The Grace
Page 2
Just as the Chaldean was about to speak, the man drew near, and scowled. "You've done your part, Chaldean. Now be graceful, and go."
He felt wordless disbelief, and as it dawned on him that the man was sincere, a wrenching sense of betrayal. "I just brought Babylon through the storm. I have delivered you from Assyria, a free city again. Have you no gratitude?"
"We will never be free as long as you are here."
"Yes," he said. "You will never be free. I have a legend now, and men will not be quick to forget that it was the white foal of Marduk that trampled the stallions of Assyria."
"Are you the only man who can spin a story, Chaldean? Go you shall, and live as a legend, in memory. Stay, and you will lose the good grace of our gods. Stay, and you will die a martyr to your legend."
It was too much. Were they blind to the treasures he had won them? Freedom from Assyria was the least of it. Could they not see that? "You are stealing from yourselves, murdering your own future. I can promise you th flesh of your dreams. Have I not shown that?"
"Lightning cannot burn you, Nabopolassar. Loved by the gods, or loathed, their fire will not touch you. But it can burn our people. Families cast out of their homes, their goods looted. Priests corrupted by Chaldean gold, sending innocent men to the whipping post. I know how you won the city. And now I am sending you from it."
His blood was hot, and his face was flushed. Lugash had betrayed him, the conniving dog. Who else knew how 'the gods' had helped him? He pictured vengeance, his enemies chained and suffocating in red-hot sand, the screams crushed in their blood red, blood raw throats. And then he gave a bitter laugh. "I never planned to stay in Babylon anyway."
...
Later, at a lodging house on the road south, he came on a group of armed men in the common room. "There he is," said one, and he drew his sword. But their leader ordered it sheathed, and came to him smiling. He saw they were from Chaldea.
"Nabopolassar," said the Chaldean soldier. "We have come for you."
"I swear I've paid all this year's taxes."
"Taxes be damned. Our governor has fled," said the Chaldean envoy. "He heard of a great battle outside the walls of Babylon, and the slaughter of his lord's host. I have heard the gods sent a blazing white stallion to drag Sin-shim-ishkun out of the city, and to trample the Assyrian soldiers. I wish had seen this horse."
"If you stay for a night, you may," said Nabopolassar. "But tell me, what does Chaldea intend?"
"Assyria is weak, and Babylon is in your hands. But the sons of Sennacherib are blood drinkers, and you have given them the thirst of the desert."
"I doubt they're brimming with delight, but you haven't answered my question."
"Babylon alone cannot stand against the empire, but Babylon and Chaldea could rule the length of the Euphrates."
"A league, you mean? I have no authority to deal for Babylon."
"I have heard the Babylonians call you the grace of Marduk. Chaldea will rally to her blessed son, scourge of Assyria, and call him captain, and lord, and emperor."
He felt like he was floating. The envoy still stood before him, excitement and hope on his face, but Nabopolassar seemed to have slipped away into a current of buoyant water. His body was light and tingling, and the colours of the day were brighter and bolder than ever seen under the sun's light.
He'd been running so long and so hard, he'd never dreamed the whole world would run with him. He saw, once more, the ruined body of his uncle, and a voice within told him that he, too, could still end that way. And he'd made enemies in Babylon, among them their highest general and the new captain of the guard. They mightn't be happy to learn they'd got rid of one empire only to fall under a new one.
"My lord," said the envoy, "what do you say?"
"As long as I keep that foal around..."
"My lord?"
Nabopolassar focused on him, and grinned. "This will really screw those Ninevite bastards."
***
About the Author
Jacob Magnus lives in South Korea with his girlfriend’s dog. He enjoys travel, and practises the Korean sword art of Gumdo. His favourite game is Deus Ex.