Every Last Kiss

“My lady, when did you ever take vows?You were simply born to be what you are.You’ve never chosen such a thing. Your vows, so to speak, were inherent.”

My throat tightened.How right he was.I had certainly never chosen.

“But you can change it,”he added.“The bloodstone is very, very powerful.Using it, you can change your situation.You can disavow the Order and live a normal life- a life that doesn’t end in tragedy.If you choose,”he added.

“I am weary of listening to this!”I snapped. “You have brought me here to a place where I should no longer be… and to make it worse, you brought Pothinus here as well, and now the treacherous snake has stolen my bloodstone.”  

“Ah, Pothinus the eunuch,”Annen sighed.“That poor soul is lost.He is evil through and through.There’s no hope for him.”

Bewildered, I stared at him.“Then why would you reveal the Order’s secrets to him?Your mother’s secrets?”

“I did no such thing,”he objected, his black eyes flashing.“Before he died, he unearthed secret scrolls that were well-hidden, scrolls about the Order.He already knew.I only brought him here so that you could see that if you chose a different path, it wouldn’t matter.But things are going so wrong.”

He stared at Cleopatra.“I’m sorry, my queen.I have failed you.”

“Why do you say that?”Cleopatra asked softly.

She had seated herself behind Annen’s desk, her slender legs curled beneath her.As she spoke, she sifted absently through the piles of scrolls.

She unrolled another scroll, gazing at the scrawling Egyptian written in bold, black ink.I only caught a glimpse of scrawled incantations to Anubis before Annen gasped and hurried around the desk, gathering it away from her with his talon-like fingers.

“I’m sorry, my queen.I mean no disrespect, but there is some magic that is much too dangerous for you to be exposed to.”He quickly rolled it back up and stacked it with the mounds of others along the wall behind him.

“If it is so dangerous, Annen, perhaps you should not leave it out in the open,”Cleopatra admonished lightly, but she didn’t ask any further questions about it.She turned to me.

“Charmian, what else would you like to ask this priest?”Her face was drenched in weariness and I found myself wishing that I could take her concern away for her.But I couldn’t, because I felt it myself.

“I want to know how I am going to get back home if we can’t retrieve my bloodstone from the eunuch. And I’d like to retrieve it before he uses it for something horrible.”

“My lady, I thought you knew.Your bloodstone is tied to you, in every way.There is no way that Pothinus can use the magic of your bloodstone unless you are present and wearing it.On that same note, there is also no way that you can leave here without it.”

I felt a lead weight drop into my stomach and I stared wordlessly at him.

“Why?”I whispered. “Why have you done this?In bringing me here, you have wrecked everything that I have worked for for so long.”

He nodded miserably.“Yes, my lady.I know.I have failed our queen and I have failed you.I meant only to help, to help you escape what killed my mother…”his voice trailed off as he dropped to his knees, his ancient back curving as he groveled at Cleopatra’s feet.

“Please forgive me, your highness,”he begged.“I did not mean to inflict this onto you.”

“Please stand,”she asked, pulling at his arm.“We need your help now, not theatrics. I am sure you meant no harm.”

He raised sad eyes to her.“No, my queen, I meant only to help. I saw the future and I knew what would happen if I did nothing.But now it is being used against Egypt and I am very sorry for that.”

“You meant no harm,”I murmured.“What else can you tell us?”

“What else would you like to know?”He rose slowly to his feet and folded his hands in front of him, waiting for the onslaught of questions as the light from the lamp flickered on the wall behind him.

“Annen, we have to get my bloodstone back from Pothinus.Speed is of the essence now.  I will discuss the secrets of the Order withyou later… I am curious as to what you know that I do not. But for now, I need my bloodstone.”

Annen shifted his wise gaze from me to the queen and then back again, eerily calm.When he finally spoke, it wasn’t reassuring.

“My lady, I will happily speak to you at any time that you wish.But you should know that your situation right now is certainly dire.Maybe even more so than you realize.”

Cleopatra and I eyed each other apprehensively.How could it be even more dire?

He turned to face me before he continued, impaling me with his intense stare.He shook his head and my gaze was drawn to the large black discs in his earlobes.They had to be at least two inches in diameter.Amazing. It must have taken years to work up to that size.Gazing at his gnarled hands and wrinkled face, I tried to imagine how old he was.

He pierced me again with his onyx stare and opened his mouth, but whatever he was about to say was interrupted when another priest quickly entered the chambers.

“Annen, we require your assistance.Thutmose has fallen- his ankle is broken.I can see the bone.Can you bring your herbs? We need to make a poultice to wrap it with.”With a quick bow to Cleopatra, the other priest was back out the doors and Annen turned once again to us.

“I’m sorry, my ladies.My services are required.But we can discuss this further at a later date.”

“How about this evening?”Cleopatra suggested.“Please come as my guest to dinner tonight.We can discuss it further then.As you know, time is of the essence.” 

