Read Online Tyrant: King of the Bosporus by Christian Cameron - Free Book Online Page B

us.’
    Sappho wrote a note. ‘I wish we had time to distract him with something on the west coast of the Euxine before you go,’ she said.
    ‘You truly think that the three of you can raise all the east?’
    Nihmu nodded. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Listen – it is simple. We find Ataelus, who is still up-country. We find him and we spread word to all the people.’
    Sappho nodded, the nod of someone not quite convinced. ‘Ataelus has been fighting the Sauromatae for ten years,’ she said. ‘What makes you think that in one summer he can raise all the Assagatje?’
    Nihmu shrugged. ‘When I was a prophet, I said that Marthax would hold sway on the plains until the eagles flew,’ she said. ‘Now is the time. Satyrus tried to go like a Greek – with a fleet to open the way for an army. Melitta will do this like a Sakje. She will raise the people, and the people will give her the sea of grass.’ Nihmu leaned over and kissed the baby. ‘But she must go in person. The Sakje will follow a person, not a name. If Melitta stays here, I cannot do it. Ataelus cannot. But you can, honey bee.’
    Coenus bit his lip. ‘You’ll still need an army,’ he said. ‘Eumeles has four thousand foot and more peltasts and Thrake than he ought. He can hold a set of walls for ever, and much as I respect the Sakje, they can’t take a city. And a city can support a fleet, and that fleet will still need to be beaten before we can land our army.’
    Nihmu nodded. ‘That is all Greek thinking,’ she said. ‘It is good. I am not so foolish that I spurn it. But I am Sakje. Melitta and I will go and put the grass under our hooves, and Eumeles will feel the thunder.’ She smiled. ‘When Melitta is queen of all the Assagatje, then it will be time to send for a fleet and an army.’
    Sappho nodded. ‘I agree. I am writing to Diodorus to tell him to stay in the field – with Leon gone, we’ll need the income.’ Diodorus had the
hippeis
of Tanais – a mercenary cavalry unit that men called the Exiles, and he also had a taxeis of Macedonian foot raised from the prisoners taken after the Battle of Gaza, where Ptolemy had smashed Demetrios the Golden’s army.
    Melitta leaned over Sappho’s letter. ‘Once we have the support of the Sakje,’ she said, ‘we can have any port we want. Perhaps the Sakje can’t take Pantecapaeum, but Olbia will declare for us as soon as we have a force in the field.’ Seeing Coenus’s face, she shook her head. ‘That’s what Satyrus and Diodorus both said!’
    ‘Clearly, Olbia did
not
rise,’ Coenus said. ‘And there are rumours of – murders. Of friends of ours, killed in public.’
    ‘They had too few ships,’ Sappho said. ‘Leon was afraid of it before he sailed, but he was hurried. This has to be done while Antigonus is hurt, while his son licks his wounds, or Eumeles will have Macedonians manning his walls and we’ll never take him.’
    Coenus shook his head. ‘Leon sent a boy to do a man’s job,’ he said. ‘Either he took too many ships for a reconnaissance, or too few for an invasion.’
    Melitta found them both frustrating. ‘Uncle Leon did the best with what he had!’ she said. ‘Listen to
me
. Whatever the truth of Olbia may be, the Sakje can take any of the smaller ports. Once we have the sea of grass, Eumeles’ days are numbered – he can scarcely lead an army on to the plains to relieve a port!’
    Coenus put a hand on her shoulder. ‘Beware the lesson of Sparta,’ he said. ‘As long as Eumeles holds the sea, he can send reinforcements to any town he likes. Leon knew this.’
    Nihmu had never stopped readying her things. Now she stood up. ‘Despite all that,’ she said, ‘when he hears our hooves in his chill dreams, he will know fear. And then he will make mistakes.’
    Melitta hugged Nihmu. ‘From your lips to the ears of the gods,’ she said.
    Coenus shrugged. ‘Better than sitting here.’ He looked at Nihmu. ‘How do we rescue Leon? If we pressure Eumeles hard,