Story Title: Lovers of the Divine Lion
Chapter Title: Victory
Summary: When Bagoas is kidnapped and raped, an unlikely rescuer turns into an even more unlikely friend.
A/N: This is the final chapter of this story. (It's also a bonus chapter!) I hope you've enjoyed this little fanfiction of mine and that you'll consider checking out some of my other stories. And yes, many of them will include Bagoas as a main character!
Warnings: There is the death of an animal in this story. All non-vegetarians, you have no excuses for flinching at this. After all, your burgers, steaks, and fried chicken were once all alive too!
Disclaimer: I still don't own Renault's or Stone's work. Again, I'm just borrowing their characters & interpretations for a little while.
The worst of the winter weather had come and gone. Now the first whispers of spring could be felt in the newly-warmed winds, and with the melting of the snow, the army's seasonal lethargy was also melting away. However, the mountain passes were still clogged with late avalanches and springtime floods. Alexander's great army would not be going anywhere soon.
Bagoas urged his horse forward as he heard Ptolemy and Leonatus give a frustrated shout from the woods ahead of him. The Companions, growing restless with their own pent-up energy, had organized a boar hunt after hearing reports of the wild herds causing damage to local farm property. As the late winter weather continued to delay the growth of spring food sources, the wild boars were becoming bolder and more dangerous to humans and livestock alike.
Both Bagoas and Oromedon had been invited to join the hunt, the Companions having been counting them as members of their council since the youth's recovery in late autumn. Eagerly the two eunuchs had readily agreed to participate in the outing, needing to burn off their own cabin fever, but both had then been startled when Ptolemy had handed each of them hunting spears before setting out this morning. Familiar with Persian-style hunting trips where only the king was to take down game, neither eunuch had thought to ask about Greek and Macedonian hunting customs beforehand. Seeing the pair's confusion, Ptolemy had taken time to explain the day's plans while they rode out from the large town to the surrounding forest.
Typically the Companions would drive game towards the king and spear only the animals that remained once Alexander had taken his chosen target. Today, however, due to the damage and fear their quarry was causing, Alexander had chosen to join the driving line while they forced the wild boars towards a rock face to trap them. The Companions would be permitted to spear any sows they wanted at any time, but once the king had taken his boar, all hogs would be fair game to the line of men.
Alexander had taken his boar early, and now the men were working to take out the largest of the herd members who would be most dangerous to the local farmers and their families. Many of the beasts had scattered at the rock face after the commotion of the first kill and were now rampaging through the woods. As Bagoas finally caught up to Ptolemy and Leonatus, he noted that the latter's horse had a nasty tusk wound to one of its rear legs. Although he had been thrown by his frightened steed, Leonatus appeared to be alright and was trying to calm his injured war charger.
"A large boar, it went that way," Ptolemy pointed, urging Bagoas after the animal. "It's an old survivor, scarred up but highly intelligent, so be careful!"
The eunuch nodded his understanding before turning his horse in the direction the wild boar had fled. Bagoas could easily make out his quarry's trail in the mixture of snow and mud before him, and he urged his horse to a canter as the trees dwindled down to scrubland and then an open field. To his right, he spotted several other Companions out of the corner of his eye; they were on the tails of a large sow and two younger boars.
But Bagoas's target was standing now in the center of the field, directly in front of him. The old boar had spun around to face his horse head on, and the eunuch worried briefly about his mount's safety. However, his little stallion caught scent of the hog and the blood still on its tusks and gave an angry neigh that vibrated through his master's body. Bagoas clung to his horse's mane as the young stallion lunged forward and began striking out with its hooves. The boar squealed and jolted sideways, not having expected the stallion to attack him. As his mount's anger increased, Bagoas realized he wouldn't be able to regain control of the horse until this little battle ended, and so he lowered the blade of his spear to attempt to fend off the sharp tusks of the boar from his stallion's striking legs.
The boar, however, proved to be just as intelligent as Ptolemy had claimed; the angered hog spun around to the opposite side of Bagoas's steed to avoid the eunuch's spear. The horse's muscles bunched tightly together before he sprung forward again, bringing his right fore hoof down like a hammer at the boar's head. The stallion missed his quick-moving target. But as the beast darted forward to gore the offending leg, Bagoas's steed managed to capture the hog's bristly ear in his powerful jaws, halting its oncoming motion.
The eunuch, by this time, had managed to swing his spear over his stallion's neck to their right side and stabbed at the boar who was still caught by the ear. Their quarry gave a deafening squeal as it was struck and threw its head up, nicking the stallion's cheek with a sharp tusk. The counterattack only caused the horse to bite down harder and throw up his own head, severing the wild boar's ear. The spear was nearly ripped from Bagoas's hand as the animals broke apart, but thanks to Hephaestion's sword training, he instinctively remembered how to twist his arm to regain control of the weapon.
The wild boar turned to run off again, the loss of its ear causing it to loose its nerve as well, but it soon discovered itself surrounded. Several of the other Companions had ridden out to the middle of the field where Bagoas and his steed had engaged with their quarry. Among them were Oromedon, Hephaestion, and Alexander. The youth only took note of the shapes of horses ringing the area, however, as determination to take down this dangerous boar before it hurt someone else became the only thought in his mind.
As the boar turned once again to face its pursuers, Bagoas stabbed at it again, driving his spear into the soft place just above its collarbone. The beast screamed its fury one more time, trying to charge forward towards horse and rider but only succeeding in driving the spear point deeper into its body. The boar bit at the shaft of the lethal weapon, cracking it, but the damage came too late to save its life. The spear point had been driven deep enough to tear into a lung and a main artery. The wild boar soon bled to death, coughing up blood that had leaked into its punctured lung.
