“Listen—” Paulinus bristled. Marcus quelled him with a finger.

“How do you know you can trust us?” he asked Arius. “You don’t. But you won’t get your son back any other way.”

A brief silence. I looked at the Empress, and the Empress looked at me. Arius looked at Marcus, and Marcus looked at him. Paulinus scowled between them.

The Empress rustled her green silk gown as she set down her wine cup. “It looks like we’ll just have to trust each other, Athena,” she said. “No, it’s Thea, isn’t it?”

“That’s right,” I said. “So how soon can you smuggle Arius into the palace?”

“Not soon,” said the Empress. “We wait until September.”

“September?” Arius and I broke out in unison. Months away—and Vix was scheduled to fight again in the Colosseum next month. Sketches of him armed and helmeted like his father were already plastered all over the city. I’d even seen the words chalked on a schoolroom door: ‘Vercingetorix the Young Barbarian makes all the little girls’ hearts beat faster.’ “I want Domitian dead now!”

“It’s only been whispered so far,” said the Empress, “but my husband has recently received from Nessus the date of his death. According to Nessus and the stars, Domitian will die on the eighteenth of this September, in the fifth hour of the evening. Until that day and that hour is past, he’ll be impossible to catch off-guard. We strike the next day, when he is rejoicing at his survival. Just when he is feeling invincible.”

“You’re saying we have to wait nearly three months?” I cried out. “My son may die within weeks!”

“Vix will get through,” said the Empress. “That little hooligan of yours is a horror, but he keeps Domitian entertained. As long as my husband is entertained, he won’t kill anyone.”

“Understand one thing.” Arius’s hands locked around each other like carved wood. “We’ll wait. But if my son dies in the arena, then Domitian dies, too. Same day. Same hour. Hell with your plans.”

The Empress looked at him, considering. “Did you train your son, Barbarian?”

“I did.”

“Then I’m confident he will survive the arena in style.”

I turned my face away. Arius’s hand found mine and swallowed it.

“I believe we’ve covered everything now.” The Empress reached for her palla. “And I believe it’s time I got back to the Domus Augustana. If I’m even a minute late, Domitian will send the guards out to question my sister. She’d lie for me, though she dislikes me heartily, but that stalwart husband of hers couldn’t tell a lie to save his life.”

We broke apart without speaking. Paulinus stood turning his Praetorian’s helmet over in his hands and looking awkward. The Empress nodded a general farewell and climbed into a hired litter. Marcus tidied up the wine cups, the cushions, and circle of chairs with the calm of one long used to covering his tracks. Arius and I slipped out the slave entrance into the dark street without a word.