Enheduanna: The First Author - Wattys Winner 2021

20. What Comes After Death?

Akkad was mourning. All throughout the streets, people were walking barefoot, wearing rags instead of their usual clothes. Manishtushu and I were dressed no different from the beggars on the street. His golden crown and my horned one now carried in our dust covered hands. Because of the fate decreed for father and mother, because they had started their journey to the Land of no return, we wept bitterly in the broad avenues where people once celebrated.

Idal and Dingira begged to join me in Akkad, but I refused. I needed them in Ur. For even though Kituzda had called upon my brother's aid and informed me, as she should, a part of me still didn't trust her.

Our once pristine castle was dark, the wailing of the city echoing through the corridors. Gusts of wind stirred up the layer of sand and dust that covered the tiled floors. This felt nothing like my home. Nothing like the place I grew up in. It was cold, hostile, and smelled of death.

We found Rimush sitting next to the sandstone gate towards the garden. His feet were covered with mud, his tunic a matted black and his unkept beard and dishevelled hair giving him the appearance of a man far beyond his years. In the afternoon's glow, he somewhat resembled father and I couldn't help but tears up again.

"Sweet sister," Rimush held out his arms, patting my uncombed hair as I embraced him. "I am so relieved that you are here with us. Mother, she cried out for you when–" He stopped mid-sentence, the tears in his eyes telling the story when his words could not. I didn't need to know. I didn't want to know of their last moments. Let me relish the memories I had of them, full of life and love. For it was those memories that gave me strength in this very moment where the sadness seemed too overwhelming to bear.

"Where are they now? May I see them?" I asked Rimush through tear-stained eyes.

He nodded, taking my hand and leading me to the room where the separation and preparation rites had to be performed. As soon as I entered the room, the priest whipping off my mother's face with purified bread shot up. "High priestess Enheduanna? You may not enter here, my Great Lady. It is crucial that the separation ritual is done undisturbed to release and prepare the ghost for the journey to the netherworld."

"Hold your tongue, priest. She is a princess of Akkad and the blood of your king. If I say she may enter, then she may enter as she pleases." Rimush said with a tone that mimicked father's.

The priest nodded and backed away from the funeral beds. I approached the bed where mother lay. Her golden skin was pale, pieces of her umber hair were thorn out and partially still clutched in her slender hands. Grief had consumed her, driven her to this self-mutilated state in which she lay before me. Picking up the piece of bread, I tenderly tapped it across her skin, humming her lullaby as her skin was purified. After which they anointed her body with perfumed oils. I glanced to the bed where my father's body lay, anointed, and his eyes already covered by two white pearls.

The priest cleared his throat, "may I inlay the queen's eyes as well, my lady?"

I looked at her once more, adorned with all the jewels she had been wearing the night I was chosen. "One moment. I wish to lament."

"My parents, ones who gave me life. As they came, they went. But now that I came, I will always come. You have eyes but no longer see me. You have mouths but no longer converse with me. Ones who gave me life. You have entered the heart of the mountain, the dark house of which you cannot leave. But know that you will always stay within my heart and soul, for without you I wouldn't be alive." I said, sputtering through my tears.

The priest lay two shiny pearls upon the queen's eyes and with that, it was final. "Our king and queen are ready for the Taklimtum, my king." The priest said, waiting until Rimush gave him permission to start the procession.