Part 13 (1/2)
His tears dried up in surprise ”Wh-what?” he sniffled
”It is 's will, that we must abide by the tern as joint monarchs in ti this! How could I have trusted him, or hoped for justice fro? Now it seemed he was as devious and cruel as the rest of his countryether, you will raise the money you owe me As youwhat the late King still owed the Roman Republic” He nodded reedy, after all ”You cannot be both judge and beneficiary,” I said coldly ”Choose which way you will be satisfied--either as high judge or as debt collector” just greedy, after all ”You cannot be both judge and beneficiary,” I said coldly ”Choose which way you will be satisfied--either as high judge or as debt collector”
He shot a look at er but resolution ”I will be satisfied both ways, as it pleases e, under whatever form you choose, and then we shall have our reconciliation banquet” He waved his hand at Pothinus ”Prepare for it It should be a huge fete, held in--as that hall with the gold rafters and the porphyry coluuests Do all the things you Alexandrians excel in Dancing girls Acrobats Magic tricks Gold plate Rose petals on the floor You knohat better than I Yes, the people must see that we all embrace and love one another”
They stood as if they had been mummified, as stiff and wrapped as Osiris
”Well?” said Caesar ”I have told you what you must do”
The mummies bent their heads and withdrew
I whirled around to Caesar ”How could you? I thought ere allies!” I was intelligent enough not to scream, You even called yourself otten that? But I knew Caesar did not forget Had he forgotten that? But I knew Caesar did not forget
I felt angry, betrayed, seething I had had only hours to bask in the ht, and already it was gone And for what? So I could be made a new sort of prisoner?
Sternly I tookto the other You caain an audience with Caesar, I reminded myself And you succeeded You had a private intervieith hireed to set you back on the throne and enforce his will on your brother and his band of pathetic advisors They seemed so wily and formidable, but now that Caesar is here, they are swept aside like schoolboys They are nothing I have got what I came for--political security If I wantedhi on the handles of the chair, his head bent I saw that the top of his head was balding Aht was no God And I no Goddess, just a woman anted a man in the oldest of all ways, but it was new to me
”And so we are,” he said
It took --my secret cry, as well as my spoken words ”Then make me sole Queen!” I said ”Why ,” he said ”But for now it must serve”
”Why?” I cried
He looked atlook ”Cleopatra--how I love the way that naalities must be followed, if only to be discarded later”
”So there must be this public reconciliation?” I knew I sounded as pouty as Ptolemy, but I could not help it
”Yes,” he said briskly ” ”You and Ptolemy will be proclaimed joint monarchs, the army can be demobilized, Pothinus can be disposed of--” He stopped as if he had just renificant fact ”Did I tell you I banished Theodotos? That was his reward fro of an eyeYes, he did swat people as I had swatted the fly in et a mess on his shoe Just a wave of his hand and the person disappeared Forever
I laughed out loud with joy
”Now, that's my Cleopatra!” He crossed the room swiftly and took me in his arms ”And no--Ptolemy will never be your true husband I a down to reach me ”We are alike, you and I,” he said in so low a voice I could barely hear the words ”I know it; I can feel it At last I have found someone who is exactly like me I do not think I ever want to part froranate, and each section fits perfectly together”
I clung to hiht I understood their true
The banquet was in readiness Pothinus had followed Caesar's orders, and had prepared a feast for all the court dignitaries: the chief scribes and librarians, the state treasurer, the priests of Serapis and Isis, the commander of the Household Guard, the envoys and courtiers, the most celebrated court physicians, poets, rhetoricians, scientists, and scholars The gold-covered rafters indeed gleaht, and the floor was covered in rose petals brought by sea frorow Wherever you stepped, the droeet scent was released in the crushi+ng underfoot
I had grittedceremony to take place in the upper chambers of the palace, on the roof where the sea hips in Ptoleh soe, in a formula invented by the palace We itnessed by Caesar, Pothinus, Arsinoe, and the younger Ptole thereby to make them invalid As soon as it was over, I hurried away to dress myself for the banquet
Now Caesar could never accuseis done
Char faithfully I had not realized how much I missed her until I saw her fa as she folded silk mantles and tunics in the room that held my wardrobe
”Your Majesty!” she cried, a thousand questions on her face
”Char toward her
She continued staring, suppressing a laugh, and then I looked down at the dusty gown I still wore
”I have had no opportunity to change ained secret entrance to the palace”
”Everyone knows,” she said ”It is said--but oh! how thankful I am that you are here, and safe! The last few ered all over Alexandria, the happy trio with their puppet, and proclaier a trio, but a duo,” I said
”Caesar has--?” The question hung in the air
”Banished Theodotos,” I said ”He will not trouble us again”
”And you have seen Caesar?” she asked delicately
”As 'everyone knows,' ” I said, quoting her, ”I had ”
She burst out laughing ”He must have been shocked!”
”He did not show it,” I said ”And now--oh, but it is too long to tell Later Now I need to be dressed as a queen, for the banquet that is being staged below Make doh to love, I doms and crowns and possessions Love, if it came at all, must follow only in their wake
And now I stood at the entrance to the great cereainst the cool panels of ebony I was so weighed doith pearls froht They oven skillfully in est andwhenever I moved my head I athed in Sidonian silk that was almost transparent, and swirled around me like a mist On my feet were sandals of braided silvered leather I stood still and breathed deeply, and as I did so I could smell the lotus scent Charmian had rubbed in the bends of my elbows and in the spot onto remind me that what had happened was real--and irreversible
Musicians, grouped in a corner, gently strus of their lyres and piped soft ainst the polished stone walls
The tra The Household Troops, or Caesar's? I watched as uniformed men entered fronized the Roman cloaks and spears
In the middle of them was Caesar But he had chosen to wear the costua with a broad purple band at the heeneral He must have just spent time with the barber, for his face was shi+ny and freshly shaven, and his hair trih I could see he was not young, not large, and weighted down by the world he carried with hiht suddenly it, I thought suddenly It is too heavy for one man It is too heavy for one man
They approachedat me, and knew that in his eyes I ether different creature from the dispossessed one he had met in secret
He held out his hand and I took it, wordlessly Together alked to the large ceremonial table, made from a section of the trunk of an enormous tree from the Atlas Mountains, and balanced on elephant tusks He did not look at me all the while, but I could feel his attention Finally he leaned toward s, ”This has been a very long day, and I feel I have uise Which is real?”
I turnedit most royally ”And I have seen many Caesars,” I said ”Which of those is real?”
”After the banquet you will know,” he said ”And then after that, you will know yet more” His keen, dark eyes appraised me ”Child of Venus,” he said ”You are fair!”