‘Gafarn, be quiet,’ hissed Diana. My father turned round and frowned at us.
Nabu placed the pot of incense back on the altar and then he and Afrand placed their hands and feet against the bare feet and hands of Orodes and Axsen respectively. Axsen then laid her head on Orodes’ shoulder who now spoke.
‘I am the son of nobles. Silver and gold shall fill your lap. You shall be my wife and I shall be your husband, and like the fruit of a garden I shall give you offspring.’
The priests held out their hands and were handed pairs of sandals by their subordinates. Nabu and Afrand then slipped the sandals on the feet of the royal couple, kissing their insteps.
I smiled as my friends were married and then heard a woman’s voice. ‘The gods are with you, Pacorus. Your faith has been rewarded.’
I turned to Gallia. ‘What did you say?’ I whispered. She looked at me in confusion.
‘I did not say anything.’
I heard the voice again. ‘We are always with you, little one.’
I glanced left and right and saw only the faces of my friends looking forward. I looked up and then behind me but saw nothing untoward. Nabu and Afrand had now risen to their feet and the former faced the congregation and held his arms aloft. Once more his deep voice filled the temple.
‘May Orodes like a farmer till the fields.
May he like a good shepherd make the folds teem.
May there be vines under him, may there be barley under him.
In the river, may there be carp-floods.
In the fields, may there be late barley.
In the marshes, may fishes and birds chatter.
In the canebrake, may dry and fresh reeds grow.
In the high desert, may shrubs grow.
In the forests, may deer and wild goats multiply.
May the watered garden produce honey and wine.
In the vegetable furrows may the lettuce and the cress grow high.
In the palace may there be long life.
May the Tigris and the Euphrates bring high-riding waters.
On their banks may the grass grow high, may they fill the meadows.
May holy Nisaba pile high the heaps of grain.
O, My Lady Axsen, May he spend long days in your holy lap!
Let all here assembled know that the Great Marduk has blessed this union and that Queen Axsen and King Orodes are united in marriage. All hail to Marduk.’
The congregation replied ‘hail’ and then the singers began reciting another melodious song to the accompaniment of flutes and harps. Nabu gestured to the newlyweds that they should now seek the blessing of Marduk and so they disappeared into the holy of holies before reappearing to make their way back to the palace and their new life. Thus began the reign of Orodes and Axsen of Babylon.
Afterwards we attended the great feast at the palace where jugglers, acrobats, contortionists and magicians entertained us while we ate. The palace kitchens had prepared enough food to feed the thousand people who sat at the tables in the vast banqueting hall. And outside the palace the generosity of Axsen allowed her people to feast on freshly grilled goat, mutton and pork from stalls set up on every street corner throughout the city. They could also purchase roasted beef if they wished, though as cattle were usually slaughtered at the end of their lives the meat could be rather stringy. The wedding guests feasted on gazelle, duck, fish and pigeon, all seasoned with herbs including coriander, cumin, fennel, fenugreek, mint, mustard, saffron and thyme. I had to smile when slaves offered porridge with dates on large silver platters, which had been considered a delicacy in Babylon for hundreds of years. The city’s nobility would be taken aback if they learned that porridge was the staple diet of my legionaries.
We sat on the top table with Axsen and Orodes, the newlyweds separating myself, Gallia, Nergal and Praxima from my father and mother, Atrax, Aliyeh, Gafarn, Diana and Adeleh, and thus preventing any uncomfortableness. Young Spartacus looking bored was at the end of the table next to Adeleh. Both Axsen and Orodes wore jewel-encrusted gold crowns on their heads and during the feast Mardonius presented Orodes with King Vardan’s old sword, the pommel of which was a gold gauw. I was pleased that he at last wore a crown for Orodes deserved to be a king and would be a just and noble ruler.
I began to relax and chat with Nergal and Praxima while Gallia giggled with Orodes and Axsen. She was very smug, believing with some justification that she had engineered their romance. Both wine and beer flowed in abundance and the level of noise increased in direct proportion to the amount of alcohol that was consumed. Wine had been almost unknown in Babylon until quite recently, the ancients preferring beer, but later generations had become acquainted with the agreeable produce of the grape following Alexander of Macedon’s destruction of the Persian Empire.
I thought about the words that I had heard in the temple, or what I thought I had heard. There was so much incense being burned that my senses had obviously been dulled. A slave filled my golden rhyton with more wine and I leaned forward to catch Orodes’ eye. I raised the vessel to him.
‘To you, my friend, may your rule be long and peaceful.’
He smiled and nodded, then frowned after something else caught his eye. I looked to where he was staring and saw a scruffy looking man at the entrance to the hall. Dressed in beige baggy leggings and a dirty purple tunic, he was a soldier of Babylon’s army and stood clutching something in his hand as one of the guards at the entrance pointed towards Orodes and Axsen, and then escorted him through the tables towards us. The loud chatter and laughter continued as the two threaded their way among now drunken nobles and their gaudily dressed wives and concubines. When he arrived at the top table he went down on one knee before Axsen and Orodes. My interested father leaned forward, as did Gafarn. Mardonius, seated on the table immediately in front of ours with his senior officers and their wives, stood up as Orodes commanded the soldier to rise.
‘Forgive me, highness,’ he said, looking left and right at us all at the table. ‘I have a message for King Pacorus of Dura.’
All eyes were now upon me as Orodes pointed to me.
‘You had better give it to him, then.’
The man walked over and bowed his head to me, keeping his eyes down as he extended his right hand and proffered the rolled parchment that had a wax seal. I stood and took it, going to break the seal but then stopping when I recognised that it bore the lion of Gordyene. What nonsense was this?
‘Is there something wrong, Pacorus?’ asked a now slightly concerned Orodes. My father also wore a look of curiosity. As I broke the seal I looked up and saw that all eyes in the hall were now upon me and all chatter had stopped. I unrolled the parchment and read the words, re-reading them as the significance of what they revealed dawned on me.
‘This cannot be,’ I said.
I read the words on the parchment again as Orodes and my father rose to their feet, followed by everyone else at the top table.
‘The gods are with you, Pacorus. Your faith has been rewarded.’
Still clutching the letter in my hand I left the dais and walked to stand before Orodes and Axsen, both of whom were wearing perplexed expressions. I knelt before them.
‘The gods have blessed your marriage, my friends, for they have sent me word that Gordyene is Parthian once more.’
I rose and smiled at them, then handed Orodes the letter. My father looked at my mother and then Gafarn, who raised an eyebrow at him.
‘What is this?’ asked my father.
‘This,’ I answered, pointing at the parchment that Orodes now handed to Axsen, ‘is a letter sent from Vanadzor, the capital of Gordyene.’
‘I know where it is,’ he replied.
‘But what you do not know, father, is that Surena now occupies the city and indeed the whole kingdom.’