When he saw me, he sat down and clapped his hands. He had started to babble clear bright baby sounds that delighted me. ‘Paapapamamatee!’ he cried.
He was sounding distinctly Greek. I looked around for Axiom. He spoke to the boy as he went about his work. He was Greek and had a strong accent. I smiled; Plexis would be relieved to hear his son speaking like a true Athenian.
Alexander sat in the shade, and Chiron, deciding he’d had enough of being silly, promptly unwound himself and crawled onto Alexander’s lap. The little boy grinned, his finger in his mouth, drooling abundantly.
‘He’s getting a new tooth,’ said Alexander, returning Chiron’s grin.
‘Agawapa!’ crowed the baby happily.
I squatted down to see. Sure enough, another white tooth was poking out. ‘I’m going to have to wean him soon,’ I said with a sigh.
‘You keep saying that,’ said Alexander, ‘And you don’t make any attempt to do so.’
‘I have my reasons,’ I said lightly.
‘You don’t want another baby?’ he asked. He saw right through me.
I sat down, taking Chiron off his lap. ‘You’re going to hurt your daddy,’ I said. For simplicity’s sake, Alexander was Daddy and Plexis was Papa. Not being a psychologist, I had no idea what having two loving fathers would do to a child. As well as a besotted mother, a caring eunuch, and Usse and Axiom, who adored him. He would probably be a basket case. Ha. I doubted it.
‘Well?’ Alexander was looking at me, faintly hurt.
‘I do, of course I do. But right now you’re not in any shape to do anything about that, are you?’ I teased gently.
‘There’s always Plexis,’ he said owlishly.
We smiled at each other. ‘I already told you. Plexis and I are just good friends. We haven’t, well, you know, since …’ I turned pink.
‘You are a funny girl,’ he said laughing at me. ‘Since when?’
‘I can’t remember. It doesn’t matter anyway. I don’t think about him like that any more. It was just a phase, you know, like sucking your thumb was a phase for you.’
‘How interesting.’ He wasn’t smiling though. ‘Am I a phase too?’
‘Why did I know you were going to ask that?’ I peered at him. ‘No, you are not a phase. You are my husband and I love you. I love Plexis too, but it’s not the same love. That’s all.’
‘I would like another baby,’ said Alexander. ‘I miss Mary so much. Sometimes I wake up and I think she’s still alive, that it was all a dream. Especially since I was wounded. It’s not that I don’t love Chiron,’ he said hurriedly, seeing the look on my face.
‘I know, I wasn’t thinking that. It’s just that, well, you’ve never mentioned her name.’
‘I’m sorry. It hurt too much before.’ He leaned back on the mast and looked up at the sky. ‘It still hurts, but it’s the kind of hurt I’ve grown to love. I need to feel the pain of Mary’s loss. It’s the sweetest one I’ve ever felt.’ Two perfect tears trailed down his cheeks.
I looked down at Chiron. He was sitting still, watching Brazza as he whittled a bird from a piece of wood. The fragrant shavings caught in the breeze and floated away like snowflakes. I put my face in Chiron’s curls. His arms crept up around my neck and he nuzzled my breast, always eager to nurse.
For a while we didn’t speak. Chiron nursed and Alexander watched, his eyes full of a strange melancholy.
The river swept us on. The brown water swirled and splashed against the hull, the wind flapped in the sail, and the breeze was redolent with the smells of fish and freshly tilled earth. The sky was a porcelain bowl held above our heads. The rim of the bowl was white and the centre a deep, ultramarine blue – as blue as Alexander’s mood. He stared at the river flowing by, and nothing I said made him smile.
He picked out a purple tunic and a white linen skirt to go to Musicanus’s court. I dressed in Persian robes. Brazza fixed my hair Greek-style, braiding the front into many fine tresses and pinning them to the crown of my head. Then he crimped and curled the hair in the back, which reached my shoulders.
Roxanne’s hair reached her hips, and she too had fixed it Greek-style. We stared at each other, each with our identical hairdos. To add insult to injury, we both wore butter-yellow robes. I’m sure she was as mortified as I, but we smiled politely and complimented each other.
