An empty throne, p.7
An Empty Throne, page 7
‘Defeated! What do you mean defeated?’ Olympias’ serpentine eyes drilled into Aristonous, covered in the dust of travel, sitting with Thessalonike and Polyperchon at the council table.
‘I mean Kassandros got around behind us and, in a surprise attack just before dawn, overran my camp and killed or captured most of my men. I managed to break out with about four hundred cavalry; I sent them on to Pella and then I infiltrated Kassandros’ army in order to report the disaster to you in person. That’s what I mean by defeated.’
Olympias hissed, her hands tight on the arms of her throne, knuckles white. ‘How did you let that happen?’
‘He was clever. He sent a feint to the coast to meet up with his fleet. Polyperchon sent me regular reports – as I’m sure he did to you – saying Kassandros was doing exactly what I expected him to do; so I let him do it. Never interrupt the enemy when he’s making a mistake. Only he wasn’t making a mistake, he was keeping me occupied, staring at his right, whilst, on the left, he came over a pass in the Cambunian Range and got behind me without my knowledge.’
‘But surely you had scouts.’
‘He must have captured or killed them all; nothing came in from Aeacides for three days before Kassandros attacked.’
‘Aeacides? What news of him?’
Aristonous shook his head, forlorn. ‘The last I heard he was still on the western frontier; however, I was told that a lot of his men are getting restless and want to go home; some have already deserted. They don’t understand the point of sitting around on a hill doing nothing with winter approaching.’
‘They should do as they’re told.’
‘They won’t, that’s the problem. Aeacides is weak. Without you with him, bolstering the army’s morale, it gets restless. I don’t think you can rely on him coming to our aid, even if Kassandros hasn’t left a force to prevent that, which I very much believe he would have done. I completely underestimated him just because he has no battle experience as a commander. It was an elementary mistake.’
‘One you accused me of,’ Polyperchon pointed out.
‘Pah! Enough, old man,’ Olympias snapped. ‘Slinking in here with your tail between your legs and more than half your men deserted to the enemy means you’ve no right to criticise anyone.’
‘Reminding people of their failings is not going to get us anywhere, Olympias,’ Thessalonike said in measured tones. ‘At least he still has part of his army.’
She never calls me mother any more; not since I slapped her. I must try to regain her trust.
‘How many men do you have left, Polyperchon?’ Aristonous asked.
‘Eight thousand,’ Polyperchon said without relish.
‘And with the forces we still have in Pella and the garrison I left in Amphipolis against Antigonos attempting to send reinforcements overland, plus the smaller garrisons from places like Apollonia and Aegae, we could still put over twenty thousand into the field. We could stop him yet, provided we can break out by either land or sea.’
Olympias tapped the arm of her throne with increasing impatience. ‘And how do we do that?’
‘Alexandros,’ Aristonous replied.
Polyperchon looked at him in disbelief. ‘He won’t want to bring his army north, just ten thousand of them to face almost thirty.’
‘You’ll have to make him,’ Aristonous said. ‘We need him to come north in the spring and join forces with us, which would bring our combined number up to around thirty thousand as well. It’s too late in the year now, therefore early next year is the time we need to muster all the available troops we have, down to the very last man.’
Olympias chewed on her lip, deep in thought. ‘Very well; we risk leaving the approach from Thrace open; it shouldn’t be for too long. Aristonous, you go north and collect the Apollonia garrison and all the others up there over the winter. Have them ready to fall back on here as soon as Alexandros arrives. Polyperchon, you can redeem yourself by bringing your son and his army up from the south as early in spring as possible. We’ll sneak you both out by boat as soon as we have a favourable moon and an overcast sky. If we can manage to time a breakout with Alexandros supporting us from the south and the garrisons from the north hitting him from behind, we’ll rip the balls off that murdering son of a toad. Earth Mother, grant me my desire.’
And it was Gaia, the Earth Mother, to whom Olympias sacrificed soon after in hope of her desire being satisfied, giving the goddess the blood of a black lamb as the priestesses chanted her slow, sacred hymn that echoed around the dimly lit, unpainted walls of the cavernous temple.
