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

and she let herself go on the rush of desire that ran just below her skin with the flow of her blood and her breath.
    She undressed as he continued to caress and kiss her all over her body and then she undressed him, free of any inhibition now. She kissed his lips and his chest avidly and pulled him naked to the carpet. She caressed his belly and his thighs, she kissed him ever more passionately until the most burning of desires was unleashed in both of them. He took her with all his strength, as though this was the last time he would ever make love with her and he saw her eyes light up, her face transfigured by a pleasure that was ever more intense and moving, he felt her hands and her nails dig into his shoulders and his back and he heard her finally cry out in boundless pleasure, the pleasure that only the gods can give to mortal beings.
    He let himself collapse on to the soft carpet as she continued to kiss him and caress him in total, passionate devotion, oblivious to everything else. Alexander responded to her kisses and then, with one last caress, he pulled away from her and stood up.
    ‘Sleep here with me, I beg you,’ Barsine said to him.
    ‘I cannot. My men must find me tomorrow in the solitude that precedes the ultimate challenge. The sentries on the last watch must know that overnight they have stood guard over their King alone. Farewell, Barsine. If I should die in battle, do not cry for me: it is a privilege to die on the field, thus avoiding old age and the decline of the mind and the body, the slow, inexorable extinguishing of the light in one’s eyes. Return to your people and your children, and live your life happily, knowing that you have been loved as no other woman in the world has ever been loved.’
    Barsine kissed him one last time before he disappeared through the door, and she did not have the courage to tell him that she was expecting his child.

 
13
     
    I T WAS G ENERAL P ARMENION who woke him up, entering the King’s tent in person: ‘Sire, it is time.’ He was fully decked out in his battle armour and Alexander looked at him with the same admiration as ever. He was an elderly man now, but the old warrior was still as upright and solid as an oak. The King stood up and, naked as he was, gulped down the ‘Nestor’s cup’ that Leptine had already prepared. While two attendants dressed him and helped put his armour on, another brought his shield and his shining helmet in the shape of a lion’s head with gaping mouth.
    ‘General,’ began Alexander, ‘this will be a day of great uncertainty, especially for our left wing. For this reason I have decided to give you command of that side of our lines. The Black will take the right side.
    ‘We will move forward with our wings folded so that they are almost touching our flanks, like a hawk diving on to its prey. We will proceed until they decide to stop us and send their right wing on ahead. Then I will lead the charge and I will break their attacking front in two, but while I drive home the point into the enemy’s centre, you will turn round with the flank out on the left. I know that you and your men will hold, that you will not give way for any reason.’
    ‘I will not give way, Sire.’
    Alexander shook his head, ‘You are always so formal, and yet you held me on your knee when I was a child.’
    Parmenion nodded, ‘I will not give way, my boy, for as long as there is life left in me. May the gods be with us.’
    As the King left he saw that at the centre of the camp Aristander was burning a sacrifice. The smoke rose slowly from the ground, twisting like a snake, struggling to find its way into the sky.
    ‘What do your portents say, Seer?’
    Aristander turned towards him with that characteristic movement which reminded him so much of Philip, his father, and said, ‘It will be the hardest day of your life, Alexander, but you will win.’
    ‘I hope to the gods that this is the truth,’ replied the King as he took Bucephalas’s