Queen of the Night

this meeting was important and she had to prepare herself. She half listened to the sounds of the villa coming to life: servants hurrying by along the corridors and passageways, the distant sound of a flute, the cries of serving girls, the neigh of horses from the stables. A chamberlain brought some bread, grapes and watered wine. Claudia and Murranus ate hungrily, and still they waited. Eventually, after what seemed to be an eternity, an arrogant freedman curtly ordered them to follow him.
    He led them deep into the house, to what he called the Chamber of Mysteries, a beautiful room with mosaics on the wall celebrating the life of Dionysius and his travels across the world. General Aurelian was waiting for them almost enthroned on a blue and gold stool. His wife Urbana sat on his right with Cassia next to her, and to his left was a young man with close-cropped auburn hair and a smiling face, clad in a light green tunic belted firmly around the waist. Aurelian looked what he was, a former general, a soldier, a tough, wiry man, white hair straggling down a furrowed face like that of a hunting falcon, a sharp-beaked nose above thin, bloodless lips, and eyes that never seemed to blink. He looked much older than Claudia had expected, and she reckoned that Urbana must be twenty or thirty years his junior.
    The General welcomed them in clipped tones and asked if they'd eaten. He hardly bothered to wait for their reply but immediately introduced his son Alexander, muttered that they had already met his lady wife Urbana and the Lady Cassia, whom he dismissed with a flick of his eyes, then turned back smiling to his son. Claudia learned a great deal in those few seconds. The relationship between the General and his good wife was, perhaps, not what it should be, whilst Cassia was good-naturedly tolerated. The General's attention was solely on Alexander, a pleasant-mannered, happy-faced, gentle-eyed boy who gazed adoringly at Murranus and had to be restrained by his father from a spate of questions about the arena and the gladiator's great triumphs there. Instead the General, as if barking orders to his tribunes, listed Murranus' duties.
    'Do you understand?' he ended, leaning forward. 'Do you fully understand what I ask?'
    'Yes, sir,' Murranus replied. 'I am to be your son's shadow.'
    The General's severe face broke into a faint smile. He jabbed his finger at Murranus. 'I like you, man, that's the answer I wanted. Where he goes, you follow, and you're always armed. You've brought your war belt?'
    Murranus explained how the General's servants had taken his weapon bundle as soon as he'd entered the house.
    'They won't do that again,' the General retorted. 'Where you go, your sword, dagger and club are always with you, and where my son goes, you go as well, be it the baths, the latrines, a swim, the Campus Martius, a ride on a horse, even climbing a tree.'
    Murranus again reassured the General that he knew exactly what his duties were. The General stretched as if he'd resolved a great problem.
    'And Senator Carinus?' He turned to Claudia, looking her up and down. 'No news about Antonia?'
    'No, sir.' Claudia barked back the reply so sharply that Urbana and Cassia lowered their heads to hide their laughter,-beside her Murranus stiffened quickly, a warning to her not to mock the General. Aurelian narrowed his eyes.
    'You're only a child,' he muttered, 'a mere slip of a girl, yet the Empress is using you.' He clicked his tongue. 'But that's Helena! She always does what you least expect; she would have made a good general. In fact,' he pulled a face, 'she was,- she advised both her husband and her beloved son.' He added quickly, 'You want to tell me something, girl, don't you?'
    'Yes, sir. The Vigiles Muri, the veterans from the Fretenses?'
    'Ah, yes.' Aurelian's face grew severe. 'You are to find their killers. A difficult task for a slip of a girl.'
    'Another one was murdered last night.'
    Aurelian ignored the sharp hiss of surprise from the two women beside him.
    'Who?' he exclaimed, hand cupping his ear as if finding it difficult to hear what Claudia was saying.
    'Stathylus,' Claudia replied. 'I met him, Secundus and Crispus at a tavern; their funeral club meets in its upper chamber.'
    The General nodded, eyes staring hard. 'Then what happened?'
    'Stathylus went outside to relieve himself. He was murdered, barbarously, just like the rest.'
    For a brief while the General put his face in his hands.
    'Murdered!' he exclaimed, lifting