“I am, Most Excellent Father.”
The king nodded, and she walked straight ahead to the statue of Anahita. She dropped the cut hair into the flame of the candle where it vanished in a puff of smoke. She then lay the doll on the table, backed away and bowed in prayer, her arms across her chest. She remained this way for a minute. Then she straightened up, clapped her hands… once, twice, three times, slowly, then backed away and returned to stand in front of the king.
King Vima raised his hands. “I give you my blessing, Ranisa Princess of Bagram!” Ranisa bowed before him, arms once again across her chest. “May Ahura Mazda, the Creator of All, and his Bountiful Spirits, guide and protect you through the trials of life.”
Ranisa remained bowed, then straightened up. “And may they guide and protect you also, Most Excellent Father.” She then returned to her seat. The audience applauded loudly.
Dinner was then served. Servants in white tunics hefted plates piled high with the meats that had been cooking so fragrantly in the kitchen tent. Whole pigs, surrounded by baked apples and pomegranates, grease oozing through the crackling skin, partridges surrounded by small quail, venison, beef, large fish. Four of each of these large trays were placed on the guests’ tables, and another small squadron of servants, armed with serving knives, one arm covered with a white towel, went from guest to guest, inquiring of their preference, took their plate and returned with their meal. After the plates filled with food, the servants fell in behind the guests..
The air was filled with the buzz of table conversation as the guests ate. After dinner, Rustam stood before the king to announce the presentation of gifts. One by one, servants brought forth a gift, stood before the bride and groom, while Rustam intoned the name of the giver, and their particular best wishes for the couple. The gifts were given in order of seniority, and most were lavishly expensive gifts of little utility, of the kind to remind others that that the giver possessed such great wealth that he could distribute it freely: the king of Khojand, not yet arrived, had given a string of the famous “heavenly horses” of the Ferghana Valley, and the king of Bukhara had given a gold statue of Anahita. Others gave jewelry, intricately engraved plates, books of poetry and so forth. The Roman party was next to last, followed by the girls’ families. Aulus had given them a gold ring, engraved with the Hanaean symbol for love, Gaius a string of pearls, and Ibrahim a silver necklace with an interwoven silver knot design. Demosthenes, Yakov and Shmuel had collaborated on a very well made silk shawl, with an Hanaean dragon motif. Antonius gave Boni a gladius sword with leather scabbard, carefully made by a local swordmaker to Roman specifications. The pommel had a gold-plated eagle and SPQR in the center, surrounded by a silver ring bearing his abbreviation, ANT ARIST PP LEG XII FUL. Marcia gave Ranisa a nine-inch pearl-handled dagger. Enclosed in the scabbard was a personal note: “Don’t wear this until you know how to use it!”
The girls’ families were last. Rustam intoned: “From the families of Armaghan, Delaram, Firoza, Mahdokht, and Parween, commoners of Bagram, a dress for Her Ladyship Princess Ranisa of Bagram, with their undying gratitude.”
At the reunion some weeks earlier, the king had left small purses in each family’s room containing silver drachmae worth more than a year’s wages. They had used a part of this to purchase bolts of the most expensive filigreed silk they could find. The silk alone had cost one of the five bags of coins. They had then collaborated to stitch together a beautiful dress, a diaphanous gold-filigreed light blue floor length gown, bound at the waist with a purple silk girdle, and a silver-filigreed white himation mantle, made by their own hands.
The servant stood, dress in hand. Ranisa broke with tradition. She stood to touch the beautiful dress. She paused for a moment and then said, “I shall wear this for my wedding. All of the gifts given today are of great value, but the people who gave us this gift, gave us their hearts.”
CHAPTER 78: THE WEDDING
The wedding itself was held a week after the proaulia on a crisp clear day in late October, when the King of Khojand arrived, the last of the most senior royalty. The wedding was held in the amphitheater in the park, which held a thousand people comfortably. Its excellent acoustics allowed the highest rows, reserved for the most junior guests, foreign delegates and invited commoners, to hear the proceedings clearly, with almost the same clarity as the kings and their entourages at the bottom. The Roman party was seated in the upper rows, along with the Hanaean and the Parthian delegations, and the girls’ families.
