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The waves around the boat frothed and foamed, full of small rocks that banged against the sides. Showers of foul dirt and gas rained down on them periodically, creating a hellish rain that stank of rotten eggs.

The ship was the largest of a twelve-strong military fleet, all with square-rigged masts and oarsmen below decks: one of only two vessels sent to rescue survivors after the eruption of Vesuvius. It was battered and busted from its apocalyptic odyssey, with scorch marks on the sails and a hole in the deck where a burning rock had crashed through. One more misfortune and the ship would be a wreck.

Less than half an hour after casting off from an isolated bay, the volcano had given a final roar, burying what was left of the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum and filling the air with this deathly, choking smog.

Claudia gazed down at the bronze ram, gripping the front rim of the boat. It now served as a plough, clearing a path through the polluted seas of debris expelled from the erupting volcano. The sky seemed to be darkening still: a warning that this was not over.

On board were several hundred people, more than the ship was built to carry. They were bloodied and dirtied, coughing up rot. They huddled together in shaken silence, crying out whenever a particularly violent wave tossed them. Some prayed to their gods. Others criticized the pantheon for abandoning them. Many blamed Vulcan, the fire god whose festival they had been celebrating when the disaster occurred.

They represented a cross-section of society: from the brothel girls and slaves whose masters had been buried by rocks, to the famous scholar Pliny the Elder and his friend Rectina of Herculaneum, whose historic library of precious scrolls were now packed into crates.

Claudia was responsible for them all now: the people, the boat, the scrolls, even the animals they’d rescued from the disaster, such as the cat now swaddled in a young den girl’s robes, or the yipping dog that ran in circles around the sailors.

‘You should head below deck,’ came a voice.

She turned to face the speaker: her personal gladiator and bodyguard, Gia Valerii. Claudia drank her in for a moment: her tan, muscular limbs, dark eyes and brown hair pulled back in a braid, though it was looking slightly more bedraggled than usual. Like Claudia, she was dirtied, grazed and rain-damp, still wearing the armour forged by the goddesses during their last battle.

‘I will consider it,’ she said.

‘That’s just a diplomatic way of saying no,’ said Gia.

‘It’s a diplomatic way of saying maybe.’

‘It’s my job to protect you,’ said Gia. ‘So let me.’

She had dark circles under her eyes from hunger and exhaustion but she was still the most beautiful thing Claudia had ever seen – and she had seen many beautiful things as the daughter of a dead emperor.

‘If there’s a storm, I should be up here to support the crew,’ she said. ‘I can’t be thought a coward.’

‘What will you do to aid them?’ said Gia.

‘I know more about sailing than you would think,’ said Claudia, brightly. ‘I spent a few summers coasting in the seas around Capri.’

‘Did you man the rigs? Swab the decks?’ said Gia.

She arched one dark, highly sceptical eyebrow, which was warranted, because Claudia hadn’t really done anything. Most of the work had been done by people who remained invisible, while she sunned herself and bathed and ate fruit.

‘I oversaw the manning and swabbing,’ she said.

‘Oversaw.’

‘I managed the whole sailing operation.’

‘Uh huh. The captain says there’s a storm coming in,’ said Gia.

‘And what of it?’ said Claudia, airily. ‘I have defied the gods and lived. What harm can bad weather do to me?’

The sky rumbled, giving a throaty, bone-shaking roar as the rain strengthened, drenching them both.

‘Don’t underestimate the power of Terra,’ said Gia.

‘Maybe Mother Earth is on our side.’

‘Maybe,’ said Gia, looking up with mild concern, ‘but nothing is more important than you arriving safely in Rome.’

Far in the distance, a streak of lightning glowed faintly.

‘The people will not take to me easily. I must do everything to show them that I’m one of them,’ said Claudia.