Alexander finally felt the exhaustion catch up to him as the burden of his existential crisis was at last lifted.
With him reasonably confident that Damious and Aristotle would soon die, he decided it was ti to make his exit.
"Well leader lodias, I will leave the mistress to you." Alexander cheerfully bid his goodbye and casually picked up the wooden tray with the drinking pot and cups, eager to get rid of the evidence as soon as possible.
"Don't worry, you can leave her to !" lodias thumped his chest in reply. "But are you sure you don't want to stay a little longer? Have sothing to drink?" lodias politely offered.
"No, I am too tired and can barely keep my eyes open," Alexander revealed his exhaustion with a wry smile.
And he was not alone.
Almost everyone had been awake for close to forty hours, forced to march, fight, soak and run.
The fact that these n could still operate at such extres was a testant to their peak physical fitness and how bullishly strong they were.
But now even these n seed to have reached their limits.
"Yeah, too. Don't know how much guarding I can do." lodias frankly revealed he too was at the end of his ropes.
"Say, lodias," Alexander softly called out, dragging lodias to the side," how much food does your group have? Cause my group has run out."
"Well, brother, don't worry. All of us know how hard your group has worked to provide all the dicine for us. You will not go hungry while we have even one scrap of food." lodias solemnly promised, thinking Alexander was asking for food.
"I very much appreciate your offer, but that's not what I ant." Alexander corrected. "What I an is that how long will our food last? Can we make it out of Cantagena with what we have?" He posed the grave question.
"Oh, that!" lodias exclaid with a smile."Yes, your quartermaster Thecoles bought up the exact issue with leader Damious a while back. He suggested we send so of our soldiers in the night to scavenge so horse at to make sothing called smoked sausage."
This news surprised Alexander because he was once again reminded he might be the most knowledgeable fish in the pond, but likely not the smartest.
Other people could too co up with ingenious and creative ideas to solve a problem.
lodias paused after saying this. swinging his head to see if anyone was eavesdropping and resud, "I am not supposed to say this because apparently there are a lot of spies within our ranks but what the heck, I trust you."
He then revealed a secret, "Rember when I told you I was organizing patrols? Well, I was actually assembling n to get so at. And just now we got so of the at coming in. That's what I was reporting to Damious. It seems that the Adhanians were too tired and too busy with their ritual to notice our n."
"And if they were not, we would be dead," Alexander quipped.
"Yes, but maybe were saved because the son of Gaia blessed us." lodias strangely comnted with a small smile.
But Alexander treated it as if he had not heard it and reminded, "Well if you do go to sleep, please rember to switch your watch with soone."
"Your mistress will be safe with ." lodias thumped and reassured Alexander for the second ti.
Then Alexander turned to the bloodthirsty warrior and holding the wooden tray with one hand, he placed his right hand on the boy's shoulder and apologized, "Sorry, I made you keep awake all night. I promise you can sleep all day tomorrow."
Though the reason Alexander had chosen him was because Bartholow had slept the entire afternoon and was now likely as awake as a night owl.
"I am just disappointed I could not kill anyone today." Ca the fierce reply.
Bartholow's 'father' said that he had found the boy amongst a pack of wolves who had attacked his caravan at night and was left behind because he fell off the wolf he was riding on. He claid to vividly rember the naked boy riding on a wolf, smiling and giggling all the way, nary a concern for himself as the bloodthirsty beast charged at them,
And even though, a lot of the sharp edges had been smoothed out after joining the rcenary group and spending ti with Alexander, his raw animalistic thirst for violence seed to have remained.
Or it could just be that Bartho is by birth an aggressive individual.
Who can tell?
"Well, you can kill as many as you want as we scoot. I doubt the Adhanians will just let us go." Alexander offered so weird words of comfort.
Usually, an army chasing after you was not a pleasant thought.
But this seed to cheer the long-haired warrior up, who grinned and nodded.
As Alexander was leaving, Cambyses too decided to make herself scarce.
"All of you," she turned to address the dical staff still frantically running around, and as their boss, she commanded, "stop everything, have a bite to eat, and then go to sleep. If you work any harder, you will die before the patients do."
This order seed like a divine revelation of salvation from the heavens above and the slaves, servants, and volunteers all quickened their pace to finish their imdiate job at hand and then get so shut eyes.
Many were up until now running on pure sheer will and likely on the verge of collapse, so this instruction ca in the nick of ti.
After delivering this, Cambyses almost regally said to her assigned four guards, "I too am sleepy. Escort to my tent."
Then she addressed her slave, "And Alexander, send an to ."
'You are getting into your role a bit too much Cam.' Alexander grumbled in his heart.
He did not miss how Cambyses chose not to use the word 'please' when addressing the guards or how dismissively she called him.