In the lull before festivities, while the last of the bottom rows were being filled, Marcia conversed freely with the Hanaean delegate Dong Qin, while Aulus followed their court han-yu as best he could. He determined that Emperor He was in good health, but that the Son of Heaven’s beloved military adviser Ban Chao, grand architect of the outreach to the Da Qin, had passed away. Dong Qin made no mention of their difficulty in the court, it having seemingly vanished as though it never happened.
As the conversation with Hanaean party reached a lull, the Parthian ambassador injected himself. “And how are you, my Senator Aulus?” he said, in Parthian-accented Latin that always reminded Aulus of a snake’s hiss. “I am Dariush Aspathines, servant of Shahanshah Pacorus, colleague of my associate Cyrus Mithridates in Luoyang, whom you met.”
Feeling the opportunity to pass undetected through Parthia slip through his grasp, Aulus responded wryly, “We have met.” Then, deciding to tackle the central issue head-on, he added, “The most excellent Pacorus considers us to be enemies of the state. To what do we owe this honor?”
“A misunderstanding, to be sure,” said the Parthian with a sibilant hiss. “A consequence of the slow communications between Ctesiphon and Luoyang. Subsequent messages from Cyrus corrected the impression that you were under a sentence of death by the Son of Heaven, so we no longer feel obliged to detain you on his behalf.”
“That is nice to know,” answered Aulus flatly. “I presume then, that we can expect safe passage as diplomatic envoys?”
“To be sure, nothing less for Pacorus’ dear colleague Trajan.”
“And Pacorus’ dear colleague Vima Kadphises as well. We carry messages from him to Emperor Trajan, which I am sure he would like to see reach their destination.” This was, of course, a bluff, but one that could become reality, if he could get a moment with King Vima.
“Hmm.” The long pause indicated that the bluff may have worked, at least for a moment. Dariush seemed caught off-guard, but recovered quickly. “But of course. Nothing less. Perhaps an armed escort for your safety? Parthia is safe, but like anywhere else, there are always bandits waiting to prey on the careless wayfarer.”
“Yes, of course, and there are the bandits you know, and those you do not.” Aulus expected any Parthian escort would escort them straight to Hades, of course through a most unfortunate accident. “I will consider your offer… but look, the services are about to begin!” The amphitheater fell silent, providing a welcome break in this conversation. The passage north around the Caspian Sea through skull-drinking barbarians was looking more and more attractive.
The wedding itself was a simple affair, conducted before the colonnaded scaena of the theater with King Vima, Queen Cassandra and Kanishka seated. Prince Boni, in his splendid stiff white dress uniform, stood proudly erect with Princess Ranisa in her beautiful dress, the white mantle floating like a cloud above the sky-blue gown. Representatives of the major religions of Kushana stood before four statues of their respective gods, two each flanking either side of the royal family. Musicians with pipes, lyres, harps, and drums were seated quietly in front of the scaena.
The ceremony was over in fifteen minutes or so, conducted in Greek. It consisted of a public pronouncement of the marriage between Prince Boni and Princess Ranisa, followed by invocations for the blessings of the Hindu Shiva, of the Buddha, of the Zoroastrian Ahura Mazda and his Bountiful Spirits, and finally an invocation by King Vima himself for the blessings of Anahita on the couple. All of this was
followed by the couple ceremonially drinking a bowl of wine. That done, the musicians struck up lively tunes in celebration, tables were brought out for the feast, and beginning with the lowest rows, the guests came down to congratulate the royal family.
Aulus’s party took advantage of the commotion to encircle the girls’ families, who were standing around, shy and uncertain what to do.
“Come on down, people, stay with us and we will guide you through the steps, you’re all doing fine,” said Aulus, taking Wano by the arm to escort him down, with Delaram on the man’s other arm and Marcia beside her. Gaius, Antonius, Ibrahim, and Demosthenes each took one of the other four families in tow, while Shmuel and Yakov tagged along behind. After a considerable wait, they all worked their way up the long line to congratulate the happy couple. Princess Ranisa smiled brightly at the families, taking each of their hands in hers warmly, personally thanking them for the beautiful dress.
