Every Last Kiss
Page 20

I felt literally sick being compared to this animal.
“You and I are nothing alike, Pothinus.Nothing.Of course I enjoy my relationship with the queen.She is my closest friend and I love her dearly.That is the difference between us, however.You did not love her brother. You only attached yourself to him for what he could do for you.You pinned your hopes on the wrong horse, eunuch.And I will not help you now.”
As I walked backward, my foot bumped into Iras’ leg and I knelt at her side, keeping my eyes on Pothinus.
“Are you alright, Iras?Have you been hurt?”
She shook her head and I glanced at her body. She didn’t appear to be injured, although I was certain it wasn’t comfortable for her to be lying on the hard floor of the deck as tightly bound as she was.She watched my face, waiting for what I would do.
I stood again.
“Pothinus, untie her.Keeping her here is not helping anything.I cannot hand you the bloodstone.It is bound to me- it is mine and it will stay mine.The history of the world is more important than all of us put together.”
I tried to make my voice soft and friendly, hoping that it somehow might sway him to reason.I should have known better.
“Well, I’m sorry to hear that, Charmian.Your decisions now are forcing me to kill you both.”
“I have to say, you don’t sound sorry at all, Pothinus.”
Another voice, loud and deep echoed throughout the mooring room and we turned in surprise toward it.Marc Antony was treading quietly up the long plank to the barge, dripping wet.Apparently, he had waded through the murky canal to get to us since we had the dingy.I watched as he shook the dirty canal water from his hair.
“Antony!How did you…”
I was so astonished that I couldn’t form a cohesive sentence.My initial reaction was joy… joy that he had come to save us.But it quickly turned to horror as I realized what that meant.He had probably overheard everything… and Ahmose was not going to be happy.It was yet another thing that we had now inadvertently changed.I sighed dejectedly.
“What, Charmian?You’re not happy to see me?”
Antony stepped lightly on board the golden deck of the barge, a thick gleaming sword in his hand.I was certainly happy to see that. I once again regretted not bringing my own dagger.
“Did you really think that I didn’t see you in the courtyard?Did you think that the little production I staged there was real?I had been waiting for you.I knew that you and my wife were up to something- I was quite aware all throughout dinner.It was only a matter of time until you emerged… and I followed you.”
He smirked in satisfaction, before he looked at me sharply.
“What is going on, Charmian?How are you standing here with a dead man?Pothinus died two years ago.What kind of trickery is this?”
His face was puzzled, but he kept a close eye on Pothinus, who had remained silent thus far.
“Antony, be careful,”I cautioned.“He has a dagger.”Antony flashed me a ridiculous look, rolling his eyes.
“Really, Charmian?A dagger?That’s not much of a match for my good Roman sword, now is it?He would have to get close enough to me to use his little knife… and that’s not going to happen.”
Quicker that I would have ever thought possible from such a large man, Pothinus lunged from where he was standing to where I was, roughly grabbing me and holding me to his chest… his dagger to my throat.I sighed.
“Um, Antony?”I called, raising my eyebrows and staring at him. “What now?I told you he had a dagger.”   
Antony rolled his eyes at me again as he tossed his long sword from one hand to the other, circling around us.
“This is not the time, woman.Be still.I don’t want to accidentally hit you.”
I froze.
“Antony, you can’t possibly mean to…”My hesitant voice trailed off.
He did certainly look as though he intended on striking Pothinus even though I was clutched so tightly to the eunuch’s chest.My thoughts swirled… this couldn’t be happening.I was going to be sliced open from head to toe. I just knew it.
Suddenly, I remembered my bloodstone.The heavy fist-sized stone still hung motionlessly from my neck, pulsing against the soft skin of my chest.Pothinus’ arm was snaked around my neck, leaving my arms uninhibited.I glanced nervously at his face, but he was completely distracted by the large sword that Antony was brandishing.He somehow didn’t notice that it rested against his arm.
Before I could change my mind, I yanked the bloodstone out of my tunic, snapping the thin golden chain that it dangled from.As hard as I possibly could, I smashed it into the eunuch’s sweaty forehead.Taken by surprise, he released me and stumbled backward, clutching both hands to the large gash in his head. Blood had already started gushing from the wound, flowing heavily over his hands and into his eyes.
“You bitch!”he snarled as he continued to stumble backward.
He frantically wiped at the blood streaming into his eyes, trying to see.Unfortunately for him, however, he didn’t see the railing of the barge directly behind him.Stumbling against it, it knocked his knees out from under him.He teetered briefly on the edge, frantically trying to regain his balance.His fleshy face terrified, he reached out to me for help. I offered none.But before I could move,he grabbed my hand.
Instead of pulling me with him as I expected, he wrenched my bloodstone from my hand and then toppled over into the water.  I gasped as I heard the confirming loud splash below us.
