Game of Queens (51 page)

And Haman was a king's son.

Few knew this, for Haman's mother had been neither wife nor concubine to King Darius. She had been the too-beautiful wife of one of Darius's most devotedly obsequious princes. Prince Memucan denied his king nothing—not even his wife. The child King Darius had sired upon her had been claimed as Memucan's and given to another, far less exalted, family to rear. Until the Queen Mother had looked with favor upon Haman and he had become Ahasuerus's friend, Prince Memucan had ignored him utterly.

Now Memucan treated Haman with the utmost propriety—but he never met Haman's eyes.

I was unsurprised to hear Zeresh say that it was Queen Mother Amestris who had revealed his true parentage to Haman. Amestris had needed a new playing-piece, and a grateful and ambitious Haman suited her perfectly. And she disliked Prince Memucan, who made no secret of his opinion that the Seven Princes should have controlled the young king, rather than his mother.

Haman vowed that someday Memucan would kneel to him. Memucan would crawl to kiss Haman's feet. Haman vowed a great many things, Zeresh said.

So Haman had vowed and plotted—and then Haman's suggestion that Ahasuerus choose a new wife transmuted into an empire-wide contest to select a new queen. Haman had unwittingly handed me power when he abandoned management of the contest to me. That act meant I, and not Haman, influenced the king's choice. Haman had not succeeded in ingratiating himself with me, a failure he blamed upon Zeresh, by the time the king had made that choice.

When messengers rode out from Shushan carrying the news across the empire that the king had found his queen, Haman found new reasons for anger. Chief among them should have been his own folly, but it was easier to blame his troubles on someone other than himself.

In Shushan, the proclamation had been shouted out in all the squares and streets, and Shushan had run mad with joy. Their maiden had triumphed; the new Queen of Queens was their offering. Even this harmless delight infuriated Haman, but he showed only smiles to Ahasuerus; said only words of good wishes and ardent congratulations.

To Zeresh, Haman snarled that any real king—any real
man—
would have wedded and bedded his new woman within a month of banishing that foolish girl Vashti.

And Haman wondered just how pleased Ahasuerus thought his cast-off wife would be to hear him extol the virtues of the woman who would take her place. Certain that I must burn with anger and hurt, Haman confidently expected me to be grateful for an ally. He could not imagine that I did not secretly long to once again be queen.

Surely, Haman thought, I needed a strong friend now, one who dared risk all to gain the prize. A man who could set a crown upon my head once more.

A man such as Haman himself.

Once that thought slipped into Haman's mind, it coiled deadly as a waiting viper. As time passed, Haman's ambition reminded him that he, too, was King Darius's son. That he could have been king … that he
should
be king.

King Haman—why not? His blood was as royal as Ahasuerus's. They were half-brothers, after all.

And King Haman would need a queen; who better for him to marry than the daughter of Babylon's kings? Who better than Vashti? Haman saw himself reigning as King of Kings, with me as his adoring queen. Haman vowed he would not be a weakling swayed by a woman's soft voice and pretty face. A king should be stone and iron; strong and feared.…

The image of himself enthroned and crowned, with me kneeling before him kissing his feet and vowing eternal love and gratitude to my husband King Haman, brought a smile to his face.

Then, of course, said Zeresh in a flat, dead voice, Haman realized that to achieve his desires, both Ahasuerus and Esther must die.

This caused Haman no distress. He did not love Ahasuerus. And he hated Esther.

*   *   *

Haman had hated Esther since the day she had stopped him as he drowned mongrel puppies. To find her elevated to Queen of Queens shocked him, and discovering how greatly Ahasuerus relied upon her infuriated him. To Haman, Esther was everything he loathed in women: educated, talented, strong-minded.

Jewish.
Haman hated the Jews, too—sometimes it seemed, Zeresh added, that before he died, Haman had hated everyone. Why did Haman single out the Jews for his hate? Oh, because five hundred years ago a Jewish prophet had slain an Agagite king, even though the Jewish king had spared him, and Haman himself was descended from that slain king.

