by H A CULLEY
As most threw down their arms and surrendered, a few tried to escape back towards Thebes. However, Hephaestion’s cavalry were alert for this and rode them down. Not one man escaped.
‘It looks as if it’s safe to go and join in the victory celebrations, my love.’
Ondrej had scuttled down the hillside to get a better view, leaving the other two on their own. Theon put his arm around Enyo’s waist and she had cuddled into his side.
‘If we must,’ she sighed. ‘I’m very comfortable sitting here like this with you.’
‘You might be, but my arse has gone numb sitting on this rock.’
‘We might have another reason to celebrate,’ she whispered as she blew in his ear.
‘Eh? What? Oh! I thought that you were putting on weight around your waist. Do you mean…?’
‘Yes, after all your humping and groaning every night I think that at long last you’re about to become a father.’
‘I don’t groan!’
They kissed long and passionately before getting up and walking down into the hollow behind their position where they had left their horses, calling Ondrej to follow. For once Theon was all solicitation and went to help his wife mount. Instead of thanking him, she clipped him around the head.
‘I’m pregnant, not a cripple,’ she scolded.
He grinned.
‘What?’
‘Now you’re going to have to return to Pella and take it easy. You can’t ride and risk losing the baby. You’re going to hate the next few months.’
She smiled back at him.
‘Perhaps. However, now I feel that I’m ready for motherhood.’ She snorted. ‘I must be getting old!’
‘You are. We all are. Seriously though, is it time we settled down?’
‘Well, we can’t go on leading a life of adventure, I suppose; not once we have a child to think about. It’s early days though. Don’t say anything; we’ll wait until Thebes has surrendered then we’ll travel back to Pella together. We’ll need to discuss the future, but there’s time for all that after this campaign.’
-X-
Except there wasn’t. Inevitably one Theban had managed to escape from Hephaestion’s cavalry and had fled up the same goat track that Enyo, Ondrej and Theon were descending. The hoplite had thrown away his spear, shield and helmet but he still had his sword strapped to his side. The two lovers were so wrapped up in the prospect of parenthood that they committed the cardinal sin of not paying attention to their surroundings.
The Theban saw a child followed by a man and a woman and made the natural mistake of thinking that Theon posed the greater threat. The prospect of stealing a horse to escape on was too great and, instead of hiding until they had passed, he climbed up onto a rock and leaped onto Theon, knocking him out of the saddle. He landed on top of the Thracian and had raised his sword to kill him when Enyo’s arrow tore into his back, piercing his linothrax and exploding his heart.
She threw herself off her horse and rushed to Theon’s side, but there was nothing she could do. He had broken his neck when he hit the ground. She was beside herself with rage that Theon should be taken from her in the moment of their greatest joy. She picked up the Theban’s sword and hacked at his body in a frenzy of hate. Not only did she emasculate him but she hacked off his arms and legs so that he would be a useless cripple in Hades. Finally, her fury spent, she sat down, clasping Ondrej to her breast, and wept. The boy was shattered by Theon’s death as well. A lot had happened in his young life and then, just when he was beginning to settle down, his world was torn apart again. Enyo and he comforted each other as best they could and it was like this that Iphitos, accompanied by the Keltoi boy, Weylin, eventually found the two of them just as it was getting dark.
-X-
Georgios was given leave to take the listless Enyo back to Pella. Theon was buried with the rest of the Macedonian dead in a mass grave; the Theban corpses were left to feed the carrion birds and the scavenging animals. Meanwhile Alexander pressed on into Boeotia heading for Thebes as fast as he could go. Iphitos was left with the baggage train and the artillery to follow on as best he could. Theon’s death had left him feeling hollow inside. The more he got to know him, the more he had liked the Thracian. He had watched him grow into a man and he was delighted when he had wed his adopted daughter. He had been an invaluable spy too.
