Babylonia by Costanza Casati

Author:Costanza Casati [Casati, Costanza]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Random House UK
Published: 2024-07-11T00:00:00+00:00

When the gods assemble, they decide your fate,

they establish both life and death for you,

but the time of death they do not reveal.

From The Epic of Gilgamesh

24.

The Gate of the Netherworld

She enters the country of Bactria welcomed by corpses and pained whispers. The land seems deserted, yet the whispers keep following them, eerie, malignant. Semiramis looks at the trees, dark and sad against the silver sun, as they ride past empty cities made of shadows. Low clouds stream above them, and a treacherous wind makes the bare branches shiver.

It didn’t take them long to understand they were in enemy territory. The Assyrian army has left nothing but ruins behind them. Cities have been burned and all that remains are villages nestled between rocks and streams. Bel has instructed them to hide their Assyrian clothes in case Bactrian soldiers are still hiding in the rock formations. They dutifully obeyed, though Semiramis can smell their fear at night, when they camp around the fire pretending to sleep, the whispers growing louder as the land grows darker.

They have travelled through the months of spring. The colours are different in the east from those of the capital, land stretching endlessly around them in stripes of black and green. Now summer has come, bringing no warmth with it. The mountains around them carry cold wind, and when it rains, everything becomes a dark blue-grey.

‘We should find the camp soon,’ Bel says one day.

They have entered a long, narrow pass filled with decomposed bodies. They fought here, Bel tells them, and lost many men. Most of their war chariots were destroyed. Semiramis can see broken wheels spread out among what should be dead men but have long lost any human shape. The sun makes the smell unbearable during the day, and in the evening, they must light fires to keep hungry animals away. The nights are black, with only a small slice of star-filled sky above their heads. It makes Semiramis feel as though she is in a gaping mouth, one that has swallowed men, rocks and fire.

When they finally ride out of the pass, they can see the tents of Ninus’ army and, beyond, the mighty city of Balkh.

*

The smell around the camp is something Semiramis has never breathed. She lingers for a moment, looking at the wasteland around her.

‘Don’t let the stench scare you,’ Bel says. ‘Death lives with us here. You will grow used to it.’

But it is worse than that. It is the smell of bodies trapped between life and death, trying desperately to stay in the world of the living while they are dragged away from it. The air buzzes with a strange sound – a whisper? a breath? – as if they are violating something sacred.

‘I am taking the climbers to my father,’ Bel tells Semiramis. ‘You should find your husband.’

She nods. She makes her way through the camp, past stinking latrines and lines of laundry, where tunics dance in the breeze, like birds of shadow. A group of soldiers is examining a dead sheep’s liver.

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