‘Oh goddess, source of gods and mortals, all-fertile, all-destroying, Gaia, mother of all who brings forth bounteous fruits and flowers of all variety; mother who anchors the eternal world in our own; immortal, blessed and crowned with every grace.’
But it was alone she sacrificed, she reflected, as the priestesses continued the hymn and the blood of the lamb drained into the silver bowl set before the altar. If Thessalonike continues to refuse my invitations to sacrifice with me I’ll be forced to consider her loyalty as suspect. But enough of her. ‘Come, blessed goddess, and hear the prayers of your children.’
However, throughout the ceremony her mind kept returning to the subject of her now-distant adopted daughter. Olympias could find no peace in, nor gain any comfort from, her devotions and, indeed, felt no closeness to the goddess as she had always done when worshipping her together with Thessalonike. As the rites continued, Olympias’ focus wandered and she grew impatient, wanting the final dedication to come, forcing herself not to leave the temple early for she knew all the good she had achieved with her sacrifice would be null and void. The harsh truth of the matter is I miss her friendship. And it pained her for she realised the estrangement was of her own doing, and if they were ever going to bring their relationship back to as it was before the slap, it would involve her doing something she had never in her life done before: apologise. Can I really ask her to forgive me without feeling humiliated? Impossible. But even so it is what I must do if I’m not to feel completely alone now my daughter Kleopatra remains in Sardis. I need her strength.
And so it was that Olympias sought out Thessalonike in her rooms at the conclusion of the ceremony.
‘You’re sorry?’ Thessalonike looked at her adoptive mother in open-mouthed bewilderment. ‘You’re telling me you are actually sorry you slapped and humiliated me before the entire population of Pella?’
Olympias swallowed her rising fury. Why does she have to make this worse for me than it already is? ‘Yes, I am. I can see it has come between us and I would like it not to.’
‘Oh, you would, would you? And why would that be? Because it doesn’t suit your needs for me not to be the obliging little daughter any more?’ Thessalonike stared Olympias in the eye. ‘You’ve spent your life thinking only of yourself. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, in the final analysis everyone does it, but thinking only of yourself doesn’t mean you can treat other people any way you like, especially people like me, the daughter of a king. What you did to me was unforgivable. I have never been so humiliated, never! If you want to have a comfortable mother and daughter relationship then your natural one is just across the sea in Sardis; go and seek Kleopatra out. Although, judging by the fact she has no real reason to be there any more, and might just as well be here in Macedon, I think her continued voluntary exile speaks volumes as to her desire to spend time with you.’
‘How dare you speak to me like that when I came here to apologise for something I now regret!’
‘You’ve never regretted anything in your life, Olympias, because everything you’ve done has been for yourself, so don’t start pretending to do so now. You slapped me in public because you wanted to show me you could and I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it; you did it because I was telling you the nasty truth. Well, Olympias, I can do something about it: I can carry on telling you the nasty truth, especially when you don’t want to hear it and I can also make sure others are aware of a few facts concerning you.’
‘Like what, for example?’
‘Like what you’re really doing here.’
‘And what am I really doing here other than organising the defence of the port?’
Thessalonike smiled in disbelief. ‘You really don’t think your motives aren’t transparent to me, do you? You’re not here to take command of a little navy in order to save Pydna. No, not Pydna but, rather, yourself, should it all go wrong.’ She pointed through the window, over the town walls to where Kassandros’ combined armies were now setting up camp under a haze of cooking-fire smoke. ‘As it seems it already has gone wrong. But you could’ve made a stand in Pella and yet you chose not to – why?’
‘You tell me.’
‘Because to escape Pella by ship you have to sail three leagues down a narrow inlet to the open sea, plenty of time to be intercepted; whereas here it’s out of the harbour under the cover of a foggy night and, provided you can slip through the blockade, there you are, two days’ sailing to Sardis and the protection of Kleopatra where you can start your scheming and plotting afresh. That’s why you’re here and I’ve made sure that both Aristonous and Polyperchon know the exact reason.’
‘You little bitch!’
