Cleopatra began to make her way stealthily around the boundary of the circus, planning to slip up the side of the Palatine unseen, but she paused, startled. The sounds of workmen sweating and heaving were nearly deafening after the silence of the night.

Up above the fence line, they were levering an object with a slender red granite surface and clean lines. A sacred Egyptian obelisk, looted from Heliopolis? She could see the inscriptions from here, praising Ra and wishing him safe passage through the Duat.

They had stolen it from Egypt, stolen it from under her nose.

Her mouth opened in a hiss of fury. They would not destroy her country. They would not take its ancient objects and use them for decorations. Her mind filled with Sekhmet’s voice. Ra’s tributes, stolen.

She was over the lower fence, her teeth exposed, her body ready, before she knew what she was doing, and then it was too late.

These were not workmen but legionaries, and she had flung herself into their midst.

How many were there? Twenty at least, surrounding her, and for a moment she was afraid, but then she laughed. She could see them looking at her, bewildered that a woman could have done such a thing. One of them took a tentative step toward her.

“My lady,” he said. “These grounds are off limits.”

They were no match for her. This city was no match for her. She had been kept too long belowdecks, and now she wanted to run. She took a step toward the soldier, smiling at him, and then, with a soft leap, she was before him.

The men shouted in surprise as her claws tore into their fellow’s shoulder. She threw him to the ground easily, using none of her true strength.

“They are not off limits to me,” she said, and then she leapt to the top of the high fence, daring them to follow.

After her!” shouted the centurion who’d been supervising the installation of the obelisk. His men, still reeling, charged though the gate, their swords drawn.

The creature had leapt from the fence top and down to the street without any warning. She would be gone if they did not get to her quickly.

There she was, atop a building. He could see talons from here, long and silver in the lamplight, attached to her slender human fingers. Her face was shadowed, but he had seen her fangs, her shorn black hair. He could not tell what manner of thing she was.

She laughed again, a terrible sound, and then she was gone into the shadows. The centurion cursed the darkness, signaling to his men to spread down the street.

Cleopatra waited above them, looking down at their bodies creeping through the alleyways. She could see their every move, but they could not see her unless she wanted them to. She was seized by the glory of her form once again. All the sorrow of the ship seemed far away, as she leapt from rooftop to rooftop, taunting her pursuers.