Jewel of Persia (12 page)

Xerxes threw his head back in laughter and slid an arm around her shoulder. “You go to an extreme, dear one. Comfort you will always have. Luxury may not be as forthcoming, unless your sons provide it . . . or unless you curry the favor of my heir.”

At the warning in that last part, she lifted her brows. “Is that another game your wives play? Seeking the good opinion of your sons?”

His lips thinned. “To varying—and sometimes dangerous—degrees. At least it has been so in past reigns. I once caught my elder brother in a compromising situation with one of our father’s youngest wives. As I watch my son grow into a man, I can but hope he has the sense to avoid such traps.” He arched a brow her way. “What think you? Did he strike you as sensible enough for that?”

She frowned at the sharp question in his gaze. “I have never met your son, my love.”

Amusement replaced the inquisition. “Of course you have. Your first morning here, when we came to see you in the garden.”

Searching her mind brought nothing but a vague recollection of the others who had been with him. “Really?”

“Indeed. Darius, my brother Masistes, and Haman were all there.”

“I shall take your word for it.” Lips twitching up, her anger faded. “I can recall only how my heart swelled when I saw you with Chinara. I care not what position our someday-children have in the empire—I just hope you love them like that.”

“Ah, Kasia.” He held her tight. “Never change.”

She snuggled against him and let peace wash over her. “Only as you desire and the Lord wills.”

He pulled away with a sigh and a glance toward the heavens. “I have guests to greet. Shall I walk you back to your pathetic little room?”

She laughed and slapped his chest lightly. “Go to your feast, Xerxes. I will linger here another moment.”

After a warm kiss, he took a step away but then paused. “Have you explored the compound yet?”

The very thought had terrified her each time someone proposed it. She shook her head.

Xerxes smiled. “In the next few days, I will show you our winter home in its fullness.”

She smiled and raised her arm in farewell. “I will look forward to it.”

He strode away with all the confidence of a man who ruled half the world. Kasia smiled and shook her head. Her husband was so sure of himself he could mount an invasion of a continent . . . while she was so insecure she could not venture beyond this one building. Perhaps after he showed her around, it would not seem so overwhelming.

A frisson of unease washed over her, and she froze. She was not alone. Her eyes scanned the flowers and trees, the fountain pulsing with clear, sweet water. Her gaze snagged on the form of a woman. A woman whose stomach was round with child, whose face was hard as stone, whose eyes spewed unmitigated hatred.

Kasia gulped. “Good evening, my queen.”

Nine

Mordecai stood and stretched the soreness out of muscles left too long in one position. It had been a tiring day, full of complaints from his people. Tomorrow he would take them before the officials to work out what could easily be handled. What they could not solve he would take before the king three days hence.

He drew in a deep breath. With all of Persia preparing for war, it seemed that people forgot to respect what would be left behind. Thievery and vandalism were growing steadily, and the Jews suffered it more than anyone. Perhaps it would improve once the growing number of troops marched out to meet the rest of the army. He hoped so.

Turning away from the gates, he headed home, ready for a quiet meal with Esther. At the next corner, he put one foot onto his street and halted. His spirit weighed heavy within him, blurring his vision and stealing his breath. “Jehovah?” he whispered.

The crowds repelled him like the wrong end of a loadstone, pushing him back out of the street and in search of solitude. He had no idea where he was headed but gave his feet leave to take him where they and the Lord willed.

At the riverbank, he fell to his knees. Not until his forehead touched the ground did a measure of peace restore his breath. “What is it, Lord?”

Eyes bright and deep, lit with concern. Lips full and lush, their smile forced. Full, shining dark hair.

“Kasia.” He squeezed his eyes shut and curled his fingers into his palms. “Does she live, Jehovah? Does she need your help?”

Panic surged up, urgent and insistent. He could waste no time on conjecture—questions would have to wait until later. “Jehovah God, cast your protection over her this moment. Let your heavenly warriors take up guard around her, warding off the workers of iniquity. Lend her your wisdom, that she might out-strike any serpent. Lend her your love, that she might remain gentle and uninjured by whatever travails befall her. Lend her your authority, that she might stand strong against whoever seeks to crush her.”

A hot breeze whirled around him. Light edged the vision behind his closed eyes. No relief, but rather more pressure. He clasped his hands over his bowed head and prayed whatever words came to his tongue, wondering if this was how his ancestor Hananiah had felt when tossed into the fiery furnace in Babylon.

He heard the beat of wings larger than any bird’s fly over him.

~*~

Amestris stared down the new concubine and let her blood boil in her veins. What was it about this girl that had Xerxes so enthralled? She looked like no more than a peasant, ill suited for jewels and fine linen.

Her husband had dressed up peasants before. Amestris took no issue with the pearls on her throat, with the silver on her arm. Something else about this girl, though, set her teeth on edge.

She took a step toward the Jewess, then another. Were it not for the awkwardness of her babe-heavy stomach, she would have demonstrated what true grace was—something this base-born wench could never know.

The girl set her head in an angle of deferment, but her eyes . . . they did not seek the ground, carried no fear.

Amestris stopped a few feet away. “You have much to learn, concubine. Do you think you are special because of the way my husband looks at you?”

“I think I am nothing.” Yet the humility was underscored by iron.

The boil of blood snapped and sizzled. “Were you not cautioned to stay away from me?”

Now the wench’s brows lifted. Such insolence. “And so I have, my queen.”

“You say from a step away.”

“Where my husband left me. I feared it would be rude to leave without greeting when I saw you, but if you wish, I shall go at once.” She lifted an arm and motioned toward the garden’s entrance.