Not even Haman himself seemed to believe this a sufficient reason even for so uncritical an audience as his wife. More important, and more plausibly, a large number of vital posts in the imperial bureaucracy were held by Jews—a people notoriously loyal to the royal house. As Haman's plans transmuted from securing a place as the king's favored friend to claiming the crown for himself, the massacre of the Jews became vital to his plans. Such a bloodbath would create chaos; in such madness, the murder of the king and queen could easily be blamed on whomever Haman wished to name.

So Haman always intended the Jews within the civil service to die.

When the new queen turned out to be an old enemy, Haman expanded his plan still further.

All the Jews in the empire would die. And the Jewish queen would know she had brought about the death of her entire people. She and her cousin Mordecai.

Both of whom had committed the same crime.

They had told Haman “no.”

*   *   *

Esther had refused to let Haman murder dogs and befoul water. Mordecai refused to let Haman trample people and law. Mordecai's encounter with Haman had occurred at the foot of the Great Staircase a few months after Ahasuerus married Esther. Haman's temper had grown even more vicious than it usually was, and he had ridden through the city with his usual brutal carelessness. But at the Great Staircase even Haman had to rein in, unable to see a clear path.

“Make way!” his servant called out. “Make way for Prince Haman, the king's friend!”

Few heard or heeded; the noise of hundreds of voices swept over the Great Staircase, rhythmic and unstoppable as the sea. Haman's servant shouted again, waiting for a path to open before moving upward. Being thwarted even in so small a matter set Haman's temper past anger into fury.

“Out of my way!” Haman spurred his horse, iron thorns drawing blood. The stallion bounded forward, thrusting Haman's servant aside and fleeing across the first stair at a gallop, in defiance of every rule governing use of the Great Staircase. A half-dozen strides, and the stallion shied, half-reared. A man barred Haman's path.

He stood straight and tall, and regarded Haman with stern reproach. “Such riding is a danger to you and to others, and it is against the law besides.”

Haman glared at the man, recognized him as one of the king's favored scribes. A scribe—how dare the man accost and accuse him? “I am Prince Haman. Bow before me and get out of my way.”

“No,” said the scribe. “You are in the wrong, not I.”

Rage burned; Haman slammed his spurs into the stallion's sides again. The stallion sprang onward—but Haman's hope of seeing the scribe knocked to the ground and trampled was thwarted by the man's simply stepping aside. Haman looked back and saw the man still standing, watching him.

By the time Haman reached the top of the Great Staircase, hot fury had cooled to steady anger. And he had remembered the scribe's name.

Mordecai.

*   *   *

Haman already knew all about Mordecai the chief scribe. The man lived a life of almost unbelievable virtue. His work was praised, his character extolled, his wisdom lauded. A Jew, Mordecai had little family in Shushan, for most his kin journeyed to Jerusalem when the king granted the Jews the right to return to their homeland. Mordecai's only family now was a cousin, his uncle's daughter, Hadassah.

Queen Esther.

*   *   *

Easy to declare that all the Jews in the empire must be destroyed—harder to put such a plan into action. The mere execution would not, Haman thought, be difficult; most of the Jews dwelt in the empire's cities. Trapped within city walls, they would be easy to catch and kill.

But such a slaughter required legal backing … that would be difficult to arrange. Not impossible, but difficult … Haman once again calculated paths to his goal. When he settled upon one, he assessed it carefully, mentally tested each facet until he saw no flaw. Then he waited until the time was ripe for him to set his scheme in motion.

That time came when King Ahasuerus had left Shushan on a royal visit to Babylon and did not asked Haman to accompany him. Haman took this as the sign he had waited for.

And then, Zeresh said, Haman requested an audience with Queen Mother Amestris.

