The Roman Mysteries Complete Collection

by Lawrence, Caroline

  ‘This is a disaster,’ muttered Senator Cornix as the Greens finished in last place. ‘That charioteer wasn’t even trying. Someone obviously paid him off, like Achilles this morning. Come on. Let’s go before the last race. Avoid the crowds.’

  ‘What about Nubia?’ said Flavia. ‘And Lupus?’

  ‘They had better be waiting for us at home.’

  Flavia opened her mouth to protest, then thought better of it: Senator Cornix had a fierce scowl on his face.

  ‘Make sure you take everything,’ growled her uncle. ‘Cloaks, programmes, umbrella hats . . . Flavia. What’s that down there?’

  ‘Oh,’ said Flavia absently. ‘It’s just my souvenir chariot beaker.’ She bent and picked up the beaker of green glass which she had put at the foot of the marble bench. Suddenly her skin seemed to grow cold.

  ‘Hierax,’ she said, staring at the beaker’s rim.

  ‘What?’ said Sisyphus.

  ‘What?’ barked Senator Cornix.

  ‘Hierax.’ She looked up at them in horror. ‘The one-legged beggar who used to be a famous charioteer.’

  ‘That’s right,’ said Jonathan, adjusting his toga. ‘The shopkeeper just told us.’

  ‘He drove for the Greens.’

  ‘Of course,’ said Aulus Junior. ‘That’s why his name is on the green beaker.’

  ‘He raced with the other charioteers named on this cup.’

  ‘That’s right. They were the top charioteers of the Greens,’ said Aulus. ‘Two years ago, that is.’

  ‘What does it matter?’ said Senator Cornix. ‘Come on!’

  ‘Wait! Stop! Don’t you see?’ cried Flavia. ‘Not counting Hierax, two of the other three charioteers on this cup have died today. All except for Antilochus, who would have died if Lupus hadn’t stopped him racing.’

  ‘Antilochus wouldn’t have died,’ said Jonathan. ‘Those waterlogged horses were going so slow that even I could have beaten them.’

  ‘But his team came last!’ cried Flavia. ‘And remember what you said, Uncle Aulus? That Antilochus vowed to fall on his sword if he ever came last! Would he really have kept that vow?’

  ‘Absolutely,’ said the senator. ‘Shame is worse than death.’

  ‘I don’t understand,’ said Sisyphus. ‘What are you saying?’

  ‘If Antilochus had been in the race he was supposed to run, he would have come last and he would be dead, too! Because of his vow,’ she added.

  They all stared at her.

  Her voice shook as she said: ‘Someone’s killing off the Greens from two years ago!’

  There was a pause. Then Aulus Junior shook his head. ‘What about Olympus? His team was sabotaged, but he was riding for the Reds.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Flavia, tapping the beaker. ‘But his name is here. He used to ride for the Greens.’

  ‘His name isn’t on the curse-tablet,’ said Jonathan, taking it out of his coin purse.

  ‘Curse-tablet?’ Senator Cornix and his son frowned at each other.

  ‘That tablet is probably meant to scare the Greens,’ said Flavia to Jonathan. ‘It doesn’t mention Olympus, because he doesn’t race for them now. But he did two years ago!’

  ‘Great Juno’s peacock,’ muttered Sisyphus. ‘I think you’re right. But why from two years ago?’

  ‘Hierax!’ cried Jonathan. ‘His accident happened two years ago!’

  ‘Exactly,’ said Flavia. ‘While driving for the Greens. He’s the link!’ She turned to the senator. ‘Uncle Aulus, do you happen to know where Hierax is originally from? What country, I mean?’

  The senator shook his head.

  ‘I know,’ said Aulus Junior. ‘He comes from Judea. He’s a Samaritan.’

  Flavia turned back to Jonathan. ‘What language do Samaritans speak?’

  ‘Aramaic,’ said Jonathan. He was staring at the curse-tablet. ‘Samaritans speak Aramaic.’

  ‘That proves it!’ said Flavia, trying to keep her voice from shaking. ‘Hierax himself wrote that curse-tablet, and then pretended to find it to panic the Greens. He knows Urbanus speaks Aramaic, and he knew we would give it to Urbanus. One-legged Hierax is behind this. I’m sure of it.’

  ‘But, why?’ they asked.