He sighed. Although he was only thirty five, he was beginning to feel more like an old man. Then he looked at Parmenion, who was in his mid-sixties, and upbraided himself for being pathetic. The truth was that Theon’s death had brought home to him how much he missed Chloe and his family. He had been lucky so far but had too many narrow scrapes with death. He decided then that he would ask Alexander if he could stay in Macedon when he left to invade Persia. Kleandros and Lysis were perfectly capable of commanding the engineers and the artillery and someone else could be the spymaster for a change.
He wasn’t quite sure what to do about Ondrej. The boy had withdrawn into a shell since the death of Theon and the departure of Enyo. He had hoped that she might have wanted to take the boy back to Pella with her, but she told him tearfully that he was too much of a reminder of those last days with Theon. He therefore asked Philomedes if he could use the boy as a scout, something that Ondrej had shown an aptitude for. The young man liked the boy and readily agreed. It was unusual, if not exceptional, for a young boy to serve with an operational unit but the men of the Pathfinders readily adopted Ondrej and a sort of mascot and made sure that no-one mistreated the boy. Gradually he settled down to his new life, sleeping in Philomedes tent with Myrto, and riding alone ahead of the Pathfinders to spy out the land.
By the time that Iphitos reached Thebes he found out that Alexander had failed to take it by surprise after all. He had run into a Theban patrol when he was a day’s march away and they had fled back to the city to raise the alarm. However, with their field army destroyed, there less than ten thousand remaining to defend the city, and quite a few of them were ephebes and old men.
The king’s army had positioned itself south of the city, between Thebes and Attica from where any Athenian relief force would come. Iphitos wondered if this was wise; if the Athenians did come he would be trapped between the relief army and the city. However, when he reported in to Parmenion, he explained to him that that this was exactly what Alexander was tempting the Athenians to do.
‘We estimate that the Athenians can only field an army of fifteen thousand without mobilising throughout Attica, which would take weeks, if not longer. By then Thebes will have fallen. However, if they attack with what they have, we can defeat them easily. Now, get your lithoboloi set up to attack both the south and the east gates.’
Iphitos left him to do as he was bid and two hours later the bombardment started. Both gates were made from massive timbers but, unless the Thebans had walled up the gateways behind the gates, they should be destroyed in a few days at most. On the third day the Electra Gate to the south of the city was all but demolished and the east gates had been badly damaged.
‘It must be obvious to the Thebans that it won’t be long before their defences are breached so I‘m going to give them one last chance to surrender.’
Alexander looked around the rapt faces of his commanders. They were squeezed into the central part of the king’s tent, though that was something of a misnomer for the large structure made of woven goat hair supported on a wooden frame. It consisted of the central area where he held audiences and meetings, a sleeping chamber with his portable bed, desk and chests of clothes and other possessions, a section for his scribes and the officials who ran the kingdom, and tiny chamber where Hector and the king’s skeuphorus slept. Everyone else who worked in the tent slept in several other tents scattered around the main tent. The perimeter of the whole area was guarded by the King’s Companions with one tetrachium on duty at a time.
‘Parmenion, you can carry my message to them. Tell them that they have a simple choice: either they surrender unconditionally
to me and render up hostages for their future good behaviour or I will sack their city and raise it to the ground.’
Even his commanders were astounded by his announcement and there was a collective gasp. Philip had destroyed other cities but, apart from Olynthus, they were all minor ones. Thebes was one of the leading cities in Greece, alongside Athens and Corinth, and its annihilation would horrify the whole of Greece.
Later on Hector entered the king’s bedroom to tell him that Parmenion and Iphitos had asked to see him and he found Alexander lying with his head in Hephaestion’s lap. His friend was stroking the king’s hair, evidently trying to calm him. Thebes had rejected his offer of clemency and responded by adding that, not only would their city declare its independence from Macedonian rule, but they would encourage the rest of Greece to do the same.
