Lilah by Marek Halter Page B

answer the questions you will be asked.’
    The handmaids led her into a small square courtyard that was like a well. A eunuch in guard’s uniform stood at the entrance to each of the several corridors that led off it. Four of the eunuchs came and took up position around Lilah. Together, they plunged back into the vast labyrinth of the palace.
    In the dark corridor Lilah had the curious impression that they were walking in a circle. Suddenlyshe was blinded by the white light of day. A few more steps, and they were on the threshold of a strange room. The high ceiling was supported by thin cedar columns covered with brass, and between the capitals of these columns brightly coloured ropes were stretched. From the ropes there hung, parallel to each other across the room, a dozen immense transparent lilac veils.
    Although each veil was very thin, together they obscured the far end of the room from view. They swayed gently in the breeze, iridescent and shimmering in the daylight.
    Lilah was aware of the sound of voices, and a few tenuous notes played on a harp. Then there was a bang, and the eunuchs stepped aside to let her pass. One of them took hold of her shawl and, without a word, ordered her to walk towards the veils.
    Holding her arms tight across her half-naked chest, Lilah stopped before the first veil, uncertain what to do. With the tip of his spear, the guard lifted it and signalled her to continue.
    She had to go through the remaining veils herself. They brushed against her, enveloped her, blinded her. Soon, she no longer knew in which direction she was moving.
    Again, she was startled by a bang and stopped, as if she had been caught doing something wrong. Atthat moment a voice rang out imperiously: ‘What is the name of the one who approaches?’
    Stunned, Lilah murmured her name, and the voice repeated the question.
    â€˜Lilah,’ she said again, as loudly as she could. ‘Lilah, daughter of Serayah.’
    â€˜Come two veils closer.’
    She obeyed, looking up at the beams on the ceiling to orient herself. Few veils separated her now from the rest of the room, and she made out a colonnade leading to a garden.
    â€˜Why have you come here, Lilah?’ the voice asked.
    She could not reply. A shiver of fear went down her spine, insidious and clinging. Her hands were shaking. She closed her eyes to regain her composure and not let emotion overcome her. The strangeness of this situation was only there to impress her, to make her imagination run riot, to show her how weak she was. The veils were only veils, not monsters or wild beasts. Lilah rose to her full height and opened her eyes. ‘I have been summoned by the Queen,’ she declared.
    â€˜Come closer.’
    Heart pounding, Lilah lifted the veil in front of her. Only two remained ahead. She made out a dais between the columns, with a few figures on it. In the middle a long bed stood beneath a canopy.
    The notes of the harp were now distinct. Lilah caught a glimpse of the musician – a woman – beside one of the columns. Armed guards stood at the edges of the room, the grey daylight reflected in their metal breastplates.
    â€˜Come closer, girl, come closer,’ a woman’s voice, different from the one Lilah had previously heard, ordered.
    Lilah realized that the Queen had spoken.
    Breathless now, she lifted the last veils. Still trying to hide her exposed breast with her free hand, she moved forward a few steps. The floor here was of marble. The cool air from the garden made her shiver. She remembered the eunuch’s injunction and bowed briefly, bending one knee. She held her right hand in front of her, palm upwards, and raised it to her lips as she rose.
    A deep laugh came from the bed. ‘Well, well. Come closer.’
    Supported by pillows, Parysatis was half lying on the bed, which was covered with a green and purple silk rug. She was surprisingly small, her body almost hidden beneath a kind of cape