  ‘I don’t know why. All I know is that Nubia’s with him and she probably thinks he’s helping her. We’ve got to find her and warn her. We’ve got to tell her Hierax is not what he seems!’

  As soon as he spotted the two lofty cypress trees rising above the red rooftops, Lupus knew where the twins were headed. They were going towards the place where they had found Sagitta three days before. They were taking Latro to the temple of Venus on the Aventine Hill.

  Sure enough, a few moments later the twins passed through the columns of the portico and made for the little temple at the centre of the formal garden.

  Lupus hid behind a neatly clipped box hedge and watched as they tethered the horse to a column. The twins were arguing again but presently No-limp went up a path to the right while Limp stayed beside the horse, scuffing the white gravel with his foot.

  Lupus debated for a moment. Should he follow No-limp or stay with Limp? He crouched and ran behind the low hedge, then stopped and peered up the hill in the direction No-limp had gone. Above the red-tiled roof of the portico and between branches of trees he could see glimpses of opulent townhouses up on the top of the hill. Suddenly his gaze snapped back to a balcony just visible beyond the branches of an umbrella pine. Nubia was there! She was sitting next to the one-legged beggar. What was his name again? Hierax.

  Lupus frowned. Flavia had said Hierax couldn’t be behind the sabotage, because he was rich and therefore had no motive. But the twins had led him to the foot of this Aventine villa which must belong to Hierax. And that couldn’t be a coincidence. Hierax had to be the culprit after all.

  Should he try to warn Nubia? Or should he find Flavia and the others and get them to help?

  If Hierax was rich as Crassus then he could afford to employ many people. There might be a dozen guards posted around the house.

  Lupus grunted softly as he made his decision: he must tell Flavia and the others as soon as possible. He also had to save Latro from whatever torture Hierax and his boys might have in store. The obvious solution was to ride Latro back down to the Circus Maximus.

  There was only one problem.

  He could ride a saddled mule, and an unsaddled pony, but Lupus had never ridden a stallion bareback.

  The sun was setting and the pure blue bowl above Rome was filled with the piercing cries of swooping swifts. On the balcony of the Aventine townhouse, Nubia sipped her well-watered wine and watched a dozen tiny chariots burst out of the distant starting gates for the final race of the day. For the hundredth time that afternoon, she tried to see Senator Cornix’s seats. But the two dark cypress trees always blocked her view.

  ‘Those two trees look like trees in grove where we found Sagitta,’ she said suddenly.

  ‘They are,’ said Jupiter-Hierax, topping up his goblet with wine. ‘The temple precinct is right down there. I came across the missing horse that morning, on my way down to the Campus Martius. I tried to tell people,’ he added, ‘but you were the first to listen to me.’

  Suddenly he stiffened and leaned over the balcony. ‘By Hercules! What’s he doing here?’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Just a boy who steals my . . . um, apples. I’m going down to chase him off. Why don’t you go check on Pegasus?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Nubia, putting down her cup and taking the last few dates from the brass tray. ‘I will check on Pegasus.’

  Lupus tossed a stone so that it landed behind Limp. The curly-haired boy spun round to stare at the box hedge behind him, but did not leave his post.

  Lupus cursed silently and lobbed another stone. This time the boy started towards the sound, then stopped and looked towards the path his twin had taken.

  Lupus tossed the last and biggest stone. It made a satisfying crash as it struck the centre of a hedge ne
ar a bubbling fountain. This time the boy took the bait. With one last glance towards the house, he disappeared along the path leading to the fountain. As soon as he was out of sight, Lupus ran to Latro and untied his tether. But the horse’s back seemed miles high. There was no way he could vault onto a stallion that big.

  Thinking quickly, Lupus led the horse to the shortest in a row of plane trees, grunted for him to stay, then scrambled up the trunk. When he reached the lowest branch he swung himself out along it until he was dangling over Latro’s back. But now he seemed miles above Latro, who was browsing on some thyme at the edge of the path and beginning to move away.

  ‘Hey!’ cried the limping twin, reappearing from behind the fountain. ‘What are you doing over there?’

  Lupus let go of the branch and dropped onto Latro’s back.

  Pegasus snorted a soft greeting into Nubia’s ear. She fed him a date and stroked his beautiful arched neck. Presently she noticed that his tail was still balled up with ribbons and she started to untie them. It was getting dim in his room so she led him closer to the wide doorway, where the light was better.

