The Sacred War

by H A CULLEY

  In turn Enyo told him something of her background but she didn’t think he believed her when she said that she had come from a poor family of goatherds and was now the adopted daughter of a senior Macedonian officer.

  ‘If you’re the daughter of such an important man, why are you risking your life as a spy?’

  ‘Because I want to. I hate the life of pampered ease in Iphitos’ house where I’m expected to do nothing but embroider and look pretty.’

  ‘You’re certainly that,’ Theon blurted out and then blushed.

  He had known right from the start that he was strongly attracted to this girl, despite the fact that she was nearly three years older than him. She looked at him sharply and then more considerately. He was a good looking boy, almost too good looking. She knew that Iphitos had kept her away from Philip’s lecherous gaze as much as possible and she knew instinctively that she would need to make sure the king never laid eyes on Theon. Then she checked herself. He would be free to return to Odrysia as soon as they reached Syrnota so there was no reason for him to come anywhere near Philip. She was surprised at the unpleasant feeling in her guts that the thought of Theon leaving her evoked and tried to ignore it.

  They continued talking as they rode and by nightfall they were laughing and joking together. She realised that the Thracian boy reminded her of Georgios in many ways, but the feelings she was beginning to experience towards Theon were anything but brotherly. The boy seemed as equally taken with her, but she was suspicious that this might be a ploy to lull her into a fall sense of security and that night she tied his hands together again after they had eaten their usual frugal meal. Enyo reflected that she would have to find some more food tomorrow as there was only enough for one meal left.

  ‘How far is it to Syrnota now,’ Enyo asked during a lull in the conversation.

  ‘We should get there tomorrow afternoon, then you’ll be rid of me,’ he grinned, then it faded to be replaced by a look of dejection.

  ‘Anyone would think that you didn’t want your freedom,’ she said softly, bringing her horse to a halt.

  He rode alongside her and leaned over to brush his lips lightly over hers.

  ‘I don’t. Not if it means leaving you.’

  She looked into his eyes and they sat there absorbed in each other for a minute or two, eventually the spell was broken when the boy’s stallion nipped the neck of Enyo’s mare and it moved away shaking her mane in annoyance.

  ‘We should get into cover so we can talk,’ she said huskily.

  As they cantered towards a small grove of trees on a slight slope she asked herself what she was doing. She had convinced herself that she didn’t want a relationship with a man, and Theon was even younger than Giorgios .

  ‘If I free your hands and give you your reins can I trust you not to run away?’ she asked him bluntly.

  He looked her in the eye and nodded. ‘Given a choice between returning back to my cold unfeeling father and staying with you, I’d choose you every time; that is, if you feel about me the way I feel about you.’

  ‘That’s the problem, isn’t it? I might, but what good can that do? You are younger than me and in Macedon we wouldn’t be allowed to be together for another ten years.’

  ‘But I could be your companion, your assistant, your fellow spy if you like.’

  ‘But you would want to be more than that?’

  ‘Yes, of course. Don’t you feel the same way about me?’

  ‘How long has it been?’

  ‘Since you abducted me you mean?’ he grinned at her. ‘Two days, but I knew yesterday that I was falling in love with you.’

  ‘You can’t know that! We haven’t known each other long enough. I admit that I began to realise that I’d miss you when we started talking about reaching Syrnota , and my body tingled when your lips brushed mine. Perhaps I might be beginning to have strong feelings for you, but still I don’t really know you.’

  ‘That’s not true. You know more about me in the short time we’ve spent together than any of my friends in Odrysia .’

  She smiled, acknowledging the possible truth of that statement.

  ‘Well, are you going to cut me free so I can kiss you properly and try and convince you that we belong together?’

  ‘You’re naïve if you think you can convince me by kissing me. That just shows how young you are. I need to be convinced in my heart and that will take time.’

  She’d expected him to be offended by her remarks but, if he was, he showed no sign of it.

