Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.” ~ Marcus Aurelius Chapter one Cleopatra regained consciousness and couldn’t remember how she’d gotten tied to the wheel of her upturned chariot. She saw six jackals. They made tracks in the sand that spiraled closer as they grew bolder. They reminded her of the god that protected the dead. She yelled at them, “I’m not dead!” Flickering through a mirage of reflected heat, she saw chariots approaching over distant dunes. She knew it wasn’t her imagination because the jackals fled. Ten men from her own army shouted victory when they spotted their queen. Cleopatra squirmed and pushed against her ropes to show them that her bones hadn’t been broken and there was no need to be gentle. “Get me off this!” As a soldier untied her, he apologized, “We had the entire Sinai. It’s a miracle we found you at all.” Cleopatra took several long gulps of water from a jug.
