"Wait here," said the Babylonian. When Earimut returned, he went on: "The soldiers' have been sent out. Now, Master Bessas, what of this other man, this Hellene who came with you? Nought in the rules allows you to carry private passengers. What have you to say?"
"Postmaster Haraspas in Shushan said it were allowable, because of their urgent need for a driver and ours for carriage. Besides, we are both on a mission from the king. Argue with Haraspas, not with me."
Earimut clucked in an agitated manner. "It is not right to twist the regulations thus. Haraspas will get himself into trouble. But I have too many other cares to press the matter, so I bid you good-night—"
"One more thing," said Bessas. "My pay."
"Ask me in the morning—"
"No; right now, my friend! In the morning we may be on our way to Egypt."
"Oh, very well, though I think you are inconsiderate. Will you have it in barley, wheat, or wine?"
"In silver. I am for far countries, and I cannot carry a year's harvest on my back."
"Silver? But, my dear Captain Bessas, that is not how things are done. There is a shortage of silver, and all payments are made in kind. Withal, there will be a deduction for the fare of Master Myron—"
"May Ghu skin you alive and dip you in salt!" Taking the mailbag in one hand and the lamp in the other, Bessas said: "I have here the day's official mail from Shushan to Babylon. I shall count ten, and if by then I do not have my whole shekel, in silver, I shall begin to burn the dispatches, one by one. Take your choice."
"You—would burn the king's mail?" said Earimut, eyes popping.
"Aye, and if you call your men I'll burn the whole lot and cut my way out." Bessas took out a letter and squinted in the yellow lamplight. "This is addressed to—hmm—General Pacoras, commander of the garrison. One—two—three—"
"Stop, madman! Here is your money, and may your canal be filled with sand! You shall certainly never be hired as a driver by this office, not whilst I draw breath."
"That's better. And now to find a pallet." Bessas grinned at Myron and said in Greek: "Do not look so terrified, teacher. We must needs take a firm stand with these clerkly types."
The barracks at Babylon were like all the others in the great cities of the Empire: a row of cubical, graceless brick structures without, dirty and dingy within. Bessas' status as an officer on inactive duty entitled him to a room for himself and one slave in the officers' quarters. As he and Myron were making do without servants, Myron shared Bessas' room, no larger or more luxurious than the cubicle that Myron had rented in Persepolis.
"The king believes," said Bessas, "that officers and men should not be tempted into indolence by luxurious quarters. He would have them spend their free hours out-of-doors—preferably in hearty sports, like racing, hunting, and stick-and-ball. Yâ ahî!" He whirled an imaginary polo mallet.
The next morning Myron and Bessas came out of the barracks and wound their way through many alleys and passages, with much asking of directions, to the mighty Ishtar Gate.
This colossal portal, on the northern side of the inner wall, comprised an immense square tower of brick, seventy feet high and even larger in plan. Processional Way led through an archway in this tower, closed by two pairs of huge wooden doors reinforced with bronze. On the northward side of the gate proper, flanking the approach, were two lofty, slender towers. North of these, as a first line of defense, stood two smaller towers.
The entire structure was finished with enameled bricks, of a deep-sea blue on the towers and of grass greens and delicate pinks on the connecting curtain walls. On each tower were several vertical rows of bulls and dragons in low brick relief, repelling hostile supernatural forces from the city by their frowning glance. The beasts alternated in each row; they also alternated as to color. Half the animals were a gleaming white with golden claws, hooves, manes, and other parts, while the other half were a rich reddish brown with blue-green parts. Around the upper levels of the towers ran a row of glowing rosettes.
Myron and Bessas strolled about this vast structure, avoiding the traffic that streamed in and out. They ignored the cripples who, having been convicted of misdemeanors, had been deprived of eyes, hands, or feet by Xerxes' judges, and who now squatted and begged about the great gate.
Myron fixed his attention on one sirrush at eye level and got out his writing materials. "O Bessas," he said, "you will have to kneel."
"Why?"
"We require some sketches of this dragon, and I have no table whereon to rest my parchment. So your broad back will have to serve."
"Well, tan my hide for shoe leather, if this be not a fine occupation for a noble Aryan'" grumbled Bessas. But he knelt.
The relief was about five feet long and four feet high. The slender white body and forelegs were like those of a cheetah except that the body was covered with reptilian scales. The hindlegs terminated in the talons of a bird of prey. A long tail, catlike but for its scales, ended in a small scorpion's sting, while a slender scaly neck supported a small serpentine head.
Above the large, round, black, lustrous eye rose a golden spike of a horn. Myron surmised that, as in the case of the bulls, one horn did artistic service for two, for the beast was shown in pure profile. Behind the eye were several projecting appendages: a curly crest, like that of some bird, and dangling wattle-like parts. A forked tongue played about the creature's scaly snout. Tongue, wattles, mane, and claws, as well as the horn, were picked out in golden yellow.
"Must you take all day?" complained Bessas.
"Perhaps. Rejoice; you're no worse off than standing at attention in front of the Apadana, and you serve a more useful end."
Finished at last, the twain strolled through the Ishtar Gate and south along Processional Way. On either hand, rows of life-sized lions in bright enameled brick relief prowled along the walls that flanked the street, red-maned yellow lions alternating with yellow-maned white lions.
The travelers dodged chariots, ox carts, and camel trains. Some of the camels, to cure them of the mange, had been shaved all over and painted black with mineral pitch of Id, so that they looked like animals made of asphalt.
The swarming Babylonians, in long tunics and knitted caps with dangling tails, were leavened by a sprinkling of trousered Persians and other Aryans, shaven Egyptians, Syrians in tall spiral hats, cloaked and skirted Arabs, robed Judaeans, booted Sakas in pointed hoods, turbaned Carduchians, felt-capped Armenians, Greeks in broad-brimmed hats, and men in the garb of even more distant lands. Beggars whined, catamites smirked, hawkers cried their wares, and pimps extolled the beauty and cleanliness of their girls. Persian soldiers strolled in pairs, arrogantly shouldering other folk out of the way.
"People, people, people!" growled Bessas, plowing through the ruck of .officials and tradesfolk, soldiers and slaves, peasants and prostitutes. "I feel as if I were being smothered in people."
Now and then Myron caught a scowl or a sneer from one of the Babylonians. For Persians had been hated in Babylon ever since the great rebellion, when Xerxes had opened breaches in the city's magnificent walls, carried off the golden eight-hundred-talent statue of Marduk, confiscated the property of the leading citizens, given their houses and lands to Persians, and degraded Babylonia from a kingdom in its own right to a mere province.
King Xerxes, returning the Babylonians' dislike, no longer spent his entire winters there, as had the great Darius. In fact, Xerxes seldom visited the city at all. Each successive year he passed more of his time at remote Persepolis, overseeing his grandiose building projects: the mighty Hall of a Hundred Columns and the new private palace.