The Poison In The Blood by Tom Holland Page B

late to correct the mistake I have made.” She began to run through the undergrowth. She moved faster than the fastest deer. “Paris!” she wailed. “Paris!” But there was no answer. On she ran. Then, from ahead of her, she heard sobbing and wailing.
    Paris had died in the same clearing where Hermes and the three goddesses had appeared to him. Yonani took his body in her arms and covered it in kisses. The heat was still coming from his limbs. She hugged her lover tight to herself and lay with him on the grass. Still the heat radiated from his body.
    Meanwhile, the servants had been gathering wood to build the funeral fire. They raised it high. When all was ready, they laid Paris’s body on its top, then held a torch to it. The flames leapt up, licked the wood, then began to caress the body of Paris. The smoke turned greasy with his melting flesh. Yonani threw herself upon the flames. She hugged the body of Paris - and she hugged the fire.
    But she could not die. And when her lover’s body had burned away, she rose from the ashes of the fire and left the glade, to return to the emptiness of her mountain.
    And never did she allow herself to fall in love with a mortal again.
     
     
    Tom Holland received a double first from Cambridge. He has adapted Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides and Virgil for BBC Radio. One of his previous books, Rubicon, was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize and won the Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History 2004, while his latest book ; Persian Fire, was a bestseller and a Book of the Year pick in seven newspapers.
    Also by Tom Holland
    Rubicon
Persian Fire
Supping with Panthers
Deliver us from Evil