Nikias flexed his shoulders as he arrived back to the barracks after spending most of the morning at the gymnasium. His body was tired, first from the wrestling and then from a foolhardy foot race with Alexander and two others, where he had only learned how to smile in defeat, telling himself a prince ought to run the fastest. Anyway, Alexander had needed cheering up as it had been eight days since Hephaistion left for Athens and four days since Thettalus was brought back to Pella in chains. Nikias had heard about Alexander's humiliation before the court, today he was not himself but Nikias judged that Thettalus was the least of his concerns.
After cleaning himself of sweat at the baths he made his excuses and left, he had the afternoon free before guard duty that night and thought that he might sleep but the sun was shining and he was loathe to shut himself away in a darkened room.
He fetched a cup of wine from his room, welcoming the taste in his dry mouth. Lifting up a wooden stool he moved it to the edge of the barracks building, where the tiled porch gave some shade. He put the stool down and sat on it, resting his back and head against the wall, savouring the wine and watching people come and go.
His attention was drawn to a young boy, perhaps just fourteen years of age, who had stopped one of the servants to talk to them. He guessed the boy intended to enlist, many boys arrived to do just that, often second sons, or third sons.
Nikias took another sip of wine wondering why the servant would not just direct him where to go, who to speak to. Whatever the conversation the servant shook his head and moved away from the boy.
Two riders came by, arguing about a bet, their horses were sweating from the heat, heading back to the stables without guidance. A shout went up from the kitchens and a dog ran out with some meat in its mouth, ducking out of sight as one of the cooks appeared, the man looked around before giving up the idea of retrieving what was lost.
Closing his eyes, Nikias thought he ought to just finish his wine and rest. His duty would not last the entire night but he was tired now.
"Excuse me."
Nikias opened his eyes to see the boy standing before him. "Are you here to enlist?" he asked.
The boy shook his head. "I thought I had an easy task but I have been here since early morning and it is more difficult than I thought."
Sighing, Nikias squinted to look more closely at the boy, who had tousled brown hair, brown eyes, a freckled face and the gangly look of a boy still needing to mature. His clothes were not those of a wealthy man's son and he held a blanket and canvas bag with a few possessions in it. He would make a fine soldier, in time but the boy spoke in riddles which would annoy him at the best of times. "What task is this?"
The boy opened his hand and revealed a simple wooden pendant. "I found a man, wearing this...naked except for it, my father thinks he was a soldier...is a soldier, he said perhaps the cavalry." Nikias put down his cup of wine and struggled to his feet, reaching out and lifting up the pendant by it's leather thong. He had seen another like it, just like it, but worn by Alexander. "What does this man look like?"
"Long dark hair, blue eyes...he has blue eyes."
The boy hurried to follow as Nikias strode out of the barracks, studying the pendant. "Where did you find the man? How come you have this?"
"I found him on the beach...I go each morning to see what the tide has brought in. Do you know the man? He was on the beach but he had fallen from the cliff...father thinks that he will die, he sent me here in case he had family."
Coming to a halt Nikias turned to the boy. "From a cliff?" he asked. "How badly injured?"
The boy blustered. "Badly, Sire, his left shoulder was broken, my father's friend set it, we think he was a soldier too..."
Nikias strode out again the boy running to follow.
"He was cut and bruised...there had been a storm and it had rained during the night, so he was cold, he caught a fever and we think that he might die. Where are we going?"
Arriving at the gymnasium Nikias looked for Alexander but he had gone. He called to Epaphras and Sostrate who were just leaving the baths, holding out the pendant and quickly telling them what the boy had said.
Sostrate took the pendant, turning it in his hand, acknowledging that it looked familiar but it could have been worn by anyone as there was no value in it.
"Where did you find him? Where do you come from," Epaphras asked.
"Just a short distance from the port of Thermia," the boy replied, following the others as they ran through the city streets now. "Who is he? Who have we found?" he demanded as they went up steps towards the palace.
"Where is Alexander? Have you seen him?" Nikias asked the guard.
"He went towards his rooms," came the reply.
The boy hesitated, unsure about entering so grand a place, but his rough chiton was grabbed hold of and he was pulled in to it, stumbling over himself as he took in the grandeur of it, the paintings on the wall, the marble flooring, the mosaics.
Through a maze of hallways they went only to find the rooms empty, the guard there saying that Alexander had not been that way.
Nikias hesitated, looking down at the pendant in his hand as if it could provide the answer.
"Should we try the king?" Sostrate asked.
"He could be as hard to locate in this place," Nikias replied.
Epaphras sighed. "Where else would he go? And who would want to tell him that Hephaistion might be dead? He fell from a cliff, Nikias, he..."
