Nest of Vipers

'He's the one who starts every fire in Rome! He wants to kill us all!'

'Fire demon!'

Ahenobarbus reached the summit, staggering in exhaustion across the flagstone square to the Temple of the Great Mother. He threw himself into the shadows of the great columns as the mob attained the crest behind him.

'Find the demon with the burning hair!'

They fanned out through the maze of the Palatine's streets, screaming to the gods for his head. Ahenobarbus laughed to himself, as he was safe.

He stole his way in silence among the Concubia shadows, but when he came to the House of the Aemilii, his shock and rage at what he saw made him want to seek out the aged slave for a beating. She had carelessly left the street door open to thieves.

But when Ahenobarbus crept to the threshold, he saw the truth: the door had been smashed from its pivots. His terror returned; the mob had identified him and taken revenge. Shaking with fear, yet perversely aroused by it, Ahenobarbus moved inside his ancestral home. The atrium was dark. There were all the signs of brutal entry, yet it had not been sacked. The wax mask of his father was in place, as was the shrine to the household gods.

Ahenobarbus's eyes found his wife and her slave lover in the dark, huddled on the stairs like children. He was confounded. Was this forced entry the work of the mob at all? He signalled to the pair, but when they didn't seem to hear, he struck at the face of his wife's slave.

Burrus looked up, dazed. 'Macro came with his men, domine.'

Ahenobarbus didn't understand.

'The Praetorians. I took up position on the stairs to defend,' Burrus said, 'but they had no interest in me — or in Nilla.'

Ahenobarbus again struck the slave, but this time in bewilderment. Burrus didn't flinch. 'It was Albucilla, domine. They came for her. She was charged with immorality and taken away in chains.'

The Kalends of June

AD 35

Twenty-five months later: a phoenix is sighted on the Nile, occasioning heated discussion among Egyptians regarding its significance

The Aemilii sisters sat huddled before the furnace in the kitchens, shivering despite the summer heat.

'Condemned to exile,' Domitia sobbed. 'No shoes, no money, just pushed out the gates and told to leave Rome. It's such a terrible fate.'

'It's so cruel,' Lepida nodded, wiping her eyes. 'And after being so long imprisoned.'

'For "immorality".' Domitia shook her head with dismay. 'What a travesty when the Emperor's own immorality offends every god.'

'Ssh, Domitia,' the elder sister warned, fearful of who might be listening.

'Nilla never leaves that room,' Domitia scoffed, 'and even if she did she'd hear nothing of what we say. She's lost her mind. She's gone mad, locked away up there with that brute of a slave. It's Albucilla who should have been our poor brother's bride, not that horrid Claudian.'

'I agree,' said Lepida. 'If Albucilla and Ahenobarbus had been allowed to marry, none of this would have happened — none of it. But still,' she added in dismay, 'I believed there was something of mother's promise in it — that it would see the blessing of Veiovis. I truly believed it.'

Their brother in their thoughts again, the women returned to weeping.

'What will become of him?' cried Domitia. 'Albucilla loved him so, she truly did. She knew how to talk to him. She understood everything he tried to say. How will he ever find another woman like Albucilla?'

'He's been condemned to loneliness by this,' Lepida sobbed. 'It's just as bad as being exiled.'

They sobbed in pity for several moments more, then were startled by footsteps at the door.

'I have my uncle, Mama.' Lepida's little daughter, Messalina, led the grieving Ahenobarbus into the kitchen.

'Messalina, you're a good girl,' said Lepida, drying her eyes and getting up to kiss her child.

'He needs to eat,' said Messalina. 'I made him come.'

'What a thoughtful girl you are,' said Domitia, patting her sister's child. The women ushered Ahenobarbus to a place by the furnace, stoking the flames for him.

'He always liked it here as a boy,' Lepida whispered to her daughter. 'It comforted him when he was sad at not being able to speak. You did well to think of it.'

Messalina beamed and accepted the honeyed bread her mother passed her before a plate was given to Ahenobarbus. He took the food without eating it.

'Why have no charges been laid against my uncle?' Messalina asked, her mouth full of bread.

'Child!' Lepida cried.

'Well, it is very strange. For Albucilla to have been immoral, didn't she need my uncle to be immoral with?'

'Messalina, you wicked girl!' her mother admonished her. 'Give me back that honeyed bread — you shan't be eating a crumb while you say such things.'

'Mama!'

'Give it.'

'I'm hungry,' Messalina wailed, clutching the bread in her fist.

Lepida went to slap it from her but Ahenobarbus suddenly stood. He moved to where Messalina cowered and stooped to the girl, hugging her to his chest. There were tears in his eyes as he looked back to his sisters.

'My uncle isn't upset with me,' said Messalina, quietly.

Lepida accepted this.

'It is right to ask what she asks, Lepida,' said the younger sister. 'Albucilla has been charged and condemned but our brother has escaped it. If they wanted to destroy him, they would have. Instead he is ignored.' She looked to Ahenobarbus. 'I believe it is all intended as a message to you, brother, just like my forced union with Drusus was, and your own with Nilla.'

Ahenobarbus released Messalina from the hug. He nodded in agreement.

'A message of what?' said Lepida.

Domitia pondered it. 'It's a warning.'

'This makes no sense.'

'It makes perfect sense.' Domitia believed she now understood everything. 'Ahenobarbus is a threat. Nilla has the blood of Augustus in her veins. If our brother were an ambitious man, he could use his marriage to Nilla to attract a following around him, an entourage. He could even fight for the throne in Nilla's name.'

'But our brother would never risk such things. He's a modest man!'

Domitia agreed. 'And they know it, the Claudians. But Albucilla's ruin was a warning to our brother that they will destroy him if he chooses to forget his modesty.'

Lepida looked to their brother and saw that he, too, believed this theory to be true. 'Yet more reason to hate that little bitch,' she said.

While her mother and aunt were focused on her mute uncle, Messalina slipped away from the kitchens, munching her bread. She padded up the corridor that took her back to the grand old house's atrium. She stood for while, contemplating its gloomy corners, glad she was only a visitor and not a resident. The house spooked her. After a time, she peeked in the entrance hall.

'Hello,' I said.

Messalina jumped. 'Who are you?'

'I am only a slave.'

I had to cover a smile as the child at once grew imperious. 'What do you want here, slave?'

'Nothing from you,' I replied. 'I am here to see the mistress of the house.'

The girl curled her lip. 'You mean horrid Nilla?'

I tut-tutted. 'What a disrespectful child.'

'She brings misfortune on my family. I think she's a witch.'

'If you ever met an actual witch, you'd know at once that the Lady Nilla is not one.'

Messalina glared at me. 'Do you know who I am, slave?'

'Of course I do. You are the rarest of birds.'

The girl was taken aback. 'How — how do you know about that name?'

'I know about many things,' I replied enigmatically, enjoying how much I was maddening her. 'Have they told you what it means?'

'Of course they have.'

She was lying, which pleased me. She knew the phrase but little else. 'So, they've told you nothing of Fate?'