Every Last Kiss

Page 19

We made our way carefully down the stone stairs, but it was difficult as they were poorly lit.Pothinus grabbed a torch from the wall as we passed and held it in front of us to help light the way.

“Is Iras here?”I questioned again.“Where are we going?”

An earthy, musty smell clung to the inside of my nose and got stronger the further down we descended.It seemed as though I could almost hear water trickling from somewhere, but I couldn’t see where.

“Don’t worry about it,”the eunuch growled. “You’ll know when we get there.”

Apprehension began a slow build in my stomach. The further down we got, the further we got away from anyone who could help me if I needed it.The notion was unsettling at best and I quickly felt to see if my bloodstone was still hanging around my neck.And of course it was.I would have noticed if such a large rock had dropped off.

“Your queen is a nuisance,”he announced quietly as we continued feeling our way down the stairs.“Do you have any idea how long she and I have battled for the throne?She’s like a pesky fly… never giving up.”

“Is that what this is about?Have you somehow managed to cheat death… because you want the throne?”I couldn’t conceal my amazement.

“Don’t you know?”He stared at me with conceit.“I thought you knew everything.”

“Oh, I’m just a girl who’s always in the wrong place at the wrong time,”I drawled. “I don’t know everything.”

“Annen made me a promise,”Pothinus snarled. “And I intend to hold him to it.”

“Then by all means, don’t let me stop you,”I replied.“But if it concerns Egypt, just know this.Cleopatra will not give up the throne to you.She won’t do it.”

“She won’t have a choice,”he replied smugly.

“No?She would gladly die fighting you.She’ll never give up,”I pointed out.“She hasn’t given up on a single thing since she was born. It’s not in her nature.She is quite willing to fight for what is right.”

He growled again.“What is right!?Isn’t that a matter of perspective?”

“I suppose it is,”I acknowledged.“But her priority has always been what is right for Egypt.I would imagine that is far different from yours.”

“You know far less than you think you do,”he sneered as we finally neared the bottom of the seemingly endless stairs.We stopped talking as I looked around.We appeared to be in a narrow canal, musty and dark, surrounded on both sides by moss-covered stone.Murky water flowed slowly and a small dingy was moored next to us.

Pothinus shoved me toward it.

“Get in!”he demanded.

For the first time, I resisted.I stood firm as I turned to him.

“Why?Where are we going?”

He smiled at me, a frightening vision in the dark.“Don’t question me.Do you want to see Iras alive?”

I considered the situation briefly.Of course I wanted to see Iras alive.But I also knew that I needed to make it out alive, as well, so that we would get half of history right, at the very least. He saw the uncertainty on my face and took a step toward me.

“I said get in the boat,”he growled.As he spoke, I saw a glint of metal from the edge of my periphery.I hadn’t thought that he had a weapon, but I was mistaken.He had a knife.I suddenly wished that I had strapped a dagger to my thigh.Why on earth hadn’t I thought of that?

I mutely stepped into the rickety little boat and sat on the bottom in silence, the splintery sidewall scraping my back.As Pothinus stepped in, the boat rocked vicariously to one side from his massive weight.I grabbed the sides to brace myself, clenching the side until my fingers turned numb.He finally got himself situated, even though the little boat remained sunken quite a bit on his end.

He picked up a wooden oar and began rowing smoothly down the murky canal.Just a few minutes later, we came to another water-filled passageway. He rowed our boat into it and we came out on the other side in a large room, brightly lit by at least twenty torches.Cleopatra’s resplendent golden barge was floating peacefully in front of us, filling up more than half of the space with its gigantic girth.

I was astonished.I had never actually wondered where they stored the royal barge when it wasn’t in use, but now that I thought about it, of course it made sense to keep it hidden… both for the safety of the queen and because it was expensive.Her barge was plated in gold.I couldn’t imagine how they managed to float it from the harbor to beneath this lighthouse.Creating those secret canal-ways must have taken a Herculean act of engineering.

As we rowed up to it, I marveled once again at its beauty.Its extravagance was unparalleled anywhere in the world.Three times as long as an average ship, it sparkled under the gentle light of the torches.Its magnificent purple sails were tightly rolled, but the thick richness of the cloth was apparent even from my viewpoint in the tiny dingy.

Silver oars were visible on racks and a portable jeweled throne sat on the mast, in exactly the spot that Cleopatra liked to sit while the barge was rowed down the Nile.Typically, several servants dressed as sea nymphs fanned her as we sailed. Cleopatra liked to say that I was dramatic, but honestly, she was as well. She had a flair for performing- and she loved a good spectacle. And whenever we took out this magnificent barge, it was certainly a spectacle.

Tonight, a muffled voice and heavy thudding caught my attention as we got closer.

“Iras?”I called uncertainly.My voice echoed through the large room, making it seem even more desolate and remote.