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Billowing black clouds raced along the horizon as day broke over us and the hemiolias of the Thirty-Seventh Legion appeared in the distance. The sea turned from sparkling aquamarine to an angry slate blue. It had cruel sickle edges and the wind tore through everything in its wake, churning up bladed sand that slapped our faces raw.
"We cannot hope to launch the fleet in this weather!" Quintus called to me over the hoarse shout of the wind as my servants worked to double-anchor my tent. "The sailors say it is too risky!"
"It is well!" I yelled back. "The storm will prevent the legion from advancing, we do not need to set sail yet! The waves have made it too dark to navigate the shoals and they do not know the safe way across the harbor! And they will drown their men if they try to set out too many in smaller craft! Have Ganymedes keep the ships at the ready and we will launch only when we must!"
He nodded and waved as he turned back into the storm holding his cloak over his face. Mudjet wrapped a blanket around us both as we huddled together, bracing against the flying air which bolted through the tent in spite of our efforts.
I wished there was some task I could attend to, but my teacher had told me to wait until our course of action was decided. After so many weeks of activity, sloth came even less naturally to me than it ever had before and I struggled not to fidget against Mudjet's shoulder.
"Perhaps the Lord of the Swelling Breaths opened his ears to my lady too well," she said in my ear.
I smiled. "Indeed. However, we must be grateful to him and the others. Even if we are blown away by his generosity."
She giggled. "Yes, the largesse of the gods always takes one's breath away."
"Tsk. Blasphemer."
"Hemet-netjer."
We tittered at our own amusement, when another cloaked figure carrying a bundle appeared in my tent. "Tahu!" I called out, recognizing the shape of my lieutenant even before he pulled back his hood.
He knelt close to us so he did not have to yell. "Is my Pharaoh well?"
"Yes, we are fine. Is the army protected from the storm?"
"Yes, my lady. All are in their tents awaiting orders. They praise the holy gods for their aid." He looked at me slyly. "And their Pharaoh who speaks to them on their behalf."
I waved a hand. "I do not know what you are talking of."
He shrugged, keeping his happy grin. "As you wish, Your Majesty. Though you should be kind to me and my fancies, for I have come to release you from Sir Ganymedes' injunction to remain here."
I sat up, not bothering to hide my eagerness. "What are we to do?"
"Nothing if my lady is not willing, though I thought you might be in search of an errand. Would you like to come with me and a dozen guards to survey the coast?"
"Yes! I cannot bear to sit here for the duration of this tempest!"
"Very well, though if you and Lady Mudjet are to accompany us, I think it best if you dress as soldiers." He gestured to the bundle he had brought. "These should be of an acceptable size." He turned his back to us as we hurriedly disrobed and pulled on the clothes and armor in the bag. "The helmets are a little big because I thought you could then hide your hair in them."
It was a prudent suggestion and we helped each other gather up our braids, tying them as flatly around our heads as we could manage. Once that was done, we fitted the helmets on, which now sat snugly on our heads.
"You may face us again, sir," I said, fastening my cloak over the armor.
He surveyed us, pleased. "That will do nicely, Your Majesty. Please, follow me."
We braced ourselves as we left the tent and bent over against the dust and wind. "I assume my tutor does not know we do this!" I shouted to Tahu as we pushed into the gusting air.
"No! But I think it is important for our general to see how things stand as they are!" he hollered back.
We met up with the soldiers Tahu had selected to come with us, who were facing our horses facing away from the wind's fury. We mounted up and rode out towards the coastline, which was blessedly in the direction where the wind shifted to our backs and urged us on.
Closer to the water there was less sand to kick up into our lungs, though it also brought the roar of the waves nearer. The Roman ships could be seen rocking back and forth further out, their sails stowed and the individual craft spaced far enough apart to prevent them from colliding. We trotted along the beach with some caution in case the original legion attempted to move their lines in the confusion of the storm. Nothing unusual confronted us until we rounded a coastal wall and found two beached boats resting on the shore.
Tahu held up his hand to bring our group to a halt as he and I climbed down to investigate. The boats were empty and appeared abandoned aside from a dozen large barrels between them.
I lifted a barrel lid. "They are empty."
Tahu frowned as he inspected another, until his thoughtful look suddenly lifted. "Of course. They have come for water. The palace legion is not the only army that has been deprived of water recently. The Thirty-Seventh has been at sea for several weeks, they must be low and sent scouts in spite of the storm to find a supply."
I glanced down at the ground where there was a brief trail of footprints that had not blown away yet. "They cannot have gotten far in this weather. We must find them," I said, indicating the marks.
"Indeed, my lady,” Tahu agreed. “Stay close to me."
"Should we leave the horses and go on foot?"
