Suetonius, Clarus, Strabon, and Surisca whispered together as one, "The She Wolf."
"The oath is fulfilled!" Perenna cried aloud across the sanctuary, her haughty disdain resounding off the temple stones. "The loved one of the Iron People's ruler has been sacrificed to the god of the Dacians! His face was daubed in his own blood! We dipped our fingers in his gore to lick and taste his arete. We drained his carcass of its arete to offer to Zalmoxis the life-juices of the precious loved one of the Iron People's King!
Our priestly father's strangling at Rome is revenged. The Decebelus's honor is restored. The blood debt of our warriors in the arenas of Rome is paid. The faithful devotees of Zalmoxis have exacted bitter retribution!"
Perenna, or whoever she was, was spiraling into delirium.
"How did you persuade Antinous to participate in his own slaughter, priestess of Zalmoxis," Suetonius called to the deranged creature before him.
"The fool was a willing victim! His desire was urgent. He craved to exchange his lifeforce for the lifeforce of his erastes, this King of the Iron People. This king is diseased, he told us. The king is affected with a dropsy of the internal humors. He is dying, he bleated in tears. He wished to give the king renewed life, his youth's fresh life! He wished the Imperium to receive his hero's gift and to exchange his years of health for the king's declining lifespan!"
The assembly was enthralled by the escalating frenzy.
"The youth had witnessed those wizards who claim to revive a beheaded man. He knew how return from the Land of the Dead was feasible with the proper sorcery. At least that's what he thought. He was taught Queen Alcestis had been brought back from Hades' grasp by Hercules. He had been taught the heroes who sacrificed their lives in antiquity's wars live on eternally at the Isle of Achilles across the Black Sea. He learned how the followers of Chrestus revere their executed founder because he was magically reborn, resurrected to life again. And he saw with his own eyes how Great Alexander Divus lies intact still after four hundred years, preserved by a potent magic.
This year's Isia was his opportunity to become Osiris, restored from death to life. He took his opportunity. I used his need and his love for his erastes, and told him how Anna Perenna too can exchange the energies of one life for another by her incantations. I said she too can revive the dead. He believed me, the fool…"
"Cease talking, Hagne!" Scorilo suddenly called to the priestess. "They'll indict you for murder or worse. The penalty is vile, Sister. Cease now!"
Surisca whispered to Suetonius and Clarus, "Is the Bastarni guardsman then the wolf?"
Perenna continued unabated. She was on a roll.
"The boy wanted it! He pleaded for it! He was impelled to exchange the surging lifeforce of a healthy youth with the fading energies of his imperial erastes. He wouldn't cease his pleading. He said he was so utterly indebted to Caesar and committed to Caesar's cause as ruler!"
Hadrian slumped heavily back into his throne, disconsolate. He was overwhelmed by her words.
"So you helped him to do it, Hagne?" the Special Inspector asked coolly as Strabon scribbled speedily at his notebook. Suetonius used the barbarian name Scorilo had called. "Tell us Hagne, how was it done, priestess of an alien god? Tell us all."
The woman began burbling with zealous, righteous enthusiasm.
"Brother Scorilo and Centurion Urbicus had befriended the youth for our purpose. They taught him tricks of swordsmanship and other warrior's skills. They persuaded him to come to The Alexandros to my sanctuary to effect the transfer. He was to come under another name to deflect attention. I wrote an invitation note in the name of one of his friends, Lysias, to ease him past the sentries without his real identity being noted. He suspected nothing, he was so trustful of us.
He was to wear his ceremonial uniform beneath his cloak, this was to be a formal rite of great majesty. He did so without fear. He believed how in nine days after his journey through Hades' domain he would be restored to life, but at the cost that his youth's lengthy lifespan would be exchanged with Caesar's shorter span. Meanwhile, Caesar would live and rule!"
The woman was trembling in exultation and fervor. She was triumphant.
"Why would Antinous believe such a thing? He is no fool!" Suetonius called.
"Fool? Love is a great persuader. Fools do remarkable things for the sake of Love!"
"And then?"
"We performed a ceremony honoring Rome's Anna Perenna of old, and the youth voluntarily drank my infusion of opion and kannabis in wine. He believed it to be my magical potion to effect the transfer of energies. He swiftly drifted to sleep.
My brother and I then performed a rite to Zalmoxis and burned a lock of the victim's hair for the God to receive as smoke signaling his impending spiritual presence.
I lanced his wrist veins, inserted a surgeon's bleeding spigot to siphon, and proceeded to drain him as our priests do when they slit the throats of offerings. With time, our basin collected enough blood for three amphorae jugs.
Blood is the food of Zalmoxis. Blood carries the arete of a man.
I anointed the victim's face with his own blood, the ultimate insult of the God. Over the following days Zalmoxis consumes his entire arete by fermenting the blood to an odious filth. This is our way."
The woman's delirium was assuming a dire maenadic aspect. There were vestiges of some ancient ritual frenzy betrayed in her behavior. She had become a wild creature.
"And, Hagne, what more — ?" Suetonius resolutely pressed.
Perenna/Hagne assumed a soberly circumspect demeanor.
"It was nothing personal, just honor's revenge," she smiled.
A crushing silence now weighed the sanctuary.
"The lad died. It was late at night. Pressing out the blood for Zalmoxis had taken much time. While it was still dark, Scorilo and Urbicus tumbled his body through a starboard port into one of the Alexandrine runabouts roped at the stern readied for sailing.
I stored the amphorae for consecration to determine if I had inherited my father's power of regeneration of the dead. Priest Dicineus, my father, had been a practitioner of theogia. He tested many victims, but with what success is unknown to me. I aspire to similar prowess. I was to devote nine days to the necessary incantations and rites. But now we'll never know, will we?
At the very earliest light we three pushed off to sail the craft downstream to an inlet close to Urbicus's tents. The two placed the body at the river's side where we knew it might soon be discovered. There was already movement about, so Urbicus stayed at the inlet to rejoin his detachment. Scorilo and I eventually maneuvered the runabout back to The Alexandros. The rest is known to you. Our victory was complete."
"You've told us about Scorilo and yourself, but why was Urbicus involved?"
Hagne of Dacia, nee Anna Perenna of Rome, laughed a raucous, quavering laugh whose shrillness spoke of triumph and insult. The She Wolf was savoring her kill.
"Urbicus is one of my inamoratas. The poor darling will do anything I ask. And all for a little bodily titillation. But I keep him on a tight rein, the dear. Those Mauritanians and Numidians, they'll do anything for sex. The desert wilds of Africa must be very lonely at night."
Suetonius glanced to Urbicus standing nearby. The soldier was flush with anger, but his restrained eyes stared straight ahead in impassive soldierly discipline. Escape from the sanctuary was not feasible; a Scythian archer would bring him down with a single shaft.
"Why you, Centurion? Why did you participate in this mad venture? You're a man of good sense," the Special Inspector probed.
Urbicus stood utterly motionless and silent.
Governor Titianus broke the intensity of the atmosphere. He had quietly distanced himself from his consort who was stooping in her craven, seething manner nearby.