Part 17 (1/2)
He thought for a yptian rites,” he finally said ”You will be my wife--everyplace but Ronize foreign s built by men that so far have proved ian to lessen; I could feel it release its grip on us The colors outside began to change; the stark white was replaced by a honeyed tinge on the liolden aaudy by comparison Behind the monuments the sky had turned a tender shade of violet-blue, with long fingers of purple clouds stretched out to welcoo down behind the pyra theinning to cool ca up Soon darkness would fall; we must
”No I want to stay,” said Caesar ”We would not sail at night anyway The moon is nearly full Why hurry away?”
Becausebecause the desert changes at night, I thought
”You are not afraid?” he asked in a low voice
”No,” I had to say And I was not afraid so much as uneasy I did not wish to lie so close to the monuments of the dead, to a city of the dead Traditionally, this side of the Nile was deserted by the living after the sun had gone beneath the earth each night
They had enlarged the pavilion for us, made it into a proper tent Noe could lie down and stretch out; now there were cushi+ons and refreshed all these things, Caesar ordered the we have never been,” he said ”One gets used to being always in the co”
Caesar all to myself! Caesar alone! How e places with me? They would have had petitions for hier HeI wished from him was to let the hours stretch out unbroken between us for a little while
Darkness falls swiftly on the desert There is little twilight Onea sort of light of their own, as if they had stored it up during the long day; the next they faded out against the sky
”But there is a h”
A gigantic, swollenon the horizon Its face was still pale and drea to it, then shrink, yet grow brighter at the saht we could see every line in our hands, could see the fibers in the ropes anchoring the tent The pyra vast shadows on the sands behind them The eye sockets of the Sphinx were ely chilly; we pulled our mantles around us I could hear, not so far away, a pack of hyenas yowling
I had thought ould talk, speak at last of all that ithin us Instead, silence reigned It ht before Caesar finally said, ”Now I have seen six of the seven wonders of the world”
How one nowhere, had seen nothing outside Egypt ”Tell me of thehthouse of Alexandria,” he said ”But for the others, quickly: the Colossus of Rhodes has fallen, but you can still see the bronze pieces; the great Teet lost in it; and I can never think of Zeus as looking any different from the statue at Olympia But the one wonder I have never seen is the one I a Gardens of Babylon”
”Are they even real?” I asked ”Has anyone seen them for hundreds of years?”
”Alexander has”
”Always Alexander”
”He died there in Babylon Perhaps his last sight was of them, outside hisIn any case, I intend to conquer Parthia, and when I take Babylon, my reill be to visit the sacred place where Alexander died, and to see the Hanging Gardens”
”Can you trust h to reveal your intentions? Have you a plan for this conquest, or is it still unformed?”
”Come” He pulled me up froed the warht was the light Everything under the ainst the inky sky
”I have been cut off froypt,” he said ”In truth, I should be even now on er here because”--he shook his head--”I seehed, he said, ”If you knew me better, you would kno out of character it is for me to dally like this Work calls Duty calls But here I aypt, far fro farther and farther toward Africa every day I shall have to answer for it to my enemies, ill doubtless make the most of it”
”Then you should make the most of it as well,” I said ”I hope the monuments are worth it”
I waited for him to say, It is more than the ave a sort of grunt
I felt him hesitate, then stumble He pitched forward, and fell stiffly to his knees, before sprawling out, andsound It happened so quickly that I had no chance to say a word or react He lay on the ground, and his limbs thrashed and stiffened as if he were in thepain But he was silent, except for that one first cry
I fell to my knees beside hi behind a rock, and thrown a dagger? Had a serpent struck, darting out from a rock underfoot? Had he been poisoned by a secret enemy who had had access to his food earlier in the day?
With all th, I pushed his shoulders and turned him over He was limp, like a--a dead body His face was covered with sand where he had fallen facedown My heart was racing so fast I could hardly think; I was confused; only when I put
”O Gods!” I cried ”Save him, save him, what have you done to him?” I moaned like one of the hyenas He could not die, he could not, he could not leave me It was iroaned, and stirred I felt his flaccid lih and strained I brushed the sand from his lips and nose It was all I could think of to do--a useless little gesture I kept brushi+ng it off, getting it off his forehead, blowing it out of his ears
Finally his lips parted and he murmured, ”So now you know”
”Knohat?”
”That I have--that I aled to sit up, but his arms would not quite obey him ”It has struck mejust in this last year I never knohenit will coht, there are sounds--and then weakness and falling”
”Do you--see anything in the flashes of light?”
”Do the Gods speak to me, you mean? No Or if they do, they allow me so little time to hear them before I lose consciousness that when I wake upI know no more than before” He was unable to speak anyth He fell i I could do but stay with him out on the bleak, silvery desert while the eneral I took off off my cloak and covered hi beside him my cloak and covered hi beside hih the e black triangles, when Caesar stirred and was taken with a violent fit of shi+vering He shook hi? Was this a second, fiercer attack? I flung
”I a,” he ht sky, pierced all over with stars He rolled over, feeling for the stones that had been cutting into his back
He reain
”You were takenill,” I said ”It was necessary to rest here Come, can you walk? The tent will have a pallet--round”
Slowly he sat up, then pulled hi He put one in front of the other and began walking stiffly to the tent
Once inside, he crawled onto the pallet and once again was i softly, and each breath seerow longer and longer outside and then fade away as the sky lightened I had not slept at all
The sun was up At any et us I dared not wake him until he was ready, yet I did not wish anyone else to see hied theet under sail early
My thoughts must have had power of their own, for Caesar awoke He flinched a little at the bright light coroaned like a man who has had too much to drink--but no more than that
”I feel dreadful,” he said simply ”I am sorry you had to witness this”
”Who better than I?” I said ”But I was frightened--I did not expect it, and I did not knohat to do”