Title: Alexander Revisited
Disclaimer # 1: I am fully aware that the movie with the same title exists (on DVD); this story was born out of that movie but took a turn to AU where it would reside with no intention of coming into a conflict with the original creation.
Disclaimer # 2: This story is a pure fiction. I don't know the real people involved; anything they do and say in my story has nothing to do with the actual lives of those people.
A/N - Thank you, my wonderful friends, who read and commented on the chapters that I already posted. My special regards to those who commented for the first time and who added this story to their favorites and story alert. It would be also wonderful to hear the thoughts of those who read the story but didn't voice their opinion yet. Thank you all.
Warning: I have to put M for this chapter though the sex scene will be the less shock than…..
Susa, 324 BC
Jared felt somebody shook his shoulder, trying to wake him up. He sleepily thought it might be Damian and was about to shoo him away when he heard the voice of the unknown intruder, "Will you wake up already? Aren't you supposed to be an early riser, just like me?"
The actor was awake immediately and sat up in the bed, staring at Hephaistion. "Why are you here? It's too early for any visits."
"How do you know that it's too early?" Hephaistion asked, way too serious to Jared's taste.
"I suspect so because I am actually an early riser. What are you doing in my bedroom?"
"In case you didn't know, I can go whenever I want. The privilege goes with my status."
"I am not questioning your authority," Jared looked Hephaistion in the eyes trying to understand the man behind the beautiful image, "it's a morning after your wedding night. Aren't you supposed to be in bed with your young wife?"
"Drypetis is fine, thank you." Hephaistion said somewhat annoyed, "you are not."
"I am not? Why?" Jared felt confused but the tone of Chiliarch's voice made the actor to believe something serious had happened.
"The girl you picked up in the harem to warm your bed is dead. Her mistress is too."
"What? Phaspalla is dead? What are you talking about?" Jared stared at Hephaistion in disbelieve. "How? What happened? She left my rooms just hours ago."
"Probably you shouldn't have let her go. I don't know though, she either was in the wrong place in the wrong time, or her death has something to do with your choice."
Jared got upset. They lost a spy in Roxana's circle. The moment he thought that, he became even more upset because his first thought was that they lost a valuable source of information not that a human being was dead, possibly because of him.
"How do you know?" he asked Hephaistion who was watching him intensely. "Why would anybody bother you with this news in such an inappropriate time?"
"Drypetis told me. She woke up and… went to see to her needs, and one of her service maids told her. She thinks you may be in danger."
"Oh," was all Jared could say. It was not how he planned to start his day. He also didn't expect Hephaistion's wife to know about his existence let alone with whom he chose to spend his nights. "Why I would be in danger and from whom? How did all this even happen?"
"This girl, Phaspalla was her name, you said? She was found dead in one of the courtyards, her throat slit and her body left in the open, for everybody to see. The eunuch who discovered her immediately brought the news to Sisigambis."
"The Queen-Mother? Why?" asked Jared, genially surprised.
Hephaistion only shrug his shoulders and Jared realized that he also found it suspicious or at least odd.
"Yes, the Queen-Mother. I don't know why. Phaspalla wasn't supposed to be a person of any importance. Even more strange, Sisigambis on a spot decided that it's her mistress fault and ordered her death. The young lady was dragged from her bed and thrown from the harem's highest balcony to the stone floor beneath it."
"I don't understand," Jared was shocked.
"I don't either," Hephaistion knitted his brows. "Drypetis thinks that you have to watch your back. I guess she suspects something but hiding it from me. She told me she could inquire further but I forbade her. I don't know if she would listen, though." Hephaistion sighed. "I advise you to be careful and not to go alone anywhere. I will talk to Frada, he has a few people on the inside who still remember and respect his uncle. I am going to talk to Alexander and Thais as well."
"Why?"
"Alexander, so he would abandon his ridiculous idea of finding you a girl from the harem, and Thais so that she can suggest you somebody from her circle."
"Hephaistion," Jared leaned forward and placed his hand on the general's wrist, "I would appreciate if you talk to Alexander, but there is no need to talk to Thais. I don't understand why the matter of finding me a bedmate is so important. You still didn't explain why Drypetis thinks my life can be in danger. After all, Phaspalla's mistress was beating her and all her other servants. Maybe she became jealous that I chose Phaspalla and not her and ordered somebody to kill the poor girl. The eunuchs in the harem know everything, they told Sisigambis, and the Queen mother wanted to set an example, so that other ladies won't behave the same way."
"Stands to reason but I am sure Drypetis would think the same. As I said, it looks like she knows more but doesn't want to elaborate." A somewhat awkward silence fell between the two men. They were looking at each other, studying and trying to penetrate each other thoughts. They knew they were connected, but how? By their beauty, so different and yet so irresistible to others? By their attraction, though of different nature, to Alexander? By something else that they yet have to discover? Or simply by the fact that one happened to play the role of another?
