Game of Queens

by India Edghill

  Again Amestris understood me without words; she let the curtain fall, closing out the frightening wonders I had wished to see for so long. “Too much, too suddenly,” she said. “You have never traveled in a litter before, Vashti?”

  “I have never left our house before, O queen.” For one horrible moment I wished myself back in that house, where I knew each step I must take, each word I must speak. My eyes burned; I squeezed my lids shut against tears.

  “Never? Well, that changes now, little one.” Amestris stroked my cheek. “Soon you will be accustomed to living as a princess should. And that does not mean dwelling like a frog at the bottom of a well.”

  I opened my eyes and stared at her. Yes, that is what I was. A frog in a well. Until that moment, no such thought would even have touched my mind. Greatly daring, I asked my first question of her. “What does it mean, to live as a princess should?”

  Queen Mother Amestris smiled and smoothed back my hair. “It means to learn whatever you wish to learn and to do whatever pleases your heart. What do you think would please your heart, Vashti?”

  “I…” I nearly said I did not know. Then, as I looked into the queen’s dark eyes, I found the courage to answer truthfully. “I would like to see the Ishtar Gate, O queen. I want to see the dragons and the bulls.”

  * * *

  So at last I saw the Ishtar Gate. I stood beside the blazing blue walls and set my hands upon the gold dragons and red bulls. I counted them, all the one hundred and fifty-two guardians of the gate. And I saw the dry moat beneath the gate in which the royal lions had once been housed. The lion’s den was empty now; the beasts had been taken by King Darius as part of Babylon’s tribute.

  I saw the Hanging Gardens, too—the queen took me there after I had marveled at the Ishtar Gate. We walked up the long ramps to the highest level of the gardens, the queen holding my hand as I gaped at the trees rising on terraces above us. When we reached the top, all Babylon lay spread below us like a richly woven carpet. Walls forty feet high bounded the city; nine gates permitted entrance. Tiles brilliant as summer sky covered the walls; gilded bronze gleamed at the gates. To the north soared the shining blue towers of the Ishtar Gate. That men had built so marvelous a creation as Babylon amazed me. I had never before seen anything so beautiful.

  “Are these gardens not magnificent, Vashti? They were created for a princess whose husband indulged her every desire.” Queen Mother Amestris smiled down at me. “Just as your husband will indulge you, my dear. Yes, I think I chose wisely when I chose you.”

  Already I felt more at ease with her than I ever had with my own mother. So I dared ask more questions. “What have you chosen me for? To be your daughter?” I thought I would like to be Amestris’s daughter.

  “Is that your highest ambition, Vashti? I’m flattered. And in a way, you are right, for I have chosen you to be my son’s wife. You will be Queen of Queens, Vashti.”

  “I will?”

  “Yes,” Amestris said, “you will.”

  We walked slowly back down the long ramps until at last we reached the true ground once more. The Queen Mother’s palanquin waited there, and Amestris’s eunuchs handed her in. With far less grace, I followed. As the palanquin carried us away, I stared back at the Hanging Gardens.

  “I will be a queen?” I asked, and she smiled.

  “Yes, my dear. You will be a queen.”

  “If a princess does whatever pleases her, what does a queen do?”

  Instead of answering, Amestris pulled an ivory ball from behind one of the blue-and-yellow-striped cushions and set it upon my lap. I stared down at the ball. My hands barely fit around it; small dragons coiled about the ball, carven into the new ivory.

  “A puzzle for you,” Amestris said. “If you can find your way past the dragons and open the ball, you will find a treasure within.”

  I had never owned a puzzle before. I stared at the carved ivory dragons as if they might speak and reveal the secret. Amestris put her hands over mine and moved my fingers over the curves and ridges.

  “Feel this line, Vashti. Twist here. I will tell you no more—see if you can find what I have hidden for you inside the ball.”

  Encouraged by the slight movement beneath my fingers, I spent the rest of our ride to the palace in Babylon engaged in a struggle with the puzzle-ball. The task so engrossed me that I forgot to wonder about a queen’s life. And when at last the ivory sphere opened, a gold lion, small and perfect, fell into my lap.

