"I'm not a girl, Papa. I'm twenty years old, married, and a mother."

"Yes, I know." I looked sidelong at Davus, who was completely absorbed in blowing wisps of his wife's shimmering black hair away from his nose.

"If solving a cipher is the problem, Papa, then let me help you. Davus can go stand watch in the garden, to make sure no one else comes over the rooftop."

Davus brightened at this suggestion. I nodded. He strode off at once. "You, too, Diana," I said. "Off with you!" Instead, she took Davus's place in the chair across from me. I sighed.

"It needs to be done quickly," I said. "The dead fellow out there is a relative of Pompey's. For all I know, Pompey may have already sent someone looking for him."

"Where did these pieces of parchment come from?"

"They were hidden in a secret compartment in his shoe."

Diana raised an eyebrow. "This fellow was one of Pompey's spies?"

I hesitated. "Perhaps."

"Why did he come here? Why did he want to see you, Papa?"

I shrugged. "We hardly spoke before I left him alone for a moment."

"And then?"

"Davus came into the garden, found his body, and raised the alarm."

Diana eagerly reached for a sheet of parchment. "If we look for vowels, and common consonant combinations-"

"And common words, and case endings."

"Right."

"Or likely words," I added.

"Likely?"

"Words likely to occur in a document carried by Pompey's spy. Such as… such as 'Pompey,' for example. Or more likely, 'Magnus'- Great One."

Diana nodded. "Or… 'Gordianus,' perhaps?" She looked at me askance.

"Perhaps," I said.

Diana fetched two styluses and two wax tablets for scribbling notes. We studied our separate pieces of parchment in silence. Out in the garden, Davus paced back and forth in the sunlight, whistling tunelessly and scanning the roof. He pulled Numerius's dagger from its scabbard and cleaned his fingernails. From the front of the house came more screams from Aulus, and then the sound of Bethesda crooning an Egyptian lullaby.