Then came the piercing shriek of some tortured animal. But no, not an animal. Calpurnia was dragging herself along the floor toward her husband. Ashen-faced, clutching her abdomen, her shift soaked with blood.
Chapter Thirty
The fourteenth day before the Kalends of Domitianus.
Day fourteen of the Games. The fifth hour of the day.
Earinus, dressed in the red silk tunic that he always wore, stood in an alcove of the emperor’s bedroom, pouring a libation of wine to the household gods. It was one of his duties and he performed it proudly. The brain in his little head didn’t retain much, but he knew the ritual words by heart. Elsewhere in the room, slaves were dusting, polishing, changing the bedclothes, plumping the pillows. Usually, they chattered to each other while they worked. This morning they seemed unusually quiet.
Earinus ignored them and they him. They didn’t like him, he knew that; knew that they made fun of him behind his back. Let them laugh. Caesar loved him, told him how beautiful he was-especially his small, yellow-curled head. Like the head of a golden doll. Caesar loved to touch it for luck.
He had been the emperor’s favorite bedmate for three years, ever since he was brought to the palace at the age of ten as a newly cut eunuch. He had nearly forgotten the pain and terror of the operation. But now he would be a boy forever, they told him, and so Caesar would love him forever.
One of the slaves, with his back turned to the boy, busied himself with the big water clock that stood against one wall of the room. Water flowing into a silver cylinder raised a float that lifted the tiny figure of a man. The figure held an arrow in its hand with which it pointed to the hours that were inscribed on a column. As the day proceeded, the figure rose until the arrow pointed to the twelfth hour at the very top. Then it had to be reset. There were complicated gears at the base of the clock which rotated the column with imperceptible slowness throughout the year in order to make the hours longer or shorter depending upon the season. Earinus loved to watch this mechanism during the long hours when he had nothing better to do. When the slave moved out of the way, Earinus was surprised. Where had the time gone? Could it be the sixth hour already? Well, his mind did play tricks sometimes. Even Caesar, who loved him, called him a silly, slow-witted child.
As Earinus was puzzling about the clock, the big double-doors opened and in bustled Parthenius. His gaze swept the room. “Out,” he ordered the slaves, “Caesar is coming.” His eye lit on Earinus. “You too, little girl.”
Earinus didn’t like Parthenius, who always called him “freak” and “little girl” and sometimes pinched him when no one was looking. But he was not to be bullied. He stood his ground. After a moment the fat man shrugged. “Suit yourself, then.”
There was the scrape of many feet out in the corridor. The emperor approached, trailed by a retinue of courtiers and guards.
Earinus had seen his lord and master grow more haggard and ill day by day. He looked like an old man now, shuffling instead of striding as he used to do. Often at night he would pace the room for hours, or kill flies, or call him to his couch and fondle and kiss him until finally sinking into a labored sleep.
The emperor spoke wearily to the grand chamberlain. “I’ve spent all morning with Entellus trying to dictate letters but I can’t make my brain work any more. He finally ordered me to take some rest. Good man, Entellus. Cares for me.”
“Quite right, too, Caesar.” Parthenius pulled a sympathetic face.
Some of Domitian’s retinue were trying to follow him into the room, but the chamberlain blocked the doorway with his great bulk. “Please, gentlemen, Caesar wants to be alone.” He shut the double door in their faces.
To Earinus’ eye the grand chamberlain was sweating more than usual this morning and breathing heavily. The emperor noticed it too.
“What’s the matter with you, then,” he said irritably. “You’re too damned fat is what you are. I order you to go on a slimming diet.”
“Yes, Caesar.”
“What time is it now? It’s the fifth hour, isn’t it? The hour that soothsayer foretold for my death this day.”
But Parthenius only smiled and pointed to the clock. “You are mistaken, Caesar. Look, why it’s already the sixth hour. The fifth hour has come and gone, and nothing at all has happened, you see? He was lying, there is nothing to fear.”
“What do you say?” Domitian crossed the room in two strides, bent over the clock. When he turned back, his eyes were suddenly alive and a slow disbelieving smile uncovered his teeth-the smile of a wolf, if wolves smiled. “By thundering Jupiter, you’re right, Parthenius! The man lied! I’m all right then? The nightmare is over! Earinus, you hear that? The danger is past. Come here, boy, let me kiss you! By the gods, I feel like a new man. Bring me wine.” Earinus fetched the flagon and a goblet. Domitian tipped the flagon down his throat and drained it. He wiped his mouth, took a deep breath and expelled it slowly. The weariness seemed to drop away from he him. He did a little dance step and laughed like a boy. “Well that’s that. All this worry, all these precautions for nothing. For nothing! Do you delight at my good fortune, Parthenius?”
“Of course, Caesar. How should I not? Soon the whole world will delight at it. And I myself will build a temple to your good fortune at my own expense.”
Domitian held the chamberlain by his shoulders, pulled him close and kissed both his fat cheeks. “Thank you, my loyal friend, thank you. And now, by Jupiter, I’d like my bath!” “Excellent idea, my lord. Shall I summon the guards to go with you?” “Eh? No need for that today. I’m a free man!” “As you say, lord.” Domitian strode out followed by the chamberlain who, with a last malignant glance at Earinus, shut the doors behind him.
Alone in the room, Earinus went over to the clock and watched the water dripping from its pipe into the cylinder. Presently, it struck him that the gears which turned the column had not moved even a little in all the time he’d been staring at them. It was water from the outflow pipe that operated them. He looked more closely and saw that there was no water running from it. Someone had stuck a plug of wool into the pipe so that water couldn’t escape from the cylinder. The float and the little man with his pointer were rising too fast! Earinus scratched his small head and worked his small brain and wondered. What could it mean? He must tell his master.
As he stood pondering this discovery, he heard the sound of footsteps and whispered words outside the door. The door opened, admitting a dark-haired man with an injured arm. “Wait for him here,” he heard the sentry say. But it was more of a whisper than the sentry’s usual bark. Something about this made Earinus take fright and he ran to hide himself in the alcove before he was seen. From his hiding place he could not see the man directly but by looking up at one of the polished moonstone mirrors that were fixed near the ceiling in each corner of the room he saw his reflection.
He watched as the man sat down on a nearby chair and felt along his bandaged left arm with the fingertips of his right hand. Earinus held his breath.
Minutes passed and then again the door opened. And this time it was the emperor, wearing a loose bathing robe and sandals, dripping water on the marble floor.
“What is this about?” he demanded. “Why have I been dragged from my bath?”
The man with the injured arm jumped to his feet. “Caesar, I have an urgent message for you. The Praetorian commandant has uncovered a new conspiracy against your sacred person. Read this.” He held out a pair of wax tablets.
The emperor tried to laugh. “Another conspiracy? There can’t be another one. I’ve escaped my fate, don’t you see.” He looked the messenger up and down. “Who are you? Haven’t I seen you around here before?” “Yes, Caesar,” the man replied. “I am called Stephanus. I make myself useful here in small ways.” “I see. What’s wrong with that arm of yours? It’s been bandaged for some time, hasn’t it?” “An infection, sir. It’s healing slowly.” “Well, have it looked at by a competent man. You can’t be too careful with those things.” “I will, Caesar. Thank you.” Earinus crept from his hiding place. He pulled at the emperor’s sleeve. “Master?” “What, you still here?” “Master, the water…broken…” “Can’t you see I’m busy? Get away with you now.” The boy was desperate, his throat constricted. Why couldn’t he make his words come out? Stephanus put the tablet in Domitian’s hands. “Please, Caesar, there’s no time to lose!