He thought. "No, I think it is better to stay on horseback. We will be faster that way." He gave me a leg up before returning to his own horse. "We must track these scouts!" he called to the men. "Keep your eyes open, they must not make it to the city!"
We moved along swiftly but cautiously as we searched for the enemy sailors. I looked up at the sky and hoped it did not grow much darker. We had not bothered to bring torches that would both give away our position and struggle to stay lit in the gale.
"How many do you think there are?" I leaned towards Tahu to make myself heard.
"Not more than half a dozen, judging by the boats. They probably wanted as much room for the barrels as possible and did not want to lose too many men if the boats failed to reach the shore."
"What kind of weaponry are they likely to have?"
"Again, nothing very heavy, my lady. Swords and daggers, probably. Arrows and spears are bulky and would not do them much good in this wind anyhow."
We traveled in silence until we saw movement up ahead. We halted and watched the small huddle picking its way across the beach, fighting the wind. Tahu looked to me and nodded. He raised his arm noiselessly to our soldiers, curling his fingers into the shape of a circle. With no other direction, we spurred the horses to a gallop and within minutes overtook our quarry, encircling them with the horses while our men raised arrows at their heads.
The sailors threw their hands in the air. "Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" cried their leader in Greek.
"We will not if you stay as you are," I answered in kind. "Move and you will die where you stand!"
The cornered men looked from one of our faces to the next, still shaking. "We will not move, but please! Don't kill us! We are friends!"
This took me by surprise and I looked to Mudjet, who frowned quizzically. "What did they say?" asked Tahu, thinking he had misheard.
"They say they are our friends,” I said to him incredulously.
"We are your allies!" pleaded the leader again. "We are from the Thirty-Seventh Legion! We were sent for water and to let your mistress know that the general has made it safely aboard the flagship, and we are only waiting for this storm to end to attack!"
We received this statement in stunned silence until Mudjet broke the spell in a gleeful crow of laughter. "Gods defend us! They think we are your sister's soldiers, my lady!" she cried out in Egyptian to let our soldiers in on the farce. They chortled in response.
The imploring faces of the sailors grew even paler.
"Cleopatra Philopator did not send you, sir?" their leader asked me haltingly.
I shook my head. "I am afraid not, sir." As laughable as the mix-up was, I could not afford to waste any more time with it. In their confusion, the Romans had dropped a crucial piece of intelligence into my lap. I pulled my horse back from the circle. "Tahu," I called out, "take these men back to camp and keep them under guard, but see they are well-treated."
"Yes, my lady. But where are you going?"
I wheeled my horse around to face them all. "To the shipyard. Storm or no storm, if Caesar is with the fleet, then we must strike now!"
I did not wait for him to respond as I kicked my horse back down the beach, its mane lashing out at my arms as we pounded across the sand. I felt too unbalanced with the extra weight on my head, so I impatiently ripped off my helmet and tossed it aside. My braid uncoiled itself from my head and trailed behind me like a banner in the storm that continued to rage around us. Lords of Taui, I prayed, grant us passage to the sea. Beneath the sound of the wind I could hear hoofbeats gaining on my own, and I glanced over my shoulder to see Mudjet galloping to catch up with me. Glad that it was her, I gave my horse more rein and asked it to increase its pace, knowing my companion would have no difficulty catching up with us.
We were neck and neck as we rode into the shipyard, where the troops were wrapping sails and making minor structural repairs amid the general commotion of battle preparations. The soldiers who saw me called out titles of respect, which I acknowledged with a hand as I scanned the docks for my commanders. At last I saw the back of a towering man directing the loading of weapons onto one of the quadriremes.
"Dejen!" I shouted. "Where is Ganymedes?"
He turned, smiling with recognition as he gave a salute. "I think you will find him conferring with the engineers to the west, Queen of Queens. Does my Pharaoh have news from Tahu the Memphisian?"
"Yes! Keep loading these ships, I want them at the ready immediately!"
"It shall be done, Your Majesty!"
We rode on as quickly as we dared in such a crowded location until I saw my teacher and Quintus sketching out plans on a map as several other soldiers pinned the papyrus to the table. The Gabiniani officer lifted his head at the sound of our approach and with an eager grin rushed over to grab the reins of our horses.
"Have you been riding about in this weather, nedjet?" asked Ganymedes with a cursory glance at our outfits. He decided to pass over them without remark.
"We have, Teacher, but it is all worth it," I answered as Quintus carefully helped me from the saddle. "We have captured scouts sent by the Thirty-Seventh and they have informed us that Caesar has sailed out and joined the legion personally."
