The Whore of Babylon

Chapter 25 | part 3

If Eliana had been impressed by the size and grandeur of Susa's rooms in the Red Palace, they nothing compared to the queen's apartments in the Palace of Gold.

The floors were tiled in elaborate mosaics symbolising health, happiness, fertility and fidelity; the walls were gorgeously painted with deity stories enough to keep her amused for weeks. Shell lions prowled across bright lapis lazuli plains, and statues of the Babylonian gods occupied niches all around the rooms.

In all, the apartments were bigger than the entirety of her father's house back in Nippur. They did not have the lush private gardens of the Red Palace, but there was a roof terrace with trees and plants and flowers of every colour and description.

Her belongings had not yet been brought up, and she wandered from room to room, keenly feeling the emptiness. Once the babies were here, things would be better, she told herself. The rooms would not feel so vast when they were filled with the cries and laughter of children.

There was a knock on the door, and Ashan entered to discover her looking like a lost little girl, separated from her mother on market day. His heart went out to her, and he wanted nothing more than to go and put his arms around her, make her feel found again. He had fond memories of these rooms from his days as a child at the palace – he was eager that she should feel as at home here as he had.

A dressmaker entered immediately behind him. They bowed and straightened as one.

'Your Highness,' began Ashan. 'I have come to brief you on the arrangements for the king's coronation next week. He sends a dressmaker to have you some gowns made in the native fashion. His will is that you should look and behave as much like a Babylonian as possible.'

'Highness,' the man inclined his head. 'Might I take your measurements?'

'Of course,' Eliana gave a weak smile. 'Do what you need to do.'

She was still tired from the journey, and overwhelmed by the newness, the unfamiliarity of everything. She had not even had time to adjust to becoming a mother before she had become a queen, and then had immediately been uprooted from her environment and brought here to be dropped alone in an expanse of luxurious nothingness. She was so dazed that she would have agreed to anything at that moment. The whole world seemed to have turned upside down.

The dressmaker scurried about her as she stood for him to do his work. He had a closed-in, ferret-like face, beady eyes scrutinising her as he pulled a thin strip of fabric about her in all different places, marking in paint where the ends overlapped. His face twitched as he worked, clicking his tongue and occasionally bearing sharp little pointed teeth.

Ashan ignored the man completely as he began to give Eliana details of the coronation.

'The most important thing that you really need to know, is that your presence is not required.' He said.

'Oh,' Eliana did not know whether to be relieved or disappointed – she had been looking forward to getting out into the city, but would be grateful for the rest. 'Why is that?'

'Queens are not crowned, merely proclaimed. You would have no part in the ceremony, which is purely a religious rite. It is not the Babylonian way to make a great public spectacle of private communion between gods and man – Marduk has chosen to ordain Samsu as king, and the ways of the coronation are known to a precious few. It preserves the magic and mystery of kingship. I will be present, along with a few of Samsu's most trusted men, but no women will be present at all, to my knowledge.'

'So, do I have to do anything at all?'

'Well, Eshu will be taken to the ceremony and invested as crown prince at the same time. Afterwards, as mother to the heir, you will be required to appear on the balcony before an assembled crowd, to receive their homage. You'll need to look your very best. Samsu wants the citizens to see the royal family all together on coronation day – past, present and future.'