by Naomi Ruppin
Chapter Fourteen
Bane of Sodom
My fight with Moth, the angry crowd at the Horse Gate, Nathan, the king, Amisi, whether I could or should simply flee from my embroilment in their affairs—thoughts of all these formed a dizzying eddy in my mind and kept me awake well into the night. They pounced on me again the instant I awoke the next morning. After breakfast, I went back to my tent and sat on my bed, hugging my knees and resting my forehead on them. In the late morning I got up, left my tent and started walking across the encampment, meaning to go talk to Moth. But even before I reached the gate, my steps slowed as I realized I had no idea what I wanted to say to him. I turned instead towards Amisi’s tent, but stopped again, fearful that she would somehow read my faltering will in my eyes. I returned to my tent and did nothing useful that day.
The next day, pushing my chaotic thoughts and emotions aside, I decided to turn my mind to a task that only required exercising logic. After the morning meal I set out to talk to Amisi and review the night of the rape with her once again, to go over the details she had told me and see if any new ones might come to light.
As I neared Amisi’s tent I was greeted by twin howls, produced by the baby and the cat. I stood outside and called Amisi’s name loudly, to be heard above the cries. When she didn’t answer I entered the tent.
Anubis was standing over his supine mistress and wailing loudly. The baby was lying on Amisi’s other side, competing quite impressively with Anubis and waving her tiny fists. In the first instant I stupidly wondered how Amisi could sleep through the din. Then I realized that something was wrong. I hastened to kneel beside her.
“Amisi!” I shook her shoulder but she didn’t respond. Her face had its usual milky pallor, but there was a redness about her mouth. I tried to rouse her again and failed. I touched her cheek; it was warm. I held my hand next to her nose and felt a faint breath.
It was then that I saw the dish. On her right, next to the howling cat, was an earthenware bowl of round rosy fruit, each the size of half a date. The fruits were red, but they had started to develop a mottled black patina. I gasped.
It was Bane of Sodom. It grew on some of the nearby hills. On the vine its fruit looked like tiny tempting apples, but within hours of being picked it began to turn black. It was a deadly poison. All children were warned about Bane of Sodom from the time they could talk. At least, all children in my country.
For a moment I was frozen in fear. Then I forced myself to take a deep breath and think quickly and clearly. I snatched up the crying baby and ran out of Amisi’s tent and into the closest neighboring tent. A young woman with tousled, light-brown hair was reclining on one elbow, eating olives. She looked up at me with languid, unsurprised eyes.
“You!” I snapped at her. “Are you deaf? Do you not think that your sister may be in trouble? Get up.”
Now she did look surprised, and she spit out her olive pit and got to her feet obediently. I thrust the baby into her arms.
“Listen to me carefully. Go get Shoshana. Tell her that Amisi has eaten Bane of Sodom. You know what this is?”
The woman’s eyes widened when she heard the name of the poison, and she nodded.
“Tell Shoshana to come immediately. Then find someone to feed this baby. Run!”
She clutched the baby tightly and hurried out of the tent. I went back to Amisi and looked for signs of breathing. For a long, dreadful moment I could see none. Then her chest rose ever so slightly. I didn’t know exactly when she had swallowed the poison or how long it took to cause death. I cursed myself for knowing nothing about healing. How could I be so ignorant? I didn’t know what to do. Should I try to wake her up, perhaps even get her to walk? But might the effort not make the poison spread more quickly throughout her body? In the end I just sat by her fearfully, making sure she was breathing, watching the flush spread from her mouth to her cheeks, for the endless age it took Shoshana to arrive. Anubis would not be silent for a single moment and his wails added to my terror.
Shoshana finally burst through the tent flap, making the tent shudder on its poles. She had a waterskin on a strap over her shoulder, and she held a small bronze vial in one hand and a spoon in the other.
“Pull her up so she’s sitting,” Shoshana commanded.
