CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Nothing happened.
Returning to the city, they crossed the same bridge they had earlier traversed fully expecting to be attacked the moment they stepped into the wide expanse of the Forum Bovarium. But, making their way past the various temples and public buildings setting in cold splendor and towering over them in deserted silence, no one stirred or made themselves visible. Not even a dog or one of the many wild foxes known to live somewhere near the Tiber who explored the forum at night looking for a meal was seen.
But, approaching the first steep incline leading up to the Aventine and moving past the massive dark marbled outer facing of the Circus Maximus, the sound of laughter, high up in the arena's empty seating encircling the track, came to their ears. A man's
