Bystanders in a story of lots

Quick camel rider, son of the spears

 The Persian royal seal was not a new sight to Hatem bin Zuhair bin Ka'b Al-Turi. Not since the current king-of-kings ascended his father's throne. A fox the son of a lion, as the saying went.

But Hatem never protested receiving some royal coin for a welcomed visit to far-off lands. Susa was a fine city, as far as cities went. But the blood of Ka'b his grandfather was that of the desert – blood that sought open skies, quiet vales, and the quenching satisfaction of resting aching feet. The same blood flowed in Hatem, despite being diluted by two generations of city women.

And besides, Susa was not the most politically stable these days.

The document he was tasked with proliferating no doubt added a confounding layer to those that saw him to Cappadocia and then Syria in the past few years, though the copies in his pack remained scrolled and sealed. Hatem held in high regard the poor officials who received his orders, for it was up to them to enact contradicting commands. Well, not contradicting exactly, as he was told enough to know even the king-of-kings could not retract royal-sealed orders – a sound policy in principle; not so much so when the royal seal passed between ministers upon the sandstorm whim of a fool king.

With the queen-led coup seizing power from the chamberlain, it was only a matter of time before Esther sent out her own directives, and Hatem leaped at the opportunity to leave the purges burning through Susa for more civilized countries far from the center of political power. The chamberlain had been publicly hanged, supposedly on charges of plotting against the king and queen, and an old Judean man was instated instead. Routine court machinations, of course, not unlike Haman's own ousting of Carshena along with his predecessor's allies, including the old Queen Vashti. Power led to fighting over it, fighting was institutionalized and named politics, politics led to purges, coups, and a fair amount of bloodshed; and those meant work for opportunists like Hatem.

A fair number of people were on the road with him, no doubt fleeing the dangers that followed political turmoil like warblers fleeing a sandstorm. Whether they were allies of Haman or innocent bystanders, it hardly mattered.

A woman pushed by his camel followed by two young boys; their shirts laced in the fashion of Judean clothes.

"Where are you off to in such a hurry?" he asked impatiently. He could hardly wait to be out in open country where he did not have to deal with hordes of city-folk. "Judeans are now safe in Susa with Queen Esther in control."

The woman seemed unphased by the large man towering above her on camelback, not even slowing her stride as she answered Hatem. "We are not... you mean the shirts? A disguise! Surely you have heard the new commands."

He had not. His only concern was delivering a copied scroll to each governor from here to the Egyptian border. Hatem assumed the queen's new commands guarded Judeans against the execution orders sent out by Haman. How Esther's lawyers managed it was of little interest to him.

"No no," the woman informed him mockingly, "his majesty the king set this trap to any with a grudge against his queen's people! First, order us to kill all Judeans on a specified date, signed with the unbreakable seal of Ahura-Mazda. We, loyal Persian citizens openly prepared for this day for weeks as was the king's command. Then, not two months later a new order is posted around Susa, granting the Judeans royal weapons and training to fight back against their aggressors?!"

Fight against, and no doubt kill, all who were openly seen prepping to kill them? Esther had a stout mind indeed.

"The first orders were sent by the previous chamberlain, Haman, before Esther seized control," he replied, "this wasn't planned." Definitely not by week-minded Ahasuerus!

"Of course not!" he was beginning to dislike her cynical tone or the exaggerated waiving of her hands, laced as they were with hate and fear. "I do not believe in coincidences, sir. The same court that supported the reestablishing and rearming of Judea, that built temples for the Judean god, and instated a Judean queen and chamberlain – would it not make better sense that this Judean-ruled court also arranged a trap to weed out Judean haters?! I am not a bad woman, my late husband was not a bad man – only loyal citizens of Susa concerned with the Judean power-grabbing. So when the king orders us to kill Judeans with an unretractable order, we take his wishes at face value and prepare to do what the king commands."

"Which was to kill every last Judean down to women and children?"

"We did not question the king-of-kings. Doing so often ends with imprisonment or execution while obedience is rewarded with royal favor. Is it so wrong to place the lives and future of my husband and children above those of people who outcompeted my husband from his livelihood in a time of economic hardship?"

It did not seem wrong to Hatem, not the way she phrased it. In the desert one did not risk one's own for others – even if protecting yours meant hurting the other's. To do so would mean death. But women and children? Even men who were not a threat were spared in the desert – brought in and fed and healed if necessary. And surely civilized Susa with all its ugliness and turmoil was not less forgiving than the desert!

But did these two boys deserve to be fatherless refugees either? Killing those who meant to kill you was a reasonable action – required even, when necessary – but was it necessary with royal power in Judean hands?

Hatem remained speechless. He had no answer for the women, or himself, and so gave none.

Eventually, the woman and her disguised sons turned off the path he was taking, leaving Hatem to blindly follow his own commanded mission. A mission that would lead to more killing and bloodshed, even if he was a little less blind than before.