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who stood by the wall. ‘Helios, fetch Idomenes back and ask him to bring the latest letter from Diodorus.’
    Helios bowed and vanished through the door.
    ‘You’re spending a fortune on your fleet,’ Coenus remarked, looking at a list.
    ‘Yes,’ Satyrus said. He was tempted to add it’s mine to spend , but he bit it back. The ‘conspiracy of the old’ made him react like a callow youth, but he wasn’t so callow any more.
    Coenus shrugged. ‘Well – it’s yours to spend.’ He looked up when Satyrus made a choking sound. ‘Artillery?’
    ‘We were already getting weapons for the towers,’ Satyrus said.
    ‘Draco and Amyntas are installing the new pieces today,’ Theron put in. ‘I saw Draco on the wharf, covered in shavings.’
    Satyrus glanced around. ‘I want to see that!’ Then he sat back and fiddled with his belt of gold links. ‘When we’ve finished here, of course.’
    The two older men laughed. They were still laughing when Idomenes came back with a sheepskin bladder of scrolls. ‘Letters from Babylon?’ he asked.
    ‘Latest from Diodorus?’ Satyrus asked.
    ‘Came yesterday. My apologies, lord – I read it out for Theron while you were playing with the ambassadors.’
To Satyrus, King of the Bosporus, and Melitta, the Lady of the Assagetae, and the rest of you: greetings.
We appear to be in for another summer without fighting – a mercenary’s dream. Demetrios seems to be in Greece, facing Cassander and ‘liberating’ Athens. It occurs to me that if Demetrios really does take Athens, Stratokles will suddenly be tempted too – and Heraklea could be a dangerous ally. But I’m an old and very suspicious man.
    ‘Lord, it would appear that Demetrios has entered Athens.’ Idomenes raised his eyes from the scroll. ‘We have that news from several sources.’
    Coenus nodded. ‘All the more reason for you to hurry down to Heraklea.’
Antigonus is rumoured to be building up his fleet and preparing to have a go at Aegypt. If so, Ptolemy is more than ready for him – he declined a contract with us, saying that we cost too much! So he must be confident, the old skinflint. But Antigonus is serious, and he’s busy buying the alliance of all the pirates in Cilicia and Ionia. Rumour in Alexandria before I left suggested that your old friend Demostrate declined his offer.
    Demostrate was the king of the pirates of the Chersonese, and had long been an ally. His ships had been instrumental in taking Tanais from its former tyrant. ‘Thanks the gods for that,’ Coenus said. ‘Demostrate going over to Antigonus would be the end of our shipping.’
    Satyrus shuddered at the thought of the golden horn being closed to his merchant ships.
I’m going to accompany an embassy to the Parni, as our squadrons have more Sakje speakers than anyone else in Babylon. I will be out of contact for several months, but I’ll see more of the world. Darius sends his greetings, as do Sitalkes and a dozen others. Keep well – I plan to retire there, lad!
    Of all of them, only Diodorus – the commander of his father’s former mercenary company, the ‘Exiles’ – and Coenus and his father’s other friends still called him ‘lad’. He laughed. The letter was like having Diodorus present in the room, if only for a few lines.
    ‘Who are the Parni?’ Satyrus asked.
    ‘No idea,’ Theron answered, and even Idomenes shook his head.
    Two hours on the grain tax, and more on warehouse space in Olbia – he really needed to visit Olbia, and soon. Eumenes the archon was an old family friend, but he was a gentleman farmer, not a merchant, and the town merchants were none too happy. The warehouse space for the grain tax was so damp and rat-infested that they were losing money.
    A farewell meal was given for Antigonus’ ambassador. Satyrus was pleasant, and Theron was the picture of a gentleman and former Olympic athlete. Niocles was charmed and annoyed by turns.
    ‘You intend to send your grain to Rhodes this year, my