“Are you good here, Cleopatra? I think I will retire as well.”
“Yes, you may go, Charmian,”she sighed.“Try to sleep well and I will see you in the morning.We have our work cut out for us. We’ll have to depend on your dramatic prowess.”She smiled in the moonlight.Even now, she couldn’t help but tease me.“And Charmian?Will you send someone for Antony?”
“Of course, Cleopatra.Good night, my queen,”I smiled back before I quietly walked out into the hall, pausing only to instruct the guards to send someone for Antony, before I continued on to my chambers.
Opening my door, I sensed Hasani’s presence before I even entered my room.
“I thought you would never get here,”he murmured, stepping from the darkness to cup my face gently.Tilting it up, he ran his thumbs along my lips, before he kissed them softly.
“Silly man,”I murmured, as I inhaled his woodsy fragrance.“I wasn’t with Cleopatra long.And weren’t you with Antony?Strategizing?”
I smiled gently at him, twining my fingers into his hair and pulling him close.Something about his solid, muscular frame pressed against me made me feel oh-so-safe, even though I knew how my future was written.I silently cursed the bloodstone again.Knowing the future really sucked, because I couldn’t fully enjoy the present.
“Don’t you worry, woman,”he assured me, running his big hands lightly over my body.“We’re both here now.”
Goosebumps formed every where he touched and I shivered in the cool night breeze from my windows.
“You are in good hands,”he grinned, his white smile dazzling, as he dropped onto my bed and pulled me down with him, running his lips along the soft skin of my neck.
Maybe I could enjoy the present after all.
* * *
Hasani was gone when I woke and I squeezed my eyes shut against the light from the flickering wall sconces.He must have lit them for me before he left and even in my grumpy morning mood, I had to smile at his consideration.I pulled the covers over my head and rested my cheek against the comfort of my pillow for a few minutes longer before I finally sighed and emerged into the reality of daytime.
It couldn’t be much past daybreak, since the orange fingers of the sun were just starting to curl around the horizon.Hasani must have risen early to run drills with his soldiers before the Alexandrian heat rolled in.Antony was probably with him.
I got up quickly, tying a soft white scarf around my waist and putting on a jeweled golden brassiere. As I pulled my hair away from my face and fastened gold earrings into my ears, I briefly pondered my older body.As Charmian, I may be thirty-nine, but my body was as svelte as a teen’s.Fascinating.It probably had a lot to do with the fact that ancient Egyptians didn’t have French fries or ice cream.
Sitting down at my vanity table, I pulled out the multiple jars required for my daily skin care and cosmetics application, sighing as I did.As Macy, I was a very low-key, low-maintenance person. Charmian’s intricate, Egyptian beauty regime was tiresome.But I had to admit that it was effective.I had a perfect complexion.
Dipping my fingers into a jar of scented oil, I glanced back into the mirror as I began to apply it.And froze with my fingers at the base of my neck.
A woman, pale and beautiful, sat on the bed behind me as though she belonged there.Her eyes were ice blue and her long hair was so blonde that it was snow white. I whirled around to face her.
“How did you get in here?”I demanded.“How did you get past the guards?”
She smiled peacefully at me, but didn’t answer.
“Can you speak?”I asked.“Who are you?”
She studied me again, unmoving and silent from her perch on my bed.She wore silvery robes embroidered with rich blue which were spread around her and her long fingernails were silver.They sparkled in the muted light from my window.She reminded me of what a fairy would be like.An odd sensation began to build in my chest and I hesitated.
“Who are you?”I whispered again.
“You know who I am,”she said gently, as she rose from the bed.She was so graceful that it seemed as though she floated as she walked toward me.
“I don’t,”I argued, as she came to a stop behind me.
“You do,”she insisted softly, as she placed her hands on my shoulders.And in that instant, the second that her hands touched me, I did.
I was standing face to face with Lachesis, the middle sister of the Fates.Terrifying and powerful, the last time I had seen her, she had been an ancient, stooped hag.My eyes flew in amazement to her lovely, young face.
She smiled.
“I can appear as I wish, Charmian,”she said lightly.“You are beautiful.So, of course I wanted to appear beautiful, as well.I have no wish to scare you.”
“Then what is your wish?”I asked quietly, keeping my eyes locked on her face.
She reached past me and picked up the jar of oil, dipping her long fingers into it. Picking up my arm, she gently began rubbing the scented oil into my skin as she spoke.
“You are one of twelve, Charmian.Did you know that?”I shook my head, instantly intrigued.
“Yes.Twelve very important people were chosen so long ago to assist us throughout the millennia.You were chosen for your bravery and your heart.”
She turned my wrist over and fingered my scar.
“I placed the mark of the phoenix upon your wrist myself.The phoenix is sacred to the order, Charmian.It symbolizes re-birth and life, the very thing that we stand for… the things that we protect. And we gave you that mark.It is an honor.”
I nodded.“Yes, of course it is.”
“Then why have you been doubting us?”she turned her large blue eyes to me, beseeching me.
“I haven’t!”I protested. “The priest Annen has tried to convince me of his theories… but being a member of the Order is all I know.I have no wish to believe him.”