  I was so delighted that it never even occurred to me to wonder about my king and whether he would like me—and I, him.

  * * *

  I had my heart set on being carried out of Babylon through the Ishtar Gate, between the white and yellow lions adorning the walls along the Procession Way. When I learned we were to leave Babylon by the Uras Gate instead, my disappointment was so great I could have wept. But never in all my life had weeping gained me the least favor from my mother or father, and so I did not weep now.

  Nor did I need to, for Queen Amestris easily read my moods. Now she explained why the Uras Gate had been chosen—

  “Because this gate opens to the south, Vashti. Unless you wish us to add nearly a day to our journey, the Uras is a better choice. Do you truly wish to cross half Babylon to the Ishtar Gate, and then circle around the city back almost to the Uras Gate, only for the pleasure of leaving by the north?”

  Amestris paused, as if she would alter her commands if I wished it so. But I knew the answer she wished me to make. Under her amused, tolerant gaze, I shook my head.

  “A wise choice, Vashti. And once we pass through the Uras Gate, you will be able to look upon the river. You will like that.”

  As always, Amestris was right. I did like seeing the Euphrates. A broad, flat ribbon of water, its smooth surface reflected the sky’s clouds. I knew a bridge crossed the river, linking the western and the eastern halves of Babylon, but I did not see it. The bridge lay behind us, hidden by the city walls.

  * * *

  My eyes opened so wide, so often, during the journey from Babylon to Shushan that Amestris told me I would soon be round-eyed as an owl—

  “And never again will you be able to close your eyes to sleep at night.” Amestris touched her fingertips to my lashes, making me blink; she laughed. “There, you see? You can still shut your eyes. Not an owl yet.”

  I laughed too, rather uncertainly. Then, since the Queen Mother merely smiled upon me, I returned to staring at the world beyond. The land lay flat between the Euphrates and the Tigris. Flat and golden-green with crops; irrigation ditches crossed and recrossed the even earth, river water bringing life to desert. Men and oxen labored in the fields. I asked Queen Mother Amestris what they did there.

  “Plow and plant and reap, I suppose,” she said, and then, when I ventured more questions, she shook her head. “If you wish to know more, you must wait until I can summon a farmer to teach you. But my dear child, you will never need to know such boring things.”

  I accepted this as I accepted all that I was told: I believed what she said was truth. And I must admit that I already dearly loved this new world in which I was petted and adored. How could I not enjoy such warm affection, such indulgence? Amestris seemed to know all I desired before I uttered a word, and nothing I wanted was withheld.

  By day, I was permitted to gaze out freely—Amestris drew back one of the carven shutters so that not even the impediment of curtains sheer as morning mist came between me and the slow-changing land. When that diversion palled, as it did after an hour or two, Amestris ordered one of her eunuchs to tell me stories. He was very old, and knew so many songs and tales it would have taken a far longer journey than ours was to be to hear even the half of them. He told a tale of a prince who abandoned all his riches and rank to travel the world as a holy man; another of a queen so lovely two great nations warred over her for ten long years; still another of a boy raised by a pack of wolves.

  And when I missed my mother—for I did, especially at nig
ht—Amestris swiftly changed my mood, dazzling me with a new bauble, a toy, a bright gem. The journey from Babylon to Shushan took twenty days. Even though we traveled the Royal Road, which messengers could ride from Sardis to Shushan in a week, an entourage as large and cumbersome as the Queen Mother’s moved with regal deliberation. At last, despite Amestris’s efforts to prevent it, I grew bored riding in the extravagant litter, as spacious and opulent as a palace chamber, and demanded to be allowed to walk—

  “Or to ride. I wish to ride with one of the guards.” Already I began to demand, rather than to plead, and such waywardness always made Amestris smile. As yet, my imagination had not stretched far: it did not occur to me to demand to ride a horse myself.

  Instead of correcting me when I insisted I must ride, Amestris seemed to consider this a reasonable request. “Poor Vashti—this journey is very tedious for you.” Amestris nodded to her attendant, who leaned out and ordered the riders to halt.

