ROME

 

Quintus Lucilius Balbus strode across the Via Nova and began to ascend the slope toward the Palatine and the ancient piers of the ruined Porta Mugonia, a look of cold, calm and collected determination written into his features. In defiance of Rome’s most ancient laws and his own personal codes, the polished, decorative-hilted gladius that had graced his uniform for years as legate of the Eighth Legion was gripped so tightly in his right hand that his knuckles were white and the veins stood out purple like a map of unknown rivers.

An elderly man with a broad stripe on his expensive and high quality toga paused in the street off to one side; his brow furrowed, his nostrils flaring and eyes flashing with righteous indignation as he realised that the similarly togate muscular man was wielding a naked military blade in the hallowed ancient city centre.

‘How dare you!’

Balbus barely acknowledge the man, turning his head slightly and delivering a withering glare of pure malice that had the elderly man stepping back down the street nervously.

Three men hurried along behind the former officer, each of them wearing their own toga, and each bearing a well-kept military blade. Two nephews and a cousin of Balbus’ who resided in the city and owed him a favour had brushed aside any need for persuasion to the task once Balbus had explained what he was about.

After all, Clodius had the reputation of a poisonous snake among all good citizens of breeding, and Gaius Lucilius Brocchus, former tribune in the Eighth, had already encountered the man’s venom in business circles. To discover that they also held a noble Roman lady of a good house against her will and had kidnapped their dear Lucilia – despite her daring escape – was too much for the three young men to countenance and they had been reaching for their blades before Balbus had even tried to persuade them to join him.

The crowd that invariably filled the Via Nova surged back in to occupy the street in the wake of the small armed party for whom they had made way. Armed gangs were far from unusual in the city these days, but they were almost always base thugs with concealed knives or cudgels. To see four noblemen in fine togas with naked military blades was a new and worrying sight in broad daylight in the urban centre.

The privately-hired guards who stood outside the street-front entrances to a few of the more exclusive houses in the area took a quick look at the group and studiously averted their gaze. Such was not their concern unless the four men should descend on their door.

The crowd thinned out as they climbed the narrower street to the hill where the houses of many of the wealthier families stood. Not here the hawkers of products of dubious meat, the beggars and pickpockets, the stallholders or lurkers. The presence of so many private forces of guards kept the streets here clear of the lower rungs of society. Indeed, by the time Balbus reached the small square with the benches and the apple tree, the only life to be seen was a small family group hurrying to some event in their best clothes. They and an incongruous single young man in a dusty tunic collecting the fallen as-yet-unripe apples and bagging them in large sacks.

Paying no heed to anyone, Balbus led his three companions to the right and along the narrow side street, the four men lowering their blades but not sheathing them as they came to a halt in front of the residence of Atia – niece of Julius Caesar.

Reaching up, Balbus rapped three times on the studded wooden door and then clattered the bell to the side for good measure. There was only the briefest of pauses before a small hatch opened in the door at eye height, protected by an iron grille.

‘Yes?’

‘Be so good as to ask the lady of the house to attend.’

The slave frowned, taken aback by this breach of etiquette. ‘I will most certainly do nothing of the sort, sir. If you state your name and business, I will consult my mistress.’

Balbus leaned sharply forward so that his eye was suddenly only a few finger-widths from that of the slave, separated by a thin iron strip. The man instinctively ducked back nervously.

‘I am Quintus Lucilius Balbus. Former legatus of the Eighth Legion. I have brought the fortresses of countless Celtic tribes down to rubble and enslaved their people. If you think for one moment I will be inconvenienced by a simple door, you are sadly mistaken. Open this door and fetch lady Atia.’

The hatch slammed shut and the three younger men behind Balbus all lunged forward.

‘The swine!’

‘We can break the door!’

‘For Jove’s sake…’

Balbus, his face still stony cold, reached out an arm and held them back. ‘Wait.’

As he stood, the three men impatiently straining to move against the house, Balbus took a deep breath. The number of thugs within the building could determine the course of the next quarter hour. At least Lucilia was safe, having been delivered to the temple of Vesta by Balbus and half a dozen of his most trusted slaves and servants that morning. The priestesses would watch over her until he collected her, and even the city’s most depraved thugs would refuse to enter Vesta’s compound.

After a long moment there was a click and the door swung open wide. Lady Atia Balba Caesaonia – a relation of his, incidentally, though by the most distant and tortuous route imaginable – stood in the corridor that led to the atrium, her porphyry-toned stola hanging licentiously from one shoulder, her makeup perfect in every way and her smile as manufactured and calculated as every other facet of her appearance.

