Chapter 19 Palestine
It was three hundred and fifty miles from Issus to Tyre, down the coast of Palestine.
The column stretched for miles, winding its way down the coast. Mounted scouts patrolled far inland. Occasionally reports coming in would have the cavalry thunder off, kicking up a cloud of dust that hung like a haze until dispersed by the sea breeze.
The army marched prepared for action. Shields were slung over their backs, swords chaffed along their thighs and they carried their spears acting as staffs as they navigated the rocky pathways by the sea.
"You're limping, Leo. Go and sit down over there."
Leo flung himself down on a grassy tuft. Xeon took his shield off and bent down to examine Leo's foot.
"There's a thorn. Does it hurt."
"Mmmmmm."
"I'm going to pull it out."
"MMMMM"
He held the boy by his ankle and pulled. The thorn had gone in deep.
Xeon himself winced as he pulled it out.
"You need boots."
"Don't need them."
"Yes you do. We'll see if we can find some with the quartermasters tonight."
Draxus had caught up with them and flung himself down next to Leo. A red faced Kalix leant heavily on his spear, and waved a tired hand at Xeon.
Draxus said: "How much fucking further?"
Xeon laughed. "Welcome to the army boys."
"Seriously though, how much further?"
"You boys should be finding this easy. How come we old men aren't complaining?"
He winked at Kalix.
"Because you are stronger than us." said Leo. "This shield is killing me."
Xeon ruffled his hair. "I'll carry it for a bit. Just up to that tree on the horizon, you see it?"
"Thanks Xeon."
Kalix held out his hand for Drax's shield.
"Thanks old man!"
"The cheek of it."
With a quick look at each other, the two boys raced off, sprinting all the way to the tree on the far horizon, then collapsing in its shade.
Xeon looked at Kalix. "We've been had, old man."
"Who are you calling old!?"
They picked up the shields, slung them over their backs, and trudged on up the hill.
Tyre was welcome relief. White washed houses tumbled down the hillside to a little port, guarded by a fort that had surrendered as soon as the army crossed the horizon. There was fresh fish and wine from Greece, spices from Egypt and everywhere the smell of cooking. The market square buzzed with exotic languages. There were Syrians and people who spoke Cilician, Phoenician and Aramaic. The boys wandered around picking up fruit they didn't even know the names for, staring open mouthed at Egyptian traders with their dark leathery skin. In the market the twins drew a crowd of curious women, wrapped in colourful shawls, who stood and pointed and gossiped about them.
Before leaving Issus Machers had spoken with Cleitus about the twins.
He asked if Cleitus would ask Polymedes to take them and join the Sacred Band.
"No."
"But why not? That way we can all stay together."
"Son, it is better that they do not go with Polymedes. Trust me."
"But..."
"That is my final word."
So the twins had been assigned instead to a hoplite division. Polymedes had remained with the Phalanx.
Xeon found the boys sitting with their legs over the dockside, fishing for crabs.
"Boys, I've got some serious news."
The twins struggled to their feet and pulled in their lines.
"Alexander is marching south tomorrow, towards Egypt. The Sacred Band is to stay here to garrison Tyre and to train."
The boys looked at each other.
"Can Alpha and Omega stay?"
"No. They will have to join their division. I'm sorry boys."
Drax knotted his brow.
"It's alright," said Alpha. "We'll be alright. You lucky pricks get to stay here while we get to do some more marching."
It didn't take much wine to make the boys drunk that night. After much laughing and crying they had fallen to sleep in a tangle of legs and arms.
The next morning the twins were gone.
Polymedes, swung by before marching out.
"Xeon, Cleitus, Kalix - so long. You are going to miss the looting.
I hear the Egyptians are rich pickings."
"So long, Polymedes. Be gentle now."
"You know me!"
Alexander had the Sacred Band he had asked for. Over a thousand men and boys formed the division, commanded by Pantordanus, who had ridden with Leo into the forest at Issus. Pantordanus had his own lover, another officer, who was with the troop. Roughly half the couples were in their late teens or early twenties, many of them boyhood friends and lovers.
The other half were men and their boys.
The Sacred Band was to be lightly armed shock troops. The emphasis was on speed and maneuverability and lightening, ferocious attack.
Day after day, in the hills above Tyre, the Band practiced and drilled.
Shield drill, orchestrated by trumpet blast, saw them form up, much like the Phalanx. Cleitus was to the right, protecting Lysomachus, who protected Xeon who protected Leo, who protected Kalix who protected Drax.
