The Solar Princess

How do you plan to do that alone?

Luxor area. 1883 A.D.

The memories whirled around.

Arsinoe.

She was Arsinoe. She remembered who she was.

It had taken time to remember.

The emotions, the fragments flickered through her head like flames escaping the edges of the fire.

Though she still didn't know where she was or why. She could barely move and couldn't see.

Her hands moved in stiff and painful directions, trying to learn, to find anything to help.

As she pulled herself against a ledge, she groaned through the disorienting ache. That searing pain still hadn't gone away. Only withdrawn in intensity.

A few more motions as she felt her way up and over the ledge, only to crash to the ground on the other side. Her fragile bones shattered and once again the pain engulfed her entire being. Her screams echoed in the room around her. A harsh, unused voice that she hadn't heard in far too long to remember.

The only change since the last episode of pain, was that she remembered.

Thoughts flooded through her mind as she screamed out in earth shaking horror.

*****

Rafia. 217 B.C.

Arsinoe looked out at the field below her. Morning light set a golden glow for what promised to be a warm day.

Thousands of soldiers, horses, and even great elephants.

War was never something to be desired. However, she would not allow her family's legacy to fall. Not to her brother's depravity or ignorance. Certainly not to a foreign invader.

The only time Arsinoe would give credit to Sosibius, he had bargained time. Time needed to gather mercenary forces. It was an expensive proposition. Yet, it was their only hope of defeating Antiochus. Thousands of men to fight for Ptolemy, most from Greek states, some as far away as Gaul, while she was ordered to remain with Sosibius and his command of the Egyptian troops.

As much as she despised the man, she felt more comfortable under his protection than others. At least with him, she had come to learn, he wasn't interested in trying to seduce her. His preference was only for men. When surrounded by armies of mercenaries and the corruption of their own court at the same time, such knowledge held small comforts. Better to trust the evil she knew.

To her surprise, it was a protection that Sosibius took seriously. He stayed by her side at every dinner with the commanders and generals. No one was permitted to touch her or speak out of turn. At least not in public. Certainly not outside the walls of the royal palace. Agathoclea and Agathocles continued their snide remarks and comments while in privacy. However, in public, he would not allow any disgrace to fall upon her crown. She was, after all, queen. And no weakness could be shown. To allow such things toward her would open for attacks toward the king. Attacks that would threaten Sosibius's own position. Such selfish protection, yet, protection nonetheless.

It was nice to have a break from the assaults of life in the palace. Ptolemy routinely ridiculed her and screamed at not having an heir yet. As if she could conceive spontaneously. The man came to her bed only a few times a year. And with the amount of copulation that he engaged in with other women, one would assume he would at least have a bastard at that point. Yet, nothing.

She smirked as she thought of how the problem was obviously with her brother.

Sosibius looked down on her. "Is the impending battle something to laugh about?"

"Hardly. Death is never a laughing matter. The only laughter was for the fools who seek such games."

He dropped his head of dark hair to her ear. "Be careful who you call a fool so publically. The king would not appreciate hearing such words."

"And my death would be a release from this misery. You no longer scare me Sosibius." The subtle hint of a smirk graced his lips before he returned to his tent to prepare for the battle.

Her blue eyes surveyed the scene before her. She had no way to imagine the devastation that would come. Her only hope was to keep her family's honor while not destroying what they were fighting for.

She turned to quickly to nearly run into one of the Egyptian guards.

Arsinoe was overlooking a battlefield. Preparing for war. Surrounded by thousands of the most trained fighting forces the Mediterranean nations could produce. The amount of bare, masculine flesh surrounding her did little to draw her attention other than to compare it to the soft, pudginess of her husband, her brother.

What caught her attention wasn't the well defined muscles that coiled tight under the darker Egyptian skin. No, it was the scars that the man carried. Three long, jagged scars across his chest. Lost in the wonder of it, she raised her hand to touch the damaged skin, only to see him back away one step.

"I'm sorry my queen." He stepped forward again. Probably scared that he offended her.

She shook her head and looked up into his dark brown eyes with flecks of green. He wasn't as dark as many native Egyptians. He must have been local to the Nile Delta, perhaps some Greek blood. "I was just curious." She looked back at the scars.

"A lion." He answered.

Her chest tightened at such a thought. She hadn't heard of a lion in Egypt in a long time. They had mostly all been hunted.

He seemed to understand her curiosity. "It is part of our training, among the elite fighters. We fight an animal as a sign of our strength."

"What happened to the lion?"

"The priests now wear his skin." His grin was wicked and did delicious things to her body. The raw feral quality of the man pulled at her.

Though it was Sosibius who shattered her moment as though it was nothing more than pottery. It was time for the battle to start.

*****

The battle had been bloody and had gotten off to a poor start. The men were scared when they realized that the elephants from the Antiochus's army were larger than their own.

The troops pulled back to regroup.

She couldn't take hearing their complaints about the elephants. They were supposed to be soldiers. Trained to fight. Paid to fight.

"You cannot give up." She called out. "Antiochus will stop at nothing until you make him. Most of you are Egyptians. Some of you are Greeks who live in Egypt. Married and have children in Egypt. If you let Antiochus win now, he will march into your homes. He will kill your families. This isn't for my throne. This is not about my family name, or my brother. This is the honor and duty of an Egyptian to protect his home, to protect his lands and his family. So, don't you dare give up. By the great gods, I will not."

In her fury, she picked up a spear and started to head toward the field herself.

The guard from before, stood in her path. Arms crossed over his scarred chest. His eyes raked her over in a hunger she had never seen before. Though she would not let him detour her from her goals.

It was Sosibius who grabbed hold of her arm and pulled her back before she ever reached the guard. "What do you think you are doing?"

"If they won't fight. I will. This is my home. I will defend it."

He raised a brow. "And how do you plan to do that alone?"

She huffed. "I won't be alone. I offer two minas of gold to each person who shows proof of fighting, as long as you defeat Antiochus."

With the troops rallied and returning to the field of battle, Sosibius pushed her toward the guard and ordered him to keep her in her tent.