Watson, Ian - Novel 16 (31 page)

 
          
‘I
relinquish Zarpanit,’ cried Marduk, ‘and I regain Zarpanit.’

 
          
‘I
proudly present the gift of Sin,’ declared Shazar.

 
          
As
if in a rage, the redhead began to rip the veils from her rival and successor.
Deborah was stripped naked very rapidly. ‘Ah!’ breathed voices here and there.
Mostly the assembly was silent and intent.

 
          
Alex
had looked to see if Thessany had spotted where he stood; and whether she was
watching him watch Deborah. She wasn’t; she was watching Deborah herself. But
thus it was that Alex missed the majority of the spectacle; for already the
coronet was on Deborah’s head, already Marduk was swirling the black cloak
open. All too briefly Alex saw naked womanhood, but he had no time to refine
his impressions, to spy details, to see a naked
Deborah -
before Marduk wrapped the cloak around her and led her to
the vacant throne.

 
          
Alex
sighed deeply.

           
A neighbour nudged him in the ribs.
‘Superb, eh?’

           
‘I don’t know,’ said Alex. ‘I don’t
damn well know.’ ‘Oh. You been castrated?’

           
‘No,’ he said sarcastically, ‘I’m
short-sighted.’

           
Where was the redhead? She had
already fled. Deborah looked pleased with herself now that her crisis was over.
She smiled dreamily at Marduk. He stooped to kiss her, and the tentacles of his
beard quested at her bosom like furry fingers. He resumed his seat and the
couple chatted a while till Marduk fell into a brooding silence. Presently the
gong boomed again, and amidst Saturnalian cheers he led his queen away.

 
          
As
soon as Mr and Mrs Marduk were gone, the party broke up. Alex rejoined
Thessany, who paid him no special attention; the three of them joined the crush
heading up and out.

 
          
Ningal-Damekin
was full of the amazing interruption earlier on. ‘Still don’t know what to
think! What a to-do! Fear fair clutched at my heart for that poor child; though
he was likely only a beggar’s boy.’

 
          
‘Like
a fox cub to the slaughter,’ said Thessany. ‘Ah, there’s Lord Gibil. I must
have a word . . .’

 
          
Thessany’s
father, to no one’s surprise, did not put in an appearance at prayers that
evening. Afterwards, in the dusky courtyard, Thessany called her slave aside.

 
          
‘Nice
one, Alex! Lord Gibil will be sending a note to the temple tomorrow. I foresee
a change in arrangements as to where us newlyweds dwell, come the great day.’

           
‘Good. But I’ve been thinking. This
could all have happened irrespective.’

 
          
‘If
the scroll had reached its original destination, you mean? If it hadn’t fallen
into our hands?’

 
          
‘Exactly.’

 
          
‘Ah,
but then I shouldn’t have been able to take advantage. In any case, the
recipients might have bungled the job. I bet they don’t know the secret of
invisibility.’

 
          
‘Nor
did they know
we
intended to use the
scroll! The mage whom Moriel bribed can’t have been an accomplice, or he
wouldn’t have given the goods back even for a moment.’

 
          
‘What
a surprise for the conspirators! They’ll be wondering how their dream came true.’

 
          
‘Hmm!’

 
          
‘What’s
the matter?’

 
          
‘If
I’d
been pinning my hopes on a
certain scroll and it went astray - I’d have laid alternative plans.’

 
          
‘What
sort of plans? Nothing else weird happened.’

 
          
‘That’s
what’s puzzling me. The crucial event today was to be the sacrifice, right? Now
supposing I hadn’t used the scroll when I did, how would they have sabotaged
the sacrifice?’

 
          
‘Ah.
The fire blazed fiercely enough. The oil jars weren’t full of water.’

 
          
‘The
bull! Something to do with the bull! The mage was going to climb up the bull
and put the boy into the cooking compartment.’

 
          
‘Yes?’

 
          
‘As
things turned out, he never did climb up there. But if he
had
done, what would he have found when he opened the bull’s back?
He would have found . . . something which stopped him from putting the child inside!
Something which would have made him shriek with fear. Something that would have
been a terrible omen.’

 
          
‘What
kind of thing?’

           
‘I don’t know. Something dangerous,
like cobras. Something horrible and polluting. I bet you they sneaked a
surprise into the bull’s back. We didn’t need to use the scroll, Thess!’

 
          
‘Hmm.
And the palace might tell my dad what they think we did . . . Just as well if
there
is
a heap of cooked cobras to
be found! Though I guess hot snakes would have tried to get out through the
nostrils.’

 
          
The
following evening, Marduk’s image did appear in chapel.

 
          
‘I’ve
received a message from Lord Gibil,’ he said without more ado, ‘sent, I
believe, at my daughter’s instigation. He informs me politely that Muzi will
take his bride elsewhere to live.’

 
          
‘Oh
no!’ cried Ningal-Damekin. ‘After all I’ve done in this house for dear Muzi’s
comfort. And at the last moment. It’s really too bad.’

