some mounted infantry as well. I didn’t stay to scout the whole column. Mosva had just come in with another Sauromatae girl to tell us that Spitamenes was moving north — they found his camp — and the next thing I knew my outriders were shooting arrows at his outriders. He came up in person while I was still trying to guess their numbers.’
Kineas rubbed his beard. ‘He’ll block our way.’
Diodorus came running up with Philokles and Eumenes close behind. ‘He’ll be in among our wagons in a day. What the hell is he doing here?’
Coenus shook his head. ‘He’s fast. But I’ll wager a daric to an owl that he’s after Spitamenes — trying to cut him off from the sea of grass.’
Diodorus started buckling his cuirass. ‘You are ready to command armies, Coenus. The problem is that he must have taken your scouts for Spitamenes’.’
Kineas found that Nicanor was bringing him his armour. He stuck his arms up while Nicanor lowered the linen and scale cuirass over his head. As soon as the shoulder flaps were fastened to the breastplate, he started drawing lines in the dust. ‘If you were Craterus, in pursuit of Spitamenes-’ he said.
‘I’d have wine,’ Coenus said, hefting an empty amphora. Nicanor brought him a towel and a clay bottle of water. Nicanor enjoyed serving Coenus because Coenus had the kind of standards that Nicanor liked to live up to — unlike Kineas, who didn’t feel the need to dress to Athenian fashion in the midst of the sea of grass. He wiped the dust from his face and started to towel his hair. ‘If I were Craterus, I’d break off and go home. If I hit resistance on the Oxus, I would think that Spitamenes was ahead of me.’
‘Or I’d press the pursuit, hoping to hurt his rearguard,’ Diodorus said. ‘Let’s face it, that’s more like Craterus. He’s a terrier — once he gets his jaws on something, he never lets go. When have you ever known him not to press a pursuit until his horse fell?’
‘You all know this Macedonian?’ Philokles asked.
‘He’s older now,’ Kineas said, by way of an answer. ‘Alexander’s left fist, we used to call him.’
‘He doesn’t have Parmenion to hold his hand, either,’ Diodorus shot back.
‘So it could go either way. He could turn back, or he could be on us in, what, four hours?’ Kineas looked at Coenus.
Ataelus came in, his bow arm still bound in a sling. The wound had infected and bled pus constantly. Ataelus looked like a man with a fever and he walked unsteadily.
‘You’re not fit to ride, Ataelus. Get back to your pallet and your wife.’ Kineas saw Samahe behind her husband. ‘Take him away!’
‘Alexander is coming, and you for sending me to bed?’ Ataelus stumbled and caught himself on the tent’s central pole. ‘Need scouts. Need for seeing over hills. Prodromoi go!’ Ataelus struck his chest. ‘Samahe go, Ataelus go.’
Coenus, who had always got on well with the Scythian, shook his head. ‘We did do a certain amount of scouting before you came on the scene, brother.’
Ataelus grinned. ‘No little cut for keeping me from this. Alexander comes.’
Coenus, cleaner now, tossed his towel to Nicanor. ‘It’s not Alexander, Ataelus. It’s just Craterus. We can handle him without you.’
Diodorus was looking at Kineas’s marks in the dust. ‘Where’s Spitamenes?’ he asked.
‘Ares, let’s not make that mistake again,’ Kineas said.
Diodorus picked up a stick. He threw a glance at Ataelus, who stood by his shoulder to correct him if he went wrong.
‘I think I understand. Let’s say this anthill is Marakanda. Let’s say this line is the Polytimeros and this is the Oxus,’ Diodorus drew a line from the anthill that represented Marakanda, and then a second at right angles to represent the Oxus. ‘If Alexander has raised the siege at Marakanda — that’s my guess — then Craterus is pursuing Spitamenes west — right at us.’ Diodorus moved the stick along the line of the Polytimeros and stopped at the Oxus — the cross of the T. ‘If Spitamenes went straight across, he’d vanish into the sea of grass — south of us, but not by much. If the girls saw the camp right, the Persians are west and south of us.’ He drew another line. ‘If Craterus is at the forks of the Polytimeros,’ he went on, stick pointing at the place where the Polytimeros met the Oxus, ‘then we’re three points in an equilateral triangle: we’re at this end of the T, Spitamenes at the other end of the crossbar and Craterus down here on the base. And if Spitamenes chooses to try to link up with Queen Zarina,’ he continued his line, ‘he’ll go right through here, following the crossbar. With Craterus right behind him.’
