Caligula

XXXIV

The Domus Augustus lay on the far side of the Palatine, and their route took them through covered walkways and little parks, past shrines and fountains. Aemilia was wearing a long red dress, in a style fashionable among the ladies of the court, and Rufus wondered if she had been given it because Milonia had tired of it. The Emperor's wife was notorious for the enormous amounts she spent on clothing, and, he reasoned, must have plenty to spare. The dress left Aemilia's milky shoulders bare and he could see a light scattering of dainty freckles across them. The sun caught the tiny golden hairs at the base of her neck and he found himself wondering what it would be like to touch them. She was beautiful, sometimes extraordinarily so. Just being with her made him feel more alive. He grinned to himself.

'What are you smiling at?' she demanded. 'Is there something wrong with my dress?'

'No. I was just thinking how easy it is to forget.'

'Forget what?'

'Nothing. Everything. The things that seem to matter most don't seem so bad on days like these.'

'What is so different about this day?' she asked suspiciously.

'Nothing,' he replied, infuriating her further.

'Sometimes you are such a fool, Rufus,' she snapped, but he kept smiling anyway.

The guard at the main entrance of the palace gave their pass a cursory glance and allowed them inside. It had once been the largest and most prestigious building on the Palatine Hill, but now the main apartments housed Caligula's lesser relatives, and the smaller rooms were home to a variety of minor palace officials.

Rufus described the old man and the guard laughed.

'That's Varrus. He has a place close to the back near the kitchens.' He reeled off a bewildering list of lefts and rights, corridors and stairs. 'If you get lost just follow your nose.'

The directions were less confusing than Rufus feared, but they were still forced to ask one of the kitchen girls for the exact door to knock.

'Don't worry, darling. Varrus doesn't have a door. It's the third curtain you passed on the way here. Wife? Don't think so. Anyone know if Varrus has a wife?' she called across the ovens.

Rufus thanked her, and she laughed coarsely. 'Not planning to stay and taste a little of what you fancy, then? We can always do with an extra pair of hands around here, especially hands like yours, pretty boy.'

He backed away, face flushed, and bumped into something soft and warm that seemed to yield for a second before pushing him off with surprising strength.

'We can always do with an extra pair of hands,' Aemilia mimicked. 'Well, you can keep your hands to yourself. Which door is it, pretty boy?'

For the fifth time that day he revised his opinion of her. She really was insufferable, spoiled, annoying…

'Third on the right.'

'Come on then,' she ordered, leading the way.

It was immediately obvious Varrus didn't share the room with a wife or any other kind of companion. It was tiny, smaller even than the space Rufus shared with Livia behind the elephant house. Against one wall, under a shuttered window, was a narrow bed covered by a piece of sackcloth. A few unwashed bowls were stacked beside a larger basin, obviously used for fetching water. Apart from the bed, the only piece of what might be called furniture was a large wooden box standing in a corner near the bed, which must have served as a table.

Rufus shrugged. 'There's nothing here to tell us who he is, or who might take him off our hands.' He turned to leave, but Aemilia stood her ground.

'How do you know without looking?'

He waved at the room. 'Because there's nothing to see.'

She gave him the look women reserve for men they think have the mental capacity of a dull mouse.

'What?' He followed her stare. 'It's only a box.'

'There might be something in it that tells you who he is. Do you still have the key?'

'What key?'

She gave him the look again. 'His key. The one he had round his neck when Livia found him.'

'How do you know it's a key? It doesn't look like any key I've ever seen.'

'Try it.'

He knew it wouldn't work, but something told him it wasn't worth arguing. 'Look, it's too big.' He held the T-shaped metal against the small lock on the chest. 'We can't open it, and anyway, it wouldn't be right. Come.'

She reached past him and grasped the lid, which lifted easily in her hands.

'Look, I was right,' she said triumphantly, peering into the depths of the box. 'There are documents and another key and… what do you think this is?'

He didn't want to give her the satisfaction, but his curiosity got the better of him.

