Free Greek Series 02 - Dark Prince by David Gemmell Page A

old with my sons around me.'
    Mothac grunted and swore. 'You would be a fool to believe that - and you are no fool. If you left Philip, every city in Greece would vie for your services. Within a season you would be leading an army. And, since there is only one great enemy, you would be leading it against Philip. No, Parmenion, when Philip decides he needs you no longer it will be Attalus who delivers the dismissal - with an assassin's knife.'
    Parmenion's pale blue eyes grew cold. 'He will need to be very good.'
    'And he is,' warned Mothac.
    'This is a gloomy conversation,' Parmenion muttered, rising to his feet.
    'Has the King invited you to the victory parade?' Mothac persisted.
    'No. But then he knows I do not enjoy such events.'
    'Perhaps,' said Mothac, unconvinced. 'So, where will the next war be fought? Will you march on the cities of the Chalcidice, or down through Boeotia to sack Athens?'
    'That is for the King to decide,' answered Parmenion, his gaze straying to the eastern mountains. The look was not lost on the Theban.
    'Then it is to be Thrace,' he said, his voice low.
    'You see too much, my friend. I thank the gods you also have a careful tongue.'
    'Where will his ambition end?'
    'I don't know. More to the point, he does not know. He is not the man I once knew, Mothac; he is driven now. He had hundreds of Phocians executed after the Crocus Field, and it was said he stood and laughed as they died. Yet before we left Macedonia I watched him judge several cases at court. I knew, on this particular day, that he wanted to hunt and was hoping to conclude by early afternoon. At last he declared an end to the proceedings, telling the petitioners to come back on another day. But as he left the judge's chair an old woman with a petition came close to him, calling out for justice. He turned and said, "No time, woman." She just stood there for a moment and then, as he walked on, shouted: "Then you've no time to be King!" Everyone close by held their breaths. Was she to be executed? Or flogged? Or imprisoned? You know what he did? He cancelled the hunt and listened to her case for the rest of the day. He even judged it in her favour.'
    Mothac rose and waved for the boat to come out to them. 'I did not say he was not a great man, Parmenion. I merely pointed out that I do not like him, and I do not trust him. Neither should you. One day he will order your death.
    Jealousy breeds fear, and fear sires hatred.'
    'No one lives for ever,' replied Parmenion uneasily.

Pella, Macedonia, Autumn
    'I shall walk ahead of the Guards. My people will see me,' said Philip.
    'Madness!' snapped Attalus. 'What more can I say to you? There are killers in Pella, just waiting for the opportunity to come at you. Why are you set on this course?'
    'Because I am the King!' thundered Philip.
    Attalus sat back on the couch staring sullenly at his monarch. 'You think,' he asked finally, 'that you are a god? That cold iron cannot penetrate your body, cannot slice your heart?'
    Philip smiled and relaxed. 'No delusions, Attalus. How could I?' he added, touching the scar above his blinded right eye. 'But if I cannot walk in the streets of my own capital, then my enemies have truly won. You will be there. I trust you to protect me.'
    Attalus looked into the King's face, seeing no compromise there, and recalled the first time they had met, in Thebes nineteen years ago. The King had been merely a boy then, a frightened boy waiting for the assassin's blade. Yet in his eyes had been the same fierce glow. His uncle the King, Ptolemaos, had tried to have him quietly poisoned, but the boy outwitted him, saving his brother Perdiccas and killing Ptolemaos as he lay in his bed. This he had achieved as a thirteen-year-old. Now, at thirty-two, Philip had united Macedonia, creating a nation to be feared.
    But such pride was double-edged, Attalus knew, bringing either greatness or an early grave. Macedonian spies in the Chalcidean city of Olynthos reported that an elite