Game of Queens (40 page)

Light—she must be sent by the Good God, a light to triumph over darkness.

The examination was a formality only, for even had her place in the contest not already been bought, Esther would have been chosen as Shushan's candidate. She was beautiful as a goddess is beautiful, a perfect balance of the carnal and the pure. I sought a word to describe her …

 … and at last, to my surprise, I settled upon “judgment.”

VASHTI

“My lady Vashti?” Hegai interrupted me as I was trailing a peacock feather in the fountain pond, enticing the golden fish to dart at the brilliant blue-green lure. At Hegai's words, I paused and turned my head.

“Yes, Hegai?”

“I do not wish to interrupt my lady's pleasures…”

I laughed. “You are the most dreadful liar, Hegai; you interrupt my pleasures any time you deem fit. And as you see, I am engaged in the most important matter of my day.” I laid the peacock feather on the fountain's rim. “Tell me you require me to do something more interesting than teasing fish!”

“I do, my lady. The harem gate has closed behind the last of the king's maidens. The girl from Shushan.”

I jumped to my feet. “They're all here? At last? Well, we had best go inspect them. Come on.”

Hegai caught my arm. “Wait. I will send word and have them all—”

“Overdressed and overpainted and overawed because they know the Chief Eunuch and Vashti the Wicked come to judge them? No, let's go see them as they are. Where are they?”

“They all walk in the Garden of Roses. That and the queen's banquet hall are the only places in the Women's Palace that will hold all of them at one time.”

“Then you and I shall go up to the balcony that looks upon that garden and watch them all. One hundred and twenty-six maidens!” Of course there were several hundred inhabitants of the Women's Palace, but most of them were slaves and servants. Only a hundred concubines dwelt there, and they had not all arrived in one large group.

Time had pressed hard. Beautiful maidens to parade before the king meant servants to tend upon them: handmaidens, yes, at least three for each girl. And that was not all, for I discovered the Women's Palace would need more cooks, more bath slaves, more, in fact, of every kind of servant that kept the palace in order and its inhabitants happy.

Once we set the search in motion, it had taken surprisingly few months to select the maidens and transport them to the great palace of Shushan. Obstacles I thought nearly insurmountable had been tossed aside like chaff by everyone from governors of provinces to slave girls in the kitchen.

Oddly, this mass offering of helpfulness did not depend upon a city, or a family, having a girl fit to send for the king's choice. The contest had kindled the empire's imagination. Everyone wished, even in some small way, to be a part of so grand a scheme.

And now, at last, it was time to look upon the prizes we would set before the king—and see the next queen.

*   *   *

I rarely concealed my hair, but before Hegai and I went to the Garden of Roses, I chose a dark veil and arranged it so that my hair was hidden. I could not learn anything useful about the girls if they knew who I was. Hegai and I had spent long hours talking over what qualities the next queen should have. The ability to flatter the influential was not among them.

I do not know why, out of all the girls gathered in the Garden of Roses, it was the maiden Esther who caught my eye. She was not the most vivid, nor the most vivacious. There was no maiden here who was anything less than exquisite. Perhaps the color of her hair set her apart—the color of banked coals; fire in darkness, slow burning under the warm sun.

Then I realized her pride drew my eyes to her. The amber-eyed girl carried herself like a warrior.…

For a breath I wondered why I thought of her as a warrior, rather than a queen. Then I decided it didn't matter.

“Ah, you, too, see the future in her.” Hegai leaned forward, his shoulder brushing mine. “That one holds much promise, my lady princess.”

“You like her.” I turned to look at Hegai. “Tell me.”

“You tell me,” he said, and I studied the girl with the dark-fire hair, seeking Hegai's answer.

She spoke to her rivals as if they were her friends. She took the time to smile at the servants, and to seem to ask, rather than command. Although a stranger to the palace, she seemed at ease, without seeming foolishly overconfident.

And she troubled herself to come over to me, and to speak to me. She must have thought I, too, had been brought here to compete for the queen's crown; that I was only another girl like herself, hopeful and uncertain of the future.

