"We learn whatever we can," said
Lucius, "then report back to the others with what we'v discovered. We'll all need to coordinate together before we act against them. We could try pretending to join them, but that didn't work out so well for me and
Grit that time in Londinium." He shuddered with the memory.
Spurius spoke to the players backstage, who showed no reaction to the odd words he threw out there beyond bewilderment. The players, like the play, were Greek, and they felt honored to perform in Pompey's Theater in Rome. Now that
Spurius was up close, he could see how the actor who had played Oedipus had faked his blindness. His eyelids had been dyed black, presumably when he had been offstage before the final climactic scene, and red berry juice had been dripping from them down his cheeks. He had simply come out with his eyes shut, thes appearing from a distance to have empty sockets out of which his eyes had been gouged. Since his eyes had been closed, he had genuinely moved and acted like a blind man. The troupe had nothing but good things to say about Rome and
Caesar, and they were pleased to have him in the audience. He was able to get directions to
Senator Germanicus's villa from one of his servants. It was located a short distance north of Rome, appropriately near the Field of Mars.