‘Ha! So you don’t deny it, do you, Olympias?’
‘Why should I deny it to you? Yes, of course I have an escape plan in mind, and yes, it is easier to escape from here than it is from Pella, if you wish to go by sea. But that’s not the main reason why I’m here, and giving that lie to my two generals is more than counterproductive, it’s sabotage.’
Thessalonike looked at Olympias with suspicion. ‘So tell me, Mother dear, what excuse have you given yourself for taking the safer option rather than remaining in the capital?’
With an intake of breath, Olympias shook her head and sat down on a well-appointed couch, leaning against its arm. ‘Won’t you offer me a drink?’
Thessalonike paused before clapping her hands and ordering a pitcher of wine from a slave-girl.
They waited in silence until its arrival.
‘That’s better,’ Olympia said, placing her cup on the table whilst savouring the vintage. ‘How much do we have, enough to see us through to next year?’ She essayed a smile. ‘We’ll surely be needing it.’
Thessalonike was not to be warmed. ‘If you refrain from your wilder, Bacchic excesses, it may just last. Now, Olympias, I’ve no wish for small talk with you; what do you want to tell me?’
‘You’re being too hard on me.’
‘Not as hard as you are on everyone you have contact with.’
‘You might think that’s a fair point.’
‘Just get on with it.’
‘Very well.’ Olympias paused for another sip. ‘My safety, although it is always of utmost importance to me, was, in this case, a secondary consideration. It seemed, with the way we had this planned, we had a very high chance of success; I think even you would agree with that?’
Thessalonike inclined her head. ‘I would. And I would also say, whatever you might think of Kassandros personally, it was a stroke of military genius coming through the Cambunian Range and dashing our plans with one move.’
‘That’ll always be a matter of regret. But I would not give the credit to Kassandros without being certain of the facts; he has some very able men with him. But I digress. I needed to be at Pydna, or rather I needed myself, the king and you to be at Pydna because Kassandros’ army is borrowed from Antigonos. They are men who, in the main, have not been home to Macedon for years; some have been in Asia since Alexander first invaded, fifteen years ago. Now, say we defeated them, as we thought we would, what chance would there have been of swearing them into our army, to fight for us, truly fight for us with all their heart, when most of them now have wives and children over in Asia? Eh? Tell me.’
Thessalonike pursed her lips. ‘Very little.’
‘Very little indeed. Unless the mother, half-sister and son of Alexander were to appeal to them directly in the hour of their defeat. If we three were to have offered them a new life in Macedon, fighting for Macedon, imagine the army we would’ve had with them and our existing troops: it would have been enough to hold the Greek cities in check and then move across to Sardis and, with the addition of Kleopatra, we would’ve been the army of the family of Alexander; completely legitimate. No one could have stood against us and been morally in the right. We could have linked up with Eumenes and taken the empire.’
‘And you could have had ultimate power; your son’s power.’
Yes, that’s always my dream.
‘But now Eumenes has gone east so your dream is slipping away.’
‘It can still happen when we break out of here; Eumenes will come back west.’
‘He has no fleet and nor do we.’
‘I’ll capture Kassandros’ fleet. As the mother of Alexander I’ll appeal to them and they won’t resist me.’
Thessalonike lowered her eyes as her shoulders began to shake. She looked up from her cup as a laugh escaped her. ‘You just can’t stop yourself, can you, all this scheming and plotting? And as you conspired to gain the Asian troops’ loyalty, so you could rule the world, you forgot one thing, one tiny thing. Forget Kassandros’ brilliant move, through it all you forgot the men you inherited in the army of Macedon are, in the main, men who were loyal to Antipatros and who were then transferred to a nonentity, Polyperchon, upon his death.’ She paused for another burst of laughter. ‘Why should they remain loyal to him and you in the face of Antipatros’ son? That’s where their loyalty is: to Antipatros’ family; not to you, you who ordered the execution of Nicanor, the kinsman of Antipatros and Kassandros, and all of his followers. No, Olympias, they didn’t feel a stronger loyalty to the mother of Alexander than they did to the son of the regent they had fought under for years.’ Her mirth was now hard to control. ‘All this relying on being the mother of Alexander, expecting it to make everything happen for you, is over. Most of Polyperchon’s army, your army, deserted to Kassandros, whom you consider to be a pockmarked son of a toad, because they love him far more than they do you. How does that make you feel, Olympias?’
