Chapter 45

The Hittites were renowned throughout the world for their exquisite relief-carving craftsmanship. As the boat sailed along the Halys River, bringing them ever closer to Hattusa, the valley slopes on both sides increasingly featured bulls and stags carved directly into the rock faces.

Signs of human habitation began to appear along the banks, and the closer they got to the great city, the more prosperous the trade became. The number of vessels on the river grew, and from the boat, one could see people along the shores selling clay pots and dishes. Because the Halys River was rich in iron and various minerals, the pottery crafted here was sturdy and refined, making it a highly favored commodity among merchants of all nations. The metalwork of Hittite artisans—including bronze knives, horse bits, and the exceedingly rare iron plows—were especially sought-after goods exported far and wide to the Great Green Sea.

Inanna clung to the window frame of the cabin, watching as their boat drifted into increasingly secluded waters. A quiet, narrow waterway gradually led them away from the bustling crowds, stretching deep into the heart of the mountains. At an inconspicuous spot at the foot of a mountain, a roadside inspection checkpoint had been set up.

Further ahead, the river suddenly widened. Along both banks stood twenty-four neatly arranged stone lion sculptures, symbolizing the warlike spirit of the Hittites and the strength of their warriors. The rock walls were densely carved with scenes of the principal Hittite deities meeting: the Storm God wielding a double-headed battle-axe; the Sun Goddess Arinna riding a stag; Telepinu, the God of Agriculture, supporting a wine jar; Inar, the guardian deity of Hattusa; and Kashku, holding aloft the crescent moon. They conversed or gestured, their expressions vivid, yet the eyes of the stone carvings all looked down from on high upon the ant-like humans beneath their feet.

Once the bronze-hinged gates at the end of the waterway swung open, they would lead to the rear mountains of the royal palace. Flanking the bronze gates were carved winged male-lion guardians; save for the prince, everyone had to bow before them and ask permission to pass. This waterway ultimately flowed into the central area of Hattusa, filling seven great reservoirs, each containing enough daily drinking water for ten thousand people.

On the rear mountain, a tunnel was hewn straight into the rock. Following this artificial path known as the "Immortal Staircase," one could reach the supreme center of the city of Hattusa—the royal palace and the temples. This vital waterway was also equipped with a dam constructed of stone and clay. In times of drought, the king and queen would personally preside over rituals to the Sun Goddess Arinna to pray for favorable weather and abundant harvests.

The stone steps were no more than five hundred meters long, but for Inanna, who had scarcely had a few days to recuperate before being forced into strenuous exertion, they felt exceptionally grueling. She stared mechanically at the golden-hemmed border of Prince Izmir’s robe walking just ahead of her. It dragged mercilessly along the ground, its expensive fabric stained with moss and dew, and it would likely never grace the prince's body again.

Sunlight pierced through the other end of the tunnel, casting its light upon the man ahead and making his silver hair shimmer. Yet Inanna always felt that radiance was endlessly distant from her. She panted and climbed, striving upward as though there were no end in sight.

Along this silent path, only the sound of Inanna’s ragged breathing echoed. When Izmir finally saw her climb to the top, her face was pale, and due to the weight loss from her illness, her eyes appeared exceptionally large. She stared straight at him with an intensity that was somewhat intimidating, making him feel as though he were standing before a brigand completely draped in gold.

Even her foreign nasal bridge, which might have seemed slightly flat to the eyes of Western Asians, appeared miraculously and proudly straight, yet because of the natural reserve inherent to Inanna, it did not seem disagreeable.

Izmir did not overtly scrutinize her. He waited for her to slip up on her own accord, just as he had nonchalantly placed her belt back on the bedside table and watched her eagerly wrap it around her waist the moment she woke up.

He turned and instructed his entourage: "Everyone return with me to Upper Hattusa, except for General Hazas and Sukamum."

Upper Hattusa comprised the royal palace and twenty-eight temples, occupying a uniquely elevated position that overlooked the entire city, while the rest naturally resided in the slightly lower terrain of Lower Hattusa.