I knew my teacher would immediately grasp the significance of this news. "We will ready the fleet at once, my lady. With the wind at our backs, we should have the advantage of maneuverability. We will cut the head off the snake before it has a chance to bite our heel. Quintus, I will need you to be in command of one of the lead quadriremes. Go alert the other vessel captains; all ships capable of being floated should raise sail."
He nodded, with a little wink to me. "Of course, sir."
I held his arm. "Be careful. I still have need of you."
"For you, my Pharaoh, always." He bowed and departed down the line towards the far end of the docks.
I looked out over our ships. "We need fewer quadriremes and more triremes," I said absently to Ganymedes.
"I know, my lady. We have worked hard to make up for all the time Achillas wasted building these heavier warships. It may yet be enough. After all, the quadriremes should do a good job of blockading the coast from infiltration."
"We must not let the Roman hemiolias work their way behind our blockade line,” I said. “I will see to it that Tahu and the Gabiniani remaining onshore arrange our archers and siege towers seaward to demonstrate against the legion onshore so that Cleopatra is not tempted to send out reinforcements from our rear."
"Where would you like me to send Dejen the Nubian?"
"Give him admiralty over a coterie of our hemiolias and see to it that those ships are staffed with our best Phoenician sailors, along with at least one local fisherman who has the topography of our waters in his blood. We can use them to hem in the Roman fleet from spreading out and looking for weak spots along the coast."
"It will be as you say. Is there anything else, my lady?"
"I wish I could sail out with you,” I admitted quietly.
Ganymedes patted my shoulder. "We need you here, nedjet. We need you to direct the infantry onshore. Let us handle whatever passes for a Roman sailor."
I smiled. "The ones we captured thought we were my sister's soldiers."
He chuckled. "Did they now? Well, perhaps they had last spring's information."
"Perhaps. We are a watery people and our alliances are fluid."
"Let us go see if the Roman ships are faster than their intellects."
––––––––
Father Ra’s solar disc was already high in the sky as I watched my fleet sail out of the harbor. The long line of quadriremes was not the force I had hoped for when I had chased the wind with Set and Sobek in my dreams, but they were still the children born of that dream and I felt as much their mother in that moment.
I left the bulk of the Gabiniani to hold our positions along the Heptastadion with orders to take any part of Pharos not already under our control, if it were practical. These Roman soldiers of mine were excellent combatants though they were not sailors, which is why I did not send them out with the fleet. Instead I sent my water-dwelling Alexandrians and Greeks to greet our sea-arriving foes.
Tahu and I arranged our eastern lines to pin as much of the landed legion as possible so they could not scramble to their commander's defense out in the bay. Here I used native troops familiar with the layout of these streets and the interiors of the buildings to prevent them from maneuvering behind us. On the ground we set our pike-bearing infantry, while my lieutenant and I positioned ourselves on the roofs with my archers. The bowmen and those from the palace traded a handful of volleys without much enthusiasm, the lack of urgency on both sides no doubt owing to the everyone's attention being drawn irresistibly towards the water.
"Pedjeti, let us send a volley of incendiary arrows to the boats in the royal harbor," I said to my archers. "It will give them something to do aside from bothering us or helping Caesar."
The men dipped their arrows in pitch and took turns lighting the tips with a torch passed between them. Once they were ready, Tahu gave the signal and they released towards the royal docks, managing to set several structures ablaze. Most of the palace infantry were then diverted to trying to douse the rising flames while my men put their shields up to deflect the fiery volley the enemy archers sent us in response. Because in our forefathers' wisdom they had built so little of the city with wood, my men had little difficulty in containing the few spots where the flaming arrows struck true.
"We must be careful to keep the fighting away from the Library if possible, my Pharaoh," said Tahu as he stamped out a cinder. "It is one of the few places in our control that has enough flammability to set off an inferno in the city."
I agreed and sent a runner to Lord Amenei, who led the troops stationed closest to the Library, to request that he keep his lines deep there to prevent such an accident. That dispatched, we reverted our attention to the sea battle unfolding on the horizon.
"Caesar cannot want this fight," observed Tahu as our ships moved to break the line held by the Thirty-Seventh Legion. "He is severely undermanned and night will be upon us in a few short hours. He will not be able to navigate in the dark like our sailors."
"How many crafts do you count against us, sir?" I called over to one of my captains perched on a siege tower between our roof and the next.
"No more than fifty, heqat-taui. We outnumber them nearly two to one."
"I do not count even that many, Queen of Queens," chimed in a Libyan archer. "There are less than forty."
My mouth dried as I clung to the hope that Ganymedes could at least draw out the battle until nightfall. Despite our superior numbers, I feared the slowness of our fleet in the face of the faster Roman ships. Several of the opposing craft appeared to also be quadriremes, which might even our chances, though the bulk were various smaller vessels, mainly hemiolias and biremes. We needed the aid of the Night-bark for surety.
