“Heard that already from Titus.” I tossed my sword belt onto the cot that had been very little used lately. I had a feeling that with Demetra barring her door, I’d be seeing more of my barracks cot. Or at least of my redheaded whore. “Some cousin of the Emperor’s?”

“Had some experience at least,” Philip said from the floor, where he was casting another endless game of dice. “Tribune somewhere, a legate somewhere else—maybe the Fourteenth? Trajan doesn’t promote generals who just stand around looking pretty, so this one must be decent if he’s got the Tenth just in time for an invasion.”

“Just hope he’s not a flogger,” I said. “Who are you playing against, Philip?”

“Myself, and I’m still losing.” Philip cast the dice again, cursing. “Boil, you saw the new legate. What’s he look like?”

“Tall.” Boil stuffed a scarf under the neck of his breastplate. “He’s got a beard—looks funny. How many patricians have you seen with beards?”

I suddenly felt cold. “What’s his name?”

“Publius Aelius something. He married the Emperor’s niece or something, that’s how he’s got so high up when he’s not even thirty-five. Publius Aelius—Adrianus?”

I fell onto my cot with a moan, narrowly missing the sword. “Hadrian,” I said hollowly. Our new legate, our general, the man who would be leading us into battle against the Dacians and have command over all our lives, was Sabina’s husband Hadrian.

TITUS

“Titus!” Sabina straightened from a box of scrolls. “As soon as Hadrian said he got a legion in Germania, I prayed it was yours. Fortuna must have been listening.”

She stood on tiptoe and kissed him on both cheeks. Titus hoped the lick of hair on the back of his head wasn’t standing straight up. “You’re still unpacking?” he said, and at once kicked himself. What does it look like she’s doing? Baking a cake? Slaves bustled about with piles of clothes and armloads of cushions, rushing from this room to that, and boxes lay everywhere bursting with half-unrolled scrolls and trailing scarves and dozing dogs who lifted their heads at Titus’s arrival and then went back to sleep.

“Yes, we only arrived a few days ago. Trajan started after us, and he still nearly beat us here.” Sabina removed a bust of her father off a box, waving Titus to sit. “I’d offer you a chair, but I’m afraid this is the best I can do. I couldn’t even find my own clothes this morning.”