He looked amused. ‘That’s not what’s bothering you? Then what is?’
‘You are incredible!’ I shrieked, springing to my feet and waving my arms. ‘I’m about to be locked up in a cage and all you can say is, “don’t worry, I won’t make love to my other wives”?’ Very reassuring. I want to be free, damn it!’
Alexander lost his smile. ‘Is that all?’ he asked bleakly.
I was startled by his change of mood. ‘Why, yes,’ I said, frowning.
‘Because, you are free, you know. Whenever you want, you can go. You can take Plexis, Axiom, Usse, Brazza even, and go wherever you want to. I’ll never stop you. If you’re unhappy with me, I will not keep you. If I knew of a way to send you back to your time I would, if you wished that. There are some days when I feel terrible for kidnapping you. I had no way of knowing the consequences, and now I am sorry.’
I sat down again and sighed. ‘No, Alex, don’t be sorry. I’m happy when we’re together. The problem is, I hardly see you . You’re gone from sunrise to sunset; you have a hundred things to do every day. Your life is no longer your own, and it has nothing to do with me. It’s as if I’ve ceased to exist for you.’
There was a deep silence while he thought about this. Then he took my chin his hands and kissed me. I felt my bones dissolving. He kissed with the single-mindedness that marked all his actions. My arms crept around his neck and I pulled him to me. His hands slipped under my tunic and found my breasts. He weighed them in his hands, his thumbs stroking my nipples then he bent his head and suckled, pulling hard. I put my head on his shoulder and moaned softly. We lay back on the bed and Alexander finished taking off my clothes. He was naked beneath his skirt so all I had to do was untie his belt.
I nibbled his ear. ‘I have a feeling you’re trying to avoid talking to me,’ I whispered.
‘I’m trying to prove you exist,’ he said. Then he slipped his hand between my legs, and I felt him smile against my cheek. ‘And I’ve a feeling that you don’t mind at all,’ he chuckled.
I arched my back and gasped. He was right anyway, about that.
Chapter Ten
We arrived in Babylon at sunrise next day. As we approached over the flat plain, I remembered my first sight of the fabled city nearly a decade before. I’d been riding an exhausted horse, drumming my heels into its lathered sides to urge it on. Paul, just an infant, had been earmarked for human sacrifice, and I had been desperate to save him. But Darius had reached him first, kidnapping him.
Olympias had wanted to sacrifice Paul. Her oracles had told her that Marduk, a bloodthirsty god, needed to drink Paul’s blood. She hadn’t told Alexander about Paul being his son. I had, though. Alexander had become violently enraged. Thankfully, I’d managed to persuade him not to kill his mother, and to pursue Darius to try to recover Paul. History stayed on track. The Time Senders weren’t alerted.
Now, Olympias and Paul were in the same city, and I had no way of knowing if she’d given up trying to kill him. According to Alexander, she was dreadfully sorry and would never dream of harming her grandchild. Her excuse was that the stars had foretold the boy was the son of the crocodile god, not Alexander’s son. She believed what the stars told her.
The stars were aligning. Spring was coming, and along with it, Alexander’s death. But at the moment, my first concern was for Paul.
Soldiers arrived to accompany the funeral cortège. Alexander ordered a litter for me, so that I could go directly to Paul. He knew how much this meant to me. Just outside the city’s walls, a large group of Alexander’s soldiers and generals waited for us. As we approached, the Persians prostrated themselves. The Greeks and Macedonians stood stiffly, their arms raised in a military salute. They no longer mingled, I noted. But all that was pushed to the back of my mind when I saw my son. I spotted his bright gold head as soon as we arrived at the huge, blue gate of Ishtar. As promised, Nearchus was at his side watching over him.
When the litter was set on the ground, I clambered out and ran to Paul. He was tall and slender, his head level with my shoulders. We were laughing and crying as we hugged.
‘Mommy! Mommy!’ he cried, ‘I missed you so much!’
‘Oh, Paul, I missed you too. You’ve grown tall, let me look at you.’ I held him away from me but my eyes were so full of tears I could see nothing but a blur. He stared back at me with that solemn look I remembered so well. ‘Paul,’ I whispered. ‘My son, I’m so happy you’re here.’