Aulus then steered them to the king, whom they reached just after Dariush Aspathines made his obeisance. The Parthian lingered in earshot, so Aulus played another bluff card. “Yes, and I need to meet with you at your opportunity, your Excellency, to discuss our mission on your behalf to Emperor Trajan,” he said, clasping the king’s hand in his.
King Vima looked puzzled, and Aulus, as unobtrusively as possible, cocked his head ever so slightly in the direction of the Parthian. “Mission? Oh, yes, it has been a busy day, yes, yes, we must discuss this. I will send Rustam to your quarters when I am free. Yes, that is very important to me.” At that, Dariush turned and walked away.
The Roman party and the girls’ families had been required to relocate their quarters to one of the many guest houses in the palace park after the proaulia, as the guest rooms closest to the king had been preempted by the arriving royalty: status was measured by proximity to the king. However, the guest house, if anything, was more luxurious than the palace accommodations: ten airy rooms with Egyptian glass windows, a common area with a fireplace, a kitchen and bath, and of course, plenty of servants. It easily accommodated the group, with each family assigned their own room. They indulged themselves in luxury for the entire week.
The morning after the wedding, Antonius was in his room, beginning the task of packing out the leather panniers for their departure, trying to convince their spare gear and acquired trinkets to go into the traveling bag that refused to hold everything. On his third attempt at repacking, there was a knock at the door, and Wano came in.
“Good morning, Antonius. Packing out, I see.”
“Trying to. The damned stuff won’t all fit.”
“I … uh.. want to wish you well on your trip, and again … thank you for all you and everyone did for us. The King, his concern for us…”
“No problem, lad,” he said with a smile, clapping him on the shoulder with a big friendly hand. “All is working out well?”
“Better than I ever expected. Can we talk, or are you busy?”
“This will wait. Talk!” said Antonius, casting aside the recalcitrant pannier and plopped down onto a chair.
“I wanted to talk to you especially… I almost didn’t take your advice, the first night.”
“Hmm, not surprising.”
“We went back to the room, there were two beds. She took one and I pointedly took the other. I spent a sleepless night, so mad, figuring out all the different ways to tell her that she had to go, being mad at you… What almost happened to Marcia didn’t happen, but did happen to her, and how were you to understand?”
“I gathered from your face that was how you felt. What changed it?”
“We got to back to our house. My mother had been taking care of the children, as she had been since … Delaram’s disappearance. When we walked in, Kanag, my little boy, his face lit up like the sun, and he screamed ‘Mommy! You’re home!’ He rushed over, grabbed her legs and hugged them and said ‘Don’t ever go away again!’ And little Rukhshan, the two year old, I think she recognized her. Delaram started crying, my mother hugged everyone, she started crying, the children cried, and so did I, and any thought of kicking her back out vanished. All because of a child.”
“Sometimes children are wiser than us adults, Wano.”
“Anyway, I wanted to thank you… for your words.”
“Words are nothing, Wano. I don’t know what I would have done, if it had been Marcia. You were the one who made it happen.”
“Actually I think it was Delaram. That first day home, she went back to being their mother, like she had never left. Being my wife… took longer. She wanted there to be no doubt if she became pregnant, so she insisted we wait. But last night… well, she is my wife again as well as the mother of my children.” Wano smiled shyly, revealing a hidden truth.
Before Antonius could comment on this private revelation, Ranisa entered the room with Marcia and Delaram. “Wano! I wanted to see all the families before I left, to thank each of you personally again for the beautiful dress. That was amazing.”
“The women did it, and our seamstress neighbor. She couldn’t miss the chance to work on such beautiful fabric, a gift for royalty. Delaram modeled, since she is about your size. Us men tried to stay out of the way, and not spill anything on the fabric. But I thought you would be with Prince Boni this morning?” answered Wano.
