The Lost Army (45 page)

At the top of the drawing was a sequence of triangles of differing heights that perhaps were meant to represent mountains, and between them a wavy line that possibly stood for a river. The four signs traced there were so clear that they will remain for ever fixed in my mind as if they had been carved into a piece of wood.

Along the wavy line was another, interrupted by a series of small vertical strokes, each one distinguished by one or two signs.

‘What were you looking for in my chest, girl?’ asked Commander Sophos with an icy voice.

Just then Melissa ran in, past the small group of men, before anyone could stop her. She was shouting, ‘I didn’t want to! They forced me!’

An ugly welt crossed her flawless cheek. She fell to her knees, weeping hysterically, and one of the soldiers dragged her away. Cleanor didn’t lift a finger.

‘What were you looking for?’ Sophos repeated harshly.

I didn’t know what to answer, so I said nothing.

‘You must know something,’ he said, turning to Xeno, who looked as if he’d been turned to stone.

Xeno didn’t answer Sophos, but turned to me. ‘Why did you do this? What did you want to take? Why didn’t you tell me anything?’

Neon slapped me hard and made my lip bleed. ‘They asked you a question!’ he snarled.

Xeno grabbed his wrist before he could hit me again and squeezed it forcefully, then started to twist it. A glance from Sophos and his adjutant stepped away.

I covered my head with my shawl because I didn’t want to see or hear anything and I burst into tears. Xeno made me stand up straight, uncovered my face and repeated in a firm voice, ‘Tell me what you were looking for. You have no choice.’

I stared at him through my tears and then looked around: Sophos was still and scowling, Neon’s face seemed a stone mask, the little prostitute was livid and about to faint, Melissa was in the back sobbing, the two armed warriors had their torches in hand, there was the commander’s armour, red in the torchlight, red as blood. And the snow . . . the snow was covering everything. I forced myself to speak.

‘I was looking for an answer.’

‘An answer?’ asked Sophos, and I could read a sudden disquiet in his eyes.

‘Yes, but I’m only a poor girl and I can’t bear the force of your presence or the look in your eye. I’ll speak with Xeno and if he likes, he’ll speak to you.’

Sophos fell silent in surprise.

‘Leave Melissa and that other poor wretch out of this. They know nothing. I asked them to help me and they agreed. You’ll know everything from Xeno, once I’ve spoken to him.’

‘I can have you tortured,’ said Sophos icily.

‘I don’t doubt that, but I couldn’t tell you anything you don’t already know.’

I looked him straight in the eyes as I said those words and somehow I got across what I wanted him to understand.

Xeno was badly shaken but he was beginning to figure things out. Words that I’d said, suspicions I’d had, were re-emerging into his consciousness.

Neon had lost his imperturbability and the look on his face was grim. Melissa seemed uncertain and bewildered. Cleanor, standing further back, had not had any particular reaction, except for curiosity about what was happening.

Sophos spoke. ‘Take these women away,’ he ordered Cleanor. ‘And you two can go as well,’ he added, addressing the warriors. ‘I don’t need you any more.’ Cleanor led Melissa out of the tent.

Sophos turned to Xeno. ‘How could you? How could you violate my tent? And you didn’t even have the courage to do it yourself. You sent a woman, and she had to get help from other women . . .’ He added sarcastically, ‘Since when does a secret among three women stay secret for longer than an hour?’

‘I had nothing to do with this,’ Xeno retorted. ‘If I tell you I had nothing to do with this, that means it’s true. You know well that I never lie and that I’m a man of my word. Look into my eyes: do you see shame, or fear? Let me talk to her. She’ll tell me everything.’

Something had broken. Something had wormed its way into Sophos’s iron spirit. He drew a long breath and his gaze seemed lost in the swirling snowflakes falling from the sky.

We walked away and I could not believe that Sophos didn’t stop us.

‘You want to know what I was looking for? Here’s what!’ I said to Xeno as soon as we arrived in our tent. I didn’t want to give him the time to unleash the rage that must have been building inside him.

