Alexander (Vol. 3) (Alexander Trilogy) (49 page)

The King was truly taken with this idea and he summoned Nearchus to the banks of the river, choosing a high point for their meeting from which they could see the entire army marching – now as splendid as it had been when they left Macedonia and now four times as large. ‘Many of these men have walked for one hundred thousand stadia,’ he said. ‘I want them to be able to travel in comfort now at long last. I want you to build a fleet to transport both the men and the horses. We will travel down the river as far as the Indus and we will stop wherever we see a city, simply to reaffirm our authority over all that once belonged to Darius and now belongs to us.’

‘Then what will you do?’ asked Nearchus.

‘I will send Craterus back with one half of the army through Arachosia and Carmania, while I continue down with you as far as the river will take us – as far as Alexandria, if it is true that this is the high course of the Nile, or even as far as the Ocean.’

‘Do you have any idea of how many vessels we will need to transport all of our men?’

Alexander shook his head.

‘No less than one thousand.’

‘A thousand ships?’

‘More or less.’

‘Let’s get working then,’ Alexander encouraged him. ‘As quickly as possible!’

‘Finally!’ exclaimed Nearchus. ‘I think I must be the only admiral in the world with blistered feet.’

As they spoke the King’s attention was drawn by the slender figure of Roxane, riding across the meadow that lay alongside the great river; she was astride a magnificent white horse, her hair flying in the wind.

‘Is she not wonderful?’ Alexander asked.

‘She is,’ replied the Admiral. ‘The most beautiful woman that any man could ever imagine. The only woman in the world who is truly worthy of you.’

The girl saw him and pulled the reins to the left, setting the horse off on a gallop up the hill until she came before them. She rode to him, leaned out and kissed him on the lips. The soldiers who were marching by and noticed this amorous manoeuvre shouted, ‘Alala-lai!’ and the King, without taking his lips from those of his bride, lifted his hand in a joyful response to their salutation.

*

Nearchus sent a herald to all the divisions with orders for all those soldiers who hailed from coastal areas to fall in: Greeks from the mainland coast and the islands, Phoenicians, Cypriots, Pontics. Then he began construction of the boats. Hundreds of trees were felled and planks made of their trunks, then the master carpenters began the work of bending the boards and assembling the hulls with tenon joints.

Nearchus’s calculations proved accurate – by the time they finished some thousand supply boats were ready for launch on the banks of the Hydaspes, together with eighty ships, each with thirty rowers, and the fleet took to the water in the midst of much applause and ovation from the crowds.

It was a sunny day and many inhabitants of the area had gathered along the banks to watch this wonderful spectacle. The men were all in extremely high spirits, thinking that the worst was now past and that they were leaving behind the most difficult and most dramatic period of their lives. In truth, they had no idea of what lay in store for them and the only information they had regarding the lands they were about to cross came from local guides, but none of them knew anything about what they would find beyond three or four days’ navigation.

Nearchus took control of the largest vessel, which functioned as their flagship and carried both the King and the Queen. He gave the signal for them to depart, the oars dipped into the water and the ship glided out into the flow, quickly followed by the others. When the entire fleet was out there on the river, the spectacle became even more impressive with the foaming waters under the prows and the blades of the oars, the thousands of standards and other flags fluttering in the wind, the glinting of the shields and the weapons.

Among the philosophers who had been allowed on to the King’s ship was Pyrrho of Elis who was now most highly thought of, and also on board were Aristander and the Indian sage who had appeared so mysteriously in the camp at Sangala. He sat at the prow with his legs crossed, his arms resting on his knees as he looked straight ahead, like a figurehead.

‘What have you discovered about him?’ the King asked Aristander.

‘His name is Kalan, Kalanos in Greek, he is a great sage among his own people and is gifted with extraordinary qualities that come from his lifelong practice of meditation.’

‘These people,’ added Pyrrho, ‘believe that the souls of those who do not live a just life pass, following death, from one body to another until they have been completely purified by their pain and suffering like metal in a forge. Only then can they meld into a sort of eternal peace they call
nirvana.’

‘This reminds me of Pythagoras’s thinking and a poem by Pindar.’

‘That’s right, and it is indeed most probable that these ideas reached Pythagoras from India.’

How did you discover all this?’

‘From Kalanos. He learned to speak Greek in less than a month.’

‘In less than a month? How is that possible?’

‘It is possible, because it has happened, but I don’t know how to explain it. Even before he was able to speak, however,’ Aristander continued, ‘he managed to communicate with me. I would feel his thoughts entering my mind.’

Alexander’s gaze turned to the wave that just then was breaking gently on the side of the ship, and then he lifted his eyes and looked out across the great expanse of the river, over the teeming vessels in the flow. Pyrrho had moved away now to sit towards the stern on a coil of ropes where he was writing something on a slate he held on his knee. The King moved closer to Aristander and asked him, ‘Did you speak to him about your nightmare?’

‘No.’

‘Do you still have it?’

‘No. Not since he came to the camp.’

‘And do you know why he came?’

‘To meet you, and to help you. He had known for some time that a great man would come from the West, and he had decided to meet up with him.’

Alexander nodded, then he let go of the gunwale and moved towards Kalanos.

‘What are you looking at,
Kalane
?’ he asked.

‘Your eyes,’ replied the sage with a strange voice, resonant like the sound of a brass instrument. ‘They are the image of the dark line that runs through your soul, a thin borderline between light and darkness, like the blade of a razor, and you are running along it. It is a difficult enterprise, often painful . . .’

The King replied in astonishment, ‘How can you look into my eyes if you continue to stare into the waves and how can you speak my tongue so perfectly without anyone ever having taught it to you?’

