“Dad, you have always stressed the importance of justice in ruling the kingdom.”
“Yes, and welcome back, by the way. Did you find the girls?”
“Yes, and there’s the injustice. The second injustice. The first was their being taken from their families. The second is that their families will reject them.” She was breathlessly blurting all this out, the thought only vaguely in her head and the solution evading her.
“Slow down, slow down. What do you want me to do?”
“I am going to put the girls up in the distinguished visitors’ quarters, and when they arrive, I will have Boni fetch their families here. And then…. I don’t know, Dad! But we have to arrange some sort of reunion, so these girls don’t get thrown back out on the street. Don’t you see? Their families think they’re nothing but cheap whores now. They’ll feel disgraced by them and the girls will end up freelancing in the parks and back alleys, until someone kills them or they kill themselves. And all we did for them will be wasted.” Tears welled up in her eyes. “I’m sorry, Dad, I haven’t thought this through. I know what I want to happen, and I am afraid it won’t, and it will be ugly, and they’ll be hurt again!”
“Your heart is pushing you to help these girls, but that won’t be enough to overcome their families’ feelings of shame and anger. If we are to succeed, we need to use our heads, not our hearts. We need a strategy, we need the right words. Let me think how we might do this. How much time before they get here?”
“The girls will be here inside an hour, several hours more to locate their families and get them here.”
“Close to dinner, then?”
“Yes.”
“Have you told Rustam about this yet?”
“Yes, he’s flustered, but getting things ready. I think. I told him five rooms, but we need to keep them separate until we can bring them together.”
“That’s good. They can stay overnight.”
“Yes, I told him to expect that.”
“When the girls are refreshed and changed, have them brought here. Cassandra and I will entertain them while their families arrive and freshen up in their rooms. When the families are ready, have them assemble in the private throne room for the reunion, and we will bring the girls in. Tell Rustam to put on an unexpected dinner in the private throne room for … let’s see… guessing four per family, plus the girls, plus... dinner for thirty at sunset. Are any of the girls married?”
“One. Delaram. She’s terrified of seeing her husband again. She’s afraid he will kill her. Worse, maybe that he won’t.”
“Get Antonius and Marcia. Antonius can give a husband’s perspective. Now, relax, breathe deeply, and sip your tea, while I think deep thoughts on what I might say.”
The girls arrived and were settled in, told they were to be guests of the king, and Boni dispatched soldiers to locate and bring in their families. The girls were brought into the king’s private quarters, where they were welcomed by King Vima, Cassandra and Ranisa and made to feel at ease as best they could, just a few days removed from being filthy whores of no value, living in squalor. Now they were guests of royalty in a magnificent palace. King Vima then removed himself to his study, where he scratched notes on a scroll, trying to capture the key points he would need to make.
Antonius and Marcia arrived, and Marcia introduced the girls to her husband. A few minutes later, Rustam announced that all was ready in the throne room.
The girls filed in and there were five happy reunions… no one had told the families what had become of them. They knew only that they were fresh, clean, and healthy in appearance. The girls, on the other hand, were obviously awkward and uncomfortable. There were tears and hugs, the little bits of catching up, then all were seated to hear the King speak from the throne, Cassandra standing to his right with Ranisa and Boni, Antonius and Marcia to his left. Everyone waited in silence, while he paused for effect.
“I have gathered you together, my most honored guests, because I owe you a great apology.” He paused for a long time. That statement got their attention.
“Our philosophers, from Plato in Greece to our own here in Bactria, tell us that men create governments of various kinds to provide for security and justice for the people. Security, so that you the people can go about your business without fear. Justice, so that nothing precious can be taken from you. I have failed you in both regards. I failed to protect your wives and daughters, and nearly failed to protect my own daughter and her friend. A great injustice was done to you and to your girls. Your wives’ and daughters’ most precious possession, their freedom and their dignity, was taken from them. Shameful things were done to them, as might also have been done to Princess Ranisa and Marcia Lucia, the wife of a Roman diplomat. Shameful things were done to your girls, but I want to emphasize, not by them. The shame of this tragedy is mine alone, and for that I beg your forgiveness.” Another long pause to let this settle in.
