Part 79 (1/2)
”I cannot think clearly when I a down amidst a field of pillows, especially with you beside me Tell me--where are the papers of Caesar's fron? I would like to see them”
”Do you not believe me?”
”Yes, of course I do” But I also knew he had altered and outright forged many papers that he clai to appointacies He had confessed it to ivable, since it wielded hiht them to him, hats in hand But this was different I was deeply worried because Antony had never planned a caeneral had been achieved in much smaller arenas This venture required not only a vision of the entire ca and details that even Caesar would have been taxed to provide
”I will show the,” he said ”They are in another part of the palace For noant to lie here and enjoy digesting my food I want to feel the heat from this well-placed brazier”--he indicated the ornate, footed brass brazier e welcome warmth--”and be thankful I a, cold rain that seemed to penetrate the walls
”If the Gods look uponnear Babylon It will be warh there to sleep out under the stars”
”Unlike Armenia, with its snows and mountains Or even Media Yes, you reed
It would take at least two years to carry out such a ca--on the basis of his experiences in Gaul--that everything always took longer than expected But it would be hard to part with Antony again, so soon, and for such a long tiht be forever--I refused to let myself dwell on that Isis would not be so cruel
”The very naht I ht be the one to conquer it--the first westerner since Alexander hirant to me what she denied to Caesar?”
”You have answered your own question--because she is capricious And deaf to entreaties and questions And I so her prizes to those who seeht too hard” I had given ht to this Did that
He propped himself up on one elbow ”When my father died in my eleventh year, he left me a tarnished name, an e start And now, thirty-five years later, I call a queen est and finest Roe--into the east Fate has has been a strange partner to e partner to me all these years”
”I have heard snatches of your scandalous youth, cavorting with Curio and his gang in Ro start”
”True But I wearied of it--just about the ti uncoet far away--betookran inRoovernor, Gabinius, spottedsome military exercises and persuaded me to come with hiood fortune,” I said What if Gabinius had corounds on a different day?
”Yes,” Antony acknowledged ”And of course the second stroke of good fortune was leading the cavalry to Egypt when Gabinius agreed to restore your father to the throne That led me to Alexandria, where I first saw you”
It had see Roman who had been kindly tolerant of rateful to him for that, and surprised that a Roman could be so likable, but it did not see out of the ordinary at the ti!” he protested, sitting bolt upright ”I was very taken with you!”
I could not help laughing It was a conventional thing for lovers to plead, but histricks on hiine why,” I said At the time I had been barely fourteen years old, badly shaken by the dethronement of my father and the fine line I had had to walk to mollify my sisters and stay alive I could recall the fear very vividly, even now Too vividly
”Because of the way you stood,” he said ”Anyone could see you were a princess” When he sawlook, he hurried on to explain himself ”That you could hold yourself like that after all you had endured, all the uncertainty, the loss of your father--it was very affecting I knew you were no ordinary person”
”So it was my posture that struck you!”
”It hat the posture meant” meant”
I had not even been aware of s--s in me that I did not,” I said ”I must thank you for those eyes” I paused ”But Gabinius paid dearly for helping race How did you escape that?”
”Luckily--that word again--I was so clearly just a subordinate, taking orders, that I could not be blaht it best to give Roate to Caesar And that was my third stroke of fortune, for all else followed froavewith Poh Po all on that venture, I won Caesar's heart as a gambler like hi of his ar outnumbered Caesar won the battle and I shared the victory”
He had ahie
I, too, had been led past ers and reversals, to find reatest leap of all, let not our guardian fates desert us
”If I think on it too much, I tremble,” I had to admit
”Then do not think on it, do not look down as you skirt the narrow ledge, lest you lose heart, lose balance, and fall,” he said
”Yet if you lead an army, you must prepare,” I said ”I think--I think I would like to see those papers now, hear your plans” Now, before I lost storoaned ”So you will force me to spread them out?” He rose to his feet, then held out his hands forin their sheer numbers!”
Yet from those numbers and charts our chances would be revealed ”It is early yet, and I aly endless hallways--oh, how the Seleucids had liked vastness!--unheated, unlighted, he took me to the apartments where he kept all the war records and docuuard--scarcely ht a fire and additional la daathered up an are table ”The best maps we have,” he said Two of them rolled off the table and lay at his feet He spread out the biggest one on the table, securing it with a heavy oil laion, from Syria to Parthia and beyond,” he said
I was iet this?” I asked
”I drew it ence about the area Look--”
He pointed out various features ”It just stretches east, and east,” he said ”We are used to the Tigris Riverthe easternmost part of the world To a Parthian, that is far west”
”A world beyond the edge of ours,” I said ”I know the Parthians caion They still fight like desert peoples, using horses and bows If the Greeks are of the sea, and the Ro of the air”
Antony grunted, leaning on his elbows and staring at the h the air, with their front and back archers using two different trajectories, so that our shi+elds cannot guard against all of the Roers with lead pellets that carry farther than Parthian arrows and can pierce armor, to show them they do not not control the air” control the air”
Still, they were expert riders and had given the term ”Parthian shot” to the world: When they appeared to be retreating, they would turn and shoot over their shoulders with deadly accuracy And they had invented special bows shortened below the grip for use in the saddle, and a caht exclusively with long-range weapons, never face-to-face
”I plan to er down in Armenia-- ”and join our ar thefor Phraaspa, where the national treasure is kept We will attack the city and force theht for it in Roman fashi+on--after all, the city is not hed ”They will have to stand like men and defend themselves, not flee” He seemed optimistic ”Since the countryside has little useful tie equipment”
”You will transport the!”
”True, but without them I cannot force the cities to yield”
”What were Caesar's exact plans for the can?” I asked quietly
”He also planned to attack fro the west, where Crassus ain experience in Parthianin full battle with the the way”
”May I see the papers?”
He frowned, reluctant to bring them out Why? Had Caesar different plans, ones that Antony had abandoned? Was he just using the y? ”Very well,” he finally said,his way over to a small locked casket on another table He opened it and pulled out a sheaf of papers, not the neatly folded papers of a man who had had the opportunity to store theht by death unawares and in mid-action--messy and jumbled
”This is exactly as I found the them to me ”I swear”