  ‘Yes I’m young and perhaps I’m naïve too; I’ve not been allowed to have much to do with girls, but I do know that I’ve not felt about anyone the way I feel about you. Perhaps it’s calf love or infatuation or something, but I do know that I want to stay with you, kiss you a lot more and, if you’ll let me, make love to you.’

  Enyo felt her resolve weakening. He was a very attractive boy and more and more she felt herself being drawn to him. The thought of going on her next mission without him made her morose; conversely she thought that together they would make a good team. However, love could prove a problem. She needed her wits about her at all times and he would be a distraction; furthermore her feelings for him made him her Achilles heel. She could withstand a considerable degree of pain but she wasn’t sure that she could endure the sight of Theon being tortured for very long.

  She dismounted and, telling him to stay there, she went off into the wood to think. She tried to imagine him leaving her in a day or two and she knew that she would be thoroughly miserable, but she would get over it. On the other hand the thought of him as her companion when Iphitos sent her off on her next mission was exciting and, she admitted, it comforted her too. She wouldn’t have to worry about his loyalty, unlike the two Thracians.

  She had hated the things she had done to pleasure to old commander in Odrysia , but the thought of doing the same things to Theon made her weak with desire. It was that which finally convinced her and she decided to take a chance.

  She almost ran back to where she had left him and, without saying anything, drew her dagger and cut the leather thongs binding his wrists together.

  ‘Now get off that horse and come and kiss me properly.’

  -o0o-

  Theon woke up first the following morning and smiled as he found himself lying with one arm and one lag draped over the nude body of Enyo. The previous night she had made love to him with her hands and her mouth. He had climaxed three times but she wouldn’t let him penetrate her. She wasn’t about to ruin everything by getting pregnant. She would talk to Chloe about how to prevent that when she got back to Pella but, in the meantime, he would have to be satisfied without going all the way. If the passion she had aroused in him so far was anything to go by, he wasn’t complaining.

  He got up and went to relieve himself before going to wash in the stream and have a drink of water. Enyo was thankful that he was a lot cleaner in his personal habits than most Thracians. There was no food left and he was beginning to feel pangs of hunger. It had been twenty four hours since they had last eaten and his stomach was protesting.

  When he got back to their camp Enyo was gone and he guessed that she had gone hunting as she had evidently taken her bow and quiver. Despite his hunger he had never felt happier and he set about making a fire. When she returned they kissed briefly before she set about skinning and gutting the hare she had killed. She had also found some edible plants and an hour later they set out again feeling pleasantly full. Enyo had kept some of the hare to eat later but she hoped that it wouldn’t be much longer before they found the Macedonian camp at Syrnota .

  Had she not been so distracted by the presence of her lover riding beside her, she might have detected the stealthy approach of the Thracian horsemen before the two of them rode into the trap. Suddenly she and Theon found themselves surrounded. She was so surprised that she hadn’t even noticed the helmets that they were wearing.

  She castigated herself for relaxing her guard, but it was too late
now. Theon went to draw his sword before he realised that he wasn’t carrying one, but he was prepared to die fighting with his bare hands to protect the girl he loved. Luckily it wasn’t necessary.

  ‘Father,’ Enyo yelled delightedly. ‘What are you doing here?’

  ‘Looking for you, of course.’ Theon watched perplexed as a young man wearing an expensively decorated linothrax and an elaborate helmet dismounted and enveloped Enyo in his arms as she ran to him. The boy relaxed in relief. Enyo had said that her adopted father was young but she hadn’t said that he was only thirteen years older than she was.

  The Thracian cavalrymen had withdrawn to a discreet distance, leaving Theon sitting on his horse holding the mare’s reins. He didn’t know what to do and so he sat there feeling faintly stupid. Then Enyo disentangled herself from the man’s arms and led him towards him.

  ‘Father, this is my companion and my lover,’ she told him quite unabashed. ‘Get down off that horse you idiot and come and say hallo.’

