Pharaoh by Karen Essex Page B

not tolerate the existence of one who had almost bettered him in battle.
     If it had not been for the late arrival of the Jewish forces-bullied into joining their conqueror’s cause-Arsinoe would at
     this moment be queen of Egypt and Ganymedes her Prime Minister. And Kleopatra’s head would be on the executioner’s block,
     and it would be Julius Caesar’s filthy Roman armor and not her brother’s displayed in the marketplace, though she would have
     undone her brother anyway.
    Arsinoe remembered the first time Ptolemy came to her chamber. It was right after the death of their father, when the eunuch
     Pothinus- dead now as well-had insisted the marriage between Ptolemy and Kleopatra take place. Kleopatra had agreed to the
     ceremony, but afterward she refused to let Ptolemy into her bed. The boy, red with humiliation and anger, came rushing into
     Arsinoe’s room, calling her his true wife and queen and promising that he would see Kleopatra if not dead, then in exile.
     And he had made good on that promise.
    Arsinoe had had no choice but to comply with his salacious wishes. She had no one to look after her interests but the unsavory
     boy who removed his clothes and slipped under the blanket beside her. And so she succumbed, playing the role of lover with
     all the passion of an actress, for she remembered what sweet love had felt like and she could enact it for this fool who actually
     believed she enjoyed touching his putrid flesh. She could not tell him that compared to the body of the fair and taut Berenike,
     it looked to her like uncooked, milk-fed veal.
    She turned away from the sarcophagus and met the faces of her captors, Roman soldiers who eyed her leeringly, staring at her
     body. She was not afraid, and returned their gaze with an imperious and defiant stare like the one Berenike had given at her
     trial. She had heard that Caesar had given strict orders to the men not to harm her in any way. Surely he had disobeyed the
     wishes of his mistress in that regard, for she knew that Kleopatra wanted nothing more than to see her dead. Then and only
     then would that whore of the Romans be safe.
    Well, let the Roman-lover try to have her executed. Arsinoe would face her death bravely and with dignity, just as Berenike
     had done when their own father demanded her death. And she would leave behind her a trail of animosity against Kleopatra and
     the Romans that woulddestroy them all, for she knew that many of the tribes of Alexandria were disappointed that Kleopatra had prevailed.
    She dared not hope for life. Alive, she was of no earthly use to her sister. She could be nothing but a threat, because there
     was still the younger brother who was already twelve years old, and Kleopatra would soon have to face the reality of his existence
     and of her own position. And at any point in his life, under the influence of an ambitious courtier or of his own volition,
     Ptolemy the Younger could decide that Kleopatra was not his ally, and he could have her murdered in her sleep and replaced
     with the seemingly compliant Arsinoe. After all, the two of them had grown up together in the nursery, and after his mother
     and Berenike were dead, who had mothered him but herself? To him, Kleopatra was a half sister, an inconvenience, a threat,
     or all of these things, whereas Arsinoe was a full and true sister, an affectionate sibling, the closest thing to a mother
     the boy would ever know.
    She knew the reason she was presently kept alive, and it had nothing to do with Kleopatra. She had heard it from those within
     the palace who attended her and who secretly still supported her. Julius Caesar had told Kleopatra that he would not execute
     a girl. Not that he cared who lived or died, but he did not wish to mar his reputation for mercy. And that was that. Apparently,
     Kleopatra had shut up for once and did not argue with Caesar to do her bidding. Arsinoe doubted that Kleopatra was trying
     to follow her lover’s example for