Each evening a handful of us were picked to stand guard during Philip’s nightly banquet, which inevitably turned into a wine-soaked drunken circus. It was no surprise to me when Pausanias told me I would be on duty the night after my meeting with Olympias and Alexandros. What did surprise was that when Philip struggled up from his couch and lurched drunkenly toward his bed chamber, he crooked his finger at me to accompany him.
For the flash of an instant I felt a pang of fear, but then I told myself that I was not the kind of young boy that the king sometimes took to bed. And I certainly was not a shapely young wench. He wasn’t that drunk.
As I followed him up the winding stone stairs to his bed chamber, I realized that he was not drunk at all. He limped on his bad leg and he leaned on the stone wall of the staircase for support, but he was able to climb the stairs unassisted otherwise.
Two young male servants were waiting in the bed chamber.
“Have you had any supper?” Philip asked me gruffly.
“Yes, sir,” I replied. “Before coming on duty.”
“Very well.” He dismissed the servants with a wave of his hand, then sat wearily on the bed.
And he smiled at me, a wry, crooked smile. “That’s the way I learn what my closest companions are thinking, Orion. I listen to what they say when they’re drunk.”
“I see.”
“You’ve been with the queen.” It was a statement, not a question. I realized that the entire palace was honeycombed with spies and counterspies and people who spied for both the king and the queen.
“It was not my choice,” I said.
He grunted and leaned down to pull off his sandals. I went to help him but he waved me away. “I’m not as helpless as some people think,” he muttered. Then he looked up at me. “She can entrance a man, I know. Her and those damned snakes of hers.”
I said nothing.
“She’s a witch, all right. I should have drowned her instead of marrying her.”
“She bore you a fine son.”
“That she did. And now she poisons his mind against me.”
“She intends to assassinate you,” I blurted.
Strangely, he laughed. “Does she now? Indeed!”
“Truly,” I said.
“She’s been intending that since Alexandros was born. Just waiting for the right moment.”
“I think she will try soon.”
He sat in silence for a few moments, the bedside lamp flickering shadows across his face. Then Philip shook his head. “Not yet. The boy’s still too young. Never be elected king in his own right. Not yet.”
“Are you certain?”
He wiped his beard with the back of his hand. Hunching closer to me, he said, “Orion, I have lived with the threat of assassination all my life. I surround myself with loyal men, and work hard to make certain they remain loyal. I change my royal guard often enough to make sure that no man stays so long as to be bewitched by her.”
I leaned back slightly, away from him. “As I have been,” I said.
He nodded. “Yes. I’m afraid you can no longer be a member of my guard. Or of Alexandros’. I’m going to have to send you out of the palace altogether.”
“But I want to protect you.”
Philip cocked a skeptical brow at me. “Yes, I believe you do. But she will get you to do her bidding, sooner or later, one way or the other.”
I had no answer to that. He was probably right. “I still value your service, Orion. I have an important task for you to do.”
“What is it?”
“I’m sending this ambassador from the Persians, the one with the unpronounceable name—”
“Svertaketu,” I said.
“Yes, the one you found with Demosthenes. I’m sending him back to the Great King with a message from me. I want you to head the escort I send with him.”
“I would rather stay here to protect you,” I said.
“That cannot be.”
I bowed my head slightly to show I understood.
“In case you’re curious, my message to the Great King is a peaceful one.”