Cleopatra's Moon by Vicky Alvear Shecter Read Free Book Online

intelligent questions. Only you must learn how to do so without angering those whom you engage.”
    “But I did not anger the rabbi, I swear!”
    “Well, you angered your tutor.” Mother shifted her gaze to Hekate, who washed her paws with great delicacy. She added with a murmur, “I was very much like you when I was young.”
    I stared, not knowing how to react to this strange admission.
    “A curious, restless mind is good in a ruler,” she continued. “Perhaps not very conducive to sleep, true, but it does give you the ability to explore angles others have not yet considered.”
    I sat on a cushion opposite Mother, and Hekate sauntered onto my lap. I touched the little cat’s emerald-encrusted collar in embarrassed delight. Mother claimed I was like her! Nothing could have made me prouder. Mother was famous for her quick mind and audacious risk-taking. When her rivals for the Egyptian throne exiled her, she raised an army on foreign land. She escaped assassination by hiding in a rug to align herself with Caesarion’s tata, Julius Caesar. And she had, with expert negotiations, regained many of Egypt’s lost provinces at a time when Rome took land rather than returned it.
    “So tell me,” Mother said, snapping me out of my reverie. “What troubled you about the rabbi’s stories?”
    “Why do men blame everything on women?” I blurted.
    Mother’s eyebrows rose and she leaned forward. “Do they?”
    “Yes! In the rabbi’s religion, they blame a woman for a mistake theman made too. And … and look how we Greeks blame Pandora for all the ills of the world. And Iotape said that in her faith, the good god created man while the evil god created woman —”
    “And what is Isis blamed for?” Mother interrupted.
    My mouth hung open as I thought through all of the stories I had ever read or heard about the Great Goddess. I paused. “She … she is not ‘blamed’ for anything. She is honored for resurrecting her husband, Osiris, outwitting the Evil One, and protecting her son Horus so that he could rule Egypt, thus restoring order.”
    Mother leaned back and smiled. She looked so satisfied I almost expected to hear her purr as loudly as Hekate on my lap. I smiled back, not quite sure why this answer pleased her so much.
    “Now you see why Isis is my patron Goddess,” Mother said. “And why you must align yourself with the Great Goddess too.” She unfastened a chain around her neck and lifted the amulet I had often seen hanging between her breasts. She held it toward me. “The Queen of Heaven, the Lady of the Words of Power, is whom you must follow, not any of the lesser goddesses or gods. For you see, Isis alone is honored as not only an equal to her husband, but the one responsible for his resurrection. She is the true power of Egypt. One day you will become initiated into her Mysteries — as I was — and the Goddess herself will show you how you must live.”
    The golden amulet, bearing the sacred Knot of Isis, glimmered in the light as it swung from Mother’s fingers. “Come, take it,” she directed me. “It is even more powerful than the emerald I know you never cared for,” she added with a rueful smile.
    I scrambled to my feet, upending the cat. Hekate made a sound of irritation at the indignity. “I am sorry, Daughter of Bastet,” I murmured out of habit. I turned my back and lifted my hair while Mother fastened the golden chain around my neck. The amulet felt warm from Mother’s skin as it hung down almost to my waist. My throat tightened with a strange thrill, as if I had passed some sort of secret test. Mother turned me to face her.
    “You are a true Daughter of Isis.” Mother closed her eyes and murmured a sacred prayer in the ancient words of Old Egypt — a language I would learn upon my initiation into womanhood. I closed my eyes too, feeling the power of her words pulsating in the air between us.
    I will follow you, Mother, as I will follow Isis, unto my death
, I swore to her