“It would be an even greater injustice now, if you were to punish these girls for my failings and the sins of their captors. These are the same girls who left your homes a long time ago, happy and full of hope. They are home at last, but they are injured and sick of heart. They need to heal, and I need your help to heal them. There will come a day when they no longer dwell on the terrible days they endured in captivity in Baghlang, but that day is not today, and will not be tomorrow. Ahura Mazda, the creator of all things good, has brought these girls home. Let us all rise to His challenge and heal these beautiful children so that one day they may smile and laugh again without shame.”
There was not a dry eye in the audience. He continued, “If it will be difficult for parents, it will be incredibly difficult for husbands. For that, my friend Antonius Aristides, diplomat of Rome, will speak to them, as he nearly shared your fate when his wife Marcia was taken.” He beckoned Antonius to speak.
“I am a soldier, and as a soldier, I spent a lot of time with prostitutes. And I never thought about how those girls came into that life. Now I know that none chose that life, that all were forced into it, and I regret every coin I spent in those places, making some man rich off their suffering. What would I have done, had Marcia actually made it to Baghlang, been taken by other men, used against her will? How would Marcia react on her return to me? Would we be able to be husband and wife again? I would like to think that we would overcome all difficulties, but I know that it would be the hardest thing we ever did, and I don’t know if we would succeed. All I can ask is that you try, as we would have tried… harder than anything else you have ever tried… to breathe life into that spark of love that still flickers in your hearts for each other.
“And I speak to both parents and husbands. We dealt once with some of our soldiers captured by the enemy. Like your daughters, they were forced to do unspeakable things until we recovered them. Like your girls, they were in shock, and tried to keep their memories of that time sealed. We had to get them to talk, to tell us things we didn’t want to hear, to say things they didn’t want to say. Because only through that, could they heal. You will have to do the same. Don’t do it tonight, nor tomorrow, but soon. These girls must tell you what their life was like, and you must listen, because only that way can the poison come out and the wound heal.”
Antonius nodded, and the conversation returned to King Vima. “I know that some of you will try, and despite your efforts, fail to get back to where you were before. For those, do not cast your girl out, but bring her here. I have made arrangements with the Buddhist monastery, with the Christian communities here, and others, to take your daughters in and care for them if that proves impossible for you. They will have a loving home if it should be impossible for you provide one for them.”
He paused, and signaled Rustam. “Enough serious talk! Let us feast our daughters’ return. Stewards, fine Kapisan wine, then dinner!”
Musicians and singers came out to play lilting songs of family, while the stewards circulated to provide everyone wine, and by the end of the night, there wer
e some shy smiles.
To announce the wedding, fast riders were dispatched to the farflung cities of Bukhara, Samarkhand, and Khojand five hundred miles to the north. Changing riders and horses at way stations every twenty or thirty miles, they could cover one to two hundred miles a day. The riders also brought the news to nearby Baghlang, Sirkh Kotal, Warnu, Bactra, and Purushupura within Bactria. Within a week, kings and nobility were gathering their entourages together for the long trek to Bagram.
While the preparations for the wedding went on, the king provided both education and entertainment to Aulus’s party several nights a week in the palace theater. The theater was located on a hill in the park surrounding the palace, a semicircular array of stone seats around the play area and background scaena, with excellent acoustics that allowed the barest whisper to carry to the backmost seats up on the hill.
