A Dishonorable War Chapter 17

I don't own them. This fic belong to A.lias so please don't give comment. Enjoy!



Title: "A Dishonorable War" (17/WIP)
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Chapter 17 (work in progress)
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Writer: A. Lias (chief liar)
Summary: Bagoas meets up with an old friend and gets some interesting news.
Pairing: Nobody in this chapter
Rating: G for nothing but Yap Yap Yap
Disclaimer: This is Alternate Universe, Alternate History. I wish it'd happened, but it apparently didn't. Sorry I've been so slow; hopefully I can pick up the pace now that my hand is better.
Feedback: I would prefer positive feedback and insightful discussion on the public forum. This is an experimental story form, and I'd appreciate it if people who aren't into it would either refrain from reading it, or at least keep their negativity to themselves until the story is OVER. There are a lot of things that CAN'T be revealed yet, so just wait and see what happens; there is a reason for everything but you may not be told what it is for awhile. I will happily answer and discuss friendly feedback.

[Moderator Note: As stated previously, if an author posts fanfic here and doesn't *specifically* state they want ON or OFF list feedback, we're going to assume they're saying ON list is acceptable. This means *any* type of feedback, with the exception of flames.]

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Drypetis:

I catch Bagoas coming back from the seamtresses’ workshop, his arms filled with silks. He’s the only person I know who loves silk as much as I do. My grandmother says he’s calculating and vain, and to beware of him and all eunuchs like him--but he’s the only friend I have! My mother and my grandmother say my sister is going to marry a Great King like my father someday, so she teases me because she’s going to be a Queen and I’ll just end up pawned off on one of the nobles. Being a second daughter is even worse than being a second son! The other women in the harem think I’m either too exalted or too young to speak to, and I’m so lonely there . . .

But I’ve been dying to talk to Bagoas--I haven’t seen him since we returned from the desert and I’ve got so much to tell him.

“Hsst! Bagoas!” I call to him from behind a wall I know isn’t being watched.

His sudden smile is beautiful; sometimes I’m a little jealous of Bagoas because he’s really more beautiful than I am--especially with his make-up on. “Princess!” he gasps, looking around to see if anyone who can harm us is close by.

“It’s all right!” I hiss at him. “I made sure nobody else is in this corridor. Come here and talk to me!” No one actually cares if I speak with Bagoas, because he’s a slave and a eunuch, but they don’t know we’re really friends, too--THAT would be frowned upon. But I don’t HAVE any other friends! And it’s not like Bagoas would ever tell on me to my mother or especially my grandmother.

Even though he’s my friend, he still has to be so formal. If I ever become a Great Lady--or even a Queen--I’m going to ask that he be given to me as part of my dowry, then I’ll set him free. I think he’d still stay with me and be my friend.

Bagoas hurries to a respectable distance from me, just out of arm’s length so no one happening by could accuse him of impropriety, and drops to his knees. He always does that. I know it’s safer this way, but I wish we could forget about the protocols and court manners for just one minute! I’m being suffocated here! But maybe not for much longer . . .

“I praise Bel you have been returned safely, Your Highness,” he intones, still kneeling with the silks in his arms.

“Oh, stop it, Bagoas--you’re such a smooth ass-kisser!”

“And you, Princess, have the mouth of a camel breeder.”

“You won’t tell Grandmother--?” Then I see him smile again, and stamp my foot, not caring that some of the precious little seed pearls sewn onto my slippers have fallen off. “It’s all YOUR fault! YOU made me get frustrated so I talked like a camel breeder! I’ll tell them you made me say it! I’ll tell them you used sorcery on me!”

“A Princess of your rank would be whipped by her mother like a donkey if she was overheard. Please, Highness, some decorum and manners!”

“I’m tired of decorum and manners--they’re shoved down my throat day and night until I’m ready to scream.”

“Such is the lot of a Royal Princess.” Bagoas uses that sage, all-knowing smirk of his, and I want to reach out and slap it off his pretty face.

“Well, it may not turn out that way for me, after all! You’ve GOT to hear what’s happened, Bagoas! You know Alexander held us prisoner--”

He wrinkles his nose. “That is NOT a term for Your Highness’ stay with a foreign King.”

“Bagoas! I’ll have your ears cut off!”

“THEN who will listen to your prattle, my Princess?”

He can be so insufferable sometimes. Bagoas is always playing games, even with me--he thinks he’s so smart.

“We got to meet the Macedonian King--me and my sister and my mother and my grandmother! Oh, and my brother, too. Would you believe the little toad actually embraced Alexander--and kissed him?!”

“I believe your younger brother has the makings of a proper diplomat.”

“Well, he’s a pig--that’s what he is! Simpering at an enemy like that!”

Bagoas regards me thoughtfully with his big brown eyes. “Are you certain the Macedonian King is your enemy, Highness?”

Aaargh! Bagoas makes me so crazy sometimes! “Well, he’s brought an army here and declared War on my father the King! WE weren’t doing anything bad to HIM!”

“But Persian Great Kings of the past HAVE done so. Who can blame him for invading Parthia before Parthia invades his lands? It’s the way things have always been done among Kings, my Princess.”

