A/N: Dear readers, this story was my contribution to story exchange organized by Quadrantje. As I learned after I submitted the story to her, the prompt came from too_beauty. I enjoyed the challenge a lot though I suspect too_beauty had something else in mind. But you know my tendency to provide my own explanation to every event in A/H life and here is the result.
Disclaimer: This story set in AU. The real historical characters that are part of this story belong to themselves and history; in no way I am suggesting the events in this story really happened as described.
Whether you like this story or not, your reviews are greatly appreciated.
NOTHING WAS THE SAME AFTER THAT NIGHT
Nothing was the same after that night. Alexander tried not to think about it but the dream haunted him relentlessly. Wherever he went, whatever he did, the damned words kept popping up in his mind. He wished Hephaistion was with him to share his frustration and desperation but his friend was away. Officially, Hephaistion was sent to check the progress of building of one the Alexandrias, unofficially, king wanted him to probe the possibility of secret alliance with Sogdians and may be Massagetaeans. They already spent two years in this land, conquering cities and quelling rebellions and Alexander was desperate to resolve the situation and move on to India.
The Bactrian baron silently watched as Sitak, the brother of Massagetaen chieftain Rayumand, and Hephaistion sacrificed a horse to seal their treaty. Sitak arrived only a couple of days ago and right away made it clear that his presence in no way signified Massagetaen desire to come to any agreement with Alexander. And yet, he was ready to leave next day, with a solemn promise to keep peace along the boundary of the lands conquered by Alexander when king moves to India.
Oxyartes was impressed with the bargaining powers of the young man Alexander sent to negotiate alliances in this turbulent area. It wasn't a complete surprise to him, though; he knew about the rumors that Hephaistion secretly came to agreement with Mazeus to surrender Babylon to Alexander without any resistance. Even more, when Oxyartes accompanied Bessos in his retreat across Oxus, the latter hinted that there were some talks that cavalry wing under Mazeus command at Gaugamela didn't perform as well as it was capable off, and Hephaistion name was mentioned again.
Oxyartes knitted his brows. He wasn't present at all the meetings between Hephaistion and Sitak, who knew what else they agreed upon? What if as a compensation for the promise not to attack Alexander's lands the king through his emissary allowed Massagetae to plunder Bactrian lands? Who knew whom else Hephaistion was going to visit in his trip through these lands? Sisimithres was sitting on his Rock of Chorienes, vowing to fight Alexander till the last man but if Hephaistion was able to persuade Sitak, how one can be sure that he can't do the same with Sisimithres? And Spitamenes was still alive. Oxyartes own sons naively thought that he would never surrender to Alexander, but it was Spitamenes who couple of years ago handed Bessos to Ptolemy, one of Alexander's commanders. Who knows what he will do now, he still may go over to Alexander and then betray those who fought with him.
"Uneasy thoughts?" with genuine concern asked Hephaistion.
"My thoughts were uneasy for a long time now," gravely stated Oxyartes. "But I must congratulate you on the very successful negotiation with Sitak. It looks like he leaves quite happy with the arrangements."
"There is no reason for you not to be happy as well with the arrangements that we can agree upon. Alexander would be very glad if the whole area will be at peace and if it can be achieved without further bloodshed."
"I don't think that there is a lot I can offer to Alexander. I hold only a small fortress, which is on unassailable rock, for sure, but what interest Alexander may have in just one rock? There are a lot of fortresses like mine. And I don't want to be a traitor to my own people."
"You won't be a traitor if you save the lives of your people. Furthermore, if you help to negotiate the surrender of other fortresses, Alexander will be very merciful and grateful."
"Right. And then he leaves for India. What will become of me and of my family? All other chieftains will remember that it was I who first bowed to Alexander. They will unite and annihilate me."
"If they were capable of uniting, they would do it by now."
"You are right. Each of them wants to be above others and they never agree to concede the leadership to any of their own. But they will to Spitamenes. He is not at his best now, but he may rebound, and who knows if Massagetae would keep their promise to you or decide to help him instead."
"Don't worry yourself with Spitamenes," almost tenderly advised Hephaistion. "Let's better think how we can make sure that when Alexander leaves for India not only you won't be attacked by other chieftains but also be able to keep peace in this region due to the power invested in you by Alexander. Do you think you'll be able to do so?"
