On the WAY to the SATRAPY of KARMÂNA. PERSIA
4 MONTHS LATER
SETTING SUN
Autumn winds scattering the golden leaves.
Air heavy with tension.
“Return the woman to me in exchange for your men and I will let you all go free!” Krateros says with a powerful voice, accustomed to high command.
Blood seeps through the white linen covering the deep arrow wound on his left thigh.
Words are interpreted.
“Who is she?” The Persian rebel asks with contempt.
Krateros narrows his eyes at him. Without even looking at all the swords and arrows pointed at him, he sneers at the Persian rebel.
“She belongs to me!”
“She is dead.”
“Then bring me her dead body!”
“If she is worth that much to you dead, then what is she worth to you alive?”
Krateros ignores him and looks at the Hellene and Persian rebels surrounding him.
“I will release all your men, if you deliver her to me alive by the sunrise― if you do not deliver her to me by then, I will kill all the prisoners and raze all the lands with no mercy.”
The rebels look at each other.
A Hellene speaks, “We keep our heads while we keep her. When we give her up, we lose our lives.”
Krateros glares at the rebels.
“Keeping her will not help you overcome the powers of the Royal Army.”
He stands up, ignoring the terrible pain in his bleeding leg.
“You have until the sunrise!”
….