By the time he had finished his tunic, the sky had turned a bruised blue colour and Alexander realised the only way he could be certain to get to his night duty on time, or at all for that matter, was to avoid falling asleep. If he was going to stay awake he might as well go to his duty anyway. He had nothing else he could be doing. 

“The only reason the Samians have seen us off is that we are undermanned with Pericles off playing heroes against the Persians and leaving us here to look after ourselves,” Straton had briefed him earlier. “Nobody expected the Samians to be quite so prepared though. That mercenary strategos really made a difference to them. 

“They have ships coming in and out all day and all night with supplies so they are obviously making the...

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