My thoughts settled on Eco's wife and children, whom he had left in his house over on the Esquiline Hill. "Menenia and the twins…" I said, walking fester to keep up with him. My breath made clouds in the air, but at least the pace kept me warm. Even as fast as we were walking, another group of men came up from behind and passed us, their torches sending our shadows into headlong flight.

"They're safe. I had a new door put on the house last month. It would take an army to break it down. And I left my two biggest bodyguards to look after them."

"Just how many bodyguards do you own nowadays?"

"Only six – the two at home, and the four with us."

"Only six?" I still had only Belbo, whom I had left behind to look after Bethesda and Diana. Unfortunately, Belbo was really too old to be an adequate bodyguard any longer. The other household slaves could hardly be expected to put up much of a fight, if something truly terrible were to happen…

I tried to push such thoughts from my mind.

Another group of men came rushing up from behind us. Like us, they carried no torches. As they passed in the darkness, I noticed Eco's bodyguards grow tense and reach inside their cloaks. Strangers without torches in their hands could be carrying something more dangerous, like daggers.

But the group passed without incident. Up ahead, someone flung open the shutters of an upper-storey window and leaned out "What in Hades is going on tonight?"

"They've killed him!" cried one of the men ahead of us. "Murdered him in cold blood, the cowardly bastards!"

"Killed who?"

"Clodius! Clodius is dead!"

The shadowy figure at the window was silent for a moment, then let out a long, ringing laugh that echoed in the cold night air. The group ahead of us came to an abrupt halt.