  And then, to my astonished delight, I was handed from the Queen Mother’s litter into the care of the captain of the guard, who swooped me up to sit before him on his horse. My joy vanished as the horse danced sideways and I stared down at hard ground as far below me as Ahriman’s pit.

  “Hold tight, princess. And don’t worry, I won’t let you fall.” The captain spoke in a matter-of-fact tone that somehow convinced me.

  Already I began to believe that whatsoever I wished would be granted me. Queen Mother Amestris ordered my life now—and she seemed to delight in my newfound boldness.

  “You will be Queen of Queens, Vashti,” Amestris told me, whenever I acted with the meekness my mother had taught me to display. “Queens do what pleases them. Hold your head high—it must bear the weight of a crown soon.”

  * * *

  After that day, whenever I grew bored with riding in the litter, I demanded that the captain of the Queen Mother’s guard take me up upon his horse with him. He was very old—silver gleamed through his hair and beard, and long years in the sun had darkened his skin and scored lines around his eyes and mouth. But old or not, he smiled and talked with me; like Queen Mother Amestris, Dariel of the guard spoke to me as if I were his equal. An odd thought, for I, soon to be Queen of Queens, was far above him in birth and station.

  Dariel, too, regaled me with stories, but his were less fantastic than those of Amestris’s song-master. Long journeys he had taken to Egypt and to the Spice Lands; battles he had fought; intrigues he had avoided. Later I realized that all he had truly told me of himself could be written on a tablet smaller than my palm. I did learn that his father had been a soldier too. A famous one, Dariel told me.

  “My father captained your grandfather’s father’s guard, and when King Nebuchadnezzar died, my father captained your grandfather’s guard. His name was Arioch, who was Daniel Dream-Master’s friend.”

  I learned that Arioch had been summoned from Babylon to Shushan when Great Darius had overthrown my grandfather King Belshazzar and gathered up the kingdom of Babylon to adorn his empire. “That is why I have so odd a name: I was named for Daniel and for Darius both.” I learned that Dariel had been born in Shushan, and his father had died there. And I learned that Dariel missed his wife.

  Most of what Dariel told me I forgot by day’s end. Dariel’s words were merely another diversion. All the Queen Mother’s staff and servants devoted themselves to amusing me; Dariel no less than any of the others.

  * * *

  Half of our journey lay behind us when we reached the western bank of the Tigris. The river spread wide, its waters smooth and heavy with golden-brown silt.

  “How do we cross over the river?” I asked. Our caravan had halted where the river stretched widest. The far bank seemed miles away.

  “We don’t. We cross through it.” Dariel turned his horse so that we faced Queen Amestris’s palanquin, behind us on the road. “Does my lady princess wish to cross in the Queen Mother’s litter, or trust herself to me and my horse?”

  I hesitated, questions crowding my mind. The river loomed, broad and imposing, and I could not imagine how we could cross without a bridge. I tilted my head, looking up at Dariel’s face. He waited, smiling slightly, for my answer.

  I wanted him to tell me which would be safer: to ride across on a horse, or in a litter. But even as I opened my mouth to question him, I found myself thinking: Why, it is a—a trick. Neither carries a greater risk than the other. Dariel would not offer a choice if either held peril.

  For a breath I glared at him, indignant. I was a princess of Babylon, soon to be a great queen. How dare he mock me? “You may carry me across.” I tried to make my tone one of cold command; my mother’s weapon. I failed, of course.

  “So my lady princess would rather ride? Good choice.” Dariel raised his voice and called to one of the guards. “Tell the Queen Mother that the princess and I will cross first.” And to me, “Hold on to me, princess.”

  Dariel spurred his horse forward to the river’s edge, and as I clung tightly to Dariel, the horse walked unhesitatingly into the water—which never rose above the beast’s knees. Halfway across, I eased my clasp on Dariel’s arm. “You deceived me,” I accused.

  “I? A mere captain of the Imperial Guard? Deceive a princess of Babylon?” Dariel commanded his voice far better than I did mine; not even a whisper of laughter tinged his words.

  “You didn’t tell me the water was so shallow I could have walked across myself.” A startling notion—that I could cross a river unaided.

