Game of Queens (14 page)

As if entranced, Isqanqur accepted the seal ring. “The king's treasurer. Two hundred darics. A receipt.” He didn't even glance at me as he left, hastening to claim the money before the man changed his mind.

Once Isqanqur had gone, I pushed myself away from the support of the wall. Forcing myself to ignore the varied pains as I moved, I bowed low before my rescuer.

“You do not know what horrors you saved me from, my lord. But I do, and in gratitude for your intercession I would be your willing slave—even had you not purchased me.” I noted that my new owner flushed, and shifted as if embarrassed. Was he shy, then? Well, I knew how to deal with shyness. “You paid too much for me,” I added. “A few minutes' bargaining, and you could have had me for a quarter of that.” Bold, you will say—but boldness is a virtue, with a certain type of man.

“Perhaps,” my new owner said. “But it doesn't matter.” He seemed about to say something more, but fell silent as he studied me. I could do nothing about the vivid whip marks, or the many-hued bruises, but I could smile at him. Even that hurt. “What's your name?” he asked.

I slanted my eyes at him. “I call myself Bagoas.”

He sighed. “Of course you do. But you're free now, so you may call yourself whatever you wish—even your own name.”

His steady eyes compelled, and I found myself telling him the truth, or at least some of it. “My owners have called me Bagoas.”

“And is that what you wish to call yourself?”

“No.” I thought for a moment. “I will be Hegai now.”

He tilted his head, regarding me with interest, as if I were a scroll he wished to read. “Hegai? You want to call yourself ‘eunuch'?”

“I am a eunuch. And I must be called something.”

“Why not still call yourself Bagoas, then?”

“Something … suitable,” I said.

“Oh, I see.” He did not ask any more questions about my name, for which I was thankful. I did not need Haman learning where I was now, or with whom. I let a few moments pass before I asked, “May I know my lord's name?”

“Oh. Daniel. I'm Daniel. Now come along, Hegai, we need to get you to someone who can treat those injuries.”

*   *   *

My luck had changed again, this time for the better—no, for the best. For the first time, I mounted the Great Staircase to the palace. All the world seemed to be on those stairs—merchants with wares garnered from Cathay at the eastern end of the Silk Road to Damascus at the western; princes who had traveled a thousand miles on the Royal Road to come before the King of Kings; Immortals riding oil-sleek horses; messengers running up and down upon palace business.

Bazaars lined the sides of great flat terraces between the long wide flights of stairs. Booths sold everything from turquoises to crimson leather boots to golden fish in crystal bowls. Scribes and booksellers and tailors; jewelers, swordsmiths, perfumers; a dozen dozen booths selling flowers. There seemed no rule to what was sold where that I could see—just a vast brilliant confusion of bright-hued tents and treasures of every sort in every color the gods had ever spread upon the earth.

When at last we had climbed the Great Staircase, I paused for a moment at the top of the vast expanse of smooth-polished marble and gazed out across the bright city to the mountains far to the east. I smiled, and followed Daniel through the King's Gate into the palace.

Or, more truthfully, into the citadel that crowned Shushan. Many palaces had been built within the citadel's shielding walls. Oddly, I had not been surprised to discover that Daniel lived within the palace or that he ranked so highly he had been granted his own house and a small walled garden.

As he led me through the gate into his garden, a woman came out of the blue-tiled house. She had fair hair and blue eyes, and carried a copper bowl full of figs. She stopped when she saw us and regarded Daniel reproachfully. “Oh, Daniel, what have you done now?”

“I bought a eunuch,” Daniel said.

“You bought a
what
?” A tall, lean man strode out of the house; stopped and glared at Daniel.

The woman set down the copper bowl. “Arioch, you're frightening the boy.”

Arioch's gaze shifted to me. After a moment, he said, “I doubt it. All right, Daniel, what happened
this
time?”

“He can tell us later. The boy needs his injuries looked after.” The woman came over and gently put her arm around my shoulders. “Come with me.” Her voice was kind and her touch soft; I let myself relax into her support.

Behind me I heard Daniel say, “His owner was trying to beat him to death, so—”

“So you bought him,” Arioch finished. “How much, Daniel?”

