Part 16 (1/2)

I' d learned from long experience that arguing with men who admired the emperor was fruitless, so I didn't bother. Julia and I knew the truth of it. This was the emperor's mad gambit. It was risky. It could all go wrong. The mob could tear him limb from limb, or the senators might turn their knives on him, then come to murder his family. We'd be next, my daughter and me. I was trapped in this dangerous situation, in this hateful city! As I paced, Iullus tried to comfort us, but some curious activity on the Tiber caught my attention.

I went to the balcony, where I looked down at teams of oxen on the towpaths alongside the river, hauling barges through the frigid water. It was an otherwise ordinary sight, but people flocked to the sh.o.r.e, swarming the bridges, pus.h.i.+ng and shoving their way. That's when I recognized the cargo. Grain sacks. Heaps and heaps of them, all stamped not with the emblems of Egypt-but of Mauretania. My Mauretania!

Twenty-one.

SOMEHOW, Euphronius had done it. Perhaps he'd enchanted the sailors or bankrupted the treasury to bribe them. Either way, I was sure that it had cost us dearly. I stood watching barge after barge make its way up the Tiber. A man climbed atop the sacks of grain and lifted one hand in the direction of my house. He might've said anything in that moment, and the people would have cheered, but he cried, ”Thank the Queen of Mauretania!”

I stood dressed only in a gown of mourning. I wore neither a diadem nor a circlet crown upon my head. My lack of queenly adornment seemed to win the crowd. This year had been one of grief and misery; they knew that I'd lost a brother and shared in their pain. ”All hail to the queen!” someone cried. ”All hail, to the good Queen Cleopatra!”

The crowd roared their approval and my guards pushed their way out onto the balcony. It seemed as if my entire household rushed out with them-only Julia and Iullus remained in the house. The people continued to cheer. ”Thank Selene of Mauretania, blessed of Isis! Thank Selene of Egypt, last of the Ptolemies!”

”Not the last,” I murmured. ”Not the last of the Ptolemies.”

Crinagoras rubbed his hands together against the chill. ”Majesty, have you learned nothing about the allure of tragedy? Let them forget Princess Isidora for the moment. Let them think you're the last of a n.o.ble line. It's the sorrow of your story that'll win their love and send you back to Egypt.”

He spoke openly this way because my aims were no secret to any of my courtiers, many of whom seemed more ambitious for my success than I was. ”Who is that man standing atop the grain, proclaiming my largesse?”

”It's Captain Kabyle!” Until that moment, I'd never believed the stories about Cupid and his bow, but watching the flush that stained Tala's cheeks, no one could doubt that the Berber woman been pierced by an arrow of desire. Given that he'd just delivered food to a starving city, I wanted to kiss the captain myself, but Tala was breathless. Had she conceived her affection for the man on our journey from Mauretania?

Not wanting to question her, I said, ”Tala, go down to the river and tell Captain Kabyle that I'll receive him and hear what news he brings from King Juba.”

But moments after Tala rushed away, I received a summons from the emperor.

THE Temple of Apollo was a magnificent structure, a monument to the emperor's victory over my parents. Each sculpture wrought with symbolism, every gilded adornment chosen with care, every cornice framing priceless artwork. Not for his own glory, Augustus would say, but for the glory of Apollo. As I pa.s.sed through the giant bronze doors, which were carved in relief with the story of proud Niobe and all her slaughtered children, I s.h.i.+vered. As far as the emperor knew, all of my mother's children had been struck down too. All except me.

Though it was a temple, it was also a ma.s.sive governmental office. Amidst scrolls and various secretaries who hurried to do his bidding, Augustus was to be found in an antechamber not far from where he'd later lock up what remained of the Sibylline Books after he'd purged them of prophecies he feared. When I reached the entryway, his lictors tilted their ceremonial axes to either side of the entryway to let me pa.s.s. Alone behind closed doors, the emperor lowered his hood and pinned me in place with his icy eyes. ”I suppose you expect me to thank you for your s.h.i.+pment of grain. It's changed the mood in the city. A nice bit of sorcery . . .”

I thought he'd be glad, but I detected an edge in his voice. Was he actually displeased while all the city rejoiced? ”It wasn't sorcery, Caesar. I simply sent word when you were too ill to do it yourself.”

He pushed papers across the table in annoyance. ”You conjured grain out of the air.”

”I conjured grain from Mauretania, where farmers worked the land and Isis rewarded them with a harvest, so that a fleet of sailors could risk their lives to bring it across the winter sea.”

”No,” he said. ”There was magic in how it happened. The crowd threatened to burn down the Curia until I promised to take control of the grain. Mere hours later, your sacks of grain were ferried up the river.”

I realized he was displeased, as if he suspected me of something. ”It was fortuitous timing.”

”Fortuitous?” he snapped. ”Do you know what my enemies say? They say I feigned my illness and engineered the famine. They say that your fortuitously timed s.h.i.+pment was positioned to make me look like a savior.”

I myself might have wondered if he'd purposefully brought this famine down upon Rome, but there were some things not even Augustus could control. Something else had him agitated, and I couldn't guess at what. ”It's the fate of a ruler to do good for his subjects and be ill spoken of by them in return,” I said, quoting Alexander. ”Our enemies will always have something to say against us, Caesar. The important thing is that the hungry have a little more food.”

