Cleopatra Occult (10 page)

“She distracted them.”

Phaedra asked how.

“She bothered to actually show up.” Octavian explained to her, “Cleopatra’s reign began gloriously since she began it by going all the way to Thebes to preside over the ceremonies inaugurating a new sacred bull. This Egyptian bull was believed to contain the spirit of Amun-Re, a great Egyptian god. Its consecration was a big deal in Egyptian religious life.”

Phaedra nodded. “Surely. The official religion warms over many. I grew up in a temple—I know how that works.”

“She was called
Queen of the Nile
for a good reason. It was the first time anybody from Cleopatra’s family had left Alexandria, had ever gone to the river at all, and Thebes was a very long way to go... the whole length of Egypt. Thebes was where the pharaohs used to live and it was the religious center of the kingdom. But since Alexander the Great took over Egypt and Alexandria was built, Thebes was abandoned as a capitol. For two hundred and seventy five years the Ptolemy family made Alexandria home.”

“That’s a long time.”

“Cleopatra showed up in Thebes and acted as if she was merely stepping off into one of the palace’s gardens—her barge was a floating palace. Dozens of ships followed the barge that represented all the neighborhoods and temples of Alexandria. Alexandria came to the people, the modern became one with the ancient, and the people were awed. She straightaway proceeded to resolve a civil war in Thebes between two feuding families by having them decimated and then favoring a third family. It was the first time that city had seen peace in one hundred years.”

“She killed them all, all of them in two families?”

“No. Decimated. It comes from the word
decimal
. It’s a Roman military practice of randomly killing one in every ten of a group as a punishment for the whole group. It works, of course. Rome is always right. But I would have burned the whole city to the ground. I won’t tolerate nonsense.”

“I bet they didn’t see that coming.”

Octavian continued, “The Egyptians were also so delighted that she spoke Egyptian. Nobody else in her family had bothered to learn anything other than Greek and Latin, before. For the first time Cleopatra had an Egyptian court. She wore the feline black eye makeup to conjure the eye of Horus the god of the sky and sun. She wore Egyptian cuts of clothes. She put statues of Egyptian gods in the palace. She called herself Isis. The Egyptian people loved that. That love continued the prosperity. Respected farmers help ensure grain for Rome.”

Phaedra asked, “But how did she get the throne in the first place?”

Octavian answered, “It was a family tradition that siblings would share the throne together and the man would be the senior ruler. But her kid brother was only a small child when Egypt needed a new ruler. While the palace court wrung their hands, Cleopatra boldly ascended the throne and took the active role in government. Since she was a Ptolemy, nobody dared deny her.”

Phaedra pointed out a dolphin that jumped high out of the water. “She must have a fierce face to scare everybody back like that.”

Octavian shrugged. “That, perhaps, and a fancy throne. The Ptolemy family tree had many years to grow and blossom in Egypt. There have been nineteen Ptolemy rulers. So with that birthright she ran Egypt. That reign of peace was ruined when her brother grew old enough to decide he would rule, and rule it all by himself, resentful of his sister’s great success. As long as the grain still came in, Rome didn’t really care if they quarreled. Alexandria can all burn down as far as I’m concerned.”

“But it’s a great city, they say. I can’t wait to see it.”

“Only the Nile is important to Rome. It’s food that insures Rome’s future, not some bygone notions of Greece’s garbage pile.”

“Garbage?”

Octavian maintained, “It’s all too old to matter anymore. Rome is the modern culture for the world.” 

“Oh, sure.” Phaedra chuckled. “Oh my Pegasus, thanks for telling all this to me about Cleopatra.”

“You’ve already heard plenty about her, I’m sure.”

Phaedra redid a few hairpins. “Oh sure, but the stories in the forum end up being so different, involving crocodile monsters, witches that set themselves on fire and Athena is cursing everybody.”

Octavian laughed mockingly. “Athena has become desperate as Athens becomes rundown and irrelevant. Alexandria is her last glory and that’s dimming fast. Soon, all anybody will know about is the Roman gods. The gods only exist by our knowing about them. Minerva is the Roman goddess replacement for Athena. Being Roman, Minerva is far more disciplined.”

Phaedra put her hand on her heart. “Oh, don’t mock the gods while we’re still on the high seas, not any of them!”

He defiantly yelled at the waves, “The gods of Rome will save me!”

~

In the laboratory in the Palace of Alexandria, at a long marble work table, Ptolemy mixed a liquid gold potion.

Sorceress Thrace looked about at the science equipment in disdain. “Your sister built this mad disarray.” The bald witch pushed at a wheel on gears that held eight glass jars. It spun into a blur. “You should have discarded it all with the rest of her ridiculous things.”

“My sister tried to find the secret to life. She was atrocious and failed. I’m better than her so I won’t fail.”

Sorceress Thrace scowled. “Leave it to
magic
. Science is nonsense—an insult to the gods.”

“How so?”

“Prayers ask. Magic takes. Science rapes.”

Ptolemy shook his head. “The great men of Athens conquered the world by leaving superstition behind and using science.”

“Where does this science come from? Magic comes from the mountains and rivers—the energy of the wild! This comes from
tiny
jars and bowls.”

“The library is filled with the names of men who’ve discovered new things. They did it through observation and labor in workshops like this. My name will be added to those great names. Who cares if my sister first built this place. I’ll be the name that’s remembered. Nobody will care about a laboratory but will only care about my discoveries.”

“Is it still liquid?”

Ptolemy jiggled his glass jar until the contents swirled. “Yes. Liquid gold!”

She shrugged. “So what? And then what?”

“Alchemy wastes its time trying to create gold.”

“That’s what’s desired above all things.”