Hector was used to seeing the two men being intimate with each other but he had come to the conclusion that, even if their relationship had been sexual when they were ephebes, that was no longer the case. They might well be in love with each other but he was convinced from observing them at close quarters that their affection was of the type of which Aristotle would thoroughly approve.
‘Hrmm.’ He coughed politely. ‘Basileus, my father and the Taxiarch Iphitos are outside asking to see you privately.’
‘Ask them if they have come to plead for mercy for Thebes. If they have, tell them to go away before I lose my patience with them and do something they’ll regret.’
‘Yes, basileus, of course.’
The youth stood hesitantly for a moment and then turned and entered the outer chamber.
‘It’s no good father, he said not to try his patience further.’
If Alexander heard the slightly more diplomatic phraseology through the thin partition of woven goat hair he didn’t say anything. Parmenion and Iphitos looked at each other, shrugged and left.
That night the Thebans made a sally out of the intact west gate and attacked the Macedonian encampment. It was totally unexpected and the sentries weren’t nearly as alert as they should have been.
Iphitos was visiting the lithoboloi crews sited near the Electra Gates at the time. He had sat down around the camp fire to share a meal with two of the crews when the gates opened and a long line of men, many holding torches to light their way, issued forth. Thankfully Philomedes had accompanied him with a tetrachium of his men. Ondrej had tagged along too. Apart from the crews themselves, there was a tagma of light spearmen and a locus of archers; this made a total of just under a thousand men to defend the artillery from the three thousand Thebans who were intent on their destruction.
‘Peltasts fire at will at the men with torches, the rest of you form up in four lines on me,’ Iphitos yelled as soon as he realised what was happening.
He only had his sword and dagger with him but he was wearing a linothrax and helmet. Someone thrust an eight foot long spear into his hand and one of the small round shields carried by the light infantry. He took his position in the front rank alongside Philomedes and grimly waited for the Thebans to reach them.
-X-
When Enyo arrived in Pella with Georgios they made their way to Iphitos’ house, but Chloe wasn’t there.
‘The mistress has taken the children to see Lady Kharis,’ they were told when they arrived.
They bathed and put on clean clothes but, as Chloe still hadn’t returned, they went up the street to Parmenion’s house. The gatekeeper who admitted them greeted them suitably enough but his demeanour was downcast. At first Georgios thought that he was being shifty but Enyo immediately picked up on the fact that something was wrong. When they entered the central courtyard Skylar and Frona ran to them.
‘Lady Kharis is very sick,’ Iphitos’ son told them. ‘We mustn’t make a noise.’
‘It’s very boring,’ three year old Frona added.
Georgios and Enyo didn’t have a great deal of contact with their siblings but Chloe’s natural born children worshipped their adopted brothers and sister and now clung to them. A short while later, after Enyo and Georgios had managed to detach the two youngsters and were talking to them quietly, Chloe appeared and greeted them, looking puzzled.
‘I fear that Kharis is fading fast. If only Parmenion had been with you. What are you doing back here anyway, if the army isn’t with you?’
Enyo burst into tears and her brother put his arm around her shoulders and pulled the sobbing woman to him.
‘Enyo is pregnant so I’ve brought her back to Pella to rest until after the baby is born,’ he explained.
‘That’s wonderful news! But why isn’t Theon with …’ Her voice trailed away, seeing the pitiful look on Enyo’s face. ‘Oh no. I’m so sorry. How did it happen?’
After Georgios had explained, he took Enyo home and she collapsed into her bed. He stayed with her until Chloe eventually returned.
‘She’s gone,’ she told him sadly. ‘As Parmenion and all four of her children are too far away, I’ve said that I will arrange the funeral. Will you help me?’
‘Of course. I must report to Antipater in the palace first thing tomorrow, but I’ll ask to be excused until after the funeral. I’ll be heading back to re-join the army after that in any case.’
She looked at him sharply.
‘You don’t like Antipater, do you?’
‘I don’t trust him, to be frank, but it’s Cassander who I distrust intensely. I wouldn’t turn my back on him if there was a dagger within his reach.’