“He is packing. We are going to our favorite lake, for a week of hunting and fishing. Where our love began, and doing what we love. I hate to leave so soon but I need to catch the others before they leave.”
“I think they are all still here, enjoying their last bit of royal luxury for a while,” said Antonius. Ranisa left with Delaram and Wano.
Antonius turned to Marcia, saying in a mock accusatorial tone, “How in the hell am I goin’ ter git all yer stuff in this pannier, domina? Did yer have ter buy everythin’ in the whole damned marketplace?”
“Shush, carus meus, I’ll take care of it.” She took the pannier and began removing its contents, spreading them on the bed. “You need to put the big things in first.”
“I packed it four times, somethin’ always won’t fit. Have yer seen Gaius and Aulus?”
“They’re right behind us. Met with the king on urgent business over breakfast, something about Parthia. By the way, he and Queen Cassandra regret they won’t be able to see us all off. His schedule is packed, seeing the royal departures off. Protocol, he said.”
At that moment, Aulus came in along with Gaius.
“This is our pass, along with other things, unless King Pacorus is more treacherous than even I believe,” said Aulus, brandishing a leather scroll container. “The Parthian envoy was present when King Vima gave us a message to convey to Trajan, offering his services to prevent another tragic war between Rome and Parthia over Armenia. He gave Aspathines a blunt message for Pacorus that should we fail to make it through Parthia, not only would he not intercede, but if war should come, he may be unable to protect Parthia’s eastern flank. Unless Pacorus is ten kinds of fool, we’ll go through Parthia without any trouble.”
“I’ll believe it when we are out of Parthia and back in Roman territory. Marcia, how are you doing?”
“Done, carus meus,” she said, deftly closing the last leather strap on the pannier. “But you get to heft this thing.”
The next day, on a crisp November morning, the Roman party departed for Bactria with the military convoy.
Far away in the Altai foothills, Hina had a developed a new-found respect for women throughout her pregnancy. The morning sickness of her early months had been limited to right before breakfast, so it had not interfered with her duties as zuun, and disappeared as her pregnancy began to show. However, about midway through, the old crone who had been guiding her through the experience put her ear to Hina’s distended belly, listening carefully. Not satisfied, she shook her head and listened a second and a third time.
She had heard two distinct heartbeats. Hina was carrying twins, a very bad omen: few twins survived, and often killed the mother as well. There wer
e, the old woman said, potions that would cause this pregnancy to pass away, and they could try for a more propitious one in a few months.
Hina would have none of this. The children were an answer to her prayer to the Sky God, as much as they were of Galosga and her. To reject them was to reject His answer. She would carry them to term, and if it was Tengri’s will that she would die in the birthing yurt rather than on the battlefield, no matter. The old crone shook her head, warning her that she had, in her entire life, seen only one set of twins born alive, and the mother survive as well. Hina told her to prepare to see it happen again.
Hina’s labor was a little early, as is usual for mothers bearing twins. When her water broke at sundown early in November, flooding the earth floor of the yurt, she sent Galosga out to fetch the birthing women and the old crone. While she waited, she lifted up her smock and tied it, leaving herself bare below the waist, and rigged the birthing pole across the top of the yurt to support herself during labor. She felt the exhilaration that comes before battle, and patted her rotund tummy, “Not too long now, little people, not too long at all.” She smiled and wished her sister Marcia could be with her… she hoped all was well with her and Antonius, wherever they might be on their long journey home.
The women arrived and began to brew the traditional soup, a concoction of various herbs, meats, and mare’s milk that took four hours to prepare. Not only was this soup supposed to be restorative to the delivering mother’s strength, it also served to mark the progress of delivery… if the child had not come by the time it was ready, more ingredients were put in to extend the process another four hours.
Just as the soup was set on the fire, the first contraction came, a feeling much like a very intense and long lasting gas pain. Hina clung to the overhead pole, but this contraction did not seem as bad as she expected, nor the second nor the third. The fourth one, however, took her breath away, and behind her eyes, screwed shut in concentration, dazzling lights flashed in a kaleidoscope of colors. As that wave passed, she panted a bit. The women applauded her efforts.
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