Chapter 30
First, though, we would make for Ecbatana—the summer home of the Persian kings that lay on a fertile plain in the shadow of the Zagros Mountains. There I would install Parysatis, my own summer queen, before moving on to Babylon with Roxane, Hephaestion, and Bagoas.
Drypetis was also with us. She had chosen to accompany Hephaestion rather than remain with her family in Susa.
“Please, my lord,” she begged, throwing her arms around my neck now that she was my sister. “I cannot bear to be parted from my heart.”
Hephaestion shrugged and laughed.
Later when we were walking alone in the gardens at Ecbatana, I said to him, “You don’t have to pretend. I’m happy if you are happy with her. And in truth, she suits Roxane better than she does her own sister. With the ladies so fortunate
