Alexander (Vol. 3) (Alexander Trilogy) by Valerio Massimo Manfredi Read Free Book Online Page B

– I wouldn’t like to be in your shoes if you don’t beat the Athenian challenger.’
    Leonnatus grumbled something as he gestured to another soldier to step forward. Hephaestion washed hurriedly and then went before Alexander with his hair still full of sand.
    ‘You sent for me?’
    ‘Yes. I have a special job for you. Choose two cavalry units, from the Vanguard if you wish, and two teams of the Phoenician naval carpenters. Take Nearchus with you, go to Thapsacus on the Euphrates and provide him with cover while he builds two floating bridges. We will cross there.’
    ‘How much time do I have?’
    ‘A month at the most, after which we will join you with the rest of the army.’
    ‘So we are finally moving.’
    ‘Yes, we are making our move. Say your farewells to the sea, Hephaestion, you won’t be seeing any more salt water until we reach the shores of the Ocean that has no end.’

 
7
     
    I T TOOK FOUR DAYS to assemble the cavalry, the carpenters and the construction materials. Under Nearchus’s supervision, the barges were taken apart, the pieces numbered and loaded on carts drawn by mules, and the long convoy made ready to leave the coast. The night before their departure, Hephaestion went to say goodbye to Alexander; when he came back he saw two shadows creep out from behind a tent and approach him furtively. He was just beginning to reach for his sword when a familiar voice whispered, ‘It’s us.’
    ‘Are you tired of living?’ Hephaestion asked Eumenes.
    ‘Put that weapon away – we have to talk’
    Hephaestion took a furtive look at the other character and recognized Eumolpus of Soloi. ‘Well I never!’ he laughed. ‘The man who saved his arse from a Persian stake, leaving a whole army up shit creek in the process.’
    ‘Just watch your mouth, lad,’ the informer retorted, ‘and listen to me if you want to save your own arse and all the lice that live thereabouts.’
    Hephaestion had them enter his tent, astonished at all that secrecy, and poured some wine into two cups. Eumenes took a sip and began, ‘Eumolpus has not told Alexander everything.’
    ‘I don’t know why, but somehow I had imagined as much.’
    ‘And he did the right thing, by Zeus! Alexander wants to lower his horns and charge like a bull without even considering his own forces, nor those of the enemy.’
    ‘That’s the right approach; that’s how we won at the Granicus and at Issus.’
    ‘At the Granicus we were more or less equally matched and at Issus we scraped through with a considerable dose of luck. Here we’re talking about a million men. Do you understand that? A million men. One hundred myriads. Can you count? I don’t imagine you can. Anyway, I’ve worked it all out – lined up in six rows, they’ll encircle us on the right and on the left by over three stadia. And the scythed chariots? How will our men react when they find themselves faced with those frightful machines?’
    ‘Where do I fit in all this?’
    ‘I’ll tell you immediately,’ said Eumolpus. ‘The Great King will send a garrison led by Mazaeus, Satrap of Babylonia, to the ford at Thapsacus. Mazaeus is his right hand man, an old fox who knows every corner of every land between here and the mouth of the Indus, has several thousand Greek mercenaries with him, all of them well seasoned, the type of soldiers who can spit blood when necessary. And do you know what else? Mazaeus has no problem communicating with those lads because he speaks Greek better than you do.’
    ‘I still don’t understand what you’re getting at.’
    ‘For some time now Mazaeus has been thoroughly disheartened by a conviction that the empire of Cyrus the Great and Darius has reached its demise.’
    ‘So much the better for us; and so?’
    ‘And so, since the man who passed me this information is very close to Mazaeus, there is a chance that we might reason with the old man. Do you see what I mean?’
    ‘Yes and no.’
    ‘If you get the chance to meet him,