Song of the Nile by Stephanie Dray

Author:Stephanie Dray [Dray, Stephanie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Historical, Fiction
ISBN: 9780425243046
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2011-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

I cornered Musa outside the room in which my little brother shivered. “What’s wrong with him? He didn’t drown. Why hasn’t he recovered?”

“I don’t think it was the water, Majesty. It’s an illness. A fever.”

“Or poison.” I said aloud that which everyone else was whispering. The emperor’s illness had pushed Livia to the edge of desperation. She didn’t want to be left at the mercy of those who despised her, so it made sense to strike at Marcellus. But why my poor Philadelphus ? Musa stared up at the Doric columns as if their scrolled caps contained the secret to the mystery, but he made no answer. “Maybe the sweet wormwood will help,” I suggested. “It helped Philadelphus before!”

Musa bit his lip. “Your brother is much sicker this time. I’ve felt his spleen and it’s swollen—”

“Musa, if you ever loved my father, I call upon your loyalty now. You must heal Philadelphus. You must make him better.”

Emotion bobbed at the physician’s throat. “My dearest Majesty, Philadelphus is a stouthearted boy and I have much affection for him. He never complains. He never has a harsh word for anyone. He has your father’s charm and if there were more that I could do, I’d have done it without your needing to ask. Sit with him. Hearing your voice may help him where medicine cannot.”

Later, when Philadelphus and I were alone together in his room, he murmured. “I told you, I stay in Rome.”

“Stop saying that! We’re not even in Rome now. We’re on the Bay of Naples. Can’t you smell the sea?”

“I’m dying, Selene,” Philadelphus rasped. “I’ve seen it in the Rivers of Time . . .”

That stilled my heart. “Whatever you’ve seen can be changed.”

“Do you remember our mother’s funeral? You were dressed as Isis, Helios as Horus, and I was Osiris.”

Osiris, the dead god. I shook my head, vehemently. “You’ll outlive me.”

“I’ve never seen it happen that way, Selene. You’re the last of us.”

This couldn’t be happening. I wouldn’t let it happen. They all said the emperor would die, but I’d willed him back to health and I’d make Philadelphus better too, somehow. “Not the last,” I said, a meaningful look passing between us in which we acknowledged the brother whose name we couldn’t say. “And there’s Isidora.”

He shivered but smiled at the mention of her name. Since the day our mother died, Philadelphus had never been without his shining Collar of Gold amulet. Now he removed it from his neck and held it out for me to take. “Give this to your daughter. You may be tempted to give it to the son you’ll bear, but it’s meant for her . . .”

I stumbled back. “No. You keep it. It’s yours. You’ll need it.”

Despite his entreaties, I left the gold chain coiled around his fist like a viper. I took it only hours later, when seizures wracked his frame, and it dropped from his hand to the floor. He didn’t cry out—not like Marcellus, whose howls echoed through the halls.

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