With his quarry finally slain, Bagoas let go of the ruined hunting spear and quickly dismounted; his only thoughts now were of his horse and the injuries it had sustained. The youth caringly ran his hands over his little stallion's forelegs, one at a time, checking for wounds caused either by the boar's tusks or by striking out with such force with his hooves. The eunuch gave a relieved sigh when he found no signs of torn flesh, strained ligaments, or cracked hooves. Bagoas then turned his attention to the wound to his horse's lower cheek. Luckily, the tear proved to be shallow once the blood was wiped away with a handful of clean snow. The youth laughed as his steed nuzzled against his chest before finally spitting out the boar's ear into his master's hand.
"Do you have a name for such a fierce little stallion?" called one of the men surrounding Bagoas and his kill. The young Persian looked up to recognize Cassander as the speaker.
The youth grinned before answering with embarrassment, "I named him Lion, because I hoped it would give him courage. Now I'm thinking he may have too much."
"No, I think he has just enough courage," shouted Perdiccas from the other side of the circle, "just enough to match his master. Congratulations on killing your boar!"
A chorus of praise and additional congratulations went up from all sides of Bagoas, causing the youth to blush, but he raised his head high anyway, greeting the Companions and his friends with a beaming smile. And he couldn't help but think of just how far he'd come, going from a virtual sex slave prostituted out by his first master to a favored courtesan in Darius's household to now being one of Alexander's great loves and closest advisors, only outranked in both areas by Hephaestion, which is how it should be. And now he had killed his first boar, a sign of gaining his manhood which he thought had been stolen from him completely.
That night the victorious hunters feasted on their slain quarry, eight sows and six boars in all. The Companions toasted to Bagoas and his brave little stallion repeatedly, many proclaiming that it was an unjust fate that such fierceness had been forced to serve in Darius's bed instead of his army. The youth laughed along with the half-drunken men as jokes began flying, declaring that the eunuch would have made a better warrior than his former master who fled in fear at the smallest sign of trouble. Bagoas had learned by now how to handle the Macedonians' style of drunken revelry in stride, joining in with the raucous shouting and merrymaking without embarrassment.
Finally though, the young Persian managed to excuse himself and stumbled off to bed. He and Oromedon were still lodging in Hephaestion's suite, but Bagoas and the general would often trade sleeping space in regard to the moods of their lovers. And indeed it was lovers, plural, for both of them now. Sometime during the winter, Hephaestion had sought out Oromedon's physical company while Bagoas and Alexander had been sharing a bed. At first, the general had been ashamed of his infidelity, but when Alexander finally weaseled a confession out of his blue-eyed lover, he had been delighted by the new dynamic in the relationship between Hephaestion and Oromedon. The king had declared that it would work towards building trust not only between the elder eunuch and his general but also between himself and Oromedon as well. Alexander said it would also help to ease his mind on the issue of sending Hephaestion off on his own to stop rebellions and develop peace treaties if he knew Oromedon would be working to protect the beloved general out of his own affection as well as duty.
This night, however, Bagoas found himself joined by king, general, and healer, all three eventually curling up in the same bed as the youth in the early dawn hours. Oromedon settled on one side of his former student, while Alexander took up the space on the other side, and Hephaestion snuggled up behind the king.
"I'm so happy for you, Bagoas. You really showed the Companions what you're made of today," Alexander whispered as he drew the young eunuch into his arms. "Those who saw you take down that boar this afternoon will never tolerate anyone belittling you again. And you held to your horse so well. Half of the cavalry men would have been thrown by that little stallion's bucking and jolting when he was after that boar. And yet you stuck to him like scales to a fish!"
"It was nothing, Al'skander. Dancers must have good balance and command of their bodies. Anyone who has undergone such training should have been able to stay seated on my little horse," Bagoas was glad for the darkness that hid his blush from the king. The youth had become quite overwhelmed by the amount of praise he had received this day.
In the dim backlighting of the night candle, Bagoas saw Hephaestion sit up to peak over Alexander's shoulder.
"Don't tell him that, Bagoas! He'll make the entire cavalry take dance lessons!" there was amused laughter in the general's gentle voice. "And I don't think any of us want to see Cleitus in one of those little spangled loincloths that you often perform in. The soldiers would rebel under the claim of being forced to endure cruel and unusual punishment at the sight of that!"
"Dear gods, they'd gouge their eyes out!" Alexander gasped in mock dismay. "How would I ever manage to conquer the world with a blind army?"
"Well, if nothing else, they'd never retreat, because they'd never know which way to run," Hephaestion giggled as he lay back down, nuzzling against the nape of Alexander's neck. The king gave a contented sigh as he too grew quiet and relaxed.
"Even if the entire cavalry had Bagoas's riding skills, they would accomplish little without the three of you. Truly you are the beating heart that drives this force, for without you, I would be lost," Alexander whispered into the darkness. "And yes, Oromedon, you too have already contributed to this army through everything you've ever done for Bagoas."
"And I look forward to serving you further. I have never met a man more deserving of loyalty, Alexander," Oromedon sighed out from behind his former student. Bagoas felt his two lovers clasp each others arms over his waist and smiled to himself. Never had he imagined that two individuals could love the same person and then find love for each other through that central figure.
"Without love, all victories would be worthless. With love, every challenge faced can become a victory, no matter what the outcome," in the coming years, Bagoas took heart from those whispered words that came from his beloved Alexander, knowing they would always bring him greater strength than any weapon or social ranking every could. Love gave him life.
End A/N: So that's that! I know this chapter was a little short, but I have ideas in my head for a new Bagoas fic already. Once again, I hope you enjoyed this story. Thank you for reading! And as always, reviews and comments are appreciated!
Thanks again! ~ Stony Knight