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To this statement, Saqnos had no response.
And then the dogs began to growl.
Never before had she heard a sound like it. Never before had she heard fifteen different hounds growling in perfect unison. The sound was like a cross between a swarm of angry bees and a boulder being rolled steadily up a hill. One of the men simply ran from the room without apology. Another followed, and then the third did as well. But first he inanely placed his pistol on the console table behind him as if it were an offering, a gesture that might placate this gathering of beasts.
The dogs swung their heads in the direction of Saqnos.
The woman who'd spoken against him earlier fled, dropping her chain to the floor with a thud. Burnham followed. And then the dogs began to bark. Deafening, this sound, and it came again and again. In perfect unison. Each bark so loud, the sounds so perfectly aligned, it shook her bones.
Beneath this terrifying chorus, other sounds. Breaking glass. Footfalls. Scuffle
s. Fighting in the adjacent rooms. Were there more of these hounds? Or had someone stopped the escape of Saqnos's children?
Her captor either did not hear it or couldn't bring himself to care, for the dogs were advancing on them now, moving once again in perfect unison.
"You are doing this," Saqnos whispered.
A pleasure to see him so afraid, but was she not in the sights of these beasts as well?
"I'm doing nothing of the kind. Let me go. So that we may both seek safety before it's too late."
He turned to face her. His eyes blazed. His lips curled into a snarl.
"You are doing this. This was your plan. You work with the queen."
"I have never met your queen!" she snarled.
He bared his teeth. His mouth opened. And then he was torn from her.
The dogs drove him to the floor. It seemed as if they had all taken to the air at once, piling upon him in a mad tumble.
She fell over backwards, the chair toppling behind her. They paid her no attention at all, these beasts.
Freed from immortal hands, she now had the strength to unfasten the collar at her neck. She tossed it aside and ran into the hallway.
She could not resist a glance back. The dogs tore at Saqnos's prone body, concealing it from view as they attempted to feast. More anger than anguish in the man's wails.
She spun round, then froze at the sight that greeted her in the passage. Steps from her bare feet was a pile of ash, in the empty dress of the woman who'd just held one of her chains.
The poison had done this! There was no other explanation.
Movement behind her. Again, she pivoted.
Ramses. Advancing on her. He brought a finger to his lips even as he pulled a dagger from a sheath in his belt. A dagger? How could she reconcile these two gestures? One to give comfort, the other to strike?
How dare he!
She reached out, grabbed the edge of a massive cabinet, its shelves lined with vases of various styles. Then, when he was almost within reach, she brought it crashing down upon him, sending him to the floor in a cascade of shattering porcelain and glass and shelves that pinned him to the hardwood.
37
The shattering of glass and porcelain on all sides of him left Ramses stunned and struggling to shield his face with his hands. A slash across his eye would heal quickly, but even temporary blindness during this quick assault could be disastrous.
He was sure he'd lost her. He threw off the massive weight of the cabinet and rose to his feet. There stood Cleopatra, yards away from him, gazing at something she held in one hand.
His ring. The bronze ring Bektaten had given him for this mission, the one with the tiny chamber full of strangle lily powder. It had slipped from his finger during his scramble and fall, and now she held it in her hands.
What a terrible strategic error they had made! Their most harmless poison, the sedative, had been applied to their most fearsome weapon, their daggers. And their most fearsome to their least conspicuous, their rings, rings that did not fit them, rings too large or too small. If they'd been attempting subterfuge and assassination, this would have been an excellent plan. But with Cleopatra, that was not their plan.
