Dark Horse

Then one of them moved.

Slowly, stealthily, silent as death, it backed out of the shadows and was swallowed up by the night. Claudia pushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. How long had the Persian been here, she wondered. How long had he been watching and listening — and waiting?

Before the sun stands thrice more over our heads, a woman shall die.

A cold shiver ran down her back and, not for the first time, she asked herself how much Shamshi manipulated events at the Villa Arcadia.

How far would he go to ensure his prophecies were fulfilled?

Another hour must have passed, maybe more, before Claudia became aware of a man singing and footsteps weaving down the colonnade.

I once had a girlfriend called Vera,

She would not let me near 'er.

I courted a girl called Amanda,

Her father made me unhand 'er.'

The tune was interrupted by a stumble followed by a muffled curse as the singer disengaged himself from a pillar.

'But then I met Alis,

Who liked my big phallus,

We worshipped sweet Venus,

So I-'

'Thank you, Leo, but the dawn chorus doesn't start for another few hours.'

'Claudia.' He lurched over, his eyes dancing with wine and something she couldn't identify. 'What do you say tomorrow, at first light, I take you on a tour of my vineyards?'

'First light?'

'Uh…' He made a deprecating gesture. 'Maybe a little later then, eh?'

She patted the bench for him to join her. A man in his cups and with his defences down? Show me a better time to take a prod.

'Was that the real reason you invited me to Cressia? To look at your wines?'

He tutted as he hitched up his long patrician tunic and sat down. 'Take no notice of my wife. I apologize if she offended you by implying things about you and me, but..

He hesitated. 'My wife says a lot of things she doesn't mean when she's drun- emotional.'

'I'm sure.'

'And Silvia jumps to conclusions, too.'

Never mind them. 'I didn't think you'd invited me here to seduce me,' she said. 'I was asking whether you brought me over to look at your wines… or,' she paused, 'to invest in them.'

Leo roared with laughter. 'My, you don't mince your words do you? Marcus told me you were one shrewd cookie. I didn't appreciate quite how shrewd.'

That's it. Spoil a perfectly good evening by bringing Mr Let's-hear-it-for-the-Security-Police into it.

'I have to come clean, Claudia, I did have something along those lines in mind, but not an investment as such. I was thinking more of a partnership. Proper contracts, drawn up in law, all legal and binding.'

'Do tell me more,' she said softly.

'Well, first off let me confess it wasn't actually my idea,' he said. 'My cousin suggested you might be amenable-'

'Marcus suggested it?' The same Marcus Cornelius Orbilio who'd caught her fixing races by doping the hot favourite and knew she was broke?

'Smart lad, my cousin. He's going places, that boy. Of course, he needs a wife before he can think about a seat in the Senate, they wouldn't take him otherwise. Divorced man with no heirs? Jupiter would turn celibate first, especially after the scandal attached to his marriage.'

'Caused a rumpus, did it, the wife turning the household slaves into cash and using the money to run off with a sea captain from Lusitania?'

Leo shot her a strange look. 'I — er, didn't realize you knew.'

Know your enemy, Leo. And Orbilio, make no mistake, was a dangerous, dangerous adversary. 'Talking of our proposed partnership contract,' she said, 'what do you suppose Lydia meant about life and death breaking yours with the rose-grower's daughter?'

'Can't imagine.'

'Aren't you curious?'

'Not remotely.'

'Strange. Because half an hour ago I could have sworn I saw you talking to your ex-wife over by the cliff edge.' Felt sure I heard you telling her that this was only a temporary arrangement and asking her to bear with you, you'd see her right, on your mother's eyes, I think you swore. 'And didn't I also hear Lydia telling you to go fork yourself — that was the word, wasn't it?'

Leo found a sudden urge to adjust his belt buckle. 'No,' he said. 'Wasn't me.'

Claudia allowed the resulting silence to stretch. 'I met a woman called Clio while I was out walking today,' she said idly. Why should Leo have the monopoly on lies? 'She mentioned you.'

'Clio? Clio?' Leo stuck out his lower lip as though thinking. 'No. Doesn't ring any bells, I'm afraid. Look. Um.' He made a clumsy gesture towards his bladder. 'Need to empty the old wineskin, getting urgent. We'll, er, thrash out those partnership proposals tomorrow, when I show you the pressing house and the vats…'

'Can't wait,' Claudia said, as her host lurched off in the opposite direction to the latrines.

And it was turning into quite a night for dropping eaves, because another familiar figure hove into view. Beads of sweat dotted his forehead and from time to time one trickled down his neck to nestle in the folds of fat. His eyes had been reduced to small black hollows all but lost in a face waxy in texture, grey in colour, and which still bore the porridgey etchings of grief. This man needs to lose weight, Claudia thought. He needs to take time out to sleep. But most of all, Saunio needs to mourn properly the death of his eighteen-year-old apprentice.

'Leo's gone to one helluva lot of trouble,' Saunio murmured, nodding towards the retreating figure, 'for a fourteen-year-old who'll be far too homesick to care.'

Interesting that it was the maestro, of all people, who should be concerned with the bride's welfare. Even Leo only saw the girl in terms of a vessel for siring sons.

'It's one of the reasons he wants the renovations complete before she gets here,' Claudia said. 'To minimize the disruption.'

Actually, it was to minimize the risk of miscarriage, which reminded her. She really must check out that mysterious crystal in Qus's quarters!

Saunio smiled, but the smile did not reach his eyes. 'At least one can't accuse Leo of not being driven by a strong sense of conviction.' He laced his fingers and stared at the waning three-quarter moon through the trees. 'Even if that sense of conviction is distorted.'

'I prefer to see him as a man driven by passion.'

'Saunio hates to contradict a beautiful woman, but that's a load of bollocks, my lovely. He's controlling, stubborn, blinkered, obsessive-'

'Are you always this loyal to those who commission you?'

Saunio let out a soft snort which might have been laughter, or then again might have been undiluted derision. 'Loyalty is worth socks to a man who won't listen.'

So that was it. Stags locking horns. The clash of two brawny egos. 'Leo's problem,' she said, 'is not that he won't listen. It's that he makes snap decisions without thinking things through, and once that course is set, failure isn't an option.'

He'd implemented a revolutionary new method for training his vines, and even though yield was a staggering twenty per cent down with this new method, reverting to traditional ways would smack of failure, so he steadfastly stuck to his guns. Likewise with Jason, Leo believed himself capable of beating the Scythian both in and out of the water, but that wasn't enough. Even though he knew damn well Jason would not set one red leather boot on Arcadia tonight, he'd armed the men in a public demonstration of his superiority over the pirates. Ditto Nanai’. He'd served her noticed to quit, and quit she would have to, once the cottage was demolished and the ground ploughed up afterwards. Leo had to be seen to be successful. The same with Silvia. He had taken so much, but once he'd made up his mind, that was it. The Ice Queen was history. Perhaps that was why Qus walked the fine line that he did? He knew just how far he could push an issue before his master became intractable.