All Our Broken Idols by Paul M.M. Cooper

Author:Paul M.M. Cooper
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781408879429
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2020-02-26T00:00:00+00:00

Aurya

Aurya woke up feeling as if she were suspended on ropes, swinging in the breeze, and her eyes swam. She found that she was being carried in a piece of cloth that smelled of ash and cinnamon. A figure was holding either end, and through the cloth they looked like men made of shadow. Panic crawled over her. They thought that she was dead. They were carrying her to her grave, to be buried.

‘No!’ she croaked and thrashed out in fear. ‘I’m not dead! I’m still alive!’

One of the men burst out laughing. She craned her neck and saw that it was Abil. He was struggling a little with his end, while Sharo held the other.

‘That’s good to hear.’

‘It’s all right, Aurya,’ Sharo’s voice said, and Aurya twisted to see him better. ‘You fainted. But we’re going to see Enkidu now. We’re going to see my lion!’

Dread still echoed around her body. She tested her legs and stood up, weak and cold, the world like a reflection in a pool that someone had disturbed. There was the taste of vomit still in her mouth.

‘The King,’ she said, feeling a rush of embarrassment. ‘I threw up in front of the King.’

‘He’s seen worse, I think,’ Abil said. ‘Once an emissary from Judea came to see him during the war, and the King made him stand on one leg for the whole of their meeting. The man wet his robes.’

Aurya noticed that there were still specks of oil on Abil’s cloak and legs. The image of that head, the oil dripping down its face, its white eyes and the way the King had cackled as it was strung up in the tree, kept flashing back into her mind.

‘Who was that man?’ she asked. ‘That head?’

‘That was the old King of Elam,’ Abil said. ‘He died years ago. That was the last time we marched up into the hills, and the last time the Elamites made war on us.’

‘Our father fought in that war,’ Aurya said. ‘And against the Medes.’

‘It was a hard war.’

They soon arrived at a squat building off the palace’s outer courtyard. They were met there by a shirtless man with a shaved head and a thick mat of hair on his chest. He was chewing something breathily.

‘These two are here to see the lions,’ Abil said. ‘Did the King send you a tablet about this?’

‘Yes yes yes,’ he muttered, and turned inside, gesturing for them to follow and chewing a little faster as he went.

‘I have to go,’ Abil said, catching Aurya’s gaze with a nervous flash. ‘But I’ll see you soon, when Master Bel-Ibni comes to inspect the carvings.’

‘Thanks,’ Aurya said. ‘See you soon I hope.’

She took Sharo by the hand, and they both followed the animal keeper inside. She noticed the patterned tattoos that wound up one of his arms, dots and lines intertwining along the wrist. The smells of hay and animal urine were heavy in the air, huffing noises from the stalls. Horses were stabled

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