– In Hindustan, the epidemic of malaria is spreading; the sage from the South began to say. «He will fall ill with this disease, we should warn the commander About this.»
– Returning from India, Alexander will feast, and enjoy all the temptations that are only available to a person who has everything to fulfill any desire. From this, his immunity will drop dramatically, and malaria can kill him. «The sorcerer began to speak with sadness,» I do not wish him to die with all my heart. But I cannot help, because he will not listen to me and will not accept my advice not to invade India.
«Well, so be it, for no one can escape from fate.» What cannot be avoided? – Finished his speech priest of the temple of Marduk. He said goodbye to the wise men, the aircraft waiting for the wise men in the inner courtyard of the temple. Ksatr, driving a flying disk, brought each of them to his abode…
The sun was still shining over the distant barchans and tops of the date gardens when the high priest of the sanctuary of Amon Ur Hem Heter stepped out onto the terrace of the temple. He put his hand to his forehead and peered into the distance. There, a string, akin to the thrown by God on sand dunes of beads, the caravan stretched out, which moved to the oasis.
«Your path is close.» – Said the priest aloud, turned to the doorway of the door leading to the sanctuary, and disappeared there to prepare for the ceremony of meeting the pharaoh…
Cleopatra, exhausted by a long transition, could no longer sit in the saddle of a camel and leaped impatiently onto the soft sand, went to her father.
– I saw in the distance a green of date gardens, covering almost the entire horizon. And in the middle, this green, towers the structure of the temple on a rock. I just cannot believe, Father, that our way will soon end.
Ptolemy looked at his daughter with paternal tenderness, as they looked like characters. Like her, he could not sit in the saddle when he saw the first tops of palms, got off his horse. Slowly moving along with the caravan, as a simple camel driver.
«We will meet with the priests of the temple of Amon Ra before we go on vacation.» And at night I will go into the sanctuary to the Oracle to ask what awaits us?
«Father, will you take me with you?» Cleopatra asked cautiously.
«Yes, I will take you with me, even if it violates the canons of the sanctuary of Amun.» We will still go there together, because you will rule Egypt after me.
Ptolemy looked into the distance, at the palm trees already visible and the walls rising on the rock of the temple.
«Father, tell me, it was not for nothing that you went so hard to just ask the Oracle About our destiny.» What really made you do this transition?
– Black Crown of the Gods from the temple in India, a lost relic from the treasury of Alexander the Great, which he inherited as a military trophy. He entrusted the crown of the gods with him to the sarcophagus.
– How could she be at the priests of the temple of Amun here in the heart of the Libyan Sahara desert? The princess asked curiously.
– All in due time the daughter. – Pharaoh left the answer. «I brought you here so that you would learn a lot About what will give you power and power to rule Egypt when I do not.»
«Father, you are still young and full of strength, and so often you tell me About my government.» – Cleared Cleopatra.
«After our exile, as a crow flies over the body of a wounded warrior, a flock of robbers of Romans of all colors attack Egypt, we need to be prepared for anything that does not happen.» – With a sigh answered the daughter of Avlet.
The panorama of palm gardens opened to the caravan’s eyes with lush vegetation and the blue of large lakes. The terrain sloped downward, forming a wide valley around the rock on which the temple of the Oracle of Amun Ra is erected, as if hovering over the tops of date palms and olive trees.
The sands were gradually replaced by stony soil, and the lush date and olive gardens left the horizon. Approaching the gardens, the palms almost completely concealed the temple, their tops.
Between the two gardens of date palms on the caravan’s path, suddenly a huge round pool was laid out with hewn stones, with a stepped staircase descending directly into the water. Soldiers guarding, tied their horses to palm trees, and in clothes began to throw from the shore directly into the water. Some of them could not swim, and went to the bottom, crying for help. The comrades helped them to get ashore. There were incredible, joyful cries from the heavenly bliss of ablution with cool water. Ptolemy and his daughter were standing on the slabs of the pool with smiles on their faces. Cleopatra suddenly took off her blue veil, remaining in a white tunic, ran down the stairs to the pool and began to scream and laugh in the pool water. Two guards standing on both hands of the pharaoh, watched with tension the princess, threatening the soldiers, so as not to dare to approach the royal person. Finally the soldiers noticed Cleopatra. They began to get out of the water on the stone slabs of the opposite shore and shout out so that Pharaoh could hear them:
«Thank God, Amon Ra, who sent us the pool of Princess Cleopatra?»
The princess heard her name in the Egyptian dialect, shouted back:
– Peace to the people of Egypt and prosperity, be it to you!
She got out of the water, and, going up to her father, said:
«I have such bliss as here in these waters of the basin, called by the people my name just now, I have never felt. Truly it is necessary to pass through the desert to plunge into these divine waters, which give healing to the decline of forces from the sand of hell.
Pharaoh indulgently turned his head towards his daughter and majestically replied:
«Come, the priests of the sanctuary of the Oracle await us.» – Having said this, Ptolemy turned towards the city, through which Pharaoh and his daughter had to go, accompanied by two guards to the temple. Cleopatra gave her veil to a slave girl who served her on the way and herself in a wet yet tunic followed her father to the capital of the oasis of Agurmi.
Security soldiers were engaged with a representative of local officials, who was engaged in caravan accommodation and accommodation.
The road again went up, and the roofs of the houses were already visible above the high city wall. From the Cleopatra’s basin with the date palm garden, Pharaoh and her daughter, accompanied by two guards, walked unhurriedly to the city wall, along the road trampled by the pickers of dates and olives from the gardens that grow on its both sides. Earlier, the horses and camels of the caravan were arranged, arranging them for rest, while the soldiers and Cleopatra splashed in the pool. Pharaoh and his companions entered the wide open city gates, skillfully made from palm tree and painted in blue. All houses were made from a clay straw mixture with manure that became hard in the sun like a rock. The road led to the square where the pilgrims saw before the benches of hay, the camels were chewing the food slowly. The horses of the guard snorted beside the tether. Leather bags with oats are fixed at horse mouths.
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