Their glances roamed each other bodies, taking in every detail, admiring it and trying to commit to memory. Jared's hand tightened around Hephaistion wrist, almost breaking the skin with hard nails. General didn't flinch. He extended his own hand and, opening it palm up, placed under actor's chin. He slowly forced Jared's head forward, their lips almost touching. "Don't you dare to die before me," slowly said Hephaistion, concern and threat at the same time in his voice.
Jared recoiled and, breaking the contact, pushed himself backward onto the pillows.
He frowned and then, not saying a word, left the bed, starting to dress up. Hephaistion remained sitting on the bed, watching Jared to put his cloths on.
"I have no intention of letting myself being killed," Jared was the first to break the silence though he was with his back to the general. "And you have no reason to talk about your death either. I promised Alexander to stay here long enough to participate in a couple of his next campaigns, but my visit is not going to extend long enough to witness your funeral. I have a life of my own, you know, and want to go back to my time while I am still young."
"Why don't you turn around and tell this to my face?" quietly asked Hephaistion.
Only because Jared was to a certain degree prepared to hear something of the kind, he managed to suppress the shiver that run through his body. He knew Hephaistion was watching him closely and had no doubt that the general could read his body language. He forced a very believable smile on his face and, taking a few steps aside, elegantly turned around.
Hephaistion suddenly laughed, shaking his head. "You tricky bastard. Didn't you think I would notice you placed yourself against the sun so I wouldn't see your face clearly?"
Jared allowed himself to relax and, laughing in return, went back to where the general was sitting. "I am a tricky bastard? I wonder how many times you played this ruse on other people. But I promise to be careful, though I have no idea why anybody would want to kill me." Jared tried to push away an unhappy thought that Hephaistion might suspect that his end was close and wanted to make sure that at least Jared would be there for Alexander. Was it possible that he didn't believe that their arrival was accidental? As if to confirm his concerns, Hephaistion asked, "So, tell me, why are you really here and why now?"
"It's very simple," Jared practiced this conversation so often. "But didn't Damian already tell you that? I can't believe you didn't ask."
"I asked him, just to sustain the conversation on the first night of your arrival. He was too tired and I let it go. Besides, I think he dislikes me."
"No, no, I think he is simply overwhelmed by the experience."
"You don't?"
"I am too but my situation is different. When we shoot the movie, I had to believe I was Hephaistion, I talked to real Alexander, I fought with him and all other people were indeed those whose names they bore, not the actors. Sure, during our first switch at Siwah, it was quite a shock to deal with real people. I thought it was one of the reasons I was, I don't know how to describe it – afraid, may be, to go back." Jared stopped for some moment and then continued, describing all the events starting from his coming back from Siwah, his feelings, fears and nightmares. He withheld no details from Hephaistion, except for Deirdre's death. It was decided by four of them, Jared, Colin, Oliver and Damian, that they would spare Hephaistion the sad news. So, in this altered line of events, on that fateful night, Colin drove Deirdre safely home and the car accident happened on his way back when he was alone.
Hephaistion listened without interruption. Sometimes he nodded in agreement, sometimes he shook his head in disapproval. In the end he said, "I am glad that you decided to come. But while you know what is going to happen to all of us, you don't know what lays ahead for you and Damian. So, I ask you to be careful."
"I will be, that's for sure," agreed Jared, "our lives are always full of surprises and it is better this way. If I knew that Alexander would saddle me with Bagoas, I probably wouldn't come," the actor tried to joke.
Hephaistion smiled, sparkles of mischief in his eyes. "Oh, don't complain, he is not that bad. He can pamper you whenever you feel like it. Speaking of which, I am hungry, what about you?"
"I am hungry too," said Jared intentionally loud and waited for Bagoas to appear and take his orders. Nothing happened for some time and Jared theatrically knitted his brows. "I expected him to be more efficient," continuing the entertainment, Jared said, over acting his disappointment.
"It would actually help if you switch to Greek," Hephaistion suggested.
"Ooops," Jared giggled, "my bad. Bagoas, darling," actor called the eunuch in the suggested language. Now it was Hephaistion turn to giggle.
Bagoas appeared immediately and bowed to Jared. The actor saw how his body froze when he became aware who the second man in the room was. "Your Highness," Jared realized with surprise that though the bow in Hephaistion's direction was stiffer, it was also lower.
"You want something special?" Jared asked Hephaistion purposely switching back to English to cause Bagoas more discomfort.
Hephaistion shook his head, "Whatever you choose."
"Well, then. Bagoas, surprise me with something I didn't try yet and I hope you know His Highness' taste by now."
The eunuch silently bowed and disappeared behind the curtains. Pretty soon, the food and drinks appeared to satisfy the most demanding of the tastes but neither Jared nor Hephaistion paid any special attention to those who brought it to them.
