Page 76 of Cleopatra

Realisation was a cold thing; it set my teeth chattering and my hair on end. Theos was gone—not dead, no, for Ptolemy would have foretold it—but gone. Entombed in his armour.

Love was not a prerequisite in the Ptolemy family. We were siblings, sometimes spouses, more than occasionally enemies. Had I loved my brother? The truth is, I’m not sure. Years were not the only thing that separated us. We had little in common, and though, until these past few months, we had dined together every evening, I had not truly known him.

I failed you in so many ways.

If I had loved him harder, would he have been swayed so easily to Arsinoe’s side? Shame pierced my grief, making me gasp.

Caesar held me as I shuddered, my sobbing silent except for my heaving breath.

How would his gift sustain him? Would dehydration end his torment? Or old age, many years hence?

“Please, Isis, let it be swift,” I said to no one but my god.

I looked back to Arsinoe, but she had turned away. Did she also feel shame? Or had ambition rotted away what was left of her compassion?

I wanted to believe that Arsinoe hadn’t meant to lose Theos that day—that her anger had overcome her reason. But I would never know. For this was the last time I spoke to my sister.

And her, I did love. Despite all her faults and her treachery. She had been my shadow for so many years. Even now I understood that she sought the light.

The rowers on Arsinoe’s ship were making quick work closing the distance between her and her remaining fleet.

Caesar raised his hand to indicate pursuit.

I gathered myself to speak. “Leave her,” I said. “Let her conscience fester with the sin she committed this day. Tomorrow we will end this.”

My crying ceased and a wave of exhaustion overcame me. I looked to the spot where Theos had disappeared beneath the ocean’s surface.

Ptolemy sniffled beside me.

“Goodbye, Mikro Theos,” I whispered. “May you find solace in your kingdom in the sea’s depths.”

I thought of my brother often over the years. I indulged myself with the hope that he had freed himself of his armour and sought land, living a happy life on the shore.

But I knew it was more likely he’d either died within days or remained trapped in his gold tomb for years, until old age blissfully released him from the gift that had become his prison.

Skip Notes

* Not asses’ milk, as many have gone on to claim. Your falsities follow me to the bathhouse, even.

Chapter Fifteen

47 BCE

rsinoe fled Egypt the next day. Her rebellion quashed, she sought refuge with the few allies who still called her queen. I did not see her again for many years.

With the war won, the hardest part was to come—the rebuilding of Alexandria. I oversaw the construction, starting with the new library.

“It will never be the same,” Archibios said to me.

Dust from the building site filled the air. I held a thin piece of silk across my face to shield me from it.

“No, it will not. The tree of knowledge is gone, its power burned to ash. But from its remains new seeds will grow. They may not be divine, they may not bear fruit, but the legend of the tree will continue on. And with it, the legacy of the library.”

Archibios’s eyes grew wet. “We will regrow the collection, better than before.”

“Julius has already agreed to send in copies of works from Rome. It will take many years, but the library will be great once more.” My words were not just a comfort to the librarian, but to myself. I needed the reminder of Alexandria’s future, for right now so much of it remained in ruins and rubble.

To the north was the burned harbour, to the east the entrenched streets. In the west, every building was stripped of wood from the pillaging carried out by the traitors. And in the south, drought still laid waste to the farmland.