The soldiers guarding the camp gate took one look at Davos and Antonios and let them pass, but they stopped Hylos and the others who were following. Davos had no time to pay attention to their shouts; he just followed Antonios, running north as fast as he could. After a good while, they saw the party of men ahead.

At that moment, Clearchus was walking and talking with Sositheus, the brother of the Persian queen, who had come to welcome him. Suddenly, he heard shouting from behind. “Stop! Stop! It’s a conspiracy! A Persian conspiracy!”

The five generals, more than a dozen company commanders, and the two hundred soldiers escorting them (who were also planning to visit the market) were all startled. They immediately stopped and looked back.

Davos reached them and, facing their many strange looks, gasped for breath and shouted, “It’s a conspiracy! Tissaphernes is planning… planning to capture all of you in one fell swoop! Without our leaders, our army will be thrown into chaos and completely wiped out!”

The generals instinctively looked toward the Persian envoy, Sositheus.

Sositheus pointed a furious finger at Davos and roared, “Who is this man, that he would say such a thing? It was you who requested this meeting! Tissaphernes responded to Clearchus’s request and even treated him with great hospitality, and this is how you repay the great Persian commander? This is an insult not only to him but to our Great King as well! Go back, all of you! I will report this to Tissaphernes and advise him to inform His Majesty that the agreement with you Greeks should be canceled!”

Several of the generals rushed to block his horse, offering profuse apologies.

Davos hadn’t realized the meeting was Clearchus’s idea, but he couldn’t worry about that now. He said urgently, “Even if it is a meeting, not all of the generals and captains should go into the Persian camp! Haven’t we been on guard against the Persians all this time? Who knows if Tissaphernes’s friendliness these past twenty days was just a ploy to make us complacent? Have you forgotten his history of treachery?”

The moment Davos finished speaking, Menon leaped forward to curse him, venting all the frustration that had been building for days. “You insolent madman! You shameless fraud! Not only do you deceive the soldiers in the camp and incite them against me, but now you want to destroy the peace between us and the Persians! Do you want to get us all killed so that none of us can go home? Men, seize him!”

However, not a single soldier moved to obey his command. Firstly, he had only brought two of his own captains and no other attendants. Secondly, some of the soldiers recognized Davos as the long-rumored “Hades’ Favored One” from Menon’s camp and were whispering amongst themselves.

Initially, the other generals had felt a flicker of hesitation after hearing Davos’s words, but Menon’s tirade immediately turned them against him. Although Menon was a man of poor character, they had known him for a long time and were aware that he was not incompetent. For a common soldier to dare to rebel against his commander was, without a doubt, a cardinal sin in the eyes of any general.

Clearchus’s thoughts, however, were different. He strangely concluded that Menon had staged this whole scene, using a soldier to try and sabotage the meeting. This was because the meeting had another purpose: Tissaphernes had promised to publicly identify the person who had been secretly colluding with the Persian army and spreading rumors among the mercenaries.

Clearchus had long suspected it was Menon. From the very beginning of the march into Persia, Menon had openly challenged him for command of the Greek army. Now, he was constantly with Ariaeus, who had grown close to Tissaphernes, and had been seen in secret talks with Socrates and Agias on multiple occasions, undoubtedly plotting against him. Today, he would finally expose this villain in front of everyone and solidify his own command. He firmly believed that only he had the ability to lead the army back to Greece, whole and intact. This was why, despite his hatred for the Persians, he had swallowed his pride to negotiate with them. He despised any villain who would undermine the unity of the army.

And so, he immediately went along with Menon’s accusation. “Since Menon has spoken, seize this clown and send him back to the camp to be locked up. We will interrogate him when we return.”

He scanned the faces around him and said with iron resolve, “I am now going to negotiate with Tissaphernes. Those who trust me will come with me. Those who do not can go back!” As he spoke, several soldiers moved forward and forced Davos to the ground. When Antonios tried to intervene, he was seized as well.

Clearchus strode northward. Proxenus and the others hesitated for a moment, then followed. Menon spat a thick glob of phlegm on Davos’s face and sneered triumphantly, “You’re a dead man when I get back!” With that, he walked off, laughing. Most of the soldiers followed their commanders, with only a few who had heard of Davos’s “miracles” remaining behind.

At that moment, Davos had no mind to spare for Menon. He was pinned to the ground with a mouthful of dirt. He struggled, screaming curses at the backs of the departing generals. “Clearchus, you fool! Your stubbornness will not only be the death of you, but the death of this whole army! You will regret this! That’s right, you won’t even have time to regret it!”

But his curses could not bring Clearchus back. The figures of the generals grew more and more distant, more and more blurry. Finally, Davos fell silent, slumping to the ground in defeat. He had thought Clearchus was a “famous general” and would have a clear head, but he had never imagined he could be so obstinate, so unwilling to listen to any other opinion. In truth, Davos did not know that most Spartan men were conservative and stubborn by nature. Once they made up their minds, they would not turn back until they hit a wall. The most famous example was before the Battle of Plataea during the Greco-Persian Wars. The supreme commander of the allied Greek forces ordered a retreat, but a Spartan general, believing that retreating in the face of the enemy violated Spartan tradition, refused to move despite repeated persuasion. This left the Spartan army lagging behind the main force and nearly led to the failure of the entire battle.

The column of men continued its advance, while the soldiers escorting Davos pushed him back toward the camp. The soldiers who had stayed behind, however, now came forward one by one to introduce themselves and offer Davos words of comfort.

Only then did Antonios have a moment to ask, “Davos, are the generals really in danger?”

“What good can come from sheep negotiating with wolves?” Davos sighed. Deceptions like this were countless in the histories of all nations, ancient and modern. The reason Tissaphernes’s scheme could succeed was primarily because Clearchus and the others were clinging to the illusion of a peaceful negotiation, and the others’ trust in Clearchus outweighed their concern for their own safety. My own influence is still not great enough, he thought.

“What should we do?” Antonios asked, a note of panic in his voice.

What should we do? We save ourselves, of course! The thought suddenly brought Xenophon to Davos’s mind. Why did he boast in his book that he led this retreat? It must be because of this—more than twenty mercenary generals and company commanders were about to be slaughtered, and the entire leadership of the Greek army was about to be reshuffled!

At this realization, he cast off his despair and his spirit rallied. “Quick! We have to get back to camp!”

***

On the way to the Persian camp, Menon embellished his stories of Davos’s “misdeeds” to Proxenus and the other generals, successfully stoking their anger. He was secretly delighted. This time, I can finally get rid of this major problem for good!

Before they reached the Persian camp, most of the soldiers who were heading to the market bid farewell to the generals.

Upon entering the Persian camp, Clearchus saw that the scene was no different from when he had left the day before. Some Persian soldiers, at leisure, even looked at them with curiosity, their chatter about “why are so many Greek barbarians coming to our camp” actually serving to put Clearchus and the others at ease.

When they reached Tissaphernes’s great tent, Sositheus went in to announce them, then came back out. “The five generals may enter. The rest will wait outside for now.”

Clearchus was the first to enter. The light inside the tent was dim. He squinted and saw that the tent was, to his surprise, full of men. A jolt of alarm went through him, but before he could react, he heard a great shout.

“Seize them!”