‘Me too,’ he said quietly, his voice wavering. I hugged him. My chest was tight with emotion but this was not the time or the place to cry. Hurriedly I wiped my face with the sleeve of my dress, straightened, and gazed around. The crowd was chanting Alexander’s name, but the noise was just beginning to register.
Nearchus stood next to us. I wanted to give him a grateful hug as well but, mindful of the new protocol, I said, ‘Thank you for keeping my son safe.’
We looked at each other, Alexander, Nearchus, Paul, and I; then Alexander gave a small nod. ‘Are you ready?’ he asked us. I tightened my hand on Paul’s shoulders. The soldiers threw open the gates. We walked into Babylon.
Olympias had organized a huge welcome. A platform had been set up just inside the gate, and as we arrived trumpets blared and the people cheered and pelted us with flowers. We were deafened by the noise. Alexander looked at me, worried. He wanted to sneak Plexis into my quarters, but now he would have to wait until night fell. We had to salute the waiting crowd. Alexander had to make a long speech. And Olympias and I met for the first time.
I’d seen her before. When she’d come to the temple for Paul’s sacrifice, I’d been hidden behind the tapestries in the temple. Her hair was apricot gold, her skin pearly, her brows finely arched, and her heavy-lidded eyes clear. She wore her favourite adornments: red coral earrings, a gold and coral necklace, and gold and coral bracelets. Although she was in Persia, she wore diaphanous robes that revealed her youthful silhouette. She was still beautiful. I still hated her.
‘My Lady Persephone, Queen of Hades, Ashley of the Sacred Sandals, Demeter’s Daughter, welcome to Babylon,’ she said, giving me all my titles and bowing low.
‘Olympias.’ I stood stiffly next to Paul and held his hand tightly.
Olympias narrowed her eyes. I hadn’t used a single one of her titles. I looked around but didn’t see Maia, Paul’s nurse. I asked Olympias where the girl was.
She gave an indifferent shrug. ‘She died. Paul has a new nurse. I chose her myself. She’s better than the peasant woman. Maybe now Paul will start learning some manners.’
Alexander saved me from having to kill her. ‘My wife is very tired and I will now take her to her quarters.’
‘I prepared her rooms,’ said Olympias.
‘I gave orders to prepare the garden palace for both of us,’ said Alexander, and for the first time Olympias looked scandalized.
‘Your wife belongs in the women’s quarters!’ she cried.
‘My wife will stay where I want her to stay.’ Alexander’s brows lowered and his eyes blazed. Olympias, who hadn’t seen her son in over ten years, quailed.
‘You have changed, my son,’ she said slowly.
‘For the better, I assure you.’ His voice was pure ice.
‘I am so sorry about Hephaestion,’ she said to him. ‘I know you cared for him deeply. His funeral monument is quite amazing. It must have been a painful reminder to see him all those years. He looked so like his brother Cxious.’ She was quick. She went straight for the jugular. Now I knew what Alexander had suffered during his childhood.
Alexander didn’t reply but a nerve started to twitch in his jaw. As Olympias opened her mouth to speak again he looked back out towards the cheering crowd and raised his arms above his head. The cheering redoubled. Olympias’s voice was drowned out. Whatever she’d wanted to say went unheard.
We stood for a while so that the people could get a good look at their king, then we walked to the palace. Throngs of people lined the streets and they
tossed flower petals at us as we walked by. Alexander and I held Paul’s hand. I hoped that Axiom and Brazza were safely in our rooms with Chiron. Just before we reached the palace, Olympias leaned towards me.
‘I will come to see my other grandson tomorrow.’
‘No, I will bring him to you.’ I said.
She stiffened, and then nodded. ‘That will be fine.’
Alexander turned and faced his mother. ‘No one is to go into my wife’s quarters, under pain of death,’ he said quietly.
Olympias looked at me from beneath lowered lashes. ‘That’s good,’ she said.
I wondered what she meant by that.
Once I had settled in my quarters, Stateira summoned me to her rooms. I cursed under my breath as I dressed. I didn’t particularly want to see her but, under Persian law, she was my queen, being Alexander’s senior wife now that Barsine was dead.