He tilted his head, appraising me. ”Do you know what I think? I think you held the grain back to please me. To glorify me. Is that what you did?”

I'd never hold back food from starving people, but that wasn't the answer he wanted. ”I might have done it had it occurred to me. I'll find a thousand ways to glorify you if only you restore me to my mother's kingdom.”

”I can't,” he said, simply. ”There's war in Egypt.”

I was taken entirely off guard. ”War? In Egypt?”

”The Kus.h.i.+tes took advantage of Gallus's disastrous campaign in Arabia.” He leaned forward, so wasted by his recent fever that his gaunt face took on a serpentine edge. ”The temples at Aswan have been captured by a Kus.h.i.+te force from Meroe.”

I blinked. I couldn't help it. Meroe was to the southern border of Egypt, a land of ebony people who shared many of our customs and G.o.ds, but they'd been friendly during my mother's reign. ”Why should they attack Egypt?”

The emperor steepled fingers beneath his chin. ”The Kandake of Meroe claims she's a pharaoh. She's seized the temples in the name of Isis. She's routed Roman forces.”

Impossible. I hadn't believed any force in the world could rout the Romans, and yet, somehow, this queen had done what I couldn't! ”I never thought . . .”

”There are rumors that the Kandake is served by a fearsome wizard who can throw fire with his bare hands. Do you know what the small people call this mage? They call him Horus the Avenger.”

Oh heart, be still. Helios. This was his doing. I'd thought the Romans were invincible; Helios had himself said that he couldn't beat them, not with swords or magic. But he'd done it again. He'd routed them and I hoped that my exultation wouldn't show. All the lies I'd ever told, all the practice I'd had at hiding my true feelings, every lesson in deception I'd ever learned had all been to prepare me for this moment. I forced every muscle of my face to an appearance of bewilderment. Not so much as a tremor shook my innocent facade. ”Horus the Avenger? This legend often rises up in Egypt. It's an imaginary hope.”

The emperor's quiet rage would have sent a s.h.i.+ver through me if I hadn't been prepared for it. ”Those weren't imaginary wounds my soldiers suffered. I wonder . . .” The emperor's eyes scrutinized me. He was a shrewd judge of character and he was judging me now, but I was nothing if not a fine actress.

”Caesar, I'm not surprised that Roman soldiers made up stories to explain their defeat. Haven't they always done so? Your forces suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of a woman. Is it possible the Kandake has a magician who fights for her? Yes. Did falconeyed Horus drop from the sky to smite Roman soldiers? I think not.”

He ground his teeth. ”Her warriors cut off the head of a bronze statue that had been erected in my likeness.”

So Augustus had put a statue of himself in the holy precinct of Isis? I imagined Helios swinging his sword, decapitating a statue of the emperor, then burying it somewhere in the sands. My twin had pushed the Romans from the sacred temples and he'd done it with this foreign queen, this Kandake, and not with me. Still, I betrayed nothing. ”What can the Kus.h.i.+tes want?”

”I think you know what they want, Selene. I want you to tell me why they captured the Isle of Philae. There's nothing there. No stronghold. No lands to settle. The temple treasures have already been seized. Why would the Kandake attack us here?”

”Because it's the holiest place for Isiacs,” I said, emboldened by the idea that Helios might yet wrest Egypt away from the Romans. ”They're making war for religious reasons and you have only yourself to blame. All through the empire, the Romans let people wors.h.i.+p whatever G.o.d or G.o.ddess they wish. Yet you've singled out Isis for unique suppression-”

”Did she not single me out?” He pressed his hands to the table. ”Or did you lie when you said that Isis cursed me? Why shouldn't I retaliate?”

”Retaliate against a G.o.ddess? Hubris is a Greek idea, but I thought even Romans understood it.”

His lips thinned at my boldness. ”If the followers of Isis were content to make sacrifices at her altar, I'd have no cause to complain, but the priests are influential with the people. They involve themselves in politics. They speak out against war and slavery and the proper relations of the s.e.xes. Isis wors.h.i.+p undermines the state and leads the small people to think that they have as much worth as those who rule over them.”

I couldn't deny this, for I'd heard such sermons. ”So you'll suffer because you think yourself too great to bend to the will of a G.o.ddess?”

”Perhaps it pleases you to see me suffer, Selene.” He stood, very composed. Very angry. ”I remember that on the edge of death, I asked for your forgiveness. You wouldn't give it.”

Some of my smugness drained away. ”Why should Caesar need my forgiveness?”

”I don't need it,” he said with a curl of his lips. ”I wanted it and you refused me.”

Augustus always wants what he cannot have. When had this interview slipped from my control? The emperor's fascination with me was all that kept my daughter safe, and I must foster it. ”Caesar, if I withheld my forgiveness, it's only because I didn't want to give you an excuse to die.”

”You say this because you want to be Queen of Egypt. Not because you care for me.” He said the last petulantly, like a spoiled child.

I swallowed, reaching out for him. ”My mother forgave Caesar many things. For burning her books, for his dalliance with Queen Eunoe. How could she not forgive him? Don't I walk in her footsteps ?”