Page 32 of Cleopatra

“It is.”

“Then why do it?”

“Egypt,” I said simply. “She is me, and I am her. With every tincture, with every stitch, I repair a piece of myself. They are not just people, Ahmose. They are the parts of me.”

Even if some of them raised arms against me or shared cruel rumours, I still loved them like I loved the body I wore in this realm.

It would have been simpler if it were not so. If Egypt had been nothing but a place, and the people nothing but my subjects. Fewer would have died. But I will never regret love. Even if it condemned me at the last.

“You are indeed Isis-blessed,” Ahmose said, his voice thick with devotion.

I didn’t reply. My ability to heal was purely academic. My god had still abandoned me. But I did not contradict him.

“Why Selene?”

I smiled and pointed to the moon. “For like the moon goddess, I bring my own light.”

A handful of years ago, the lyre player had instructed me to do just that: “Do not chase shadows. Make your own light.”

“You should ride a chariot of moonlight, Pharaoh.”

I laughed, but I didn’t think Ahmose was speaking in jest. “My legs will do just fine.”

We visited five more people before I made my way back to Antirhodos. When I finally slipped between the sheets of my bed, Charmion was already fast asleep. My presence woke her.

“You went without me,” she said from the darkness. Her pallet lay beside mine, but ever since the assassin had tried to kill me, she had slept in my bed with me. I felt safer with her there.

“I knew you would want to come, but we have a busy day tomorrow and I needed you here.”

Charmion rolled over and tucked herself into my back. Her voice grew sleepy. “Yes, the barge is ready for embarkment at dawn. But you should not have gone without me.”

“I was not alone. Ahmose came with me.”

She tutted. “That’s where he went. I had the guards looking all over for him.”

“He was fearful of your wrath.”

“Perhaps I will pretend I do not know of his excursion with you. It will be fun to tease him.”

I had noticed she took pleasure in teasing Ahmose, far more than anyone else. But the middle of the night was not the time to question her on her affections.

Charmion yawned. “I wish you had waited for me, though. You know I worry.”

“Sleep now; you can chastise me in the morning.”

“Hmm.” Her breathing softened as sleep claimed her.

It wasn’t long before it took me too.

Chapter Seven

48 BCE

strode along the promenade of the royal barge. The boat was a thalamegos, one of many in the royal fleet. This one, however, was mine. I’d had it commissioned in the early days of my reign.

It was half a stadion long—the length of four sycamore trees—and crafted from cedar imported from Tyre. The lower level of the barge was fitted with a dining room and two staterooms, while the upper consisted of my living and sleeping quarters.

Serket’s Venom, it was called, after the scorpion god, ally and protector of Isis. So, too, would the vessel see me safely down the Nile.