Free Song of the Nile by Stephanie Dray Page A

queen of a new world.

Five
    A few hours into our journey on the open road, some commotion stalled our rumbling procession. Shouts rang out, and even from the confines of my carriage Chryssa and I thought we heard weapons clashing. Wood against wood, fists against bone. It happened quickly, followed by the clatter of galloping horse hooves on the stone road. Curiosity made me pull back the curtain to see Augustus dismounting his horse. He joined me in my carriage, dismissing Chryssa to follow on foot, and then we were moving again. My heart jumped to my throat. “What’s happening? What’s wrong?”
    The emperor’s expression was distant as he took the seat across from me. “Nothing for you to concern yourself about. It was a protest. Yet another crowd come to demand things of me.”
    “What did they want?” I asked, hugging myself against an unexpected chill.
    “It doesn’t matter. Restoration of the Republic. Restoration of the Temples of Isis. More grain. Reform. It can be anything or nothing that stirs the hearts of these malcontents.” His lips curled. “I’m only glad they won’t trouble me again.”
    The menace in his tone filled me with foreboding. The wheels of my carriage rolled on and the scent of carnage told me there’d been bloodshed. I saw men dead in the grass, eyes wide and empty, gaping wounds shining with blood, glistening entrails in the dirt. A noxious stew of horror churned in my belly and boiled up to my throat. To keep myself from retching, I pressed the back of my hand against my mouth. I could scarcely make my lips move to utter the words, “You executed them.”
    “They were nobodies.” Augustus yanked at his decorative cuirass as if the weight of the breastplate pained him at the shoulders. “Not even citizens. Just fools and madmen to get in my way on a day like this. My praetorians made short work of them. And if you mean to rule, Selene, if you mean to be a true queen, you’ll need a stronger stomach.”
    No matter how many people he killed, I’d never be able to shrug indifferently as he did now. Murder never gave him pause, but he wasn’t an indiscriminate killer. The dead men must have threatened his power in some way, and like the monster he was, he simply cut their lives short. It was a sharp reminder of how dangerous a game it was I played with him. It gained me nothing to let him see how his ruthlessness sickened me. It wouldn’t help these poor dead strangers and it would only mark my weaknesses for Augustus to exploit. He was right. If I were to ever be his equal or ever triumph over him, I’d have to choke back my bile. So I turned my eyes away from the dead men on the road. “Did this have something to do with Helios?”
    “No. I’m no longer worried about your twin. The Prefect of Egypt assures me that he’ll crush the rebellion in Thebes shortly.” My mouth went dry as I stared out at the funereal monuments that lined our path. We lurched and bumped our way down the road in silence until the emperor said, “My temper is in need of soothing and it occurs to me that I’ll miss you when we’re apart. Who will play the kithara for me?”
    “You can hire a skilled harpist.”
    He smirked indulgently. “She’ll cost me far less than you. Not every musician demands a throne as her price.”
    I lifted my chin with Ptolemaic pride. “Not every musician is Cleopatra’s daughter.”
    His lips twisted in amusement. “Let’s play another game. You’re Greek. You’ll enjoy this one.”
    My blood was Macedonian, which wasn’t precisely the same thing as Greek, but I said, “I’m Egyptian.”
    “A fact you never let me forget,” he said, showing only mild annoyance. “Now tell me, of these three historic figures, which one do I most resemble? Odysseus, Theseus, or Alexander the Great?”
    The emperor had been the boy everyone had discounted. He’d risen to the consulship of Rome at the age of nineteen and now held most of the world in his palm. To find