“Is something amiss?” Hadrian’s voice slid coolly between them.

“Not at all.” Sabina turned her head toward him. “A moment, my dear.”

He frowned, turning to his aide with a list of instructions. She gave a bright social smile to Vix, fading to something truer as she angled herself between him and her husband.

“I love you, Vix,” she said frankly. “But whatever made you think I want to follow your stars, and not my own?”

He stared at her.

“I think you had best go now, Aquilifer.” Hadrian’s hand took possession of Sabina’s arm, and he looked at Vix with cool displeasure. “As little as you are used to ladies of good birth, you must be aware it is rude to stare at them. Your time might better be served in finding a suitable costume for this evening’s banquet, since the Emperor seems so determined to have his… pets.”

Vix’s face had a hard stillness that Sabina recognized. He stared at Hadrian, expressionless, and his eyes were flat, murderous stones.

She stepped between them, fast. “Hardly a pet,” she said lightly, and dropped a congratulatory hand over Vix’s on the standard pole. “A hero of Rome, as we saw ourselves. And likely to be an even greater one, someday.”

“I doubt that,” said Hadrian. “I doubt that highly.”

Vix stared at him over her head for another long moment, the man in the lion skin and the man in the breastplate, and there was something in their gaze that excluded her.

Sabina squeezed Vix’s hand over the standard, warningly.

Another suspended breath, and then the murder banked in his gaze. He jerked his hand from under Sabina’s and turned in a swirl of red cloak, gone into the crowds. Sabina could see the eagle on its long pole marking a swift, brutal path through the throng of revelers.

“I wish you would not flirt with common soldiers,” Hadrian frowned.

“I might say the same to you.” Sabina made an effort to speak lightly. “Besides, I’ve known Vix for years. One of my father’s household guards, you know… Why did you suddenly look so black and furious at him?”

“I dislike his type, that is all.” Hadrian flicked a hand as if flicking Vix from his attention. Back to what place in the mental files? Sabina wondered.

“Flirt with the governor of Upper Germania this evening instead.” Hadrian took her arm, following in the wake of Trajan and Plotina. “I will need the governor’s support when I reach Pannonia.”

“Do you think they really wear wolf skins there?”

“I devoutly hope not. Don’t wear yellow tonight.” His eyes swept her. “Or those eagles.”

CHAPTER 16

VIX

That bitch.

That cool, calm, collected, two-faced whore.