I tried to feel charitable towards her; after all, she was in love with a man who had once described her as being, ‘sweet as an adder and beautiful as a hippopotamus’. Stateira was not a great beauty. Calling her a hippo was mean though, but Alexander had been very young and he’d never loved her. She was not particularly nice to me.
It wouldn’t be so bad, but when she summoned me I had to wait in the great hall in full view of everyone in the gynaeceum. The great hall was actually a long, two-storey roofed courtyard. The women’s rooms were on the top floor, with a balcony that ran the length of the hallway. Roxanne leaned on her balcony and stared at me. She stared with no expression on her face, ignoring my smiles and little waves. Very strange. She and Stateira had become allies united against me. They spent most of their time together, weaving or ordering their slaves around. Just two, normal, Persian royal ladies. Except that one would have the other killed in very little time.
Poor doomed Stateira. She tried to make herself beautiful. She wore lots of make-up, Persian style. Her lips were carmine coated, her cheeks rouged, her heavy eyebrows plucked to surprised arches, and her eyes circled with black kohl and powdered lapis lazuli. She stuck her head over the balcony, saw me, and narrowed her eyes. I smiled cheerfully and waved. It had the unexpected effect of making her disappear. I frowned. When would she invite me to enter her apartments? She knew I was here now.
I sat in the garden hallway and waited. After another hour, I had to pee and I wondered what to do. A large potted palm tree was starting to look very much like a toilet. I crossed my legs tightly and cursed some more. Where was Stateira? I started feeling much less sorry for her fate. When I couldn’t bear it any longer, I stood up, meaning to return to my quarters. That’s when one of Stateira’s slave girls came to get me and I recognized Chirpa. She had was the young slave girl that Alexander had given me. I’d given her to Stateira as a wedding present, on the condition she would be freed. However, I saw Stateira hadn’t done so. Chirpa still wore the copper bracelet around her upper arm that marked her a slave.
She bowed low before me.
‘Don’t you recognize me?’ I asked her.
She turned cool, grey eyes towards me. ‘Of course, my lady.’
‘Does Stateira treat you well?’
She looked upwards at the balcony. I followed her gaze, and saw Stateira standing there, watching us. ‘I will take you to the queen,’ she said, discreetly putting her finger to her lips. I didn’t try to speak to her again.
Stateira didn’t stand when I entered to room. She was overdressed as usual. She wore a purple gown. Three metres of pearls were wrapped around her neck, and at least sixty mink had died to line her cloak. Her eyes looked like a racoon’s with all the kohl she used. I bowed to her, not quite as low as she would have liked, then asked where the toilet was. She pointed to a large chamber pot in the corner of the room. An old eunuch stood next to it, fanning the air with a gilded palm-tree branch.
I sat down and relieved myself. It still felt odd going to the bathroom in front of everyone, even after all these years.
Stateira and I chatted for a few minutes, and then she dismissed me. That’s it. Three sentences about the weather. A comment about my bulging belly and Stateira dismissed me like some vulgar rug salesman. I was furious. She’d made me wait an hour, knowing I was uncomfortable down there, and now I was dismissed? I gritted my teeth and bowed again. Then a slave showed me out.
I stormed into Alexander’s room. He was studying a long, official-looking document and there were three generals sitting around him, Nearchus, Ptolemy Lagos, and Antipatros.
They looked at me sadly. Their hair was cut short, and I realized with shock that they were in mourning for Plexis.
The generals stood to greet me. Nearchus, who knew, perhaps more than anyone else, my feelings for Plexis, took my hand. ‘My lady,’ he said. ‘How is Paul?’
‘Fine, thank you, Nearchus,’ I said. ‘Alexander, can I talk to you alone for a second?’
‘I’ll be right with you,’ he said. ‘Go and wait in your quarters and I’ll join you as soon as I’m done here.’
‘What are you doing?’ I asked, curious. My question made Ptolemy Lagos and Antipatros frown, but Nearchus answered me.
‘We’re planning a sea journey to Africa,’ he said. ‘I thought we could go to the south by a different route.’ As always, when he was talking about boats or the sea, his voice rang with enthusiasm.
I smiled. ‘That sounds like a wonderful idea.’
