by Wolf, Joan
“If Ahasuerus is still at the Persian Gates, you will not reach him in time to prevent a trial,” Esther said despairingly.
“Then for Mordecai’s sake, we must hope that the king has finished his business with the Mardians and is on his way home,” Arses replied.
Esther drew a deep, steadying breath. “If you have not returned, and if Haman calls Uncle Mordecai to a trial, then I will speak to the Head Judge myself and tell him that Uncle Mordecai is a friend of my family and that the king would not wish such a trial to take place in his absence. I think Sisames will listen to me and wait.”
Arses nodded his approval. “I think he will too. It is common knowledge around the court that you have great influence with the king. No judge would dare to execute a man you favor without Ahasuerus’ knowledge.”
“I will pray for you, Grandfather,” Esther said fervently.
Arses nodded and said stoutly, “I will do my best, Granddaughter. And with the help of the wise lord, Ahuramazda, I will succeed.”
Two days before the vernal equinox, Arses, with three of his own men riding alongside of him, left Susa. Desperate to cover as much ground in as short a time as possible, he decided to take a shortcut through the hill country and pick up the Royal Road at a point southeast of Susa. The track he chose was narrow and rough, but four men unencumbered by baggage could save a day by taking it. Neither he, nor anyone else in Susa, could know that the king was within a day’s ride of the city and that Arses, in taking the shortcut, would connect with the Royal Road behind Ahasuerus, and never know that he had missed the king.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
It was the day before the vernal equinox and the city was buzzing with news of the king’s triumphant return. Ahasuerus had conquered the Mardians and the Royal Road was open again. There would be no more tolls. The citizens of Susa prepared to have the best vernal equinox celebration ever seen in the city.
Hathach rode into Susa early in the afternoon with a group of men from the Royal Bodyguard. They had left the king and some of the Royal Kin at Ahuramazda’s sacred temple to the north of the city, where the Magi would rekindle &7 the god’s sacred flame. Ahasuerus would remain at the temple until tomorrow, when he would come into Susa for the feast that would celebrate the day of the equinox.
Hathach left his horse with a groom, something he rarely did, preferring to look after his pride and joy himself. Today, however, he was anxious to see Luara so he could tell her all about the king’s brilliant plan and how well it had succeeded. Nor did he plan to hold back anything about his own part in the victory. Luara would be so proud of him.
Luara was in the queen’s reception room. Hathach knew Esther would also want to hear all about the Mardian defeat, and he had a smile on his face when he knocked. The first thing he saw as he stepped into the room was the glint of Luara’s bright hair. She was sitting on the floor with a pile of fabric next to her, and when she saw him she jumped to her feet and ran into his arms.
He hugged her, kissed her chastely on the cheek, and assured her that he was well. Then he looked at Esther, who was sitting at the scroll-piled table, a pen in her hand.
She was smiling at him, but her face looked tense and strained. He turned back to Luara and saw the same shadow in her blue eyes. “What is wrong?” he asked.
Luara told him briefly about the decree, then Esther picked up one of the scrolls from her table and read the exact words out loud to him.
Hathach could not remember ever being so angry. He worshipped Ahasuerus, and for Haman to have done this . . . to have made it look as if the king would issue such an evil, merciless order! Even with the Mardians, who had attacked his own troops, he had made certain that the women and children were carried to safety.
Hathach choked back the language he would like to use and said instead, “Haman didn’t think the king would defeat the Mardians in such a short time. I wish I could be there when that traitor has to explain himself to Ahasuerus!”
“I need to see the king first, Hathach.” Esther was pale. “He is returning to the palace tomorrow for the feast, is he not? Hegai has brought me a note from the Jewish community in Susa. They write that if the decree is not revoked immediately, there won’t be time to send couriers to Egypt to stop the massacre. They have begged me to try to persuade the king to revoke this edict.”
Hathach wondered why the Jewish community would be writing to the queen, but it was not his place to ask. Instead he tried to explain to her why it would be impossible to see the king tomorrow.
“My lady, perhaps you do not fully understand the religious requirements of the equinox holy days. Followers of Ahuramazda are required to keep themselves separate from women during these three days. The king will return to the palace only to attend the royal feast. He will not come to see you; it would be against his beliefs to do so. He will not even sleep in his palace apartment, but will return to the mountains directly after the feast so as to be at Ahuramazda’s sacred spring in time for the dawn.”
Esther still had the decree in her hands and now she looked down at it, then returned her gaze to Hathach. “Do you mean I will not be able to see the king until the day after tomorrow, when he returns to Susa from the sacred spring?”
If he returns from the sacred spring. Hathach hesitated, then said, “My lady, the king has often chosen to go hunting for a few days when he is out in the mountains after the equinox. It is possible he will be away from Susa for another week.”
Esther went so white that both Hathach and Luara stepped toward her. She waved them away. “Can you get to see him, Hathach?”
Hathach felt wretched. “I wish I could, my lady, but I am not a follower of Ahuramazda. I will not be allowed near their religious rites. I won’t even be able to get a message to him when he arrives at the palace for the banquet. No one will deliver it.”
