“He’s ill. He won’t admit it; we barely persuaded him to abandon Hatra, and now he’s talking about leading the legions back down the Tigris. Another month of marching in the heat might kill him. He’s sixty-three.” Vix’s eyes pleaded with her. “The physician nags him, his guards nag him, I’m sure the Empress will nag him till his ears bleed once she gets here. Maybe you’ll have better luck. Make him go back to Rome, Sabina. Get him to sit in a cool garden and put his feet up. Get him to rest.”

Sabina tilted her head up at her old lover. “You love him, don’t you?”

“More than—” Vix raked a hand through his hair again. “Anything. More than Mirah. Even more than my girls, God help me.”

“Then I’ll talk to him.” Sabina touched the back of Vix’s hand, very lightly. “I love him too.”

TITUS

“Faustina?” Titus blinked at the familiar figure in pale blue, framed by the columns of the long hall of Trajan’s baths. “What are you doing here?”

“I called on you, and Ennia sent me here. She’s worried.” Faustina came forward, gesturing her maids to wait. “So am I, to be frank.”

Titus gestured at the walls of the baths rising around them. “You know it’s almost done? The glazing isn’t finished, and the mosaics will need to be laid. One or two other things. But it’s near to completed.”

“What happened with the Empress?” Faustina demanded. “I know you went to the palace before she left for Antioch.”

“I did.”

“She left very suddenly too.”

“She did. Walk with me?”

Faustina tucked her hand into his arm, falling in at his side. Their footsteps echoed in the silence; Titus had let most of the workmen go early so he could wander the complex alone. The baths were at their best in the afternoon, the sunlight streaming in long bars through the high windows, making warm puddles on the marble and turning the water in the pools to shimmering liquid glass. Or rather it would, when the pools were filled.

“And?” Faustina pressed, impatient. “Don’t torture me! You confronted her, didn’t you?”

Titus felt a smile breaking out. Faustina gave a shriek, flinging her arms around him, and he hugged her back. One of the few girls he didn’t have to bend in half at the waist to embrace.

“You idiot!” She pulled back, shaking him a little. “Bearding the Empress of Rome in her den, just to call her a thief—”

“I didn’t just call her a thief. I told her I’d keep her secret as long as she stopped.”

“As if that will work.” Faustina blew out a breath. “Why couldn’t you just let it go? It was just a building fund!”