  He blushed and did as he was bid, shaking the man’s hand.

  ‘As you may have gathered, I’m Iphitos. I can’t believe that a youngster like you has managed to capture the heart of my fiercely independent daughter. I was convinced that she was doomed to die a virgin.’

  Theon was astounded by the easy way in which the man accepted their relationship and, before he could think, blurted out something that made the other two laugh.

  ‘Oh, she’s still a virgin, kyrios. She made it quite clear exactly how far I could go.’

  ‘I’m pleased to hear it. And how exactly do I explain your rather peculiar relationship to others?’

  ‘Oh, that’s easy. I’ve recruited him as my assistant spy. If you agree, that is?’

  ‘Yes, that seems sensible, in these rather odd circumstances.’ He turned to Theon. ‘Don’t let her bully you. You’ll need to stand up for yourself if you’re to retain your self-respect and her esteem for you.’

  ‘As I’ve been her captive for the past few days, I’m still getting used to my freedom and to being in love. It may take a week or two before I’m ready to get my whip out.’

  Whilst Enyo glared indignantly at him Iphitos laughed.

  ‘I think yours will be an interesting relationship. Welcome to my staff and my family, Theon.’

  -o0o-

  That evening Iphitos hosted a supper at which the two young lovers were the guests of honour and he, Uzava , Chronos, Heirax , Nearchos and Galen listened attentively to Enyo’s tale. She left out what she had discovered in Odrysia ; that would be for Iphitos’ and Uzava’s ears in the morning.

  ‘Now tell us what you’re doing here father and how you found us.’

  It seemed that, having discovered that Enyo hadn’t yet arrived at Philip’s camp, he’d decided to ride in the direction of Odrysia and throw out his escort in as a wide screen as possible in the hope of encountering her en route. He added that he’d have ridden all the way to the Thracian capital if necessary.

  Two of his men had seen two riders approaching, one of whom looked like a girl but, instead of the two Thracian guards that he had been told would be accompanying her, her companion seemed to be a Thracian boy. Nevertheless, when the scout described the horse and what the girl was wearing, Iphitos was convinced that it was his daughter. Nearchos had called in his men and they had waited for the pair to reach the clearing in a wood before emerging to surprise them.

  ‘I was convinced it was you, Enyo, but I wasn’t certain, especially given your unexpected travelling companion, so I was taking no chances.’

  ‘I blame myself for being caught out so easily, father,’ she confessed. ‘It was Theon’s fault I was distracted. It won’t happen again.’

  She shoved at Theon’ shoulder but the boy leaned back quickly and she fell into his lap instead, to general merriment. She sat back up again and, instead of the anger that her father had expected to see on her face at her humiliation, he saw that she was grinning and the boy was grinning back. Perhaps their relationship does stand a chance he thought.

  The next morning Enyo and Theon were debriefed and Iphitos went off to report to Philip and Attalus.

  ‘Right, now that you’re here,’ Attalus said when he had finished and had answered their questions. ‘Perhaps you can help that fool of an artilleryman of yours demolish the gates.’

  ‘Heirax is no fool, strategos. It’s your insistence that he concentrates on the gates that’s the problem.’

  ‘What do you mean, Iphitos?’ Philip interrupted before his two subordinated could get into a row. He liked Attalus, who flattered him shamelessly, but he was well aware that he had a knack for rubbing people up the wrong way, especially those junior to him. ‘How else can we gain access to the city?’

  ‘It’s a shame we don’t have an agent inside, but I’m willing to wager that the defenders had built walls across the insides of the gates to keep us out. That must mean that they have enough food to hold out for some time. Presumably they hope for a relief force to break the siege, but my daughter saw no sign that Teres was preparing one when she was in Odrysia . He was preoccupied with mustering men to defend his capital.’

  ‘So, other than starving them out, which I don’t have the time for, how do we capture this damned place?’