Esther nodded slowly, her great dark eyes almost black in the pallor of her face.
“I can try, of course,” Hathach said. “I will be happy to try, my lady. I am just afraid I will not succeed.”
Esther nodded again. “Leave me, please, the both of you. I have some things I must think about, and you will want some time to yourselves too.”
Luara took another step toward her. “My lady, you are so pale. Please, let me get you something to eat and drink.”
“No, Luara. I am fine. You and Hathach go. I will send for you when I have decided what I must do.”
“Yes, my lady,” Hathach replied, took Luara by the arm, and steered her out of the room.
After her two attendants had left, Esther went into her bedroom. She was exhausted but she had to think. She lay on the big bed she shared with Ahasuerus and curled up in a protective ball around the baby in her womb.
So this was why all the seemingly impossible things that had happened to her had happened. There had been a reason all along. God had had a plan for her from the moment she had been born. She had not believed it when Mordecai had told her so. In fact, she had done everything she could to escape from it.
She had tried not to be chosen by the king.
Then she had tried to give up her religion. When Mordecai received his high appointment, she had thought that God’s plan for her had been accomplished. She would be the wife that Ahasuerus wanted and her children would be brought up as followers of Ahuramazda. Her duty to her people was done.
And now there was this brutal reality. Even Mordecai was helpless against this evil. It was up to her to act—to save her people. She had to see Ahasuerus. Her own little life was as nothing compared to the enormity of what would happen if she did not act. But, even now, she was not strong enough to put her personal feelings out of her mind.
Once she told Ahasuerus she was a Jew, she would lose him. Her lie would be like a dagger in his heart. It would be a wound he would never forget, never forgive.
She pressed her hands against the swell of her stomach and whispered, “My little baby. I have no choice. Your mother has no choice. I
don’t know what will happen to us, but this is what God has called me to do. Me!”
The idea was unbelievable still. All the anguish she had endured while making the decision to choose Ahasuerus over her religion, all of it had been for nothing. The decision had never been hers; it had been God’s all along. An evil force had been set loose in the empire and now the whole Jewish race was faced with annihilation. Unless she acted.
Her heart bled for Ahasuerus. Haman’s betrayal would break his heart, and then she would have to tell him that she had been lying to him from the moment they met. She would give everything she had not to have to do this. But, for the first time since she had agreed to become a candidate for queen, she actually felt that she was an instrument of God. He had chosen her to save His people, and that had to come first.
Before her husband.
Before her child.
Before the anguish in her own heart.
She knew what she had to do. The only chance she had to see Ahasuerus would be at the palace banquet tomorrow night. She thought about the banquet scene and about what her own actions must be to get to him. The feast would be held in the Service Court, and she would have to get by the guards and enter that huge room, alone and unveiled, in front of the eyes of all the gathered men. She would have to go unveiled, because Persian law decreed that any unknown person who approached the king without his permission would be considered an assassin and instantly executed. It was crucial that Ahasuerus recognize her immediately and extend his golden scepter to grant her life. Then she would beg him to save her people.
She thought of what his face would look like, how the protective mask would come across it, and he would look at her as if she were a stranger. She began to cry and, once started, she couldn’t stop.
When finally she was too exhausted to weep any further, she began to pray: Dearest Father in Heaven, I didn’t know it, but You were working through me all along; what happened to me was always part of Your plan.
I once told Uncle Mordecai that I was no Moses, but You have called me to do as Moses once did. You have called me to save my people, not from slavery this time, but from extinction. I will do this humbly, knowing that I am but Your servant whom You have chosen to do Your work.
But . . . I am not Moses, Father. I am only a woman. A woman who loves her husband and her child. If it is possible, could You make Ahasuerus understand why I do this? Could You let him still love me . . . just a little? I know my broken heart is as nothing compared to the enormity of what my actions will prevent, but . . . please let him still love me.
After a while, she called Hathach and Luara into the room and told them what she was going to do. She ended by saying to Hathach, “Go to the Jewish community and tell them that they must gather all the Jews of Susa, even those who no longer follow the Torah. Tell them that every one of them must fast until tomorrow, at the time I go to the king. Tell them that I shall fast as well. And all must pray for me, that my mission to the king is successful and my people are saved.”
It was a moment before the words my people registered with Luara. She stared at Esther and repeated them. “What do you mean, my lady?”
Brown eyes met blue. “I am a Jew, Luara. The Lord my God sent me here for exactly this action at this time. This was His plan, and I will execute it.”
“My lady . . .” Luara’s voice was trembling. “Think of what the king did to Vashti, and what she did by not coming at his command is as nothing compared to what you are planning to do tomorrow. It is . . . it is a sacrilege.”
Hathach said, “Cannot I do this for you, my lady?”
Esther managed a smile. “You said yourself they would never let you in. They must let me in; I am the queen. No, Hathach, I thank you, but it must be I who does this thing.”
Luara and Hathach looked at each other. Hathach spoke for both of them. “Then we will go with you.”
