The queen stood in front of him with her hand held out, and it took several moments before Ganymedes seemed to realize that she wanted the Eye of Horus back. The eunuch smiled, removed the amulet from his neck, and placed it neatly in her hand. This was immediately returned with a sharp slap across the face from the queen, her nails leaving three distinct scratches on his cheek.
“Don’t ever put your hands on me again, dog!” she said, angrily waving the dagger before his nose.
“But, Your Majesty!” Ganymedes pleaded holding his hands out in submission. “Why all this venom against me? I simply did the only thing I could think of to save you?”
“Keep that lying tongue of yours silent!” Demetrius commanded.
“But, I saved the queen,” the eunuch said. He then looked over at Lucius. “The guards were losing the fight. I heard the Roman tell me to do something, and I did. I did the only thing I could do. Not all of us are endowed with physiques made for sword work. Some of us must use our mind as our chief weapon.”
Demetrius glanced at Lucius. “Is that true?”
“Damn it, yes.” Lucius muttered. “But I don’t believe his intentions were as innocent as he says they were.”
But Arsinoe seemed to have already forgiven the eunuch. She now put a hand to his cheek. “Oh, Ganymedes, my trusted servant. How could I ever have doubted you?”
Lucius saw Demetrius roll his eyes before reporting. “My queen, the enemy has retreated. They are in full rout. And there are enough stray camels running about that I believe we can make it home. We have suffered heavily, and I’m afraid many more will die of their wounds before we get out of the desert.”
“Very well, Captain,” Arsinoe said, hardly looking in his direction, but seemingly distracted by the mess that her royal tent had become. “Are there any of your men who are not wounded?”
Demetrius looked confused, but answered. “Yes, my queen. A scant few, but there are some.”
“Good! Then send them in here to clean this place up. Get these bodies out of here and arrange all my things as they were before.”
Lucius gasped audibly at the order and then looked at the Egyptian captain in disbelief.
Demetrius almost drew blood from biting his lip before he obediently replied. “Yes, my queen.”
XV
Alexandria had not changed much in the weeks since they had left. They arrived at night, after a long day on the march, the distant flames atop the great lighthouse enticing them to the end of their journey. A battered column of trudging ghouls that hardly resembled a troop of militia, much less the royal guard, entered the city through the Canopian gate and marched through the grid of arrow-straight streets littered with engines of war and makeshift army camps. It was anyone’s guess who the different varieties of Egyptian troops lounging about the shops and houses bore allegiance to – Arsinoe, Cleopatra, or Ptolemy. Those few citizens and soldiers on the streets at this late hour simply watched as the long train of weary camels meandered by in the darkness.
Pitch laden missiles streaked across the sky near the harbor. Caesar still held out within the palace walls. Undoubtedly, the plans to poison the palace water supplies had not had the effect Ganymedes had predicted, and the Alexandrian siege appeared to have made little progress in the past weeks. As Lucius marched along with the column, he considered that Caesar and the legionaries holed up in the palace were probably in much better shape than the ragged troops limping along beside him. The journey back to the city had taken its toll on the brave Alexandrians. Half of the wounded had succumbed to their injuries or the heat of the desert. Most of the others would never carry a spear again. Demetrius took each death to heart, and had given over his own camel, preferring to walk so that another wounded man could ride. Lucius had done the same, not so much out of desire to help the wounded, as wanting to prove to the Alexandrians that Romans could march as far or farther than they could.
Arsinoe and Ganymedes, on the other hand, had shown no compassion for the convalescents. They procured the best of the dromedaries to tote the queen’s personal baggage, leaving many of the wounded without mounts, forcing them to walk. Completely ignoring Demetrius’s tactful warnings about the dangers of upsetting the same soldiers who had fought so bravely for her, Arsinoe became more and more detached. She spent all of her time with Ganymedes, planning out the rise of her new kingdom. Only after repeated pleas from Demetrius did she part with some of the water reserved for her nightly baths to make up for shortages in the troops’ supply. Each night, Arsinoe saw to it that her tents were placed well away from the troops, that she might not be disturbed by the wails of the suffering men.
The amulet had changed her. Either that, or it had allowed her true self to finally shine through. Needless to say, as one man after another died from exposure to the elements, the grumblings of the men reached a new height.
“I have a commission for you, Centurion,” Demetrius said to Lucius, the day after arriving in Alexandria, as the two men waited in the courtyard of Arsinoe’s house for an audience with the queen. “Are you up for it?”
“I can’t imagine lifting a finger to help you ever again,” Lucius replied. “I expect to get my reward from that eunuch today, and then be on my way.”
Demetrius seemed amused at that. “Where will you go?”
“I haven’t decided yet. Anywhere but here.”
At that moment, a new set of bodyguards, that seemed even bigger than the first, announced the queen’s presence. The royal entourage entered the room, having grown considerably from that of only a few weeks ago. It now contained several well-dressed men, Alexandrian nobles trying to ingratiate themselves with the young queen. Word had gotten out about the Eye’s discovery.
Arsinoe took her place on a bejeweled chair with a smug looking Ganymedes standing just behind her. Once again, she wore her royal white robes as she had on the day Lucius was first brought before her. This time, however, she also wore an elaborate gold headdress that, coupled with her face paint, made her look almost like a temple statue. Standing out from all of it, the Eye of Horus hung proudly from around her neck.
“What is the first order of business, Supreme Chancellor?” she addressed Ganymedes by his new title. She spoke as if it were not obvious that Demetrius and Lucius were the only two subjects awaiting an audience with her.
“The Captain of the Royal Guard, and the Roman, Great Lady,” Ganymedes said, eyeing the two men complacently, as if some grand scheme of his was about to come to fruition.
Arsinoe no longer made playful eyes at Lucius, and he suspected that she had quite moved on from him. It might have had something to do with the fact that he had spurned her on the trip back to Alexandria. She had summoned him, more than once in the dead of night, desiring him as before. But, much to Lucius's own surprise, he had refused every time, not wishing to be in the queen's presence, even for a few hours of mindless passion. Sure, the pain in his throbbing arm had something to do with it. But if he was completely honest with himself, he knew that it was more out of a feeling of shame. Though they were his enemies, Lucius felt a soldier’s bond with the wounded men in the royal guard. They had been forgotten by their sovereign. The plight of those men resonated with the centurion in him, and perhaps the injustice reminded him of too many of his own experiences. Perhaps it had hit too close to the mark. Either way, how could he enjoy a night of lust under the queen’s tent while those men, whom he had fought side-by-side with, suffered out in the howling wind and blowing sand?
Lucius now cursed himself for getting too caught up in the ridiculous state of affairs that was Egyptian politics.
“Speak, Captain,” Arsinoe commanded, after Demetrius finished bowing to her.