ESTHER

When Haman begged the Queen Mother to receive him, deep satisfaction warmed Amestris. She knew Haman intended to use her to forward his own schemes—but he was
her
weapon, and must be taught his proper place. Once she no longer needed him, Haman would fall as swiftly as he had risen.…

How do I know Amestris's very thoughts? I did not—then. Only much later, when Amestris surrendered the power she had stolen, did she reveal her mind during those murderous days. Once she had fallen, I found myself—not her friend, but her confidant. I rarely had to ask a question, for Amestris longed to talk. To display her long clever schemes, her plots intricate as silk knotwork. And that was when I realized that for all her power, Amestris had been lonely, even if she herself did not understand that.

For she had kept too many secrets, and had no one in all the empire who could know what she did, and marvel, and praise.

So here, then, is what Amestris did, and why she did it.…

When I first became queen, Amestris had been willing to be pleased with me once her first anger passed. A merchant-class Jew, well-educated and well-mannered—yes, Amestris had been prepared to shape me into a useful tool. She had done it before, with Queen Vashti.

But I was no pliable, obedient child, as Vashti was. It was too late for Amestris to mold me as she had Vashti. And even had I been meek and biddable, I was too in love with my husband to be of any use to Amestris.

If I had desired only to be queen, all would have been simple, but all the court saw how dearly I loved the king. Amestris saw far more; saw that I sought to open his eyes, to urge him to grow into his power. To Amestris, who had ruled as the Queen Mother for nearly twenty years, I posed a danger.

Amestris saw far too much of herself in me.

So she decided she must distract me from such meddling. She considered a number of ways to accomplish that delicate task:
Poppy,
had been Amestris's first thought. Common, easy, simple to insinuate into food and drink. Create in me a taste for poppy syrup and I would dream away my life.

But Amestris could not truly envision me captured by that vice—and feared I would notice the change in myself
.
What, then? Amestris considered inculcating in me a desire for voluptuous pleasures, for rich food and drink, for costly gems and garments. Even, perhaps, an over-fondness for my handmaidens—

Amestris chastised herself for sparing so palpably foolish a notion even a moment's thought. The most natural distraction would be a child, something outside Amestris's power to provide. Of course Ahasuerus and I most virtuously and often performed our marital duty, so surely soon I would announce I carried Ahasuerus's child. With the blessing of the Good God, I would bear Ahasuerus a son …

And then Amestris looked into the future, and what she saw there nearly doomed an entire people.

My
son would be heir to the empire.

I
would be Queen Mother if Ahasuerus should perish. Amestris knew she herself would be as nothing, with her son gone. Power would slip from her hands into mine. Amestris could not endure the thought.

So Amestris decided that I must be removed from her path. Once she reached this conclusion, she decided to set the question of my fate aside for a time. She was certain a solution would present itself.

Patience was one of the few virtues Amestris possessed.

*   *   *

The solution was presented to her by Haman, although when she granted his request for an audience, she had no idea her problem—me—was about to be solved. Amestris listened to only a few words of Haman's well-practiced flatteries before lifting her hand.

“Enough, Prince Haman. Tell me why you have come.”

“O queen, I have learned of a people within the empire who threaten its peace—and its king.”

“Really? And which race is that, Prince Haman?”

“The Jews. They keep their own laws, not ours. They are arrogant—”

“So are you, Haman … at times. So are the Seven Princes.” Although she did not shift so much as her lashes, Amestris tensed, waiting; like a hunting cat, she sensed prey. Whatever Haman wished to say about the Jews would be very important to her.

“As my lady queen says.” Haman smiled back and spread his hands wide.

“Yes, as I say. Now, Haman, what precisely is it that you want?”

Haman regarded Amestris steadily. “I want a decree ordering all the Jews killed. I will, of course, undertake the administration of the decree.”

“Why?” Amestris asked, hoping to catch Haman off guard. He disappointed her.

“As for why I ask this—it's a simple thing, really. These people are…” Haman paused, as if selecting the word least likely to sully the Queen Mother's ears, “… a nuisance.”

“A nuisance?” Amestris raised her perfectly arched brows. “So much trouble for you to take, my lord Haman, for a mere nuisance.”

“No effort is too great when serving the King of Kings.” Haman bowed and looked up through his lashes, silently implying his true service was to the Queen Mother herself.