But he still played the role of a perfect servant, bowing and saying, "I will find her right away."
"Madam, we have a few slaves master has specifically prepared for you." Gratz offered.
But faced a quick rejection.
"No need." Ca Cambyses's almost reflexive answer.
"Wait, send the most beautiful one." Suddenly Cambyses changed her mind.
This last sentence produced an almost imperceptible twitch in Alexander's face as he swore, 'Cam, the deal was you could sleep with an anyti you want. Not every other woman!'
Alexander suddenly rembered a funny saying he heard he could not exactly recall where, 'If a woman turns lesbian, it's the man's fault.'
Though Cambyses's own reason for changing her mind was far more altruistic.
She simply feared that after a hard day's fighting, these soldiers might choose to vent their desires onto the slaves and female servants.
Cambyses did not have the power or the space in her tent to save all of them.
And she, shaped by the thoughts of her ti, also believed so rewards like sexual relief should be given to the soldiers.
So she chose to save the most beautiful one, which in her eyes was the most valuable and was thus most worth saving.
"Then I will send all and madam can choose to her liking." Gratz cleverly proposed.
This pleased Cambyses and she felt this Gratz might not be a half-bad slave.
But she ruefully rembered the man was a freeman and she had just killed his master who he is fiercely loyal to.
Not a pri candidate for a loyal slave.
And then she suddenly started looking forward to seeing how Alexander would gain their loyalty and make them follow him.
Alexander watched with a placid look as the girl left the tent under the care of four strong n and then casting his glance one last ti at the 'bear', whose chest Alexander could no longer see moving, he along with Theocles made their exit.
As the duo walked out of earshot range of all prying ears, Alexander congratulated, "lodias has told how you solved our food crisis. You have proved to the son of Gaia why you deserve to be quartermaster."
"It was only through the wisdom Gaia bestowed ." Theocles humbly bowed.
"I am very pleased. But there's sothing I would like you to do." Alexander then handed the tray with the drinking pot and cups to Theocles and said, "Destroy the pot. Smash it into as small a piece as you can and bury the pieces separately over different places. Then retrieve the identical-looking piece from Nestoras's tent and bring it to ."
Being assigned this little job sent Theocles over the moon.
Because he finally understood it.
He had been strangely silent during the second part of the eting with Damious because he wanted to see how the son of Gaia would overco this titanic challenge.
And now he understood that the answer lay with the drinking pot.
Theocles had no idea how but he was sure sohow, so kind of poison had been delivered using this.
And then he rembered the identical-looking one in Nestoras's room, which until now he thought was this one and understood just how far back the boy started planning it and a chill went down his back.
But this was not a chill of fear, but a chill of ecstasy.
Pure, undiluted pleasure at being trusted with such a crucial information and at being able to serve such a competent master.
'He intended to switch this special pot with the ordinary one all those years back!' Theocles excitedly thought.
He made up his mind then and there to sell his daughter as a slave to Alexander or to Cambyses or if that was not possible even to an!
Selling a freewoman as a slave to a slave!
How ludicrous!
Theocles swore, "Unless a god cos down to earth, no one can find the smallest traces of it. If I fail, may I be smitten out of existence," then disappeared into the night.
But why did Alexander not discard the evidence himself?
Because the one downside of being considered divine was the constant presence of the 'paparazzi' i.e- the common soldier dying to get a look at him.
Even this particular secluded spot only existed because most of the soldiers were out scavenging horse at, but Alexander would bet anything once he went sowhere suitable where he could bury the pottery, a thousand eyes would greet him.
So, delegating his task to the much less conspicuous Theocles, Alexander made his way to the outer dical camp to look for an and after a bit of asking around found out she had gone to another camp, to supervise the curing of the at into smoked sausages.
That's why he didn't et her last ti and that was also why she did not yet get the news about her mistress's marriage and kick up a storm.
Following Cambyses's order, Alexander thus sent a ssenger to an, telling her to return to her mistress's side as soon as possible.
While he was there, Alexander coincidentally saw his mistress stopping to admire the earthen pot and then as if noticing him even through the night's dark background, flashed him a big, happy grin.
Cambyses stopped there because as she was passing the large earthen pot, she was struck by a sudden realization.
The realization that Alexander had sent her to get the beetroot all the way back then just to set the stage for his ultimate play.
And the comprehension of just how competent her husband was sent the girl's heart reeling and she felt herself wet her pants in excitent.
And as fate would have it, her eyes by coincidence caught hold of the man in question, and so she involuntarily grinned, her smile hidden from the guards behind her.
Yet, Alexander did not quite understand the aning of this but deciding it was finally ti to get so sleep, and determining anything and everything else could wait till sunrise, he made his way to his tent to get so much-needed shut-eye.
He was dog-tired and he had a big day tomorrow.
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