efficiently and by herself. Once the two women had established the domicile, Annok-sur took over the day-to-day tasks, supervising the buying and cooking of food, cleaning the house, and washing their men’s clothes in the river. Soon Annok-sur directed half a dozen servants and soldiers’ wives inside the big household. With the household duties attended to, Trella helped Eskkar with organizing the village’s defense, always her main task.
Weeks went by as Trella helped arrange the logistics needed to arm and supply the villagers and soldiers. Once Eskkar had that effort in hand, Trella concentrated on helping to train the villagers and get them ready for the coming siege. During the months of preparation she secretly kept to her real goal, the effort to win over the hearts and minds of the common people.
She started with the women, eager to speak with anyone who treated them with the least bit of consideration. Trella soon earned the respect of their menfolk and even the hardened soldiers, who treated her more like a sister than Eskkar’s wife. In the process, and by careful use of Eskkar’s newly acquired gold, Trella gradually built up a small network of spies and informers, mostly women and slaves, who kept her aware of anyone plotting against Eskkar and his new role.
Throughout the city, throughout the land, men talked freely in front of their women, whether slave or free, often treating them as furniture, something of no importance. But many women had sharper wits than their menfolk, though most had learned to keep such heresy to themselves. These women soon learned they could earn a copper coin or two by reporting anything of interest to Trella, who not only paid for the information, but actively sought the help of those who delivered it, asking their opinions and advice. She’d been raised by her father, an advisor to a
ruling noble in a large village far to the south, and he’d taught her to use her sharp wits. Her days as a slave, beginning with her father’s death and ending with Eskkar’s ascent to power, had sharpened them even further.
The information Trella’s spies collected helped Eskkar survive the efforts of the nobles to replace him when the siege ended.
The siege had broken barely two months ago. That day, Eskkar and Trella stood atop the blood-stained wall, victorious over both the nobles and the barbarians. The people, delirious with joy at their salvation from death or slavery, acclaimed Eskkar their lord and ruler. At the same time, they hailed Trella as well, wanting her wisdom and guidance. They understood and respected the soldier who had saved their lives and property, but in the end, they trusted Trella to look after their well-being as much as Eskkar.
Even the nobles had finally seen the advantages of a strong ruler, though they would never have selected the blunt-speaking, barbarian Eskkar. For them, Trella smoothed the way, her intelligence and honesty giving them assurance that their own enterprises would be protected and allowed to grow. With food again on their tables, the people of Akkad relished the return of prosperity. If the bandits and thieves wandering the countryside could be driven off and the crops replanted, security and wealth would soon surpass their earlier levels.
Meanwhile, the rebuilding and expansion of Akkad continued, a gi-gantic task, but one Trella felt capable of accomplishing. Not a trader, merchant, or farm holder, she had no private interests to advance. The nobles and leading merchants saw everything in terms of their own wealth, did everything to increase their gold, their power, and their prestige at each other’s expense.
Trella could focus on the safety of the city, something even the lowliest laborer not only understood but desired as well. As long as she treated everyone fairly and favored no particular noble or merchant, the people would support her and Eskkar. They might grumble at the taxes and some of the new rules, but everyone had learned the value of the soldiers who protected them. Just as everyone knew the barbarians would return someday, seeking vengeance.
What Trella desired most was time, time to secure their position and power. In a few years Akkad would be a strong, fortified city, and she and her child would be safe within its high walls, surrounded and protected by Eskkar’s soldiers. That day remained in the future. Akkad’s hastily built wall needed to be enlarged and strengthened, and more soldiers recruited and trained to defend it. Until then she would neglect nothing, overlook nothing that might threaten her plans, not even something as insignificant as a strange traveler from a distant land.
Trella and Annok-sur entered the main house, stepping into the spacious common room that held another large table where meals were served.
Wooden stairs on the far wall led to the second story. They climbed to the top, where a small landing faced a stout wooden door that opened into the first of the two large rooms that made up Eskkar’s private quarters.
The outer room, what Eskkar called the workroom, held a good-sized table and half a dozen chairs and stools. A tall cabinet that served both as a cupboard and sideboard hugged one wall, and two chests provided storage. Three wide, rectangular windows, cut into the walls near the ceiling and too small for even a child to crawl through, provided light and air. The wall opposite the entry had a second door, as sturdy as the first, that led into Eskkar and Trella’s bedroom.
Trella passed quickly through the workroom and into the inner chamber. Though not as large as the outer room, the bedroom was spacious enough, especially compared to the cramped rooms occupied by most Akkadians. Most of them would be astonished at the idea of having a separate room just for sleeping. Trella knew a family of six or more would live, work, and sleep in this much space, and count themselves blessed by the gods to have walls around them and a roof over their heads.
Only this inner room had a true window, albeit a small one, that opened over a tiny private garden at the rear of the house. A thick wooden shutter framed this opening, with two stout wooden braces to secure it.
A wide, decorated clay bowl resting beneath it held a knotted and coiled rope, for escape in case of fire. As in the workroom, ventilation came from three tiny openings on each wall, set high to let the heat of the room escape more easily. Unlike most of the houses in the city, the architect had provided no access to the roof, where the poor often slept at night to escape the heat of summer.
Eskkar and Trella benefited now from these luxurious arrangements.
A smooth coat of white plaster enhanced the interior walls. The solid floor, made of sanded and joined wooden strips, stopped most sound, and Eskkar’s soldiers guarded the window from the garden below.
The entire compound, with its thick and high mud-brick walls, provided a secure base in a turbulent city. The original owner had designed these rooms to keep himself and his gold secure, and his vices secret.
For its new occupants, these rooms provided one of the rarest and most valuable commodities in Akkad- privacy. Behind the stout doors in the bedroom or workroom, important matters could be discussed without danger of being overheard.
Trella went directly to the chamber pot. When she finished, she untied her sandals and lay on the bed, grateful for the chance to rest her feet and back for a few moments.
“Tired, Trella?” Annok-sur sat on a small stool next to the bed.
“Yes, though it seems strange. I tire so easily, though I’ve done nothing but sit and talk all day.”
“Once the child comes, you’ll be yourself again. Rest for a few moments. I’ll tend to the servants, then come back with something for you to eat and drink.”
Trella closed her eyes and joined her hands across her stomach. Already her back felt better, and as she relaxed, she felt the babe kicking gently inside her womb.
Part of her mind worried about the birth. So many women died in childbirth, especially their first delivery. She accepted the risk involved.
All women did. A wife’s most important role was to provide children, heirs for her husband, to carry on his line. Childbirth might be dangerous, but soldiers accepted their own risk of death in battle, and even farmers in the field suffered injuries often enough.
Still, the thought of the birth ordeal bothered her more as the event drew closer. A month ago, Annok-sur had brought the most experienced midwife she could find to see Trella. The woman lived not in Akkad, but on a farm a day’s walk south of the city. To Trella’s surprise, the midwife turned out to be a woman of about Annok-sur’s age, not the ancient crone Trella expected. Her name was Drusala, and she’d helped deliver babies since her childhood.
Trella stood naked on two wooden blocks before the midwife, her feet spread apart and holding her hands behind her head, while Drusala and Annok-sur examined every inch of Trella’s body, prodding and poking her, looking for lumps or weaknesses of flesh. Then Annok-sur had spread Trella’s labia apart, so that Drusala, on her knees in front of the girl and probing with her fingers, could examine the birth channel.
“Her hips could be wider, I suppose,” the midwife said critically when she finished with her examination. “But she is very strong, even though she doesn’t work in the fields. I see no problems with your delivery, Lady Trella, but
