hope. ‘One more fight, and one more day on the trail, moving fast, and you can rest. And before you despair, gentlemen — you’ve fought three actions in three days. None of you are boys any more. Now you know what the animal looks like. Any man worthy of his father can stand in a big field on a sunny day and hold his piece of ground for an hour. But to be a real soldier, you have to find it in yourself to do it day after day, in the rain, in the desert, when you are tired and sore and when your dinner runs down your legs or when you have no food to eat at all.’ He pulled his helmet off and rode closer to the line. ‘We can get across this stream and back to the king — if you have the spirit to do it.’
Ajax raised his sword. ‘Apollo!’ he shouted.
The answering shout was not deafening — but neither was it hopeless. The troops gave three Apollos.
Kineas summoned his officers. ‘Have the men dismount and stand by their horses. Send the most junior files of each troop to help move the wagons. Let’s do this thing!’ He spoke in a different tone than he’d used all day — like an officer commanding veterans. He turned to Niceas. ‘You were right,’ he said.
Niceas shrugged. ‘It happens,’ he said. He watched young Clio leading two younger men in pushing at a wagon wheel, up to their waists in freezing water. ‘They don’t look so much like rich boys now.’
Twenty minutes later the last wagon was across and Ataelus returned at a gallop to report that the lead Getae band was in sight. Kineas looked at the sky — more rain — and the crossing. To Niceas, he said, ‘I think we’re going to do this.’
Niceas huddled in his cloak. ‘Did you doubt it, Hipparch?’
Kineas shook his head. ‘I did.’ He waved to Leucon. ‘Get your men across. Nicomedes, mount and cover them. The Getae are coming.’ Something tugged at his right foot, and he saw the blacksmith. ‘What?’ he said in Sakje.
The blacksmith pointed at the stand of small trees by the swollen river. ‘Die here,’ he said, pointing at himself. ‘You cross.’
Kineas wiped the water off his face. ‘No. No one will die here. Too much rain. Get across.’
The man planted his feet. ‘Die here.’
Kineas shook his head. He called for Ataelus. ‘Tell him it’s raining,’ he said. ‘Tell him that his bowstrings are wet, and he’ll be lucky to kill one Getae — and that it’ll be for nothing, because the Getae won’t want to push across against us. Not enough light left.’
Ataelus translated, speaking rapidly, using his hands more than he was wont, speaking, Kineas thought, with great emotion. Ataelus thought highly of the blacksmith.
The blacksmith finally nodded. He put his axe over his shoulder and walked to the ford, his friends falling in around him, and they followed Leucon’s men through the rising water.
Kineas rode up to Nicomedes. The Getae were still well distant, and the ford was clear. ‘Better cross,’ he said.
Nicomedes gave a tired smile. ‘You won’t have to tell me twice.’
The two Cruel Hand scouts were coming in, one galloping far to the north, the other far to the south. Both turned periodically and shot from the saddle, and Ataelus gave a yip and rode out to the front.
Nicomedes shook his head. ‘Does that change our plans?’
‘No,’ Kineas said. ‘Get across.’
He sat in the rain, watching the Sakje — just three of them — harrying the advancing Getae, who had few bows and none that would fire in the rain. One by one, the Sakje bowstrings became wet through, despite the best efforts of the Sakje warriors to keep them dry, but they each hit two or three men, slowing all the Getae for a few more minutes as the precious grey light slipped away to night. All three rode to the ford untouched. The Getae were just two stades away, clear despite the heavier rain and gathering gloom.
The four of them pushed into the heavy water. After ten steps, Kineas put his arms around his horse’s neck and allowed himself to float free from his saddle cloth, and then his horse — an ugly Getae beast, but strong as an ox — pushed up the far bank of earth, showering both of them in mud in the process of shaking like a dog.
The Sindi men were cutting poles — stakes, it turned out, and as Kineas wrung the water from his cloak and tried to get warm, he watched them pound the stakes into the soft earth at the side of the stream so that the ford was blocked with man-high spikes pointed at horse-chest height.