I got behind Amisi and dragged her by her underarms until I could lean her back against my chest. Her head lolled to the side. Shoshana positioned Amisi’s head so that it lay between my cheek and my shoulder. Then she poured a foul-smelling green liquid from the bronze vial into the spoon, opened Amisi’s mouth, poured it in and tipped her head back. Amisi began to cough and struggle but Shoshana repeated this two times more. Amisi continued to cough until she suddenly leaned to the side and vomited onto one of the woolen rugs.
“Praise God!” Shoshana said.
Amisi looked at her in confusion.
“Now drink this, dear. It’s just milk.” Shoshana offered her the waterskin and Amisi drank dutifully. Then she closed her eyes and sank back into my arms. I laid her gently down onto her pallet.
Shoshana took up the dish of poison fruit and her nostrils flared. She dumped the fruit onto the rug stained with Amisi’s vomit and folded its corners over. She brushed back Amisi’s hair.
“Poor child.” Shoshana clicked her tongue. “Poor child. It was clear she was in trouble when you first asked me to see her. And now of course…I might have done the same in her place.”
“Done the same? What do you mean?” I asked.
“Tried to harm myself.”
“You think she did this on purpose?”
“Of course. Who doesn’t know about the Sodom vine? That beastly prophet! She thinks no one will take his word over hers and I’m afraid she’s right.”
I could hardly believe my ears.
“Shoshana, who are you talking about?”
“Nathan, of course. Haven’t you heard? He attacked the poor girl.”
“Where did you hear this?”
“From Yafa.”
“I see.”
Yafa was one of the nursemaids who looked after the royal children when their mothers couldn’t. She was also a good friend of Timna’s.
“Shoshana, I can’t thank you enough. You saved Amisi’s life.”
“I hope my good work will not be undone,” Shoshana said pointedly.
I didn’t think it behooved me to answer her, but I silently agreed.
“Go now, Shoshana. I’ll sit with her until she wakes. And can you please have someone send Khepri?”
“Of course. When she wakes, have her eat lightly.”
Shoshana gathered up the soiled rug and left. Anubis was finally quiet, curled up in a perfect circle of black fur beside Amisi. I stroked him and he started and eyed me suspiciously at first, but then closed his eyes again and accepted my caress. The red blotches on Amisi’s face were receding. I heaved a great sigh. She was safe—for now.
Shoshana thought that Amisi had tried to kill herself. But I thought otherwise. I’d been appalled to learn that Amisi’s accusation of Nathan was now apparently common knowledge in the servants’ hall, when I myself had only learned of it two days before. And I’d taken only one other person into my confidence—Moth. I was filled with fury at him for letting the secret leak, but the damage was done.
Knowing about Nathan’s web of spies in the palace, I had no doubt that Nathan himself now knew what I knew. How right I had been to be afraid of this happening! It was my belief that he’d tried to have Amisi killed, relying correctly on her ignorance as a foreigner about the local poisonous fruit. Until now I had known him capable at least of theft and rape. Now I knew that murder too was not beyond him. I shuddered.
I became aware that Amisi’s large green eyes were open and fastened on my face.
“Amisi. How do you feel?” I wondered if she knew what had happened and if not, whether I should tell her.
“My stomach hurts. And I have a strange feeling. Like small beetles walking in my blood.”
“You’ll soon be better. You…you ate something bad. Did you know what those red fruits were?”
“No. They tasted a little sour.”
“Where did you get them?”
“A servant woman brought them with my breakfast. I have been…wanting better to eat in my tent lately.”
“Did you know the woman?”
“No. There are so many servants.”
Amisi closed her eyes again and I thought she’d fallen asleep, but after a moment she opened them and spoke again. “I was in danger?”
“You…you might have been. Shoshana came very quickly.”
“She is a good woman. And you are a good girl. But maybe it was better if I died.”