This took Inanna, who had prepared herself to return to the royal palace, by surprise. However, she did not display any overt disappointment; after all, she had always been "forced" to accept every arrangement. Izmir perceived her astonishment, yet proceeded with his original plan as he told the old man: "Hazas, I leave Sukamum in your care to take back."

He neither explained why Inanna was to stay at General Hazas's home nor mentioned whether she would ever return to the palace. Without even glancing at Inanna, he turned and walked away.

Hazas stroked his beard and made a rather ill-suited joke: "Sukamum, the prince is already far away, what are you still staring at? If you can't bear to part with him, you should go tell him!"

These words made every hair on Inanna’s body stand on end. She shook her head to indicate: "Wherever the Prince tells me to go, I will go!"

Hazas had also learned from the prince that Inanna was actually capable of speech, and inwardly he admired her quick wits; otherwise, they might have killed her on the spot to silence her and eliminate any future trouble once and for all. Hazas chuckled heartily: "Come with me, you little liar!"

Although Hazas was one of the foremost high-ranking defense officials of the Hittite Empire—holding a rank roughly equivalent to a chief of staff—the Hittites were a martial people who valued practicality above all else, and their civilization fell far short of the sophistication found among the Egyptians and Babylonians. The Egyptians and Babylonians were far too affluent; with leisure on their hands, their people delved into ways to live ever more luxuriously and comfortably.

In contrast, for a nomadic people like the Hittites who had only recently descended from horseback and who lived year-round on a high plateau with winters lasting as long as 120 days, life was far simpler and more austere.

The houses in Lower Hattusa were uniformly constructed of white stone. The outermost perimeter featured five-meter-high defensive walls built along the cliffs, and winding inward along the terrain were clusters of residential dwellings.

Aristocrats and high-ranking officials like Hazas lived closest to the royal city to facilitate daily audiences and sacrificial rituals. As for the commoner districts, they were much noisier and teeming with voices, while a few farmers lived outside the city walls, tending to vast herds of cattle, sheep, and bees.

Inanna’s new home had two stories and numerous rooms, yet it was spacious, rustic, and offered little privacy. Hazas introduced her to his wife, an elderly Hittite woman who had formerly served as a female scribe in the palace. She wrote neat and crisp cuneiform on clay tablets and kept a complete mental inventory of all affairs within the inner palace.

Even though Hazas had brought back such a young and strange girl, the woman seemed to place absolute trust in her husband. She asked not a single redundant question and readily agreed to take charge of her discipline. The very next day, she took Inanna along to compile inventory lists of the household storehouses, calculate the draft oxen lent out, inquire about the slaves' work conditions and estate yields, and even rolled up her sleeves personally to teach Inanna how to milk cows.

Inanna wrote rather unsightly cuneiform on clay tablets because cuneiform characters were compound ideograms—for example, "eye" and "water" together represented weeping—and some nouns were exceedingly complex. Inanna made a great number of spelling errors, but fortunately, her arithmetic was strong, which frequently earned her the high regard of General Hazas’s wife.

The only grievance was that the several secondary wives occasionally used pretexts to come and inspect her. Each of them was plump and full-hipped, leaving Inanna to quietly marvel at how utterly practical the old man's preferences were. The household had three sons, all of whom followed in their father's footsteps to join the army and guard the borders. Because there were no daughters, even though this adopted girl was destined by birth to be utilized, General Hazas and his wife treated her with kindness alongside their strict instruction. In any case, Prince Izmir was the undisputed heir apparent, and this girl would help maintain their ties with the future king—unless the Hittite king experienced a late-blooming romance, but the problem was that neither the queen nor Prince Izmir would ever permit such a thing.

The news of Prince Izmir’s recent peril had caused the Hittite Queen to shed countless tears; she nagged and complained to her husband three meals a day. Seeing his son return safe and sound, Hupashija no longer had to spend his days swimming in a sea of tears, and his joy was beyond measure.