She had been raised a princess in a time where princes and princesses were used as pawns in vicious power games. She knew how to navigate all the invisible currents in a court, she knew the strengths and weaknesses of everyone, and she knew how to stay alive in a time where murder was considered ‘death by natural causes’.
I had been born into one of the richest families in the United States, sent to a boarding school as soon as I was toilet trained, and had grown up alternately ignored, hated, and envied. I had been raped and beaten by my husband but had managed to escape. I was Roxanne’s equal from three thousand years in the future. Except for two important points. I’d never murdered, and I loved Alexander. Roxanne tried to kill anyone who got in her way, and she only loved power. If Alexander lost his crown, she would be the first to leave him.
Nassar told me she was sleeping with Ptolemy Lagos. Nassar was the eyes and ears of the court. I had no idea how he found things out but he did. Knowing how to speak just about every known language helped, I suppose. Ptolemy was ambitious. Since it only involved Roxanne and him, for the time being, we let it be.
An unusual garden surrounded King Musicanus’s palace. It resembled a jungle, and he had a wild animal zoo. The park was divided into different sections enclosed within a tall, rose-coloured brick wall.
The Greeks were thrilled to see peacocks. They immediately captured several birds and plucked the poor things while King Musicanus looked on and roared with laughter, and Alexander sat in his litter and fumed because he couldn’t chase the birds around the garden.
King Musicanus was a handsome man with jet black eyes and a prominent, beaked nose. He was very impressed with Alexander, despite the weakness he showed from his wound. Alexander was confined to his litter, and Roxanne and I walked alongside him, holding his hands. Roxanne was playing the part of the perfect little wife by copying everything I did. I longed to slap her, but I didn’t want to ruin the party.
We walked around the garden on a path of white crushed shells and looked at all the animals. There were tigers, wolves, snakes, elephants, deer, crocodiles, and monkeys. The jewel of his collection was a magnificent pair of snow leopards. They lay on the ground, their emerald eyes fixed on us. They looked dangerous and pitiful, caught in their gilded cages. As big and beautiful as the pens were, they were still nothing but cages. I looked at Alexander and saw he was sombre again.
Dinner was an elaborate affair, as dinners tended to be in those days.
First course: chilled curry-flavoured soup and sixteen different kinds of fruit accompanied by tambourine players and contortionists.
Second course: whole roast lambs with peacock stuffing. Peacock feathers decorated the platter. The feathers gradually disappeared as the platter was passed around. They reappeared stuck in the Greeks’ hair. The main dish was accompanied by a lovely lute player and some wild drums.
Third course: something with rice. I wasn’t sure what it was, and I didn’t really want to ask. Sometimes it is better not to know what you’re eating. Let’s just say I had the distinct impression it was staring back at me. It was accompanied by a fire-eater and a snake charmer. The Greeks were fascinated. Nobody noticed when I gave my dish to a trained monkey.
Fourth course was fish, and the snake charmer returned for an encore. The Greeks were absolutely thrilled.
Fifth course: more soup, and some wonderful herbed bread. I filled up on bread. A naked fakir came in and did a show. He sat on spikes, climbed up a floating rope, and lay down on hot coals. The Greeks were speechless with delight. I must admit, we hadn’t had such fun in ages. It was better than the circus of Roxanne’s court.
; Afterwards, there was dessert with biscuits and various honey-sweetened dried fruits. The fakir and the snake charmer were asked to do their show again. The cobras were cranky now, and one of the snake charmers was bitten and died. The Greeks were ecstatic. The show was a huge success, and Alexander immediately asked to have the remaining snake charmers and the fakirs. King Musicanus obligingly gave him three of each.
I insisted they have their own boat.
After dinner there were more dancers and musicians. Alexander leaned back on silken cushions and fell asleep. He was still easily tired. Roxanne had forgotten her copycat game and had gone to see the dancers.
I decided to take political matters in my own hands for once and tugged Nassar’s sleeve. He was my official translator and accompanied me everywhere.
‘Ask the king if it’s true about the Brahmins wanting to fight,’ I said.
Nassar frowned. ‘This is a dinner party, it’s not polite to discuss politics.’
‘Just do it,’ I hissed.