There was a long pause before Daniel answered. “Two hundred darics.”

“Two hundred darics?”
Arioch said. “Daniel, are you out of your
mind
?”

I drew myself up and turned, looked straight into Arioch's lion-gold eyes. “I'm worth it,” I told him.

“Oh, I'll just bet you are.” Arioch went over to Daniel and flung his arm around Daniel's shoulders. “Come on, Daniel, tell me what trouble I'm going to have to haul you out of this time.”

“None. No, really, Arioch—”

I heard no more, for the woman guided me into the house. “I'm Samamat,” she told me. “Sit here, and tell me how and where you're injured…” I knew what silent question hung in the air, so I said, “Hegai. My name is Hegai.”

“Hegai.” Samamat sounded as if what she really wanted to say was, “It is not!” Instead, she said, “Very well,
Hegai
. Now tell me what happened to you and what hurts.”

She listened as I explained, and examined me carefully. I had been fortunate; although badly bruised, no bones seemed broken, and my face had not been marred beyond mending. Samamat wiped my skin with vinegar and wine; the liquid stung like fire in the small cuts it found. Then she handed me a cup. “Drink this. It's honey and poppy syrup. It will stop the pain.”

I drank, and she was right; the mixture stopped the pain. I felt nothing until I awoke the next morning.

That is how I came to the palace of the King of Kings: brought there by Daniel Dream-Master, a Jew long famed for his wisdom and judgment, and for telling the truth of dreams. He possessed another gift as well. Daniel saw the future. Much later, when all plots had been spun and all debts paid, I asked Daniel what he had seen, that day he saved me from death and brought me into the life of the imperial palace.

“I saw a boy being beaten to death,” Daniel said, and when I asked if that was all, if there had been nothing more, Daniel merely smiled and said,

“Isn't that enough?”

*   *   *

It was a pleasant life, living as Daniel's servant. Yes, servant, for the first thing Daniel did was manumit me. After three years, I was no longer a slave. I was free.
Free.
No one owned my body but me, and if I chose to walk out of Daniel's garden and out of the palace and go anywhere the wind took me, I could do so.

I did not choose to leave, for I now dwelt in the best place possible: the palace. Power coiled itself within palace walls; I needed power if I were to destroy Haman. I would have stayed with Daniel in any case, once I discovered who he truly was. For he was a man of such importance that King Darius had brought him from Babylon. Daniel was far-famed as a master of dreams. Kings had bowed down before him.

So I willingly remained with Daniel and the two who lived with him, Arioch and Samamat. Unlike most, I did not find it odd that one of Daniel's dearest friends was a woman; the life I had been forced to lead had taught me not to despise women. Arioch had served King Darius as captain of the palace guard. Samamat was Arioch's wife. An astrologer from Chaldea, and very learned, I soon realized that she softened Arioch's keen mistrust and anchored Daniel's absentminded tolerance. Both men loved Samamat—that I saw at once.

Just as I saw that Daniel also loved Arioch. I wondered if either man knew it.

Naturally my first scheme to gain Daniel's goodwill was seduction, but he seemed oblivious to my advances.

I tried to flirt with him, indicate I found him desirable despite his age. But I soon realized that Daniel didn't care how exquisite my eyes were, how flawless my skin. I didn't know whether to be grateful or angered—everyone I had yet met, man or woman, had at least acknowledged my beauty. Daniel ignored it.

So I turned my efforts to making myself indispensable in other ways, flatly telling Daniel I wished to learn all I could.

“About what?” Daniel asked, and when I said, “Anything,” he laughed, and said he would teach me what little he knew. To hear him tell it, he knew nothing more than any man with common sense might. “You would learn more from Arioch, and far more from Samamat.”

“I would learn from all three of you,” I said, and that was how I became Samamat's student, learning mathematics and the science of stars, as well as the ancient tongue of Chaldea. Captain Arioch occasionally would trouble himself to give me a lesson in using a sword, or a dagger—but most of what I learned from him, I learned by watching, and listening. He had a keen sense for danger, even when the threat was still barely a thought in a man's mind, an excellent skill to acquire.