It was a piece of parchment, but like nothing he had seen before. Thin lines in different colours criss-crossed and joined each other, superimposed on other fainter lines which he could barely discern in the poor light. Only one feature was more prominent than the rest, a line marked in red, which snaked its way from one side of the parchment to the other with a distinctive zigzag halfway along its length. As he looked more closely, he could see that at the point where the red line zigged left, it was joined by a green line thicker than most of the others, which cut off at an angle to the right.

'I think it must be some kind of map, but it is difficult to make anything out of it. Maybe if we could look at it in a better light?'

'Let me see it again.' He handed it to her and she moved under the window. She pursed her lips and traced the thick red line across the map with her finger, squinting to try to interpret the faintest contours, which were almost lost against the old parchment. The expression on her face made her look very young, and he could not stop himself smiling again. She looked up and caught him. 'You're laughing at me. You think I'm stupid,' she said.

'No, I — '

'Why don't you take it to your friend Cupido? I'm sure he's cleverer than his stupid sister.' She threw him the parchment. 'What else is in there?'

He looked into the chest again. It contained three more documents. Two of them seemed to be covered in complicated calculations he did not understand, but the third caught his eye. It was another map, less complex than the first, and the main feature was marked in the same green as the secondary feature on the original.

'It seems to be a detail from this one, focusing on the green line. Look, there at the edge, that's where it must join the big red line. I wonder what it is?'

'And what are those?' she wondered, looking over his shoulder. He could feel her softness against his back and suddenly he had difficulty thinking straight. 'Those.' She prodded him in the ribs and he noticed that what he'd thought was a line of smudges were actually tiny symbols which marked the length of the green line at regular intervals.

'I don't know. There is too much information here to take in at once. We'll have to leave them and return another time.'

'There may not be another time,' she insisted. 'Take them with us. We can let Cupido see them, and if he doesn't know, you can always ask the old man when he recovers.'

'The guards won't allow us out of the palace carrying documents. They'll think we've stolen them, and they'll be right. It's probably just the scribblings of a crazy old man. Random drawings on an old map.'

She gave him the look again.

He sighed. 'All right. Where will we hide them?'

She grinned and pulled up her dress. He had a glimpse of two unsettlingly long legs before he was able to turn his eyes away, and was astonished at the feelings of desire she awoke in him.

'You can look now.'

He glanced up and saw a demure Roman maiden in a red dress that fitted a little more snugly than before. She returned his look, and the maiden dissolved into a naughty, laughing schoolgirl.

'You have no idea how these things scratch.'

They were on the way back across the Palatine when Rufus noticed Narcissus walking in their direction.

'Take the documents to Cupido and tell him I'll contact him later today, or when he is off duty tomorrow. Go quickly now, or Narcissus will suspect something,' he whispered.

The tall Greek increased his speed and marched purposefully towards them. He opened his mouth to greet them, but Aemilia gave him a disdainful stare and sailed regally past, leaving him gasping like a beached fish in her wake.

Rufus suppressed a smile, but, when he recovered, Narcissus's face was serious.

'She is a pretty thing, but she has airs far above her status,' he said sadly. 'I fear she does not realize just how dangerous it is to be a thing of beauty in a place where the acquisition of beautiful things is a competitive sport.'

Rufus had never seen Narcissus show interest in a woman. 'What do you mean? Is Aemilia in danger?'

'Your naivety never ceases to astound me, young man,' the Greek replied. 'In Caligula's shadow we are all in danger. Perhaps she is in less danger than many, but that would depend on your definition of danger.'

'I don't understand. You talk in riddles.'

'You don't need to understand,' Narcissus said dismissively. 'You are a slave — all you need to do is obey. Have you anything for me?'

Rufus thought back to the hours in the little cell below the Praetorian barracks. Yes, he had much he could tell, but now was not the time. He still did not fully understand his meeting with Chaerea. Any missed nuance could have serious consequences. If some of the information reached the wrong ears, those consequences would be fatal. First let Narcissus show his faith.

'No, but have you been able to help Fronto?'

The Greek's eyes went hard. 'He is beyond help. Forget him,' he said coldly, and turned away.

But Rufus was not to be allowed to forget Fronto.