The Whore of Babylon

Chapter 26 | part 2

It seemed to Eliana as though the whole of the city was crammed into the temple. The voices of hundreds mingled as one in prayer, rising to the vaulted ceiling like the swirling smoke of incense. She felt very much like the foreigner she was to these people. She did not understand their words, their customs, their prayers, their gods. Watching them alone from her throne, she felt as detached as a guest watching entertainments at a banquet.

Samsu waited outside the temple doors, adorned with every trapping of a king, impatient to get the ritual over and done with. He had seen his father do it every year of his childhood, and it had always made him cringe with embarrassment to see the mighty Hammurabi reduced to the level of an ordinary man.

The grey-haired high priest waited on the dais, wearing an ivory mask of Marduk and clutching the chief god's signature lightning bolt. For the purposes of the ceremony, he was Marduk – when Samsu spoke, the god would answer where all could hear.

A gong was sounded, the deafening metallic crash echoing around and around Esagila; huge double doors at the far end of the nave swung open to reveal Samsu, flanked by half a dozen lesser priests of Marduk, all wearing the traditional red robe of their order.

Samsu was the very image of kingly might. Standing a head taller and half a man broader than any of the priests, he was a giant amongst dwarves. He positively glittered in the torchlight – his yellow half-tunic was edged with gold, a matching headdress rose two feet above him, making him look even taller, and not one part of his person was left unjewelled. Eliana thought he looked like a raven dressed in peacock feathers – the lavish costume was ill-suited to the man she knew he was. In his right hand he held the golden sceptre of his reign, topped with a black diamond that drank the light; in his left he carried the orb.

He marched up the aisle with his glare fixed upon the high priest. Eliana was amused to see the man quail a little under his king's stare. She knew exactly how he felt – the difference was that this man was in no danger. He represented Marduk on earth; he was inviolable. Any crimes committed as a legitimate part of his duties were considered null.

Samsu stopped before the dais and squared up to the priest. The nervous man stepped down and approached his king, where he began to strip the sovereign of every symbol of rule, every marker of status.

First to go were the rings – each one was removed and dropped into the waiting hands of a lesser priest. Next his gold cuffs came off, followed by the chain of office that he wore about his neck. It took two priests to remove the weighty headdress, and a further two moved forward to take the orb and sceptre whilst another slipped the sandals from his feet.

Eliana almost giggled. Suddenly, with his clipped black hair all askew from having the crown removed, and his arms, head and feet bare, all his grand feathers had been stripped away and he resembled nothing so much as a plucked chicken.

She stifled it. Not one motion or sound she made would go unnoticed tonight, and nothing that was noticed would go unreported. Samsu was keeping a close eye on her to see how she was taking to queenship, to ensure her behaviour was what he expected of a consort.

Finally the moment that she had been waiting for arrived. The high priest stood directly before Samsu, his face completely concealed behind the carved ivory, only his watery eyes visible through the slits.

He slapped the king with all his might, drawing back his hand and releasing it with such strength that the crack of skin on skin echoed in every corner of the sacred space. Eliana smothered a smug smile of satisfaction as Samsu's head rocked back on his thick neck with the force of the impact.

The king got to his knees before Marduk and spread his arms wide, baring his chest. When he spoke, he hardly raised his voice, but it was powerful and clear enough for even the worshippers at the very back of the temple to hear every word. In his general's voice, he boomed, 'oh great and strong Marduk, chief of all the gods, I pray you, hear me and answer my plea. I submit myself to you wholly and beg your forgiveness. I have not sinned at all, O lord of the universe, and I have never neglected your heavenly might.'