'Where Antigonus is lord,' Satyrus smiled.
'Exactly. Where our troops may pillage as they please.' Darius was a Persian lord – he had no care for the sufferings of Phrygian peasants. 'He should be here in twenty days. If the weather holds as well as it has, perhaps half that. I have already waited three weeks here for you, and we set out together.'
Satyrus poured more wine. 'Sorry to keep you waiting,' he said.
Darius shook his head. 'No – nothing to be concerned at. I am here to try a rescue of Leon. It is my – hmm – my speciality? To go unseen where other men do not go.'
Satyrus smiled at the richly dressed nobleman before him. 'Lord Darius, I can't imagine that you would go unnoticed anywhere.'
Darius laughed. 'You see what I want you to see, son of Kineas. But thank you for your flattery. I think.' He shook his head. 'No more wine for me. I gather that you were present when Philokles died?'
Satyrus told him the story. By the end, he had tears in his eyes and the Persian cried. 'He was the bravest of men,' Darius said. 'I honour him. Crax and Diodorus said to ask you of his end. Now – I do not want you to tell me anything of your plans. I may be taken. But I will ask this – where shall I meet you, if I recover Leon?'
Satyrus was pleased by the sheer confidence of the man. 'I mean to strike for Olbia,' he said.
'You know your sister is loose in the high ground north of Tanais,' Darius said.
'She moves fast,' Satyrus said. 'But sooner or later, we must fight for Olbia and Pantecapaeum.'
Darius shook his head. 'Eumenes – our Eumenes, the Olbian – he will have Olbia for you whenever you want it,' he said. 'He left us in the autumn to be archon.'
Satyrus had heard as much in Alexandria. 'So?'
'So – there's little need for you to go to Olbia. And if you were to appear off Pantecapaeum in, say, ten days?'
'Fifteen,' Satyrus said. 'I can't be ready before that. And I need marines from Diodorus.'
Darius nodded. 'So, say twenty-five days. I will be ready and then some.'
Satyrus raised an eyebrow. 'You are that confident?' he asked.
Darius had a curious facial tic – he could frown and smile at the same time, like a man who smelled something bad. 'I would never offend the gods with such a phrase,' he said. 'But I will say that Pantecapaeum, like all the Euxine cities, has a glut of Persian slaves. And I would assume that you would free any man that I said had aided me – true?'
'Of course,' Satyrus said.
Darius shrugged. 'Then the thing is as good as done. If you will appear off Pantecapaeum in twenty-five days from tomorrow, I will undertake to bring your uncle – my sworn brother – out to your fleet by late afternoon.'
'But…' Satyrus shook his head. 'I want to know how.'
Darius got to his feet. 'We'll see.' He shrugged. 'To be honest, I don't know myself.' It was four days before his fleet arrived, and Darius had already slipped away on an Olbia-bound freighter carrying copper from Cyprus and empty earthenware amphorae for the grain trade. Satyrus had seen him go – a nondescript figure, like a prosperous slave factor or a lower-class Asian merchant. His confidence in the man increased.
It was the next day that Bias reported forty sail in the roadstead, and by dark he had sixty-eight warships filling the harbour. Bias was ready, and he stationed the Rhodians and the Alexandrians at one end of the mole, and put the pirates at the other end, separated by a powerful squadron of Heraklean ships. Every one of Nestor's men was in the streets, and the first sign of pirate trouble was ruthlessly crushed, a message that was understood in every squadron.
In the morning, Satyrus met with all the captains in a warehouse – the only building that was big enough to keep them all out of the wind. There was no hearth, and the icy air got in through loose boards.
'My army will be here in ten days,' Satyrus said. 'And our presence here won't be a secret long. Demostrate – would you care to close the Bosporus to our enemy?'
'Poseidon's prick, lad. We had it closed from Byzantium!' the old pirate said.
'Rumour is that Eumeles has got a shipment of mercenaries and money coming from Athens,' Satyrus said.
'Now that's worth knowing,' Demostrate allowed. 'We'll find 'em.'
'Abraham, I'd like you to take our ships and Lysimachos's and visit the towns on the western shore – starting with Tomis. A day each – clear out any interlopers and do our part by our ally.'
Abraham might have wanted to sail with the pirates, but he didn't show it. 'At your service, Navarch,' he said.
Panther of Rhodos waited until the command conference was over. There was shouting and dickering and the pirates had to make a special treaty about the expected plunder from Athens before one of the captains would sail. Panther watched them with contempt. 'You kept us here,' he said.
'Your men won't make trouble in Heraklea,' Satyrus said.
Panther frowned. 'My men get bored just as quickly as a pirate crew,' he said.
'Ten days,' Satyrus returned. Twelve days after Darius left, and no sign of Diodorus, even from the Heraklean scouts at the mountain passes. Abraham's squadrons returned in high sprits. They'd met a pair of Pantecapaean triremes and taken them in a very one-sided fight off Tomis.
'Calchus sends his regards,' Abraham said. 'I don't think he knew what to do with me, but he was courteous enough, once I said I was from Lysimachos. And he dotes on Theron.'
Theron smiled. 'I believe that I will retire to Tomis,' he said. 'I like it.'
They were still enjoying the triumph of clearing the west coast when Bias sent a slave to announce that Coenus had arrived. Satyrus had seldom spent a more uncomfortable half-hour than that one, waiting for news of his sister.
Coenus and Nihmu came in like lost relatives, escorted from the port by his friend Dionysius. Nihmu looked drained – her skin was grey and her hair lank. Coenus, on the other hand, looked like a man who had shed ten years of age. He fairly shone with health in the late-afternoon sun.
'Satyrus,' he said, taking his hands. 'Your sister sends her love.'
'She is well!' Satyrus said. He realized that he had been holding some part of his breath for an hour.
'She will not hold back from war. She has had some hard times. But she is well, and she misses you. And she has made herself queen of the Assagatje.'
'Marthax?'
'Dead at her hand.' Coenus shrugged. 'To tell it thus is to make him seem a blackguard. Marthax died like a king, and the manner of his death made sure she would be queen.'
Satyrus turned to his captains. He caught Neiron's eye, and Diokles'. 'No more archers on Eumeles' ships,' he said. Then, to his aunt and uncle, he said, 'Where is she now?'
Coenus shook his head. 'No idea. Listen – I see you have a fleet. Let me tell my news as quickly as I may.' He explained rapidly, and then explained again when Neiron provided a hastily drawn chart of the Euxine.
'When I left, Eumeles' general, Nikephoros, was in the Bay of Salmon. He was afraid you'd trap him there and end the war.'
'Poseidon's cock,' Diokles muttered, and many of the other captains, Rhodian, Greek and Alexandrian, muttered too.
'If Diodorus had been on time,' Satyrus said, 'the war would be over.'
Coenus laughed. 'Sometimes your age shows, lad. War is all luck. There's no use in whining about luck you didn't have. Stick with the luck you do have. Tyche has given you a fleet and your sister an army.'
'We need Diodorus,' Satyrus insisted. 'We need his men as marines. We can't face Eumeles' fleet without an edge.'
Coenus looked around. He knew most of Leon's captains, and his eyes settled on Aekes. 'And you, farmer? Do you need Diodorus's men?'
Aekes shrugged. 'Not for myself. But Satyrus has allies. We must wait for them. And they have no marines.'
'Pirates,' Panther spat.
Coenus looked around and laughed. 'You mean you have more ships?' Two days of feverish planning and Demostrate sailed in with most of his ships. He was in a foul mood when he came ashore.
'I lost a pair of ships to one of Eumeles' hundred-handed spawn – gods, it was Dios's own fault, caught like a