  ‘Well, if we can’t get through the gates, batter down the walls because they’re too thick, or undermine the walls because they’re built on rock, the only way is over the top of them.’

  ‘We’ve already thought of that but they’re twenty five feet high and we would lose too many men using scaling ladders.’

  ‘No, my idea is to use a siege tower.’

  Both men looked puzzled so he went on to explain.

  ‘I have read about them being used in ancient Assyria and I have been thinking for some time about them. Building a timber tower with ladders inside so that they are protected and a ramp on top which can be lowered onto the enemy’s ramparts is simple enough. Protecting it from fire arrows and moving it up the base of the wall are the difficult problems, but I think I have solved them. Give me two weeks and enough men to build two of them and we’ll see if my idea works.’

  It actually took three weeks to complete the towers and to experiment with their movement before Iphitos was ready to use them. But Enyo and Theon weren’t there to see them used. Parmenion was about to advance on Byzantium and needed to know whether Cersobleptes was still there and what his plans were, so the two had been dispatched on a mission to the city.

  -o0o-

  Iphitos had overcome the problem of fire arrows by nailing sheepskins to the front and sides of the two towers and then soaking them with water. The towers were too heavy to mount on wheels so he decided that they would have to be rolled into place on logs. As soon as the tower had passed over a particular log it was carried to the front for use again. He overcame the protection of those pushing the towers and those moving the logs by using large wicker screens, each carried by two men.

  The towers were manned by archers and gastraphetes on the platform at the top initially, whose job was to clear the parapet of defenders. Once the towers were in position hoplites armed with sword and shield raced up the ladders onto the parapet and the ramp was dropped down onto the top of the wall. There was a drop of three feet from the end of the ramp down onto the parapet which ran around the inside of the wall. The first hoplite forgot what he’d be taught and landed heavily, breaking his ankle. The next one bent his knees as he landed and shoved his sword into the abdomen of a defender as he straightened up.

  Then it was just a matter of expanding the bridgehead along the parapet as more and more hoplites rushed up the inside of the towers and jumped down onto the parapet. By nightfall the city had fallen.

  Philip was torn between telling Iphitos to stay with Attalus until he had captured Odrysia or taking him with him when he went to join Parmenion, who was advancing from city to city along the coast of the Propontis. Eventually he decided that Byzantium was the priority a
nd so he took Iphitos south with him. After all, as Iphitos told the king, Attalus still had Chronos and he had helped him build the siege towers at Syrnota ; he could do the same thing at Odrysia , if necessary.

  As Philip and he rode south, Iphitos couldn’t think about anything else except for his concern about Enyo. By now she and Theon should be inside Byzantium.

  -o0o-

  The two lovers had pretended to be brother and sister when they entered the city. Their cover story was that they had arranged to meet their father, a merchant, there on his return from buying spices in Persia. Byzantium was primarily a trading port that had been established by the Athenians three hundred years before. In its history it had been a fishing town, an Athenian colony, a Spartan fortress and now it was a Thracian trading port, but one with strong links to Athens.

  ‘Let me do the talking when we get to the city,’ Theon urged Enyo. ‘I’ve got a Thracian accent and yours is now more Macedonian than it is Thessalian. In any case, Thessaly is known to be part of Philip’s empire now.’

  Enyo found it hard to hand over leadership to the young Thracian but she knew that if their strange relationship was to succeed there would have to be compromises, and one of those was they had to be equal partners.

  They found a suitable tavern in which to lodge; not one that was likely to be patronised by the authorities but one that was still reasonably respectable. They were having their supper there on the first night when their attention was taken by the table next door to theirs, at which a few trierarchs in the Byzantine navy were discussing the maritime situation with some captains of the trading vessels that were used to export grain to Athens and Rhodes.

  ‘Something had got to be done about those bloody Macedonians,’ one captain was saying. ‘They keep intercepting our ships and confiscating our cargoes. I’ve lost three shipments of wheat in the last two months.’