I pressed my fingertips to my temples, elbows akimbo - partly to soothe the pressure of my throbbing temples, but also to mimic a mystic's theatrical posing. 'An unholy crime,' I whispered. 'Vile. Unspeakable. The murder of a father by his own son. Parricide!'

I released my temples and sat back in the chair. I looked my young guest straight in the eye. 'You, Tiro of the household of Marcus Tullius Cicero, have come to seek my services to assist your master in his defence of one Sextus Roscius of Ameria, who stands accused of killing the father whose name he bears. And -my hangover is completely gone.'

Tiro blinked. And blinked again. He sat back and ran his forefinger over his upper Up, his brows drawn pensively together. 'It is a trick, isn't it?' -

I gave him the thinnest smile I could manage. ‘Why? You don't believe I'm capable of reading your mind?'

'Cicero says there's no such thing as second sight or mind reading or foretelling the future. Cicero says that seers and portents and oracles are all charlatans at worst, actors at best, playing on the crowd's credulity.'

'And do you believe everything master Cicero says?' Tiro blushed. Before he could speak I raised my hand. 'Don't answer. I would never ask you to say anything against your master. But tell me this: has Marcus Tullius Cicero ever visited the oracle at Delphi? Has he seen the shrine to Magna Mater at Ephesus and tasted the milk that flows from her marble breasts? Or climbed the great pyramids in the dead of night and listened to the voice of the wind rushing through the ancient stones?'

'No, I suppose not.' Tiro lowered his eyes. 'Cicero has never been outside of Italy.'

'But I have, young man.' For a moment, I was lost in thought, unable to pull free from a flood of images, sights, sounds, smells of the past. I looked around the garden and suddenly saw just how tawdry it was. I stared at the food before me and realized how dry and tasteless the bread was, how sour the cheese had gone. I looked at Tiro, and remembered who and what he was, and felt foolish for expending so much energy to impress a mere slave.