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When we felt we could leave unobserved, Mudjet and I threw on some plain clothes and scurried out into the descending robe of night. We left Quintus Fabianus at my tent to deflect inquiries, and then met with Tahu near the edge of our encampment.
The three of us continued on our way through the city until we reached the back streets of the Rhakotis district. There were more people around than I would have liked, but Alexandria has always been a restless sleeper. The siege only added to its insomnia. We moved as purposely as we could manage until we came to a house with the sign of a mirror above its door. I knocked and the door was answered by a servant woman.
"Who sent you to this door?" she asked.
I had been told in advance of the password requirement. "She who is the Queen of Joy and the Mistress of Music, She Who Beats the Drum," I replied.
The woman bowed. "Enter and be glad, Queen of the Moon Gate."
We entered the house and were met by the heady scent of perfume and oils. Curtains as fleeting as cobwebs hung over the doorways that opened up on either side and as we were led towards the back rooms, the flash of jewel-bright eyes flickered here and there behind the them. We reached the farthest room and the servant knocked on the red door. A brittle voice said, "Enter!" and we were taken inside.
The room smelled of myrrh and the faintest hint of sweat. We trod on heavy carpets imported from Pontus and were greeted by five figures seated on couches circled about a round table set with several jugs of wine. The tarnished brass oil lamps flickered on their chains suspended from the thickly plastered ceiling.
"Welcome, Your Royal Highness." said the woman who had spoken with the brittle voice, as she stood up to meet me. She was a thin, elderly woman who barely came to my shoulders. She wore a thick black wig in the old Egyptian style with a scarlet ribbon wrapped around her forehead. The matching silk robe she wore was shot through with gold and silver thread and cut in a fashion from the East. Her thin fingers wore a cacophony of rings and her small eyes were ringed with thick layers of kohl.
"Thank you, mu-ti." I turned my attention to the others. "Thank you all for agreeing to meet with me."
"We are honored to be worthy of the attention of a princess of Egypt. But first, I believe some brief introductions are necessary. We flatter ourselves that our names may be known to Your Highness, though I doubt our faces are." She motioned to the middle-aged women to her right. "This woman has the honor to be the Sail and the other, the Palm Fruit." She turned to her left and singled out the younger woman. "This woman is the Sweet Harp." Lastly, she gestured to the only man amongst them. "And as you might have deduced, this gentleman is the Leopard."
I nodded to each in turn. Naturally these were only their names of business, yet all were famous in Alexandria and abroad. The old lady lowered her head. "And if it please Your Highness, I have the honor to be the Mirror."
I handed her a bag of gold that I took from Mudjet. "Thank you again for arranging all of this, madam. I hope this will cover some of the detriment of closing your house this night."
"It is well, my lady. Please be seated." She guided me towards the vacant couch in the circle. I sat down and the servant placed a cup of wine in my hand before departing, shutting the door behind her.
"Now," said the Mirror with a wave of her hand, "to business. What would Your Highness wish to discuss with us?"
I took a sip of wine before I began. "I do not think I have to elaborately delineate my position to you, so I will be brief. I know you have eyes and ears everywhere and nowhere. You know I oppose the influence of Rome in our city on behalf of my brother the Pharaoh. We currently enjoy some advantage in strength of position and manpower, though this will be nothing but a memory when Caesar is able to retrieve the rest of his legions. Even without their numbers, the legion he has right now has cut its teeth in the very mouth of Hades. So I am endeavoring to find ways to use our current control of the city to our benefit."
"You have come to the wrong people if you are looking for more men, Princess," said the Sweet Harp, her perfect Cupid's bow lips pursing into an impish smile. "Though the Leopard might have a few you could borrow."
The Leopard twirled the end of his beard on his thin forefinger, amused. "I do, but they cost me a fortune and I would be hard pressed to part with them."
The Mirror gave the two of them an admonishing look. "Enough. Your Highness, please continue."
