Force of Kings

24

Miriam arrived at Tanais after the fall of the last of Plistias’s garrisons opened the Propontus to allied ship traffic, and she rode the first ship north into the Euxine. Her brother’s ship.

She landed at Tanais, and Theron took her to the citadel, where she felt like a stranger. He took her to the agora, where she felt like a stranger, and to the synagogue, where Alexandrian Jews she’d known from infancy made her feel … like a stranger.

If I stay here, she thought, this will be my life. Always an outsider.

She stood in the agora, on the third uncomfortable day.

‘Recognise him?’ Abraham asked her, pointing at the gilded bronze statue on its marble pedestal.

She shrugged. ‘I can read,’ she said. ‘I met Philokles, but I don’t remember him being plated in gold.’

Abraham laughed. ‘And this is Satyrus’s father, Kineas. And this woman must by the famous Srayanka.’

Miriam nodded, her heart thudding in her chest and her breath short. What she felt was like rage. ‘No statues for our parents, of course,’ she said.

‘Miriam!’ Abraham said.

‘You know, brother, you wear armour when it suits you, command a fighting ship, when it suits you. Play feed the flute girl … I’ve heard. Stop affecting to be shocked by your sister. There are things in the world I don’t love right now.’

‘You want to go?’ Abraham asked.

‘No, brother, you want to go. You want to go and stand in the phalanx and save him. You burn, even now.’ She crossed her arms over her breasts.

Behind her, Achilles and Ajax looked at each other and took a few steps away.

Abraham held his temper. ‘It is too late,’ he said. ‘If Leon is right, they fought a few days after we carried the city.’ He shrugged. ‘I knew when I took command that I might miss the fight. It is Leon I feel for.’

‘Why must you be so relentlessly good?’ Miriam asked.

She whirled to see her three hardened killers dissolve in mirth.

Theron dined with them — insisted that Achilles and Ajax and Odysseus recline, and they were served by the chief steward.

Theron’s physique was unaffected by the years … apparently. He looked magnificent by lamplight, and he led them in some poetry, poured wine for all of them, and did his best to make Miriam happy.

The next morning, he appeared at the door to her room. At his back was a lovely woman — perhaps thirty.

‘I am Kallista,’ she said, entering Miriam’s room. ‘Theron seems to think you need cheering up.’

Miriam shook her head. ‘I don’t know.’

Kallista smiled. She was beautiful and had the gracious good manners of great ladies. Great Hellene ladies. ‘You are the woman Satyrus wants. If you want him, that’s all you need worry about.’

Miriam looked at this lady, and hated her, at least in part for her perfectly plucked eyebrows, conical breasts and neat hair. ‘I am a Jew,’ she said with tragic finality.

Kallista nodded for a moment. ‘You never met me in Alexandria?’ she said.

Miriam shook her head.

‘Nice Jewish girls,’ Kallista said, ‘don’t meet prostitute-slaves. I was a porne, and then I was a courtesan — slave, then free. And now I am Theron’s wife. In Alexandria, it would be a shame to him. In Tanais,’ she said with calm happiness, ‘we are whomever we want to be. That is all I can tell you. You bring what you have here, and make what you want.’

‘You make it sound easy,’ Miriam said. She was embarrassed — mortified — that this woman must have overcome ten times the obstacles that she had overcome.

‘My husband says that every fight is the only fight — that’s what he says about pankration.’ She shrugged. ‘It is true for all people. Your challenge: can you be a queen? Because Satyrus wants a partner, not a bed-mate. I’ve known him for a long time.’

‘And been his bed-mate?’ Miriam asked with an acerbity she regretted.

Kallista rose to her feet, the picture of elegance. ‘Perhaps, and perhaps not — I would never tell, and you, my dear, should not care either way, as that would belong to a different world, would it not? I have never been his bed-mate in Tanais. I sleep with just one man here, and only when I desire him. It is like paradise for me. Now — I can go, or I can entertain you with music and poetry.’

Miriam found herself on her feet, feeling very ungracious. ‘Stay and drink wine.’

Kallista smiled, and sank into a chair. ‘Tell me about being a Jew,’ she said.

Banugul sold her cargo, put money with bankers, and cooled her heels. Once she drank too much and cried for Herakles and for Stratokles. For what she would lose if they were gone.

One of Leon’s ships swept into harbour, borne on the wings of its oars. Borne on the wings of Nike.

Leon was on board in person, and Nihmu, his Sakje wife, and they came to visit her. They told her that Seleucus and the allies were absolutely victorious, and that Herakles would lose his left arm at the elbow, but was strong.

‘He will never fight again,’ Leon said. He clearly didn’t know how this news would be received.

Banugul rose on her toes and kissed him. ‘Hah! I love his lost arm!’ she said. ‘He is coming home?’

‘When he can travel, he will come here,’ Nihmu said. ‘And Stratokles is alive. No more wounded than other men, and much in demand. Sends you this letter.’

Banugul read the letter, and then she cried so hard that the kohl ran out of her eyes, and only the man who truly loved her would have found her beautiful.

Nihmu and Leon, who had expected a very different reaction, rose to go.

‘Stratokles swore it would make you happy!’ Nihmu said. ‘Bastard.’

Banugul rolled the letter away. ‘It does,’ she said. ‘I have been alone for too long with only my guards. Which reminds me … a piece of unfinished business.’

She explained.

Leon saw Amastris alone as his next visit, gave her the official letter from her husband Lysimachos, and she, too, wept. Then Leon craved the loan of her captain of guards, who followed Leon out the door and was immediately taken into custody by two files of Leon’s marines.

Who further blocked six alleys and two streets in the foreigners’ quarter with the ruthless efficiency of victorious men with too much to lose to want to take any chances. And they’d cleared a great many neighbourhoods in the last few summers. They knew the business.

Banugul’s Hyrkanians and her Sogdians had done the scouting, and they stormed the building, killing everyone, slave and free. Isokles and his people were so surprised that his retainers were mostly unarmed. The Hyrkanians were not disturbed by such things.

Isokles was dragged out into the street, cursing in his curious voice.

‘I have friends here — every man in the guard, every courtier is mine. You are a dead man,’ he said to Leon.

‘Name them,’ Leon said.

After he had, one of the marines opened his neck.

And Phiale — taken screaming — watched with growing horror, and finally threw herself violently at Leon’s feet. ‘He would have killed me!’ she shrieked. ‘Oh, Leon, you were always my friend!’ She grabbed his knees. ‘Mercy, lord!’

Leon hesitated. She was beautiful. He could remember her dancing at a party …

She was not so beautiful when Nihmu put an arrow in her throat.

‘There is my mercy,’ Nihmu said. ‘I didn’t ruin her face.’ She looked at her husband, and smiled.

‘Men,’ she said, and bent to retrieve her arrow.