There would be no more of this. When it was done, he’d return to Rome and to his daughter. He would return to these sons of Egypt. They showed promise, particularly the smallest one. He remembered the little boy’s strength in the Circus Maximus, his determination as he ran into the arena. They would forget their parents, as their sister had. He felt a pang as he thought of Selene, still half conscious in her room. He pushed the thoughts away.

He would be their hero. Sons.

Augustus went to his chamber and called his servants. They bathed him, anointed him. He put the gilded laurel crown atop his head. They strapped his armor onto his chest.

He brought Cleopatra Selene with him, ensconced in a padded litter with the seiðkona beside her. The legionaries that had gone in pursuit of the Greek witch had not found Chrysate, and he no longer trusted the guards to keep the girl safe. It would not matter. Selene would not remember this. She was still not herself, sleeping her wound away, waking only occasionally, mutely.

His skin pricked with righteous rage, thinking of the witch. She would be next, after Cleopatra. He would find her, if he had to go to Thessaly himself.

He made his way outside and ascended the steps of the platform that had been erected for his speech. Before him, a legion waited, armed, their faces still and watchful. Beside him, Usem and Agrippa stood, strong and loyal. The emperor of Rome was ready to fight, and he rallied his warriors.

“We march toward an enemy we have not seen before, but we will prevail!” he shouted, flanked by Agrippa and Nicolaus. “We will return home to our wives and our children!”

He glanced at the Psylli and felt a pang of jealousy, comparing himself to the snake charmer’s story. Augustus knew that he did not care enough about his family. He did not love them as much as he ought to. He loved Rome more. Was not Rome family enough? Was not Rome love enough?

It was.

“Though I cannot tell you what it is we will meet at Avernus, I can tell you that we are Romans. No enemy is as strong as we are. We’ve come from warriors, and we’ve been adopted by wolves. We have built Rome from out of the wild, and it will not return to chaos! We will fight and we will win, our swords bloodied, our arrows broken, and our voices carrying across the world. This is the empire of Augustus, and you serve beside me! I fight with you!”

He drove his sword into the air, listening to the cheers of his army as he rode from Rome, leading a legion of six thousand.

It was time.

The Palatine was nearly empty by the time the door of the silver room opened, and the princes looked up, startled by the light. They had been praying to the Egyptian gods, and praying for their mother, Alexander Helios leading Ptolemy. The elder held the younger in his arms on their pallet. The little one had been crying for days, and his brother did not know how to comfort him.