Before he could say a word or make a gesture, I took a stalk from the wicker mat and used it to draw the image I’d seen, there on the hard dirt: the sequence of triangular shapes, the wavy line, the second line broken up by short vertical strokes and then, over the wavy line, the four signs from the Greek language: ΑΡΑΞ. It came out very sharp and clear, and I could see the astonishment on Xeno’s face.

‘What is that?’ he asked.

‘Signs that I saw on a skin inside Sophos’s chest. I think they represent the place we find ourselves in: these are mountains, this is the line of our march. Those vertical marks are the stages of our journey. And this is the river. Sophos knows exactly where we’re going.’

Xeno’s look of amazement and incredulity grew as he observed my drawing.

‘Are you certain that it was exactly the same as what you’ve drawn here?’

‘Identical.’ I knew I would have to prove it to him, so I’d memorized all the tiniest details. ‘There’s just one thing I don’t understand: what these mean,’ I said, pointing at the four signs written in the language of the Greeks.

Xeno bowed his head. His voice cracked with emotion. ‘They mean that you were right. That Sophos is deceiving us, or much, much worse . . .’

‘Why?’

‘Because these signs say that he knew full well that the river was not the Phasis as I believed, but the Araxes.’

‘What difference does that make?’

‘The Phasis leads to the Pontus Euxinus, which is a sea surrounded by Greek cities. No one knows for sure where the Araxes leads, but I’m afraid to the Caspian, an unknown sea at the edge of the world.’

‘What will you do now?’

‘I’ll confront him.’

‘When?’

‘Now.’

‘Don’t do it now, please listen. Wait until tomorrow. Take time to reflect.’

My words were to no avail. Xeno headed towards Sophos’s isolated tent.

I told myself I would wait it out, but my anxiety was choking me. I strained my ears, but couldn’t hear a sound. I couldn’t just sit and wait until Xeno came back; I was too worried about what would happen to him. I hadn’t been this upset when I’d seen him fighting hand-to-hand against fierce warriors or throwing himself into the thick of the battle. In the end I decided to follow him and I sneaked up on Sophos’s tent. I hid behind the bellies of the mules tied up in back, behind a bush. I heard Sophos’s voice first.

‘If anyone else had dared to slander me with such a claim, I wouldn’t have given him the time to regret it. But you . . . you are my friend, you’ve risked your life time and time again for these men, although you aren’t even part of the army. I’m grateful to you for this, but do not provoke me further or . . .’

‘Or what? Chirisophus, can you honestly tell me you have nothing to hide? Listen to me, and listen well. Abira, the girl you caught here, did everything completely on her own. That may seem impossible to you, but it doesn’t surprise me. She’s been trying to force me to face the truth for some time now, but I wouldn’t listen. She evidently felt she needed proof of what she suspected, and she found it. If it was here that she saw the word she traced out for me, I must admit that she was right.’

‘What are you blathering on about?’

Xeno repeated my whole line of reasoning, all the strange and inexplicable coincidences, and even though the situation I found myself in was hardly ideal, it made me feel proud.

Xeno added, ‘But what really struck me was the symbols she scratched out on the ground in my tent: they clearly represented a river, and Abira wrote me the name of that river – A-R-A-X. That was the proof she was looking for: you are fully aware that the river we are following is not the Phasis, as I had believed, but the Araxes, which doesn’t flow into the Euxine Sea but very, very far away. To the ends of the earth.’

‘You’ve gone completely mad,’ Sophos broke in him. ‘You’re raving!’

‘I am? Then why don’t you show me the map that Abira saw and drew for me so exactly? Her drawing proves to me that you’ve always known full well that the river we are following is not the Phasis. But you have continued to back up my mistaken assumption, with all the weight of your authority. And you know why, Commander! Because your job was to make this army disappear; dissolve into nothingness without leaving a trace. That’s why! Conveniently, you didn’t even need to stick your neck out; you laid all the responsibility on me: “Xenophon’s right, he knows where we are, all we have to do is follow this river and we’ll reach the sea!” Weren’t those your words, Commander?

