Game of Queens

 

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Table of Contents

About the Author

Copyright Page

 

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Dedicated to my own beautiful Persian

who would not come when she was called

Vashti

1972–1990

One hell of a damn fine cat.

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First and foremost, thanks to my sisters: Rosemary Edghill, whose advice about using music has gotten me through days of no “inspiration” or even “desperation,” and Bonnie Edghill, who thinks I'm a great writer, even though she's read all my books and should know better. Rosemary—Arioch, Samamat, and Daniel are for you, with love. Bonnie—Star is for you, ditto.

Heartfelt thanks to:

Nichole Argyres, my wonderful and perceptive editor.

Michelle Ayala—you were right, Michelle; moving the computer
did
help!

Rebecca Bridge, whose magic touch brought my characters to pictorial life.

Laura Chasen, for helpful comments—and for making me get things done on time.

Ginger Garrett, for encouragement, inspiration, and her terrific Biblical novels.

Anna Ghosh, my perceptive and wonderful agent.

Nicole Jordan, for advice, cheerleading, and her spicy romance novels.

Michael Kourtoulou, for perceptive comments, music, and (you guessed it) encouragement.

Cynthia Ripley Miller, for support and comments, and “Sunrise”!

Kylah O'Neill, who provided an organized character.

Ajashea Perez (and her cousin Crystal) who kindly allowed me to use their names, and who provided me with two intelligent, enthusiastic characters who really deserve their own book.

Laura Pilkington, who, when I was positive I would
never
finish this story, reminded me that “You say that
every
book. You'll get it done—you always do.”

Diane and Buddy Rawlings for supportive comments and for sending me
One Night With the King
(which I spent lots of time rewatching when I suppose I should have been writing…) .

Jill Eileen Smith, for inspiration, encouragement, and her terrific Biblical novels.

Lauren Hougen, for her keen eyes.

NaNá Stoelzle, my copy editor, who made sure cousins stayed cousins and the Great Staircase wasn't built twice.

And a very special “thank you” to J. O'N., S. C., and D. J. I couldn't have done it without you!

 

AUTHOR'S NOTE

When I read a historical novel, I always like to know what an author altered in the interest of telling a story. But when I started writing this author's note for
Game of Queens,
I realized there's so much background, and so many things I played with to create my own version of the Esther story that the explanations would be as long as the novel. So I'll just hit the highlights here, and if you have any questions about
Game of Queens,
email me at [email protected] and I'll do my best to remember what I was thinking at the time I came up with My Brilliant Idea.

The perceptive reader (i.e., anyone who reads past page one) will notice the author has taken wild liberties with the original text. Among the more obvious alterations: handing the condemning of the Jews to someone other than the king, eliminating Esther's three-day fast, and cutting the number of banquets Esther gives to one.

The Bible happily conflates Cyrus the Great, who
actually
conquered Babylon, with Darius the Great, and gaily tosses in a Darius the Mede, just to drive writers nuts. I had to pick one, and went with Darius the Great. The Bible also makes Belshazzar Nebuchadnezzar's son, although he was really his grandson. Unless he's not related to him at all. (You're all clear on that? Good, because it confused the expletive-deleted out of me.)

And I had to pick a king because I happily combined Daniel's story with Vashti's and Esther's. I also combined Bel and the dragon, creating a dragon named Bel.

Okay, here we go, short notes first:

Note 1: All spellings are those from the King James version of the Bible. For example, Shushan, not Susa.

Note 2: The number of provinces in the Persian Empire is taken from the Book of Esther, which gives the number as 127. According to Herodotus, there were twenty, and modern estimates vary wildly.

Note 3: The name Bagoas may be the shortened form of names like Bagadata. Or it may mean “gift.” Or it may mean “eunuch.” Or it may not. I used a meaning that fit my story.

Note 4: Tradition says Vashti was Belshazzar's daughter. I made her his granddaughter.

Note 5: Marmoset—at this time, a name for any small monkey.

Note 6: Mordecai's refusal to bow to Haman is clearly Haman-specific, as Mordecai must be at least bowing to the king!

Note 7: Persians practically revered dogs, regarding them as almost sacred. I was absolutely delighted to discover this fact and promptly put as many dogs as I could justify to my editor into the story.

Note 8: Important Safety Tip: Unless you're a queen in a semifantastical, semihistorical novel,
wolves make absolutely dreadful pets
! Trust me on this.

And now the longer remarks:

Vashti, or, No Crown Is Worth This!