“Of course, your highness.It would be my great honor.”Bowing low, he rose slowly and gathered a few foul-smelling jars from the dark shelves behind him.We followed him out and when we came to a T in the hallway, he turned to me.

“There is one thing, Charmian.If you should die while you are back here, every life you have had in the interim will disappear. As you can imagine, that will create giant rips in the fabric of time, affecting hundreds of lives.You must endeavor not to die.”

“Don’t worry,”I muttered, rolling my eyes.Endeavor not to die.Was he serious?

My shoulders slumped as Cleopatra and I walked back toward the tunnels. I don’t know what I had been hoping for, but it certainly wasn’t this.I wanted answers and an idea of how to acquire the bloodstone from Pothinus.What I had received was an even more jumbled mystery surrounding my own life.

We were back to square one.

As Cleopatra and I stepped into the shadowed underground passage, she turned to me, her beautiful face serious and composed.

“We will need to seek Pothinus out today, Charmian.I am growing weary of these games. Time is running out.”

Her voice was firm and determined and I was inclined to agree.  I was tired of playing, too.

“Where do you think we should start, my queen?”

“With Tehran, of course.I had an idea while speaking with Annen.”

“And?”I prompted her when she paused dramatically.

“We will summon Tehran to my quarters and we will lure him to our side.We will promise him an exalted place in my court, a place that will be cemented in history, in exchange for his defection.”

“But Cleopatra, we can’t do that—we can’t change history in such a way!”

She looked at me demurely.

“I didn’t say we would follow through with our promises, Charmian.Really… keep up!We will be lying, of course.”

And once again, Cleopatra’s determination and cunning showed through her beautiful exterior facade, leaving me impressed.She was willing to do anything to save Egypt’s rightful place in history, even though she knew she herself was doomed.Lying to a house servant would be nothing in comparison to that.We would just have to be convincing.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Annen was dead.

As we ate at the heavily laden carved banquet table, a soldier rushed in to Cleopatra, rasping quickly into her ear.She stood, her face drained of color and fled the room without a word.Antony, Hasani and I stared at each other in shock.My immediate thought was that something had happened to one of the children.Her expression had been that grave.

“I’ll go,”I murmured, pushing away from the table.Hasani’s expression was concerned as he placed his hand gently on my back.

“If you need us, call quickly,”he instructed.If only I could.

I nodded as I turned and chased after the queen.I could feel the stares of everyone in the room between my shoulder blades and I had to say, I was surprised that Antony didn’t follow.But he didn’t.He simply trusted that we would send for him.

Cleopatra was already in her room by the time I caught up with her, pacing holes in her carpet again and wringing her hands.Her face was as pale as I’d ever seen it.I rushed to her side, grabbing her arm lightly.

“Cleopatra, what is it?”I demanded, my eyes frozen on her colorless face.

Her colorful eye makeup and lip stain looked brash against the suddenly white tone of her skin. She practically blended right into the paleness of her white evening shift.

She shook her head morosely, opening her mouth.But nothing came out.

“Cleopatra, you’re scaring me.What is it?”My voice held wild notes of alarm.

She turned to me, placing her hand comfortingly on my shoulder, but it wasn’t comforting at all, not with her tension so palpable.

“Charmian, Annen is dead.I have to assume that Pothinus killed him. He was found on the altars of the Serapis, run through with a sword.”

I gasped sharply.“No.If he is dead, then…”

“Then he cannot further help us.”Her mouth was a thin line, pressed tightly together.

“And I have no idea how to leave here,”I added tentatively, my voice small.I dropped onto the lavish softness of her bed.

“Cleopatra, I have to admit… I’m at a loss for what to do.It seems as though fixing this is impossible!Do we beg Ahmose to go back in time once again and repair this?Because Annen wasn’t meant to die this way.”

Cleopatra’s face was thoughtful as she stared out the balcony doors at the twinkling stars.A golden statue of Ra the sun god gazed down at me, his expression stern and judgmental… as though even he, a mythological creature, was holding me responsible.I stared back defiantly.This wasn’t my fault.I hadn’t asked for this.

“I think not, Charmian,”Cleopatra finally murmured, turning back to face me.“I wish that we could, but as you know, we seem to make things worse when we attempt to repair them.”That was the honest to god truth. It seemed we could do nothing right.It was discouraging.

“Then what shall we do?”I whispered.

“We will continue with our plans.Tomorrow morning, we will summon Tehran and put our plan into motion.We must get this going, Charmian.Every minute that you are here, we risk changing history, rather than repairing it.It is becoming exhausting.”

I nodded silently and helped her prepare for bed.After removing her wig, brushing her long hair and helping her wash off her make-up, I stood back as she shrugged into a sheer nightgown.The breeze from the window fluttered the hem around her legs, making her seem almost ethereal in the lamplight.