The entertainment included music, ranging from Greek melodies to a variety of hauntingly beautiful Kushan songs. It also included plays, mostly Greek ones familiar to the Romans, but also, to the Romans’ delight, a few plays by Plautus, performed in presentable Latin. There were philosophy discussions, mostly in Greek, of both the classical well known schools of Plato, Epicureanism and Stoicism, and local philosophies heavily influenced by Buddhism. And there were religious debates, from a wide variety of contending faiths: Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and the small Christian community, all conducted in a very informational and non-proselytizing manner. Most of these were in Greek, so Shmuel and Yakov generally excused themselves from the events. Marcia relied on Antonius’ quiet translations of the Greek, though she was trying to master the language.
During the day, the Roman party toured the temples, academia, libraries and markets that made up the hub of Bagram. The exigencies of the upcoming departure, however, limited their purchases mostly to clothing, traveling supplies, and food.
Ranisa went out after a week to invite the girls from Baghlang to her proaulia feast ahead of the wedding day. It was also an opportunity to see how they were faring, readjusting back into their newly-resumed lives. Most were doing well, although in some, she thought she felt some tension. But they were all still under their families’ roofs, so that was a good sign. She saved Delaram for last. Her husband’s face was dark and sullen the night of the reunion.
Delaram lived in a poor but well-kept neighborhood of craftsmen, in a mudbrick house with an adjoining shop. Ranisa stepped up to the door with some trepidation, but it was open to admit a breeze through a woven curtain that offered some privacy. She could see Delaram on the inside as she knocked gently on the frame. “Delaram? It’s me, Ranisa. Are you busy?”
“Your ladyship!” said Delaram, dropping whatever she was doing and rushing to the door. “At your service!” she said, bowing low.
“Straighten up, Delaram. Our shared experiences make us closer than sisters. Please, call me Ranisa,” she said, taking Delaram’s hands in both of hers and smiling. “All is well?”
A two-year old toddled up to peer shyly out from between her mother’s legs, sucking her thumb. A five-year old boy looked at Ranisa curiously, standing by the table where he had been helping his mother prepare vegetables. “These are my children, your lady… er, Ranisa. This is my daughter Rukhshan, my youngest, and over there is my little helper Kanag. We were making lunch for his father, who is out in the shop working.” She turned toward him. “Kanag, would you go get your father, and tell him Princess Ranisa is paying us a visit?” The little boy scampered out a door at the side of the room.
Delaram continued: “I missed them terribly. I thought I would never see them again. Yes, things are going well… very well.” She dabbed at a tear with the rag in her hand, choked up a bit, but quickly regained control. “Very well.”
Kanag came back in, towing his father by the hand. “You have met Wano, my husband,” she said, facing Ranisa.
The man rubbed his dirty hands over his sawdust-covered leather work apron, then self-consciously through his tousled black hair. “Your ladyship…” and he began to bow, as both girls tittered a bit.
“She has asked us to call her Ranisa, as we have close personal bond,” said Delaram.
He smiled a bit shyly at first, then letting it widen across his face. He took her hand firmly in his, “Well, Ranisa, we don’t often have royalty come to call here in our home. Welcome, our house, such as it is, is yours.”
“Wano, I came to invite you to my proaulia wedding feast in a few weeks. I wish I could give you a specific date, but my father and mother are still arranging and rearranging the schedule and guests. All of the women and their families are invited as our honored guests. You may not know this, but you had a hand in my getting married.”
“How’s that?” asked Wano.
“Boni was the man in charge of my rescue. He had been a commoner, though he was head of the palace guard. My father adopted him as nephew, which made him a prince, and … well, it is what we wanted for a long time, but could not have.”
“Well, congratulations!” said Wano. “May I offer you some wine? It’s by no means as good as your palace wine, but it’s all we can afford.”
“That would be wonderful.”
Wano came back with a leather wineskin and some clay cups, filling each, and handing one to Ranisa and one to his wife. “We owe you and the King of Kings a great deal. To King Vima!”
“It looks like you are doing well.”
“The children are glad to see her back. The soldier was right,” he said. “It was hard for her to tell me things, and harder still for me to hear them,” he said, pointing to a damaged cabinet on the wall. “That happened the first time she told me about things. Now, I just keep big sticks around, and when we talk of that I break them. We don’t have furniture to spare!”
