could talk again. 'Okay, you've asked for it. But don't blame me if you wake up tomorrow with your throat cut.'

He grinned and pulled me to my feet. 'I'm a light sleeper, boy. Besides, who wants to be old anyway?'

So I told him. The whole story from the beginning, with nothing missed out. I thought maybe he'd balk at the political stuff, but he didn't: Scylax had been around, and he wasn't stupid.

'You sure the imperials're behind this?' he said.

'They have to be. I was stonewalled that first day at the palace, and no one else has that kind of clout. Anyway, it's in their interests.' I glanced at him. 'Worried?'

'Yeah. Shit-scared, if you want the truth. Who wouldn't be?'

'Does it make a difference?'

Scylax inspected the blade of his dagger and laid it down. 'I gave you my word, remember? I don't do that often, and when I do no one questions it, not even you. You get me?'

I swallowed and said nothing.

'Okay. So Tiberius and Livia wouldn't involve themselves directly in something as dirty as this. If we want to find your girlfriend we're looking for a middle-man. I'll put the word out. Meanwhile we stake you out. Watch you, watch your house.'

'What good will that do?

'Jupiter, Corvinus!' He spat. 'What do you use for a brain? You say these guys haven't made contact yet?'

'Not yet, no.'

'They will. And when they do we have a face we can follow.'

'Yeah, but they — the imperials, whoever — they just want the investigation killed, right? They don't have to contact me to tell me the obvious.'

'You got a better idea?'

'No, but…'

'So shut up and trust me. I've done this before, and I know what I'm doing. When — not if, when — someone puts the bite on you I'll know it. Know it without him knowing I know. And then we'll find the guy and take him apart piece by fucking piece.' He grinned. 'Unless it's Tiberius himself in a big black cloak and false beard, in which case you're on your own. So sod off and let me organise things, okay?'

I checked Perilla's house before I went home, just on the off-chance; but there was still no news.