‘But that little girl that you found searching through your things had guessed your game! Precisely because she isn’t one of us, she’s not a soldier sworn to obey without asking the reason for an order.

‘This army had to win, or be wiped out. Otherwise we are the living proof of Spartan treason, proof that Sparta was an accomplice in the plan to assassinate her greatest ally, the man who had allowed her to win the war against Athens: the Great King!’

I would have given anything to see the expression on Sophos’s face and I wanted to hug Xeno, to thank him for what he was doing. I was trembling with the cold despite my cloak, but I wouldn’t have left for all the gold in the world.

His voice rose up again. ‘That’s why the recruiting for this operation was done in secret, in out-of-the way places, signing on small groups of men. Not to keep the expedition a secret from the Great King – that would have been impossible, seeing that Cyrus had his own army of one hundred thousand men. But to keep secret the involvement of the government of Sparta in an endeavour aimed at defeating and assassinating the Great King himself. What exactly did Cyrus promise Sparta? And the Queen Mother? What did she vow?’

Silence. A silence more eloquent than a thousand words. Then Sophos’s voice, colder than the wind whipping at my face. His words pierced my heart. ‘You’ve put me in a very difficult situation, Xenophon, and I imagine that you’re well aware of this. Let’s admit for a moment that you’re right: what do you expect me to do at this point?’

Xeno spoke calmly, as if his words did not concern him personally. ‘I imagine that you mean to kill me, and to kill the girl. The latter would be pointless: who would ever listen to her? She’d never run another risk like the one she took. She’s already terrified. She doesn’t represent a danger for you.’

‘You’re wrong. She does. As does Melissa, who she confided in, and I can’t exclude Cleanor, either. He’s quite dependent on her for his physical and mental well-being . . .’

I can imagine his mocking look. Sophos never shed his sarcasm, even in the most dramatic situations.

Another long silence followed. Although I could see very little, it seemed to me that Sophos had taken a seat. Perhaps he needed a more comfortable position to say what was coming. But Xeno spoke first. ‘I’m unarmed. Do it now. I won’t fight you . . .’ I felt a sword of ice plunging into my heart. ‘. . . but spare the girl. Leave her in the first village you come upon. She’ll never find a way out on her own, and even if she did she’d end up in her dusty little village and fall into oblivion. I’m asking you, Commander, in the name of our friendship, in the name of everything we’ve suffered and been through together. If you allow me to speak with her, she’ll obey me. I’ll order her never to speak a word of this to anyone.’

Xeno loved me. That was enough for me to face whatever awaited me without regrets.

I saw Sophos’s shadow leaning forward and I thought I heard a sigh, before he spoke. ‘Have you asked yourself what destiny I’ve carved out for myself, if I manage to execute the task you attribute to me?’

‘You’ll die with them,’ replied Xeno. ‘I do not doubt that. I have never thought you would survive your soldiers.’

‘This comforts me, in a certain way.’

Xeno’s voice was trembling now, with emotion, with disdain. ‘But this does not absolve you of disgrace. How can you lead them to their deaths? How can you bear it?’

‘A soldier knows that death is part of the life he has chosen.’

‘But not like this, Commander. Not this death. Not being led like sheep to the edge of a cliff. A soldier has the right to die on the battlefield, and you who are Spartan know this better than anyone else.’

‘And I who am Spartan know that I must obey the orders of my city, at any cost. I know that our lives can be spent so that the nation can survive and prosper. What do you think Leonidas did at the Fiery Gates? He obeyed!’

‘But these soldiers are not all Spartans, to my knowledge. You cannot decide for them. They have the right to choose their destiny.’

‘Ah . . . democracy!’

‘Don’t you see them? Come out of this den, Commander, and take a look at them!’

Xeno had walked outside. I could hear his voice distinctly now. Sophos came out as well. A sea of campfires stretched out before them, pockets staining the white blanket of snow with red.