The Dreams of Morpheus(20)

‘Has Antonia asked him yet?’

‘Yes, she added the request to a letter that she despatched that day. Hopefully, she’ll have an answer when you take the money for the sale to her.’

‘What do you mean? I thought I just had to do the negotiation.’

Gaius slapped a chubby arm round Magnus’ shoulders. ‘I can’t be seen soiling the Senate’s reputation with such a grubby transaction and the Lady Antonia certainly can’t.’

‘What about Pallas, her steward?’

‘Oh, he’s chosen the location for the meeting and he’ll be close by to ensure safe delivery of the four thousand, eight hundred aurii back to the Lady, once you’ve completed the transaction.’

‘Four thousand, six hundred,’ Magnus corrected.

‘How so? There are twenty-four of the tablets.’

‘We negotiated a special price; the full deal was five thousand denarii each, but twenty-four tablets for the price of twenty-three.’

Gaius squeezed Magnus’ shoulder and looked at him sidelong. ‘I’m sure Antonia won’t fuss about two hundred aurii here or there. Get a message to the purchaser that the exchange will be at dawn tomorrow at the Temple of Asclepius.’

Magnus was about to argue but then paused and nodded slowly in approval. ‘Marius, go to the House of the Moon and tell them dawn at the Temple of Asclepius on the Tiber Island.’ As Marius ran off Magnus inclined his head to his patron. ‘That’s very clever of Pallas, sir; if I have my lads covering both bridges, Menes will find it very difficult to double-cross us and get away.’

‘We’ve a big problem on our hands,’ Servius announced, not looking up from the abacus and the scrolls of accounts he was working on as Magnus walked through the door of the tavern, refreshed from a few hours at the baths. ‘Our aedile has evidently not taken too kindly to the city-wide inspection of measures.’ He pointed over his shoulder to a man slumped in a dark corner of the bar.

Magnus approached him, frowning. ‘Duilius?’

There was no reply.

‘It was Duilius,’ Servius informed him, still not looking up as the abacus clicked rapidly, ‘until about an hour ago.’

Magnus cupped Duilius’ chin and examined the face; there were no marks of violence. A swift perusal of the rest of his body showed no wounds, bruising or blood. ‘There’s not a mark on him! How did he die?’

‘We’re meant to believe that he died of natural causes; we found him—’

‘Natural causes?’

‘Yes. We found him sitting on the pavement just outside with his head between his legs as if he was being sick. Nobody can remember seeing him left there, although a drunken rabble did pass by just before, so it must have been them with arms round Duilius’ shoulders as if he was insensible with drink.’

Magnus examined the body again with a grudging respect. ‘What do you make of it?’

‘It’s a declaration of war; this is about who has authority in the South Quirinal. We may have managed to manoeuvre the Urban Prefect into an inspection of every measure in the city, forcing Brutus to quit his scam or face being exposed and humiliated; but in return he has shown us that he can get his revenge without attracting suspicion and accusations of murder. I would guess that Duilius won’t be the only sudden natural death around here.’

Magnus sat down, still looking in fascination at the unmarked corpse. ‘I think you may be right, brother; Brutus threatened our senator with a natural death very soon. I promised a guard round his house; have half a dozen stationed up there. If there is going to be another natural death, then it ain’t going to be us or Senator Pollo; and what better way to get rid of a magistrate with no questions asked. How was it done?’

‘Ah! It took me a while, but I think I’ve worked it out.’

Terentius walked through the tavern door as the sun slid into the west; Magnus rose from his table and indicated that he and Servius should follow him through to the back room.

‘Well?’ Magnus asked as they sat.

Terentius placed a wax writing-tablet on the table. ‘Each tablet weighs two and a half libra; with twelve uncia to a pound, that’s a total of thirty. Each one of those little balls weighs an obolus, which is forty-eight from each uncia, so from a tablet that’s one thousand, four hundred …’

‘… and forty from each tablet.’ Magnus whistled softly. ‘How much do you think you could charge your clients for one?’

‘For that luxury and including the boy, ten denarii easily.’ Terentius pointed to the writing-tablet. ‘It’s all in there, Magnus.’