 
          
‘Be
quiet,’ said Marduk. ‘There’s no choice in the matter; not after the . . .
instance of divine intervention at my own nuptials.’

 
          
‘Wasn’t
that
a surprise!’ exclaimed Thessany.
‘Marduk would appear to have cunning enemies. Was he really intending to kill a
child?’

 
          
Thessany’s
father made a gesture of disgust. ‘Abomination; at my own wedding.’

 
          
‘Divine
intervention can’t be an abomination, Daddy.’

 
          
‘If
only that was all!’

           
‘Did something else disturb the
wedding? I can’t say I noticed.’

           
In two minds, Marduk struggled with
himself. ‘Thessany . . . you have a keen mind. My idol was violated.’

 
          
‘Ah.
By the same hands that arranged the intervention.’

 
          
Marduk
did not disagree. ‘How could it have happened? After your slave broke into my
temple - ’

 
          
‘He
was scourged for his naughtiness.’

 
          
‘I
don’t point the finger at him. In a way I’m grateful. On his account I changed
the word which opens the door to the temple, as well as the door downstairs.
Anyone coming from Babel or the palace by the tunnel route, burdened with the
abomination and expecting entrance, would have found their way blocked. That’s
the enigma.’

 
          
‘One
of your magi must be a traitor, Daddy.’

 
          
‘No.
I hadn’t told anyone else the new word yet. I’m sure I hadn’t.’

 
          
Thessany
thought briefly. ‘But you must have repeated the word to
yourself
so that you didn’t forget it.’

 
          
‘What
do you mean? That I walked in my sleep and polluted my own altar?’

 
          
‘Polluted
it with what, Daddy? That may be a clue.’

 
          
Ningal-Damekin
was so agog that she held her hand clamped tightly over her mouth so as to
avoid interrupting.

 
          
‘With
the corpse of a leper - to judge by its scorched meat! With its stumpy hands
reaching up to seize whoever opened my bull!’

 
          
‘How
do you know it was a real leper? I expect the fire didn’t improve its
appearance. It might have been any corpse artfully made up to look like a
leper. Fingers mutilated, and such.’

 
          
‘Oh,
it was a leper, and no mistake! Are there not several lepers in Babel? One of
those wretches must have murdered him.’

 
          
‘Who
would have manhandled the body of a
leper? I suggest that the corpse of an ordinary man was worked over. Amputated,
decorated; that’s more likely.’

           
‘Oh my God,’ growled Marduk. ‘Of
course.’

 
          
‘So
how did the traitor discover the word to gain entry for the corpse? The answer
has to be that you told the traitor.’

 
          
‘I
didn’t tell anyone.’

 
          
‘You
told
yourself
the new word. Many
times. The word would have been high on your mind - high enough for you to
mutter it in your sleep. Did the previous Zarpanit share your bed during her
last days?’

 
          
‘Yes
. . .’

 
          
‘How
did she feel about being banished to the Underworld?’

 
          
‘She
accepted the inevitable.’

 
          
‘And
wished for revenge? And hoped to buy favour with the Underworld, if the
Underworld was conspiring against you? Or had she simply been biding her time
all along, as a sleeping enemy?’

 
          
‘I
uttered the word in my sleep . . . and she heard . me? Yes, you do have a good
mind. It all hangs together. It’s plausible.’

           
‘Perhaps Marduk should confide in
his daughter more often?’

 
          
‘Perhaps.
My plans are delayed, not destroyed. You shall still give birth to a boy.’ So
saying, Marduk vanished.

 
          
‘That
was a fine piece of concoction, Thess, blaming the last Zarpanit.’

           
‘I think it’s probably true. True of
the leper’s corpse and the locked door! So now Daddy believes that the same
persons were responsible for both the corpse
and
the scroll; double indemnity. That’s excellent. The palace
haven’t told him about the scroll; which means they’ve withdrawn their
tentative support, because he failed. Aristander has lost faith in the scheme.’

 
          
‘The
palace haven’t told him
yet'

 
          
‘Maybe
they never will. Maybe they’d rather keep the news of his daughter’s deceit as
a horrid surprise to spring; a potential lever. Maybe now they won’t even
supply Greek medicine to fix the sex of my baby. Or they might supply dud
medicine; something innocuous - though one can’t rely on that!’

 
          
‘And
we’ve learnt that the tunnel runs all the way to the palace.’

 
          
‘Doesn’t
it just? Daddy said that the abomination came from Babel
or
the palace. He must suspect the palace too.’

 
          
‘When
you first opened your mouth, I thought you were going to blow everything wide
open.’

 
          
‘Ah,
but I’ve known him longer than you. To me he looked perturbed. He didn’t quite
know what was what.’ She clapped her hands gleefully. ‘I’ve solved the puzzle
for him. Zarpanit was the fly in the ointment, the bug in his bed.’

 
          
‘Which
god gave
her
to Marduk last year?’

 
          
Thessany
laughed. ‘It was Ishtar. I think, Alex, we shall begin Operation Conception
tonight. I feel in the mood. Creep to my bed at midnight; ravish me.’