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I dipped the quill and repeated a row of letters. “Yes, in a nursery with other girls until we were old enough to enter the training school, the Schola Morum.”

“Commit those letters to memory over the next few days, please. I’ll write down some common vocabulary for you.” He took the quill and began to scratch again. “Did all the girls at the training school come from such nurseries?”

I watched him ink out the unfamiliar words. “For the most part, yes. Why do you ask?”

“I’m just surprised so many children are produced. If there are enough female children to populate the training school, surely there are male children being born to Corlivo courtesans too.”

I paused, considering this now-obvious perspective for the first time.

“Here you go.” He handed me the vocabulary list.

I read it over. “I’ll practice copying these.”

“Very good. But I hope you also get to go out and do something fun. At least walk in the orchard.”

“You’ll take me to see the machine you mentioned—the orrery?”

“I will.” He stood up and pushed in his chair with a smile. “Ah, that’s better. My headache is much improved. It must have been the company.”

I smiled also. “Have a good day, Cassius.”

“You as well, Anna.” With a wave, he left the balcony.

I remained there for another hour, copying the vocabulary and reading the words aloud to myself. The sun rose higher in the sky, and the seabirds seemed to float on the air, great wings extended. Ships left the harbor on unfathomable errands. My mind raced, stimulated by my first lesson in Kish, and the knowledge that there was a machine in the city that could predict the movement of the stars. I could hardly believe my good fortune. All my life I had dreamed of having access to ideas like these and the freedom to study them. I thought of the women I had left behind in Corlivo with an ache in my heart. If only they, too, could share this luck.

THAT EVENING, I wandered downstairs and found Cornelia near the front door, inspecting a chipped tile in the blue-and-white mosaic that covered the floor of the atrium. “I must have this fixed,” she said aloud to herself. “This place will fall to ruin, for all anyone notices.”

“Excuse me, but is His Grace here?” I asked.

She started and turned with a nervous laugh. “Oh, dear, I’m not used to others being here. The senate convened this afternoon, so he is still away from home, but he should return any minute now. We’ll have a late dinner when he arrives.” With a frown at the broken tile, she ushered me toward a narrow doorway I had not noticed. “Has he shown you the shrine? I find it so comforting. I’m sure you’d like a place to say your prayers.”

I looked in, and she nodded encouragingly. In the center of the small room, surrounded by flickering candles, was a massive spiral carved out of ebony. Set in delicate marble supports, it balanced on its narrow point, swirling upward in ever wider circles toward the ceiling.

I had seen this symbol before, on Clemens Fabius’s ring: the sign of Gurgexenes. I glanced back at Cornelia.

“Go ahead, dear. Make yourself at home.”

Wanting to be courteous, but also driven by curiosity, I went in and stood quietly before the spiral.

Cornelia followed me and stood reverently with her plump hands clasped. “I come in here each day and pray for forgiveness.”

“Forgiveness?” I asked, startled. “What have you done?”

An expression of taut distress flickered across her face. “So many little things. I can hardly keep track of them all.”

Before I could ask any of the many questions that formed in my mind, I heard the front door open. Sebastianus came up behind us, his cloak still over his shoulders.

“Cornelia, don’t you know Anna keeps to the old ways?” Sebastianus smiled, but he seemed tired, his face drawn. “I’ll show her around the house before dinner.”

“Of course, Your Grace. Pardon me. I’ll check on the food.” “Thank you.”

She hurried off.

Sebastianus leaned on his walking stick and nodded toward the sculpture. “Never mind this. You and I know better.”

“Is this Gurgexenes? Why the spiral shape?”

“It’s the swirl of a whirlpool, sucking everything in to cleanse it and make it new. My uncle has found it a very effective way to unite a large, sprawling empire. His subjects may hail from different ancestral lands, but we’re all one in the waters of the great Sea God. It’s a clever strategy, washing away the old and bringing in a flood of new ideas.”