"A brute!" muttered Lycias, under his breath. Then aloud: "Are you on some mission to the Emperor?"
"Ahem. Not so. But very high in the secrets of the chief priest of
Jupiter."
"One might call him the power behind the throne."
"Thou hast said truly."
"And it is really true that thou art admitted to those holy precincts?"
"Behold!" Alyrus drew from the folds of his garment the bronze lizard.
"Not only does this admit me to the temple itself but to any place in
the city of Rome. Thou seest. It is the symbol of the priests of
Jupiter."
"I see," Lycias' eyes gleamed, as he watched Alyrus placing the precious symbol in a safe place.
Then, Alyrus, intoxicated by the events of the past few moments, by his sudden transition from slavery to freedom, at the prospect opening before him of a speedy return to the home he loved, flattered at the homage shown him by the gladiator, poured out the whole story into ears only too willing to hear. He narrated everything except that he had been a slave, representing himself as a client of Aurelius Lucanus, who had been grievously wronged by him. He told how he had discovered, one day in the public Forum, that the son and daughter of the lawyer were Christians, and Aurelius sympathized with them; how, by the chief priest's desire, he had assisted in tracking many more of the despised sect, of whom several hundred were now languishing in prison, among them, Octavia the widow of the proud Senator Aureus Cantus, and her son and daughter.
Lycias passed his big hand over his smoothly shaven face to hide his expression of disgust. He rose.
"If you permit, honored sir, I will now retire, with the hope that we shall meet again."