Christian Cameron: King of the Bosphorus

'Sometimes, a Sakje is lost,' he said. His voice was tired with weeping, and he didn't attempt Greek, so that Eumenes, who had so often interpreted for Ataelus, did the office once again. 'Sometimes, a rider vanishes in the snow, or on a scout, and we never find his body. So my beloved was lost, although she fell in full view of a thousand of the people.'

He walked to Melitta, and then led her to Satyrus. 'Our spirit is back with us,' he said. He pointed at the sword Satyrus wore. 'T hat is the sword of Kineax, that has returned. The stories of this spring will live for ever. You, every one of you, are in the songs now. You are in the songs.' He nodded. 'Samahe was in the songs from her youth. If we lose tomorrow, all these songs will be forgotten. If we win, she will live for ever.'

He let go of the hands of the twins.

And then the Sakje passed wine around, and drank.

'My father does not expect to live through the battle,' Thyrsis said to Melitta.

Satyrus shook his head. 'I hear that too often,' he said. Satyrus felt as if he had never been to sleep – and he had had a straw bed and two heavy cloaks, and Helios to massage the muscles of his arm.

'Nikephoros has asked for another parley,' Helios reported.

Melitta had insisted on sleeping with Ataelus's people, and Satyrus wasn't sure whether to go to her or send for her – but that was just foolishness, and he pulled a chiton over his head, arranged the folds, clasped his cloak. 'Boots, Helios. I'll probably ride. Panther – will our sailors serve as peltasts?'

Panther was drinking wine at Satyrus's fire. He had a wound – all of them had wounds. But he smiled. 'Satyrus, I have done more fighting in the last ten days than in the last ten years – and you are asking me for another fight. I'll arm them and hold the camp. If we get bold, we might harry a flank. Think of the rowing these men gave you yesterday.'

Satyrus nodded. 'Too true, and I will not offend the gods by asking more. Care to come to the parley?'

Panther nodded. 'Yes. I may tip the scales.'

Together they made their way across the camps in the first light. Satyrus was stiff in both shoulders, but the massage helped. 'Helios? I need a new shield.'

'I'm on it, lord,' Helios answered.

Melitta was up and drinking wine – Satyrus never drank wine so early, and he was worried to see his sister drink down two cups of unwatered wine for her breakfast.

'Parley?' Satyrus asked, and she gathered her war leaders. Eumenes and Memnon joined them, and they all clasped hands and embraced, one by one, with Parshtaevalt and Ataelus, Coenus and even Graethe.

'Like old times,' Graethe said.

'We need Diodorus to be complete,' Eumenes said. He suddenly appeared older, taller, in a white chiton and a purple-edged white cloak. He had a chaplet of gold oak leaves in his hair.

'You're out-dressing me,' Satyrus said, and smiled, because when you are a king, men mistake humour for assault.

Eumenes grinned, suddenly the young man they'd grown up with. 'I knew I'd be in brilliant company,' he said.

They poured a libation from an old cup that Eumenes had.

'This was Kineas's,' he said. 'Every time we fought, we poured wine from this cup, and then we all drank from it. To all the gods,' he said, and one by one they drank.

When it came to Satyrus, he saw that it was a plain clay soldier's cup. But he drained it, and in the bottom he saw his father's name in the old letters, and tears came to his eyes.

He looked around. His hand reached out and he took his sister's hand. 'This is my father's dream,' he said. 'And my mother's. A kingdom on the Tanais, where free men and women can make their lives without fear. Upazan and Eumeles decided to destroy that dream.'

Melitta spoke up, as if they had planned the speech together. 'Today we reverse fifteen years of their evil,' she said. 'Many of you have fought for days already. This will end it. And when we look at the kurgan by the river, we will remember Kineas and Srayanka as the founders, not as the defeated.'

Panther spoke up. 'Is there anything that you would accept from this parley?' he asked. 'I am the closest thing to a neutral party here, as a man of Rhodos.'

Satyrus and Melitta looked at each other.

'Let's hear what they have to say,' Satyrus said. But they shared a different message. 'We would confirm you in your kingdom,' Eumeles said. His voice was reasonable. He had Upazan behind him, and Nikephoros, and his advisor, Idomenes, and a dozen other officers, Sauromatae and Greek. 'You will have restored to you all the kingdom that your mother held, and we will recognize your sister as the lady of the Assagatje on the sea of grass. And my friend Upazan will go back to his land, keeping only the high ground between the Tanais and the Rha.'

Melitta watched Eumeles the way a farmer watches a snake while he repairs a fence. The farmer knows that if he goes too close, the snake will bite, but from a distance, the snake is merely – fascinating. She looked at her brother. He looked back, and they shared a thought as clearly as if it had been spoken aloud.

And he left it to her to speak.

She stepped forward. Eumeles bowed – Eumeles, who had murdered her mother. She let herself look at him, and in her mind, she allowed Smell of Death to take her face from Melitta, so that her face settled into a mask, and the scar was her face to the world.

'No,' she said. She spoke in a calm, low voice, more like a mother soothing a child than the voice of doom. 'No,' she said again, even more quietly, so that Upazan leaned forward to listen.

Eumeles shrugged. 'Tell us what you want,' he said.

'Your head on my spear,' she said, and looked him full in the eyes, so that he could see the hate, feel it come across the gap of air and go down his spine.

And it did.

'No peace, killer of my mother. No peace, killer of my father. You are dead men. Go from here and be dead.'

Even Upazan flinched.

'We will have peace when Upazan and Eumeles lie in their blood and rot,' she said, her voice still quiet and calm. 'If the rest of you wish to give them to us, so be it. We will then arrange a peace. Otherwise,' she smiled for the first time, 'let's get down to the thing.'

'You are mad,' Eumeles said. He stepped back. Satyrus's lip twitched.

'Goodbye, Eumeles,' Satyrus said softly.

'You are mad!' Eumeles said again, his voice rising.

Upazan shook his head. 'You are a fool, and I am sorry I have a fool for an ally. But I am strong.' He turned to Melitta. 'You will not find me easy. And if you come under my spear again, it is you who will feed the ravens.' He had shrewd eyes, and he was tall, strong and fearless. 'We could make peace. I killed Kineas with a fair arrow, not a back-stab at a parley.' He looked at Eumeles with contempt. Then he looked at Nikephoros and the Greek commander met his eye.

Melitta's voice did not waver. 'How many times must I say no?' she said.

Upazan drew himself up. 'So,' he said.

Nikephoros spoke for the first time. 'Then we'll fight.'

Eumeles gathered his dignity. 'Expect no mercy,' he said.

And that was the parley. Satyrus and Melitta arranged their armies in the order they had camped. Eumenes had the left, facing Nikephoros, with all the infantry, including the Macedonian marines. Satyrus was in the centre with Melitta and the best of the Sakje knights all formed together, and opposite them was Eumeles' banner, and the aristocracy of Pantecapaeum and all the Euxine cities he held save only Olbia, flanked by thousands of Upazan's warriors. But Upazan himself faced Urvara and Parshtaevalt and Ataelus on the right by the beach and the remnants of the fortified camp, now full of javelin-armed sailors who had enough spirit to annoy Upazan's horsemen as they attempted to move forward.