Sam Barone: Empire Rising

Lani’s tears came without stopping. She felt Tippu’s arm around her shoulders, but still Lani found it difficult to stand.

Trella turned to Annok-sur. “Can you help her, while I attend to Sargon?”

Annok-sur arose and took a square of linen from her dress. “Your eyes are very beautiful, Lani,” she said, her voice surprisingly gentle, the hardness gone from her face. “Your tears will spoil your eye coloring.” She dabbed gently at Lani’s cheeks. “I’ll take you back to Uvela.”

Somehow Lani got to her feet and let herself be escorted to the door.

Blurred by tears, her eyes refused to focus properly. She had to hold on to Annok-sur’s arm to make sure she did not fall going down the stairs, Tippu following anxiously behind them. Lani struggled to hold back most of her tears until they left the house, keeping only one thought in her mind-that Eskkar would come to her bed tonight, and that once again she would be safe in his arms.

Trella sighed when the door closed. She regretted hurting someone like that, a good woman who had done nothing wrong, but it needed to be done. From her own sources, from Eskkar, and from what she had just seen, she realized that Lani possessed a strong mind, with wits sharp enough to see what the future would bring.

Trella didn’t like sharing Eskkar’s affections, but anyone could see that Lani loved Eskkar, and Trella saw just as clearly that Eskkar possessed more than a little love for Lani, even if, as she claimed, he had never said the words.

In the coming days, as Lani learned more about the ever-present dangers that surrounded them all, Trella knew Lani would do everything in her power to protect Eskkar, and that would soon include Trella and the child. In a few months Lani would become a firm supporter of Eskkar’s House, and she would be useful in many other ways. Eskkar had told her about Lani’s skills in running the household, and of her suggestion that he use the river to return to Akkad. And for that alone, Trella might owe Lani her own life, and the life of her child. Another few days delay in reaching Akkad, and Korthac might never have been toppled.

After a time, Lani might even tire of being Eskkar’s concubine. Still young, she would want children of her own. When that day came, Trella would make sure the right man stood beside her, someone who could give Lani the happiness she deserved. But until that day, Lani would join with Annok-sur, Gatus, Bantor, and even Corio and Nicar, and others, all those who depended on Eskkar’s continuing reign over Akkad.

Lani would fit in well with Trella’s plans. There were few enough Trella could trust, and she had to make the most of each of them. She searched constantly for sharp-witted women like Lani who could think for themselves. En-hedu gave promise to be another such one, and Trella had already worked out a new role for her and Tammuz.

And it would be good for Eskkar to have another woman once in a while. A strong and powerful man, her father used to say, needed more than one woman anyway. But in the future, Trella would ensure Eskkar took only women that she approved of, pliable ones that she could bend to her will. She would speak with Zenobia about supplying just the right kind of woman every few months. Empty vessels, her father called them-women with beauty but few wits, docile and easily forgotten. Men of power or wealth always found themselves sought after by every woman eager to expand her own prestige or influence. With Lani, this would never happen, because her only goal would be to make Eskkar happy, and Eskkar could be truly happy only with his wife and son.

So even Lani would help bring about Trella’s vision of the future, the future that Trella and Eskkar would build for their son, Sargon. Five years, she decided. In five years, their position would be secure. Akkad would grow great and powerful, and everyone in these lands would attribute their wealth and safety to Eskkar. The expansion and consolidation of all the farms and villages between Akkad and Bisitun would hasten that process, and all would benefit from the new prosperity and security. With a code of laws established and honestly enforced, the people would soon forget the old and confusing days when powerful merchants ruled unchecked. More than half the city’s inhabitants had arrived within the last year, and had little connection to the old days.

Five years from now, everyone would have forgotten about Eskkar’s barbarian origin and her own days as a slave. The people of the city would look to Sargon as their future ruler, one of their own and born in Akkad.

When that day finally arrived, she and Sargon would be safe, surrounded by the new and still-unraised walls and hundreds, no, thousands of soldiers to protect them.

From the other room, she heard the baby crying. She stood, stretching her back, and went into the bedroom. She took the mewing child from its cradle, ignoring the pain in her side as she bent over to lift him, and sat down on the bed. Trella slipped one arm out of her dress, wiped the tears from Sargon’s eyes, and let the boy nurse, enjoying the feel of him against her breast as the milk began to flow. She gently rocked back and forth, thinking about his future.

Tonight she would be alone with Sargon, and she would spend the time resting and talking to her son. Tonight Eskkar would be with another woman, but he would return to her in the morning. With a certainty that she couldn’t understand, she knew he would always come back to her.

They had been through too much together, had fought and bled together.

The gods had interwoven their life-strands, created an alliance between them stronger than any bonds of family, friendship, or even the marriage bed. The road ahead might be perilous and uncertain, but their spirits and blood had strengthened the very walls of Akkad, and nothing could separate them, either from each other or from their fates. She and Eskkar would rule together, or not at all.

She smiled at the suckling child and leaned down to kiss his head.

The helpless infant in her arms would reign one day, perhaps over an even greater expanse than Trella could envision. More important, Sargon would carry their blood down through the ages yet to come. She’d seen the look in her husband’s eyes when he held their child. The boy’s birth had changed Eskkar yet again, made him stronger, even as it drew him closer to her. And that was as it should be. Eskkar had risked his life for her and their son, and she knew their love for each other remained strong. She would give up one or two nights each week to ensure her husband’s love and affections went no further.

Thus she reasoned with herself, though she suspected that, in the darkness, she would awake alone and wish Eskkar back in her arms. But the morning would come, Eskkar would return, and the new day, and those that followed, would find them together.