"Do you hate Bagoas only because of me?" asked Hephaistion.
"What other reason would I have?" responded Jared. "Why were you so lenient with Alexander? You should have insisted…"
"Don't go that road, Jared," Hephaistion shook his head. "I would never degrade myself so low. Besides, regardless of what you think or what others might think, he didn't shared Alexander's bed that often. Only when we quarreled, or when….. well, it doesn't matter now."
"When you were away?"
"Yes, yes," agreed Hephaistion.
"You consented too quickly."
"Because it is the truth.'
"You are lying."
"Hmm, how do you know?"
"I can feel it," Jared insisted.
"Your feeling is wrong."
"It is not." Jared stubbornly pressed his lips. Then sudden idea occurred to him. "In our time Alexander is known for saying that sex and sleep reminded him of his own mortality. Is Alexander …. cold in bed?"
"What an absurd phrase, last time I checked Olympians and sex were almost synonyms. Besides, your logic is lame, if Alexander was cold in bed why would he take another lover?"
"Because it was a Persian tradition. The Great King supposed to take a eunuch to his bed."
"Nonsense. As much as I like you, Jared, I am not going to discuss this issue with you anymore. It's between me and Alexander."
"Fair enough," said Jared, "I didn't mean to snoop. What about Roxana?"
"What about her?"
"Why did he marry her?"
Hephaistion exhaled in frustration. "You don't know? I mean, in future, you don't know?"
"Not for sure. There are several versions. Some said because he sincerely fell in love with her, others because she reminded Alexander of Olympias, others in order to secure the good will of Sogdians and Bactrians, with the sword of her father, of course. Is anything of this true?"
"Not very much."
"So, why? You must know."
"Yeah," said Hephaistion, remembering. Jared waited patiently, sensing that the general was going to tell him.
"Do you know who Aristander is?" asked the Chiliarch at last.
"Alexander's seer?"
"Yes. He predicted some things pretty accurate in the past and Alexander believed him almost blindly."
"You mean the king doesn't believe him anymore?"
"Aristander died in India. Anyway, when I was away in Sogdia with Artabasus, the Seer came to Alexander with unexpected announcement that his latest augural sacrifice foretold that Alexander would only have a son if he marries within a year."
"Are you sure he wasn't bribed by Olympias?"
"I thought about it. But Alexander didn't suspect his mother involvement this time so why should I?" Hephaistion shrugged his shoulders. "Besides, even Olympias knows how Alexander treats challenging deadlines."
"I am not sure I know what you mean," confessed Jared.
"Don't you know the story of Aristander's prediction about the fall of Tyre?"
"No, I don't recall," admitted Jared.
"Well, the siege of Tyre took an awful long time. One day, before the whole assembly of troops, Aristander predicted that the city would be taken that very month. The problem was, that very day was the last day of the month. Alexander, brilliant as always, right away declared the change in calendar, adding two more days to it."
"Wow, that was risky. I mean for Aristander. Did you take Tyre within the next two days?"
"No," Hephaistion smiled, "we took Tyre that very day."
"I am officially impressed!" Jared sincerely exclaimed, "Any other of Aristander's prediction were as impressive?"
"It depends how you interpret them."
"Well, the prediction about Tyre is difficult to interpret any other way."
"Not at all. Alexander's planned to take Tyre that very day. Only few knew about those plans. And those who knew never saw Aristander around to suspect any ploy."
"But you suspect something?"
Hephaistion laughed, "I know something!"
Jared theatrically raised his right brow and said, "When I am back, I am going to check on the matter, to see how much of Aristander's predictions made it to history books."
"Isn't it easier to ask your friend Damian?" Hephaistion inquired innocently and Jared realized that he fell into the trap. He inwardly cursed. Back in their time, they tried to choose between the options of presenting Damian as historian of Alexander's time or as historian of some other period to avoid the situation of Damian not knowing or forgetting some basic facts. In the end they all decided in the favour of Damian being Alexander's historian; after all, the doctor could always give an excuse that the fact well known in the past didn't make it to the future. It seemed to them more logical that the mysterious powers who orchestrated their ordeal wouldn't connect the bracelets with historian of another epoch.
"You are right!' exclaimed Jared, improvising on the spot. "Why I didn't think about it?" he asked as if nothing happened.
"Indeed, why didn't you?" smiled Hephaistion.
"I am probably still too groggy from the last night festivities," continued with his game Jared. "Anyway, back to Aristander's prediction. What did Alexander do?"
