'Run, Olenus! Run!' Tarquinius cried.
At last the soothsayer turned with a look of recognition. 'Run?' He cackled. 'I'd break my neck out there.'
'Soldiers are coming to kill you! Caelius is guiding them.'
Olenus' eyes held no trace of fear.
'You must flee. Now!'
'It is my time, Tarquinius. I am going to join our ancestors. You are the last haruspex.'
'Me?' Tarquinius was shocked. Through all the years of teaching, it had never occurred to him that he was being groomed to succeed the old man.
Olenus nodded gravely.
'The liver and sword?'
'You have them both already.'
'No! I don't!' Tarquinius gesticulated frantically.
Again Olenus seemed not to hear. He stood up and began walking towards the figures at the mouth of the cave.
Tarquinius felt somebody grab his arm. The cave receded slowly from view as he swam into consciousness. He was desperate to know what had happened to Olenus, but could see no more. The young Etruscan woke with a start. His mother was standing over the bed, looking concerned.
'Tarquinius?'
'It was nothing,' he muttered, his heart racing. 'Go back to sleep, Mother. You need to rest.'
'Your shouts woke me,' she answered reproachfully. 'Father would have woken too, if he wasn't drunk.'
Tarquinius' stomach clenched. Olenus had always said never to mention anything he taught. 'What was I saying?'
'Hard to make out. Something about Olenus and a bronze liver. The last of those was lost years ago.' Fulvia frowned. 'Has the old rascal laid hands on one?'
'He's not said a thing,' Tarquinius replied smoothly. 'Go back to bed.
You have to be up at dawn.'
He helped Fulvia across the room, wincing at her stooped back and at how much effort it took to climb into the low cot. Long years of hard labour had crippled his mother's body.
'My strong, clever Arun.' Fulvia used the sacred term for youngest son. 'You are destined for greatness. I feel it in my bones.'
'Hush now.' Tarquinius glanced around uneasily. Caelius did not like ancient, non-Roman terms being used. 'Get some sleep.'
But Fulvia was undeterred. 'I've known it since I first saw your birthmark – the same one Tarchun bore. We could not have given you any other name but Tarquinius.'
He rubbed self-consciously at the red triangular shape on the side of his neck. It was something he had only seen occasionally in the reflection of a pool and the haruspex often commented on it.
'It was no surprise to me when Olenus took an interest in you. Teaching sacred rituals, pushing you to learn languages from the foreign slaves.' She swelled with pride. 'I kept telling your father. Once upon a time he listened. But since your brother was killed fighting Sulla, he is only interested in his next jug of wine.'
Tarquinius considered the sleeping figure sadly. 'He was once proud to be a warrior of the Rasenna.'
'Deep down he'll always be an Etruscan,' his mother whispered. 'Like you.'
'There are still many reasons to be proud of our race.' He kissed Fulvia's brow and she smiled, closing tired eyes.
The art of haruspicy is alive, Mother. The Etruscans will not be forgotten. But he did not say it out loud. While Sergius talked to no one, Fulvia was prone to gossiping. It was vital that Caelius did not know the truth about his trips to see Olenus.
Tarquinius clambered into his own bed. By the time he fell asleep, the sky was beginning to pale.
There was little chance to hunt wolves or visit Olenus in the days that followed. It was nearly harvest time, the estate 's busiest time of year. The workload for slaves and indentured families like those of Tarquinius had increased fourfold.
Rufus Caelius had returned from Rome to supervise the important task. Most had supposed his trip had been to raise capital to bolster his ailing finances. The redhead was a typical example of the Roman noble class: good at warfare, poor at commerce. Ten years earlier, when the price of grain had begun to plummet due to a large increase in imports from Sicily and Egypt, Caelius had failed to spot the trend. While shrewder neighbours converted entire latifundia to growing more lucrative grapes and olives, the bullish ex-staff officer had persisted with wheat. In only a decade, the profitable estate had been brought to the edge of ruin.
It had not taken long for the cheap foreign crops to bankrupt thousands of small farmers throughout Italy, Tarquinius' family among them. Big landowners capitalised on the opportunity, increasing their properties' sizes at others' expense. New workers were required quickly and the gap was filled by thousands of slaves, the human prizes of Rome's conquests.
Although they were citizens, Sergius and his family were fortunate enough to get low-paid contract work from Caelius. At least they were paid. Thanks to the slave population, others were not so lucky and cities swelled immeasurably from the influx of starving peasants. Even more grain was thus required for the congiaria, the free distributions to the poor.
If Caelius had been to see moneylenders in the capital, it seemed he had been successful. The noble was in excellent humour organising work parties in the courtyard each morning. Tarquinius was picked for the harvest, as he had been every summer since arriving on the estate eight years previously.
Huge areas of ripe oats and wheat had to be cut and stacked. It was a backbreaking task, lasting from dawn till dusk for a week or more. Already tanned from days on the mountainside, Tarquinius' skin was burnt a deep mahogany colour. To the delight of some female slaves, his long hair grew even blonder. Its length helped conceal the birthmark.
Fulvia was now too infirm for physical labour and ferried food and drink to the fields with the older women. Caelius had tried before to make the men toil all day without pause, but too many had collapsed from de-hydration in the hot summer two years before. One had even died. The noble realised a short daily break was cheaper than dead labourers.
By the fourth day, the sun was beating down with a malicious intensity. Fulvia's arrival in the early afternoon with a mule-drawn cart full of water, bread and root vegetables was most welcome. She parked it in the shade of a large tree and everyone crowded round.
'I've got a bit of cheese here,' Fulvia whispered, patting a cloth-covered package by her side.
Tarquinius winked in reply.
The whole group was stripped down to loincloths and sandals, shorthandled scythes shoved into the leather belts that Caelius provided. To prevent attempts at escape, the slaves among them wore heavy iron manacles round their ankles. Like any big landowner's, Caelius' workers were from all over the Mediterranean. Judaeans, Spaniards and Greeks sweated beside Nubians and Egyptians. Conversation was limited as the famished men ate, and soon each basket of food was empty. Only a few crumbs had fallen for the sparrows pecking hopefully round their feet.
Maurus, one of the Greek slaves, chewed the last of his bread wistfully. 'What I'd give for a piece of meat! Maybe we'll get some at the Vinalia Rustica.'
'Caelius is too stingy! And he 's got real money worries at the moment,' snorted Dexter, the vilicus, a tough ex-legionary from the south. 'But I'd say Olenus eats plenty, eh?'
The others glanced curiously at Tarquinius, whose trips to see the old man were common knowledge.
'Bet that sorcerer feeds him lamb all the time!' said one.
'Is that why you go up there?' There was an envious tinge to Maurus' dark-skinned features.
'No. It's so I can't hear your whining.'
There was a burst of laughter, scaring the birds into flight.