“I see.”
“I’m sure it’s nothing, but I couldn’t help overhearing.”
“Now you are wasting my time.”
“Sorry, sir.” Gallus’s neck was turning pink to match his cheeks. “Sir, when the new clerk was here, I heard a conversation he had with Nisus.”
Nisus was the pharmacist who usually sat opposite the clerk’s desk. “And?”
“Candidus was rattling on about something—about freed slaves being allowed to join the army or something—and Nisus interrupted and said, ‘If you don’t stop talking, somebody around here is going to get killed.’ ”
Ruso stared at him. “Nisus?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And did Candidus stop talking?”
“I think he went to chat to somebody else, sir.”
Ruso scratched one ear with his forefinger.
“I’d have mentioned it before, sir, but you had men searching houses for Candidus, so I thought you must have had word that he was out there with the natives.”
“I see,” Ruso said, not wanting to dwell on the embarrassment of his mistake. “Well, I’m glad you’ve told me now. Don’t tell anyone else.” Conscious of the irony, he added, “We don’t want people jumping to wild conclusions.”
“I’ll keep it quiet, sir. I just thought you should know.”
“Do you think it was a serious threat?”
Gallus clutched the thread to his chest. “Honestly, sir?”
“Preferably.”
“Candidus was annoying, but I don’t really think anybody would kill him for talking too much.”
“Hm,” said Ruso, who had known men to be gravely injured in fights over a borrowed spoon, a habit of cracking the knuckles, and a stolen coin that had later turned up in the owner’s own pack. “I have to admit,” he said, “it’s hard to imagine Nisus getting seriously worked up over anything.” The pharmacist, a legionary of mature years and few words, seemed to have no ambition beyond weighing and measuring, drying and distilling.
“Perhaps I misheard, sir.”
“I think it’s more likely Nisus was telling him to shut up in words that he couldn’t fail to understand. When’s he due back from leave? I can’t remember how long I signed for.”
Gallus cast a glance at Pandora’s cupboard. “I could ask someone to look for it, sir.”
Ruso shook his head. “Don’t bother. He’ll be back before they—”
He broke off as the door opened. Valens strolled in, nodded to Gallus, and seated himself on the table of the absent pharmacist before announcing, “Prefect Pertinax is feeling very much better this morning.”
“He is?” Ruso asked.
“Oh, yes. He managed quite a long string of invective before he told me to get out.”
Gallus, stifling a grin, retreated.
Ruso said, “How long until Serena gets here?”
“Anytime from tomorrow.” Valens sighed. “You really know how to cheer a man up, Ruso.”
“I practice on my patients.” Ruso gestured toward the crate under the desk. “Supplies have just thrown out all our orders. How am I supposed to run a hospital when I end up chasing around for blankets and buckets?”
“Surely it can’t be that difficult?”
“You’d be amazed. We order basic items from the stores two hours away and they take a week to turn up. If they get here at all.”
“Well, it’s no good complaining to me,” said Valens. “I’m on your side. I don’t have the faintest idea how these things work. But good luck sorting it out.”
“I need a clerk.”
“That reminds me,” said Valens. “I had a chat with your man’s centurion. That chap called Silvanus.”
“The one who wrote and told me Candidus was here.”
“Yes. Before he would say anything else, he wanted to know if Candidus was dead.”
Ruso looked up in alarm. “Why would he think that?”
“Because if he is, he was a bright, friendly lad and a sad loss.”
“Ah,” said Ruso, guessing what was coming.
“Otherwise he’s lazy, he talks too much, he’s fond of gambling, and he thinks he’s a comedian. Probably why the lads at Magnis called him Perky.”
“I see.” Ruso pulled open his purse and tipped the contents into his palm. Half a dozen small coins, a boot stud, a scattering of fluff, and two identical dice with the numbers carved as concentric rings in the bone.
“Silvanus said he couldn’t see why he would desert. As he put it, it’s not as if you were asking the lad to do any work. All he had to do was park his arse behind a desk all day.”