Lucius shook his head and pushed back his cowl. “No. We need to press on to your family’s home. I don’t want to be on the road as the shadows fall.” He looked to either side of the road, the river on their right and the rooftops of the ancient temples to their left, hidden as they were by sweet-smelling pines, cypresses and olive trees. Statues stood among the temples, like silent adherents of the Gods.
There was a squawking in the trees that flanked the length of the temple of Apollo Delphinios. Among the branches of a tall pine tree, a crow of deepest black called out, his dark eyes watching the passing wagon.
Lucius looked at the bird, his father’s messenger. It flapped its wings and dropped out of the branches to glide to the ground before the temple and when Lucius saw where it land