"If Alexander vests me with proper power, then yes, I can help him to negotiate peaceful surrender of other fortresses and keep them quiet in his absence, but why would he trust me, among all others? And, no offence, how can I trust him?"
Hephaistion smiled. "I like dealing with you, Oxyartes. You don't bluntly agree to generous propositions I may have for you; you put forward the foreseeable obstacles and like to find solutions for them. Now, let's go to my tent where we can continue this conversation more at ease. Ah, but before doing this, wouldn't you like to dispatch a courier to your son who guards your unassailable fortress in your absence? Surely, he and the rest of your family will be happy to hear that you alive and safe in my company. Do you have a big family, Oxyartes?"
"Not a big family. My wife died a couple of years ago, and so two of my sons. I only have left one son and one daughter."
"A daughter? How old is she?" smiled Hephaistion.
"She is…" started Oxyartes and then stopped short realizing that Hephaistion knew the answer to that question all along.
Alexander watched as Ptolemy was hurriedly coming in his direction. The day only started but Alexander already felt tired. He hardly slept this night, as the night before, and before that as well. He wanted to sleep but was afraid that the moment he closed his eyes, the damned dream will come again. He didn't want to relive it again, he didn't want to hear those words, and he didn't know how to cope with that kind of betrayal. He tried to occupy himself relentlessly during the day only to succumb to some sort of slumber during the night, falling asleep against his wishes and waking up almost immediately. He prayed to gods that Hephaistion returned soon and then he would be able to share the awful nightmare with his beloved but there were no news of General's imminent return. "May be those riders came from Hephaistion," wistfully thought Alexander as Ptolemy at last approached the king.
"Those are emissaries from Massagetae", blurted out Ptolemy loudly. "They asked to see you immediately; they said that they had a very special gift for you from their chieftain Rayumand."
When group of Massagetae was brought before Alexander, Sitak stepped forward and said, "King of Macedon, we decided that we don't want to make war against you anymore. If you leave us alone and don't go into our steppes, we won't come to your cities and won't raid or attack your land. This is an agreement we reached with your general Hephaistion and which our King, my brother, Rayumand approved of. Are you going to keep the promise given to us by your general?"
"Yes, I am," said Alexander, "but how can I be sure that you are going to keep your end of the bargain?"
"We brought you a present, we hope you like it", and with those words Sitak signaled to one of his companions who passed a sack to his leader. Sitak untied the ropes and turned the sack upside down. With a dull thud a deathly pale head of Spitamenes fell out and rolled to Alexander's feet.
After some moments of gloomy silence Alexander asked, nodding in the direction of the head, "Spitamenes?"
"Yes, I recognize him," assured Coenus, "It is definitely Spitamenes."
"Very well," said Alexander. "I do believe you. Now leave and I hope you keep your promise for your own sake," with those words he turned around and hurried away.
"Alexander, you shouldn't have dismissed them right away," worriedly said Ptolemy, "after all, they brought you Spitamenes' head. You should have shown them some appreciation, may be give a feast in their honor in the evening."
"I am glad that I don't need to hunt for him any longer, but after he was crashed by Coenus, he wasn't a real threat to me anymore. I know that he tried to hide among Massagetae but I think he became a burden to them; this is why they killed him. I owe them nothing!"
"Alexander!"
"Leave me alone, Ptolemy."
"As you wish," the General sighed. "If you so hate to be apart from Hephaistion, why you send him so often away on all those missions? May be you should marry at last, a nice girl can take away man's frustration in no time."
"Get lost, Ptolemy," screamed Alexander. "It seems that you're forgetting whom you're talking to," and king angrily almost run away.
It was the evening of the tenth day after Massagetae brought their macabre gift when Hephaistion returned to camp. He wasn't given a chance to go to his own tent to change or get some rest. He was brought immediately into Alexander's presence and was shocked to see how grey and tired his king looked.
"There is a lot I have to report to you, Alexander, but may be it should be postponed until you have some rest?" uncertainly asked Hephaistion.
"No, I was waiting for those news for a long time," said Alexander, "I better hear them now. Please accompany me to my tent."