Rushing to the rail, I peered over it into the murky water below.Pothinus hadn’t surfaced yet. I watched for a few more minutes, but still didn’t see him emerge. He was gone… and so was my bloodstone. Again. I sighed and turned to find Antony kneeling on the deck as he swiftly cut through the ropes that bound Iras.
She sat up stiffly, rubbing her wrists and ankles as she stared at me, her face shrouded in uncertainty.I couldn’t imagine her confusion… at having been kidnapped by a dead man.
“Charmian,”she asked, her voice confused.“What is going on?”
As she spoke, I noticed that one of her cheekbones was swollen, her ebony skin bruised and puffy around it.I hadn’t noticed it before and I felt instant rage at Pothinus for having injured such a gentle, kind woman.
But my anger was quickly forgotten as Antony stood and turned to me, his eyes glinting mockingly as he stepped toward me, watching me as I gazed into the water in horror.  As it turned out, my bloodstone had protected me after all.I could never tell Cleopatra.She would think that she willed it to be so.  But now it was gone- and I didn’t know what we would do.
Antony gently grasped my arm and turned me toward him.
“Yes, Charmian,”he drawled, “It seems that you have some explaining to do.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
The walk back to the palace was a long one.Not because I was supporting Iras’ weight as she limped along on her sore ankles, but because I wasn’t sure how to answer Antony’s demands for information. And one thing about Antony… he was definitely demanding. He expected to get what he asked for.
“Antony, I told you,”I leveled my gaze at him once more as we trekked along the beach to the palace. “We’ll go straight to Cleopatra and get the answers that you seek.”
I was desperately trying to buy time, to decide what to do, so I allowed him to think that Cleopatra was the mastermind behind our deception.
“And I told you, Charmian,”he replied through gritted teeth.“She won’t give me the answers that I seek.She’ll give me what she wants me to hear.I want the real answers from you, right now.”
I sighed and stared at the fiery light of the lighthouse across the harbor.It was hard to believe that I could’ve died beneath it just a scant hour ago. It seemed so benign now as its beacon guided sailors safely in from the sea.
“Antony, please. You know that I cannot do that.Don’t ask me to- You know that I am loyal to you, my lord… but my loyalty is first to Cleopatra.”I implored him with my eyes and he grunted in frustration, looking away.
“Oh and Antony…”
He glared sullenly at me once more.“Yes?”
“Thank you for saving my life.”
His taut mouth stretched into a grin.
“You saved your own life, Charmian.You’re quite the feisty hell-cat!”
He slapped my shoulder and we continued on past the guards stationed at the staircase in silence.He abandoned his efforts to get information from me, as he scooped Iras up in his arms and carried her up the stairs.
As we re-entered the palace, Antony led the way, barging down the quiet hallway with the subtly of a charging bull.I sighed again.At this rate, he was going to wake the entire palace.
He pushed open the doors to Cleopatra’s chambers without knocking, as I trailed along in his wake.Cleopatra was reclining in a chaise lounge by her open balcony doors, reading thick papyrus scrolls by the light of an oil lamp. She looked up in surprise as we barged into her chamber.
“Antony, what in the world…”her voice trailed off.“Iras!”she breathed, obviously relieved.
“So you did know,”Antony hissed at her as he towered above her. “You knew that Pothinus was holding Iras hostage… because he wants some sort of magical stone.And you never thought it was important enough to share with me!”
His voice elevated to a thunderous pitch and I cringed.Antony was a kind man, but he did have an explosive temper.
“My lord,”Cleopatra purred soothingly as she rose from her lounge.
She took one look at my face and read the unspoken message there.She rolled with the punches and I had never been so impressed.The woman was good.
“I did not share it with you because the more people that knew, the more dangerous the whole situation became.”
I was certain that she was dying to know what had happened with Pothinus, but she didn’t show it.She reached up to touch Antony’s face, but he jerked away from her hand.
“Cleopatra, this is unacceptable.You will explain what is going on!”he thundered.
She glanced quickly at me before returning her gaze to her angry husband.I knew that her wheels must be spinning a mile a minute, thinking of damage control and trying to decide what to say, probably wondering what I had already said.
Unfortunately, as far as I could determine, there wasn’t much she could say… except for the truth.She must have come to the same conclusion, because she sank back down into her chaise with a sigh.
“Alright, husband.If you will have a seat and be calm, I will explain to you all of the complexities that I have been dealing with.I’m warning you now, though, you won’t like it.”He nodded curtly, accepting that.
She nodded too, in resignation as Antony lowered Iras into a chaise lounge and then dropped his large body to sit next to Cleopatra on hers. He tapped his foot as he waited expectantly.I crossed the room to sit with Iras while Cleopatra began to speak.
It took her the same amount of time to explain to Antony as it did when I explained it to her. At the end of which time, both he and Iras’ eyes were the size of silver dollars.He rose shakily from his seat, paced to the balcony and stared at the sea and then paced back to fall on his knees in front of Cleopatra.