The Last King of Lydia

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The preparations for the execution began many hours before dawn.

In the heart of the royal palace, servants had uprooted and removed trees and rare plants from a courtyard, and raised a high wooden pyre in their place. In the darkness of the winter morning, they untied sacks of dry timber and stacked it neatly around the pyre. They brought out a finely carved table from one of the royal dining rooms and placed it on a balcony that overlooked the courtyard. On the table they laid bowls of dates and olives, flasks of wine and silver bowls of water, and they placed a pair of braziers nearby, ready to warm the cold air when the time came.

On the far side of the palace, in a cellar that had once held grain and which now served as a dungeon, a door was unlocked. Insistent hands shook the prisoner awake and led him from his cell through the dark corridors of the palace. The guards who escorted him could see well at night and saw no reason to light torches to guide the way, and so the prisoner moved slowly. He was a man who had never had to move in darkness.

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