And so on down the line. They practiced locking their shields, then co-ordinate a move that allowed them, as one, to lift the shields up and over to protect the rear. They spent days perfecting a move that saw the front line open up to allow small squads through. These squads would launch lightening mini-attacks, before retreating into the line,
that opened again to swallow them up.
Leo, Xeon, Machers and Cleitus were one of these squads.
For days they practiced the Phalanx push and the 'V' shaped formations.
The boys learned how the whole formation could, at command, slide left or right to take advantage of a weakness in the enemy line.
Leo's face was a picture of excitement as he learned the new skills.
Every time they got a maneuver right his little face would beam up at Xeon and he would say: "We did well, didn't we?"
The three men took the boys into the hills to practice on their own.
Despite the heavy training regime of the Band, Xeon thought it wasn't enough. He wanted Leo to be tougher, quicker, stronger than anything he might face, and the boys loved to train.
They used to finish their workout with a push, boys against men. It was such an unfair match, but the boys would squeal with delight and effort as they dug their heels in and swore at each other before collapsing in a heap.
One afternoon Leo raced into camp to find the men. "Come on, we've been practicing the push, you won't beat us now!"
Grabbing their shields the three men lumbered up the hill, following Leo into a clearing in a thicket of trees above the camp. Machers and Drax were already in a line in the middle of the clearing, the three shields of the boys locked. Leo sprinted round the back to take up his position in the middle. "Come on then you weaklings!" he goaded.
The men spat in their hands, locked shields and advanced at he boys.
"Come on then!" shouted Machers wildly. Drax was grinning like a lunatic.
They drove into the boy's shields and hit a brick wall. They pushed hard but the boys didn't give an inch.
"Lay in men!" said Kalix.
Grunting and sweating the men put their shoulders into the push, their feet scrabbling in the dust.
"What the fuck?"
They broke off. The boys were lying in the grass in hysterical laughter.
Behind their shield wall was a massive dead tree-trunk.
"You monster!"
Xeon chased Leo around the clearing, at last catching the hysterical boy, sweeping him up in his arms and kissing him all over his face as he tried to wriggle away.
Chapter 20 News from home
It was months before Alexander returned to Tyre.
The Sacred Band had become a formidable unit. With the basics not just learned but honed to a fine point, the commander concentrated on endurance.
Kalix and Cleitus were big men, but now they were expected to be able to sprint and run for miles. It was tougher for them than it was for the boys. Cleitus took to training in the evenings up to his chest in the sea, running along the bottom. By nightfall he was usually exhausted and fell into a deep sleep as soon as his head hit the bed. On these nights Machers would remove the man's hairy arm from around his waist,
slip out of bed and into the village. There was a nine year old Egyptian boy he had met by the dock, who, as he told Leo, had learned a way to make love by sucking a cock like a mango.
Leo slept nestled in Xeon's left arm. Xeon would spend hours running his finger-tips over the boy, stroking every inch of him. Leo would be hard long before the fingers brushed over his tight cock. Many times Leo would cum without his dick being touched at all and Xeon would pull the boy on top of him, all slippery with cum.
Kalix would masturbate Drax at the most peculiar times and in the most peculiar places. Often it would be around the fire as they ate or talked in the evenings. He would pat his thigh as a sign for Drax to sit in his lap, then would masturbate the boy in plain view of everybody else until the boy spurted. Then he would wipe off his hand and continue talking or cooking or whatever he was doing. Sometimes he would do it during a lull in training. On these occasions he would often sit on a tree-trunk or rock, call Drax over and masturbate the boy standing up. Leo never once saw Drax masturbate the big man.
One day, Leo and Drax were running oiled and naked along the beach. They ran themselves to a standstill and bent over, their hands on their knees to get their breath back. Leo saw something sticking out of Drax's bum.
"Drax, what the fuck is that?"
Drax blushed and stood straight.
Kalix was training the boy. He had whittled strange looking wooden penises,
a series of five, each one larger than the last. For the past month,
Drax had been wearing these things inside him, to gradually stretch his sphincter. He was on number four. He showed them to Leo.
"Are you frightened?"
Drax shrugged.
Then, without warning one night, while fish cooked over the fire, Kalix ordered Drax onto hands and knees. Without a word Kalix oiled his stiff,
monstrous cock, and fucked Drax as they watched. One of his meaty hands was under the boy, wanking him, as he thrust away.