Just then footsteps were heard and Alexander appeared, looking surprised to see them, but he smiled in greeting as he approached them.
Nikias swallowed hard, he did not want to be the bearer of bad news and yet, because he held the pendant he felt that he should be the one to say something.
"Tell him, Nikias," Sostrate said, nudging him.
"Tell me what?" asked Alexander, laughing at the three of them, then turning to look upon the boy with curiosity.
Nikias placed the pendant in Alexander's hand. "We don't know if he is dead," he said, glancing at Alexander's chest to see a matching pendant sitting there, "this boy says that Hephaistion had fallen from a cliff...but he survived."
"He had a fever when I left...three days ago," the boy cut in, "father feared that he would die and sent me to find his family".
Alexander looked at the pendant in his hand, he seemed bewildered by the news. "How badly hurt is he?" he asked, his voice breaking with emotion.
Everyone looked to the boy to provide the answer.
The boy gave a low bow, as if suddenly realising who he was talking to and remembering his manners. He swallowed hard before he spoke, almost in a whisper, "I do not think he will survive, not by how sick he was when I left.".
OOXXOO
Alexander closed his fingers tightly around the pendant and turned. He strode back towards his father's rooms, where he had just been, hearing the others follow but not caring if they did or not.
Antipater was talking with his father but Alexander broke the conversation by placing the pendant down before his father and relating the story, all that he knew, angry at first but when he saw the affect of the news he softened, knowing he would be allowed to go, to be with Hephaistion, if he were still alive.
"What of his wife?" Philip asked, turning to the boy.
Alexander noticed the boy step back as his father's one-eyed gaze focussed on him, as if the cyclops had come to life. Giving the boy his due he managed to answer saying no-one else had been found.
"I'm going to him," Alexander said.
"Then take my surgeon," replied Philip, turning away to order a servant to run to fetch the man, to tell him to be ready at the stables right away. He sighed and looked back towards his son. "Get going, Alexander. Get to him as soon as you can, I will follow on with supplies that you might need."
Alexander embraced his father then turned to the boy. "What is your name?" he asked.
"Aeschylus," came the reply.
"Can you ride? I shall be travelling at speed."
Shaking his head Aeschylus said he could not go with them, that his family only had a horse to pull the cart, anything faster and he would fall. So Alexander asked directions to where he could find the house and as soon as he was satisfied that he could find it he headed from the room.
Only stopping to collect his sword and a chlamys, ordering a servant to put some things together for him and telling Nikias, Epaphras and Sostrate they would be riding with him, he made his way to the stables. His father's surgeon, also called Philip, had just got to the stables, holding a bag with what he might need, he took his horse from the groom and leapt up on to its back, giving an encouraging smile and Alexander knew he could keep up the pace as he had been on several campaigns and could ride well.
As soon as they were out of the city walls Alexander pushed Bucephalus to a gallop, not caring if the others could keep up or not, all he could think of was getting to Hephaistion, he prayed to the gods that he would not be too late. He wished that Bucephalus had the wings of Pegasus at that moment, to hurry him to Hephaistion's side.
Stopping only for the time needed to let the horses rest, they made good time and arrived at the coast by early evening, a journey which would have taken two days with a horse and cart had taken half a day at the gallop.
Following the directions given, Alexander headed along the road, down a hill, looking for the place described, a potter's house, close to the beach. It came in to view sooner than he expected and Alexander only gave a moment to check the others were with him before he galloped forward.
A large man stepped up, as Alexander approached, with the stance of a soldier expecting trouble, an older man came out of the small, ramshackle house and hurried over asking if he had come from Pella, if Aesychlus had sent them, he nodded to the others, looked to the surgeon and then back to Alexander.
The man studied him for a moment. "Are you the King's son? He has talked of the palace and Alexander but I thought the fever still remained. When I told him my son had gone to Pella he was fretful that he wouldn't find you."
Alexander dismounted and the larger man came forward causing Alexander's companions to put their hands to their swords.
"It's alright, Meno," the older man said, "they are friends of Icarus". The man smiled. "It's what we called him, Meno will get confused if we change it now. He led the way back to the house. "He had a fever but that has broken, though he is weak, he has slept a lot but over the last couple of days he has been awake more often and talked a little, he's awake now I should think, he just had a little broth."
Alexander took a deep breath, relief flooding over him as he looked to the surgeon and smiled. Hephaistion still lived. He followed the man in to the house, which, having only one window was gloomy inside, Alexander had to wait while his eyes adjusted from the brightness of the light outside to the darkness of the interior. Nikias, Sostrate and Epaphras stepped in behind him, also eager to see Hephaistion but they held back by the broken door, letting the surgeon through and watching as Alexander went to Hephaistion.