Shocked, I didn’t know what to reply. This time Amisi did go back to sleep. I watched her lovely, fragile face and thought of how near she’d been to death, and how the night before I had seriously considered fleeing and abandoning her to her fate. At that moment I made a silent pledge that my commitment to her would not waver again.
It must have taken Shoshana some time to locate Khepri, for it was a long while before he swept the tent flap aside. Amisi was still sleeping. He hastened to crouch by her side, murmured an endearment in Egyptian and kissed her cheek. I thought that it was a pity Khepri couldn’t love a woman—in all other respects they were well-matched. I told him everything that had happened. I could see by his bitter expression that he anticipated my suspicion even before I voiced it.
“So I think you should find a trusted servant to stay with Amisi during the day. And I want you to sleep in her tent until after the trial,” I concluded.
“My thoughts precisely.”
I left Amisi with Khepri and exited the encampment, feeling completely shaken. How fortunate that I’d found Amisi and that Shoshana had arrived in time to save her. I’d renewed my resolve to fight for Amisi, but in truth I felt small, weak and terrified—in no way equal to the task. And I’d just learned that I was up against a murderer.
The attempt on Amisi’s life was all Moth’s fault! He’d let the secret escape and slither its way into Nathan’s ear. My anger surged and I clung to it gratefully; it stiffened my spine and hastened my steps. I marched over to the outside wall of the men’s court, flung open Moth’s shutters and pulled myself up and through his window.
He was sitting on his bed, hugging his knees to his chin. His right hand was wrapped in a bandage, stained with dried blood. This put a check on my anger for a moment. I came in and stood by the bed.
“What happened to you?” I demanded.
He sighed. “I was flipping the dagger and I caught the blade.” He looked at me defiantly.
“Of course you did, you fool. I knew it would happen. Didn’t I tell you? Has Shoshana seen it?”
“No. Timna bandaged it for me.”
“Did she! There’s just no service she can’t perform for you. How did she magically appear at the right time?”
“She came to collect the lunch plate yesterday. I was trying to bandage the cut myself.”
“And what did you talk about, if I may ask?”
“It’s none of your affair. Different things. She saw I was upset.”
I sat on the bed and glared at him.
“Actually it is my affair, because unless I’m very much mistaken, you told her about Nathan.”
“What if I did?”
“What if you did? You know Timna! Didn’t it occur to you that the news would be all over the servants’ hall by the next day, which it is? You swore to me you wouldn’t tell!”
“I said I wouldn’t tell anyone about Khepri. I said nothing about Nathan.”
“Moth, just how stupid can you be? Let me tell you what you’ve done. Someone tried to kill Amisi this morning. Fed her Bane of Sodom. It’s a miracle that I found her and that she’s still alive.”
Moth’s chin dropped but he said nothing.
“I’m sure it was Nathan! His spies are everywhere, and now he’s on the alert and twice as dangerous.”
“I’m sorry,” Moth muttered, not sounding sorry at all.
“ ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it.’ So easy to say after the damage is done, and so useless! And all to impress a witless girl, as if it were some meaningless piece of palace gossip. If you enjoy risking your own life and limbs that’s up to you, but now you’ve put Amisi’s life in danger. It’s all your fault! And mine for trusting you. From now on I’m relying only on myself. And keeping my distance from goose-tongues like Timna.”
“Fine, rely on yourself and see how far you get! You think you’re so brilliant, Abigail.” Moth clenched his fists, then winced in pain as fresh blood seeped into his bandage. I winced too, then quickly rearranged my expression. He uncurled his hands. “You think you’re better than everyone else. No wonder your sisters can’t stand you. You think the only skill worth having is knowing how to win at Jang-Cheh. Well, good luck to you!”
He looked at me expectantly and gestured towards the window with his bleeding hand. I stalked over to the window, trying to look haughty as I hauled myself up and jumped out. I slammed his shutters closed. I wondered why I felt like crying. Moth deserved every bit of my fury. I was better off without him. Nor would he miss me, now that he had his new friend Timna.