She walked up to me, her movement graceful and deliberate; she glanced at Hegai before smiling at me. “Welcome to our garden. You see how we are treated here—all of us pampered like queens.”

Dark hair, tranquil voice, clever eyes. Totally unlike me; good. The last thing a man with a guilt-ridden heart needed was a new bride who resembled the one he had cast aside.

“I am glad to hear that,” I said. “And I am glad you chose to come here.”

She gazed back at me, her amber eyes cool as river water. “I was chosen to come here; I did not choose to come.”

“How often in her life does a woman truly have the power to choose? What is your name?”

For less the time it takes to draw in breath, she hesitated. No one not palace-born and bred would have noticed. I did. Whatever the girl was about to say would be a lie.

“Esther. Esther of Shushan.” Her gaze flickered to the left as she spoke. Esther was not her true name, then. The question I must answer now was whether the lie mattered.

“And tell me, Esther of Shushan, how you were chosen to grace the king's harem? It is not an easy thing, to get a maiden's name upon the Queen's List.”

For a long moment she gazed into my eyes. Then she shrugged, a movement supple as a dancer's. “Rubies. My place upon the Queen's List was bought with a dozen rubies, each as large as a dove's heart and red as that heart's blood. How do you think most girls had their names inscribed upon that list? For their golden hair?”

“Apparently,” I said, “it was for their golden coins.”

Startled, she stared at me again, and then laughed. “You speak truth. Who are you? My guardian—he who paid to have me brought here for the chance to wear the queen's crown—ordered me to make friends of everyone. So tell me your name, and I will be your friend if you will be mine.”

Laughter danced beneath her solemn words; gleamed in her eyes like sun-spangles upon water. I smiled, and pushed back the veil hiding my hair.

“My name is Vashti, and until I refused to obey my husband's command, I wore the crown King Ahasuerus will offer to one of those upon the Queen's List. Do you still wish to be my friend—Esther?”

She looked at Hegai again, then glanced down, veiling her clever eyes with her thick lashes. “You are still here, Queen Vashti. That tells me much.”

Yes, clever as well as pretty. Now to test her courage. “And if I say I shall have you taken from this court and set outside the palace gate? That you shall be sent home to your father untouched by the king?”

She raised her head, lifted her chin. “I have no father,” she said.

“That is not what I asked.”

“No, it is not. But what you asked needs no answer, for you will not do it, even if you have the power to command it.” Clear amber eyes gazed into mine. “For I think the next queen will be chosen by you.”

“And why do you say that, you whose name is not truly Esther?” I noted that she did not ask how I knew that. “How were you called by your mother?”

“My mother died bearing me. My father called me Hadassah. But—”

“But your guardian thought it too Jewish a name, and so now you are called star, for your bright eyes. Oh, don't look so surprised—Mordecai is one of the palace's chief scribes. Do you think a queen does not know all that passes within palace walls?” Even if she were too foolish to pay much attention to the knowledge that flowed past her, as I had once been.

“I think—too much, I am now told.” Her voice held bitterness; clearly once her learning had been prized and now was scorned.

“Shall we then call you Hadassah?” I asked, hoping to please her. Already I liked seeing her smile; I soon learned most people wished to enjoy Esther's smiles.

She shook her head. “No. My guardian commanded me to forget that name, and of course I must obey him. Esther will do.” Then she answered a question I had almost forgotten I had asked as we talked of her names.

“As for why I say you will choose the next queen—well, that is a guess. But why else should you come among all of us who vie for the crown, asking questions and judging our quality? And who else knows so well as you what will please the king?” She paused, added, “So I will tell you at once that I have unmaidenly talents. I can read Sumerian and Aramaic. I was raised on a horse farm in the Karoun Valley and could ride better than any man who worked for my father, and I can keep accounts as well as any clerk. I can play the harp and write poems in the style of Hiralal of Hind. I can also weave and bake, although I do neither well.”

