"What is so important that you needed to interrupt me?" grumbled Gilgamesh as he followed Ekur to a small room near the courtyard. It was one of the spare rooms used to house guests of a lower class so the furniture was not something the King wanted to be associated with.
Ekur dropped the huge liver-shaped clay tablet on the small table. "I did a liver reading this morning after exposing the ram to Nabu's star last night in order to see what was in the future for you my King."
"You did not see something promising I am guessing?" Gilgamesh crossed his arms. Although Ekur believed in these divinations, Gilgamesh did not put his trust into them too much.
"I know you do not care but you must listen when the Gods send a message!" Ekur pointed to the certain section of the liver. "I did the usual readings but this section turned out very odd. There was a mark here and I was not sure what it meant and I consulted some of the older liver texts. Apparently it means there is an ill omen approaching in relation to something recently that has changed."
The old man began pacing around the small room. "I also ended up doing a reading of the oil to make sure."
"Really?" Gilgamesh scoffed. If it was one thing he hated more than the liver readings it was the absurd oil and water readings.
"Do not scoff this, my King. The Gods are trying to warn us about something. There are going to be changes in this city soon and not all for the better. I fear that you will be in the center of it as well and you will be affected the most."
Gilgamesh laughed again. How absurd was this? He would be affected by this change by the Gods? He was almost one of them! He had nothing to fear from them.
"My King. You must head this omen and be careful!" insisted Ekur. "Not only the liver said it, but the oil said it as well!" He picked up the liver tablet. "I think that girl is the catalyst for what is to come as well. Please my King, heed this warning. Hurry up with whatever you plan about with the girl and then get her removed from the palace."
Gilgamesh's eyes narrowed and he turned away from his most trusted advisor. "I will keep the girl here in the palace. She is…interesting."
"My King, even if she is interesting, she might be the downfall of this kingdom."
"Enough!" The king slammed his hand against the table. "I will be keeping her here and that is final."
Ekur clamped his mouth shut and bowed as low as he could. "I am sorry my King. I will no longer speak of this subject."
"Good," replied Gilgamesh. "I want you to keep this omen to yourself. There is no point in alerting the people of this matter and I do not want her to be at risk because some wayward priest decided to take matters in their own hands."
"Of course my King. But, if I may ask, why are you so concerned about this girl? Even if she is foreign, this is very unusual for you. You never showed an interest in this regard before."
The king peeked out of the room and into the long hallway. Slaves and other workers were going about their daily lives. "It was her eyes," he admitted.
"Her eyes?"
"There is something about them…" Those defiant eyes of hers. Even when he had spoken to her in the garden, her eyes had drawn him. He didn't even know if she knew what kind of expression her eyes made. If she did not, that just made her even more interesting.
Ekur chuckled. "Here I thought I would never see the day."
"What is so funny?"
"Nothing, it is nothing my King." He held the liver tablet close to his chest as he shuffled to the door. "If you will excuse me, I have other matters to attend to."
Gilgamesh stepped out of the room and the old man bowed low before he headed in the direction of the temple. The king on the other hand returned to the gardens. Unfortunately Hakuno was nowhere to be seen. Even though he could have forced her to come to him he was not in the mood for it at the moment. Instead he just sat down on the bench he had shared with her before and enjoyed his gardens alone.
"I really thought the King was going to take you next," squeaked Shub. "He was looking at you in that way and stuff."
"I thought so too," mumbled Hakuno. She shifted her feet closer to her body so the bottom of her dress covered the shackles as a couple of slaves walked past the two sitting girls. Even though her shackles were hidden, they glanced over at her for a few seconds longer than she was comfortable with before returning to whatever they were doing.
"Oh do not worry about them Hakuno. You just…..look different. That's why they are staring at you. They will get used to you in no time!" Shub pointed the piece of bread she had been given for dinner at her friend. "Just ignore them. As long as you are doing your job, they cannot complain."
Hakuno sighed. That was easier said than done. She dipped her bread in the soup bowl before she ate a piece of it. Even now she was shocked with how good the food was. If this was how the slaves ate in this palace, how did the nobles eat? How did the King eat? She shifted her foot and heard the clinking of the chain. Why did it matter how the King ate? It did not. She was still stuck here, in the palace, unable to go anywhere.
"I am sorry. I just keep saying things without thinking."
"Huh?" She looked up at Shub in surprise.
"I mean, you do not say much and here I am just giving my opinion all the time. I do not know what it is like to be you at all."
Hakuno smiled softly. "Do not say that Shub. You are a big help to me. Really, it would be much harder living here if you were not around."
The black haired girl grinned. "Glad I could be of help."
The two girls fell silent as they finished up their meals and then headed for their palettes to sleep.
