was happier at school, in the company of my exact contemporaries Xerxes and his cousin Mardonius, the son of Gobryas. Except for Milo, all my classmates were Persians. For some reason, the sons of Histiaeus were never taken into the first section. I cannot think that this exclusion pleased that ambitious man.
Although our military training was hard, I enjoyed it if only because no Magians were involved. We were taught by the best of the immortals. That is, by the best soldiers in the world.
The morning that I first became aware of Xerxes is more vivid to me than this morning. But then I was young. I could see. Saw what? Sun like a plate of gold set against a blue-white sky. Forests of dark-green cedars. High mountains capped with snow. Yellow fields at whose cor ners brown deer grazed. Childhood is all color. Age . . . ? The absence of color-for me, sight too.
We began our day's march before sunrise. We walked in twos; each carried a spear. For some reason I was paired with Xerxes. He paid no attention to me. Needless to say, I examined him closely. As a child of
I n t h e D a ys of D a r i u s t h e G r e a t K i n g I 7 7
the harem, I knew that if Atossa's faction prevailed over that of Gobryas, he would be Great King one day.
Xerxes was a tall boy whose pale-gray eyes shone beneath dark brows that grew together in a straight line. Young as he was, whorls of dark-gold down grew on his ruddy cheeks. Sexually, he was precocious.
If Xerxes was at all conscious of his destiny, he did not betray it. In manner, he was neither more nor less than one of the Great King's many sons. He had a charming smile. Unlike most men, he kept all his teeth to the end.
I did not speak to him; nor he to me.
At noon we were given the order to stop beside a forest spring. We were allowed to drink water but not to eat. For some reason, instead of stretching out on the moss with the others, I wandered off into the forest.
Green laurel suddenly parts. I see the snout; the curved yellow tusks. I freeze, spear in hand, unable to move as the huge bristling body breaks through the hedge of laurel.
The boar gets wind of me; backs away. No doubt, the beast is as alarmed as I. But then, in an odd circling movement, the boar wheels about and charges.
I am thrown high into the air. Before I reach earth again, I realize that all the wind has left my chest.
I thought that I was dead until I found that although I could no longer breathe, I could at least hear- and heard an almost human cry from the boar as Xerxes dug his spear deep into the animal's neck. I drew my first uneven breath as the bleeding boar staggered into the laurel, where it stumbled, fell, died.
Everyone hurried forward to congratulate Xerxes. No one paid the slightest attention to me. Fortunately, I had not been hurt. In fact, no one noticed me except Xerxes.
"I hope you're all right." He looked down at me and smiled. I looked up at him and said, "You saved my life."
"I know." He was matter-of-fact.
Since there was so much that we might have said at that point, nei ther of us said another word or ever mentioned the episode again.
Over the years I have had occasion to notice that when a man saves the life of another man, he often has a proprietary sense about the one saved. In no other way can I explain why it was that Xerxes chose me to be his particular friend. Shortly after our forest adventure, at his insis tence, I moved into the princes' quarters.
I continued to visit Lais but I no longer lived with her. She was delighted that I was close to Xerxes, or so she said. Years later she told me
7 8 I C R E A T I 0 N
that our friendship had worried her. "In those days everyone thought that Artobazanes would succeed Darius. If he had, Xerxes would have been put to death, with all his friends."
If I was aware of any danger at that time, I have no sense of it now. Xerxes was a beguiling companion. Everything came easily to him. He was an expert horseman; he was proficient with every sort of weapon. Although he was not much interested in the lessons that the Magians gave us, he could read with some ease. I don't think that he could write. Each year, with the seasons, we followed the Great King from Susa to Ecbatana to Babylon and then back to Susa. Xerxes and I preferred Babylon to the other capitals. But what young man does not?
As students, our lives were entirely controlled by army officers, Magians and eunuchs. Also, the court was the court no matter in what city it was held, and so was the palace school. We had no more freedom than those slaves who worked my grandfather's silver mines. Yet in Baby lon we were aware that a truly marvelous life existed beyond the strict confines of Darius' court. Wistfully, Xerxes and Mardonius and I used to wonder what it would be like to visit the city when the court was
not
in Babylon. In our nineteenth year, we got our wish.Mardonius was a quick-witted youth whom Darius appeared to like very much. I say appeared because one never knew what Darius really felt about anyone. He was a consummate manipulator of men, and bru tally charming. The Great King was also the most inscrutable of men, and no one ever knew precisely where he stood with him until, some times, too late. Certainly Darius was influenced by the fact that Mardo nius' father was Gobryas, a difficult man at best and a potential rival. As a result, Darius was most indulgent of both father and son.
At the Great King's birthday, in the presence of members and close connections of the royal family, he anoints his head according to ritual and grants the wishes of those close to him. That year at Susa, it was Xerxes who held the silver ewer filled with rosewater, and it was Mardo nius who dried with a silk cloth Darius' beard and hair. "What may I grant you, Mardonius?" The Great King was in a good mood despite his dislike of all anniversaries, and the death that each one presages.
"The governorship of Babylon for the third month of the new year, Great King."
Although protocol requires that the Great King never show surprise, Xerxes told me that his father was plainly astonished. "Babylon? Why Babylon? And why the governorship for only a month?"
But Mardonius did not answer; he simply crouched at Darius' feet-the ceremonial position that means: I am your slave, do as you like with me.
I n t h e D a ys of D a r i u s t h e G r e a t K i n g I 7 9
Darius stared hard at Mardonius. Then he looked about the crowded hall. Although no one may look directly at him, Xerxes did. When Da rius caught his son's eye, Xerxes smiled.
"I have never known anyone so modest." Darius affected bewilder ment. "Of course, many fortunes have been made in less than a month. But surely not in Babylon. When it comes to money, the black-haired people are much cleverer than us Persians."
"I shall go with him, Great King, if you grant me that, as my wish," said Xerxes. "I will keep Mardonius virtuous."
"But who will look to your virtue?" Darius was grave.
"Cyrus Spitama, if you grant
his
wish, which he has asked me to make for him." Xerxes had been well rehearsed by Mardonius. "He will see to our religious training.""Cyrus Spitama has sworn to convert the high priest of Bei-Marduk to the way of Truth." Mardonius was pious.
"I am the victim of a plot," said Darius. "But I must do as kings do on this day. Mardonius, son of Gobryas, you are entrusted with the admin istering of my city of Babylon for the third month of the new year. Xerxes and Cyrus Spitama will attend you. But why the third month?" Darius knew, of course, exactly what we had in mind.
"The high gardens by the Euphrates will be in bloom, Great King," said Mardonius. "It is a lovely time of year."
"Made more lovely by the fact that in the third month the Great King will be many miles away at Susa." Darius laughed, a plebeian habit he retained to the end of his days. I never found it offensive, rather the con trary.