Page 157 of Cleopatra

Not an asp’s bite. It would have taken only a brief inspection to compare the size of the puncture to their fangs. But Octavian had heard of my method of vengeance during the donations of Alexandria. And what better way to emphasise my monstrous ways than to entwine my fate with that of the cobra.

“No.” I beat my fists against Charmion’s chest. “We were meant to go together.”

I would have stayed with them both, if I could have. But the distant footfalls of soldiers drew closer.

Soon Octavian would enter the temple and find me alive.

And no longer can I die.

Though I could feel pain: looking down at two of my loves, that was certain.

Octavian will not have me.

But I could not bear to leave my heart in this temple. I looked at Antonius and Charmion and felt a sob claw at my throat. “A curse it is to live when you are gone.”

The soldiers drew ever nearer.

I knew I had to flee but I was paralysed. As well as making good my escape, I had to ensure they would not search for me.

I stroked Charmion’s hair, a plan forming. “I will not let your sacrifice be for naught. Let me play one final ruse.”

And so I removed my cloak and wrapped it around Charmion’s shoulders. Then I took some ash from burned incense and lined her eyes. Finally, I removed my crown and placed it on her head.

I had not encountered Octavian in many years and even then, only briefly. When he entered the temple, he would see the queen he searched for. Few ever looked beyond the crown.

The soldiers were close now, their boots striking the tiles in the temple district.

I squeezed the hands of the two people I had loved and lost. But I knew I had to leave, quickly.

I followed the path Charmion had taken, slipping through the tunnels of the empty pool. I was able to go as far as the central cistern without getting wet, and from there I could navigate my way through the collapsed remains that led to the cave by the sea.

My children were still there when I arrived. The four of them sobbed when they saw me.

“We must go: Octavian is on Antirhodos, now is the time to slip away,” I said.

Caesarion rowed while I searched the water for any sign of a threat.

But no one was looking for a servant and her four children. They were looking for a queen.

And I would never be that again.

Epilogue

It has been thousands of years since my first death. And I have had many, many more. I have come to understand the magnitude of the curse bestowed upon me.

I have suffered for the crimes I committed, and there will be countless others.

No one is made perfect in the likeness of a god. No matter how hard I tried.

It is an exquisite pain unlike any other, to watch your children die. We were not entirely successful in our escape. Selene and Helios were captured by Octavian two years later, and as a final insult to me were sent to Octavia, who raised them as her own. Caesarion was also captured young, and I was only thankful his death was swift. I was left with Ptolemy, and together we found sanctuary on an island off the coast of Greece. We called the isle the Land of Punt and lived there simply.

The next time I died, Ptolemy was barely into adulthood. I fell from a great height while picking olives by a cliff’s edge. Once again, I visited Isis’s realm before returning to the moment before my death. When I awoke, I found Ptolemy weeping next to the olive tree. It was only then that I told him of the truth of my curse. He wept all the harder.

But as the years passed, I knew that he was comforted that old age would not separate us during his lifetime. And when my mind grew weary and my body frail, I welcomed the gentle release of death. Of course, my peace was curtailed as I was reborn once more, awakening in the body I had first died in, not yet forty years of age. Ptolemy was fifty-seven.

Of Helios and Selene, I knew a little. One summer, a sailor shipwrecked on our isle, bringing with him news of all kinds. The sailor, injured by his ordeal, succumbed to infection despite my attempts to prevent it. But before he died, he told me of a queen, newly crowned, in Mauretania.

I repaired his boat over many months, my suspicions growing by the day. When I deemed it seaworthy, Ptolemy and I sailed across the ocean that separated us from the continent. It took us many months to locate Mauretania. Neither of us were sailors, and we were unaccustomed to the harbours of the new world.