The Robber and the Queen

On his fifteenth day in the palace, Samegi received welcome news. Tilla's caravan had been overtaken in Chaukasri, and the prince was expected to be back in Karrumi within a week. Fearing that the journey was becoming too tiresome for the boy, the caravan master had decided to rest an extra day in Chaukasri. Otherwise, they would have passed into Kitanite territory before Samegi's men could overtake them. But that week passed, and then another, with neither the return of the prince nor any sign of Kolima. Morazi became irritable and fretted to the point that Samegi ordered him to cease his grumbling or return to Tartanbul.

            I made you king, and you think you can stand without me? Morazi thought, but he stifled himself and avoided retorting, unsure of what the outcome would be if he argued openly with Samegi. He was not ready to risk banishment from the palace or giving Samegi an excuse to renege on his promise to give him Kolima. Morazi had also engaged his own agents to covertly search for Kolima in Karrumi and beyond, and he believed that these were as likely to succeed as Samegi's.

            Meanwhile, the queen was settling into her role as Lilita, the Babylonian scullery maid. A small room off the kitchen, hardly more than a closet large enough to contain a straw bed, was designated as her quarters. She was miserable at first, finding the work tiresome. As Narisa anticipated, her hands were especially painful, becoming raw and cracked to the point of bleeding in little spots, and she also suffered little cuts and burns. But Narisa was able to help with healing salves and ointments, part of her lore going back to her days in the royal scullery in Babylon and also as a Priestess of Marduk.

            Between comments she overheard from the other workers, and updates by Narisa, Kolima was able to keep generally informed on events in the rest of the palace. Narisa was careful to avoid being seen as paying undue attention to Kolima, but the pretense of tutoring her in Hurrian provided an excuse for them to talk. "Be careful not to 'learn' Hurrian too fast," Narisa cautioned, "It will be harder for us to have an excuse to converse in a language no one else here understands. Besides, you will find it hard to speak in Hurrian and not sound like a native."  

            As the days wore on, Kolima's hands healed and toughened, so that her work ceased to be painful. It also ceased to be drudgery, at least so much as at the beginning. She actually came to welcome her duties for the relief it gave her mind from her anxiety over her own future, her grief for her husband, and her son's fate.

            In the early days of her concealment in the scullery, thoughts of escape often occupied her mind. But by the time vigilance of the palace exits had relaxed enough to make leaving undetected feasible, perhaps on the pretext of some errand, she came to view it as a wiser course to remain incognito in the palace for the time being. This was because of her fear for her son when she learned through Narisa that his caravan had been overtaken at Chaukasri and he was being brought back to Karrumi. I don't know if I can do anything to help him, but perhaps if I reveal myself at the right time, beg for mercy with witnesses, Samegi will not feel that he dare harm him. Or perhaps if I offer myself as a ransom, agree to marry Morazi...She found it very difficult to carry that thought further, as the thought of marrying her husband's murderer almost made her gag.

            But then came the day Narisa brought news that her son had disappeared . "I hate to add to the burdens already troubling your mind, but the soldiers escorting your son back to Karrumi were all killed, except for one who escaped and came back wounded. They were ambushed and your son taken by unknown assailants. It is believed that they were a party of the robbers who are thought to have their hideout south of Lake Van."