Everyone jumped when we heard a hoarse, croaking voice from the river.
“Who seeks the wisdom of the Oracle?” I have heard ravens with more melodious voices.
“A praetor of Rome,” Iola said.
“Approach.”
“What?” I said. “I’m already here.”
“Praetor,” Iola said. “You must stand so that you actually touch the water.”
“But it’s boiling!” I protested.
“Wisdom does not come without cost,” she informed me.
“Go ahead,” said my beloved wife. “Don’t be so timid.” I heard chuckles from behind me. My loyal entourage, no doubt.
So, much against my better judgment, I stepped to the edge of the stream and just let the tips of my toes touch the water. To my surprise, while quite warm it was not truly boiling, despite the turbulence and foaming bubbles. Reassured, I went out ankle-deep. The bottom was perfectly smooth rock, not a trace of sand or gravel.
“What would the praetor know?” croaked the goddess or whatever it was.
Might as well ask something of consequence, I thought. “What will be the outcome of the current strife between Caesar and the Senate?” This was the great question on everyone’s mind, and a source of great dread.
“Caesar is doomed,” Hecate said baldly.
“Well, that’s plain enough,” I said. “Not like that old hag at Cumae who only babbles gibberish.”
“Decius!” Julia hissed. She suspected me of disrespect, no doubt.
“Well, then, will the Senate prevail, and our republican institutions remain safe?”
“The Senate is doomed,” she said.
“How can they both be doomed? Who will triumph ultimately, then?”
“Caesar will be victorious, and will rule for many, many years.”
“I take it back. She does speak gibberish. How can Caesar rule for many years, yet be doomed?”
“Praetor,” Iola said, “you have asked three questions and have been answered. Three questions are all that are permitted.”
“What? You never said that before we came down here.”
“Nonetheless, it is ancient custom. Three questions and no more.”
I felt cheated, but I am not certain why. More questions would merely have meant more such nonsense. I backed out of the water and went to rejoin my party. Hermes passed me a flask and I took a swig of good Falernian.
“Reverend Iola,” Julia said, “might I approach the goddess?” I suppressed a groan at her piety. She never talked to me like that.
“You may.”
Julia stepped into the water and I dreaded what was about to happen. I knew she would ask the goddess about a cure for her infertility, right there in front of all those people. Instead, to my surprise and somewhat to my relief, she screamed loudly.
“Julia,” I chided. “The water’s not all that hot.”
But she was pointing at the water a few feet before her. My thinning hair stood on end as I saw something surfacing there. I dashed forward and jerked Julia back. Now some of the other women were screaming. Some of the men, too, I think.
“What is it?” Iola gasped. Her eyes bugged out.
“Surely nothing can live in this water!” Antonia cried, hustling forward to get a good look.
“Actually,” I said, “it’s nothing living at all. It’s quite dead, in fact.” By now I saw that it was a white-robed corpse, floating on its stomach. “Iola, have your slaves take this unfortunate person from the water.”
She hissed her orders and a pair of black-robed slaves waded into the water and dragged the corpse ashore. They laid it on its back and I called for torches. A couple were lowered toward the bloodless face and a great collective gasp arose.
“Why,” I said, “if it isn’t Eugaeon, priest of Apollo!”
“How can this be?” Iola wailed. “How did the priest enter the sacred river?”
“I’m rather more concerned whether he did it willingly or unwillingly,” I said.
Sextus Plotius crowded forward and stared at the corpse, his face pale. “Praetor, I do not understand this. There is no access to this river except by way of this tunnel.”
“Surely it must surface somewhere near the temple,” I said. “And it would have to be upstream from here.”
He shook his head. “No, there is no flowing surface water in the vicinity. There are hot springs in abundance in Campania, but none nearer than ten miles from this spot. Even if one of them flows into this chamber, there is no way that he could have gone there, jumped in, and surfaced here in the time since we last saw him, no more than an hour ago.”
“Maybe he sneaked down here while we were undergoing the rites above,” Hermes suggested.