‘And he can’t miss us,’ Coenus said. ‘And if Craterus mistook our Sakje for Spitamenes’ Sogdians, he’s already on his way. And then he’s between Spitamenes and us.’
Srayanka rubbed the bridge of her nose. ‘We have to fight.’
Lot came in, flanked by two of his knights. ‘Alexander is here?’ he asked.
‘He may be less than a day’s march away.’ Kineas recapitulated the crisis. ‘It is Alexander’s general Craterus. The king himself is at Marakanda.’ Kineas shrugged. ‘Or so we think.’
‘Our people must march north,’ Lot said. ‘Most of us are packed. The wagons of the Sakje will slow us.’
‘Without them, many will die this winter,’ Srayanka shot back.
Kineas looked around, catching their eyes. ‘Get the prodromoi out. We’ll make a stand here. Perhaps even try a little negotiation.’
Diodorus raised a red eyebrow, but then he hurried out. Philokles stood by. ‘Which one would you negotiate with?’ he asked.
Kineas shook his head, staring at his map in the dust. ‘Alexander is the enemy we came to fight,’ he said. ‘Spitamenes sold Srayanka to Macedon.’
Philokles stroked his beard. ‘I’m tired of war,’ he said. ‘Neither of them seems so very bad to me. Alexander is a tyrant, but a Hellene. Spitamenes is a Mede, but a patriot.’ He shrugged. ‘Who is the enemy?’
Kineas looked at his map. ‘Craterus will be here first, if he’s coming,’ he said. ‘If we held him, and sent a messenger to Spitamenes — we could defeat him here.’ Kineas looked around.
Philokles waved a hand dismissively. ‘Do we need to fight?’
Kineas nodded. ‘The wagons will roll in two hours,’ he said. ‘We need to hold here at least until darkness, or we could have Craterus’s outriders in among the columns.’
Scythians travelled the sea of grass in two or three parallel columns of wagons, with the herds penned between them and watched by a vanguard and a rearguard of young riders. The columns raised so much dust on the summer plains that they could be seen for fifteen stades and the rearguard was often blind owing to the dust raised.
‘He’ll push his men after the columns of dust,’ Coenus added. ‘May I speak frankly, friend?’
Kineas was surprised by his tone. ‘Of course!’
Coenus finished his water. ‘Do you really want to ambush Craterus? To what purpose?’
Philokles nodded as if in agreement, but after a pause of shocked silence, he said, ‘For the liberation of Greece.’ He stood up like an orator. ‘Any defeat Alexander suffers weakens his choke hold on Greece. If he is beaten out here, all the states of Greece will rise up and be free. Sparta — Athens — Megara.’
Coenus laughed. ‘Don’t you believe it, Philokles. They’ll find a way to fuck it up, trust me. They’ll fight among themselves.’ He shook his head sadly. ‘I’m not much interested in liberating Greece. I’m a gentleman of Olbia now.’
Srayanka licked her lips, and then smiled. ‘We should defeat Alexander because he is dangerous,’ she said. ‘Because he is like a wild dog, and if he is not killed, he will savage our flocks.’
‘Craterus is the enemy. Spitamenes is a possible ally — otherwise, just an interruption. Spitamenes poses no threat to Olbia.’ Kineas looked around and got nods of agreement. ‘Glad that’s settled,’ Kineas said. He was armoured — so were most of the men he could see. ‘Let’s move.’
The columns rolled off before the sun crested the sky. The Sauromatae led the way, although Lot and his best warriors were left behind with Kineas’s force holding the high ground just west of the Oxus. The Sauromatae held the right of the line, hidden in a fold of ground behind a low ridge that ran parallel to the track of the trade road. Kineas placed the trained Greek horse in the centre under Diodorus, with the Olbians on the right under Eumenes and Antigonus and the Keltoi on the left under Coenus and Andronicus. On the right, Srayanka led the Sakje with Parshtaevalt and Urvara. Kineas kept a reserve of mixed Sakje and Greek cavalry — men and women who had trained together for a month — under his own command in the rear. The total force was a little less than eight