Machers, grinning broadly, walked in front of Drax, squatted down and patted his cheeks as the boy rocked forward and back. "Drax has joined the cavalry!" Drax lowered his head and let his sweat drip into the sand. Kalix grunted, his huge buttocks twitching, but he didn't pull out until his boy's white cum had splattered on the sand beneath him.
Cleitus, by contrast, took Machers off into the hills to fuck him in private. The only way they knew it had happened was from the way Machers walked. Drax chose these moments to make loud neighing noises.
Watching Drax being fucked had been nightly entertainment for almost a week. In the early hours Leo lay awake in Xeon's arms. His small brown hand fondled the man gently, bringing him eventually to full erection. Leo moved to straddle Xeon, then lifted himself up, reaching round to try to guide the swollen cock towards his hole.
Xeon's hands reached up and held Leo's pretty face. "Not yet little man, not yet." he said as he pulled him forward on his chest. Leo kissed him in the way he liked, deeply, playfully as Xeon held him tight. As they kissed the man's cock jumped and Leo felt the stickiness dribble down his thigh.
"You've got a letter Leo!" Drax was excited.
"What?"
"The commander gave it to me to give you."
They spent the day trying to find someone who could read. In the end Xeon took Leo with him into the market. An Egyptian there could read Greek.
"From Philotas to my dear son Leonnatus, hail.
We send you greetings from home with our dearest Love. You have a baby brother now called Aspertes. He is a strong boy and looks a lot like you.
We wonder where you are and what great adventures you have seen. News of Alexander's conquests has reached us and we are very proud of you.
The harvest was kind this year and the goats have done well for us. We think about you all the time and pray to Zeus for your safe return to us.
If you can, send us word, if only to say you are safe. There is a scribe in the market now who can read your words to us. It is he who is writing this now.
My son, I pray you have a good man on your right with his shield to protect you. We love you."
The Egyptian set the tablet down. "Three Drachma. Seven for a reply."
Xeon carried the boy on his shoulders down to the beach.
"Shall I race you to the end there?"
The tears were making streaks of dust down Leo's face.
"Come on, Leo, I'll race you and I bet I win."
Leo was blinded by tears when he started the race, but was smiling weakly by the time he'd won it.
"Too slow old man."
Bending down and looking closely at Leo he said "Who are you calling old, young man?" as he began to tickle.
Chapter 21 Fire Boats
Alexander returned and they were immediately on the move. He swept through Tyre at speed and on up through Damascus.
The scouts had reported seeing the Persian army inland at Thapsacus and he was in no mood to let them get away.
The Sacred Band rejoined an army that was full of stories of a near disaster in the Egyptian desert. The whole army had been close to death, only to be saved by a miraculous oasis. There were stories about the Oracle at Siwa pronouncing Alexander to be a god and of the Egyptians proclaiming him Pharaoh. These stories circulated through the army as they marched north at breakneck speed.
Leo searched for the twins throughout the camp, but they were nowhere to be found. They searched for Polymedes in the camp of the Vanguard,
but it was hopeless. The infantry units alone were 43,000 strong.
The Sacred Band, with only a thousand or so men and boys, was easy to find in the sprawling camps, and they hoped against hope that the twins or Polymedes would find them. But day after day passed.
"They died in the desert." Said a glum Leo.
"Leo, they could be anywhere. Alexander established whole cities down there in Egypt. They could be down there, or even in a garrison in some town they took."
They met up with Syphes, however, but he had no news. The scouts were busier than ever, as information about the movements of the Persian army was critical. He was away for weeks at a time, sleeping at night with his horse, miles out from the main army.
They arrived at Thapsacus at nightfall. The Persian commander, Mazaeus,
had taken position on the far bank of the Euphrates. The river was in flood. It was too deep to cross, and too fast to bridge.
Alexander instructed his naval engineers to build floating pontoons.
These boats would be lashed together to create a floating bridge. Greek archers kept the Persians at bay, giving the engineers time to construct the pontoons.
Alexander himself addressed the Sacred Band.
"You will be the first to cross. You must secure the bridgehead and hold long enough to be reinforced. They will come at you, but you must hold. You will cross during the night. We will try to take them by surprise."
The pontoons were constructed on dry land at the riverbank. They would be set afloat after dark.
