by Jay Penner
The news was that Antigonus was preparing to march against him.
Remarkably, Eumenes’ army still stuck with him. They saw a cunning, kind, and capable leader and believed he would prevail. Eumenes was unsure, for it seemed the world conspired against him, and the odds seemed insurmountable.
Unless Deon found the second Atlantis.
If it held the suggested treasure and weaponry, Eumenes knew he could change the scenario at once. He might even be able to forge alliances with unwilling partners.
He would first finish Antigonus. That would secure him enough power to demand the surrender of Ptolemy, and then Seleucus.
Eumenes would be the lord of all Europe and Asia.
Greater than Alexander.
Now only if Deon returned.
So, Eumenes devised a strategy to reconnect with Deon. His officer was last known to have been in Alexandria. If he died, then there was nothing else to do. But what if he were alive? Where would he go? He also thought that Deon, if he were alive, would avoid areas that were hostile to Eumenes.
Libya?
But Libya was outside Eumenes’ sphere of influence.
Greece, Macedon, Sparta, and on his way to Cappadocia?
Those regions were outside his control, but he could have spies in Cappadocia watch out for Deon.
What about Phoenicia? All the way from the borders of Egypt until the Northern borders of Syria.
That was a distinct possibility. Anything further east was Seleucus’ territory and out of bounds as well. All those areas were possible by sea from Alexandria. Eumenes’ instincts told him that a new city built to replace a seafaring empire had to be closer to the shores than far inland.
The only logical region would be Phoenicia before it fell under the firm control of one of the satraps.
Eumenes summoned fifty of his most trusted men, captains, and lieutenants. These men he had led for many years, helped them profit during the campaigns, and they had stuck by him at all costs. Them he directed thus:
They were to undertake a most secretive task to find Deon and Eurydice. They were to spread along the Phoenician coast and conduct their inquiries and search. If they made contact, they would assume Deon as their new commander until Eumenes arrived.
Ten in Antioch.
Ten to cover Tyre and Sidon.
Ten near Gaza, at Sharuhen.
Ten near the sea at Egypt’s border.
And Ten to travel the lands in-between and around, with no fixed territory.
It could even take one to two years, Eumenes told them. If they received news of Eumenes’ death or imprisonment, they were to disband and go wherever they pleased without shame of abandonment. Each man received a talent, enough to last them many years; a handsome payment.
But if they found Deon and Eurydice, then Eumenes would move his army to join them.
“Once we are together again,” he told them, “you will witness the greatest change of fortune in history.”
AEGEAN SEA
❖
No, no, no, no, no.
I ran towards the bodies, wrapped my hand around the man’s neck and pulled him off her.
There was blood—on her face, chest, stomach, legs—everywhere. It was as if a monster gutted a horse and held it over her body.
“Eurydice!” I yelled and shook her face. Then I placed my palm on her chest.
She was breathing. Her chest still rose and fell. She was unconscious.
Thank you, Poseidon!
I dragged her to the back where there was more space and placed her head on my lap. And then I protected her face from the falling rain. I do not know how long I sat that way, but after a while, she stirred. And later, she opened her eyes, looking disoriented. Once she realized it was me, she smiled.
Relief washed over me.
I examined the dead man. It was as if he had stood and let her butcher him.
I threw him overboard.
She had a few nicks to her forearm, but none too serious. That man had no idea who he was up against like so many others who had underestimated her. I held her and let her recover.
Then I went down the rickety ladders to the lower deck.
The crew listened to me with rapt attention. Whether they believed me or not was immaterial. They knew that Polymedes and four of his men were dead and that they faced the duo that killed them. The two other soldiers had laid down their arms and were willing to listen.
The senior man, with his weathered face and gray beard, finally spoke, “How do we know you will not murder us as well once we take you where you want?”
“You do not. But I have no such desire, and you have my word.”
“Where do you want to go?”
“South of Gaza, where the land curves up from Egypt.”
“That is a long way. What will happen to us once the naval commanders realize we never came back?”
“I doubt they know you and your slaves. Stay away from Egypt for a while, and they will think the Sea swallowed you.”
He looked at his associate and the other men.
“Who pays us?”
“You will receive your payment from Polymedes’ purse, and you can also divide his men's belongings.”
They nodded.
Then one of the men spoke up.
“Who is your master?”
“Antigonus one-eye,” I lied.
With Perdiccas dead, it was my hunch that the tide had turned against Eumenes, for now, at least. And then I warned them. “If I suspect trickery, know that I will gut you and feed you your entrails. Do not test me.”
They nodded.
I pulled aside the senior man. There was another order of business to take care of. “I need your services, and I can pay you very well.”
I then told him to meet Eumenes and ask the Governor to send support to the Knife’s tip. We agreed on payment terms, and I explained the location of the Knife’s tip. He explained how we could shelter in Sharuhen, a mostly abandoned town near Gaza, for the time being.
“I now need you to help my wife,” I said.
I had to take care of my many-tongued little demon.
“You look much better,” I said, as Eurydice and I sat with our backs to the cabin wall. The sail was smooth after the storm had passed.