‘Be careful, my son. He and his father have become quite powerful. Even Olympias is careful what she says around those two. Alexander was a fool to make Antipater joint regent and to give him command of the army whilst he is away; but all the king can think about is conquering Persia. As long as Macedon and the rest of Greece provide him with the men to do that, he couldn’t care less what becomes of his homeland.’
Georgios would have liked to argue against what she said, if only out of loyalty to Alexander, but he knew deep down that she was right.
-X-
Iphitos moved his head to the left to avoid the wild thrust made by the Theban hoplite in front of him and jabbed at him with his own spear. The hoplite moved his shield to protect his body just in time and Iphitos’ spear point slid off the rounded surface. It had been a long time since Iphitos had been involved in close combat like this and he was sweating profusely. The Theban pulled his spear back but, so intent on Iphitos was he on the man wearing the helmet of a taxiarch that he forgot about Philomedes to Iphitos’ left. The fight was putting a strain on his recently healed wound and he felt a pain in his side as he thrust his own spear into the exposed body of the hoplite. The spear point stuck in the glued layers of linen that made up his linothrax, but then a second thrust penetrated and the hoplite screamed before he fell to the ground.
Iphitos nodded his head in thanks but Philomedes was no longer there. The effort had been too much and blood was now seeping out of his chest where the healed flesh had torn apart again. Iphitos looked down and saw his adopted son on the ground and immediately stood over him to protect him. The next Theban was already making a stab at the prone Philomedes but suddenly there was blurred movement to the man’s left and Ondrej rose up out of nowhere. The small boy thrust his dagger up into the man’s groin and, with a scream, the Theban hoplite, collapsed. Ondrej stood protectively in front of Iphitos as he pulled his son’s unconscious body back into the main body of Macedonians, then he grabbed the boy’s shoulder none too gently and yanked him back behind him.
They were outnumbered and being hard pressed but a few minutes later help arrived as several hundred King’s Companion led by Alexander himself hit the Theban flank. The attackers panicked. Their aim had been to overwhelm the soldiers guarding the lithoboloi quickly and set fire to the machines. They had failed and, although they had killed several hundred Macedonians, only half of those who had made the sally got back inside the gates alive.
When it was over, Iphitos hugged the small, wiry boy to hi
m, thanking him for saving Philomedes life one moment and scolding him for not staying out of harm’s way the next.
‘You’re squashing me to death,’ the boy managed to pant out.
‘Serve you right!’ Iphitos told him with a grin and released him so that they could go and check on Philomedes.
‘For them to have made such a desperate attack they must know that the city is about to fall. Therefore I suspect that they haven’t had time to build a defensive wall inside the gates.’ Hephaestion said to Alexander later that night.
‘Yes, I think that you’re right. My father got caught like that at Potitaea and so I’m wary of making the same mistake, but they haven’t had time. The end is in sight, Hephaestion. Once Thebes is destroyed the rest of Greece will be cowed and, at long last, we’ll be able to invade Persia.’
‘Destroyed? You won’t offer them one last chance to submit then?’
‘No,’ Alexander’s eyes narrowed. ‘They had their chance. Besides, it will send a message to Athens and the rest of the city states who are only waiting for my departure to rebel.’
‘They’ll never forgive you if you raise one of the most important cities in Greece to the ground.’
‘I can bear their hatred; they’re never going to love me, are they, whatever I do? I just want them to obey me and provide me with the extra troops and ships I need.’
Iphitos didn’t see the final destruction of the Electra Gates, nor the fall of the once mighty Thebes. He was sitting in the hospital tent beside his adopted son Philomedes. The stench was overpowering; vomit and faeces competed with the copper like stench of blood and the sweet smell of rotting flesh as gangrene set in. The physicians were too busy to attend to Philomedes at first, until Iphitos shoved his dagger up the nose of one of them and forced him to attend to his son.