I stomped over to the menagerie and watched the little monkeys swinging from their wooden bars and chittering at each other, until I felt sufficiently calm to take rational action. Then I went to the kitchen and questioned the head cook and several others about whether they’d seen anyone strange or suspicious that morning. They hadn’t, which didn’t surprise me. The poisoner would have taken care to be seen by as few people as possible, and for all I knew it could have been any one of the servants. I also questioned the guard at the entrance to the encampment, but all he could say was that many servant women came and went; he didn’t know them all by name or face and had noticed nothing unusual.
I went to my tent, but it felt dark and airless. I took the stairs to the balcony where Moth and I had held our all-night vigil. It was deserted. The women who were not sleeping in their rooms had been enticed into the courtyard below by the brilliant winter sun. They were chattering, tending to their children and playing backgammon. The tragedy of Gideon’s death might never have happened. The scene was at once serene and cheerful, utterly at odds with the panic and dismay I was feeling.
Three and a half days remained before I had to present my findings to the king. I knew Nathan was guilty, but so far I had no way of proving it. He now knew that Amisi had pointed a finger at him and he would stop at nothing to prevent her from accusing him before the king, including murder.
Until now I hadn’t felt entirely alone in my endeavor because I’d had Moth to help me, to talk things over with and to make up for my blind spots. But now I could no longer trust him. I was angry with him and he with me. I suddenly remembered his face beside me on the balcony, pale in the moonlight, his lips on mine and the sour taste of khat on his tongue. But it meant nothing; we had been in a khat-induced trance.
I yanked my attention sternly back to my investigation. I must put my remaining time to the best possible use. What was the logical thing to do now? I would go and question Amisi again when she’d recovered from her poisoning. Nathan had assaulted her on the night of the Feast of Aviv. Many had been present. Surely someone had seen something—Amisi leaving the room, Nathan following her. Or someone had seen them near the women’s latrine.
And there was another direction worth exploring. Could it be that Amisi wasn’t the first woman Nathan had attacked? Incredible as it was that he would take such liberties under the king’s roof, if he had done it once, maybe he had done it or attempted it before.
The rumor of Nathan’s guilt had already reached his ear. Could there be any further harm in questioning more people about him? But how to go about it? Talking to all the women while carrying out my census—it seemed so long ago—had taken over two weeks when it was just me. To make a thorough inquiry I would n
eed help, preferably from women who could move about the court freely. Who could help me? An answer suggested itself but I didn’t like it.
It had been a long time since I regretted losing the friendship of my half-sisters. At first I’d simply been angry at them, especially at Keren, for their derision toward me. Then as I’d grown older, I came to feel contempt for what I saw as their frivolous empty-headedness. If I admitted the truth to myself, I’d actively fostered my contempt because it was more comfortable to feel than rejection.
I hated to ask for help from anyone, and it would be especially distasteful to ask it of these girls from whom I’d long distanced myself, who no doubt still thought me haughty and strange. Would it be better to ask some of the kings’ wives? I peered over the balcony at the languid creatures strewn over divans in the courtyard below. They were hardly any better. At least my sisters were young, lively and likely to be eager for a new diversion. And as it happened, I knew exactly where to find a large group of them at that moment.
Gritting my teeth and shaking my head, I descended the stairs from the balcony. First I stopped by my tent and took one of my last precious pieces of blank papyrus from the small table by my bed, and some of the charred sticks left over from my census. Then I walked over to the music room, which was at the corner between the first-floor women’s wing and the king’s meeting rooms. After lunch on the second and fifth weekdays was when the girls had their music lessons. All but the least talented of my sisters continued their lessons up until the time they were married. The king often invited some of his daughters to sing and play for company, especially if he was interested in making a marriage alliance with one of the guests.
Standing outside the music room, I heard the strum of a lute and my sisters’ voices raised in song.
I hear the voice of my beloved