Cleopatra Occult by Peter Joseph Swanson Read Free Book Online Page A

down Circe’s cheeks. “I’m sorry Cleopatra.”
    “No, no. Of course I’m not Cleopatra! It’s Phaedra . I am Phaedra. Look at me. You poor dear. Can’t you see me?”
    “I’m sorry Cleopatra. We failed. The plague got to us first.”
    “It’s Phaedra! It’s Phaedra! You don’t serve Cleopatra.”
    “I serve the queen. I serve the queen. I serve...” She died.
    Phaedra painfully clutched at her own heart. “You can’t die! I love you too much and that has to do something about it!” She sobbed.
    A thin red snake slithered out of Circe’s mouth.
    Phaedra jumped back, horrified. 
     
     
    Chapter seven
     
     
    Deep under the Sinai Desert, in the temple to the snake god Apophis, the glowing jewels dimmed. The meandering tunnels went dark.
    Cleopatra cried, “Iset? Are you still there? I can’t see!”
    Iset called out, “Yes, and until the moon is full again to recharge the lights we must see with different eyes.”
    “But I can’t! I’m afraid!”
    Iset said, “It’s only the loss of eyes. All of eternity will be spent in Hades where there is no sun or moon. Learn to see with other eyes.”
    Cleopatra reached out for the wall. “Can you see?”
    “Yes I see with my snake eyes.”
    “You have snake’s eyes?”
    Iset said, “Yes, many of them.”
    “What do they all see?” 
    Iset moaned. “Failure.”
    Cleopatra gasped. “For everything ?”
    Iset answered, “I can’t see that far. But I see that the servant girl has died.”
    Cleopatra asked, “My brother’s witch got to her?”
    “She died of the plague.”
    “But… but how can that be? You sent the plague in the first place, didn’t you?”
    “Yes, I sent it to push them here.”
    Cleopatra inarticulately complained.
    Iset answered her, “For every action there is a reaction and we can’t control them all. We just have to think on our feet and change plans.”
    Cleopatra asked, “How can your magic do that… how can you have lost control?”
    Iset answered, “Magic is always a bit out of our control. There are always many unintended consequences to any action. The one who does magic best not only plans ahead, and tries to avoid doing more harm than good, but also must keep moving as the waters flow about you. The wind always blows in layers.” She loudly sang out into the dark, “ Sky above and water below, you are a hundred things at once, with a hundred eyes .”
    Cleopatra wrung her hands. “I can’t think! I can’t see! I can’t think this way!”
    Iset reminded her, “You lie awake in the night and think all the time.”
    “But… only if I’m in bed and it’s calm!”
    “You must be calm now. You’re still just as safe as you were when the crystals were glowing and lighting up the path.”
    “I need to see the path!”
    “Let your feet feel the path.” 
    Cleopatra cried, “What’ll we do? You told me that the servant girl was from a long family of witches. She was our last hope!”
    Iset said, “No, it’s the woman who she was serving who is our last hope. We must change plans and put all of our eggs in one basket now.”
    Cleopatra moaned. “Phaedra is our one basket ? Is that going to be enough? She doesn’t come from a great family of witches from the island of Aiaia, like Circe did. The Circe witches were once strong enough to turn Odysseus and his men into animals.”
    “Not everything great comes from families, and nobody needs to be turned into an animal unless you’d rather be one—cats can hunt in the dark.”
    “I’d love to be a black cat right now, full of magic and sight! If only they’d allow a cat to sit on a throne.”
    “This Phaedra has strong intuition for the wild ways of the witch. And her mother put her in a temple school. They taught her the cultivated ways of the priestess.”
    “Is that enough for us now?”
    Iset assured, “Not only will she have to do but there is great promise.”
    Cleopatra moaned. “I have to leave and get to Alexandria as soon as possible,