The Three Paradises by Robert Fabbri

Author:Robert Fabbri [Fabbri, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atlantic Books

KASSANDROS.

THE JEALOUS.

IT WAS FURY, raw, blind fury that raged through Kassandros as his father’s hand slumped back down, leaving an astounded Polyperchon holding the Great Ring of Macedon. Fury as Antipatros’ eyes glazed over, the light of life fading from them beyond the point of recall. But recalled he must be to redress this terrible injustice.

‘Father!’ Kassandros shrieked into the immobile face of the man who had just robbed him of his inheritance. ‘Father! Father!’ He slapped Antipatros across the right cheek and then backhanded the left, back and forth until rough hands hauled him, screaming, from the body. ‘Put me down! Father! Father!’ He wrenched himself free and turned to the corpse, his eyes flooded with unmanly tears. ‘I’m your son; not this old mediocrity.’ He twisted and slammed a punch at Polyperchon, who dodged it.

‘Restrain him,’ Hyperia ordered, her voice shrill but commanding as she backed away from her stepson now lashing out in all directions.

The same rough hands grabbed Kassandros’ arms and shoulders; this time he could not break free. ‘Hyperia, did you know he would do this?’

‘Kassandros, your father has just died; show some respect for his wishes and act with decorum; do not bring disgrace upon yourself with histrionics that would shame even one of my sex.’

‘Did you know?’

‘No, Kassandros, but I suspected it and had your father consulted me upon the matter then I would have agreed with his course of action. You are not of the right temperament to hold too much power.’

‘And that faded nobody is?’ Kassandros spat at Polyperchon.

‘Take him away,’ Polyperchon ordered, putting the great ring on his forefinger, ‘and lock him in a room until he has calmed down enough to behave in a dignified manner becoming of a grieving son.’

‘Dignified manner? Fuck dignity! Grieving son? Robbed son! That’s what I am, robbed. I have been robbed of my inheritance and you expect me to be dignified about it?’

But Kassandros ceased to struggle and allowed himself to be escorted from the death chamber, through a crowd of mourners, none of whom could meet his eyes. That’s it, look away, you sheep. There’ll be a time, in the very near future, when you will all be begging me for favours and then we shall see who can look me full in the eye. The thought soothed him to the point that the methodical part of his mind began to restore itself, banishing the hysterical side that had always plagued him when thwarted, since early childhood. No, this is a situation that cannot just be reversed because I want it so; I have to go quietly and subtly to have my own way. Murder is out of the question; this has to be done legally so that there can be no reversing it. I’m going to need the one commodity I’m short of: friends.

And so, as the great families of Macedon gathered for the funeral of their erstwhile regent, Kassandros studied each with a renewed interest for the one thing that

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