Page 50 of Brother at Arms

I eyed the small bag with skepticism. I knew only that I’d hand this to Fabius and never see the coins again.

Cassia never did anything on a whim, I well knew. I’d wager she’d spent the last year and a half researching how best to invest the very money I held now.

“I’ll give it to him,” I said in resignation. “I only hope we can eat while we are waiting for him to pay us back.”

“I’d never let go of what we couldn’t afford to,” Cassia assured me. “Once you’ve seen Fabius, would you visit Gallus? Tell him that Sextus Livius is looking to erect a new building on the Aventine, and Gallus ought to offer himself as the architectus.” Cassia gave my hand another pat and returned to the table. “Besides, speaking with Gallus always puts you into a better temper.”

Being whipped by Nero had put me into a bad one. I thought I’d feel better only if I had Nero’s neck locked under my arm, my sword at his throat. If he wanted to play at being a gladiator, I’d happily demonstrate what the games were truly like.

I made myself push the thought out of my head. Nero’s spies could scent a man even thinking about assassination, and I’d rather ease my mood with a good meal and glass of wine with Cassia.

“I’ll see Gallus,” I promised.

I slid a clean tunic over my head, wincing as it touched the wounds on my back. However, the salve was already working, taking the pain down to half of what it had been.

I left the apartment, locking both the door at the top of the stairs and the outer door carefully behind me.

“Shout for the cohorts if anyone tries to get inside,” I told the wine merchant.

He frowned at me, still annoyed about the amphora I’d broken, though Lucius had already paid him for it. I knew he’d watch, though, for Cassia’s sake.

Fabius the banker was speaking to two customers when I approached his bench at the Basilica Julia. I idled in the shadow of a column, watching the banker placate the two, one with a hooked nose, the other smaller with a flat face.

Ideas moved through my head as they negotiated, merging with all that had happened to me and Cassia in the past few days.

The two men finished, giving Fabius a curt nod. Fabius dropped the coins they had handed over into the box at his feet, his former gladiator guard watching the crowd as he did so.

“Ah, Leonidas,” Fabius greeted me. “You have something for me?”

Without a word, I took the bag of coins Cassia had given me and passed them to Fabius, trying not to look reluctant.

Fabius took up a stubby piece of baked clay, scratched letters onto it with a sharp stylus, and handed the bit of clay to me. I wasn’t certain what it was, but I slid it into the pouch on my belt.

Finished, Fabius glanced past me to see if any other clients waited.

“Do you do business with silk merchants?” I asked him abruptly. “If a man in Rome wanted to buy a shipment of silk, or fund a shipment, how would he do it? Especially if he were a gladiator?”

Chapter 16

Fabius’s obsequious banker’s expression fell away, and he peered at me sharply. “A gladiator?” His gaze twitched toward his bodyguard. “Why do you want to know that?”

“Has it happened?” I asked. “Could a gladiator bring in silk and distribute it?”

“No.” Fabius scowled at me. “The silk business is a closed one. Only a handful of merchants are allowed to trade. Give up the notion.”

I had no intention of explaining what I meant to Fabius, so I sent him a nod and stepped away. Fabius stared after me, frowning, but resumed his professional face as another client approached.

I trod down the basilica’s steps, which were filled with people waiting to speak with whomever they’d come to meet. Others were simply taking a rest from the May heat, and in one corner, two men played a game with a board scratched into the stone stairs.

I hadn’t gone far along the Forum, heading for the Oppian Hill and Gallus’s office, when a heavy tread made me swing around.

Fabius’s gladiator bodyguard loomed behind me. “The popina of the three grapes, in the Argiletum. After the baths.”

Without waiting for my reply, he turned and marched back toward the Basilica Julia.

I stared after him while men brushed past me, before I turned once more for the Oppian. Whatever the guard wanted to tell me, I’d have to discover later.

I walked the Clivus Pullius to the Oppian Hill and reached Gallus’s shop on its lower slope. Gallus was in and greeted me warmly.