The boys prepared in grim silence, checking each other's armour. Moving quietly about their tasks. Xeon looked over Leo, pulling his straps tighter. "Shake your head for me. Harder." The helmet slipped over Leo's eyes. "Take it off for a second." He fetched a leather hide and cut out a piece, stuffing it into the helmet. "Alright, try again."
Leo pulled the helmet back on and shook his head from side to side.
"That's better."
Drax, in full armour, looked scared.
Machers slapped him on the shoulder. "Cheer up little man; you'll scare the shit out of them. They'll think their being attacked by a skeleton in armour."
"Fuck off."
They waited in the darkness looking out over the wide black river. At last the pontoons were ready.
Far upstream a soldier slipped naked into the river, clutching a rope.
He swam hard against the rapid current which swept him downstream. The man was lost and the engineers retrieved the sopping rope.
Another took the rope between his teeth and struck out for the other side. His head stuck out of the silver water as he was swept along.
Somehow he managed to reach the other side. In the darkness the rope went taut.
Between them they lifted the first pontoon and staggered down to the water's edge. Cleitus' massive neck was bulging with the strain. With the pontoon afloat they boarded in silence and set out, hand over hand,
for the other side.
The strained silence was shattered by a single cry. A soldier close to Leo on the pontoon had spotted, up stream, fire on the water.
The Persians had made fire ships, loaded with wood and tar, and were sending them down the raging current, directly at the pontoon. There was panic. The first fire ship hit the pontoon dead on and exploded in a furnace. Men caught fire, coated in the burning tar. Soldiers plunged over the side to escape, into the murderous torrent of the river.
Leo threw off his helmet and struggled with the buckles on his armour.
Xeon's shield was ablaze. He tossed it into the river. "Leo!" He had lost sight of the boy. Thick smoke was rolling across the river.
"Leo!"
The second boat struck the front of the pontoon and spewed fire. The rope across the river was burning. In their panic to get away from the flames the soldiers were tipping the pontoon. Xeon lost his footing and slid down, getting tangled with other desperate men. The heat was unbearable, his face was blistering.
The pontoon tipped up and over.
Xeon clung to the side as the men around him toppled into the water.
The pontoon was being swept downstream, completely out of control, still ablaze. Leo was beside him. "Leo!"
The boy was pulling at his buckles, tugging till they came free. Leo reached underwater to unstrap the iron greves around Xeon's shins.
"We've got to swim, Xeon."
"I can't Leo."
"What?"
"I don't know how."
Leo's face was right up to his own, dripping water.
"What?"
"I can't swim."
"Of course you can. Just lie on your back and splash."
"I can't Leo. You go. Save yourself."
Leo was prising Xeon's fingers off the log he was gripping.
"Let go!" the little boy screamed at him.
He let go.
He entered a green world, the world of Posidon, a slow motion world where his arms and legs seemed to want to float away from him. It was strangely peaceful.
Then he bobbed to the surface, to the roar of the water, the smoke and the screams. Leo's hands were on him, trying to roll him onto his back.
The boy's arm grabbed him by the throat.
Leo's little legs kicked and kicked. Xeon's weight was on top of him,
pushing him under, he spluttered to catch a breath then held it, his head under water as he kicked. He couldn't breathe, Xeon was too heavy.
Leo wriggled sideways to grab a gulp of air, then slid under Xeon again,
kicking madly. He kicked and kicked and kicked. His arms ached, his ears were ringing, until, at last, his legs were spent. He kicked again.
And again. The next would be the last. He kicked.
It was over. He had no more to give.
He clung, wrapped to Leo as the river took them. He thought of home,
of lying nestled in Xeons arms, of his father, of the twins and Machers and Drax. He closed his eyes and could smell his mother's hair, feel her hand on his cheek.
His heel bumped on the river bed. He stretched out his hand. It touched bottom. He dug his heels into the slimy mud and they spun into the bank and came to a halt. Leo pushed Xeon off him and sat up.
"Xeon!"
He stood up in the shallows and tried to pull Xeon out of the water.
He was too heavy. He put his arms under Xeons armpits and heaved but it was no good.
"Damn it!"
So he sat there with Xeon's head in his lap, wiping the mud from his face.
Soldiers with torches were moving down the river bank.
"Over here! Over here!"
Hands lifted Xeon out of the water. They placed him face down on the ground. Leo bent over him, stroking and kissing his cold cheek. He spluttered and coughed and Posidon gave him back to Leo.
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