Hakuno awoke the next morning before the sun. She got up and moved carefully between the sleeping slaves in the small room until she made it out of the door. She smiled to herself as she realized she had only managed to almost wake one person tonight with her shackles. "Have I been stuck here for so long that something so insignificant makes me happy?" she sighed.
She stepped into one of the long hallways that opened up on one side to one of the many gardens within the palace. Through the view of the outside, she could see the sky was only beginning to lighten from the sun. Soon the palace would be busy again with people going about their daily lives. And she would need to get to work. For now though, like every day before this one, she would enjoy the peace she had in the early morning.
Today she decided to turn down a different hallway, one she had not walked down before. A part of these walks may have been to give her a moment of peace but the other was giving her a mental map of the palace. She had most of it memorized, or at least she thought she did. Every day she seemed to find a new nook or cranny in this place.
As she passed by a room she paused and took a couple steps back to peek into it. The room had a couple of windows cut into the stone walls and through the weak morning light the room looked to be filled with tablets. Her eyes widen as she took a step into it to get a better look. Yes, it was a large room with shelves on the walls as well as shelves in the middle of the room.
"A library," she whispered. She knew there had to be one in this palace somewhere! She took a couple more steps into the room and carefully picked up the tablet closest to her. She squinted to try to see what it said. She could not see it well enough in the weak light in the room so she moved so she was closer to one of the windows and peered at the tablet closely. "Hand of…" she mumbled as she tried to figure out what the last word was in the first row.
"What are you doing in here!?"
Hakuno almost dropped the tablet in surprise at the sound of the voice. She scrambled to keep her grip on the tablet so it would not fall to the ground. Her mind whirled as she refused to turn around to the voice. How did this person sneak up on her? She was usually really good with keeping her senses sharp but these tablets just distracted her from that.
"Turn around so I can see your face," snapped the voice, a man's voice. The person sounded closer, he was probably in the room with her.
Keeping her grip tight on the tablet she slowly turned towards the voice. She blinked in surprise when she realized it was the baru, Ekur.
"You are the…." Ekur did not finish his sentence. He put down a couple of tablets he held on the small table. "What are you doing in here, girl?" His eyes flickered down to the tablet she clutched tightly to her chest. "You did not drop the tablet you were holding."
"Uh…no." She looked down at the tablet and back at him. She lowered her head and shuffled over to the spot where she had taken it from, painfully aware of the clinking of her chains. She put it carefully back in the correct spot and then turned to face Ekur with her head bowed low.
"Girl, can you read?"
"Huh? Oh, uh, yes, I…I can read."
"And you are interested in texts?"
"Y…yes. I find them fascinating. I used to read a lot back in when I was in the caravans."
"So that explains the interest…" murmured Ekur.
What was he talking about?
"Do you always take walks before your work?"
Was there any point in lying? If she did, she felt like he would be able to tell. The Gods would tell him and it would end up worse for her. "Yes. I tend to get up early so I….walk around."
"And no one has caught you doing this?"
"There are slaves that work at this time. I just sit and pretend to be doing something…"
Ekur chuckled. "A clever girl you are. I can see his interest in you."
Was this a good or bad thing? She was not sure. Ekur stepped to the side so the exit was open again. "Go on girl. Your work will begin soon. I do not want to be responsible for getting you on Paubi's bad side now."
He was letting her go? Why? Again something odd has happened to her in this palace. There was no point in questioning this though. She kept her head low as she hurried past him out the door.
"I will agree with you, my King. That girl is interesting."
Gilgamesh looked up from the reports he was struggling to be through. This was one of the most annoying parts about being King. Checking in on the traders coming into Uruk, the major complaints of the farmers among other things, these reports never seemed to go away even if he had some nobles looking through them and filtering to him the ones that direly needed the King's attention. The pile was still ridiculous.
So on that note, the King was happy to turn away and focus on Ekur's words. "What changed your mind? I thought you were still going to be going on with the stars and how the deities think she is an ill omen for a month or so."
"Oh, I am not done with that thought my King. That girl I feel will bring a change to this palace." Ekur shifted his robes around as he shuffled into the large open room. "I found her early this morning in the medical library."
Gilgamesh frowned. "The medical library?" What purpose would she have in there?
"I cannot say for certain. She is very quiet and does not seem to speak much. However, I found out something interesting. She can read."
"She can read?" Well, he was not expecting that one. A foreign looking girl from a traveling caravan who also could read cuneiform. What a mystery she was. "Do you know if she reads anything else?"
"I could not ask at the moment. She was spooked." Ekur chuckled. "My King, she is currently a slave in this palace. A slave in a place where she was not to be. I wanted to alleviate her fears by not bombarding her with questions."
Oh Ekur. Always thinking of the other party. "Is that the only reason you came here to tell me this?"
"No. I came here to ask something in relation to the girl. Normally I would not bother asking your permission my King but due to your interest in her, I thought it was for the best if I came to you first."
The King put down the tablet and got up. "Let's hear it."