“Maybe this time won’t be so terrible and bloody, Bagoas. You see, the Macedonian King was VERY nice to us--he was so handsome and charming! Grandmother Sisygambis really likes him a lot--now that they’ve had so many conversations together--she treats him as if he were her own son, even preparing sweetmeats for him with her own hands! She told him she was going to talk to Father about the situation, and urge him to come to a peace treaty with Alexander. She says we could be allies and Macedonia and Persia could rule the rest of the world together!”

Bagoas looks surprised. “And does Alexander say he would like a peace treaty, too?” he asks slowly.

“Well--” I try to remember how he and Grandmother talked with each other while the rest of us kept our silence over dinner. “I don’t think he SAID so--in those exact words, I guess--he DID say he would marry my sister when he had come to an accord with my father the King--”

“Princess, an accord is not the same thing as a peace treaty--”

“I don’t understand these things!” I almost shout at him, glad the cold stones under his knees are probably hurting his bones. “Maybe I will when I’m Grandmother’s age--but it’s all so complicated right now!”

He backs away from me a little, giving a curt half-bow that makes me feel ashamed of almost losing my temper. “Please accept my apologies, Your Highness.”

“I mean, I’d LIKE to be able to sail through the court like a ship that doesn’t need the wind!”

“So would your father.”

I don’t understand this statement, either. How come everybody thinks your royal blood makes you an expert on every last bit of substance in the universe?!

I’m getting confused, so I go right to my REAL news. “This is a big secret I’m going to tell you, Bagoas--and you can’t tell ANYBODY!”

He nods. Of course he won’t tell.

“Alexander spoke to me as we were leaving his tent, Bagoas! He talked just to ME! Oh, Bagoas, he’s so gorgeous--my sister is so lucky! But he told me that when he marries Stateira, he’s going to ask for my hand to be given to his best friend and top general in the entire Macedonian army, and he’s a prince of his own part of Greece called Eordaea, and Alexander has given him great cities like Thebes for his own!”

Bagoas looks strange now. I wish I could tell what he is thinking.

“Did you meet this friend of Alexander’s?” he asks.

“No. He wasn’t there.” Bagoas, you and your silly games! “He’s HERE, visiting in Persepolis!!!! He’s Father’s guest, King Alexander said. So I asked around around the court as soon as I got back, and I found out he’s your new master, and Father gave you to him! Nobody ever tells me anything very meaty, but they said his name is Hephaestion--ooh! Isn’t this just the most INCREDIBLE thing, Bagoas?! I hear he’s very handsome, too, and a great noble! I was so afraid I’d have to marry Mazeus or one of Father’s other old turnips and now I won’t have to! You’ve GOT to introduce us, Bagoas--I’ve got to MEET him!”

“That will not be possible, Princess.” Bagoas gathers his fabrics up more closely in his arms and rises to his feet--without even my permission--he turns his back and starts to walk away!

I run around to block his path. “But why NOT, Bagoas?! We’re going to get married!”

There are tears welling up in his eyes, but he smiles--and there is no sight in the world any more tender than the smile of Bagoas. “It is not seemly for a young woman of your rank to be alone with any man, Highness--PARTICULARLY a young man from another country during wartime.”

“We wouldn’t be alone--YOU can be our chaperone!”

“A eunuch is not the appropriate chaperone for a princess--it must be one of the noble ladies--and you know very well NO great lady is permitted the run of the palace! You shouldn’t even be here now! A princess must never allow herself to be reproached! I can’t believe the Greek King SPOKE to you out of the earshot of the other women--how could he compromise you like that! And now you want to be unchaperoned in the presence of MORE foreign men!” Then he feels badly for snapping at me; poor Bagoas doesn’t have any friends, either. “Dear Princess, whom I love more than my own life, please listen to me in this regard: You must stay in the harem with the other women. Seek me out no more--seek out and speak to no one except those who are in your own family--ask no questions and give no answers. You can trust your father and mother, and your grandmother--but no one else! Don’t even confide in your sister, for her tongue is looser than is wise for all of you--this time is more dangerous than you can imagine!”

I don’t understand; he looks so frightened now.

“PLEASE swear to me you’ll stay with your family, Drypetis!” He falls at my feet, weeping and kissing the flagstone floor before my feet. “Swear to me you’ll be brave, little heart! I want only what is good for you!”

He suddenly gets up, turns, and runs away from me, dropping silks in his wake without even looking back for them or me.

Why is he so desperate? I’ve never seen Bagoas like this. I guess he’s just gotten himself into one of his snits, that’s what it is. Bagoas can be such an old woman sometimes. He thinks I’m naive just because I’m young and haven’t had much experience yet. I’ll show him. My first banquet at court is in two nights; all the great families will be attending; my father and mother, grandmother, and sister will be there, too. I’ll learn everything about their secret intrigues, and then I’ll rub Bagoas’ face in it. I’ll meet his new master--and my future husband--with or without his help.

Thank Bel the Greeks are here--it’s been so BORING without them! Now maybe the stiff and stodgy old ways will finally change!

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--end of chapter 17--