Day twenty five: Kingdom and Conquests.
Alexander and Hephaestion were 25 years old and they had been bonded for the last five years. They had had serious problems and they were about to break up their bows but they had luckily solved their problems. It had taken more than a year until Hephaestion could see that his mate had been saying the truth about his wish to be together; the blonde prince had not taken any lover and his full attention was only focused on his partner; a true feat for someone as passionate and tactile as he was.
Hephaestion's heart softened a little bit with every single action that Alexander did because they had always the same goal, getting the brunette's trust back and making him fall in love with him again. A year later, they had finally become stronger and risen as only one mind, body and soul.
They grew not only as a bonded and faithful couple but also as soldiers. Alexander went on adding extraordinary and innovative ideas that made of him an excellent tactician while his partner continued adding successful diplomatic missions due to his gentle manners, quick mind and fair treatment.
In spite of being one of the most powerful forces, Macedon had not been able to subdue Persia under its control and that was driving king Philip crazy. Due to that, he had decided to take a few days off in order to visit his daughter. Queen Olympias had agreed to go with him as she was planning to stay with her daughter for the rest of Cleopatra's pregnancy. The young queen had asked for his parents' visit as she was unable to leave her bed rest in order to avoid a very possible miscarriage.
The Macedonian king and queen started their journey without any problem; they had reached an agreement between them and Olympias had promised to support him in spite of his strange ideas and conviction. The royal couple was getting old and Olympias had realized that her selfish attitude had kept her apart from her own children while Philip had enjoyed the frequent visits of both of their children.
The caravan was making a good time through the woods and, if things remained like that, they would arrive in the appointed time.
Suddenly, a soft and nearly imperceptible sound of an arrow alerted one of the guards but it was too late to raise the alarm. Many men attacked the caravan, slaughtering the guards first. The attackers were rebels from conquered lands that had sworn to take revenge on the Macedonian king. Five of the men were clearly the leaders and the ones that took the control of the last part of the assault. Without mercy, they passed the royal couple through their swords while giving the loudest shouts of victory ever heard in that part of the woods.
It was bloodshed and even though they knew it would bring consequences, those five men enjoyed every single minute of their victory. They were very thorough in the search of survivors to avoid someone from spreading the news before they had reached their safe hidden place. They found no survivors and feeling powerful and invincible, they left the corpses there to rotten or be eaten by the animals.
Young queen Cleopatra was very anxious, her parents should have arrived in the early morning but there was no news of the caravan. Her husband, who was also worried due to the importance of his parents-in-law, sent a search party when midday arrived and there was still no word of them.
Seven hours later, half of the search party returned to the small palace bringing very bad news; the rest of the party had stayed at the place, looking after the corpses and preparing them for their move.
Cleopatra's husband went back himself with the scouts and brought the corpses back, giving them the full respect they deserved.
As soon as he arrived back the second time, he gently woke up his pregnant wife, who had fallen asleep with the help of a sedative concoction, and told her the bad news, hugging her tight while she cried bitter tears of pain and despair. When she could calm down a bit, the king sent a messenger to Macedon, he needed to alert Alexander about what had happened.
A day later, Alexander and Hephaestion were ridding towards the palace in Epirus and as soon as they arrived and talked to king Alexander and the search party, they started to think what they would do. They had to think quickly but carefully because if the kingdom enemies found out about the royal couple's assassination, they could revolt and think about liberating from the Macedonian tight control.
Hephaestion, who could be a bit quieter, in spite of mourning his king and queen, came up with an idea; Alexander had to take control of the kingdom immediately; he was Philip's chosen heir and he had in his power a letter that ratified that decision. None would doubt that decision and Alexander was well known, not only in Macedon but also in the nearby lands and conquered cities.
Alexander took the bodies back to Macedon and made the royal architects build the biggest pyre they had ever built until that moment. When everything was ready, they celebrated the funeral rites for ten long days, giving the people, the opportunity to mourn their king and queen and to pay their respect to the new king.
With sadness in his heart, Alexander buried his parents and at 26 he became king of Macedon. His first action as king was to look for the assassins and even though he knew it would be quite difficult, he decided that he would spend the rest of his life, if it were necessary, until he caught them and punished them.
In the meantime, Hephaestion had started to look for any sign that could indicate a prospective revolt; he discovered none and he breathed more calmly; he already knew that Alexander was respected by his own people and he had also been quite logical whenever he had had the opportunity to deal with the defeated.
The search for the killers had been quite thorough, the king's men had combed the area near the attack to get some clues and even extended to the surroundings lands; unfortunately, it had not brought the desired results. However, help suddenly came from the less expected side.
Theron, Hephaestion's former suitor, had been travelling along the eastern lands, as it was common for him when he heard something that surprised him.
The young merchant had stopped at an inn to let his horses rest and he also wanted to rest on a comfortable bed instead of on the hard makeshift bed he had in his cart.
He had entered the common room to ask for some wine and a light dinner when a group of five rude men were speaking loudly about their latest work and their definitive success. Theron heard Olympias and Philip's names and his blood turned cold. He started to listen to them with more attention and he could catch some words about how the one eyed old king had tried to fight them all so they could not reach his wife. Two men gloated over the fact that they had disfigured the former beautiful woman while the other three gutted the old king in front of her eyes. Theron had to mask his disgust at what he was hearing, luckily he had been able to understand every single word of the foreign language the men were speaking and he decided to put into practice his limited drawing skills, sketching roughly the faces of the murderers as well as their names and some other characteristics.
He asked the owner of the inn if he had a fast and responsible messenger and a young boy was sent his way. He gave him a letter that included the sketches as much info as he had been able to catch from the assassins' conversation. Macedon's capital city was at one-day travel but he paid some extra coins to arrive there earlier.
