Chapter 6
A Dark Missive
When the misty morning arrived, King Iobates was sitting in the middle of his private garden on the upper terrace of the palace. He lay upon a gilded couch beneath the broad olive tree which he had planted there long ago. In his hand, he still clutched the tablet from Tiryns, having read, and re-read the missive.
He had been turning in a maelstrom of opposites the whole of the night as he lay there - anger and deep sadness, aggression and conciliation, duty and faith - and he hoped that it was simply a bad dream or misunderstanding that had brought him to this.
Oh, Stheneboea… he thought of his eldest, her pride, her strength, and he hoped that she was not hurt by what had happened. However, it did occur to him that she was made of stern matter, as though forge
