A Day of Fire: A Novel of Pompeii by Kate Quinn, Ben Kane, Stephanie Dray, Michelle Moran, E. Knight, Sophie Perinot, Vicky Alvear Shecter Page A

apologetically, “a deputation of shepherds arrived at the house, come all the way from the slopes outside Herculaneum looking for you.”
    “For me?”
    “Well, for the man who talks to everyone of the increasing tremors.”
    “Ah, Sabinus, it seems you have made a name for yourself with your madness.” Lepidus smiled indulgently.
    “They were most insistent, so I brought them here,” the slave continued.
    “Your petitioners, my atrium. A fitting union considering we are on the cusp of being family. Come, Sabinus, aren’t you curious?”
    Sabinus was curious, but as they made their way to the atrium, a different sensation overwhelmed him—dread. Shepherds were not men of leisure. If they had left their flocks in the care of others to journey so far in search of a man whose name they did not know, if they had shown the necessary tenacity upon arriving in Pompeii to track him down, there could be nothing good in it.
    There were three, tanned and wizened, perhaps with age, perhaps with weather. The man in the center spoke. “Are you the one? The man who collects information on the aquifers and the wells at the farms and vineyards? The man who tries to convince others that the recent shaking of the earth presages something ill?”
    “I am. Gnaeus Helvius Sabinus, at your service.”
    Quite unaccountably to Sabinus’ mind, the man bowed, and as he straightened Sabinus saw it. Around his neck, the shepherd wore a symbol Sabinus wouldn’t have recognized save for seeing it on Capella. It was exactly like the charm she wore at her ankle. Like her, this man must be a follower of Isis. “The ground where we graze our flocks lives.” The shepherd said it simply, as if it were an ordinary thing. “It growls like an animal and sometimes claps like thunder when the sky is clear. It coughs up wisps of smoke.”
    Smoke. It put Sabinus in mind of last night, of the smoke in Aemilia’s room, of how she clutched her neck. How the acrid vapors made it difficult for him to breathe as he began to beat out the flames. Fire, Capella, fire. But what is the dark river and what the sea? When will they come?
    Nonsense , Sabinus thought. Get hold of yourself, man.
    “Why come to me?”
    “Who else will listen? We tried others first: men in Herculaneum, patricians who own villas, overseers of farms between there and here. They would not heed us. And somewhere along our journey we began to hear of a man who, like us, begged others to attend to such observations.”
    “If you heard that, you must also have heard that no one pays me any more mind than they have paid you.”
    The shepherd looked pained. Clearly, Sabinus thought, he has heard other people ridicule me, but he does not wish to offend. He felt a flash of irritation, but it would be wrong to take out his frustration on this tired, well-meaning delegation. “I will put what you have told me in my notes. Your observations will be part of the record I am keeping.”
    This appeared to satisfy, for all three men nodded as if he had made some sage pronouncement and, after pressing his hand, they left.
    Sabinus himself was not satisfied. He longed not merely to record but to understand the phenomenon the shepherds reported. But their disturbing observations of Vesuvius were incomprehensible. Fool , he thought, if only you were a brighter man . He wondered what other heretofore unknown occurrences such events might portend. Was the mountain somehow the source for all that was currently unnatural in nature?
    Sabinus looked at Lepidus. “Why not tomorrow?” he asked.
    “Because I’ve spent a fortune on this wedding and because I had thought you eager to be a groom. Are you sure this is about earthquakes and not nerves?”
    “I will marry Aemilia today.”
    “And what about the wedding guests? I am known for the liberality of my hospitality. What will be thought of me if I uninvite everyone? Or do you propose we sneak off under cover of dark and allow the guests to find this place