Sour Grapes

Twenty-One

'By the Falcon of the Sun, by the Vultures of the Moon,' Candace had said, 'I bid ye spirits enter.'

And enter they bloody well had. In their droves.

From a marble bench by the gate in the courtyard, Claudia watched the moon rise over the roof of the stable block and thought, no sooner had Candace summoned the dead than the dining hall had filled with a thousand moaning, groaning, whispering echoes. Smoke seemed to come from all four corners of the room, swirling, choking, bringing with it the foul smell of Hades.

'Stop them, Candace,' Thalia had quavered. 'M-make them go b-back where they came from.'

'She can't,' Larentia said, and her voice was no steadier. 'She's fainted.'

'Then for gods' sake don't anyone break the bloody circle,' Rex growled, 'or the bastards might never go back.'

'Rex?' The voice was gentle and cooing. 'Rex, my darling, is that you?'

'Honoria?'

But as soon as he called out his wife's name, she was gone, and then swishing sounds filled the air, a flute trilled close to Claudia's ear and she'd felt the soft brush of a hand against her shoulder. When the gold shawl that Candace had thrown over the table lifted clean into the air, Thalia screamed and tried to pull free. Claudia tightened her grip on the girl's wrist, and felt a squeeze of reassurance in her other hand. How sweet of Darius to care…

And that was it, wasn't it? Everything in the end came back to Darius. Evil was proving as slippery as he was shrewd.

'Pale moon doth rain, red moon doth blow.

And dear me, not only had the sorceress summoned the dead; she had also conjured the devil.

'White moon bringeth neither deluge nor snow.'

He sat down on the bench beside her, and she smelled a combination of cough drops and balm of Gilead above the floral scents that dominated the courtyard. So help me, if you're any kind of healer, she told Apollo, your divine powers will ensure both have gone off.

'I suppose that's why you wait to prune the vines,' Darius rumbled. 'So warm breezes can blow the frost away.'

That's it, Felix. Keep on pretending you're not from these parts.

'Frankly, I neither know nor care,' she retorted. 'I'm a city girl, which means that where I come from, gazing up at the moon is reserved for drunks in the gutter.'

'Are you saying you don't like Tuscany?'

'How can one like nothing? Because Jupiter knows, there's enough of the bloody stuff around here. Hills, trees, rivers, fields — good grief, the nothingness never ends, and if you think Rome's noisy, Darius, it's small fry compared to the commotion that starts here at dawn.'

'I think you're lying,' he said gently. 'I think you like this place very much.'

'And suppose I say I don't care what you think.'

'Then,' he laughed, 'I'll know you're lying.'

It was tempting — oh, god it was tempting — to stuff Terrence's ring under his nose and wipe the smile off his face. But if Claudia was to savour the moment, truly savour it, she had to ensure the timing was right. It wouldn't be fair to steal Larentia's thunder,' she'd told Terrence with her prettiest pout. We should wait until she and Darius have announced their betrothal before announcing ours. ' That was the time to watch the smile freeze on his smug, vengeful features! To flash her sapphire triumph into his face. When he's standing in front of a crowd of compatriots, secure in the knowledge that he's finally taken control of his enemy's business, his enemy's mother, his widow, his sister, even his enemy's naive teenage daughter. Oh, yes, Felix Musa. That's the moment for you to realize you're standing on quicksand.

'Tonight there were no conversations,' he said. 'Gaius didn't come through for either you or Larentia. No one did. It was pure mayhem that Candace unleashed in that room.'

Claudia tried not to think about the shawl wafting about of its own accord, the crystal hurling itself on to the floor, the sniggerings from everywhere and nowhere.

'Rex's wife called him,' she said.

'And was quickly suppressed, if you remember. Claudia…'Darius moved his lean, hard body close to hers. 'Claudia, I have to get Ren away from this. It's bloody dangerous.'

You're telling me! 'What do you have in mind?'

'I don't know, that's the problem. I thought maybe if I talk it over with you, we might come up with a solution between us.'

Like Indigo said. Clever.

'If I suggest whisking her off to my stud farm, she'll only want to bring Candace with her, and holy heralds, what can I say? Should I refuse, I come over as some domineering, chauvinist pig, and if I agree, the problem persists.'

'Damned if you do, damned if you don't?'

'Precisely.'

Bless him, he'd never said a truer word! Evidence was mounting that would eventually unmask the monster beneath, and already — thanks to the tavern-keeper and Darius himself — Claudia could track his campaign back to its start.