When Haman learned of the king’s presence outside Susa, he felt for one dreadful moment like a man suspended over an abyss who hears the crack of the tree branch to which he has been clinging. At any second he would find himself falling onto the cruel rocks below.
I must prove Mordecai guilty.
This was his only hope. If Ahasuerus could be convinced that the Jew had indeed betrayed the king’s trust and taken gold from the Treasury, then he must understand the anger that had propelled Haman into issuing that infamous decree. Haman realized he had to move quickly. He would hold the trial immediately after the festival officially ended with the dawn ceremonies at Ahuramazda’s sacred spring. Even if Ahasuerus didn’t go hunting but came back to Susa, he wouldn’t be in the city until late in the day. I’ll have Mordecai tried after dawn and then execute him immediately.
No one at the court would quarrel with that course of action, Haman assured himself. Mordecai had his champions, of course, but they were all lower officials in the Treasury. Their protestations would not weigh against either Haman’s powerful position or the evidence that he had manufactured and would produce at the trial.
I will not give him the honor of a beheading; I will have him hanged, Haman thought with grim satisfaction. He remembered all the times the Jew had refused to bow to him and his resolve strengthened. I will get some of the Egyptian woodworkers to erect a scaffold. They don’t follow Ahuramazda, so they won’t mind working on the holy day. Then all will be in readiness once the judgment against Mordecai is pronounced.
Ahasuerus would probably revoke the decree against the rest of the Jews, but at least Haman would have gotten the one Jew he hated most.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Luara begged Esther to eat something for supper, but she refused.
“Think of the child,” Luara urged.
“I will drink some water.”
She would do that much for the baby, she thought, but it would not harm him if she fasted for a day. By the time Luara had undressed her for bed, Esther was so exhausted that she actually slept.
When she awoke the following morning, the sun was shining. It was the day of the equinox, the day that the Light overtook the Darkness. Esther shut her eyes. Please, dear Father in Heaven, be at my side today. Give me the strength I shall need to face my beloved husband and beg for my people. Help me, Lord. I beg You, help me.
Luara brought her the water she had agreed to drink and stood by while she swallowed it. When Luara took the cup back, she said, “Hathach and I are fasting as well, my lady.”
Esther looked into the beautiful face of her maid and tears came to her eyes. “You are so good to me, Luara,” she said and held out her arms.
“You are the one who is good, my lady,” Luara said, holding Esther tightly. “You have given Hathach and me a wonderful life. We would do anything for you. Anything.”
The two women stood together for a moment longer, then Esther stepped back, wiping her tears with her fingers. “Would you get Hegai for me, Luara?” she asked, trying to sound normal.
“Of course, my lady.”
Hegai presented himself quickly, his face grave. “What can I do for you, my lady?” he asked.
“I want you to tell Sisames, the Head Judge, that I desire to speak with him this morning. It is of vital importance.”
His eyes flickered, but he said only, “I shall have to fetch him from his home. At what time do you wish him to be here?”
“As soon as you can bring him.”
“Yes, my lady.” Hegai bowed and left the room.
Esther awaited Sisames in the king’s reception room, pacing up and down under the disk of Ahuramazda. She had to get Sisames to agree to her request. She did not trust Haman with her uncle’s life. The Edomite had clearly been possessed by some demon and he might do anything. She had to secure Mordecai’s safety if she could.
Hegai announced Sisames, and Esther arranged herself on the divan before he entered. He bowed deeply to her and she invited him to be seated. Then she said with as much authority as she could muster, “My lord Judge. It has come to my att
ention that a friend of my family, Mordecai, the king’s Head Treasurer, has been arrested by the Grand Vizier, Haman.”
Sisames eyes, enfolded in wrinkles, were looking at her warily. “Yes, my lady. That is so. Haman wishes the Head Treasurer to be tried for stealing gold from the Treasury.”
“Have you set a date for such a trial?”
“The Grand Vizier has said he wants the trial to be held tomorrow morning, after the dawn ceremonies officially conclude the vernal equinox festival.”
“I do not think that would be wise, my lord Judge,” Esther said.
Sisames looked at her for a long moment. Finally, “May I ask why, my lady?”
Esther was sitting up as tall as she could, her back not touching the divan. “As I have explained, Mordecai is a friend of my family. He also was the man instrumental in saving the king from an assassination attempt. I believe you presided at the trial of Smerdis?”
“I did, my lady.”
Esther made a conscious effort to relax the grip of her clasped hands. She did not want to appear nervous. “Considering Mordecai’s ties to my family and his services to the king, I do not think the king would be pleased to find that he had been tried, and perhaps even executed, while the king was not present to hear the evidence himself.”
All the wrinkles in the old man’s face moved and then, to Esther’s great relief, he broke into a smile. “I am in complete agreement with you, my lady. I see no reason why we cannot postpone the trial until after the king has returned.”
Relief flooded through Esther. She had thought she would prevail, but she had never done anything like this before and she had been afraid she would not do it well. She smiled back at him. “Thank you, my lord Judge. You are a wise man.”