  “Very few people tell everything they know,” Dariel said. “There’s a bridge ten miles downstream, and a ferry ten miles upstream. But the Sirrush Ford is the most direct route—at least at this time of year. In the spring, the water runs higher than a camel’s head.” A pause. “Does my lady princess wish to walk the rest of the way across by herself?”

  Something made me consider my words with care. “If I said yes, would you set me down?”

  “Does my lady princess think I would?”

  I looked up at him. “No,” I said, and Dariel smiled. He did not look half so old when he smiled.

  “Good answer,” Dariel said. “My lady princess is as clever as she is beautiful.”

  Delighted, I smiled back. I had spent my life hearing that I was beautiful. No one had ever before called me clever.

  By the time the palace of Shushan loomed at the end of the Royal Road, I had learned to hold a vastly high opinion of myself. And if I felt any guilt at abandoning the harsh rules a highborn maiden should obey, it vanished under the weight of Amestris’s praise and flattery.

  * * *

  The ancient city of Shushan lay on a plain by the river Choaspes. The Choaspes was not a great river such as the Euphrates or the Tigris, but it served Shushan well enough. If I looked past the lazy river, the plain stretched far into the east. On the eastern horizon the Zagros Mountains climbed the sky; silver flashed on the highest peaks.

  Snow. I had heard of mountains and of snow, but this was the first time I had seen either. Both mountains and snow were far away, and that day I did not dream I ever would dwell among either. I knew my life would be within Shushan’s walls now.

  Although it had become the dazzling capital of empire, Shushan had no soaring towers, no vast gardens. At first I thought Shushan possessed nothing to match the glories of the Ishtar Gate or the Hanging Gardens. Then I lifted my eyes to the palace of the King of Kings.

  The hill supporting the palace rose high above the flat land. Even as far away as I was when I first set eyes upon the great palace at Shushan, I looked up at its shining walls. I could not see past them.

  * * *

  I entered the great palace of Shushan through the King’s Gate. The Queen Mother’s litter was carried up the Great Staircase, past stone lamassu taller than ten men. I did not see much of all this, for indulgent as Amestris was, she did not permit me to open the curtains and stare out. But what I saw through the narrow gap she allowed enthralled me. I had plenty of time to stare, for it
took the bearers an hour just to climb the Great Staircase.

  At last we were carried through a long courtyard open to the sky and ringed with columns tall as cedars. “The Men’s Palace is ahead of us,” Amestris told me, “and the King’s Palace lies beyond that. The Women’s Palace is to the left of the men’s, and the Queen’s Palace beyond that. From the Queen’s Palace, you can look out and see the city, and the mountains. You’ll like that, Vashti.”

  Of course I would. How could I not? To look out on all the world, after my confined views of Babylon? Having grown greatly daring, I flung my arms around Amestris. “O queen, I love you more than—than anything!”

  My mother would have scolded me for such forward, uncontrolled behavior. Queen Mother Amestris smiled. “Than anything, Vashti? Well, we shall see.” She patted my cheek. “Patience, sweet child; you are nearly home.”

  The Immortals left us at that first courtyard, and the bearers left us, too. Eunuchs came to take their place; the changeover was made so swiftly and skillfully I felt no lowering of the litter at all. That exchange made, the litter was carried through a gate guarded by four tall soldiers armed with two swords each.

  “The gate into the Women’s Palace,” Amestris said. “And now you may pull the curtains open, if you like.” Amestris smiled again as I yanked back the heavy silk.

  I leaned out to stare at the gate behind us. On this side, too, the gate was guarded. Half a dozen richly garbed eunuchs had posts at the gate. Two stood in front of the gate itself, and the others sat nearby.

  I gazed avidly at all we passed. A long narrow garden planted with lemon trees and roses. An open courtyard bounded by a colonnade of pillars carved with flowers painted red and yellow and white. Women stared back at me; women dressed in vests and gowns so fine I wondered if this might be some great feast day. Gold chains draped about their necks, gems glowed in their ears and on their hands. Their cheeks glittered gold and lips gleamed crimson.