In the far corner of the room, lying upon an old straw-filled mattress, covered by a worn blanket, was Hephaistion. Alexander knelt by his right side, aware that his father's surgeon followed and knelt the other side.
"We feared he would die," the potter whispered, bending over and studying his patient, "we still fear it."
Hephaistion looked on Alexander as if he were a dream, a shade appearing from the darkness. "Alexander," he murmured, smiling to see him, he raised his right hand and clutched at Alexander's chiton as if the very act could pull him back from death, as if he would never let go.
"Oh, Hephaistion," Alexander breathed looking at the wounds not hidden by bandages or the thin blanket, the marks upon his love's face, the left arm strapped to his side, the bruising and cuts on his arms.
"I thought it best that I should die and not be a burden," Hephaistion said, softly, "but now that you are here..."
Philip pulled at the bandages holding the broken shoulder in place, moving Hephaistion a little to inspect the workmanship of the repair. "Who bound his arm?" he asked.
"Meno. Meno knew what to do, don't ask me how."
The surgeon nodded. "Good work," he commented.
"I got here as quickly as I could, the moment that I heard," Alexander assured Hephaistion. "Now I am here you must get well."
Hephaistion's attention seemed to wander, he did not reply but moved his head a little so he could look upon the surgeon.
Alexander gently placed his right hand along the side of Hephaistion's face, to gain his attention once more. "Where is Pelagia?" he asked. "Is she in any danger? Did she suffer the same fate?"
Hephaistion was slow to answer, distracted once more, almost in a dream, then he focussed again. "There was no baby, " he said, and a tear rolled gently down his cheek.
"Where is she, Hephaistion? Where is Pelagia?" Alexander said. He turned to Nikias. "Find a lamp and light it, it's so dark in here." Then he turned back to look upon Hephaistion.
"I never meant to hurt you," Hephaistion assured him. He gasped, then tried to move himself a little, both the surgeon and Alexander helped him till he signalled he was comfortable. He tightened his grip on Alexander's chiton, not having let it go. "Pelagia is in Rhodes...with her lover, Phokas...the servant."
Nikias stepped forward with a lighted lamp which banished the gloom, he smiled at Hephaistion as he placed it on a wooden stool and then stepped back.
"Nikias," Hephaistion said, then looked towards the lamp. "There was no baby. She planned it all, told her mother she was with child, who told her father, who demanded that she marry, she needed to stay in Macedon to get free of her family."
"And I had made it an easy choice for my father and I rejected you, thinking you were happy," Alexander said, placing his hand over Hephaistion's.
"She loved Phokas. With her family gone she could tell the lie again and say she wanted to go to Athens when Rhodes was always in her mind. Phokas hired two men, to help him to kill me. Nobody would know of my death, so soon, they could take what money I had."
"Don't tire him, Alexander. Enough now, Hephaistion," the surgeon soothed.
"When I sleep...sometimes I am not sure if I will wake again," Hephaistion said, "I want the story told." He closed his eyes, gathering his thoughts, then looked on Alexander. "Aspasia said Pelagia was ill, I went to her, thinking something was wrong, she said it was the baby and held her hand to her side. Concerned for her I did not notice anything, then I was hit, stunned, my legs went from under me and I was held. They stripped me, taking everything of value, then dragged me to the cliff edge, I tried to fight but was held too tightly."
Alexander looked down, seeing the bruises still there where the assassins had held him. He realised he should take the surgeon's advice and let Hephaistion rest but he wanted to know it all.
"Pelagia told me everything," Hephaistion continued, "Phokas was by her side, laughing, embracing her. They were going to Rhodes as man and wife. It was Pelagia who gave the order and I felt the ground disappear and I thought that I was dead."
"Like an execution," the potter said. "We wondered what had happened, I sent my son to look at the cliff top but there was no sign of anything."
Alexander wanted to go and find the woman who had to tried to kill the one person who meant the world to him, to drag her back to the same cliff and have her suffer the same fate. He had not known, perhaps if he had stayed a part of Hephaistion's life he would have seen something, perhaps they might have gone to Athens together, he could have saved him any pain. "I won't leave you, Hephaistion," Alexander vowed, "nobody will part us. Sleep safely now, I will be by your side."
"I want to look on you," Hephaistion smiled, though his eyes half-closed with fatigue. "I never meant to hurt you...but the fates have been unkind." Unable to keep his eyes open any longer he drifted in to a peaceful sleep. His fingers lost their grip on Alexander's chiton but Alexander took his hand, lifted it up and held it tightly.