Kineas rode up to the officers. ‘The Getae are mad — they may try it anyway. If not, they’ll come an hour after the rain stops. We’ll hold them here. We won’t get better ground.’ To the blacksmith, he said, ‘Tell the people in the wagons that we move before dawn. We will abandon the wagons — every man and woman is to ride on the spare horses. No unloading, and leave the fires lit when we go.’ He looked at Ataelus. ‘Will the Getae fight at night?’
Ataelus shrugged with a sneer, as if the petty superstitions of the Getae were beneath his consideration.
Kineas looked around. ‘I want our scouts up and down stream ten stades, looking for another ford — if they find one, we leave. Half a troop on duty every watch — two hours a trick. Get a hot meal in them and then we’ll sleep in the open.’
‘In the mud?’ asked Eumenes.
‘That’s right. If you aren’t tired enough to sleep in the mud, you aren’t really tired. Leucon’s boys know how to huddle up. Tell them to teach their fathers. Right — we move before dawn. Any questions?’
There were none. Nicomedes was almost asleep in his saddle.
The slaves and the Sindi cooked faster and better than the Olbians, and they had hot food — mostly a thin soup of roots and some meat, but as good as ambrosia after their day — and heavy bread nine days old. Kineas ate his and handed his bowl to Niceas to use. ‘Wake me if the rain stops,’ he said. He lay down with Eumenes and Leucon, and the soggy ground met him with an icy embrace. It was horrible, and then it was merely uncomfortable, and then he was asleep.
He woke from a dream of being trapped in a cave full of water to find Leucon’s cloak over his head, and he was blind. He threw it off, reaching for his sword, and Niceas, silhouetted by a fire that burned as high as a man, jumped back.
‘Rain stopped. Sky is clearing,’ he said. He was munching something, and he pointed. ‘Stars,’ he said through the bread in his mouth.
Kineas ached, and he shivered, his whole body moving as if he was going to vomit. His fingers were swollen and their joints burned. The wound he had taken on his left bicep in the first fight was hot and tender. He didn’t know where he was for a few heartbeats, and then he did.
‘Get everybody up,’ he said. ‘What’re the Getae doing?’
‘Huddling around their fires,’ Niceas said. ‘There’s quite a pack of them — fires all the way back to the hills.’
Kineas’s brain began to function. He squelched over to the fire and its warmth began to soak into his joints. ‘Get everyone in the saddle.’
A Sindi woman pushed something hot into his hand — a clay cup full of tea. It tasted bitter, but it was warm. He drained it, burning his tongue. The cut on his arm ached.
‘Mount all the Sindi on the spare horses and leave the wagons,’ Kineas said.
‘Heard you last night.’ Niceas said. ‘Done. Had to use a stick on the refugees — they don’t want to leave their little bits of things behind.’ He gave a hard grin. ‘I took care of it.’
‘Athena’s shield, Hipparch — we could have done that two days ago and left the Getae in our dust!’ Eumenes spoke from the other side of the fire.
‘We could have,’ Kineas said. ‘But that’s not what I ordered. Now I have.’
Eumenes held his hands up like a boxer defending himself. ‘I spoke hastily.’
Kineas ignored him, turning to Nicomedes. ‘You are the rear guard. Try to keep the stragglers moving, but if you must, abandon them and push on. Don’t be trapped into a fight — once we stop, the whole pack will be on us. Understand?’
Nicomedes drank some of the woman’s tea and nodded. He had circles under his eyes, and he looked sixty years old. Ajax stood behind him, as beautiful as ever. ‘If we aren’t to fight, why are we the rear guard?’ he asked.
Kineas shook his head. ‘Don’t be a fool — If I have to, I’ll sacrifice you to get the rest away. But not without an order from me. If you see me form Leucon’s troop in line, come and fall into your accustomed place.’
