with Heraklea. It's not pretty. But when I left, Nihmu and Crax had just ridden in from Diodorus. He should have sailed the day after I rode out – two days at the most.' Coenus shrugged. 'That's not much of a lie.'
'But you didn't see him sail,' Melitta said.
'I saw Urvara at the fort, and she said Eumenes was three days away and marching. And that was this morning. And she has three thousand horses and almost as many Sindi and Maeotae in the fort. Damn it, girl! In ten days, we'll outnumber everything Eumeles and Nikephoros and Upazan can muster.' Coenus grabbed her shoulders.
Melitta pushed him away. 'Don't you get it? I'm risking people – real people – and they're dying like houseflies at the end of summer. Why didn't Urvara send those riders to me?'
'Urvara is containing Nikephoros. Without her raids, his men would be all over the river, instead of just sending a boat or two to harass the farmers. Even outnumbered two to one, Urvara is keeping him busy.' Coenus put his hands on his hips. 'Keep it together, girl. The tide is turning.'
'I am not girl. I am the lady.' She shook her head. 'By all the gods, Coenus, I am staking my people on Eumenes of Olbia and on my brother's fleet. If they are late, we're dead. We don't have ten days. We have two days. In two days, we'll be pushed back right into the fort, and then Upazan and Nikephoros join hands, and exterminate us.'
Coenus rubbed his beard. 'Well, lady – and I concede, you are lady, even to me – then we fight for two days with everything we have. And trust to the gods.'
Melitta laughed. 'T hat's where I was, just a few hours ago. Now, all I see is the end. Perhaps Satyrus will come and destroy Eumeles after I am dead.' She laughed, and it was a harsh sound. 'Is this all there is, Coenus?'
'I spurned command all my life, lady,' he said, 'because as far as I could see with my friend Kineas, that is all there is – one damned decision after another, and watching friends die, whether you made the right call or not. That's how it has always looked to me.'
'I don't think I want to be queen of the Sakje,' Melitta said.
'Too late now,' Coenus answered.
Melitta left him then, her heart empty, unsure even of how much truth Coenus – her beloved uncle, the father of her first lover – was telling her. She walked away into the darkness, past the horse lines, watching the tail of the moon for a while. She wept a little.
'Lady?' Scopasis asked. He came out of the dark with a blanket. 'You are troubled.'
'Fuck off,' Melitta said savagely.
Scopasis, the former outlaw, stood his ground. 'Take the blanket,' he said.
'I don't need your help,' she said. Mostly to herself.
He held the blanket out mutely.
She found herself inside the blanket, her arms around his chest, weeping, and he held her for a long time as she felt his warmth and comfort.
'When I was outlawed,' he said, 'my anger kept me warm for a while, and then I was cold and alone.'
She couldn't see him, with her cheek pressed against the warm wool of his coat. She waited for him to say more, but he didn't, and they were silent.
Finally he said, 'I told all the people who tried to help me to fuck themselves,' and laughed. Melitta wasn't sure that she'd ever heard Scopasis laugh.
'This makes you want to help people?' she asked.
'It makes me immune to people I love telling me to fuck off,' he said. In the morning, Melitta was relacing her armour while Samahe did her hair. Scopasis didn't seem to see her – he moved about, getting horses and preparing the bodyguard for another day of combat. They had thirty riders now, and Coenus joined them in full armour.
Scopasis saluted. 'You are back, lord.'
Coenus nodded. 'As a trooper, Scopasis. You are the captain now. Half these men barely know me, and frankly, if I have to tell Darax one more time how to do up his girth, I'll kill him.' Coenus grinned. 'You're the captain, lad. I'll cover the lady and give her advice. You run the troop.'
Scopasis gave the Greek man a hug. 'You are like my second father.'
Coenus didn't deny it.
After that exchange, Melitta managed to corner Scopasis while he rolled his blankets. 'About last night,' she said, the best opening she could manage after an hour of furious thinking.
He looked at her, puzzled. 'Last night?' he asked.
'I was-' Melitta wanted to be clear about how much she valued the comfort he had offered, but that she was still his queen.
'Darax!' Scopasis called past her. 'Look at the girth on that saddle-cloth. You are no use to the lady dangling under your horse! Get your arse over here and see to it. Now!' His level gaze came back to hers. 'I have no memory of last night, lady. Please do not embarrass me.'
She met that gaze. 'I'm surrounded by liars.'
He shrugged. 'Hmm,' he grunted. 'No man likes to be called a liar.'
Coenus appeared at her elbow, making her flush. 'If we lie to you, perhaps it's for good reasons.' He looked at the sky. 'Dry day.'
Ataelus came up, eyeing a new arrow, the fletches just dry. Melitta could smell the fish-glue. 'A day for shooting,' he said.
Their first contact came almost immediately. Upazan's advance guard came down the valley with the sun, flooding the farm fields on either side of the road. Temerix's men had been up for hours, and they stayed on the ridges north of the river, showering the Sauromatae flanking parties with arrows and retreating beyond their reach. Today the Sauromatae seemed content to ignore the galling of their flanks. They pressed straight down the river, and the ground was dark with riders all the way back to the purple hills to the east.
'Where did he get so many riders?' Ataelus asked again.
And then they were fighting.
It was a swirling fight, where a warrior who slowed down to a trot was already dead. Today, the Sakje bowstrings were dry and the gut in the belly of their bows was flexible and hard, and their arrows lashed out from half a stade, pricking armoured men and slaying horses.
Graethe surprised them all by leading the whole of his clan in an attack. The Sauromatae were spread wide, but their advance guard was thin and the main body was ten stades back. Graethe shot three thick volleys of arrows from the high ground on their left and then charged with five hundred warriors, pushing the Sauromatae down into the road.
Ataelus watched him with a disapproving frown. But Coenus slapped his thigh. 'He may be a big blowhard, but he's our blowhard. Look – he's lost honour, and he's buying it back.' Coenus looked at Melitta. 'If it were me, I'd push right up the road now, and blow their advance guard back on their main body.'
Ataelus shook his head. 'We lose a hundred riders.'
Coenus pulled his horse in. 'Look, I get it. These are not professional soldiers and I am not throwing them away. But if we charge now, we can wreck Upazan for today. We won't have to fight again until tomorrow. A day gained, and not an inch of ground lost. And then – listen! And then we get up in the dark and ride away, breaking contact, and make him face blank country and a new ambush.'
Melitta raised her whip. 'So we fought for the first three days, Coenus. Upazan ignores the damage and comes forward. He never hesitates. If we crush his advance guard, he'll attack.'
Ataelus pursed his lips. 'Do it,' he said. He waved at his own clansmen, and the wolf-tails waved.
'Why?' Melitta asked.
'Because your brother is coming, and we are here to bleed Upazan,' Ataelus said.
They charged down the road and her well-armoured knights led the way. The Sauromatae didn't make a stand until they had to, which was by a burned-out farm where the road pinched down by the riverbank. The crowd of routed Sauromatae couldn't get through the gap, and the Sakje slaughtered them, killing a hundred in a minute.
Melitta shot three arrows. Her knights kept between her and the panicked men, and she was glad.
Upazan's counter-attack was slow in coming, and the attack itself was hesitant. The first wave of riders were well armoured, some even having horse armour, but they weren't immune to the powerful Sakje bows. The wave