‘I saw your eyes even before meeting you. And then there is only one tongue, Sire. If a man can succeed in reaching the origins of his own soul and his own nature, he can understand, and be understood, by all humanity.’

‘Why have you come to me?’

‘To continue my quest.’

‘And where does your quest lead you?’

‘To peace.’

‘But my path takes me to war. I have been readied for this, ever since I was a boy.’

‘You were also made ready to receive knowledge. I see the shadow of a great wisdom in the depths of your eyes. Peace in the world is a supreme good and no supreme good can be achieved without passing through fire and sword. But this has already taken place. I want to help the wisdom of the great sovereign grow in you, the wisdom of he who one day will be father of all peoples. This is why I have come to you.’

‘You are most welcome,
Kalane,
but my way was marked out for me when I first crossed the sea. I know not if I will succeed in altering its course.’

‘Before long, this river will carry us into the flow of the great father Indus,’ replied Kalanos, sending his gaze out over the fast-flowing water. ‘If you travel up to its source, you will come to a small stream whose waters run clear, but then, down towards the bottom, you will see hundreds of other torrents mix their waters with it, changing its colour and its course, you will see the trees lower their canopies to touch its surface, you will see fishes of all kinds, snakes and crocodiles will appear suddenly, swimming in its flow, birds building their nests along its banks, the river you see now is all this and it will be something else again as it flows towards the Ocean. There it flows into the eternal waters, into the universal womb that surrounds all lands. At that point the great Indus exists no more, but is part of the only vital fluid from which the clouds and the birds, the rivers and the lakes, the trees and the flowers are all reborn . . .’

He said nothing else and recomposed himself into his impenetrable silence.

Nearchus approached the King just then with a worried look on his face.

‘What’s wrong?’ Alexander asked.

‘Rapids,’ he replied.

N
EARCHUS POINTED AHEAD
to where the river boiled threateningly, perhaps ten stadia away. ‘We must stop immediately,’ he said, ‘and take a look from the bank before we attempt it with the fleet.’

He immediately had the alarm flag raised and ordered the helmsmen to turn towards the bank. The chief oarsman shouted, ‘Starboard oars, out!’ and the rowers on the right-hand side of the ship lifted their oars from the water while the port side continued rowing, pushing the ship into a wide turn towards the right-hand bank of the river. On seeing the signals and the manoeuvres carried out by the flagship, all the other vessels did likewise, approaching dry land and dropping their anchors. While the crews were busy mooring, however, there came a series of loud cries and from the hills towering above the river to the east there appeared thousands of warriors who immediately launched themselves into an attack.

Alexander had the trumpets sound and the shieldsmen and the assault troops leaped into the water and ran forward to engage the enemy who were now extremely close.

Who are they?’ asked the King.

‘Mallians,’ replied Nearchus. We are close to the confluence with the Indus. They are fierce soldiers, unbeatable.’

‘My weapons!’ ordered Alexander, and his attendants came running with his breastplate, his greaves and his crested helmet.

‘Don’t go,
Alexandre!’
Roxane pleaded as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

‘I am the King! I must be the first!’ and he gave her a hurried kiss and shouted, ‘With me, men!’ A moment later he grabbed his shield, jumped into the water and scrambled towards the shore.

In the meantime warriors were disembarking from the other ships by the thousand, and the trumpets blared and orders were shouted in all the languages of the great army.

As soon as Alexander reached land, the battalions of the heavy infantry came running, while higher up the river the horses were being disembarked to form the first cavalry squadrons.

The enemy, after the success of their initial impact, began retreating under the pressure of the Macedonian divisions that were gaining strength and attacking in compact formation. The Mallians, given the impossibility of forcing the Macedonians back, began an orderly retreat, still putting up a strong fight until, having backed up the hill, they found themselves in a more advantageous position and counterattacked with renewed vigour. The front line wavered as the Mallians and the Macedonians had the best of it alternately, but by late morning enough horses had been disembarked to form two entire squadrons of cavalry that proceeded to attack the enemy’s flanks. Alexander himself then mounted his horse and led the charge. At that very moment a long line of enemy horsemen appeared on the hills opposite and charged down to engage the King’s squadrons.

The battle increased in intensity until about midday, when finally the Macedonians got the upper hand and pushed the Mallians back beyond the line of the hills. From there Alexander’s gaze swept over five cities, one of which stood out because of its massive fortifications in rough brickwork.

He divided his army into five columns, and sent each one of them out towards one of the cities. He led the fifth and most numerous column himself, calling Perdiccas, Ptolemy and Leonnatus to attack the capital, but when he was about to order the assault, Leonnatus shouted to him: ‘Alexander, look! Peritas has escaped from the ship.’ Indeed, the Molossian was running as fast as his legs would carry him up the hill to join his master.

‘By Zeus!’ the King swore. ‘If anything happens to him I shall have whoever it was who let him go whipped for this. Back! Peritas, back! Back to Roxane!’

The dog seemed to want to obey for a moment, but as soon as Alexander galloped off, leading his men, he started following once more.

Halfway through the afternoon, the column led by the King was already under the walls and the Mallians, the Macedonians at their heels, sought refuge within as they rushed through the three gates that had been left open for them.

Alexander was completely caught up in the excitement of the chase, and when he saw a section of the walls that had in part collapsed because of the rain or lack of maintenance, he leaped from his mount and started running up the ramp to take the city. He reached the top without realizing he was alone. Leonnatus saw just how vulnerable he was, however, and he rushed after him shouting, ‘Alexander! Stop! Wait!’ But in the reel of battle and the chaos of the shouting, the King heard nothing as he went over the top and down the other side.