The vision disappeared as suddenly as a lightning flash, leaving nothing behind but memories. Hedia was so cold inside that she continued to sit in numb silence, oblivious of the change.

The spectators, all the many thousands of them, were going wild. That's dangerous! she realized. Fear for her husband and family broke her out of the gray chill that had bound her.

Hedia got to her feet. She wasn't fully herself-she knocked the stool over behind her-but nobody would notice in this confusion. Alphena glanced up as Hedia walked toward the back of the Tribunal. The girl looked as though she wanted to say something, but Hedia had no time for chatter.

Servants waited in the rear of the box. Though excited, they didn't seem worried-or anyway, not more worried than could be explained by the fact that their mistress was approaching with a hard expression

Hedia ignored her personal maid, Syra, and instead stepped close to Candidus, a deputy steward and the senior servant present. She gestured him to bend over so that she could speak into his ear and be heard.

I'll probably have to shout anyway. Shouting was undignified, but Hedia supposed that under the circumstances she couldn't complain about a minor indignity.

She smiled. She couldn't change how she felt, but she was too self-aware not to be able to view herself clearly.

"Candidus, find the impresario Meoetes and tell him in the Senator's name to draw the curtain at once," she said, holding the lobe of the servant's left ear between her thumb and forefinger. "At once, do you understand? And go yourself; don't pass this off to an underling who might be disregarded."