  She thought she heard the sound of the front door opening and voices, but when she cocked her head to listen, all was silent and peaceful.

  ‘Your tail is tangled,’ she said, as she removed the last ribbon, ‘I must find a brush.’

  She went to the wall where various pieces of horse tackle hung from pegs. She found a bridle, a saddle, strips of linen for the forelegs, a leather bucket for water, but no brush.

  ‘Maybe it fell in the hay . . .’ she murmured.

  But there was nothing in the hay, only some smelly chunks of horse manure.

  She rose and turned and saw a brush at the foot of the large bronze water trough. ‘Oh, there it is.’

  For a while she happily brushed his long tail. Presently she moved on to his mane, removing the green ribbons and brushing until it flowed like golden water over his dark neck.

  Pegasus turned his head and gazed at her with his long-lashed black eyes.

  ‘Oh, Pegasus!’ Nubia spoke in her own language as she slipped her arms around his neck. ‘If only I could keep you and take you home to Ostia. I could see you every day. I would brush you and feed you and we could ride on the beach and in the pine grove and over the salt flats . . .’

  A sudden thought made her skin prickle. Leaving Pegasus, she went to the wall and bent down and groped in the hay. It was quite dark now but at last she found the chunk of horse manure she had seen earlier. She held it in her left hand and pressed it. As the outer crust broke she felt its moist inside. She sniffed it. This manure was fresh: not today’s, but certainly from within the past week.

  That could mean only one thing. A horse had been here recently. In this villa beside the grove of Venus. Could it have been Sagitta? Had the thieves brought him here, to this abandoned house where nobody would ever think of looking? They could have burned his forelegs with a torch while blowing a shrill flute and not a soul would have heard. Later, they could have taken him outside and tethered him to a column of the nearest temple.

  And now her beloved Pegasus was here, in this possible place of torture.

  ‘What have you got there?’ said a voice from the doorway and Nubia started guiltily. It was Jupiter-Hierax, resting on his crutches and holding a flaming torch. He had put on a cloak and she saw with a thrill of horror that it was hooded.

  Then her blood ran cold. How could she have been so blind?

  Hierax was not Jupiter in disguise.

  He was the culprit.

  Nubia stared at the hooded figure in the doorway.

  Now everything made sense. The fact that Hierax had known exactly where to find Sagitta. The fact that he had given them the curse-tablet. The fact that he had appeared just in time to help her steal Pegasus.

  Something else occurred to her. Until recently this place had been inhabited. Perhaps the owner’s body lay buried in the garden.

  ‘Do we go to Alban Hills now?’ she said, trying to make her voice bright and cheerful the way Flavia did whenever she was frightened.

  ‘You know who I am, don’t you?’ he said.

  ‘No?’ she replied, in a small voice.

  ‘Yes, you do. I can see it in your face.’ He smiled, his eyes intelligent and cold above the dark beard. ‘I can’t allow anyone to stop me now. One more day like today and I will have destroyed the Greens.’ He tossed a rope onto the hay in front of her. ‘Sit down and tie your feet together.’

  Nubia hesitated, her mind racing.

  ‘Go on!’ he said, swinging himself forward so that the flaming torch threw his distorted shadow on the wall behind.

  Pegasus gave a small whinny of fear and backed into a corner of the room.

  ‘He would have been an excellent subject for my training,’ said Hierax, looking at Pegasus. ‘He’s already afraid of fire.’ He pushed the torch further into the room and Nubia started back involuntarily. ‘And so are you. Tie up your feet!’

  Nubia sat on the hay and began to tie the rope around her ankles. ‘Why?’ she said. ‘Why do you want to destroy Greens?’

  ‘Revenge, of course!’

  ‘What did Greens do?’ Nubia fumbled with the rope.

  ‘They destroyed me! I raced for them all my life, since I was a boy. I gave them everything. And what did they do for me?’ He gestured down at his stump. ‘This!’

  ‘How?’ said Nubia, trying to remember a trick knot Captain Geminus had once shown her, one that looked real but came apart when you tugged one end.

  ‘My chariot,’ said Hierax. ‘Spun out of control. Before I could cut myself free of the reins my leg was caught in the spokes of another chariot. I was a mangled wreck.’

  ‘Oh!’ cried Nubia, her horror genuine.

