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‘I think you’ll find that it does concern me, actually.’
He swung his spear around, forming a figure of eight.
‘The empress and I have formed an alliance. If you wish to overthrow her, you’ll be starting a war with me. You will be waging war with the entire Persian empire.’
‘Worry about your own lands, foreigner,’ barked the general. ‘This is not your country. It never will be.’
‘Come at me, man,’ Darius said. ‘Show me what you’ve got. I can teach you a few things about valour and honour, I am sure.’
The senators rippled, scandalized by his gall.
The noise of the crowd grew louder as more and more people gathered at the doorway, watching the coup unfolding.
Still, Cassius did nothing, sitting among the other soldiers as if he were one of them.
‘It’s time for you to go home, Prince Darius,’ said General Aquinas. ‘We would prefer to keep our blood pure and our women to ourselves. Stay out of our territories and return to your own, or you might find that they are no longer yours to govern.’
‘The women do not belong to you,’ he said.
The prince’s guard seemed to manifest from the shadows, but he was swiftly incapacitated, dragged to the ground. Darius attempted to battle the soldiers who swarmed him, but he too was vastly outnumbered in a swirl of strikes and grunts. His spear was snapped.
Bloodied, the prince was hauled away, shouting obscenities. Some of his staff ran after him in panic. Claudia looked to Cassius for a reaction, but he was staring fixedly down at his plate.
‘I shall take over from here,’ said Aquinas, patting Marcellus on the back like his subordinate.
Claudia felt all the strength in her body melt away.
‘Empress Claudia seeks to turn women into men, to make them soldiers and senators, but look what happens when women are given power?’ said Aquinas. ‘Look what the barbarian queen did to our soldiers. Our men. A woman given power is a woman depraved.’
Some of the soldiers crowed in agreement.
‘Women do not belong in the Colosseum,’ he said. ‘They do not belong in the Senate. They do not belong in the palace.’
‘That’s right.’
‘Say it louder.’
‘There is good reason why no woman has ever ruled Rome, and Princess Claudia here is the embodiment of it. We must remove her tonight and liberate the empire from this fashionable new derangement.’
The soldiers were beginning to rouse, catalysed by his words.
‘We have all heard the rumours. She lies with her gladiator as if she were a man. They cavort around the palace like lovers. Even her own handmaids have been forced to witness it. It’s indecent. To show off such perversion while wearing the crown… It’s an embarrassment to Rome.’
Some of the soldiers looked to her with disgust. Others chewed their lips to prevent from laughing. Their eyes were craven yet revolted, licking the lips of their grimacing mouths. But one by one, their faces fell still and solemn, their gazes hard, unified against her.
Aquinas had a command over them, directing these men as if they were a part of him - as if, Claudia thought, he himself was a god.
Perhaps Jupiter had possessed him.
‘The gods have shown us who Claudia Caesaria truly is, and given us the power to protect Rome from her wickedness,’ he said. ‘Beneath the attractive veneer, there is always poison. Whenever women are given a pinch of authority, they turn into witches, harpies… murderesses.’
As his speech continued, he began to seem less human, his face twisting into a monstrous slit. His eyes were wide and white, his expression only an approximation of a real emotion.
‘You have seen this wickedness in the women all around you. You recognize this corruption in our own society.’
The general drew his sword and pointed it at Claudia.
‘Claudia Caesaria speaks of peace, but she killed her father by poison,’ he said.
