CHAPTER
Eight

Amestris pulled Biztha aside as he slipped from the banquet room and headed back to face the king. He was the one eunuch belonging strictly to Xerxes who favored her over Vashti, and by his look, she could not withhold a smile. “She refused then?”

Biztha nodded. “Yes, my queen.” He glanced at his fellow eunuchs, who marched ahead of him back to the king’s gardens, where the king and his men and the people still celebrated.

“Good,” she said. “Come and tell me everything the king decides as soon as you can.”

He bowed and she waved him on. He could not show up late behind the others, lest he anger the king.

Vashti would suspect her absence, but soon, if her hopes and dreams were correct, what Vashti thought would no longer matter.

“Where did you go?” Atossa asked, smiling her way.

“I fear I had too much to drink.” Let her mother-in-law think she had simply gone to relieve herself. If she had her way, she would be relieved of her nemesis as well. And that could not come soon enough.

Xerxes leaned against his cushioned couch and guzzled the rest of the wine in his cup. A servant quickly refilled it. Xerxes looked at the contents and set the goblet aside. He laughed, giddy with the pleasures surrounding him. Life was good. His men were happy, his own heart light. Soon Vashti would appear before him, and he could show the world that the king of kings was wed to the most beautiful woman in all of Persia. And the entire known world!

He laughed again. He could not help himself, though his advisors looked at him as though he was mad. Let them wonder what made him merry. Surely they suspected how much he appreciated Memucan’s suggestion. Hadn’t he thought the same thing many times in the past? What silly law had kept him from showing his prize to his men all these years? True, before he had worn the crown, Vashti was not kept as hidden. But memories faded, and to show her now, to show that her beauty had not faded, would fill his men with jealousy.

He chuckled, pleased with himself. How unfortunate that law had been. He had missed out on years of added respect that a beautiful wife afforded him.

Why keep her to himself? She would shine, decked out in her royal apparel and the jeweled crown he’d had made for her when he ascended the throne. It set her apart from all other women, something she most certainly deserved. Ah, Vashti. How I love you, my queen.

Had he told her that? Love was not something men thought about in terms of marriage. They wed for status, to carry on their name, to increase wealth. Love was hardly something that entered a man’s mind when he took a woman to his bed.

But as he listened to the men’s laughter around him, he felt the slightest sobering. If love was real, then Vashti had won his heart. He could not imagine his world without her. Without her tender embrace, her willingness to do whatever he asked of her, and her understanding mind, he would be lost. What man among those here compared to her?

Certainly not in form. The thought caused his heart to beat faster as he considered her beauty once more. After this night, he would call her to his bed and enjoy what his men would only glimpse here. A smile lifted his lips. He reached again for his cup and drank.

The sound of marching feet drew his attention, and he realized that his eunuchs had already returned. He searched among them. Counted seven of them. Where was Vashti?

“My lord.” Biztha stepped forward and knelt at his feet. “We took your command to Queen Vashti, and she refused to come and appear before the king and his men.”

Xerxes stared at the eunuch for a silent, lengthy breath. The air in the room around him thinned, and he felt as though a spear had pierced him. She had refused him?

He drew himself up, anger rising slowly, then increasing in strength with every strangled breath. “What did you say?”

Biztha cowered and moved slightly away from him. “Begging your pardon, my lord. We delivered your message to the queen. She refused to come with us to show her beauty to you and your guests, my lord.” The eunuch stilled, his wide gaze displaying his fear.

He should have the eunuchs killed. Every last one of them! “How dare you defy my order! Did I not tell you to bring her with you?” Xerxes’ words roared through the court. Silence fell like a pall. “Take them away. All of them!”

Guards appeared and the seven eunuchs marched away, surrounded by the men who would see to their execution. Yet Xerxes’ anger did not abate. The eunuchs were weak. They should not have listened to a woman!

He turned to face his seven advisors, each of whom had paled. Good. Let them fear the king’s wrath. And let them come up with a good punishment for this “favored” wife. The one he thought he loved.

Love! There was no such thing. If a woman could be so favored as to enjoy his presence and repay him with such disrespect, she did not deserve to have his affection.