"I also know that all of your houses have more contact with the Roman soldiers than any others in Alexandria."
"But not with Caesar himself, to our dear Harp's endless despair," interrupted the Leopard again with a predatory grin in his companion's direction.
The Sweet Harp pulled a languishing face, and turned to me. "It is intolerably unfair that your lady sister keep a man of his formidable — reputation — all to herself."
The round-faced Palm Fruit cut in. "Oh, stop your prattling, both of you! Princess," she said turning to me, "you cannot ask us to forgo the business of the legion in the name of civic duty. Their coin is as good as anyone's."
"When they don't haggle endlessly over prices!" sniffed the Sweet Harp. "You'd think some of their members were made of gold!"
"It's easy for you to be choosy, Harp," said the Leopard in a gentler tone. "You're further out in the Soma than Palm and I. Her Highness' excellent barricades make it difficult for many of the Romans to even make it as far as your house." He raised his cup to salute me.
"I could never ask any of you to forswear your business with the legion," I replied, trying to regain control of the conversation. "If you did bar your doors to them of course, it would be injurious to their morale and for that I would be eternally grateful. However, I mainly came here to ask that you and your charges keep your ears open to the wine-talk of the soldiers and to see if you might be willing to keep me informed. All I ask is for you to give us any help you feel able to."
A new voice, subtler and lower than the others spoke up. "Why do you come to ask of us these things in the heart of the night, Princess?"
I turned to the sound of the voice and meet the stately gaze of the Sail, who leaned forward and waited patiently for my response. "Because my high officers would have tried to stop me from coming in the daylight. They disagree with my plan to harness the many talents of this city to aid us. They believe we can succeed with troops alone."
"And you do not, my lady?" Her pale blue eyes flickered like the light of the lamps.
I hesitated. "No."
"Why not?"
"Because I have looked Caesar in the eye."
The Sail nodded slowly and leaned back on her couch. "This one sees things for how they are. The only wise thing our boy king has done is to send this sister out to lead the people." She then spoke to the group at large. "We cannot hold ourselves separate from the city, sisters and brother. Without us, Alexandria has no pulse in its veins and it will wither if we do not do what we can to assist the Princess Arsinoë. She has shown herself to be far-sighted and not too proud to ask even whoresellers for aid for the sake of our land. She has come here herself — no wonder our kingdom's weakest fly to her tender arms."
"We are honored naturally, Sister Sail, yet I'm sure the princess has held a dozen meetings with the merchants filled with the same innocent bleating," the Palm Fruit said huffily.
"Do you make the same request of our merchants, my lady?" asked the Mirror, her old papyrus voice carrying the note of sweetness that no doubt led her to help me call this meeting in the first place.
"The merchants powerful enough to equal the reach of you assembled here I cannot hope to win over, just as I cannot hope to be a general equal to the master of Rome,” I replied truthfully. “They are foreigners to this land and pragmatists, whose fortunes are tied to stability and continuity. They will never support a third daughter who rallies the natives to her banner. I know some of you are not Egyptian by birth any more than they are or any more purely than I could claim, but I know you love this city and this land. I know you all have worked together for years to protect your courtesans and keep undesirable elements from flourishing, when it might have been more profitable to simply compete with one another in depravity. You, Madam Palm Fruit, pretend to scoff at the notion that you and your associates are civic-minded, though I see much evidence that those gathered here might be the strongest defenders of the true Alexandria."
The Five sat in silence for a few minutes, until the Leopard broke it abruptly. "Marvelous, Your Highness!" he crowed with a clap of his hands. "With a tongue as silver as your eyes, the Queen should be wary indeed! How can I close my ears to such eloquence! What say you, Palm? Has the Princess won you to her cause?"
The Palm Fruit sighed heavily. "Yes, yes... You know I bear no love for the Romans, but my house is the closest to the palace, so I dare not shut my door." She looked at me. "I will keep you informed of anything I hear, Your Highness. You have my word."