The messenger arrived in the early afternoon after ridding at a fast gallop for nearly fifteen hours. He was immediately led to the palace where he waited for the king to come and see him. Alexander was working in his chamber, trying to think new ways of catching those men, when his guards announced him the arrival of the messenger with important news.
As soon as the new king read the letter, he thanked the messenger and sent him to the kitchen to have a well-deserved meal and some rest. He turned round and running towards Hephaestion's desk, he showed him the letter and asked him to prepare his best men because they would go in search of the assassins immediately.
Alexander went back to the kitchen and asked the messenger to go back with instructions for Theron; he added that one of his own bodyguards would go with him to protect not only him but also the merchant. The small party left the palace three hours later, they had prepared themselves for any inconvenient that they could have thought and they rode quickly to gain some of the lost time.
Luckily, for the king and his men, the five assassins were still at the inn because they were waiting for further instructions from their chief and because the generous and rich merchant had been inviting them with lots of good unwatered wine and the best meat they had been able to eat in a long time.
Some of the king men entered the place and, assessing the situation, decided to wait until the day meal was over; there were many people having their lunch and they did not want to hurt any innocent. The inn was nearly empty so the five men decided to go and sleep their drunkenness but Theron offered to go and bring a jar of a new wine he had been reserving for them. As soon as the merchant was safe on the other side of the door, the king's men entered the palace. The still inebriated men did not know what hit them; in their poor state, they were no rivals to the angry companions and their king and they were caught while they were finishing their meal and still gloating over their kill.
Alexander, who had always been controlled when dealing with war prisoners, showed no mercy to them; he killed them with his own sword and they were also beheaded.
He was going to teach the world a lesson with that action; the rest of the peoples would learn that no one messed with the young Macedonian king and went unpunished.
Theron did not participate directly in the fight but he joined the men when it was over. Alexander thanked him profusely and, even though he still felt a bit uncomfortable in his presence, he asked Theron to go back to Macedon with them.
The king and his men returned to the palace with their trophies, five heads that would be left on pikes at the palace gates to be seen and be eaten by the animals.
With the punishment to his parents' assassins, Alexander could have his closure and Hephaestion provided him with the so needed calmness and love that only a faithful and caring partner could give.
Due to Hephaestion's anticipated damage control, none of the conquered cities had dared to fight back or rebel. Hephaestion thanked Theron for his help and he realized that the merchant was a true friend; a man who had been important to him and he kept good memories of their short time together.
Theron and Hephaestion were speaking under Alexander's hawk eyes; he knew that Hephaestion was his but Theron had been the only one to be successful in luring his brunette away from him.
Quick footsteps were heard and a young woman with red hair entered the Throne room and hugged the king tightly. Hephaestion's cerulean eyes became two narrow slits at that vision but he suddenly realized who that woman was; it was Megara, their old friend, who had not been able to be for the royal couple's funeral as she had been travelling far away.
When Hephaestion turned round to go on speaking with Theron, he realized that his former suitor was no longer paying him attention and that he was out of words. The young merchant was looking at Megara as if she were the most enticing vision he had ever seen. Meanwhile, Megara felt someone looking at her and she supposed it was the king's partner. She ended the hug and turned round but instead of finding blue eyes, she found herself looking at a stranger with lovely green eyes and a very handsome face.
Hephaestion looked at this king and mate and smiled; it seemed as if their best friends had found their soul mates.
Theron and Megara walked towards each other, attracted to one another, as a pair of magnets, and finally met half way and it was as if the world had stopped spinning in its axis. They looked at each other for a long time before they introduced themselves. The king and his mate approached them and they could easily see the beginning of a beautiful relationship between them. Megara, the always-combative red-haired woman, had found her match in the ever-quiet merchant but both of them were equally eager for fun and adventures.
A week had gone by and, after spending those days among friends, Megara left with Theron who was heading towards Egypt to buy some cotton, gold and lapis lazuli. The new couple left their Macedonian friends with the promise of a future visit.
The assassins had been dealt with, the kingdom was still strong and in one piece so Alexander asked Hephaestion for his opinion on a very important topic. When the brunette told him that he would follow him up to the end of the world and beyond; feeling stronger, Alexander decided to call his companions for a meeting to discuss the future plans.
Alexander told them about his expansionist ideas, not only by conquering new lands but also by spreading their culture. He had always dreamed about having an empire but he also knew that ruling a big territory would also imply neglect other things; he was ready to expand but only in a control way. He knew that Hephaestion, his ever present voice of reason would tell him when enough was truly enough.
Just like that, Alexander started to expand their "frog's pond" as Aristotle had called Greece once, and conquered the East, always remembering that it had been the Greek dream to conquer those exotic lands, but he never forgot another warning from their master when he had warned him that the East had the ability to devour men and their dreams.
Having those ideas always in mind, the Macedonian army started his journey towards the East, conquering the Persian Empire after some spectacular battles. Alexander imposed his own war tactics and the army was unbeatable. When the Persian king fell to his knees, Alexander felt the ruler of the world but he wisely decided to stay in Babylon and consolidate his position.
At 27, Alexander was, without any doubt, the ruler of the known world; his army had conquered the eastern peoples and settled down along the empire; cities were founded and the Macedonian culture spread along the whole territory but Alexander had encouraged to adopt the different peoples' knowledge without forgetting their own roots.
Hephaestion, as usual, showed his efficiency and easily brought, under Alexander's command all the conquered territories, sorting problems of coexistence, choosing among the locals, their rulers who were truly devoted to king Alexander.
In the opening of the harvest festival, Hephaestion was declared Philoalexandros and the tiny bundle that had been born 27 years ago had finally reached the bright future his mother had predicted at his birth.