Vashti accepted a cup of wine from a servant, her first of the banquet. What could Xerxes possibly be thinking to want her to stand before a whole city of men? In her royal crown? Did he mean only her crown? Her face heated at that thought. Surely not. Surely he simply wanted to show her beauty dressed in her royal finery.

Would saying yes have been so bad? Should she even now change her mind and send Omid to catch up to the eunuchs? No. She could not allow herself to be so humiliated, for if Xerxes were drunk, there was no telling what else he might ask of her once she arrived at his feast.

She turned to listen to the conversations nearest her, but her mind whirled with uncertain thoughts. When would this day end? She longed to hold her son and lie beside him to rest, to hear his gentle breathing as he slept. How much longer?

Another commotion at the banquet doors rattled her already fraught nerves. She straightened, lifted her chin, and smoothed her expression. Whatever it was, she would meet it as a queen should.

Hegai, the eunuch in charge of the king’s harem, appeared at the door, and Omid met him. They spoke in whispers until at last Hegai came forward with Omid. Both bowed before her.

“What news do you bring?” She met Hegai’s gaze. Was that sorrow in his dark eyes?

“The king has sent me with this message.” He straightened.

“Where are the eunuchs who came to me earlier?” she asked before he could say more.

“The king has removed them,” Hegai said.

Vashti knew better than to ask what he meant by that. Xerxes had a violent temper, and no doubt his messengers had received the punishment for her refusal to obey the king. Sudden sadness filled her that she could be responsible for harm to those men. She looked briefly away, then met Hegai’s gaze once more. The message had to be important for the king to send his highest-ranking eunuch.

“Tell me what the king said.” She clasped her hands in her lap.

Hegai cleared his throat. “Begging your forgiveness, my queen, but it is my unfortunate task to tell Queen Vashti that because she refused the king’s summons, he asked his advisors, ‘According to the law, what is to be done to Queen Vashti because she has not performed the command of King Xerxes delivered by the eunuchs?’”

Vashti sensed the heat of Xerxes’ anger in Hegai’s words. Her stomach dipped in a sense of dread.

“Then Memucan spoke to the king,” Hegai continued. “He said, ‘Not only against the king has Queen Vashti done wrong, but also against all the officials and all the peoples who are in all the provinces of King Xerxes. For the queen’s behavior will be made known to all women, causing them to look at their husbands with contempt, since they will say, “King Xerxes commanded Queen Vashti to be brought before him, and she did not come.” This very day the noblewomen of Persia and Media who have heard of the queen’s behavior will say the same to all the king’s officials, and there will be contempt and wrath in plenty.’”

The knot twisted in Vashti’s gut, and she knew without looking that Amestris was smiling at her loss. This was why her rival had met with Memucan before the banquet. Vashti felt light-headed.

Hegai droned on, but Vashti barely heard him for the faint feeling overcoming her. “‘If it pleases the king,’ Memucan said to the king, ‘let a royal order go out from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes so that it may not be repealed, that Vashti is never again to come before King Xerxes. And let the king give her royal position to another who is better than she. So when the decree made by the king is proclaimed throughout all his kingdom, for it is vast, all women will give honor to their husbands, high and low alike.’”

Dread grew to stunned incomprehension. Never see her husband again? Never enter his presence, listen to his heart, share his love? Was it not just this morning he had called for her and promised his protection? And what of her son? Would he remain while she alone was sent away?

“I’m afraid, my queen, that this means you must come with me. The king’s orders are to have you removed from the palace before this night ends,” Hegai said, but she heard him as through a long tunnel.

“Omid?” She looked from Hegai to her eunuch, but his face bore no expression. Not even the sorrow and compassion covering Hegai’s features. Was he glad of this? Had he sided with Amestris all along?

“I will help you gather what you need, my queen,” Omid said. “And I will see about Gazsi.”

They both glanced at Hegai. He nodded. “The king said nothing about his son.”

Perhaps she would have this one comfort to take him with her. Would the king allow them to live? But he had not ordered her death. Only her loss of position. No doubt Amestris would take her place. She looked at her rival and did not miss the smirk on her round face.

Vashti turned away and slowly stood. She lifted her head and stepped down from the throne, left the banquet hall, and walked toward her apartments.