Rome: The Emperor's Spy: Rome 1 by M C Scott

Author:M C Scott [Scott, M C]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Historical
ISBN: 0552168009
Google: vAAWFhY5Sb0C
Amazon: B003NX6XV6
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2010-05-31T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

‘The kithara is played by Rhemaxos,’ Nero said languidly. ‘Do you like it?’

They were in the private imperial baths, exactly as Ajax had predicted, and, despite his best efforts to cleave close to the rest of the Green team, Math was alone with Nero, standing up to his chest in scalding water that sought out every scrape and cut and lapped at them viciously.

He wanted to lie down, to savour again the moments of flying, to find if they might, at last, portend the beginnings of his success as a driver. Instead, he shifted his weight to lean back against the pink marble of the pool’s edge and let one filthy foot rise up. Scrubbing at it with the heel of his hand, he said, ‘The music is beyond words, lord. All of Alexandria is. Compared to Coriallum, this is a city for the gods.’

He spoke Latin with the inflections of court. A winter in the compound had taught him that. He had learned a measure of diplomacy, too, although he had no idea if it was enough to keep him safe.

Each time he looked at Nero, he saw in his mind’s eye an image of the baker, who had died by imperial order, and heard in his mind’s ear Pantera’s warning that if he ever gave way to Nero’s blandishments the emperor would tire of the chase and have Math slaughtered afterwards, or do it himself in the throes of lust.

He had met men like that before and survived them, but in Coriallum, if he had made eyes at a client and then changed his mind, he could simply have vanished into the alleyways and both would have forgotten it within a day.

Here, now, there was no possibility of quiet anonymity. By Akakios’ decree, Math was a hostage to Hannah’s ‘good behaviour’, his life inextricably linked to hers. He wondered if Nero knew that too, and decided he probably did.

He scraped the mud from his toenails with his fingers, dropped his foot back into the water and lifted the other one. Under Nero’s limpid gaze, even something so grubbily basic as cleaning his feet was, it seemed, to be transformed into an erotic invitation. If Math had any doubts on that score, the echoes were above and all around, in mosaics and murals of lechery.

Here on the side wall, the nymph Echo lay naked before Narcissus, her fingers resting lightly on her groin. A little further away, wing-heeled Mercury disported himself with human maids and youths, beguiling them with his brilliance. High up in the domed ceiling, satyrs joined with water spirits, gods with goddesses and mortal women, all modelled on the same tight-breasted girl. The men all had hair that curled about their heads, as Nero’s did.

To bring it all from the walls to reality, white linen cloths lay at the pool’s edge, ready for whomsoever should leave first. Beyond, bedrooms furnished with silk lay with their doors open and beautiful slaves waited tactfully in the background.

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