Hephaistion didn't need to be asked twice. He followed the king silently until they reached the inner chamber of the Alexander pavilion. Then, to Hephaistion surprise, Alexander sat on his bed and with heavy moan dropped his head into his hands.
"What happened, my love?" worriedly asked Hephaistion sinking on his knees before the king and trying to pry Alexander's hands away.
"I was betrayed," whispered Alexander. "I was betrayed by the person whom I worshipped since I was a small child. How can it be, Hephaistion, how can it be?"
"I don't understand," confusingly asked Hephaistion. "You were betrayed by whom? Certainly you are not talking about me?"
"No, not you, Achilles, I was betrayed by Achilles!"
"You were betrayed by Achilles? What are you talking about?"
"Achilles appeared to me one night, soon after you left on your mission. He told me that he was disappointed with me."
"Disappointed with you? It is not possible. Long ago you surpassed every deed, every exploit, every feat of arms that Achilles ever achieved. He has no reason to be disappointed with you."
"Apparently, not every deed. There is one that I still didn't achieve and Achilles is very angry with me for that. So much so that he forbade me to consider him his ancestor and hero until I remedy the situation."
"He forbade you to consider him his ancestor?" incredulously asked Hephaistion. "But why?"
"He said that if he would made the same mistake before leaving for Troy as I did when I left Macedon, I would never even exist."
"I see," slowly said Hephaistion, "We left Pella six years ago and only now Achilles decided to rebuke you for not marrying and producing children back in Macedon. Don't you think it's a little strange?"
"I don't know, may be. But how could he say all those things to me?" desperately whispered Alexander. "And why did he choose to do so when you was away? When you weren't here to support me?"
"I don't know, Alexander. But did he tell you that we should stop loving each other?"
"No, of course not!" vehemently denied Alexander. "He wouldn't dare! How could he even contemplate such a thing?!"
"Well, then," smiled Hephaistion, "in that case may be you should listen to Achilles advice and marry? After all, these vast lands that you already conquered and those ones you are going to conquer in future, wouldn't it be nice to pass them to your own children instead of having your generals to cut each other's throats after your death trying to carve their own petty kingdoms?"
"What about you, Hephaistion?" quietly asked Alexander.
"I will love you for eternity, Alexander, no matter what, and you know that. If you wish, I can also marry, for a company. And if I have children, they will be the most loyal subjects of your children. But one way or another, I will die with you Alexander, you know that, don't you?"
"I know that, Hephaistion," almost inaudibly murmured Alexander and gently kissed his beloved lips. "Do you think you can pray to Achilles for me? To ask him for some reprieve? We are going to India now, I don't have time to look for a bride. When we conquer India and reach the end of the earth, we can go back to Babylon, and then we both marry. We marry Darius' daughters, we marry sisters, as we agreed long time ago, so our children will be cousins."
"We can't leave for India yet, Alexander. You said it yourself, we can't leave unconquered lands in our rear."
"Spitamenes is dead. There won't be any more resistance."
"Why are you in such a hurry?"
"I want to go to India. I want to reach the end of the earth, Hephaistion. I don't want to wait any longer. We lingered in Sogdiana for almost two years chasing first Bessos and then Spitamenes. Now both are dead and we can move on."
"What about those chieftains on the Rocks? As soon as we leave this land they wage a guerilla war against our cities. And Achilles, he may be not listen favorably to my prayers."
"So, what can we do, Hephaistion?" tiredly asked Alexander.
"We don't want to waste a lot of time trying to resolve both problems. We have to find one solution to both of them."
"How?"
"I met with this chieftain. His name is Oxyartes. He holds the most impregnable Rock. He would like to come to your side, but he doesn't want other chieftains to know that he surrendered voluntarily. On the other side, he doesn't want to loose any of his people in a mock attack. We came up with this plan. There is a secret passage to the fortress. He drew me a map and gave two guides. We are also going to have some volunteers to play a masquerade pretending to be a successful version of Icarus. I'll give you the details later. In exchange for his peaceful surrender he wants you to appoint him a satrap for this area when you leave for India. So, if we go along with this plan, it will solve both our problems."
"How does it solve the second problem?"
"You mean Achilles desire to see you married immediately?"
"Yes," sighed Alexander.
"Didn't I mention? Oxyartes has a daughter."