"It would appear, Consul, that we are under attack." Her use of the word "we" was not an accident. "I'm surprised that Achillas would mount such an assault, considering that my brother is in your custody."

She did know what had happened. She was baiting Caesar to tell her the truth. He did not answer.

The warship drew closer. I could now make out the faces of the Egyptian soldiers on the deck, and I could see that the catapult was being ratcheted back to launch another fireball at us.

"Or could it be," said Cleopatra, "that this assault is being launched at the instigation of my brother?"

Caesar drew a breath. "Your Majesty perceives the situation. Not an hour ago I released your brother and allowed him to join Achillas."

"But why, Consul?"

"Imperator!" cried Meto. "We must withdraw at once! The danger-"

Caesar looked away from the queen long enough to bark an order. "Withdraw to safety! All of you! Now!"

Meto moved to take his arm. "Imperator, you must come as well-" Caesar shook him off, but curiously, with his other hand, he held me as fast as ever. "Go, Meto. Lead the others to safety. I'll follow in a moment. Go! I order you!"

Reluctantly, Meto turned and gestured for the others to follow him off the pier. I could not have done so had I wanted to; Caesar held me fast in his grip.

He spoke to Cleopatra. "Your brother begged me to let him go to Achillas. He vowed to me that he would order Achillas to withdraw his troops. He promised to return to the palace as soon as that was done."

"And you believed him?"

"I accepted a vow made by the king of Egypt."

"My father was the king of Egypt! My brother is nothing more than a foolish boy."

"I see that now. And if he ever was the king, then, as of this moment, Ptolemy is king no longer, and never will be."

A fire leaped behind Cleopatra's eyes. "What are saying, Caesar?"

"I abandon all attempts to reconcile you with your brother. As consul of the Roman people, and executor of your father's will, I recognize you as queen of Egypt and sole claimant to the throne."

"And Ptolemy?"

"Ptolemy has betrayed me. In doing so, he's betrayed his people as well, and his own destiny. Once we've defeated him and his army, I shall take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that he can never again lay claim to the throne or do harm to you in any other way."

I heard a loud crack, much closer than before, followed by a recoil. The catapult had launched a second fireball at us. It arced through the air, its trajectory hard to determine from my foreshortened point of view.

"Go, Your Majesty!" said Caesar. "Follow the others to a place of safety."

Cleopatra smiled calmly. She did as Caesar asked and proceeded to leave the pier. Her stride was quick, but she did not run.

"Consul," I said nervously, gazing up at the approaching fireball, "should we not also-"

"Stand fast! I have a good eye for these things, Gordianus. This missile is poorly aimed. We're perfectly safe."

Sure enough, the descending fireball landed harmlessly in the water at a point more distant than the first. Meanwhile, a Roman galley was swiftly approaching to head off the Egyptian warship, which abruptly turned about.

Caesar drew me close. "Did you hear what I told the queen?" "Every word, Consul." I raised an eyebrow. "You omitted certain details regarding your conversation with her brother."

"Perhaps. But you must never, ever contradict or stray from the exact version of events that I recounted to the queen. Do you understand?"

"I understand, Consul. Cleopatra must never be told that she was your second choice."

He looked toward the head of the pier, where the queen was just joining the little crowd gathered there. He nodded thoughtfully. "I chose between the two of them, and I chose wrongly. But the gods gave me a chance to rectify my mistake before I compounded it further. Cleopatra deceived me, and I lost faith in her. Now I've deceived her in return; and so we're even and may start afresh."

"It seems to me, Consul, that neither of you deceived the other a whit. You each perceived exactly the game played by the other."

"But we shall pretend otherwise; and there you have the essence of statecraft, Gordianus-and of marriage, as well. Cleopatra is a woman, and I am a man; but we are also heads of state. When one of us sets a foot wrong, the other will pretend not to notice. When there is friction, we shall maintain a fiction of harmony; and thereby we shall respect one another's dignity."

"Would it not be wiser, and a great deal less troublesome, in marriage as well as statecraft, to simply be forthright and honest? To admit one's mistakes and ask forgiveness?"

Caesar looked at me and shook his head. "I don't know what sort of husband you made, Gordianus, but you could never have succeeded as a politician or a king."

"I never desired to be either, Consul."

"A good thing! Now, let's get off this damned pier. Where are my officers? Where are my messengers? There's a queen to be defended and a battle to be won!"

CHAPTER XXIX

As it turned out, there were many battles to be waged over the course of the coming months in Alexandria.

Achillas's assault on Caesar's position was only the beginning of what developed into a full-scale war, and a most unusual one, fought almost entirely within the arena of the city and its harbor. The fight on land took place in the close quarters of narrow streets and across adjoining rooftops, rather than on sweeping plains or across mountainous terrain, and therefore it required a strategy very different from the usual tactical deployment of cavalry and infantry. The naval engagements took place within the confines of the harbor, and at times took on the appearance of some vast aquatic spectacle mounted for the dubious amusement of the populace.

Caesar, taken by surprise by Ptolemy's duplicity and outnumbered, was at first hard-pressed to maintain his position. To flee by ship at that time was virtually impossible, due partly to unfavorable winds that made it difficult to leave the harbor, and partly to the extreme hazards attendant upon a withdrawal of all the troops toward the docks and thence by ship through the narrow harbor entrance, all the while under Egyptian attack on land and sea; Pompey, harassed by Caesar, had managed such a naval withdrawal from Brundisium, but just barely. Caesar was effectively trapped in Alexandria, and faced certain destruction should the Egyptians manage to penetrate his defenses. There was considerable grumbling among his officers that he had landed them in a very tight spot, thanks to an uncharacteristic miscalculation of the forces against him and to his love for a treacherous queen; but Caesar himself never betrayed any sign of doubt or gave vent to recrimination. Perhaps Cleopatra had convinced him that together they possessed a divine destiny, and that together they would overcome all obstacles on their path to immortality.

I shall leave it to others to recount all the many incidents of the Alexandrian War. No doubt Caesar himself, with the help of Meto and others, will write a more or less accurate, if entirely self-serving, account. How candid will he be about his relationships with the royal siblings? It will be interesting to read the delicate phrases he uses to justify his decision to allow Ptolemy to leave the palace and join Achillas. But when it comes to recounting events in the military arena, Caesar's memoirs can usually be trusted.

Certain incidents stand out in my memory. Early on, the Egyptians attempted to contaminate the water supply to the palace. In all Alexandria, not a single public fountain is supplied by a well or a spring, and the water of Lake Mareotis is too brackish to drink; all fresh water for the city arrives via the canal from the Nile, and where the canal approaches the city, the water is split into numerous channels to supply various precincts. The Egyptians, having control of the canal, began pumping seawater into the supply that flowed into the areas under Caesar's control. As their water inexplicably grew saltier, Caesar's men came near to panicking; but he assured them that along every coast, underground veins of fresh water could be found. The men devoted themselves to digging at numerous spots, working continuously night and day. And in fact, enough veins of fresh water were struck to produce an adequate supply, and a crisis that might have given the Egyptians an early victory was averted.