Part 62 (1/2)
”Couest You would do it for anyone else! Do not do less for>> me
”Because you are are you, I must do less” you, ICleopatra, and not Cytheris or Glaphyra”
”I did not follow them to their cities, for all the world to see”
”The world! Always the world!”
”You care enough about it in the daylight, outside, my lady You would not even reveal our liaison in front oflot”
”Noill” Now I kneas ed burst of pent-up lust My desire see sated or fading ”Come with me to Alexandria I will show us to all the world I will present you without shame”
”I am not an idol or a doll to be displayed,” he said ”If I canitarya courtesy call”
I noted, silently, that he was sketching the conditions of it--of this visit that he would not ht still had so I reached out and took his hand, twining ers in his ”If you do not come to Alexandria, then you certainly have to use our few re the soft part of his ear He did not argue
Chapter 44
Twilight had spread its tender, soft hts were lit and glowing in the rigging of the shi+p This tiuests would walk not on the wooden deck, but on a carpet of rose petals that would have been knee-deep had they not been held down by a net No one could sink into them, but insteadthe delicate petals and releasing a cloud of fragrance It would rise like the ht
The perfuold cups and winking lights for the eyes, the sleek feel of silken couch covers for the skin, pure voices and silver lutesmusic for the ears, and the finest food I could serve to both caress and tease the tongue--I er forever in all five of their senses, imprinted there for a lifeti I should be arrayed as Egypt's queen, in a gown of gold and blue, wearing a crown of gold and lapis serpents As Iras braidedit back fro Antony's comment about it It was true; most ceremonial hairstyles were stiff and not to be touched Iras looked into the reflection of my eyes in the mirror, rather than directly at them Her face held a thousand questions, but she dared not ask theht I would not answer the
A old, carnelian, and lapis beads was fastened around old armlets were slid onto my upper arms
Iras unstoppered a slender alabaster bottle and shook a few drops of perfuhtly under my chin, on my elbows and forearms, and on my forehead ”The scent of roses rance, frohtly different fro all the decks and floors”
The sauests to lie on the twelve couches Antony had expressed little curiosity about it, assu it would be like most of those he had attended for years I had made him leave before dawn; he took it to be o waiting on the dock, although he must have smelled the cartloads of rose petals as he passed Let him be as astounded as everyone else
”My last dinner here,” I had said ”And, should you not coether”
He was still insisting he could not come Well, I had also insisted I would not coplank, draped with rich Tyrian purple and transforuests aboard One by one the Romans stepped off it, and onto the carpet of rose petals, their boots sinking, their bodies bouncing on the springy cushi+on I watched their faces as they were taken by surprise, these Roman soldiers and citizens of Tarsus But it was Antony I most wanted to astonish and please; I took the reaction of the others for granted
He stopped at the top of the gangplank, leaning on the railing, his eyes taking in the entire setting in one glance: the cris, the artificial constellations in the rigging, and then ilded and ornamented as a statue It was a spectacle of theater, not one natural thing about it It is a privilege and challenge to outdo nature on occasion
”O rare shi+p!” Antony said ”Let us cut the cables and drift away--to whatever h leap and landed as hard as he could, losing his balance as the roses squashed under his weight He rolled over and lay on his back, arged by elixir of roses Helpto his knees and then dragging hi my sandals ”I ahter
I reached down and took his hand, drawing hi to a servant to bring hie one, bumpy with inset coral and pearls, filled with the wine of Chios
He took a deep drink of it, and then shook his head ”Wine has never yet banished ic,” he said ”It merely increases its effect”
”Welcome, all,” I said ”Pray, drink with us” At once a company of servants appeared, cups in hand ”I wishmemories”
Already they had that half-uncomfortable, half-excited, dazed look on their faces that betokened uneasy enchant, to do with as I wished Even Dellius ide-eyed Ah, the persuasion of props and accoutreive us, properly used!
”Is this the sa?” Antony asked, his voice low
”The very same,” I said
”What have you done to the cabin below?”
”You o now?”
He looked around, laughing, a little nervously ”I believe you would be bold enough to do even that,” he finally said
Iloudly--too loudly--about the Parthians and how, by Zeus, they had gone too far He then proceeded to abuse Cassius in such blistering terms that one of the Tarsians--who hardly had any reason to defend their tore the subject
”Dellius,” I said, gliding over to him, ”doubtless when you march into Parthia with Lord Antony you will have aet Cassius--he has paid the price A man can die only once”
”No, that's not true--he can die twice Once the body, next the reputation Kill the latter, and it's a crueler death than the first” He said it so fiercely that I could alet that he had once served Cassius, and come to Antony only after Philippi
”There's a third death as well, then, and that's to be abandoned by one's former friends,” I said
He smiled his nasty smile I turned away I hoped Antony had more than this reed to lean upon for his fortunes in war
The chiefto Antony his choice of ymnasiarch for the city He was a plump little man, ould probably spend little time on the exercise field hiiven in the new gy, clearly not caring who to extricate hirabbed on to the shoulder of his tunic and kept on talking, buzzing like a bee In fact he was shaped like one--round and wide
His wife stood nearby, wearing the most nondescript clothes I had ever seen Why is it that respectability always seems to drape itself in such proper dreariness? Why do we equate beauty with lack of seriousness? I welcomed her and told her how impressed I ith her city, and how fortunate they were to have the roves of trees nearby
What I did not say was that once the Ptolemies had owned all this--we had had not only the sea and sand and Nile of Egypt, but these verytheain as iven Cyprus back to Arsinoe; perhaps Antony
She was speaking, her low, modest voice as mouselike as the rest of her I tried to turn ettable as her face
When we descended to the banquet cha carefully on the mattress of rose petals, and did not look up until they stood at the very entrance Torches flamed and flared, and the couches--far ht--were surrounded by s, and rubies on the borders The red of the roses, the scarlet wall hangings, the rubies, and the criether to make even the air of the chamber seeave the signal for the banquet to begin The food itself was nothing unusual--how could it be? A shi+p's kitchen cannot rival one on land, and I had to rely on mostly local fare like scarus-fish, purple shellfish, peacocks, and kid Froeese, and Nile perch Toasted papyrus steilded, of course--by the common people at hoht many amphorae of the best Chian ithWhen I sailed for Egypt, the shi+p hter
The musicians--also clothed in red--played their instru voices Everyone was talking, their tongues loosened at last