I stared at her, then laughed. “Well, those are far more than I have. I can—” Suddenly I stopped, for I could not think of one talent I could claim.
I can sit and look beautiful. I can display my ivory hair.
That was all I had; hot blood burned my cheeks.

I thought I saw understanding and compassion in Esther's eyes. Perhaps that is why I heard myself saying, “I cannot do anything, Esther. I can't do anything at all.”

ESTHER

I never expected to feel sorry for Queen Vashti—but as I heard her confess herself ignorant of any useful—or even useless—skill, I found myself longing to put my arms around her and comfort her. I did not quite dare, so I tried to make her smile.

“Perhaps you are wiser than I, then. It might be better if I could not do anything at all.”

“But you can read Sumerian and Aramaic and—”

“And who,” I asked, “will wish to wed a maiden who can read Sumerian and Aramaic, and write poems in the style of Hind?”

To my surprise—although why I should be surprised at anything a woman who had refused a king's command might say, I do not know—Vashti spoke words I remembered always.

“A man who cares more for the woman within, whom he alone may know, than for the beauty that belongs to any who lays eyes upon it.”

“And does such a man breathe upon this earth?” I asked.

“I do not know. I hope; even I am allowed hope.” Then the brooding look vanished. “I am sorry, Esther—I have no wish to distress you. This is your home now; be welcome here. And since you are clever, will you please tell me if there is anything that should be provided to make the maidens happy as they wait for their chance with the king?”

The question astonished me. That one who had been a queen since she was ten years old should think of the happiness of girls who were not only strangers to her, but who vied for the man who had been her husband, told more about her than a thousand songs of fulsome praise.

“You say you have no skills, no talents,” I said. “But you are wrong, for you have one great talent. You are kind, Vashti.”

“Is kindness a talent?”

“Yes, it is.”

Vashti smiled. It was true that she was beautiful, as any exotic creature is beautiful. But it was not a comfortable sort of beauty; her eyes and her famed pearl-pale hair insisted on attention. It was impossible to imagine Vashti as anything but the ornament of a palace. But her smile made her seem somehow less perfect, more—loveable.

As I smiled back, I wondered if all her life Vashti had been bound with chains woven by her long ivory hair. Perhaps, someday, I might ask her, and she might tell me.

“Hegai—the Chief Eunuch—speaks well of you,” Vashti said. “And now I understand why. You are not only beautiful, but wise and good.”

“My lady princess, you cannot possibly know anything of me yet but that I am indeed beautiful. Every word I have spoken to you thus far may be a lie. I have my own future to consider, you know.”

Vashti laughed—I don't know why she thought my words amusing, for I had spoken only truth. I could easily mislead her; she knew nothing of me or my nature.

“And you have a clever wit, too!” Vashti slanted a glance back at the Chief Eunuch Hegai, who had retreated to the shadows of the colonnaded walkway that led to the Garden of Roses. The Chief Eunuch smiled at her and came forward again into the sunlight.

“Has my lady princess satisfied her curiosity?” Hegai spoke lightly, as if of a minor matter.

Vashti tilted her head, as if thinking deeply upon his words. “Yes, I have. As always, your advice has proven sound.”

Perhaps she thought her words innocuous enough, but I knew better. Already it was clear to me that both the Chief Eunuch and the deposed queen had looked upon me and found me good.
They think to make me queen.
I tried to feel some emotion at the thought, and could not. Just as well, for what Vashti and Hegai believed they desired might change with the next wind that blew. I knew nothing of either of them, after all, save what I had gleaned from common gossip.

They think to make me queen—at this moment.

“You think deep thoughts, Esther.” Hegai's voice reined my attention back; I gained a moment by bowing.

“I think only that it is wonderful that so great a lady as Princess Vashti, and so highly placed an official as the Chief Eunuch, should spend so much time upon so humble a maiden as Esther of Shushan,” I said, and was rewarded by hearing both Vashti and Hegai laugh.

I watched the two of them walk out of the Garden of Roses. Vashti curled her arm through Hegai's and he bent his head, speaking words to her that I was too far away to hear. As soon as they vanished into the palace, a flock of the other girls hastened up to me.