Two more Praetorians, followed by a very expensively dressed old woman, came into sight. Jupiter’s brass balls! That’s the Poisoner herself – the Dowager Empress Drucilla – in the flesh. Mothers in the Capital would use one of two frightening characters to get disobedient children back in line: Magor the Hun or Drucilla the Poisoner. As King Magor was dead but Drucilla still very much alive, I knew which one struck me with terror. Poisoner was an unproved nasty rumor. But when you purchased odorless, tasteless poisons that killed without a trace from the Quirinale Syndicate we made a point of tracing the middle woman back to the source.