“My aunt would say that every time I took a bath after several days of reminders. But yes, I feel much better,” she said, smiling.
“You sound like you were fond of your aunt.”
“Yes, she was the one managed to get me freed,” she said, as her eyes drifted to nothingness.
“Eurydice, I worry about how you attack men. You do realize that they are stronger, and if one is able to grab you then they can easily kill you.”
“I know. That is why I was taught to evade, run, let them underestimate me, and then gut them,” she said, and I laughed as I shook my head. There was not much I could do to dissuade her from risky situations.
“Will you tell me your story someday?”
“Someday. Why do you need my past when I am here with you in the present?”
I held her hand gently and entwined my fingers in hers.
“I know so little about your family,” she said, “tell me more about your wife and daughter.”
I spoke of them fondly—of my wife’s gentle nature, her wavy hair, her strength through the years, her wonderful smile, our beautiful baby. I had to gather myself a few times. The gentle rocking of the boat had lulled both of us into a sense of calm.
Eventually, I nudged closer to her. We sat quietly for a long time. Then she spoke up, “This reminds me of my father.”
“What?”
“Whenever my mother disciplined me with her olive branch, I would sit crying by the wall, and my father would sit next to me and say nothing.”
“You said he was tough,” I said.
“Yes, but he never once lay his hands on me in anger. After I calmed down, he would lean and kiss my forehead. I wish—” She wiped a tear and I let
her be.
The sail to the south of Gaza was uneventful. The crew kept their word, and through judicious use of water and food, we made it to land in five days. I kept a watch on Eurydice, but those were five happy days.
We bid goodbye to a relieved crew after we landed. We consulted with local Bedouin tribesmen on how to get to the Knife’s Tip. There were no armies nearby for the leaders had returned from Triparadisus.
The oars master went to Gaza to get a horse and go North, while we trekked to Sharuhen.
It took us a day on the barren landscape.
Sharuhen was an old decrepit fortified town occupied by local tribes. These tribes kept their independence from the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Greeks, and Macedonians. The fort was crumbling, and there were many abandoned buildings inside. Isolated from the main trading routes, it was the perfect place for us to stay until we plotted our next journey.
For the next sixteen days, we stayed at Sharuhen. Once a few days we visited Gaza in the late evenings to replenish our supplies. I worried about Ptolemy's spies detecting us because Gaza was not a large town. Most of the population had fled after Alexander's siege years ago.
On the sixteenth day, I was at a local meat shop, haggling with the seller who had no recollection that I had been there four times already. But such was their custom. As I prepared to pay the man, I sensed someone behind me. Before I reacted, a strong hand gripped my forearm, preventing me from drawing my weapon. I recognized the sharp tips of three blades—one on my back, and two at the waist.
There was nothing I could do.
“Walk with us,” hissed the man. Then they shoved me ahead. They had covered their faces.
Nekh-Aser’s men?
Bandits?
Local warlords?
We walked to a desolated spot behind low lying hills. The leader ordered me to sit, and one of the men secured my wrists behind my back.
This was it.
Then the leader came to the front but did not remove his cover. His eyes gave away that he was Greek or Macedonian. But then so were many of Ptolemy’s men.
Too many damned Greeks.
“Do not attempt anything funny.”
“There is not much fun one can have with his hands tied behind his back.”
The corner of his eyes wrinkled.
“We are looking for the woman you are with.”
What?
There was no point lying, and they must have seen Eurydice during our trips when we came together.
“She is my wife, what do you want with her?”
“Our master is in love with her, and wishes to marry her,” he said, and the others nodded.
What?
I heard guffaws from the other men. What was going on?
“Who is your master? I said she is my wife.”
“He is a dirty old man, but he pays for our livelihood. He thinks she has beautiful breasts and would be wonderful in bed.”
My face reddened. This made little sense.
“Tell him I am her husband and that it is against the law to force her away from me!”
What an absurd conversation. One of the men turned to his leader, "Which law does he speak of, sir? Is this Greece?"
The leader stood and pranced, "No, does not look like Greece at all!"
"Or Macedon?" The man asked.
"No does not look like Macedon at all!" the leader said, placing his palms over his eyes and peering.
They all laughed.
Then the leader turned to his men.
“Looks like he loves her. Tell us you do, sir, do not be shy.”
Laughter.
What was going on?
“Yes—what is this all about?”
“Oh, look at his red face like a teenager, except you are a crusty old bastard. Your penis is probably already dead.”
More laughter.
I sat fuming; angry, confused, and unsure of the danger. Then the man removed his cover and broke into a giant smile.
“How are you doing, commander Deon? Very much in love it seems.”
I heard great laughter, and in my confusion, I smiled but stopped. Who were these men?
“Governor Eumenes sends his regards.”
After much merriment and teasing, we settled down to business. I was giddy with happiness and excitement.
Alkimachus explained Eumenes’ plan. The clever Governor had the foresight to tackle this as best as he could, and he had succeeded.
The first order of business was for us to regroup with the rest of his team. I sent three men to relay the message to the remaining forty, and Eumenes. I hurried to Eurydice, as we had to move and make a new home while we regrouped.
