Free Alexander (Vol. 3) (Alexander Trilogy) by Valerio Massimo Manfredi

possible.
    They travelled in six stages, each consisting of five parasangs, crossing over the Syrian Araxes after two days and then continuing through a burned, semi-desert area. Occasionally they came across herds of wild donkeys, of gazelles and antelopes, grazing among the few thorny bushes. A couple of times on the third night they heard the roar of a lion resound like thunder across the immense emptiness of the landscape.
    The horses whinnied and began kicking, trying to free themselves of their shin straps, and Peritas woke up suddenly, barking furiously and trying to run off in the direction of the strong, penetrating smell of the beast.
    Alexander calmed him down, ‘There there, Peritas, good boy. We have no time now for hunting. Come on, go to sleep . . . sleep now,’ he stroked and scratched the Molossian behind the ears until he lay down once again.
    The following day they saw some ostriches, and even came across some nests with eggs in them – both ostrich eggs and bustard eggs. The cook held them up to the sunlight, saw that they were freshly laid, and gathered them all to use them for supper that evening. Alexander asked him to keep a few shells intact, so as to send them to Aristotle for his collection.
    Hephaestion, however, was hankering after some fresh meat, and he organized an ostrich hunt together with Leonnatus and Perdiccas. They took twenty or so Agrianian and Triballian shock troops with them, armed with bows and arrows and javelins, but they soon realized it was no easy feat. The clumsy-looking birds in fact ran at incredible speeds, opening out their wings, holding them upwards and using them like sails to exploit the force of the wind. No horse could ever catch up with them.
    As the hunters returned – tired, empty-handed and humiliated – Alexander greeted them and shook his head.
    ‘Come on then, spit it out?’ Hephaestion said angrily.
    ‘If you had read the March of the Ten Thousand, as I have, then you would know exactly how one hunts an ostrich. Xenophon was a great hunter, do not forget this fact.’
    And what exactly was his technique?’
    ‘In stages. One group follows the birds, driving them towards a certain area where other groups of horsemen are waiting in staggered groups. As the first horses tire the group stops and hands over the chase to the second group which sets off at full speed, then the third group and so on, until the ostriches, exhausted, slow down and then you simply surround them and finish them off
    ‘We’ll have another go tomorrow,’ replied Hephaestion.
    ‘In the meantime we can take some consolation in the eggs,’ said Alexander. ‘Apparently they are excellent both fried and hard-boiled, with salt and oil.’
    ‘And then there are the feathers as well,’ added Perdiccas. ‘They’ll look fine on my helmet. Just look at this! There are lots of them scattered all over the desert – it must be the moulting season.’
    The following day and the day after that no ostriches came into sight, almost as though someone had warned them that the hunters had perfected a new system.
    The army set off again without meeting a living soul, apart from the fifth evening when a couple of caravans from Arabia, carrying incense, camped at a respectful distance from the armies. Aristander asked the King to buy as much incense as possible because the gods would have to be honoured sufficiently, given the fact that the decisive battle was nigh.
    On the evening of the sixth day, Alexander led Bucephalas to drink from the fast-flowing waters of the great River Tigris.

 
10
     
    E VEN THOUGH TWILIGHT had descended, it was clear there was no one on the other side of the river. For as far as the eye could see there was no living soul and neither were there fires or any other signs of human presence. The air was completely still and a few herons glided lazily along the banks of the river in search of young fish and frogs.
    Alexander let Peritas and Bucephalas drink, but