Nassar blanched. He was also an expert in protocol, and this was certainly a faux pas. Nevertheless, he leaned over my lap to speak to the king in a low voice.
The king shot me an irritated glance. He spoke sharply to Nassar, saying, ‘Tell your queen that doesn’t concern her.’
I sighed and shook my head. ‘Tell him that if the Brahmins attack Alexander from behind, Alexander will lose his temper and make things very ugly. Tell him that I’m an oracle, if you like, and that this isn’t a threat, it’s a prophecy.’
Nassar translated what I’d said, and the king lost his angry look. His eyes widened. He said, ‘Please accept my apologies. I was hasty. Obviously you have great powers. The Brahmins declared that if Alexander made peace with me, they would rise up and rebel. I had to buy them off with gold, so they have agreed not to fight. They will honour their word. I paid them a fortune for Alexander’s safe passage through my lands.’
I frowned. In my memory there was the great battle against Porus, and after there was a blank. I simply couldn’t remember what happened next. I had studied intensively the time period when I was supposed to interview him, but I hadn’t known I would be stuck here. My studies had been academic, but they had been incomplete. So much of Alexander’s story had been lost to time. I supposed there was nothing else I could do. To Nassar I said, ‘Tell King Musicanus that I thank him for talking to me, and I thank him for the wonderful dinner, but that I’d like to take my husband back to his quarters to sleep.’
King Musicanus clapped his hands and ordered his servants to carry Alexander to our room. We were staying the night in the palace. Alexander was so exhausted he didn’t even stir when the servants lifted him up and carried him through the echoing hallways to our bedchamber. I’d made sure that Roxanne had another bedroom, on the far side of the palace.
Chapter Twenty-Five
I woke up with sunshine pouring on my face. The room had a high ceiling and enormous windows. A large balcony overlooking the jungle garden ran the length of the room. The greenery was lush, full of flowers and songbirds. The leopards roared as elephants trumpeted. A monkey leapt onto the balcony, screeched at us, and jumped back into the trees.
I smiled and stretched. Alexander opened his eyes and looked across the pillows at me. His face was still too thin, but colour was coming back and he had gotten his appetite at last. Chiron was on the boat, with Brazza and Axiom. My breasts were full of milk. I had decided to wean Chiron, but it wasn’t easy to tell my milk to just go away.
Alexander took care of that. He wrapped his arms around my waist and had breakfast. Somewhere in the middle of it, he forgot his wound and we made love. There was something sensual and decadent about making love in the middle of a huge, soft bed with windows wide open and a hot, fragrant breeze coming in from a jungle. The sun warmed our bodies like golden honey. Alexander moved slowly. His head was next to mine. I put my face to his neck, my mouth touching the hollow at the base of his throat where his pulse beat.
Afterwards he slept again. His breathing was clear, his chest rose and fell softly. I rested my hands on his body and tried not to think of the future.
We left the palace that afternoon, saying our formal goodbyes to King Musicanus. We had come with a chariot full of presents for the king, and we left with two cartloads of gifts including the snake charmers and fakirs – complete with beds of nails and cobras. And another elephant.
Everyone knew by now that Alexander was crazy about elephants. This one was a young cow that Alexander had promptly named ‘Nostos’ in honour of our going home. Nostos was a sweet, sleepy elephant. She had gold knobs on her short tusks and was always munching on grass. Her driver was named Patto. He was a nice fellow with mournful eyes and a long moustache. He was always sucking the ends of his moustache while Nostos was always champing on a mouthful of grass. Nostos had a fuzzy head, which was unusual in an adult elephant. It was as if she’d kept all her baby hair. Alexander saw how much I liked the young cow and gave her to me. I rode all the way back to the boat in the funny seat the elephants have in guise of saddles. I took Nassar with me; I wanted to talk to Patto.
Four soldiers carried Alexander’s litter. They carried him as if they were walking on eggs. Every five minutes they stopped and asked him if everything was all right. Finally, he pretended to be asleep. Roxanne sat with him, waving a fan made of peacock feathers. She’d greeted us quite civilly that morning and didn’t make a fuss when Alexander gave me the elephant. I wondered what she was plotting.