The news stunned and thrilled Eurydice. Two days later the seven-member squad met with us, and we broke camp in a desolate stretch far away from the roads. They had horses and knew where to get water.
The plan was for the rest of the battalion to arrive in small groups, and to meet us near the Knife’s Tip. We would have lookouts to help herd everyone.
Alkimachus finally could not contain himself as we sat to dinner.
“Well, Eurydice, it seems our commander here is deeply in love with you.”
I placed my palms around my ears; there was no stopping these idiots.
She giggled.
“He was outraged when we said we wanted you for our master.”
“How angry?”
“His face was redder than a pig’s arse.”
Howls of laughter.
I could not help but feel embarrassed as she looked at me and blew a kiss. That set them off.
“We cannot have a leader running around with an erection!”
All that brought back memories of a distant past during our campaigns. The campfires, the bawdy ribbing. It was wonderful to be back among my men.
“Well, Alkimachus, I must warn you and your men that she is a little demon. Talk too much, and she will slice you like little bread pieces.”
“I am not a little demon,” she protested and pouted. But she loved that. It was a name I gave her after she butchered the soldier on the ship.
“A pretty, vicious little demon,” I said, and I reached out to her hand, much to great approval of the audience. And then I mock-scolded them, “I am your commander, how about some respect?”
We sat late into the clear winter night, talking, and strategizing. I had not told them what exactly we were set to do, but that they would have to follow me.
I thought to myself.
How would all this end?
KNIFE’S TIP
❖
The landscape changed as we neared the Knife’s Tip. Yellow sand made way to gold and pink cliffs. Immense, reddish rock rose from the earth, and the ground became rougher. It had taken us six days as the papyri suggested.
I understood why they called it the Knife’s Tip. When seen from an elevation, the jagged mountain range tapered sharply as it ended to our right. The place was beautiful and foreboding, and somewhere in there was what I wanted.
Between the smaller hills where we stood, and the hills of the Knife's tip, was a valley. As we took the sights, I could not but marvel at the location and how the ancients chose it. I interpreted the papyri’s ‘a day ahead’ as proper for someone on foot so that it would be less than half the day for a horse rider. I was confident that our destination was in the towering mountains we could see far ahead. At this point, I had no idea where to look and what to look for.
Just over a day from the bottom of the knife's tip we finally arrived at the foot of the largest mountains. We rested for the day, and I decided not to go on a search mission until we regrouped with the rest of the squad—all fifty. Instead, I would spend time with Eurydice to decode the final pieces.
We were so near!
That night, after setting up camp under twinkling stars, Eurydice, and I decided to walk and debate. I recounted the next set of verses that alluded to the location.
Three days north from the tip, within golden
walls and red rocks, in there they found a magnificent mountain, and a hollow within, where they carved the last city of a great empire and filled it with unimaginable riches, weapons the world had never seen, and knowledge superior to all mankind. When the sun sets, the shadows play, the lord he smiles, and smiles away. Pay heed my prince for in that smile lays the door, the path, the way to new Atlantis
What did that mean? Now that we could see the surroundings ourselves, we had a better chance at guessing it right.
"We're in the right place, we are!" I exclaimed, “It took us a day on horses, a walking party would need three or more. And we came through sandstone canyons. Now, look at the red rocks around us!"
She agreed, and energy surged in me. This would all end soon, and I would be home.
“There they made a hollow within’—that seems obvious,” she said, and I nodded. The story was unambiguous in that the city was inside a mountain.
“The tricky part is the next one—and it seems we have to wait for the sun to set for it happen.”
“So, when the sun sets, the gods appear in the sky and smile?”
That was what I thought. But it was too obvious. “I don’t think so. Remember Thera? No one was floating up in the sky. What does it mean he appears and smiles away?”
We were both at a loss. We debated many useless theories.
That the sentences meant nothing. A ruse.
That something magical appeared on sunset.
The Lord meant a star that appeared precisely above the spot on the mountain.
The Lord meant the moon, and that something would happen on the day when the full moon appeared after sunset.
The Lord was an immortal and came out every day after the sunset and laughed.
That the line only meant that the Lord smiled when he was still alive, before the destruction of Thera.
And so on. None made much sense after we pondered over it and led us nowhere. Tired, we decided that we would watch the sunset from an elevated point the next evening.
The first of the four other squads finally arrived that night guided by an outpost messenger at the knife’s tip. By morning the entire group of fifty had assembled—a testament to Eumenes’ foresight.
Suddenly, it felt like the gods were smiling upon us. We could now secure the find until the governor arrived. I was gleeful. While uncovering the second Atlantis would be thrilling, being a satrap was even more enjoyable. I imagined my two wives and daughter shooting adoring glances at me. At night I watched the twinkling stars, and I fervently hoped that my family was still safe. It had been a while since I had heard from them or Eumenes, and my mind alternated between fear and hope. My squad asked no questions—I would soon have to reveal to them the mission. My only nagging worry was someone was following us. Was there any other way for someone to be on our track other than the oarsmen?