The three of them had survived the reigns of the last kings of Babylon, and that was no easy feat. Then they had been swept up by all-conquering Darius and carried here to ancient, royal Shushan. Kings seemed to find Daniel irresistible, as I once overheard Commander Arioch say.

Even though Commander Arioch and the lady Samamat had married, and she had borne him a son—who was now a man grown, a warrior as his father had been—they shared Daniel's dwelling. The most valuable lessons I learned from them, they did not even guess they taught. For as I studied them, stalking every advantage I could gain, I slowly began to comprehend the emotions that bound the three together. Friendship, love, trust—and in the depths below, yearning, hunger, guilt. I saw the bright passion burning between Arioch and Samamat, and Daniel's dark craving for them both. Samamat knew. Arioch did not.

And Daniel refused to know.

Once my eyes were opened to the invisible currents flowing between Daniel, Samamat, and Arioch, I practiced my new skill any time I encountered two or more people gathered together. Tongues lie; bodies reveal truth.

*   *   *

So do our dreams. To my dismay, the lotus twins, Padmavarna and Padmavati, haunted my sleep. I tried to ignore them, told myself to forget. I refused to care.
I will not risk the ruin of all my plans. No.

But one morning I found myself asking Daniel if he would be willing to purchase two more slaves from Isqanqur. Once the words had flown free, I stood and stared at Daniel in silent horror. Now he would question me, demand to know why, and I knew I would have to answer …

Daniel apparently found nothing odd in my request. “Friends of yours, I suppose? I am sorry, Hegai—I should have asked if there was anyone…”

At first his words seemed to echo oddly in my ears; sounds that made no sense. I stared at the floor so he could not see the tears burning my eyes. The only questions Daniel asked were those needful to ensure he acquired the right girls.

“I don't know if we really need two girls here, but I'm sure you'd like to see them again, so I'll ask Samamat. She'll think of something—”

“No,” I said hastily. “No. Not here.”

“That may be for the best,” Daniel said, after a moment's thought. “I don't think I want to explain to Arioch that I've just bought twin Hindush slave girls.”

I kissed Daniel's hands, not caring that the homage embarrassed him. He promised he would tell me when the twins were free of Isqanqur, but I never wanted to see or hear about Padmavarna and Padmavati again. When I said that, Daniel merely nodded and said, “All right, Hegai. It shall be done as you wish.”

Those were the last words Daniel ever said to me about the matter. He never needed to tell me anything more. I knew the lotus twins were safe, because they no longer danced soft-footed into my dreams.

*   *   *

The day I turned eighteen, I asked Daniel if he would grant me a boon—“If it pleases you, of course.” After all, I had acted as chamberlain, scribe, and messenger to Daniel Dream-Master for over a year, and in that time I had learned the palace ways and ingratiated myself with court officials, high-ranking servants, and even with slaves. Since I was a eunuch, I could enter any portion—men's or women's—of the vast complex of palaces, courts, and gardens that formed the royal citadel—and I had charmed a number of the harem women. Most of them were delighted with a flirtation even with a eunuch, as the king who owned them was only seven years old.

“You want me to grant you a favor? Of course,” Daniel said. “You want to leave, I suppose? I have to admit I'll miss you, Hegai.”

“Oh, no, I have no wish to leave.”
Leave the palace? Why would anyone want to do that?

“Oh.” Daniel looked faintly baffled. “What
do
you want, Hegai?”

“If I have pleased you, my lord, and found favor in your sight—”

“Just ask,” Daniel said.

“Yes, just ask, Hegai.” Arioch wandered into the room from the garden; even at his venerable age, he had a knack for untimely—and very silent—entrances. “You know Daniel hates it when people grovel.”

I bowed my head. “Very well. My lord Daniel, my petition and request is that you recommend me to the Chief Eunuch of the Women's Palace.”

“You want to work in the Women's Palace? But why?”

Only Daniel would ask such a question. “It will provide me with greater scope in my livelihood.”

“Scope?”
Arioch said with blatant disbelief.

“Yes, my lord Arioch.” I kept my voice bland, my face smooth. “Scope.” Few people held as much power as the Chief Eunuch of the imperial harem. I lusted after that power, but to grasp it, I must first gain a place in the palace hierarchy.