Passing himself off as the suave, horse-breeding patrician, Felix begins by reconnoitring the area, touring Mercurium and its environs to re-familiarize himself with the geography, the culture, the people in order to tailor his vengeance. It had been no lucky guess on her part, suggesting Darius might have called in at the tavern. The pine over the vermilion lintel gave it away. Oh yes, pine, my suave clever friend. That greenery obliterating the door planted an idea in your head, reminding you of the old wives' tale that pinewoods filter germs and keep the lungs healthy. Why not take it a step further, you thought, and have them filter bad luck?

Also, as part of the 'Establishing Darius' process, Felix would unquestionably have spent time at the hot springs, if only for the gossip he was bound to pick up. Gossip about Eunice and Lars, for example, which set another train of ideas in motion. Whether he'd known Gaius personally was moot, but one self-made man quickly identifies with another

— and he'd know Gaius's mother was nobody's fool. Wandering around Lavernium, ideas would have bubbled like the hot springs themselves, and in a town where charlatans abound, Candace's reputation would have preceded her…

Having tracked down his sorceress, Felix's campaign was free to shift from theory to practice. While sabotaging the livelihoods of five of his victims and destroying their families, their finances and their peace of mind, 'Darius' befriends Larentia — and friend is the operative word. Nothing overt. No flowers, no gifts, no poetry, no moonlight. Keep it light, keep it friendly, but for gods' sake keep it going. Once that friendship has been established, though, he contrives for a message to be delivered, calling him back to the stud farm on business, but (kind heart that he is) he arranges for Larentia to be pampered at the hot springs in his absence where, surprise, surprise, she meets Candace.

Larentia does not suspect any overlap — why should she?

— and astute though she is, she's still a working girl at heart, filled with working-class superstitions. All it takes is a few crystal gazes, a few walks on the winds, and she's swallowing that guff about the town being cursed like a man in the desert gulps water. Candace becomes her ally. She can help her. She can cast spells to counter the misfortune, but for these to be effective, Larentia must purify herself up in the hills and filter out the bad humours. Naturally, while she's filtering away, a letter arrives from dear, darling Darius saying that, as a special treat, he's renovating the villa while she's gone. Allowing him to not only make whatever changes he wants to his future home, it enables him to install those all-too-important folding doors. Yet here he is now, cool as a cucumber, trying to convince Claudia that he wants rid of the woman he installed in her house in the first place!

'If you could have a think about how we can put paid to this dangerous nonsense, I'd be grateful,' he said, then rubbed his hands together briskly to change the subject. 'Tarchis tells me Flavia's progressing famously.'

'Does he really?'

'Ah.' He scrunched his jaw sideways in the manner of someone who's just realized he's put his foot in it. 'I'm sure our Red Priest will get round to telling you, only he and Terrence are like this — ' he crossed his fingers '- and given Terrence's reputation for hospitality, the old boy becomes somewhat garrulous after a few glasses. Indeed.' He grinned. 'He and Thalia seem well matched when it comes to the exchange of gossip.'

And naturally Felix would want to cultivate someone with his finger on the local pulse! Through Terrence, he had access to as perfect a pair of fishwives as one could hope to meet in society, and small wonder Tarchis made the connection between the victims so fast. He'd been talking about them often enough!

'That's how I came to hear about the Bridal Dance…' Darius was saying.

Liar. You knew about it because you married Mariana.

'And why I thought it might help Flavia.'

Felix's message, dammit, was clear. Cast aspersions on the paragon of virtue that I've created, and no one in this town will believe you. He was right, too. All the evidence she had amassed — the disguise, the persona, the pine — was circumstantial and wouldn't stand up to close scrutiny. Even if Candace confessed and Claudia could prove every point, it amounted to nothing more than malicious reprisals on the men who had sent him to jail. Hardly the sort of crime to jolt the authorities into action. Naturally, they would demand restitution for the victims, but if Felix should happen to go on the run, the State was unlikely to hound him down. Far quicker to close the case by compensating the victims, no harm done, good public relations and all that. Unfortunately, for justice to be served, Claudia needed to place the knife that killed Lichas and Tages in Darius's hand, and for this she needed someone who knew Felix from the old days. Someone who could see beyond the Caesar-cut and altered mannerisms to expose him for the impostor he was.

In short, she needed Mariana!

'How's Orson coping with his sweetheart's absence?' Darius asked.

Claudia looked at the moon, no different in colour from any other moon as far as she could see, and sighed deeply. 'With his customary practical sense, I'm afraid. Bored with a life of luxury, our young carpenter has taken his skills into town, where Rosenna provides him with board and lodging.'

'Rosenna? You mean the toy-maker's sister?'

Something congealed in her stomach. Dammit, she'd forgotten how dangerous Felix was. Drop your guard, even for an instant, and the tiger gets you to lead him to another tethered goat…

'It's only temporary,' she said swiftly. 'Until the Brides dance for Fufluns.' But the damage was done.

Now it was no longer a question of needing hard evidence against him. She needed to find it before another boy died.