King of the Bosphorus

Melitta arranged guards and put every man in the camp that could make an arrow to fletching. She did these things herself, or through her guard, because the level of exhaustion was so high that she could no longer trust that her chiefs would get everything done. So Laen and Agreint stalked the camp, waking men up to ask after fletchers, while the rest of them under Scopasis stripped their armour and became scouts.

Coenus seemed unfazed, despite riding a thousand stades and fighting. He shrugged. 'This was my life,' he said simply.

Ataelus shook his head. 'I for horse – every day for horse. But you? Greek man.'

Coenus nodded. 'You served with Kineas. I had eight years of it.'

Ataelus nodded. 'We need for Kineax.'

Melitta didn't know what to make of that. So she said nothing.

After she had her guards out and when the pile of arrows was growing at a rate that seemed glacial but would have to do, she went to Coenus. 'I need to be in touch with Urvara every day,' she said. 'Will you be my herald?'

Coenus nodded. 'T hat's good thinking. I'm away. Can I put the seed of an idea in your head?'

Melitta shrugged. 'Of course.'

Coenus pointed at Temerix. 'The farmers could hold that ford all day. Against the whole of Upazan's force.'

Melitta shook her head. 'So? Upazan's on the same side of the river as we are.'

'He is now,' Coenus said. He already had the reins of his horse. 'If you retired across the river, he'd be stuck on the wrong side. Quite a ride north to get to the next ford, or take truly staggering casualties to get through Temerix.'

Melitta rubbed her chin. 'I see it.'

Coenus nodded sharply. 'I'm not saying that it is the right thing to do. But…'

Melitta looked downstream. 'No enemy boats for two days.'

Coenus nodded. 'Makes you wonder. I'll be back in three hours.' And he was gone. Melitta saw, with the eyes of a commander, that his horse's hooves raised dust today where yesterday the ground had been soft.

Good to know.

She lay down and slept. Coenus returned while she was drinking beer with Temerix, outlining for him how she'd like him to drive stakes into the ford. 'Well?' she asked. 'Eumenes of Olbia is a day's march away – I saw a girl called Lithra, a spear-maiden of the Cruel Hands, who'd just ridden in with a message.' Coenus said this in a loud voice, and men making arrows looked up, and many of them smiled. The Cruel Hands were the royal tribe, and heaviest in warriors.

'By the Warrior and the Ploughman,' Buirtevaert said. 'I'm sorry I doubted you, Greek.'

Graethe came up. He had a wound on his chest that was suppurating through his wool coat. Melitta embraced him anyway.

'That was a bold charge, Lord of the Standing Horse. It will long be remembered, that we followed your banner to victory.' She took his hands, and he winced as some movement of his arm caused him pain, but his face lit up at the praise.

'If Kairax of the Cruel Hands is two days' ride away,' he said, 'I owed you that charge.' He grinned. 'And I had to strike hard before he comes and steals all the glory!'

Melitta came back to Coenus. 'But you do not look like the bearer of good tidings.'

Coenus squinted in the bright sunlight. 'I don't know if it is good or bad, but you need to hear it. Urvara is taking her Grass Cats and all the farmers in the fort across the river. She's been feeding riders across for two days, raiding Nikephoros's foragers and cutting into his ability to send out parties. Now he has his boats crewed all the time, trying to catch her people, but they swim the river and now they can shoot his rowers from both banks.'

'And that is why we no longer see boats up here!' she said. She clapped her hands. 'No bad news there!'

'No. But in pushing so many of her warriors across the river, Urvara is committed to fight. Today, I saw Nikephoros march his whole force out of their fort and form a square. They marched up-country, seizing food. Urvara's men shot at them but did little damage. Now she's determined to cross in force and hem him in his camp. And of course, with Eumenes right behind her, she can do it.'

Melitta understood. 'Urvara is committing us to a battle.'

Coenus nodded. 'Yes.'

'Just to cover her archers, who she needed to close the river, which she did to keep us alive up here.' Melitta ticked the points off with her fingers.

Coenus nodded again. 'Yes. You are your father's daughter, Melitta. Many grown men with ten campaigns never understand the cause and effect like that.'

'I love your praise, Uncle. You knew of this in the morning, when you recommended that we close the ford.' She wasn't accusing him, just asking.

'I didn't know,' he said with a shrug. 'I merely suspected. Urvara means to fight – or close the fort – tomorrow. The Cruel Hands and all of Eumenes' cavalry are riding all day to join her, and the phalanx of Olbia will come when they can. I don't see how we can get them over the river, but we'll do that when we have to.'

'And the farmers?' Melitta asked.

'Swimming with the Sakje horses. Not something most Greeks can do.' He shook his head. 'Any movement from Upazan?'

Melitta looked upstream, where the calm day devoid of dust showed that her enemy was resting. 'Nothing.' She sat on a stump. 'But if Urvara commits to fight Nikephoros – then what? It is a very unequal fight, all cavalry against all infantry.'

Coenus nodded. 'Just so. It will, in fact, be a race between Eumenes' phalanx and Upazan. Upazan has more cavalry than all of ours combined – twice over, even now. But he has no infantry. If we can destroy Nikephoros before Upazan arrives, he will be helpless. But if Nikephoros holds us until Upazan arrives…'

Melitta shook her head. 'Urvara has committed us to a mighty risk. What if I call her back?'

Coenus sat down. Men were gathering around – Scopasis and Graethe, Ataelus, his eyes red with weeping, and Buirtevaert with his hand on Ataelus's shoulder, his son Thyrsis behind him and Tameax the baqca watching from under his eyebrows. But they all stood silent and listened. This was not their way of war.

Coenus looked around. 'If you call her back, then we face Upazan on this side of the river, and Nikephoros recovers his wits, puts all his men on ships and comes across.'

'Ahh,' Melitta said. Now she saw it. 'This is not risk. We are, in fact, desperate.'

Coenus put his hands on his knees. 'Unless your brother comes,' he said, 'we have little choice.'

Melitta stood. 'Then let us strike with what we have. Upazan has lost a day. We will march at dawn – across the ford. Temerix, your best two hundred, with ponies, to hold the ford. If Upazan crosses north of us, scouts will inform your men and they can ride to join us. Otherwise, you hold the ford until you die. The rest of your archers follow me. Perhaps we can bury Nikephoros in arrows.'

Ataelus shrugged.

Graethe looked at the men making arrows. 'Only if we have them to shoot,' he said. Upazan's scouts found them in the dark, but they were ready enough, and Melitta slept through the fight and rose to be given hot wine and a report.

Scopasis pressed the wine into her hand, and she could see blood under the nails of his hands.

'We hit them, but many got away.' He shrugged. 'We killed more than some.' He frowned. 'But they saw the stakes in the ford.'

She kissed him then. He was shocked – he stumbled back. 'Lady?' he mumbled.

She smiled. 'Life is not all war, Scopasis. One day, we will not be wearing armour.'

She caught a glint – the outlaw lived. 'Lady,' he growled.

She felt better than she had in days, and she swallowed the wine in four hot gulps. 'Armour,' she called, and then remembered that she no longer had Samahe to braid her hair. She was surprised – appalled, actually – at how quickly the dead were left behind in her head. They died so fast.

She shook her head to clear it. That way madness lay.