Cleopatra Occult Read Free Page A

think she’d told everybody she was Isis.”
    The priest remained grim. “The goddess requires chaste and gentle attention.”
    Ptolemy insisted, “Cleopatra needs no funeral. She needs no afterlife. She took all she’s getting from this life.”
    “But the gods! You must retrieve her body and lay it to rest properly or we’ll all be cursed!”
    Ptolemy took a sip of beer. “We were cursed before. Now she’s gone. I’m sure the jackals really did eat all of her. Now go hump a whore so the Nile flows even richer. Oh I forgot. You have no testicles.”
    The priest glared at Ptolemy’s.
    As he lounged, Ptolemy stretched his legs. “They say my sister gained her evil powers by biting at many men. But then she had the face of a crocodile so biting was in her nature. Only hungry biting. But she was never fed. Where are her powers now?” He gulped the rest of his bowl of beer.
    The priest backed away.
    Ptolemy’s witch, Sorceress Thrace, slinked up to him. “Do you think I look wonderful? Like a magical bird of youth? A phoenix with new feathers?”
    He glanced at her. “I don’t care how you look. I keep you around because you say you’re the most powerful witch.”
    “I am. I am an outcast from a land most wild. The Balkan Mountains are wild and far.”
    He shrugged. “So I suppose you can boast about that .”
    “But do you like how I look today?” Sorceress Thrace slid her hand down the back of her bald head. “And I see you are already excited by the crowd. Take your excitement out on me.”
    “No.”
    “I am always one step ahead of you, ready to please you.” She took his hand. “Let us talk about the orgy.”
    He pulled his hand out of hers. “What does being an outcast really have to do with being a witch, really? And how is a witch not like a priestess?”
    “You want to talk about my beauty and the orgy.”
    He angrily repeated his question.
    Sorceress Thrace explained, “A temple priestess should feel like a mother in her safe home. A witch should feel outcast, homeless, weird and dangerous. And men often desire weird dangerous things from afar… the unusual things of life.” She winked. “Men like to gamble.”
    Ptolemy looked away from his witch. “ Desire the weird? Not me. We’re all from incest in my family, back to Macedonia. We do things the familiar way.” He stood. “I want to get back to the palace.” He regarded the rows of hieroglyphics. “This is horrible.”
     
    ~
     
    The next morning, Cleopatra entered the kitchen of the underground snake temple and asked Iset, “What is sleep without dreams? All magic must begin with dreams. If I’m to have strong magic…”
    Iset reached up to make sure her jar-shaped wig was situated correctly over her head. “Calm down.”
    Cleopatra glared at the clay pot of wheat paste. “I don’t think I could eat that.”
    “We don’t live like queens down here.”
    Cleopatra wrung her hands. “I’m too upset to eat anyway. How can I get a throne back without magic? I thought I had so much new magic but this happens—no dreams at night! That’s a disaster! Cast a spell on me to help me dream again.”
    Iset said, “From now on you only get the magic you need.”
    Cleopatra insisted, “I need dreams! Everybody does! Everybody needs that magic.”
    Iset shook her head. “That’s not what you need anymore.”
    Cleopatra asked, “At least give me the dream of the black cat. You have more than enough power to give anybody that dream, being as powerful as you are. That’s such a small spell. If I can dream of the cat she’ll give me magic in my sleep.”
    Iset licked at a large wooden spoon. “What was the last thing you remember dreaming when you still lived in the palace?”
    Cleopatra answered, “A wolf was chasing a desert hare. The hare didn’t have a chance.”
    Iset explained, “Maybe it was about the Egyptian gods. Anubis is the wolf god. He is the god of mummification and the afterlife. He protects tombs. He’s like