Paul Doherty: A Murder in Thebes

“You asked me for a favor?”

“This will all be over soon. I don’t want Cleon’s and Antigone’s bodies thrown to the dogs. Put their corpses together in the olive grove. Take some of the guards and pay them well. Let the corpses be burned together! Please!”

Simeon nodded and stepped back as the soldiers returned. Miriam glimpsed one of them wiping his sword on some straw before sliding it back into his scabbard.

“It’s done,” the officer declared. “He fell on a sword.”

“Did he say anything before he died?”

“Antigone.”

Miriam nodded and got to her feet.

“It is what I expected.”

A few hours later Alexander-beside himself with glee, ready to accept what Miriam had done, and loudly telling Hecaetus not to sulk-stood on a great dais in front of the Macedonian army, Olympias beside him. In the presence of his armed host and of the representatives from all over Greece, Alexander lifted the Crown of Oedipus and placed it gently on his own head. He stood, hands extended, as thousands of swords rattled on shields. The Macedonian king was hailed as victor, captain-general, and soon-to-be conqueror of Persia!