Page 12 of Cleopatra

“Is it time for the feast?”

I laughed. His callous words would have been celebrated by my father.

“Yes, it is time for the feast.”

—

I had invited all the governors of Egypt to celebrate my father’s journey to the afterlife. Their ships filled the palace harbour while their voices filled the great hall.

The dining table was overflowing with food served on fine gold platters. Servants weaved between my guests, their faces adorned with copper jackal masks in honour of Anubis, the guide of the dead. Sharp ears, studded with lapis, rose up above their heads.

My father had always enjoyed dressing up the palace workers. Like they were pieces on a senet board to be cast and played with.

“And me? Do you wish for me to wear this mask too?” Charmion had asked earlier that night. Though she didn’t show it, I could feel her disapproval as I ordered the servants to change their garb.

“I am not my father,” I replied quietly. “I only wish to honour him with a feast he would have thrown himself.”

When she did not respond, I continued, “No, you are not required to wear it.”

Charmion reached for one of the masks laid out across the bottom of the throne. “But I am a servant, and by your command, all servants must wear this…uniform.”

My cheeks grew hot. At the time I had thought it was anger, but now, looking back, I recognise the feeling as shame. “Then wear it,” I snapped. “But I have given you the choice.”

“Choice,” she repeated, before picking up the mask and leaving.

I watched her now from across the room. She stood with her hands clasped by her waist, waiting to be called should I need her.

But I could not see her expression beneath the jackal’s coppery snarl.

I turned back to my plate, picking at the roast pigeon.

It was my first time hosting the ruling elite, and I found myself wishing the evening away.

My brother and I sat apart from the main diners on an ivory table set on a dais.

“Eat something,” I encouraged Theos, who had sat twisting his hands in his lap all evening. He was just as unhappy as I was, though less versed in hiding it.

“I am not very hungry.”

“Listen to your sister. She protects your wellbeing,” Pothinus said from a stool by my feet. Though my brother ruled by my side, the eunuch, to my chagrin, had been named Theos’s regent in my father’s will. It incensed me further to see Theos follow Pothinus’s command and not mine as he took some food from his plate and began to eat.

The lyre player began a sweet melody and I paused to listen. Hailing from Thebes, she had been a favourite of my father’s. It reminded me of the task I had assigned to Pothinus.

“Did I not send you to retrieve the latest tax report from Thebes?” I asked the regent.

“The tablet awaits you in your chambers, Pharaoh.”

It was a shame he was so effective in his role, or I would have had cause to put greater distance between myself and his foul-smelling hair.

“Can I see the report?” Theos asked with his mouth full.

“No need, brother.”

He deserves a semblance of a childhood, I thought as he went back to his meal, his appetite clearly revived.

“And this tax report, Pothinus, were the taxes short like the others?”

“Yes, Pharaoh. But I must advise against doing anything indiscreet. The Governor of Thebes was a good friend to your father.”