He warmly welcomed his son, initially wanting to show affection by dealing a hearty punch to his shoulder, but remembering that his son still bore wounds there, he awkwardly lowered his hand.

"It is enough that you have returned safely." Hupashija peered past him, not out of any interest in that woman, but because the only woman by his son's side had truly been too impressive to forget. "Where is your little female slave, Izmir? Surely you haven't grown tired of her so soon, or perhaps you left the poor little slave behind in Assyria?"

Accustomed to his royal father’s style, Izmir smiled lightly and airily: "No, I left her at General Hazas's estate. He felt an affinity with her, so I went along with the current to give peace of mind to an old statesman."

Hupashija laughed heartily: "If she enters your household under Hazas's patronage, the status of a secondary wife is practically assured. Very well, your royal father does not object, and your mother has long since accepted it. You ought to have a woman by your side; once you have one, a dozen will naturally follow. Once you have children, the palace will truly be lively."

Once the topic turned to women, there was no end to it. Izmir skillfully changed the subject: "Winter has already arrived, Father. Surely Yaran's plea for reinforcements could not have arrived any slower than mine?"

Hupashija smacked his lips: "That goes without saying. That messenger arrived two days earlier than you did; when he dismounted from his horse, his legs were shaking uncontrollably! He brought Yaran’s personal imperial edict, hoping we would supply wool, wheat, and ironware. I was just asking the Minister of Finance what treasures the Assyrian court possesses. When I was a child, I heard that the Assyrian palace concealed a carnelian seal as thick as a wrist and a winged lion carved from a diamond the size of a goose egg."

Aside from women, it was all about wealth. Helpless, Izmir had to ask again: "Babylon should have received the plea for reinforcements as well. Ragshur is a crafty fellow, though he has been quiet for quite some time now."

Hupashija had almost forgotten the man. When exactly was it that Ragshur—who loved to take advantage of everyone and never suffered a loss—had quietly faded from the sight of the various nations?

To the Babylonians, this was simply unimaginable.

Yes, Babylon, the city of desires, the fallen metropolis. Here, one could satisfy every conceivable desire: wealth, beauty, power—everything imaginable could be found. Yet once you attained these things, you found your greed growing only more insatiable.

Babylon was a city where ambition was constantly fulfilled, only to be continually seduced into further depravity.

Every single one of the twenty-five-meter-high alabaster pillars rose in four tiers, constructing a hundred-meter-high Hanging Gardens along the banks of the Euphrates River. The Sumerians, who had first invented writing, had simultaneously invented an awe-inspiring irrigation system. Slaves turned handles, drawing water from the river in buckets, and day after day, in an endless cycle via pulleys and buckets, they ensured that every plant in the gardens remained fresh and lush.

The roses were as brilliantly striking as rubies, the green foliage resembled turquoise, and winding across the ground were streams guided by skilled artisans, the water flowing with the crisp, refreshing fragrance of extracted lilies. The riverbed was not paved with ordinary pebbles, but with pearls the size of fingertips. The paths through the gardens were not gravel, but intricate mosaics of colorful gemstones.

In Babylon, before King Ragshur, gold and silver wealth were mere crude stones by his feet, and consorts more beautiful than flowers failed to stir even the slightest inclination in his fingers to lift. Having indulged in these so-called earthly extremes of bliss, his boundless desires left him growing more restless day by day.

Until the news of the flooding of the city of Assyria and the golden-haired, blue-eyed goddess of Egypt reached his ears through the mouths of his spies.

He took a slender, long sword—different from ordinary bronze blades—from the hands of his trusted attendant, and with an excited kick, overturned the golden bull-headed harp being played by a stunning songstress, instantly shattering the decadent atmosphere unique to the Babylonian harem. His face radiated brilliance, and he informed his guards that they were going to Egypt.

Ragshur told himself: Yes, it was time to try his luck!