"Well, unlike the public prediction that the Seer made about the fall of Tyre, the one about the necessary marriage Aristander gave in private, to Alexander only. He explained it saying that there will be many obstacles and many distractors who would like to prevent this particular marriage. He didn't suggest a suitable bride but Alexander was sure that it must be Stateira, Darius daughter. He decided to send a special convoy to bring Stateira, and yes, Drypetis also, to Maracanda, where he intended to spent the winter, for the wedding to take place in early spring. I was supposed to go back to Babylon with this convoy and Alexander sent me a message that I have to part with Artabasus and come back. At the same time he decided to make Black Cleitos the governor of Bactria and Sogdia."
"An ill-fated decision," interjected Jared.
"Indeed. It didn't go well. The Hipparch was dead before my return to Maracanda. So were Alexander's plans to marry Stateira."
"Why? What's the connection?"
"Alexander's unpredictable attitude towards omens. Sometimes he invents his own to push everybody in the direction he wants, sometimes he completely disregards them when they don't suit his purpose but in some cases he blindly believes in them and simply refuses to see the light. Do you know why Lanike was Alexander's wet nurse?"
"Because she was Black Cleitos' sister?"
"Yes, but why Black Cleitos' sister and not somebody's else?"
"There was a rumour that Cleitos was Philip's lover. Was it true?"
"Yes, but not only that. Philip first met Olympias when he went to the island of Samothrace to take part in the rituals dedicated to the ancient chthonic deities. He came in the company of Black Cleitos. Soon after, a treaty was signed with Molossian king Arimbas, Olympias' uncle and her hand was given in marriage to Philip. Cleitos was sent with special embassy to bring her to Macedon."
"Wasn't Cleitos too young at the time to lead such an embassy?"
"Yes, he was. Actually, he and Olympias were born in the same year. But Cleitos was in high favour and Philip wanted to honour him. Besides, Olympias knew Cleitos from Samothrace and Philip thought it would make her journey easier. Back to our time. When Alexander killed Cleitos he took it as an omen that if I would be sent to Babylon to bring Stateira, in some distant future his son by Stateira will kill me in rage just as he himself killed Cleitos. It didn't help that Alexander and I first met Stateira together, just as Philip and Cleitos met Olympias."
"This is very far fetched."
"I am glad you agree but Alexander was unconvinced. He said he was not going to bring around my death and refused to budge. Nobody knew yet about his plan to send for Stateira so his change of plans didn't cause any turmoil. However, he still believed in prophecy and wanted to marry as soon as possible. Roxana simply was in the right place in the right time."
"Wow," Jared tried to process the information, "nobody would ever think about this explanation. Life is truly stranger than fiction. So, was Alexander angry with Aristander that Roxana didn't bear him any son, yet?"
"The Seer died too early to be accused of anything and there is a plenty of time for Roxana to bear Alexander a son."
Jared lips involuntary twitched when he heard this seemingly innocuous phrase. "Alexander knew his time was short after Hephaistion's death. This is probably why he forced himself to share Roxana's bed after general's death. He knew how little time was left. Only Oliver in his movie choose to make Roxana already visibly pregnant when Hephaistion died. In reality Alexander's son was begot after Hephaistion died because he was born in August. Still strange why Alexander didn't declare his unborn son a successor; if Alexander believed in what Aristander predicted, he should have believed that Roxana would bore him a son."
Hephaistion silently watched Jared. He knew exactly what was going in actor's mind because he knew what was about to happen. If Jared would pay more attention, he would notice the shadow of sadness that suddenly fell on Hephaistion face.
The Chiliarch was the first to snap out of it. "Anyway, now Alexander has three wives, I am sure at least one of them bears him a son."
"What about Heracles, the son of Barsine?" suddenly remembered Jared.
"You are right, the son of Barsine. That's for sure. However, whether he is Alexander's son or not, nobody knows. Alexander never felt like recognizing him as his son."
"What about Queen Stateira, the wife of Darius? It is said that she died in childbirth, but the child couldn't have been Darius', too late. Was it Alexander's?"
"No," firmly responded Hephaistion.
"Do you know whose?"
"It doesn't matter now. But it wasn't mine, if it's what you are thinking."
"You are right, I thought about it for a moment," acknowledged Jared, "but it was a very brief moment. Can you tell me what happened to Ochus, Darius' son?"
"He died."
"I know that! Why are you stonewalling me?"
"What's stonewalling?"
"Don't play games with me, Hephaistion. I have no problems with Greek, you shouldn't have with English either."
Hephaistion was about to say something when, after a short knock on the door, one of Alexander's pages entered. "The king wishes to speak with you right away," he informed the general.
Hephaistion nodded and stood up. "Don't worry, Laertes, we'll talk another time. Remember what I told you and please be careful."
o o o O o o o
Stateira gasped feeling her body melt in pleasure. Her fingers writhed in paroxysm of desire ripping the sheets under her. She helplessly moaned arching her back when the hot tongue expertly licked her lips, sometimes touching the clitoris, sometimes darting inside her.
"This is so much better then the night with Alexander," feverishly thought the queen succumbing to the caresses and kisses of the other woman.