The River God's Vengeance by John Maddox Roberts

Author:John Maddox Roberts [Roberts, John Maddox]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Historical, Mystery & Detective, General
ISBN: 9780312323196
Google: YB89R-LQ668C
Amazon: 0312323204
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Published: 2004-01-18T18:30:00+00:00

8

NEAR THE GATE WE STOPPED AT a little tavern. The sun was well up, and I needed a pause to think. Also, it was time for a drink and something to eat. Who knew when I’d get a chance again? We found a table against a wall of white stucco beneath an arbor that was all but bare so early in the year. Light fell through the arbor in lozenge-shaped patches, making the table, the fioor, and ourselves look like pictures in mosaic. I ordered the wine to be very lightly watered, and we used it to wash down oil-dipped bread and olives for a while.

Hermes spoke first. “It was the big slave, wasn’t it?”

“Had to be,” I concurred. “That’s why he was dressed, and it’s why he was trapped there standing. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before. It was pretty far-fetched to think he dropped there, landed on his feet, and got pinned there that way. He drilled one hole too many, and the building came down too fast.”

“Why did he do it?” Hermes wondered. “Just to kill the master and mistress? I can understand why he’d want to. You saw how they treated their slaves. But why kill more than two hundred people just to get rid of them?”

“I suspect he did kill them, personally,” I said. “He could have broken their necks easily, then gone down to the basement to bore those last few holes, figuring to disguise the murder as an accident. But he didn’t step lively enough.”

Hermes shook his head. “It still doesn’t make sense.”

“No, it doesn’t. Revenge was a good enough motivation for the slave, but it doesn’t explain how everyone else has been acting since the disaster. He may have had a personal justification for ridding the world of those two, but someone must have put him up to the final deed.”

In a bit of spilled wine my fingertip traced a circle, then drew a slash across it. It took me a moment to realize what I had unconsciously drawn: the Greek letter “theta.” In the shorthand of the Games, it stands for Thanatos: killed. After the munera, this symbol is scratched on the walls, following the names of the gladiators who have been slain.

“Two names keep cropping up,” I said. “Marcus Valerius Messala Niger and Marcus Aemilius Scaurus.”

“Those are two important names,” Hermes pointed out.

“Yes, and Valerius Messala is in the process of weaseling himself into the political affairs of my family. The family has been hinting heavily that I should drop this investigation.”

“Maybe you should.”

“And let someone get away with murdering a whole insula full of people, free and slave?”

Hermes spread his hands. “I’m just a slave; I do as I’m told. But if your family is against your prosecuting the people responsible for this, you are going to have some serious trouble accomplishing anything.”

I mused, almost to myself, “They have been doing a number of things I am having trouble countenancing. Hermes, do you know why my family is so important?”

He was taken aback.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.