Part 88 (1/2)
Now Caesarion smiled ”Do you think so?” He tried not to look too pleased
”Indeed If you were three or four years older, I would speak to General titius or Plancus about you How old are you--fourteen?” He knew very well the boy was only twelve, but he knew equally hat twelve-year-old boys like to hear
”No, I am--I will be twelve next month” He drew hirown the lizard Remember him?”
”Remember him? He only died last year!” More and ht a raven that talks,” said Antony ”But I don't always like what he says”
”Why?”
”It's either nonsense or insulting”
Caesarion giggled Then a silence descended, a silence that grew quickly
Sensing theinto it as he dashed into the field, Antony took h I am just an ordinaryypt, and perhaps I can tell you whatever you wish to know about his about hiht , in the forests of Gaul and on the field of Pharsalus I think he'd like that In fact, that's the only reason I married the Queen--to coh
”Yes, that's probably trye,” I said ”That, and wanting Egyptian shi+ps”
Caesarion smiled ”I am happy to have you back I have missed you,” he said quietly
Yes, that had been part of the heartache forCaesarion had become attached to him, only to lose him
”And I have e--oh, not quite so old!--only ten ten or so Just as you are 'little Caesar,' he's little Antony'--Antyllus Perhaps he'll visit so up on me” or so Just as you are 'little Caesar,' he's little Antony'--Antyllus Perhaps he'll visit so up on me”
Antyllus was his son by Fulvia, and until that moment he had not spoken of hiet that there were people he cared about still in Ro now I had been so wrapped up in my rivalry with Octavian and Octavia that I had overlooked the rest of his ties and family there No wonder he wanted to return for a visit
But he mustn't--no, he mustn't!
”Why, we shall have to invite him,” I said quickly ”Yes, let hi on couches in our private dining roonored, joyously All three children were crowded together on one couch, where they could spill and kick each other; Antony and I faced each other across the couches we shared with Iras, Charmian, Mardian, and Olympos Mardian discreetly took the middle place between Antony and Oly them apart
This was ive their lives for me, and I for thes, they still were ainst the ills that fate could harbor
Oly how he used it in eating--did he bend it easily? Did it function well? The Gods help hi so direct as to ask!
”You did a good job, Oly him ”The Triumvir's hand has mended nicely”
Olympos scowled at me Only in fa each other's thoughts--and revealing them ”So I can see for myself,” he said
”You saved my hand, youto put down the bread he was holding ”Yes, it was about to fall off!” he told a wide-eyed Alexander ”So Olyic drain in it, and all the poison ran out”
”Oh, really really,” said Caesarion
”No, that's true,” I said ”It was a device from ancient reat deal about wounds froot more practice there than ht be interesting to--” He quickly stopped hirily on a crisp piece of honeyed laht his interest
”To study a little further in Rome,” he said ”That capital of the world of ounds”
”Why, Oly to teach Greece inhio to Rome
”Wounds aren't medicine,” he said stubbornly ”The treatment is different Greeks study disease; ounds are accidents”
”Well, why don't you go to Roet ill while you are gone Or go to war”
Olyht I aencies are of a different sort It was a foolish idea,” he insisted
”I think you should go to Rome,” said Caesarion in a loud, clear voice ”And takeon his elbow, his plain tunichim look like any youth in the land ”What?” I said
”I want to go to Ro Latin for three years now My father was Roacy from him, which Octavian has stolen, but I've never seen it I can't even picture it--or Rome, or Romans!”
”You've certainly seen plenty of Ro into the breach ”They are all over the world You can't avoid them” He put down his cup and looked sternly at the boy ”So there's no reason to go to Rome, just to see Romans”
”I didn't say I wanted to see Romans, Romans, I said I wanted to see I said I wanted to see Rome,” Rome,” said Caesarion with that same quiet, stubborn force his father had displayed in conversation O Isis, how like him he was! ”I want to see the Forum; I want to see the Senate house; I want to see the Tiber, and yes--I want to see the Temple of the Divine Julius! I want to seemore whiny and childlike ”I do! I do! It isn't fair that I can't!” He turned to me ”How can you expect me to care about it, or my inheritance, if I've never seen it? I can't ransack youris precious if you haven't seen it for yourself!” said Caesarion with that same quiet, stubborn force his father had displayed in conversation O Isis, how like him he was! ”I want to see the Forum; I want to see the Senate house; I want to see the Tiber, and yes--I want to see the Temple of the Divine Julius! I want to seemore whiny and childlike ”I do! I do! It isn't fair that I can't!” He turned to me ”How can you expect me to care about it, or my inheritance, if I've never seen it? I can't ransack youris precious if you haven't seen it for yourself!”
”Now that is a point for philosophers to debate,” said Mardian soothingly ”They say that which is unseen can be more real than--”
”That's a lie,” said Caesarion coldly ”And don't change the subject” He dismissed the eunuch imperiously Where had the child vanished? ”Sooner or later I o, sooner or later?” I asked
”Because if I aer to myself--or to theo to Ro but grief to h he seemed so entirely mine, so completely Ptolemaic, I knew that he spoke the trut truth--half his blood was theirs theirs My own child, part foreign
”Yes, I can see that,” I said slowly ”But why now?”
”Why wait longer? I want to see it now And besides, no one notices a child; no one will know I am there I want to see them, I do not want them to see me Let Olympos take me with him Olympos can pass as an ordinary man, and I can be his assistant We will be invisible”
”You cannot go without a guard,” I said ”Don't you understand what a public figure you are? If soht,” said Antony suddenly ”He would be safer traveling as nobody without a guard than as Caesarion with one”
Antony! Antony was siding with theerous,” I said ”I cannot send him away like that--”