Free Cleopatra Occult by Peter Joseph Swanson Page B

insulted. “I swear by my sword.”
    So she winked. “If the moonlight puts us under her spells along the way, that’s another matter entirely.”
    They walked together to his ship, another large Roman vessel he’d taken command of. A voyage from Messina to Alexandria would be about eight hundred and thirty nautical miles, taking seven days at five knots if the wind was in their favor.
     
     
    Chapter nine
     
     
    On the first day at sea, everyone on Mark Antony’s ship enjoyed fresh fruit. He handed a plum to Cleopatra and she turned it down. He asked her, “You queasy from the waves?”
    She shook her head. “Not hungry.”
    “It’s okay if the waves make you dizzy. I once saw Caesar lose his sea legs.” Mark made a face like he was puking.
    She assured him she was okay.
    When they all weren’t eating they were praying to Poseidon to allow them a safe passage.
     
    ~
     
    Day two started cloudy with a sailor crying that he’d had terrible dreams. Mark shut him up and insisted he sing a cheery sailor’s song to Cleopatra about Egypt. He didn’t know any.
    So another sailor announced, “A song to Isis and Osiris,” and he sang.
    Cleopatra’s mind wandered. She worried how she didn’t have dreams anymore. She wondered what was blocking the most elementary part of any magic. She shuddered with fear as she realized some dark force was blocking her most basic life force.
    It started to rain.
     
    ~
     
    Day three, Cleopatra sat alone on the wet deck of the ship in the pouring rain. She was ready to meet Poseidon face-to-face to defy him to stop her. Mark Antony joined her, with food. “Are you sure you’re not seasick? You haven’t eaten once since you’ve been on ship.”
    “A queen does not eat in front of people like this.”
    “We all must eat.”
    Cleopatra straighten her posture. “Worthless people live only to eat and drink. People of worth eat and drink only to live. Socrates said that. I agree.”
    “Then eat something to live.”
    “I’m very alive. Look at me.” She put her hand out to him and wiggled her fingers.
    Mark said, “I’ve had my men keep an eye on you and they’ve reported to me that you haven’t eaten.”
    “They are but common men and I’m not only a queen but I am Isis on earth and I can do many things that men will not see.”
    Mark became mocking. “Oooh… so they cannot see you eat?”
    “I’m not so vulgar. I’ll eat only where I want.” She turn away.
    “Then let me see you eat right now. You look thin. You must eat. You can eat in front of me, I’m an aristocrat.”

She bristled, insulted. “I am not thin! I have plentiful hips fitting the greatest of fertility goddesses. I have enough bounce in my stride—I am a queen full of banquets for a whole land. And someday my ample breasts will feed a new king all the magic of the Nile. You are a cad to speak of me as bones!”
    “No, no! You don’t have the frame of a peasant in famine… I didn’t mean that at all…”
    They argued for a few minutes until she angrily sent him away. She thought about how she hadn’t had an appetite and wondered what additional curse that was on her. Then she laughed at herself. “He threw salt at me and it hurt. Salt only hurts where there is a wound… never advertise your wounds.”
     
    ~
     
    The sixth day of the voyage, as the Lotus Moon began to rise over the black water, Cleopatra stood at the bow of Mark Antony’s ship. Mark lit a lamp and called out to her, “Come sit here in the middle. You won’t get seasick.”
    “Of course I’m not sick. I love to rise and fall with the waves.”
    He walked up her. “You don’t get seasick, ever?”
    She shook her head.
    “How do you do it?”
    She put her arms up. “Feel the flow of the sea serpents. Flow with them. They’re never sick from the waves. Why should I? I am the queen of the Nile. I feel at one with water.”
    He sadly shook his head. “I’m lousy at sea and worse at sea battles. Battles at sea are