The Last Wife of Attila the Hun by Joan Schweighardt

Author:Joan Schweighardt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Booktrope Editions
Published: 2015-09-25T04:00:00+00:00

11

ATTILA’S RETURN with Eskam seemed as much a celebration as had his return from the Eastern Empire. Girls sang and tossed flowers. Women carried canopies over the heads of the girls and sang too. All the men who were not marching were prostrate. This time I was well to the back of the crowd in the courtyard and able to lift my head high as Attila and his entourage went by. Eskam, I noted, was a mere child, not even as old as my young Hunnish friend. She rode behind Attila with her head lowered and most of her face covered by her long, black locks. I saw Onegesius among the officers who rode behind her, and I concluded that he had just returned from installing Ellac to rule beside Curidachus.

As the servants were supposed to come in just after Attila—if they were not in already—I scrambled to my feet and fought my way through the crowd when I saw that he had entered. But Attila had invited a great many guests that evening, and there was already a throng at the entrance when I got there. “What do you think of Attila’s new wife?” a voice behind me asked while I waited my turn to enter.

Startled to think that Edeco would speak to me so casually in public and with his fellow officers all about, I answered in a whisper, barely turning my head, “She is too young to appreciate her new status.”

“Perhaps you are jealous,” Edeco said.

I turned my astonished face toward him then. “That she should marry Attila?”

“No, of the girl’s youth.”

I turned away again, saying, “Aye, you may be right. My own is behind me. As near as I can figure, I have just turned twenty-three.”

Edeco came up so close behind me that I could feel his breath on my ear. “Why did you fail to tell me? I would have brought you a gift.”

“You did,” I whispered.

He grumbled. “A loose pearl? That is no gift. I will take it back tonight and have it set on a gold chain that you can wear around your neck.”

“No more,” I cautioned, for we were almost to the door now, and I could see Attila’s feet crossed at the end of his couch between the few heads still before us.

But Edeco only laughed and whispered, “Do not worry. My bond with him is stronger than ever.”

I smiled. I had thought of myself as a servant for so long now that I had forgotten that in truth I was the daughter of a king. I was about to step into the hall when someone cut into the line in front of me, almost knocking me down. To my surprise, it was Ellac. “He fell from his horse and broke his wrist,” Edeco whispered as Ellac went in. “Onegesius had to bring him back.” And he began to laugh anew.

Edeco’s boldness lifted my spirits, and I found myself humming as I carried over the tables with the other servants. The Romans entered, and as each one prostrated himself, Attila saluted him by name.

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