The Centurion's Empire by Sean McMullen Page A

preparation. Two extra at least, perhaps as many as four."
    "Four?" exclaimed Levites. "Factions would spring up, breakaway groups would tear us apart. No more than three have ever been able to make the Venenum Immortale at any one time. Three has been sufficient for many centuries. Why change now?"
    "Were they to die in the same accident, the secret would be lost," said Regulus. "Why not have a whole trusted group sharing the secret? The women who do the revivals, for example?"
    There were cries of dismay and jeers, but scattered applause as well. Regulus waited for the commotion to subside before he went on.
    "With four sharing the secret we could have three frozen while the other made more Venenum. That means a longer lifespan for all. Factions are formed by conspirators, not by frozen men. Up to now we have had Celcinius frozen most of the time while another was awake one year in. five to make more Venenum. Lucian and Quintemes have the skill to make the Venenum, it is true, but we have been lucky until now with having'just two trained to make it. Four students must be trained."
    "No! Lucian and two students are enough."
    "Lucian is sixty-seven years old, and is likely to survive no more than five or ten more revivals. Then what? We must train those who are young, in the prime of life."
    "Young men are ambitious, and would use the secret of the Venenum Immortale to seize power for themselves. We cannot afford factions, we are too weak! Gods of Romulus we might be, but we are still mortal. If stabbed we die."
    "And we die when our bodies grow old, too," retorted Regulus. "All right then, train only one more new student besides Quintemes, but make him young."
    "No, there is no precedent—" Levites began to protest.
    "Yes there is a precedent! Our women train all their number in the arts of revival."
    "Without the Venenum Immortale there could be no revival at all."
    Regulus slumped against the cold marble backrest and pouted sullenly, intractable rather than defeated. "I've made enough concessions," he declared. 'There must be at least one extra student, and she must be less than thirty years of age."
    "Below thirty! She! You would have a girl control the destiny of Rome?"
    "Why not? It survived Nero."
    "We kept Nero in check, and when he defied us we struck him down."
    Regulus folded his arms and straightened his back as far as it would bend. A joint popped loudly. Levites began to laugh, but Regulus glared at him angrily until he turned away.
    "I'll veto any proposal to train some doddering old goat to make the Venenum," declared Regulus. "This is the time for reform."
    Above their heads, at an air vent, Vespus was listening but not comprehending. The debate was in Etruscan, which was the Temporian language for formal and ceremonial occasions. Vespus looked around before moving on. In the distance he could see two guards pacing at the top of a tower at the edge of the Upper Palace. Guards were not permitted into this sanctuary of the Immortals, so what would happen if he were seen? Would the Immortals climb the roofs to pursue them, and how good were they as fighters? He decided that he had seen and heard enough.
    "Big meeting, over there," he reported when he had returned to Lars. "They spoke a language that sounded familiar, yet I understood nothing. It might have been Greek."
    "A Greek fortress here!" exclaimed Lars under his breath. "Perhaps an attack on Rome is being planned and prepared."
    "Some of the speakers were women." "Women! That's odd . . . but no matter. What of the ve-nendarium?"
    "I checked the chimneys, every one of them. There's a cluster down there, to the southeast, where the soot is oily, and has a sharp scent about it."
    "Then we should go there at once. Pray that their speakers are long-winded."
    Vespus went ahead and Lars followed, carrying their gear. The snow had made the tiles treacherous, even though it dampened the sounds that they made. Suddenly a white shape detached itself from a wall and