“The legate? Oh.” I realized I was still holding Demetra’s boy upsidedown by the ankles and hastily swung him back up before his face turned purple. Demetra took him, still jutting her chin at me, but the boy just grinned. A handsome little scrap, honey-haired and dark-eyed like his mother. “What about the legate?” I pressed. “Have we got a new one?”

“Just come from Rome.” Titus beamed as if he’d brought the Legate all the way north just for my approval. “One of the Imperial cousins, at least by marriage.”

“Just what we need,” I grunted, applying my shoulder to the crush. Titus courteously cleared a path for Demetra as we fought our way out of the crush around the bridge and back toward the town’s forum. “Another patrician sprat.”

“I’m a patrician sprat,” Titus protested. “We’re not all bad.”

“I still wouldn’t want you leading my legion! The worst tribune in all Germania—”

“I’m sure you’d make a lovely legate, sir,” Demetra said, anxious. “Vix didn’t mean that.”

“I did too! Who wants a sprig in a toga at the head of a legion? We need one of those rawhide commanders who worked their way up from centurion—”

“Someone like you? I’ll put your name forward, Vix, but you might be a little far down the chain.”

“Not so far down. I’ll make centurion, then I’ll make chief centurion, then prefect of the camp, then I get my own legion.” We broke out into the forum, and I paused to buy a stick of savory roasted meat off a vendor. “Couldn’t be simpler.”

“Only those of, ah, senatorial class are appointed as legates,” Titus pointed out.

“Then I guess I’ll be the first exception.”

“Not if you don’t make optio first,” Demetra snapped. “And you won’t, not the way they all hate you—”

“Who wants to be an optio?” I bit a chunk of spiced meat off the skewer. “Gutless little weasels.”

“Then you’d better make some friends who can bump you straight up to centurion without any intervening stops at optio,” Titus advised. “Meet me at the principia this evening, and we’ll circulate. The Emperor’s having a dinner party to meet his officers—we won’t get into that, but there’s bound to be plenty of important people drifting about. If you don’t look too grubby, I can introduce you to a few of them.”

“It could be a great thing for you,” Demetra insisted. “I don’t see what you have against making optio. We could use the money. Especially this fall…”

“Not that again. I told you.”

Demetra’s face darkened, and she jerked her arm out of my hand. She snatched up her squirming son and began elbowing her way through the crowd again.

“Oh, hell,” I scowled.

“What’s wrong with her?” Titus blinked.