The Dreams of Morpheus Read Online Free

year.’
    Magnus froze in the act of putting the cup to his mouth; he thought for a moment, then smiled and pointed his index finger at his counsellor. ‘Now that, my old friend, is deep thinking.’
    Magnus heaved his way through the crowds in Caesar’s Forum with Marius and Sextus to either side of him; all three wore their plain white citizens’ togas. None of them spoke as they negotiated a passage through the milling citizenry listening to a case in an open-air law court, or petitioning the Urban Prefect or one ofthe lesser magistrates who carried out the city’s public business every day under the great equestrian statue of the former dictator that dominated his forum.
    As they approached the magistrates presiding beneath the Divine Julius, Magnus glimpsed a young man in a senatorial toga, seated at a desk; his almost black hair was oiled and combed forward from the back of his head as if covering premature balding. Magnus stopped to look more closely. ‘There’s our boy, lads.’
    â€˜He looks very pleased with himself,’ Marius commented as Brutus stood and grinned, grasping the forearm of an Easterner in a white headdress, and slapping his shoulder before taking a scroll from him.
    â€˜Business always brings a smile to my face, brother.’ Magnus moved forward as the Urban Prefect joined Brutus and his Eastern associate, dispensing back slaps and toothy smiles all round.
    â€˜They must be doing a lot of business to be that happy,’ Sextus observed in his slow manner.
    Magnus waited until the Easterner had moved off and Brutus had sat down, unrolling the scroll, before walking up to him. ‘Aedile?’
    Brutus looked up from the scroll. ‘Mmm. Oh, it’s you; Magnus, isn’t it?’
    â€˜You know perfectly well that’s my name, aedile.’
    â€˜I don’t like your tone.’
    â€˜I’m not asking you to like it; I’m asking you to listen to what I have to say.’
    Brutus sighed. ‘You have a right to approach your magistrate; I’m listening.’
    â€˜The people of my area believe they are being given short measures at the grain dole.’
    â€˜Do they now?’ Brutus wrinkled his nose. ‘And what makes them believe that?’
    â€˜They’ve checked what they receive against what they know to be the correct measurement and they want me to ask you to look into it.’
    â€˜I’ve heard from my sources that a nasty little specimen by the name of Duilius is stirring people up; no doubt it was he whoasked you to come here. Well, you’ve asked me and I can assure you that they are wrong.’ Brutus leant closer to Magnus. ‘Perhaps, for a small consideration every month to your Brotherhood’s coffers, you could reassure Duilius and his friends for me?’
    â€˜I’m afraid that won’t be possible, aedile; that is exactly what my people expect to happen. And it’s out of consideration for your well-being that I would ask you again to look into the matter.’
    â€˜Are you threatening me, Magnus?’
    â€˜Not at all, aedile; it’s just that I wouldn’t like to be responsible for your safety walking in an area where the people may have an unfounded grudge against you.’
    Brutus scoffed. ‘The people know their place; they would never dare lay hands on an elected magistrate.’
    â€˜So that’s a refusal then?’
    â€˜There is nothing for me to refuse; the measures all conform to imperial standards and they all have the imperial stamp on them to prove that.’
    Magnus held the aedile’s look for a good few moments; neither blinked. ‘Thank you for your time, aedile.’
    Brutus sniffed and returned to reading his scroll.
    â€˜What will you do now, Magnus?’ Marius asked as they negotiated a path towards the Senate House in the Forum Romanum.
    â€˜Tempt a senator into doing what we want by dangling the chance of