The Sweet Harp giggled. "I for one can't wait to have a little fun with our Latin guests. Don't worry, Princess. Your sister isn't the only one who has a few potions up her sleeve..."
"I already have nightly brawls between our sailors and the legionaries, maybe I will simply stop holding the Alexandrians back," said the Sail with an ironic smile.
"And I," rasped the Mirror, "I will shut my door to all Romans. This is my city, my home. We are not simply another Roman colony. We stand with you, my child. Even if we are hiding in the shadows."
"I thank you all. This is more than I could have wished for. I am sorry if this brings hardships to your doors."
"Bah. As you say, Princess, we are at war," commented the Leopard with a shrug. "The hardships will come regardless. Better to make some of them of our own choosing." He leaned his head down at me sympathetically. "Though you understand we cannot win this war for you. This will not last."
"I know. This is not a traditional war. All my strategies are only meant to buy us a little more time. This is no different."
––––––––
It was nearly dawn when we crept back into camp with Tahu, parting ways with him when our tent was in sight. Quintus greeted us in hushed relief and parted the front flap as we ducked back inside. Mudjet helped me undress and then sank down on her own couch with a satisfied sigh before almost instantly drifting off to sleep. I knew I should have been tired as well, but my mind was too awake.
"My lady should try to sleep for a few hours," Quintus' voice drifted softly over to me from outside the tent flap.
I rolled over onto my side. "My mind is fixed on too many things."
"Permission to enter, my lady?"
"Of course."
My Gabiniani lieutenant bent into the tent and walked over to my couch. "May I?" he asked, gesturing to the corner by my feet. I nodded, curling them up to make room for him. "Now," he said, "tell me what the Five had to say."
Keeping my voice low so as not to wake Mudjet, I recounted all that had happened at the Mirror's house. Quintus listened until I was finished, only nodding his head occasionally to let me know I held his attention.
"It would seem my Queen was most successful on her mission," he observed with a triumphant grin. "These were not naivë folk she spoke with."
"I do not know how much good it will do. I hope I do not disappoint Ganymedes for nothing."
"He only worries for you, my lady. As we all do. Yet I think this was the bold plan of a true general. You could not have better placed spies in all the city." He paused to look at me with pride. "I wish my wife could have met Your Majesty. She would've appreciated my lady's quiet streak of daring."
"You must miss her a great deal,” I said, tucking my hand under my cheek.
"I do. But I feel blessed for the time we were given together. I fell in love with Egypt as I fell in love with her, and that love gave me three sons and a place to call home. Many are given much less in life."
I met his gaze. "It is indeed my loss to not have known the woman so respected by one such as you, Quintus."
"It might be too bold to say, my lady, but I think my wife would have enjoyed caring for you as a daughter. She loved our boys, though I believe she had always wished to have a little girl as well."
I smiled. "I have been a girl in search of a mother for half of my life. I think I would have liked that."
He returned my smile fondly before letting his mouth assume a mischievous twist. "I believe this coming day I shall have to find something complicated to occupy Your Majesty's engineering corps. Master Tychon keeps threatening to send a battalion of Nubians south to procure war elephants."
I smothered a laugh at this, imagining my army trying to maneuver elephants through the crowded streets of Alexandria. "Gods defend us, my engineers are quite mad! Achillas is already annoyed with the interference of the rank-and-file Alexandrians — he will be beside himself if I unleash elephants on the city!"
Quintus let out a chortle. "The general would be fit to be tied. Especially if Your Majesty came before the men galloping astride an elephant, no doubt he being envious to have not thought of such an ostentatious display himself!"
I wiped a tear from my eye. "It would be quite the contest to see which of us would be more ridiculous to be sure."
"The young engineers wish my lady to be hailed as a great general like Hannibal."
I shook my head. "They know elephants did not help the illustrious general much with Rome either?"
