cart next to the Cretan, and one of them scratched the young arrow and cut the sleeve of the chiton.Both merchants with swords and shields crawled over to the young man, and Levkon patted him on the shoulder approvingly, leaned out from behind the wheel and received a dart in the forearm, dropping the sword from his hand and moaning deafly at the same time.
“Nearkh, you are a great shooter, you helped me a lot,” Melon said with a twisted face, “be careful, you have all hope, the servant Nearh is sitting next to them with a bunch of darts and a club.
“Things are bad, Melon, take a dart and cover yourself with a shield, you’re on the left, I’m on the right, hit the target, and hide until the Thracians walked around us, then our three mounted gallopers gallop and cut down the Thracians,” said the young man, “Come on, quickly.
One quickly lowered the arrow, another threw a dart, both of them fell, and eight enemies remained, and the Hellenes instantly fell to the ground, and the counterstrike hit only the edge of Melon’s shield, rebounding from the copper upholstery. At this time, the servant was pulling Levkon’s forearm, his face gray with pain. Three horsemen, waking up, jumped to the robbers and first threw darts, and hit the three at close range, rushed to the others with swords, but experienced mountaineers could get one of the mounted men, and he rolled to the other three, who fell into puddles of their own blood, but two mountaineers were able to hide in the thickets.
– Fine! – Levkon cried enthusiastically, taking the dart in his hand, “Those who beat our horsemen will come running now,” Melon sighed with a twisted face, and a battle chill began to beat him.
– The servants got ready for a fight, managed to arm themselves, and our horsemen must be hidden behind a boulder. And the carts move, because of them, we stand against the fights, said Nearh.
“Well done, boy,” Melon praised him, and quickly began ordering carters to make a barricade of carts, the servants immediately began to do what was required.
Suddenly the sound of hooves on the ground was heard, fear appeared in front of the merchants, and what if it was the horse Thracians? But fate was favorable to the travelers, they were Macedonians, and in front of thirty horse-drawn, heavily armed soldiers, a young man, almost a boy, with blond hair fluttering in the wind, then told Nearh that this was Alexander.
At the court of Alexander
– Greetings, guests! I am glad to see you here, and you probably even more than me, but I came to meet Nearch, a Cretan appointed to me in retinue! I hope he is alive and I was on time! – loudly and distinctly, as before the formation of troops the prince said. Meanwhile, the horsemen of his retinue, scattering like a fan and combing the neighborhood.
– I’m here! – exclaimed Nearh, removing the bow in the fire and throwing it with the quiver behind his back, came forward, Alexander seeing him immediately dismounted, and the tall and handsome young man, as it became known later, Gefestion, sitting astride, took his horse by the bridle.
– Hello, Nearh, I-Alexander (then his name was a childish name, but it was forgotten), the son of Philip, Argead. Are you from Crete?
Yes, from Crete, I am the son of Archon Androtima from the city of Lato, arrived in your retinue in pursuance of the will of the gods.
“Yes, all Cretan sorcerers,” he said, smiling, and slightly tilting his head to the left. He walked leisurely to the boulder, inspecting the dead and wounded Thracians lying in the grass. He was followed by ten people on horseback.
– Huckers! Servants here, bandage the wounded! “And he leaned toward one, a red-haired freckled Thracian, who held his thigh pierced through with a Cretan arrow.
– You are a great archer, Nearh, but what kind of a doctor are you? Come here, let’s tie up the guy, – he called the new officer, he looked doubtfully at Hephaestion, he just shrugged his shoulders, it could be seen that he was familiar to him.
– Go, come here Nearh, I do not finish captives, bring a clean cloth and take the vinegar.
Nearh took the required things in the wagon and walked over to the prisoner already seated on the grass, the prince already cut his trouser leg with a knife, and taking a flask of vinegar, soaked the cloth in it, wiped the injured place, saw that it wasn’t offended, the sides of the thigh slightly pulled the arrow
– Do you have Scythian tips? Lobed? Hope without unnecessary thorns? he asked, and the Cretan man only nodded in response, supporting the wounded man’s leg.
“Hold tight,” and said something to the prisoner in Thracian, which tightly squeezed his jaws, and the prince cautiously, but quickly pulled on the wound canal, the wounded man gasped, and leaned on Nearchus, but he deftly picked up thick tissue on the wounds, and became firmly and skillfully bandaged, so that the blood quickly ceased to flow.
“He is yours,” the prince nodded to his new Ethera, “It’s good that I didn’t want to finish him off, I don’t like it.” Then he will swear to you, and you will have a great squire. Look at the rest, can anyone help! – He shouted, – and the servants of the merchants rushed to perform.
“King, take the Thracians yourself, you saved us, they are yours,” said Levkon and Melon,
– I will take your carriage to the fortress, then it will return to you until the evening. And bury the dead Thracians – he ordered,
Servants and workers carried out the order, pulling off the dead, and removing from them the values they no longer needed, as well as weapons that were expensive, and it was expensive any. Levkon and Melon said goodbye to Nearh, and together with his servant he joined the retinue of the prince.
A retinue with Alexander and Nearh set off, and behind her was a cart with five Thracians, bandaged and bound, and behind the cart were two Horse Macedonians to guard. After a couple of hours, we reached the watchtower, where the prince took the cart from the garrison, and sent the cart back to the merchants.
– Where do we go? – asked a Cretan citizen of the high prince’s companion,
“In Miez, to school to Aristotle,” the Sweets answered,
“My name is Nearh,” he appeared again, trying to be polite.
– Hefaestion, I also belong to Alexander’s retinue, added a tall young man, – Not far from the city, he decided to meet you, the king warned that he had agreed with your father that he would send you in, … and for better relations. Well, everything turned out very well. Seen how Alexander learned medicine? It is Aristotle who instructs us so well, and you will study, philosophy, mathematics, music, astronomy, many came to the prince just to take lessons from him, because our teacher is from Asklepiades, hereditary healer.
“Excellent,” he added, but he thought to himself – can it compare with Cretan coriants?
“You are married,” Hephaestion asked, inspecting the marks on his tunic, “The only son of his father.” Then you can bring her here, not to Miez, in Macedonia, Amphipolis. Two years later. Are you really a sorcerer? “With these words, the giant’s eyes became round,” all the sorcerers in Crete, he added in the affirmative.
“No, just an initiate,” Nearh decided to partly reveal himself, so that he would not be caught in a lie.
So, on the road, and a few days passed until we got to Mieza. On the way, Alexander and Nearh, the regular doctors, examined the wounded, gave them drink and changed their dressings, and also tied up three lightly wounded Macedonians from the Tsarevich’s retinue, they were very skilled, so no one died on the way.
Miez appeared, a beautiful city, immersed in gardens, given by Philip to his son for learning, and learning. However, in possession too. When they arrived, everyone dismounted, and the approached pages took the horses to the stables, and Alexander led the Cretan to the rescued Thracian.
“That’s your man,”