‘Ask Patto if he wants to come with us back to Persia,’ I told Nassar.
Patto replied that it was all the same to him, Persia, India, Greece, wherever.
‘But doesn’t he have a family?’ I asked.
Patto gave me a funny look when I asked this and shrugged.
‘He’s got six children, all girls, all grown and married. He had to pay dowries for each one and now he’s ruined,’ explained Nassar. ‘But his daughters are well married,’ he added, imitating Patto’s gloomy voice exactly.
‘And his wife?’ I asked.
After a long conversation with Patto, Nassar said, ‘His wife died three years ago. He was thinking about getting married again and trying for a son, but first he needs to earn some money in case he has more daughters. He’s perfectly happy to go with us to Persia, or Greece, or anywhere else, providing that when the elephant dies, he’s free to return home with his pay.’
‘Of course!’ I said. ‘Tell him I’ll even write a contract for him. He’ll be paid a full salary and have room and board. Tell him he can have whatever he wants.’
Nassar looked sceptical but told him anyway. Patto turned and looked at me, his gloomy face almost happy. ‘Really?’ he said. ‘Anything?’
‘If I can give it to him, yes,’ I said.
Patto asked for a blue silk jacket like the one the chief elephant mahout had. He also wanted a stiff scrub brush so that he could wash Nostos correctly, and he wanted to make sure that he was going to be my mahout and nobody else’s.
‘Is that it?’
Nassar shrugged. ‘That’s it. What did you expect?’
‘I don’t know,’ I admitted. ‘I would have asked for a huge salary and a gold necklace for my elephant.’
‘I’ll take those too,’ Patto replied promptly.
I now had my own elephant and mahout. I was as pleased as if I’d just gotten a new Rolls Royce and chauffeur. I made sure that the chief mahout knew that Patto was my employee, and that Nostos had a proper place in the elephant parade. Patto got his jacket, his necklace, his salary, and he stopped looking so mournful. He kept chewing on his moustache, though, and Nostos kept her topknot.
We left the kingdom of Musicanus and started down river once more. We went slowly, no more than twenty kilometres a day, to give the armies on either side of the fleet time to keep up with us. The resulting cruise was a lazy affair that made the days drag by with aggravating slowness.
Out of boredom, I decided to ride
my pony, Lenaia. I hadn’t ridden her in a while, and I was feeling antsy. Alexander was recuperating well and, for once, was being good about following doctor’s orders and not exerting himself. Sitting in the shade talking to our resident wise man, Kalanos, was his most strenuous exercise.
I wanted Plexis to go with me, but he was busy that day with his hipparchia. He had five hundred men under his command, and he’d decided to do some manoeuvres or whatever hipparchies do for exercise, so I took Lysimachus.
The day was warm, and we chatted idly as we rode through the rich countryside. I’d always liked the tall captain, but he was in awe of me. He was convinced I was Demeter’s daughter, Persephone. It made his conversation stilted. He was afraid to say something that would anger me. In those days, the gods got mad easily. When they got mad, they turned humans into trees or rocks. Each time we passed a funny shaped rock or bush, there was much speculation about what that former person had done to make the gods so angry.
As we rounded a bend in the path, an Indian armed with a long spear stepped in front of us. Before I could wheel my pony around, another man grabbed her bridle and dragged me to the ground. I hit the ground hard and it stunned me. Then someone threw a large black cloth over me, and I found myself wrapped up and trussed like a cocoon. I heard Lysimachus screaming, then silence. I fainted for a second, then came to.
‘Lysimachus!’ I yelled hoarsely. I was frightened for him. By the sound of his scream he’d been badly injured.
Then someone hit me on the head, and I saw stars. The cloth saved me from being knocked out, but I think I would have rather been unconscious. I was slung into a cart and we moved off over bumpy ground. I didn’t dare cry out. I guessed the blow was to silence me, and I didn’t want to give the men who’d kidnapped me any excuse to hit me again. I would pretend to be dead, I decided. It wasn’t easy. The cart moved quickly over uneven ground. My body bounced and banged against the wooden sides of the wagon, but I couldn’t free my arms or legs to brace myself.
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