Usem glanced at Auðr. Since he’d seen her in the hallway outside the emperor’s bedchamber, he’d wondered what her goals were. She did not look well, but something about her radiated force.

We will capture her, she said, looking at Usem, and he heard her voice in his own language. Do not let the other know. We are strong enough to do it together. She must be destroyed. We are here for the same reasons.

Usem looked away. What sort of thing was this voice in his head? He did not care for it. Magic and mind control. He wanted to get to the Circus Maximus with his dagger. The emperor refused to surrender the children, and the longer they waited, the angrier Cleopatra would be.

Usem was the first through the door when it opened.

Augustus awaited them, already dressed in ceremonial garb, his gilded laurel crown gleaming on his head. Agrippa stood beside him, rigid with discomfort.

“You will be positioned around the emperor,” Agrippa said. “Each of you will defend him from his enemy.”

“From Cleopatra,” said Augustus.

“From Cleopatra. My men will be positioned all around you. The circus will be filled with them. There will be no danger. She is one woman.”

Agrippa turned his gaze to Chrysate.

“You will bring the illusion,” he said.

“He is no illusion,” Chrysate replied. “He is the queen’s husband.”

“You will use Antony to attract Cleopatra to us,” said Augustus, and smiled, though his lips wobbled. He did not wish to let them see his nervousness. It would be done soon.

“And how do you propose to destroy her once she is captured?” Usem asked.

“That is not for you to know,” Agrippa said, and Augustus shook his head.

“No,” he said. “Some things are better kept secret.”

19

Above the arena a pale moth fluttered, tempted by the torchlight. The moth twisted, stretching its antennae, batting itself about on currents of wind, floating suspended and desiring over the chaos of the crowd.

Hundreds of thousands of people were gathered there, chanting and shouting, and the heat of their bodies called up to the insect. Outside the walls of the arena, more people pummeled each other, pushing themselves up onto the hills in order to look down into the circus and see the animals and fighters.

Below the moth, each torch looked like a glorious lake of fire.

It swept itself closer, hovering over the starry earth.

The passages below the city were dark, despite the torchlight. Holding her breath to avoid inhaling the too tempting smell of blood, Cleopatra pressed herself against the clammy wall of a slender passage. She could feel every stone through the thin tunic she’d worn, imagining herself more easily concealed if she appeared to be one of the animal tenders.

Still, she received some suspicious looks. There were few women below the ground, and the queen had an unearthly glow about her skin.

“What are you, lady?” a manure sweep stammered, and fell to his knees in worship as she passed him.