The Year of Confusion(90)

“I knew some Greek women learned athletics,” I said, “but I never heard of one training at the pankration.”

“My father insisted that I be fully educated,” she said.

I turned to Gupta, now held tightly by Balbus. I nodded at Hermes and he grasped the man’s hair and jerked his head back so that he was looking up at me. I laid the point of my dagger just below his left eye. “Now, Gupta, some answers, if you please.”

An hour later we were closeted in one of Cleopatra’s personal chambers, guards on the door, the sounds of the still lively party muffled in the distance. The queen was there, as was Caesar. Hermes and Balbus we had left outside to enjoy the festivities but Caesar had insisted that Julia and Callista be present to hear my report.

The chamber was unusually modest for this place and its inhabitant, but I supposed Cleopatra put on the extravagance as what people expected from a queen of Egypt. Her personal tastes were more modest. Caesar now wore a simple tunic and synthesis and he had set aside his wreath of golden laurel leaves. He was very tired and looked every one of his years.

“It was what Julia suggested at the outset,” I said. “The infighting among the great ladies of Rome over who is to be heir to Caesar. That and your scheme to change our calendar.”

Caesar frowned slightly. “How did I bring this about?”

“You brought the astronomers to Rome, and among them was Polasser. Gupta came on his own and joined them because he really was an accomplished astronomer, with a sideline in astrology. As I’ve said before, one rogue will know another, and they were joined by the confidence man Postumius. It doesn’t take three such men long to begin hatching plans. First they tried the grain scheme. Fulvia was a client of Polasser and he steered her to Postumius, who got her to talk to the grain merchants and use her patrician prestige to convince them to buy or not as Postumius directed. They made a killing that way, but it was too small. By that time Polasser had tumbled to the big-time money game here in Rome, and with his connections among the highborn ladies, he had the means to exploit it.” I sipped at my wine. “Incidentally, Fulvia had the house that had belonged to Clodius. She let Gupta and Ashthuva stay there while their much more impressive house was being built on the Janiculum.”

“That was where Postumius was killed,” Caesar said. “Was that Fulvia’s doing?”

“I believe so,” I told him. “You can’t trust a thief. I think he tried to cheat her of her share of the grain scheme takings.” I looked at Julia. “You were right in observing that his torture bore the marks of wounded patrician pride.”

“Was she in on the rest of it?” Caesar asked.

“I don’t think so,” I said. “They made use of her in the grain scheme, but she was too volatile even for men like those three.”

Caesar pondered a while. “It isn’t worth alienating Antonius. I need him too sorely.” He glanced at me wearily. “Don’t look at me like that Decius Caecilius. Some day, if you’re ever dictator, a great many things that seem serious now will take on a new perspective.”

“What about poor Demades?” Cleopatra asked. “Why did he die?”

“Big ears,” I said. “He hated Polasser and detested the astrologers as a group. He was snooping around, trying to get any kind of dirt on Polasser that he could gather, and I suspect he got an earful, but Gupta saw him snooping. Then he was eliminated.”

“And this Domitius person?” Caesar asked. “Where does he tie in?”

“He was an acquaintance of Postumius from his horse racing days. They wanted someone reliable to spy here in the queen’s house where you spend so much time. Polasser had been here at the queen’s gatherings and he bribed the steward to hire the man.”

Caesar looked at Cleopatra. “I’ll deal with him,” she said.

I didn’t want to think about what that might mean. “When I started snooping around here,” I touched my nose, which was still a little tender. Cleopatra looked abashed. “When I started snooping here, Gupta sent Domitius to the house of Archelaus. He didn’t realize I’d be checking out there, too. He hoped to sell Archelaus information about your intentions in Parthia—and in Egypt.”

Caesar looked at me sharply, then to Cleopatra. “My dear, we really should check outside the windows before we engage in serious conversation.” Then back to me. “It is a good thing you are a very discreet man, Decius, and that you are married to my favorite niece.”

“Anyway,” I went on quickly, “once Gupta had his sister, if that’s what she is, established in the new house and ready to bamboozle Rome’s richest ladies, Polasser became superfluous. All his clients became hers. Gupta even summoned the other astronomers to confuse things, but he wasn’t expecting me to be there that day, and I saw a bit too much and found that coin.”