scruffy puppies, Marius, you can have first pick!"
As my sister shuddered with horror, Petronius murmured in a hollow aside, "It's very appropriate, Maia. Their father was a horse vet; you have to allow your dear children to develop their inherited affinity with animals."
But Maia had decided she had to save them from the bad influence of Petro and me, so she jumped up and bustled them all off home.
XIII
"WELL, THAT WAS a waste of time!"
I had allowed myself to forget temporarily that Camillus Aelianus had somehow lost a corpse. He pounded up our steps and burst into the apartment, scowling with annoyance. I hid a smile. The aristocratic young hero would normally despise everything connected with the role of an informer, yet he had fallen straight into the old trap: faced with an enigma, he felt compelled to pursue it. He would carry on even after he made himself exhausted and furious.
He was both. "Oh Hades, Falco! You packed me off on a wild errand. Everyone I questioned responded with suspicion, most were rude, some tried to bully me, and one even ran away."
I would have given him a drink, the traditional restorative, but we had consumed my whole stock that day at lunch. As Helena nudged him to a bench, his mid-brown eyes wandered vaguely as if he were looking for a jug and beaker. All the right instincts were working, though he lacked the sheer cheek to ask for a goblet openly.
"Did you chase him?"
"Who? "
"The one who ran away. This was, almost certainly, the person you needed to speak to."
He thought about it. Then he saw what I meant. He banged a clenched fist on his forehead. "Oh rats, Falco!"
"Would you know him again?"
"A lad. The Brothers have youngsters assigned to them as attendants at their feasts--called camilli, coincidentally. There are only four. I could pick him out."
"You'll have to get into a feast first," I pointed out, perhaps unnecessarily.
He dropped his head onto the table and covered his face, groaning. "Another day. I cannot face any more. I'm whacked."
"Pity." I grinned, dragging him upright. The crass, snooty article had behaved abominably in the past over Helena and me; I loved paying him back. "Because if you really want to get anywhere, you and I have to make ourselves presentable and take a stroll to the house of the Master of the Arval Brothers-- now , Aulus!"
It was the final day of the festival. This would be his last chance. My youthful apprentice had to accept that his mission was governed by a time constraint. Like me, he was astute enough to see that if we were to tackle the slippery intendant of a cult that was hiding something, we would need all our wits and energy--and we had to act fast. His day's work had hardly begun.
"Men's games," I apologized to Helena.
"Boys!" she commented. "Be careful, both."
I kissed her. After a momentary hesitation, her brother showed he was learning, and forced himself to do the same.
* * *
Aelianus knew how to find the Master's house; he had been invited to the feasting as an observer on the first day of the festival. It was a substantial mock-seaside villa on its own property island, somewhere off the Via Tusculana. A profusion of stone dolphins provided salty character and looked cheerful and unpretentious, though in the urban center of Rome the rows of open-sided balconies on every wing gave a twee effect. On the Bay of Neapolis the owners could have gone fishing off their boarded verandas, but here their nostalgia for long-gone August holidays was way out of place. Nobody fishes in the gutters in Rome. Well, not if they know what I do about things that float in the city water supply.
As we arrived, it was clear from the disgorging palanquins that the elite members of the college were just assembling for that night's feast. There was a special buzz. I wondered if these men in corn-ear wreaths were greeting each other with extra excitement, knowing of the death the night before.
One man was leaving, however. Tall, gaunt,
As my sister shuddered with horror, Petronius murmured in a hollow aside, "It's very appropriate, Maia. Their father was a horse vet; you have to allow your dear children to develop their inherited affinity with animals."
But Maia had decided she had to save them from the bad influence of Petro and me, so she jumped up and bustled them all off home.
XIII
"WELL, THAT WAS a waste of time!"
I had allowed myself to forget temporarily that Camillus Aelianus had somehow lost a corpse. He pounded up our steps and burst into the apartment, scowling with annoyance. I hid a smile. The aristocratic young hero would normally despise everything connected with the role of an informer, yet he had fallen straight into the old trap: faced with an enigma, he felt compelled to pursue it. He would carry on even after he made himself exhausted and furious.
He was both. "Oh Hades, Falco! You packed me off on a wild errand. Everyone I questioned responded with suspicion, most were rude, some tried to bully me, and one even ran away."
I would have given him a drink, the traditional restorative, but we had consumed my whole stock that day at lunch. As Helena nudged him to a bench, his mid-brown eyes wandered vaguely as if he were looking for a jug and beaker. All the right instincts were working, though he lacked the sheer cheek to ask for a goblet openly.
"Did you chase him?"
"Who? "
"The one who ran away. This was, almost certainly, the person you needed to speak to."
He thought about it. Then he saw what I meant. He banged a clenched fist on his forehead. "Oh rats, Falco!"
"Would you know him again?"
"A lad. The Brothers have youngsters assigned to them as attendants at their feasts--called camilli, coincidentally. There are only four. I could pick him out."
"You'll have to get into a feast first," I pointed out, perhaps unnecessarily.
He dropped his head onto the table and covered his face, groaning. "Another day. I cannot face any more. I'm whacked."
"Pity." I grinned, dragging him upright. The crass, snooty article had behaved abominably in the past over Helena and me; I loved paying him back. "Because if you really want to get anywhere, you and I have to make ourselves presentable and take a stroll to the house of the Master of the Arval Brothers-- now , Aulus!"
It was the final day of the festival. This would be his last chance. My youthful apprentice had to accept that his mission was governed by a time constraint. Like me, he was astute enough to see that if we were to tackle the slippery intendant of a cult that was hiding something, we would need all our wits and energy--and we had to act fast. His day's work had hardly begun.
"Men's games," I apologized to Helena.
"Boys!" she commented. "Be careful, both."
I kissed her. After a momentary hesitation, her brother showed he was learning, and forced himself to do the same.
* * *
Aelianus knew how to find the Master's house; he had been invited to the feasting as an observer on the first day of the festival. It was a substantial mock-seaside villa on its own property island, somewhere off the Via Tusculana. A profusion of stone dolphins provided salty character and looked cheerful and unpretentious, though in the urban center of Rome the rows of open-sided balconies on every wing gave a twee effect. On the Bay of Neapolis the owners could have gone fishing off their boarded verandas, but here their nostalgia for long-gone August holidays was way out of place. Nobody fishes in the gutters in Rome. Well, not if they know what I do about things that float in the city water supply.
As we arrived, it was clear from the disgorging palanquins that the elite members of the college were just assembling for that night's feast. There was a special buzz. I wondered if these men in corn-ear wreaths were greeting each other with extra excitement, knowing of the death the night before.
One man was leaving, however. Tall, gaunt,
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