Ptolemy said, “As long as Nubia is under Egypt’s thumb we will have gold aplenty. The real trick is turning gold into medicine.”

The witch reminded him, “I have medicine.”

“There were Greeks who insisted that our life came from our blood. And so, our death is a matter of our blood, too. They insisted but did they put it to the test? That’s what makes Alexandria better than Athens. Here, philosophy isn’t enough. Here, for the first time we put it to the test. If I can
really
change men’s blood then I can make an army that can’t be conquered. And, also,
I
can live forever too!”

“Where did you get a puerile notion like that?”

He held up a different glass jar of gold flakes mixed with salts. “My sister was on to something. But now she doesn’t have a chance to try it. I do. Now it’s all mine!” He smirked.

“Leave necromancy to magic.” She looked into a caged pool that contained large deformed frogs and a developmentally disabled armless mermaid. “This is utter nonsense.”  

He corrected her, “This isn’t necromancy. I’m not talking to the dead. I’m preventing death. Can you imagine what that’ll get me on the battlefield? I’d beat the entire Roman world in a year. Alexandria will be taxing Rome.”

She backed away from the caged pool. “Leave all matters of life and death to magic. This is sacrilege. The gods have punished for less.”

He made angry fists. “I don’t want to depend on witches! I’m tired of women with secrets controlling me! I’ll do it all for myself with my own science!”

“You will always need witches like me around to protect you.”

“My sister is dead. I don’t need nasty women around to protect me from other nasty women anymore! Science is dependable. I can measure up the medicines and metals myself. Only I’ll know the measurements. Only I’ll have the power! And the gods can stay on their mountain.”

His witch warned, “Mock the gods and you fail.”

“I don’t mock the gods. I’m just noticing how much they don’t care if we live or die. Those matters we take into our own hands.” Ptolemy called for two guards to bring in a prisoner for testing. He said to the thief, “Drink this liquid gold and you might just live forever, from it.”

The thief asked, “I’m not to be killed?”

Ptolemy told him, “If the liquid gold in your veins is what gives you eternal life then I can’t kill you even if I tried. You’ll have the honor of being the first of my new army… an army improved by science.”

Sorceress Thrace entreated, “Let me have my own army of thieves and cutthroats that I control with my magic!”

“
What
?”

She repeated it.

He glared at her. “Then they’d all be under your control, only. This is to be an army for me that I create myself. Rome can’t stop me now. This trick will outdo all theirs. And I won’t need you around anymore, for anything, ever again.”

Sorceress Thrace pleaded, “If I have an army I won’t take any men away from you. I can make the thieves and cutthroats into my army. I can control them like I would my own dogs.”

Ptolemy ignored her and told the thief to drink the liquid gold potion. He did. Ptolemy placed a weight on a tray to set a clock and after fifteen minutes passed, a chime rang. A silver figure of the Greek god of time, Chronos, a serpent with three heads, arose from the clock. Ptolemy pulled out a sword and stabbed the thief in the belly. The thief quickly bled out and dropped limp to the floor.

Sorceress Thrace kicked at the thief’s leg. “He could not fight a flea.”

Ptolemy had a temper tantrum, putting bloody footprints all over the tile floor.

She gestured to the pharaoh and guards. “You all go now and let me clean up the mess.” She scowled at Ptolemy. “That is what slaves are for, I am sure you contend. I am your good slave and that is all. You can come back tomorrow and try anew with another ingredient.”

Ptolemy screamed and yelled at her angrily through tears.

His witch made a sad face, pretending to care. “That is science. Like magic it takes many tries.”

He made a fist. “Beer! I’m going to go get drunk!” He stomped out of the room.

Alone in the laboratory, the witch warily watched the lifeless stabbed thief. She took his bloody clothes off and licked his body. After twenty minutes passed, the thief opened his eyes. He looked baffled.

She touched her own bald head. “What do you last remember?”

He cleared his throat and asked, “Who are you? Where am I?”

She repeated her question.

“I can’t remember anything.”

“What was the last thing you recall, tell me!”

He finally said, “It was a dream… a wolf was chasing a desert hare. The hare must stay ahead...”

“I am one step ahead of you.” The witch blasted him with fire until he was cooked. She ate his left shoulder. Then she blasted him until he was a pile of bones and ashes. As she swept it up, she murmured, “That silly king is going to do it my way… then he will always need me…”
 

~

Mark Antony went to the Egyptian palace and first had himself shaved, bathed, and perfumed with frankincense and myrrh to replace his smell of lavender. Lavender was for soldiers in the field, considered the antiseptic smell of medicine for preventing ringworm and other skin infections.

Surrounded by his men, he entered the Greek court of the Egyptian king. Ptolemy’s welcoming words were interrupted, as Mark yelled, “What is this deception against Caesar? Cleopatra is alive, well, and hunting you down like a furious barker!”

Barker
was what the Romans called Egypt’s wolf god Anubis, to be very rude.

Ptolemy insisted he’d killed her.

“With your own hands? Did you put your own hands around her lovely long neck? You didn’t keep them there long enough!”

Ptolemy paused to think. “No! She was poisoned! They assured me she was dead... dead and then left so the jackals would tear her to bits!”

Mark rolled his eyes. “She took an antidote then in preparation and deceived you.”

“That’s not possible! It was somebody else you saw! My terrible sister is dead! She has to be! I want her dead!”

Mark slapped the crown of gold leaves off the young king. “I know a Cleopatra when I see one and this is certainly your sister.”

“It wasn’t her!”

Mark answered, “Cleopatra is unforgettable.”

“She’s a monster!”

“She’s lovely. And alive.”

Ptolemy cried, “No! Then you’ve been speaking to a ghost!”

Mark paused to wonder how much a ghost could hoodwink by the light of day.