"How long has this been going on?" said Vardanas.
"About two years," said Vivanas. "The orders were issued long before that, but it took much time to assemble the men and gear."
Vardanas rolled his eyes heavenwards. "Auramasdas befriend me!"
"Alexander thought we were overthrown for want of steady infantry," said Vivanas with an embarrassed air. "In a few more years ..."
"In a few more years!" said Vardanas. "Alexander may be right, but I fear that trying to make phalangites of noble Persians is like carving a tombstone with a razor."
"How mean you?" I said.
"They are so imbued with the idea that the only gentlemanly way of fighting is on horseback that they have no heart for footwork. I fear not even years of practice will remedy that."
"That, as Pyrron would say, is but a foolish prejudice. The object of war is to win, be it mounted, afoot, or swimming."
"That may be," said Vardanas, "but such feelings cannot be changed by a mere command, come it from never so mighty a king."
We passed into the city, through the winding streets, and up the ramp that led to the top of the principal mound. This mound was fortified by a parapet round the edge. The top was crowded with barrack buildings, amongst which stood the ancient temples of the Sousian deities Sousinax and Nana. Worshipers crowded past soldiers, and the sound of hymns mingled with the clatter of the armorers.
The temples were crumbling. Workmen crept about on them like flies, bricking and patching, but the onlooker felt that they would never catch up with the natural process of decay.
Vardanas said: "Let me leave you here, Leon, to go home. I shall soon be back."
Vivanas made us comfortable. As we were settling in, an uproar from another part of the barracks brought me in haste to find the cause.
It was not a quarrel but a celebration. Kanadas and Siladites had come upon a group of fellow Indians who cared for the eleven elephants that dwelt in Sousa. In their joy at finding countrymen, both my Indians were shouting in their native tongue. As all the other Indians shouted too, it sounded like a riot. They laughed and wept and embraced one another, and ended by dancing round a circle, clapping hands and snapping fingers.
Having combed the burrs out of my beard and borrowed a clean shirt, I climbed the stair that led up the side of North Hill. The retaining wall was decked with low reliefs in enameled brick of life-size animals, in red, white, and gold, such as a goat-horned lion with eagle's wings and hindlegs.
At the top of the stair, a gallows reached out over the steps. From this gallows hung three men in Sousian dress of good quality. I had to duck lest I brush against their feet. They had begun to stink.
After this cheerful introduction to the civil government of Sousiana, I went on and asked for Aboulites. After waiting in anterooms until hunger gnawed my vitals, I was told the viceroy could not be seen, but that his son Vaxathras would tend to my needs.
Vaxathras was a plump little man in a gorgeous robe of silk. As many in Hellas have never seen silk, let me say that it is a marvelous lustrous fabric that comes over the caravan routes from the Sakan country. Howsomever, nobody knows where it grows, or indeed if it be the fleece of a beast or the fiber of a plant. Vaxathras also wore a fillet of silver thread about his hair. His beard was curled in ringlets; the ends of his mustache were waxed so they stuck out like spikes; and his face was powdered and painted, with a red spot on either cheek. He was so cordial he bounced.
"Come, my dear Hipparch, welcome!" he cried in Persian with a strange accent. "What can we do for you? Fodder? Nought easier! Let me countersign your order. There, present it to Ashinas. Where are you staying?"
"In the barracks on the hill," I said.
"Oh, my dear fellow, that will never do! You must move up here to the palace, with the rest of us civils. There is room for you and two or three of your officers. You have some chests of specimens, have you not?" (I wondered how he knew.) "Have your men fetch them here, too, along with any other things of value. We live in disturbed times. When can we expect you? This afternoon before dinner time? What else can I do for you?"
After Phrashavartes' haughtiness, such eagerness to please took my breath away. I mumbled assents without stopping to think and left Dareios' palace in a daze. Only when I ducked under the feet of the hanged men did I begin to berate myself for agreeing to Vaxathras' proposals without scrutinizing them more closely.
As I entered the barracks, I heard the sound of sobbing. When the crowd opened out for me, I saw that it was Vardanas, sitting with his face in his hands and weeping bitterly, while Thyestes and Pyrron and Kanadas sought to comfort him.
"What is it?" I asked.
Vardanas tried to tell me, but each time he opened his mouth he was overwhelmed by a flood of tears. At last Pyrron said: "His mother's dead."
"When did she die?"
"Two months ago, but he only now learned of it."
Vardanas' lamentations went on and on. Our efforts to comfort him only seemed to bring on more sobs, until I thought he would weep the day and night away. Never had I seen so unbridled a spate of emotion.
I told Thyestes of the plan to move the officers to the palace. "Of course," I said, "somebody maun stay with the troop."
Thyestes spoke a rude word. "Aye, I kens. You'll go up there and wallow in Persian luxury the now, leaving poor Thyestes to scratch fleabites here in barrack. It never fails."
"Na, na, buckie," I said. "I thought we'd take turns."
"What is this?" said Vardanas suddenly, his lamentations stopped as though cut off with a knife. I told him about Vaxathras.
"You must not go there!" he said. "Especially you must not take the chests there!"
"Why not?"
"I came to warn you. Aboulites and Vaxathras are plundering the Sousians worse than any of Alexander's other governors. Once they get the chests in their power, they will make away with you and keep the stuff for themselves. Trust them not!"
"What shall we do, then?"
"I bid you to my father's house; fetch the chests with you. They are not fully safe even there, but I do not think Aboulites will molest a man of my father's rank. At least, he will not until he has tried all kinds of guile."
I had an instant of wonder whether, if Vaxathras and his father were such ready-for-aughts, I was safe in the hands of Vardanas and his father either. However, having been on the road with Vardanas for five months and found him a man of the nicest scruples, I thought I could trust him if I could trust any man.
"Vaxathras expects us today," I said. "Should I send one of the men with my apologies?"
"Do not send even one of our men; he might be seized as a hostage. Find some aide of Archelaos or Masdaros to take the message." He spoke to the troop at large. "I would bid you all to stay with us, had we room. But my father has other guests, so Leon and Pyrron are the only ones we can bed. The rest shall, however, be bidden to dine with us in turn."
On the way to Vardanas' house, the Persian said: "I trust that my friends will comply with our code of manners to the extent of bowing to my father."
Thyestes muttered something about "silly servile ceremonial."
I said: "Flank Guard Thyestes, either you shall show good manners —Persian manners, that is—or you shall go back to barracks. I willna have our dear friend shamed."
"I meant nought," he said. "If he say we maun stand on our heads, I'll do it."
"Also," said Vardanas, "you will see that when my stepmother enters, I stand up until she gives me leave to sit. It were a delicate compliment to your host if you did likewise."
Thyestes said: "Ha! I thought the Persians treated their womenfolk like slaves, but it seems they defer till them, as do the Egyptians."
"Not quite," said Vardanas. "If any folk make slaves of its women, it is the Hellenes, who shut them up in the back of the house and do not present them to guests or let them eat with the men."