"I believe them to be operating in the spirit of the law rather than the letter, my lady."
"Hmph, let us hope so. We shall need more luck than Hannibal if we do not want to come to the same grief as Carthage."
––––––––
"Strange reports are reaching me, Your Majesty," Ganymedes said to me as he, Mudjet, and I toured our barricade lines in the Soma on horseback about two weeks later.
"Oh?" I said in return, pulling my attention from the stone block I had leaned down to test the positioning of. "Is it cause for concern?"
"Honestly, my lady, I am not sure. It has been brought to my attention that the soldiers of the legion are telling peculiar tales about certain people Your Majesty mentioned in my presence some weeks ago."
I feigned ignorance as I sat up and adjusted my footing against the saddle. "I prattle on about a great many people, teacher. Of whom are you speaking?"
"Those known as the Five, my lady. It is being said around the city that courtesan-masters may have taken a tack against our enemy."
"That hardly seems likely. The legion are a thousand men far away from their wives. It would be poor business to stir trouble up with paying customers," I said.
"That is what I thought, and yet it is rumored that the Old Lady of Rhakotis has refused to let the Romans pass under her door. And there is another jade who lives here in the back streets of this district whom Caesar has forbidden his men to visit because they keep returning to the palace under some Eastern drug or another that renders them unfit for duty for hours on end. And it is said he will have to prohibit another whorehouse soon as half of the legion keeps getting into nightly brawls with the merchants' sailors."
Mudjet raised her eyebrows dramatically. "Dear me, what a mess!"
I lowered my eyelids to remind her not to overdo it. "Indeed. Though I see no cause for our alarm. The activities of the Five do not seem to involve us. Perhaps it is the intervention of the Lady of the Sweet Words on our behalf."
Ganymedes studied me skeptically for a moment. I met his scrutiny with an innocent expression that eventually made him relent. "As you say, nedjet. It is a fortunate distraction. I have also heard rumors that the people are beginning to believe that you are a favorite of their gods, perhaps they have in truth bent events to your will."
I demurred politely, and we resumed our inspections until Ganymedes was called away to assist a battalion of the Gabiniani with their fortifications. "I do feel sorry for deflecting him," I said to Mudjet, who sat on her horse smirking at me when he left. "But there are several parts of this he will not understand."
“It is as Kharmion told your sister once, my lady. The gods help those who help themselves."
I glanced around us. "Do you think we can risk a meeting with the Mirror? I am worried my new allies might be going about their tasks too enthusiastically. It might cause more trouble than aid."
"If we can, now is the moment. Though we should go on foot and make sure to put our hoods up."
We dismounted, leaving the horses with a detachment of our soldiers and cutting through the back alleys until we came to the back door of The Mirror's residence. Mudjet rapped out a prearranged knock and a kitchen slave admitted us. We were taken up a back stairway to the old mistress' private quarters. We entered and found the Mirror reclining on her large couch.
I made a deferential gesture as she began to rise. "Do not trouble yourself to get up. Forgive our intrusion on your resting hours, mu-ti."
She waved a hand, causing her rings and bracelets to jangle. "It is nothing, Your Highness. I always have an ear for you. Please, sit! It is positively scandalous that I lounge here in my dressing robes while a heqet stands in my presence!"
We settled ourselves on another waiting couch. "My tutor has heard wind of your collective work. It sounds as if everyone has been very effective."
"It is also rather scandalous how much we are enjoying this game the Princess of Egypt has set us on," she said in her fragile voice. "We begin to see why the city at large has joined it so readily. Has our information been finding my lady's Memphisian?"
"Yes, it has been extremely helpful. I am most grateful. I am only worried that the zeal of the Five might cause the Romans to shun you all completely and we might lose access to the enemy. Not to mention endanger you and the lives of your hetaerae."