‘Dear Quintus, you must excuse my fool of a doorkeeper. He’s new and from Lusitania. They’re all inbred and backward there, you know?’

Her eyes flicked momentarily to the blades in his and his companions’ hands, but her smile and composure never faltered. She was clearly cut of the same cloth as her uncle. Balbus felt his resolve harden, rather than weaken as she probably intended. He also noted with professional interest the four men busily cleaning the hallway behind her. Dressed as common house slaves and servants but there was no disguising the wiry muscles beneath their tunics or the bulge at each waist where a knife hung. Atia was not a woman to take chances, despite appearances.

‘Where is Clodius Pulcher?’ he said sharply.

The lady of the house simply stepped back and allowed her smile to fall slightly and her brow to furrow in surprise. She’s so calculating she should be in the theatre, Balbus thought absently.

‘Clodius? Oh he no longer stays here. Despite my uncle’s request, I simply cannot abide the thugs who accompany him in and out, slamming doors day and night, drinking and whoring in my beautiful domus. I suggest you look for him at his own townhouse. I’m sure he will be there. In fact, I recall him saying as much before I had to eject him – somewhat unceremoniously, I’m afraid.’

‘You won’t mind if we come in and have a look, then?’ snarled Brocchus behind him, the gladius in his hand rising in a threatening manner.

‘By all means. Perhaps you will all join me for a repast? I have good Falernian wine and honeyed dormice prepared? You will, of course, leave those barbarous blades at the door shelves as is customary?’

Brocchus opened his mouth to snap out a reply but Balbus placed a restraining hand on his shoulder and nodded respectfully at the lady, his blade slipping beneath his toga and into the sheath at his side.

‘That will not be necessary, Gaius, and I must respectfully decline your invitation, my lady. We have pressing business with Clodius the rat. Should he put in an appearance, I would take it kindly if you would warn him that we are looking for him?’

‘Of course, Quintus, of course. You must call again when you have more time.’

As the former legate stepped back and bowed, an unseen doorman swung the portal closed with a very final click. Brocchus opened his mouth angrily, but Balbus put a finger to his lips in warning and strode off toward the square. As they reached the corner and were finally long out of sight and hearing of the house, Balbus cleared his throat.

‘It was not the right time.’

‘Why not?’

‘Either Clodius was not there, as Atia said, in which case we would have drawn a blank and made ourselves look to be the rudest of fools, or he was there and so well prepared that Atia felt safe inviting us in and it would have been tantamount to falling on our swords to even try. No. It was not the right time.’

‘So what now?’

Balbus took a steadying breath and strolled across the square to the boy collecting the windfalls, flipping three copper coins to him.

‘Ossus? Tell me.’

‘The posh one left yesterday with two patrician types’ the boy said, scratching his chin. ‘He’s not been back since, but nobody’s moved out all the personal stuff he moved in yet, so I reckon he’s still based there. He’s got this friend, who looks like an old soldier, but he’s so tall he looks like he’ll bang his head on the city gates. Talks with a weird accent; Greek, I think. That fella comes and goes quite often and he’s been around today. In fact, he came out of the back gate while you were at the front, with a couple of other thugs.’

Balbus nodded in satisfaction and tossed him two more coins.

‘Where did they go and did you hear them say anything?’

Ossus grinned at his new acquisition. ‘They went that way – toward the circus’ he pointed south. ‘His accent’s really weird, but I heard the Aventine mentioned. That’s about it.’

‘Sounds like they did head to Clodius’ house’ he confirmed to the other three. ‘The rat has a large residence in the shadow of the circus. Like so many he considers the Aventine unlucky, so he carefully lives just below the hill, rather than on it. Cheap property, so he can live like a king for a low cost – gives him extra cash to spend on thugs and gladiators. If he’s taken Faleria there we’ll need a small army to dig her out.’

With a friendly smile, he turned back to the young lad.

‘I’ve a new job for you, Ossus. It’s more dangerous, so I’ll double your pay. Find the house with the Bacchanal mural opposite the circus and near the Neptune’s chariot street fountain. Keep an eye on the place and take note of all comings and goings again. If you see, or hear of, a lady in her thirties who looks like she might be there against her will… No – this is Clodius. If you see any lady at all – other than slaves – come and find me immediately. You got that?’

‘Got it, sir.’

Balbus breathed deep again.

‘We must move carefully, gentlemen.’

And yet time may well be running out for Faleria.