  He ignored her. ‘They said it was my fault the chariot crashed. They accused me of using a whip on the other driver. So what if I did? Everyone does it. They said it was the judgement of the gods.’ His voice rose a notch. ‘How dare they? Look at me! Look what they did to me! Look what he did to me!’

  ‘Who?’ Nubia finished tying the knot and stood up.

  ‘Urbanus. He was the one! I know the leg could have been saved. But he told the medic to amputate. Said it was necessary. The pain. I have never known such pain. And then! Then they threw me out. Until that moment I was golden. I had wine, women, adulation. I had everything. Then, in one terrible afternoon I was abandoned and ruined. But I will have my revenge. And if I get rich taking it, then all the better!’

  ‘I understand you are angry,’ said Nubia. ‘But please do not hurt Pegasus. Please let us go free. I vow I will not tell.’

  ‘Oh, you’ll tell! You’ll go running to your little friends. That little mute boy is here, but my lads will take care of him.’

  One-Leg was still breathing hard but he lowered his voice to a whisper now. ‘After all the planning I’ve put into this – nearly two years’ worth – I won’t allow mere children to thwart me. Turn around. I’m going to tie your hands.’

  Nubia nodded and swallowed. She had made a terrible error of judgement and she knew she had to make it right. Now was the moment.

  As he reached to take a leather bridle from a hook beside the doorway she bent down and tugged at the end of the rope around her ankles. After a moment it came free, and she ran for the door.

  Hierax looked up, his face frozen in an almost comical expression of surprise, then one crutch swung forward and caught her a fierce blow in the stomach. Nubia fell gasping onto the straw, unable even to cry out.

  Suddenly Pegasus was behind her and over her, rearing on his hind feet and pawing at Hierax.

  ‘Back, you brute!’ Hierax thrust the flaming torch towards Pegasus, who writhed away, screaming. But the violent motion caused the one-legged man to totter and Nubia staggered to her feet just in time to see him fall back. The torch dropped in front of him and before she could do anything, flames blossomed from the hay.

  ‘Master of the Unive
rse!’ cried Urbanus, when they finally found him back at the Stables of the Greens. ‘I should have guessed Hierax was behind this. He’s been threatening revenge for months.’ He shook his head. ‘And I thought you were behind the sabotage.’

  ‘Us?’ said Jonathan. ‘You thought it was us?’

  Urbanus nodded. ‘You show up in Rome and find the missing horse within an hour, a horse that later turns out to be a terrible liability. Then lucky idols go missing, curse-tablets appear, a metal lynchpin is replaced with one of wax. All these things happened just after you came on the scene.’

  ‘We thought it was you,’ said Jonathan. ‘I mean, Flavia thought it was you.’

  ‘You thought it was Urbanus?’ said Senator Cornix to Flavia.

  Urbanus stared in disbelief. ‘Why did you think I would do it?’

  ‘Money, of course,’ said Flavia. ‘Lup—Somebody saw you speaking to one of Acutus’s men.’

  ‘Oh, that one!’ Urbanus waved a dismissive hand. ‘Just because he’s the cousin of my brother-in-law, he always expects me to tell him which team I favour.’

  ‘Anyway,’ cried Flavia, ‘we don’t have time for that now! We have to find Nubia! She’s in danger. Pegasus, too!’

  Scopas appeared beside Urbanus, standing stiffly at attention. ‘Nubia and Pegasus are in danger?’

  They nodded.

  ‘Zip q’nee,’ he whispered to himself. ‘Zip q’nee.’

  Flavia turned back to Urbanus. ‘Do you know where Hierax lives? Maybe we can find some clues about where they went.’

  Urbanus shook his head. ‘You know as much as I do. I detest that man. He was the cruellest charioteer I’ve ever worked with. He had no compassion for the animals.’

  ‘Wait!’ said Jonathan. ‘The glass-beaker man told us that Hierax owns a townhouse somewhere on the Aventine Hill.’

  ‘Somewhere on the Aventine?’ cried Senator Cornix. ‘Good gods, man! That’s no good to us.’

  ‘We’ve got to search the Aventine!’ cried Flavia, blinking back tears. ‘Which one is the Aventine, anyway?’

  ‘It’s the hill between the Circus Maximus and the river,’ said Urbanus, ‘by the Forum Boarium.’