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.He was wearing a heavy cuirass made of layers of linen quilted together, half a finger thick, and the dagger skidded off the armour and ripped across his neck.The Kelt grunted a fourth time and ripped his heavy sword from its scabbard.He killed two men in as many blows and scattered the guardsmen, forcing their captain back as if he was a giant in a riot of children.Kineas was unarmed and unarmoured, but he knew where the alcove was.He leaped back from the first rush, grabbed a bronze platter and stopped a killing blow from the man concealed there and another from one of the courtiers nearest the throne.Darius was down from the dais and moving towards him.‘Philokles!’ the Persian shouted, and ripped a sword from another courtier and threw it at Kineas.Kineas rammed the edge of the platter into a man’s nose.Then he took the man’s arm, whirled him and broke it, so that he screamed like a wounded horse.Kineas swept his feet and pushed him flailing into the line of guards, kicked with his bare feet, set his back against the wall and grabbed for the sword as it bounced off the wall.Philokles? he thought, and his right hand closed on the grip of the sword, a back-curved hanger like a small machaira, with a heavy guard that completely covered his hand.His left hand had the platter by one of its gryphon-head handles, and he hurled it like a discus at the crowd by the throne.The men facing him fell back a step.Carlus was bellowing like a bull.There were three men in the blood at his feet and two more clutching wounds and none of the guard would come near him.Darius dispatched one of the courtiers with a thrust to the chest - no wasted effort.The two survivors by the throne turned to look at him and Sartobases yelled ‘traitor!’ at him in outraged Persian.‘Philokles!’ he shouted again.Women were screaming and the smell of death and offal carried across the warm, moist air.He glimpsed Banugul moving away from the throne, one hand pointing at Darius.Darius cut down another man and joined Kineas at the wall.‘I work for Philokles!’ he said as if a battle cry, and the words penetrated Kineas’s brain.He laughed and attacked the men in front of him.They scattered and he cut one down in his retreat, but then the front of the hall began to fill with the queen’s guard.‘Follow me!’ Darius called.He slipped behind a drapery.Kineas would not so lightly abandon his bodyguard.‘Carlus!’ he yelled.‘On me!’The Kelt swung his sword wide, so that the blade was a blur - back and forth - and then sprang away, the two great swings covering his retreat.He knocked a slave girl flat, smashed his fist into a man’s face, scattering teeth, and ran across the slick floor.A guardsman threw a javelin.His aim was true and it struck Carlus in the back, but it lacked power and the cuirass held it.Still, the giant stumbled a step.The guards gained heart and charged.Kineas ripped the hanging off the wall - a Persian procession of conquered peoples carrying gifts - and ducked through the concealed door.‘Follow me!’ he shouted.He could feel Carlus pushing through the door behind him.They were in a dark corridor.Behind them, Therapon’s voice was calling for archers.They turned sharply right and the corridor climbed a flight of stairs, lit by pitch brands.‘Hold them here,’ Kineas said to the big Kelt, who was panting with exertion, fear and pain.‘Never let their archers get a shot at you.Use the curve of the wall.Understand? I’ll be back for you!’Carlus placed his back against the wall.He pushed himself to a full standing position.‘Aye, lord,’ he said.He grinned.‘Aye!’ His effort to push himself erect left a smear of wet blood on the plaster.The whole stairwell stank of burning pitch and the sweat of fear.Kineas turned and followed Darius again.‘Where are we going?’ he asked.‘Postern gate,’ Darius said.‘Been trying to tell you for three days - she means to attack the camp.Tonight.’‘She’s insane! We’d kill her!’Darius sagged against the landing and Kineas could see he was wounded, the flowing blood black in the fitful light.‘You’d have killed her men - except that you came here.And she owns some of your new recruits.Or thinks she does.’ The man was pale with fatigue.‘Let’s get to this gate!’ Kineas said.They went through a door, into a rich apartment and then down a long curve of steps set into the outer wall.The stairwell was pitch-black and cold as the outer wells of Hades, with a thin cold wind coming in through the arrow slits.Outside, Kineas could hear Greek voices - probably his bodyguard demanding news.The sounds of fighting could be heard right through the walls.Carlus was killing men, roaring his challenge.They went down, and down again, and through a door.There were a dozen men waiting for them.‘Fuck!’ said Darius in Persian, and his sword flashed as he cut at a man.‘Run, Kineas!’It was too late to run
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