Amestris’s gaze narrowed on the flash of silver on her biceps, and her hand whipped out to grab the girl’s arm. “What is this?”

“I—”

“Silence.” She tugged the wretch closer, shoved her sleeve out of the way, and hissed when she saw the twin lions’ heads on the torc. “You dare to steal from the king? Next time, take something not given him by my hand. Did you think no one would recognize the gift I commissioned for his birthday feast? Stupid Jewess.”

The girl’s eyes flashed, but not with guilt or rebellion. She swallowed. “I did not realize it was a gift from your blessed hand, my queen. I will return it to the king the next time I see him.”

A red haze drifted over Amestris’s vision. He had given it to her, the faithless dolt, given
her
gift to this slave. She ought to have the girl’s arm cut off to show them the price for such audacity. She ought to have a knife plunged through the harlot’s heart for daring to steal the king’s. She ought to—

The air heated, the red over her eyes blazed a white so hot Amestris gasped and dropped the girl’s arm, stumbled back a step. When she blinked, her vision wavered. The Jewess stood as she had a moment before, but something had changed. Her shadow had lengthened to nearly half again what it was before, had broadened. It looked . . . masculine.

Demons. Amestris took another step back and snarled. “Enemy of Ahura Mazda! No servant of Angra Mainyu will live under my roof.”

Through the girl’s confusion shone the authority of the uncreated evil one. “I am a servant of none but Jehovah.”

Amestris spat. “Call him what you may, slave. He is still the enemy of my god.”

The wretch arched that insolent brow again. “That only speaks to the nature of whatever devil
you
serve.”

Amestris rested a hand on the curve of her stomach. “You make a grave error by opposing me. You are nothing but a harlot with a flimsy contract, easily severed.” She lunged forward, gripped her arm again, and tore the lion torc from her.

The girl grimaced and covered the rising welt of where the lion bit her. But she made no protest. Perhaps she recognized the fire of Ahura Mazda when she saw it blazing from an enemy’s eyes.

Amestris stepped back again, her chest heaving. “Get out of my sight.”

Her chin edged up instead of tucking to her chest. When her hand fell from her arm, Amestris gasped to see the welt had vanished already. The work of the demons, no doubt.

The fool offered a mocking smile. “As the queen wishes.” She turned leisurely to the path that would lead to her pathetic closet.

Amestris’s hand fisted around the torc. At least the harlot was taking her demon with her. She could almost glimpse it, the shimmer of an outline around the girl, taller and wider. It warped the light, made the image of the concubine waver.

The babe inside her leapt. Perhaps he, too, sensed the presence of their nemesis. She covered the bulge in her stomach with a firm hand. “Rest, blessed one. I will not let her near you.”

Fury bubbled in her throat. How dare the king bring that creature here? She had always known he was an idiot, more concerned with his own pleasure than the good of his family. But this—this was too much.

She spun back toward the private entrance to her suite of rooms, paying no mind to the servants that surged around her. Not until she had gained her chamber and halted in the center of the room. Then she narrowed her gaze on one of her eunuchs. “You—bring Haman to me.”

“Yes, mistress.” He bowed and sprinted back out.

She looked down at the torc still clutched in her hand. With a curse, she hurled it against the wall. “Wine—now. And where is the fruit I requested? Would you beasts have this prince inside me starve while I await the start of the feast?”

Food and drink appeared on the table, but Amestris was not calm enough to eat. It would churn into wormwood in her stomach—she must see this taken care of first.

What would the god have her do? She could work to nullify any influence the girl had over Xerxes, but that would take time. Months, even years. Usually she was patient with such schemes, and confident enough in the knowledge that her husband’s attention was fickle.

This one was different, though. She had seen it with her own eyes while they frolicked like adolescents in the garden. This was not his usual, short-lived affair. There was more to it.

The Jewess would not be so easily relegated to oblivion.

What then?

She paced from one end of her suite to the other, then beckoned her most trusted handmaiden to her.

The girl stepped close. “What may I get for you, mistress?”

“Hemlock. I want it put in that Jewess’s food this very night—her girl will take a tray to her. Escape notice if possible, but bribe whomever you must if you are seen. When my husband discovers her dead, I will not have him realize it is on my order.”

The maid dipped her head. “Shall I slip some into the room of another wife to cast suspicion her way?”

“Yes. Whichever was his favorite before this one.” She waved the girl away and sat to await Haman. If anyone would be her ally in this plot against the Jewess, it would be him.

One of the maids slipped the torc onto the table, and Amestris tasted fury anew. Ah, well. Before the night was out, Xerxes would learn that betrayal cut both ways.

~*~

Kasia looked again over her shoulder. She could have sworn someone stood behind her, but each time she looked, she found nothing. Though this felt unthreatening, it must still be residual unease from her encounter with Amestris.

Remembering the queen brought a fresh chill to her spine. Had Amestris insulted her alone, Kasia would have accepted her opinions without complaint. But to attack her God?

She shook her head. The Persian Empire was renowned for its tolerance of other religions, had even encouraged her people more than once—Xerxes’ grandfather releasing the Jews from captivity was a perfect example—but clashes were inevitable when monotheistic religions collided.

Amestris believed her Ahura Mazda was the one and true god. Kasia knew Jehovah owned that title. She had occasionally wondered if perhaps they were two different names for the same being, but the queen had succeeded in convincing her otherwise.

Her soul had recognized its enemy.

For an hour she sat at her loom and took up her weaving. For an hour she prayed for God’s protection, for his presence to blanket the palace, for his strength to fill her. For an hour her fingers moved with confidence. But when her meal was brought in and she ceased her prayers, her hands shook.