Fall of Empires

Chapter 47

Anna could not have said how long she had been waiting in the room. There were no windows to track the progress of the afternoon but the lamps had burned low and their dull light now flickered with the threat that they might go out altogether and leave her in darkness. At times she paced the small room with nervous energy before returning to perch lightly on the edge of the long, low couch which took up around a third of the space in the room. The couch was piled high with elaborately embroidered cushions and blankets of the lightest, softest wool, yet she could not sit comfortably upon it. For perhaps the hundredth time she slid her hand beneath the couch and felt the presence of the dagger there, held securely in place by the silken thread that bound it to the underside of a wooden slat. Her fingers closed around the smooth ivory hilt and she drew both comfort and a sense of dread from its presence. With a firm tug the blade of the dagger would cut through the thread that held it and it would be free in her hand. That was what the eunuch had told her, but still she worried that when the moment came the thread would not be cut. What if her intentions were discovered before the dagger came free? What if Kavad somehow found it? 

'You must not even think to make your move until you are certain that the King is fully distracted,' Bagoas had admonished her. 'And when that moment comes, you must strike at once. Do not wait to consider if a better moment may soon present itself, for you may betray yourself in your indecision. Strike!'  

Lisping, serpent-like, on that last whispered exhortation, Bagoas had given her a smile without warmth and had withdrawn. She did not know how much time had passed since then. 

Anna forced herself to relax. Crossing to the bronze basin that stood on top of the plain square table which was the only other piece of furniture in the room, Anna splashed some of the cool water onto her face. She tugged at the diaphanous white gown that she had worn on the day that Kavad had come to appraise her beauty. The thin fabric was sticking to her skin in the cloying heat of the room.  

Walking slowly back towards the couch, Anna once more paused to take in the subject of the embroidered hangings that covered three of the four walls from floor to ceiling. Within a border of twisting vines and roses, bright-coloured birds and curious looking beasts, each panel told of an incident from the legendary adventures of the Persian hero Rustam and his equally heroic horse Rakhsh. The stories they told were now familiar to her, as Anna had learned them for the benefit of the children she had been charged with teaching. It made sense after all, she had reasoned, for them to learn of their own heroes.  

In one scene Rustam slept upon the grass whilst Rakhsh fought with an enormous tiger. In another, he conversed with a magical talking bird. In most of the other panels Rustam fought with his many enemies. Here Rustam slew a powerful witch with his sword, here he beheaded a giant white-skinned demon. On the back wall Rustam and Rakhsh fought with a terrible dragon. Its coils encircled them both whilst the great warrior slashed at its neck with his sword and his brave steed lashed out with his hooves.  

All of them bled, Anna told herself as she looked at the pictures once more. Witches and demons and monsters; all of them bled and died just the same when Rustam ran them through with his sword. It was only an ordinary sword, just a sharp piece of steel. Kavad would bleed too, monster though he was. He would bleed and he would die and then all things would be possible. 

Anna wrapped her arms about her and sat back down on the couch as she attempted to force those encouraging thoughts into her head. Her attention strayed however to the hanging above the couch which depicted a very different scene from the life of Rustam. Here was Rustam the lover, with his tragic love Tahmina naked in his arms. Anna was reminded of what must come before the killing and her tightly screwed up courage all but left her once more.