A Reluctant Queen (29 page)
Cambyses scowled when he heard this news. “I did not know that. Have they been attacking royal parties as well?”
“Not yet. However, I do not like the idea of paying tribute to vultures.” The king’s voice was perfectly pleasant. “It must stop.”
Cambyses cursed under his breath. This was what he had been afraid of. “You will lose many men if you try to take that pass, my lord,” he said bleakly.
“Perhaps not.” Ahasuerus’ face looked perfectly serene. Cambyses felt the muscles in his neck and shoulders tighten as he awaited the dreaded words. The king said, “I want you to take your regiment and scout that pass for me, Commander. See if you can get an idea of how many men the Mardians have in place.”
Scout the pass
. Cambyses began to feel a little better. “They are not just at the Persian Gates, my lord. They also hold the smaller passes that lead up to it.”
Ahasuerus’ graceful hands were reposing quietly on the arms of his chair. He lifted two fingers now, and his rings sparkled. “Find out exactly where they are,” he said.
“Yes, my lord.”
“And bring me some shepherds who graze their herds in the mountains around the Royal Road.”
“Shepherds, my lord?”
“That is what I said.”
The dread that Cambyses had been feeling since the king first mentioned the Persian Gates suddenly lifted. “Yes, my lord,” he said, and now his voice had a lilt to it.
“Bring them back here with you.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“I do not want you to try to take the pass, Commander. Do you understand me? Pay the Mardians their tribute. There is to be no fighting. Just see if you can discover the Mardians’ numbers. And bring me back some local shepherds.”
Cambyses could not completely conceal his grin. “I understand, my lord.”
Ahasuerus nodded in dismissal. “It will be best for you to leave as soon as possible. The snow is already piling up in the mountains.”
“Yes, my lord,” Cambyses said for the third time.
As the cavalryman left the king’s office, he found Mardonius waiting for him in the court outside.
“What was that about?” the king’s uncle demanded.
Cambyses, who was related to Mardonius through his mother, told the other man of his commission. When he had finished, Mardonius said, “I am going with you.”
This was not good news. Cambyses, who had been with the cavalry that was evacuated from Marathon, was in sympathy with Mardonius’ thirst for revenge on the Greeks, but he did not have a high regard for Mardonius as a commander. He said cautiously, “You are welcome to come, of course, Cousin, but I do not think you will find the outing interesting. I have specific orders from the king not to engage in any fighting.”
Mardonius looked down his arrogant nose. “I have heard you, Cambyses, and I have said that I will come.”
Since the king’s uncle outranked him both in nobility and in military standing, the cavalry leader had no choice but to acquiesce.
Esther knew that she could not put off telling Ahasuerus about the baby any longer. Now that she was eating again, her stomach had swollen to the point where it was noticeable. She sat in her night robe before the mirror in her bedroom while Luara combed out her hair.
I will tell him tonight
, she thought. Her hair spilled around her like glossy black silk. She smiled at Luara and said, “Remember what it looked like when I first came to the harem?”
Luara smiled back, but as she put down the comb she looked with concern into Esther’s eyes.
“Is there anything wrong, my lady? You look sad.”
Esther sighed. “Sometimes you can be almost too perceptive, my dear friend.”
“I am sorry, my lady. I did not mean to intrude.”
Esther shook her head. “You never intrude, Luara.”
“Is it something I can help you with?”
“No, I will be all right. Truly.”
Luara went to turn the covers back on the bed, then looked inquiringly to where Esther still sat at the dressing table. Esther shook her head. “I am fine. You may go, Luara.”
As the door shut behind her maid, Esther stood up and walked to the window, which was securely shuttered against the cold. She looked up toward the sky and lifted her arms in the ancient Jewish attitude of prayer. Then she recited the
Shema
, the prayer that was the foundation of all Jewish faith:
“Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord; And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.”
“I believe that,” she whispered. “Dearest Father in Heaven, I do believe that. And I will always pray to You in my heart. But I do not see how I will ever be able to worship You in public again. I came here at my uncle’s command, and I believe now that Mordecai was right to send me. Because of me, he has become close enough to Ahasuerus to influence him about the Jews. I cannot do anything to risk my uncle’s losing that position. If I tell Ahasuerus I am a Jew, he will surely connect me to Mordecai. He would be so angry, Father. My lie would hurt him far more than Vashti’s disloyalty ever did. And I will not do that to him. I will not.”
The clank of spears sounded as the king’s bodyguards stationed themselves outside her door, and she walked to the bed and got in, pulling the covers up to her waist. Ahasuerus entered, closing the door behind him. His slippered feet made no sound on the thick carpet as he approached her.
He was dressed in a night robe made of the finest, whitest linen, having been ceremoniously undressed in his own bedchamber by the high-ranking lords whose turn it was to perform that nightly ritual. He got in next to her and Esther said softly, “You look tired.”
He gave her a rueful look out of eyes that were definitely heavier than usual. Without replying he stretched himself flat upon the bed and yawned hugely. “I must be getting old. Two late-night parties in a row and my wife tells me I look tired.”
“Those parties must be enjoyable. They would have to be in order to make up for your obvious wretchedness the following day.”