The other men were uncomfortable with me in the small room with them. As before, I was struck by the difference between travelling with them in the army and being in Persia, in the palace, under protocol rules. They were impatient for me to leave, so I did. I wandered back through the palace. Two mute eunuchs accompanied me through the maze of corridors. My feet made echoing sounds on the shiny tiles and my eyes feasted on the incredible frescos painted on the walls. I thought that the palace was very beautiful, and that I hated it. It was just a gilded cage. I cast a glance at my silent guards. They didn’t dare look at me fully. They waited outside my quarters, like guard dogs, and whenever I stepped outside, they flanked me. We turned the last corner and I found myself in front of my heavy, wooden door. One guard rapped upon it and Axiom opened a little peep-hole and peered out. Seeing that it was me, he opened the door. Before I disappeared into my rooms, I turned and thanked my guards, asking them if they needed anything. They looked at a point just below my knees and nodded once, meaning ‘No’. Then they turned and took their places beside the doorway. Nothing changed. I sighed and entered my quarters.
When Alexander came to my apartments two hours later, I was talking to Plexis. Chiron was napping, Paul was playing with a puzzle, and Axiom and Brazza were in town shopping. Millis was guarding Chiron.
‘What did you want to see me about?’ Alexander asked. He bent down and kissed Plexis.
‘I wanted to tell you that I want you to take Chirpa away from Stateira and give her to me. Today. Right now.’ I was still angry. ‘I told you that Stateira was to free her.’
‘Chirpa? Do you mean the girl who can tell if food is poisoned? Stateira didn’t free her?’ He looked up from his friend and frowned at me.
‘No, she didn’t. Are you listening to me? Stop kissing Plexis and talk to me!’ I was exasperated.
‘I’m listening.’ He gave me an amused smile. ‘I’ll get Chirpa back from Stateira, and you’ll have a new slave to free. You’re a strange woman, freeing all your slaves like that. It makes for interesting conversations with my generals.’
‘I think it’s a good idea.’ Plexis spoke firmly.
‘Do you really?’ Alexander was sitting on the bench next to Plexis’s bed and he leaned over and gave him a lingering kiss. ‘By the gods, Plexis, when I think how close I came to losing you, I go mad.’ His voice was soft.
‘You “shit bats like crazy”?’ Plexis grinned.
‘I do.’ He looked thoughtful. ‘You’ve never asked about Drypetis.’
Plexis turned crimson. He looked at me and swallowed. ‘I don’t suppose
I did. Perhaps if I still felt something for her, I would have. It was a short infatuation.’
‘Ah, it was just a phase.’ Alexander looked wise. Plexis raised his eyebrows, so he said airily, ‘I’ll explain some other time.’ He stroked Plexis’s cheek and kissed him again.
Plexis stirred restlessly, a thin smile on his face. ‘Stop kissing me. Usse told me I mustn’t move at all and you’re making it difficult. Ashley is smarter. She keeps her hands to herself.’
Alexander pulled back. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. Excuse me, I think I’ll go see Stateira about getting Chirpa back.’ He sounded contrite.
Plexis watched as Alexander left. He was pale from being inside for months and his eyes were feverish. Usse gave him some sort of tranquillizer to keep him immobile, but it didn’t work for everything. There was a tell-tale bump under his thin muslin sheet.
Millis took care of Plexis’s toilet and changed him. He was strong and deft. While I held his shoulders, to make sure that his neck stayed perfectly still, Millis would quickly do his job. At first Plexis had been mortified but, once, when he tried to move himself, the cracked bone pinched a nerve and the pain was so terrible he’d screamed and fainted.
Now he held still.
I patted his hand. ‘Only one or two more months, then you’ll be up and around,’ I told him.
‘I think I’ll go mad long before then.’ He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. On his cheeks was a faint blush. ‘Do you think you could, you know, with your hands maybe?’ He opened one eye and peered at me, his blush deepening. I could see his pulse pounding in the hollow of his throat.
The bump under the muslin was getting bigger.
I glanced towards the closed door. ‘All right. But if you move, Usse will be furious.’
‘I promise.’ It was more of a sigh.
I used my hands and my mouth, and Plexis didn’t move. He just trembled violently, and when it was over there was a sleepy half-smile on his lips.
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