The Mirror gave me a smile that carried a drop of condescension for my politesse. "Your Highness is kind to use such a forgiving word for our girls. And I understand your concerns. Sister Harp has been very cheeky, though she and her girls have been sure not to go too far. And all of us have been rotating our best charges into her house for insurance. Caesar can bluster all he wants, his men will not be able to forgo the best flesh in Alexandria on the word of a leader who cannot resist similar pleasures himself."
I grinned. "That is indeed very clever. I hope Madam Sail has not been too wind-tossed by the activities of the legion at her residence."
"Ah, Sister Sail has given herself a breezy name, but my lady knows she should be called the Iron Gate. She is quite capable of handling herself. Besides, it is only for a time. Our goals remain twofold: use the houses of Sister Sail and Sister Harp to tie up as many of the enemy's lower men as possible, while using that chaos to drive the officers into the houses of Sister Palm and Brother Leopard so that we can harvest information, with my house coordinating our efforts."
"So dividing up all of the courtesans in Alexandria, the Sail gets the fearless girls, the Sweet Harp gets the prettiest, and the Palm Fruit and the Leopard get the sly ones," observed Mujet, ticking off our allies on her fingers. "What does that leave you, mu-ti?"
"Ooh, those Ptolemies do raise such saucy ladies!" the Mirror said to her with an amused cackle. "Do not worry for me, sherit. I have the girls we can count on to organize. The ones that are friends with our neighbors and know every hovel in this city. The ones who can navigate a strange partisan war such as this."
I threw up my hands playfully. "I have been tricked, my sweet. The Five told me they could field no army, and here they have such an army I would bargain my ka for!"
The Mirror's lined face crinkled up. "Do not fret, dear Princess. We are your army as much as your archers or horsemen. Only do not say so to Sister Harp or she will demand the rank of general from you!"
––––––––
So my secret army continued its covert war while my other army built stronger barricades and taller siege towers. Cleopatra tried to find courtesans from outside the city to serve the legion safely, but even in the southern towns, houses of comfort seemed to vanish every time Apollodorus arrived there.
The Queen began to truly comprehend the reach the Five had within her kingdom. My men would stand on the roofs of Alexandria and yell to her that she would have to open her legs to the whole legion to keep them happy. Women in the markets would sashay past the enemy guards gossiping loudly that the Romans loved their republican ways so much that it was only fair that the queen should give to the common soldier what she freely gave to the general.
The Sweet Harp had her girls distribute messages all around the city and to the legion to give to Caesar, laughingly enticing him to sample the delights of her house before rushing to his harsh judgements. Mudjet would bring the latest offers to me so we could giggle over the florid prose describing Gallic snow maidens and sleek Nubian goddesses.
Ganymedes disapproved of us howling over the promises of exotic Eastern dances and tricks, though he did not forbid us our fun until the Harp started circulating a pamphlet promising Caesar she would find him a girl who looked like the renegade princess so that he could finally get the better of the little minx for once. My men loved it and hooted the taunt towards the palace exuberantly, but my tutor was livid and barked at anyone who mentioned it in his presence.
"It is meant to be a compliment, Ganymedes," Achillas noted, equally amused, with a grin in my direction.
"It is disgraceful for such things to be implied about a princess royal in the streets like she is a common fishwife!" my teacher fumed. "It should not be encouraged!"
"But it is not me in truth, Teacher," I said mildly. "Just someone who looks like me." I had thought the barb a stroke of genius and had sent a message to the Harp telling her as much. She replied jokingly that she was sure she could deliver if the Consul proved interested, though she was afraid the girl might have to keep her eyes closed because my eyes were a color hard to come by in this kingdom.
"It is the principle, nedjet," he answered angrily. "These are people who are not fit to speak of anything to a lady of your rank, let alone suggest a foreign adventurer take liberties with you." He glared at Mudjet, who was struggling to maintain her composure. "And you are supposed to have a care for Her Majesty's person, Mudjet! Not go along with the filthy ideas of the city!"
She coughed. "Yes, sir. Forgive me."