Traditionally, Vashti was considered something of a villainess—a disobedient wife who, in Jewish folklore, forced her Jewish slaves to work on the Sabbath. Naked. Fortunately, opinion has changed on Vashti; she is now often regarded as a woman of strong character who refused to obey a drunken summons to appear before men, in public, in a society in which decent women were strictly secluded. Ahasuerus ordered her to appear at his banquet wearing her royal crown; in some versions, Vashti was ordered to appear at the king's banquet wearing
only
her crown. When she refused to come at the king's bidding, Vashti was either divorced, exiled, or executed, depending on who's telling the story. The Bible doesn't say what happened to her, which gives novelists free rein to decide her fate.

For her refusal to obey an outrageous command, Vashti is now often lauded as a heroine. Works for me!

Esther, or, “Orphan” Is Not a Job Description

All the Bible says is that Esther is an orphan raised by her cousin. However, as time's gone by, she's become poorer and more simple with each iteration of the story; possibly to enhance its Cinderella-esque qualities. (Come to think of it, Esther's really the Perfect Disney Princess.) Nor does the Bible say girls were forcibly acquired for the world's most famous beauty contest, but many novels and all movie versions have soldiers dragging screaming girls off to the palace. I'm not sure why, as being Queen of Persia probably looked pretty desirable to the average Ancient Persian girl.

In the original, Mordecai tells Esther not to reveal that she's a Jew, and she successfully hides her origins—which I've always found implausible. Seriously, unless she was raised in a rain barrel on Mars, lots of people in Shushan must know that Mordecai—who
works in the palace
—has a cousin who's now in the women's palace. And surely there was
some
background checking of the contestants! (Perhaps when the story was originally told, people complained that Esther couldn't keep her origin secret because the palace gossip network would have the info about her all over Shushan in two seconds!)

The Royal Rascal: The Ahasuerus Problem

Ahasuerus, King of Kings, always presents a problem to the novelist: in the Bible he's mercurial, drunk, careless, and takes the advice of anyone who can make him stop drinking long enough to listen. The man doesn't even ask, “Which people need exterminating?,” he just hands his royal seal to Haman, saying, “Do whatever you want”! Turning Ahasuerus into a desirable door prize is a major undertaking—which is how and why the ambitious and manipulative Queen Mother Amestris entered my story.

Was I Wazir?: The Haman Problem

Okay, I admit the Haman/Hitler parallels are eerie. A number of authors carry this equation to the extreme of (in one novel from about fifty years ago) giving Haman the swastika as his symbol and a personal army dressed in black. This ignores the fact that until the Nazis literally and figuratively reversed it, the swastika was a symbol of light and good for several thousand years. Tradition says Haman hated the Jews because Haman was descended from King Agag, who was killed by the Jewish prophet Samuel about five hundred years before. Eternal feuds have been carried on for less, but Haman really seems far more interested in personal power than avenging his ancestor. And he'll happily exterminate an entire race of people to get his own way. Frankly, the man's just plain evil.

Bigthan & Teresh: How Not to Carry Out a Murder

The eunuchs Bigthan and Teresh plan to kill King Ahasuerus, a plot point that sounds like something the original writer of Esther came up with because he (or she) needed Mordecai to save the king so later Haman has to honor Mordecai—because really, what good would killing the king do the two eunuchs? So I came up with a plausible scenario—plausible, anyway, if you assume both Bigthan and Teresh are idiots with seriously hurt feelings. Since they were discussing their Cunning Plan where they could be overheard, they don't seem to have been any too bright.

Oh, Susannah! or, Get Your Stories Straight Before Accusing the Innocent

There's a lot of argument about the actual creation and placement of the Susannah and the Elders story in the Daniel canon. (See the Anchor Bible, volume 44:
Daniel, Esther, and Jeremiah: the Additions
by Carey A. Moore.) Because it suited my plot, I set Susannah's peril just before Daniel leaves Babylon for Shushan. Note: There's no evidence Daniel was in Shushan during the Esther story. But there's no evidence that he
wasn't,
either.

Poppies Are For Lovers: The Story of Zariadres and Odatis

A very popular tale in the Persian Empire. (Warning! Spoilers!) Princess Odatis, the most beautiful girl in all Asia, sees Zariadres in a dream and falls in love with him. Zariadres sees Odatis in a dream and falls in love with her. Odatis's father wants her to marry one of his relatives, and invites the candidates for her hand to his palace. Odatis secretly invited Zariadres, who strides in, introduces himself to Odatis, and the two dream lovers flee to Zariadres' kingdom. How Odatis knew where to send the invitation isn't explained.