“We have bad days,” said Delaram. “We have a Buddhist friend who takes us to temple sometimes. It helps to just sit silent, and contemplate, to try to understand that all things have a purpose and a meaning. Yes, we owe you all a great debt.”
Ranisa stayed with the family for a while, marveling at how resiliently they had rebounded, from something she honestly thought was unrecoverable. Then she bid farewell and left, very happy with how well the impossible was turning out. Without her father’s help, everything Boni had predicted would have happened, maybe even worse.
The proaulia was held a week before the wedding, before the massive entourage of visiting dignitaries descended on the palace, a family feast for the bride before the wedding, just friends and close relatives… in this case about a hundred of the king’s extended family and the local governors and kings from the surrounding provinces that Ranisa knew only slightly.
The ceremony was held in the a broad grassy park surrounding the palace, ringed by trees flaming gold, yellow, red and orange in the peak colors of October, matching the brilliant yellow fall sun. Multicolored tents had been set up on the lawn, a narrow one a hundred yards long, open on all four sides and bedecked with flags, sheltered the bridal party guests. King Vima, Cassandra, the king’s son Kanisha, Ranisa and Boni, were seated on portable thrones in the center, and their family and friends, seated at two very long tables to either side of the thrones. The right hand table seated the king’s immediate cousins and their families, the left hand one seated Cassandra’s extended family, and at the far end were seated the girls with their families and Aulus’s party. The commoners were ill at ease with royalty, self-conscious of their dress, speech and manners. However, Aulus’s party was a good match for them. They made the families comfortable, and their accented Bactrian made the commoners feel more at ease. Soon they were talking comfortably across the table about various things of little import…mostly their travels and adventures, the commoners’ jobs and experiences. Antonius and Marcia were seated opposite Delaram and Wano, and Antonius was very pleased to see the signs of affection flitting between the two. Gaius seemed distracted however, studying his cameo of Camilla.
In front of the guests’
tent, opposite the thrones, was a small tent sheltering a black marble statue of Anahita in front of which stood a small table, a lit candle flickering in the wind and burning incense.
Behind the long guests’ tents were three smaller tents. The center one sheltered singers, lyrists and flutists, whose pleasant tunes and lyrics spilled like a waterfall on the social gathering. On either side of the musicians’ tent were two long tents, one of which sheltered the cooks preparing lamb, pheasant, goat, cow and pig, the pleasant smell of wood smoke and cooking meat permeating the air. Bowls filled with multicolored spices covered the tables, and servants were busily dicing huge piles of vegetables. The other tent sheltered a long table, piled with gifts for the bride and groom.
Servants in white Greek tunics circulated among the guests, never letting the silver goblets remain empty for too long.
Rustam, in an orange silk tunic, emerged from the kitchen tent which had become his command center for orchestrating the activities. He came up unobtrusively behind King Vima’s throne and whispered something. The king nodded, Rustam politely backed away and the king stood and clapped his hands for attention. “Honored guests!” he said in Greek. “It is time for the proteleia, the time for my daughter Ranisa to offer up the toys of her girlhood to Anahita.” The audience fell silent. “Ranisa, please rise.”
Ranisa rose, standing straight, looking splendid in a long white silk dress that reached her ankles, contrasting with her raven black hair. She had a child’s doll in her right hand.
“Ranisa, are you ready to leave your childhood behind, and take up the life of a woman?”
“I am, Most Excellent Father,” she answered, staring straight ahead.
A servant appeared from behind her and stood at her left, silver scissors in hand. He took a length of the shining black hair, and cut off an inch or so. Ranisa held out her left hand, and he placed the cut length in her open palm.
“Are you ready to offer the treasures of your childhood to Anahita, as you embark on your life’s journey as a woman?”
The Eagle and the Dragon, a Novel of Rome and China Page 66