‘Macedonians will always love the mother of Alexander!’
‘Wrong, Olympias, they won’t; not above all things, not any more. Times are different now: five years after his death, Macedonians are fighting Macedonians; you have only to look out the window to see the truth of that. Only Alexander could hold them all together and now as his memory fades so does their loyalty to him. They will re-attach themselves to what always bound them before Alexander: their tribal loyalties. Kassandros’ men will always be Kassandros’ men and Antigonos’ will always be his, until they die or until someone offers them such a large bribe they can’t refuse it. Just being the mother of Alexander doesn’t count for much since this civil war started.’
Olympias jumped up, dashing her cup to the ground, shattering it, and strode to the window. The proof of what Thessalonike had said was staring her in the face. She clenched her fists and gritted her teeth, suppressing her rage; her heart beat fast as she reconciled herself to the veracity of all she had heard. In stages she calmed. Once she was mistress of her emotions again she turned to Thessalonike. ‘So this is your vengeance, is it?’
Thessalonike smiled, ice in her eyes. ‘Telling you the nasty truth? Yes, and it’s a pleasure. I’ll stay here and be with you and offer my advice, because I’ve nowhere else to go, as yet; but we will never be friends again, you and I, Olympias, not after what you did.’
I won’t give her the pleasure of seeing my disappointment, the little bitch. ‘Very well, if that’s how you want it to be.’ She turned, walked to the door and paused, looking over her shoulder. ‘But remember this, Thessalonike: you are in my power. I can keep you here just as I keep Alexander and his eastern wild-cat of a mother.’
Thessalonike’s ice-like smile had not thawed. ‘Perhaps one day I’ll test the truth of that.’
‘Pah! You can try but you’re as much my prisoner as Roxanna is.’
ROXANNA.
THE WILD-CAT.
IT WAS INTOLERABLE for a queen to be treated thus. Lamenting her lack of freedom, Roxanna paced her apartments – not nearly as lavish as her suite in Pella – high in the royal palace at Pydna; for, although she was technically allowed to leave her rooms to walk in the town, she could not do so without guards. Since she had poisoned the two men keeping her to her chambers during Alexander’s betrothal, none of the other guards would volunteer and, much to her ire, were not forced to do so by their commanding officers. Therefore her only contact with the outside world was via her slaves, all of whom lived in fear, for all knew the lick of her whip and all had witnessed the sudden disappearance of colleagues who had seriously displeased their mistress.
Why is this taking so long? A queen should never be kept waiting. I’ll have a finger off the girl when she gets back.
And the urgency of the girl’s mission was clear to Roxanna. She had only to step out onto the terrace of her apartments to be aware of it: to look west was to see the beginning of a great palisade, now four days under construction, that would semi-circumvallate the harbour town from the north coast to the south coast. To look east was to see the fleet completing that circumvallation with their wooden walls. No, it was intolerable to be placed in such a position of danger. She had even thought she had seen Kassandros, the man who would have her dead should she fall into his clutches, surveying the town, and a cold dread had run through her. And how could she not become his victim, she wondered. Now that the siege was under way, who or what would prevent him from prevailing?
Thus it was obvious to Roxanna she had to escape and her escape must be soon, but her chances of success were slim and almost non-existent if she tried to take her son. But then what use was Alexander to her now? Now he had been stolen from her by Olympias, he no longer guaranteed her safety. No, it was best for her to leave him behind and for her to find another protector. She had to escape alone and tonight would be her best opportunity, for tonight there was no moon and clouds covered the sky. Tonight, she knew, Aristonous and Polyperchon would both attempt to break the blockade and leave by ship. And Roxanna intended to be on Aristonous’ vessel; and what was more, she intended to have her revenge before she left. But to do that she needed the girl to arrive quickly for there was little time.
