Alexander left the room, Craterus coming with him and matching his pace as they headed to the Great Hall where he knew the messenger would be waiting.
"And what was that about?"
"Hephaistion took hemlock."
Craterus laughed in disbelief. "And why would he do that?"
"Because he could not kill me," Alexander replied, only to feel his arm grabbed so he could go no further. He turned to face Craterus.
"He was going to kill you? And today you went out, without your guard, with him." Craterus sighed. "You might have been killed then."
"I wasn't."
"Well, what is the point of a physician? Just drag him outside and execute him now."
Craterus studied Alexander's face while he waited for a reply. In turn, Alexander noted the confusion on Craterus' face turn to understanding.
"Alexander, don't be a fool," he warned. "If you have any notion of keeping this Spartan alive...because you have feelings for him, then you need your head holding in a bucket of water until you see sense."
"He couldn't kill me," Alexander reasoned.
"That's what your father would have said about Pausanias," snapped Craterus, his face going red with anger. He lifted his hand up to his hair and ran his fingers through it as he always did when frustrated by temper. "You hardly know him. Execute him, Alexander, as you had your cousins killed when your father was murdered."
"That was different, they would have seen me dead."
Alexander stepped away, going to the messenger who bowed before him.
"Antipater says to tell you that Sparta knows nothing about an offer of men. He warns you to be on your guard, to arrest the Spartan with you as the others have fled."
Alexander nodded. "Tell Anitpater that I know, that I am safe."
The messenger looked up at his King, stepped back, hesitated as though there might be another message then hearing no more he bowed and left the room.
Craterus sighed loudly.
"Hephaistion left the dagger in my room, " Alexander said, turning to his friend, wanting an opinion...one he wanted to hear.
Shaking his head, Craterus looked to Alexander. "He should be executed with no hesitation."
Alexander held up his hand in an attempt to stop Craterus, he needed time to think when all he could see was Hephaistion's smile. He paused a moment, aware of Craterus gazing on him. He counted how many chances Hephaistion had to kill him but he had not.
"I should have taken you to my bed...to please you, Alexander. I should have overcome my dislike for the touch of a man's body against my own and then maybe you would not be talking as you are, maybe the Spartan would be being hauled from his bed right now to feel a javelin in his belly."
"This was not Hephaistion's plan. There is something more, I know it."
To Alexander's surprise Craterus nodded in agreement. "The patches on his cloak...he meant to regain his honour," Craterus said.
"But he couldn't kill me, Craterus."
Laughing once more, Craterus turned, looking over his shoulder at Alexander. "Then make him your bodyguard," he said, his voice full of sarcasm, as he walked away.
OOXXOO
Alexander returned to Hephaistion's room to find the physician and his companions still there, watching over the Spartan in the bed as if he might leap to the attack at any moment.
Hephaistion was far from able to do anything, he looked pale, the fingers of his right hand clutching the cloak to him as if for comfort more than warmth.
A servant entered the room with a brazier and followed the physician's instructions as to where was best to place it before he began to light it. Seleucus whispered to Perdiccas who in return nodded his head and looked to Ptolemy, then Ptolemy sighed loudly and went over to Alexander but said nothing, only watched him, apparently astute enough to keep silent.
Lapis eyes looked to Alexander.
"He could not have had so much," the physician said.
Alexander nodded and then sat upon the bed, looking at Hephaistion for a long while before he spoke. "Execution is the punishment for an assassin," he said softly, his voice controlled.
"I didn't know you," Hephaistion murmured, clutching the cloak even closer to him.
Alexander stood and looked down at Hephaistion, then turned and strode out of the room, followed by his companions. He glanced over his shoulder to see Ptolemy and said, "We will return to Pella at first light, Hephaistion will remain here, under guard, until he is well enough to travel and then brought to face trial".
OOXXOO
Hephaistion watched as the physician settled himself in to a chair then closed heavy eyes and listened as the servant was excused. Never had he felt so ill but one thought kept resounding in his head, that he had been saved by the man he had come to kill.
Feeling restless, he tried to move but his legs felt heavy and any movement caused nausea so he lay still, grateful when the physician stood and adjusted the blankets around him.
He watched the lamp flicker, looked to the shadows that played across the room as if they were shades of the past. "Everything has gone," he said.
"What?" the physician asked, his voice seeming loud.
Hephaistion sighed and closed his eyes, imagining himself walking a rocky path to Hades, not sure if he wanted to go or stay. In his dream he wore his Spartan cloak, no patches on it, and he stood between life and death sure that one step either way would seal his fate.
His legs would not move. Hephaistion opened his eyes to see the shadows dance across the room, then turned his aching head to look at the physician who sat awkwardly in slumber.
For a moment, he could not remember where he was then he felt the shame for what he had agreed to, excusing it then with the thought that the ways of Sparta were all he had ever known. He would not see Sparta again.
He closed his eyes and drifted into troubled sleep, finding himself standing once more between life and death, hearing voices calling him to Hades. He took a step but his foot went backwards instead of forwards. He took another but again a step away from Hades. The fates appeared, spinning around him, laughing at him, forcing him back, running long, slender fingers through his hair, caressing and soothing as they blocked his way to Hades, they unfastened his cloak and let it fly in the wind, pulled at his chiton and dragged him along. He didn't fight, he had no strength, the rocks under his feet turned to grass and before him stood a man...Alexander.
Breathless he stood before him as the fates kissed and caressed the King of Macedon, adoring and protective. Hephaistion reached out a hand and Alexander took it, grasped it just before he was pulled from the dream.
Opening his eyes, this time to darkness, Hephaistion looked towards the shuttered window to see the early morning light shining through. He turned his head to see the physician, still sleeping, then looked to the lamp watching as the dying flame leapt, shrank then leapt again.
The air felt heavy. He dragged himself up in to a sitting position, then waited until the world stopped spinning before forcing his legs over the side of the bed, frustrated as they tangled in the blanket. Hephaistion bent forward, untangling himself, then carefully placed the blanket around his shoulders and got up to his feet.
He struggled up, overbalancing a little, holding out a hand as he stepped over to the wall, using it for support. At the window he unfastened the shutters and looked out across Aegae, taking a deep breath of the air, then looking out across the hills and the mountains beyond.
Leaning against the wall while he studied the land before him. Macedon. He was a prisoner to it now but he had been a prisoner to Sparta too, he just had not realised it.
"You should still be in your bed."
Hephaistion turned to see the physician was awake.
"I needed air," he replied, but made his way back to his bed, his legs still felt heavy. He felt tired.
The physician stood and stretched, groaning a little and rubbing his back. He helped Hephaistion get comfortable in the bed then opened a door and called for a servant to bring some warm milk and a little bread for his patient.
"I have no appetite," Hephaistion said, pulling the blanket tighter around him.
"Maybe not but if you don't eat then sleep."
Hephaistion nodded, closing his eyes and drifted off to a restless sleep once more.