‘I just meant that there is no more complication, do you see? No politics. Aristides is gathering the army. You and I go to meet the enemy, because we have the courage and will to do it. All else falls away. I find the simplicity … comforting.’

‘You are a madman,’ Xanthippus said. ‘But I am pleased you are here with me.’

‘Well, it’s not as if you have any other friends,’ Epikleos said, smiling when Xanthippus looked at him in surprise.

39

Xerxes lay back on a long couch, closing his eyes in relief to find solid ground beneath him. He had not appreciated what a luxury it would be not to have his cabin rocking back and forth at all hours of the day and night, never ceasing, never still. He could not recall the last time he had slept for more than a few hours. He actually felt himself drifting into a doze and sat up.

His pavilion was a place of peace and calm, the world beyond shut out. Slaves burned incense and waited with platters of fruit, gathered from where he did not know. Perhaps Mardonius had brought them with him, as a gift.

He opened his eyes, looking on the general of his armies. Mardonius wore his beard in black ringlets, bound together with a single gold cuff. It reminded the king of an otter pelt. Once more, Xerxes experienced a delicious shudder at the trials of a campaign. He had wanted such things, safe in his palaces. He had not known then how the rocking sea would make days pass in a misery of sickness and loose bowels, or how hard it was to be clean without pools and slaves dedicated to the task. He sighed. He had not known a thousand things he knew then. How often the entire fleet had to stop for water, so that they crawled from stream to stream along the coast. It was not the wild charge he had imagined, but the alternative was watching men die, or so he had been told. It seemed the rowing slaves could survive on just a little food, but they needed water every day, to fill every cask they possessed. Even so, some of them expired and were thrown overboard. Each morning began with corpses committed to the deep. They bobbed in the wake of the fleet and the first ones drifted past the ships behind, so they were seen. Little sharks bumped and tore at them then, so he had been told, like dogs feeding on deer.

He felt his thoughts drifting and cleared his throat, making Mardonius look up from his respectfully downcast gaze.

‘I am ready to hear your report, general.’

‘Majesty, there is nothing of great note,’ Mardonius began. ‘We lost men in fighting in Macedonia, as you know. Some of our injured have succumbed to their wounds since then – three in the last few days. I hanged a few dozen for rape or theft – not enough to affect our strength.’