“Tired and wretched-looking,” he said. “I must be getting
very
old.”
She tried not to smile but did not quite succeed.
“I can see that I’m going to have to work tonight to prove that my manhood is unimpaired.”
“You have already proved your manhood to me,” Esther said. “I’m going to have a baby.”
It was out. Just like that. She didn’t believe that she had said it. She held her breath and waited for his reply.
He reached out to lace his fingers into hers. “I was wondering when you were going to get around to telling me.”
“You know?” Her voice was flat with disappointment. Of all the responses that she had imagined, this was not one of them. She raised herself on her elbow and stared down into his face, faintly affronted. “How can you know? Has someone told you?”
“I already have children. I know the signs.” He lifted her hand to his mouth.
She hated the jealousy that always seared her heart when she thought of his children. It wasn’t the children, she told herself. Surely she wasn’t petty enough to be jealous of children! It was their mothers she disliked.
“That is true,” she said in a subdued voice.
“This child will be special, however,” he said. He was still holding her hand to his mouth and she could feel his lips brushing against her palm.
“I know. If it is a boy he will be the next Great King.”
“I did not mean that.” He moved her hand to rest upon his chest. His hair was fanned out around his head, as silken and fine as the Egyptian linen upon which he lay. He smiled up at her, and his face bore no sign of the fatigue she had noticed when he first came in. “This child will be yours. Yours and mine. That is what is special.”
The ugly, jealous feeling vanished. “I feel that way too,” she whispered.
He tugged on her hand. “Come here to me.”
She slid close and nestled against him. His arms encircled her.
“I love you,” she whispered. “I would love you even if you were a Mardian bandit.”
He chuckled.
“Would you love me if I were somebody else?” she asked cautiously.
“Mmmm,” he said.
She bit her lip. Had God given her this moment? Should she, after all—
“Speaking of being somebody else,” he said. “I had to dissolve Enshan’s marriage today.” Enshan was one of his half brothers.
Esther lay perfectly still, feeling the silkiness of his linen robe under her cheek. “Oh? Why?”
“His wife’s family had led him to believe that they held the family estate near Ecbatana and that it would be part of her dowry. It turns out, however, that they misled him; the land belongs to another branch of the family.”
“Surely Enshan has lands enough himself,” she murmured.
“That is not the point, Esther. The girl’s family definitely led him to believe that she would bring him those lands near Ecbatana. That is why he married her.”
Esther could feel his breath gently stirring the hair on the crown of her head. She was almost afraid to ask the next question. “He does not care for her, then?”
“Actually, I think he has grown rather fond of her. But he says he cannot allow himself to look like a dupe, and I quite agree.”
“Perhaps the girl did not know of her relatives’ deception?”
“That is not the point,” he repeated. “The point is that the marriage contract was based on a Lie. No marriage can prosper under those circumstances.”
“I see,” Esther whispered.
His voice changed, softened, his drawl becoming more pronounced. His hands moved caressingly up and down her back. “Would you really love me if I were a Mardian bandit?”
Esther hid her face against his shoulder and shut her eyes. “Yes,” she said. “I would.”
C
ambyses patted his horse’s neck and surveyed the ranks of men who were spread out behind him up and down the snowy slopes of the high mountain valley. Then he turned to look at what lay ahead. Not ten feet from where his horse stood, the valley narrowed, the cliff walls on either side soared steeply upward, and the road became nothing but a stone gully cut through the mountain. He was looking at the Persian Gates.
Cambyses lifted his eyes to gaze upon the men who were standing on top of the cliffs on either side of the pass, in perfect position to hurl rocks down upon any unwary soul who might venture into the canyon without their permission. He squinted into the gray winter sky and his lips moved as he began to count their numbers.
Mardonius pushed his horse up to stand beside Cambyses. “Bloodsuckers,” he muttered, his gaze also raised to the men on the cliff tops. “It is a disgrace that the king’s cavalry must pay tribute to bandits for the right to travel along a Royal Road.”
Cambyses replied, “We have been doing it for years. Darius said that it was cheaper to pay a toll than it would be to lose men and horses in a fruitless fight.”
“That was when we needed all of our forces for the war against the Greeks. Since Ahasuerus shows every intention of humiliating Persia by backing away from the Greek war, the least he can do is clear the roads!”
Cambyses finished counting before he said, “The king instructed me to pay the Mardians their customary toll for the use of the passes so that I could scout the road safely and come back with an estimate of their numbers.” He turned to his cousin. “I had the definite impression that he plans to do something about removing the bandits.”
This information did not sit well with Mardonius. His lip curled. “My nephew made one lucky military excursion into Egypt, and now he fancies himself a great general. All during the years that the rest of us were fighting Greeks, he sat in Babylon and played at being a king. He knows nothing of military matters.”
“You cannot deny that he was successful in Egypt.”
Mardonius’ red-brown eyes glittered with scorn. “A child could have pacified Egypt.”
Cambyses did not hold Egypt in quite such contempt, but he refrained from saying so to Mardonius. There was sudden movement in the pass, and Cambyses’ eyes picked up a horse and rider cantering toward them. “Ah,” he said, “the tribute collector comes.”