The legion's fleet seemed to sense this, keeping close to one another as protection from both our advance and the choppy waters churned up by the storm. I began to fear all we might be able to accomplish this day was to picket in the enemy, when part of Caesar's right flank broke away from the rest of the fleet and appeared to make a run for the coast. The impasse broken, my main line of quadriremes swung into pursuit, their large sails grabbing the blowing wind hungrily.
"What a bold attempt by the ahat-kheftyew," commented one of my sergeants-at-arms. "Who pilots those ships for the enemy?"
"The sails are Rhodian," I answered vaguely as my vanguard ships surrounded the separated Roman vessels.
"Will Caesar save them?" asked Tahu, frowning.
I opened my inner ears to Sobek's wisdom. I listened to the swell and slap of the sea, and watched the battle with my mind's eye. As the ships moved to and fro like senet pawns, Sekhmet prowled into my thoughts. What will one who hates to lose do, little princess? The question startled my mind into an automatic retort. It is not that he hates to lose that matters here...
Aloud to my lieutenant I finished the thought, "He cannot afford to lose those ships. He will have to sail to their defense."
Indeed, I had hardly spoken the words when the rest of the legion's fleet swung around to engage ours. Soon, the wind brought the roar of battle and the acrid smell of smoke as two ships engaged with one another were set ablaze. Fueled by the whirling air, the billows spread until they covered much of the fleet lines and made our eyes sting. The clang of metal on metal rang out closer to where we stood as the palace men tested our street formations under the lowered visibility.
"Hold the lines!" Tahu called down to them. "Allow no soldier to pass!" My soldiers braced themselves between walls and behind the rubble barricades, a few of them picking up smaller rocks and using slings to whip them at the enemy. A few pikes found their mark and my sister's troops sidled back once more to regroup.
A loud crack from the bay hit the air like a thunderclap. I whirled around to try to see what was happening, though the haze rising from the north made it nearly impossible.
"That sounded like a ship foundering, my Queen!" hollered an archer.
"Pray to Lord Sobek that it was one of Rome's!" sang out another. Their comrades gave a hoarse, smoke-tinged call of approval and they sent a round of arrows towards the palace gates.
I did not share my men's confidence. Something in my heart fluttered uncomfortably as it strained towards the battle lines out in the harbor. If we were to rout the legion, I felt we would have accomplished it by now. The longer they held out against us, the less likely our victory became. Ur-hekau, I murmured to Set, I need to see what has become of us. I felt the wind shift, dispersing the smoke and the storm clouds, revealing the harbor below.
"Iammi a'a pheti," said Tahu in a low tone.
At first, it was not as bad as I thought it would be. Our ships appeared to be pulling back from the fight, and I could see remains from two sunken vessels, only one of which was ours. Another quadrireme had been towed behind the legion's lines, though I doubted one more ship would seriously advance the enemy's position. It was only once I stopped counting masts and began looking more closely at the debris floating in the water that I comprehended Tahu's horrified malediction.
The harbor of Alexandria was choked with corpses. Their slick seal bodies rocked back and forth by the waves that ponderously delivered them to the shore and stacked them on the beach like kindling. My hand flew to my mouth, and my lieutenant asked no permission to take hold of my shoulders because, in moments such as those, propriety is meaningless.
The troops of both sides forgot about one another, and all stared vacantly towards the sea. Eventually a few cheers went up from the legionaries, but the palace's own men were silent, subdued by the ghoulish flotilla drifting to their docks.
Finally I managed to whisper, "Tahu, I must return to the harbor."
He nodded and left command instructions with one of the captains, who bowed to me with a determined set to his mouth. "Do not worry, Your Majesty," the soldier said firmly. "We know our hemet-netjer will bring us victory from defeat."
I longed to feel as confident as my troops as I struggled to find my footing down the ladders and stairs of the house. In a fog I stumbled through the streets, wondering how I could find a way to appear sober, let alone queenly as the enormity of our situation steeped itself in my veins and pooled in the pit of my stomach. It was as Sekhmet had promised in my dreams as we had watched Pompey destroy Berenice’s army: all I could feel was the pain of Egypt wrapping itself around my heart like a noose. We followed a winding route behind our lines to pass to the harbor, so we had not yet reached the shore when I saw the willowy form of Mudjet running to meet us, her face ashen. As I rushed up to her, she looked back to the beach before meeting my eyes again.
"My lady, Quintus Fabianus—"
She did not need to finish her sentence. I bolted past her, past my army regrouping itself along the sea walls, in the direction of my beloved companion's backwards glance.