Read Online Fire From Heaven by Mary Renault - Free Book Online Page B

nothing. He merely went to the chest and took the new clothes away, along with an extra blanket he found hidden there.
    He had challenged the gods at last, thought Alexander; this must be the end of him. But she only smiled ruefully, and asked how he could have let himself be found out. Leonidas must not be defied; he might be offended and go home. ‘And then, my darling, we might find our troubles only starting.’
    Toys were toys, power was power. Nothing to be had for nothing. Later she smuggled him other gifts. He was more wary, but Leonidas was more vigilant, and took to searching the chest every so often, as a matter of course.
    More manly gifts, he was allowed to keep. A friend had made him a quiver, a perfect miniature with a shoulder-sling. Finding it hang too low on him, he sat in the Palace forecourt to undo the buckle. The tongue was awkward, the leather stiff. He was about to go in and find an awl to prise it, when a bigger child walked up and stood in the light. He was handsome and sturdy with bronze-gold hair and dark grey eyes. Holding out his hand he said, ‘I’ll try, let me.’ He spoke with confidence, in a Greek which had got beyond the schoolroom.
    ‘It’s new, that’s why it’s stiff.’ He had had his day’s work of Greek, and answered in Macedonian.
    The stranger squatted beside him. ‘It’s like a real one, like a man’s. Did your father make it?’
    ‘Of course not. Doreios the Cretan did. He can’t make me a Cretan bow, those are horn, only men can pull them. Koragos will make a bow for me.’
    ‘Why do you want to undo it?’
    ‘It’s too long.’
    ‘It looks right to me. No, but you’re smaller. Here, I’ll do it.’
    ‘I’ve measured it. It wants taking in two holes.’
    ‘You can let it out when you’re bigger. It’s stiff, but I’ll do it. My father’s seeing the King.’
    ‘What does he want?’
    ‘I don’t know, he said to wait for him.’
    ‘Does he make you speak Greek all day?’
    ‘It’s what we all speak at home. My father’s a guest-friend of the King. When I’m older, I’ll have to go to Court.’
    ‘Don’t you want to come?’
    ‘Not much; I like it at home. Look, up on that hill; no, not the first one, the second; all that land’s ours. Can’t you speak Greek at all?’
    ‘Yes, I can if I want. I stop when I get sick of it.’
    ‘Why, ?you speak it nearly as well as I do. Why did you talk like that, then? People will think you’re a farm boy.’
    ‘My tutor makes me wear these clothes to be like the Spartans. I do have good ones; I wear them at the feasts.’
    ‘They beat all the boys in Sparta.’
    ‘Oh, he drew blood on me once. But I didn’t cry.’
    ‘He’s no right to beat you, he should only tell your father. How much did he cost?’
    ‘He’s my mother’s uncle.’
    ‘Mm, I see. My father bought my pedagogue, just for me.’
    ‘Well, it teaches you to bear your wounds when you go to war.’
    ‘War? But you’re only six.’
    ‘Of course not, I’m eight next Lion Month. You can see that.’
    ‘So am I. But you don’t look it, you look six.’
    ‘Oh, let me do that, you’re too slow.’
    He snatched away the sling-strap. The leather slipped back into the buckle. The stranger grabbed it angrily. ‘Silly fool, I’d nearly done it.’
    Alexander swore at him in barrack Macedonian. The other boy opened his mouth and eyes, and listened riveted. Alexander, who could keep it up for some time, became aware of respect and did so. With the quiver between them, they crouched in the pose of their forgotten strife.
    ‘Hephaistion!’ came a roar from the columned stoa. The boys sat like scuffling dogs over whom a bucket has been emptied.
    The lord Amyntor, his audience over, had seen with concern that his son had left the porch where he had been told to wait, invaded the Prince’s playground and snatched his toy. At that age they were not safe a moment out of one’s sight. Amyntor blamed his own vanity; he liked to show the boy