Miszatu

Miszatu awoke to the sound of a rooster's crowing. The moment she raised her head from the rough bed and from Dan-Ili's shoulder her heart was mired in worry. An anxiety gripped her which preceded the question as to whether she had woken up too early or too late. She bolted up and began fishing for her clothing and belongings around the floor of the shed. Sensing she had left him, Dan-Ili groaned slowly and peeked open one of his eyes.

"You leaving?" he mumbled.

"Of course! It's already light out! How are you a soldier!?" Miszatu badgered, incredulous at his slothfulness, and panicking at the time for her own sake.

"Well, I am a soldier, and as a soldier what you really learn is that there's a time to be on alert and a time to be lazy." He smiled and reclined. "Besides, I was busy fighting the whole damn Kassu army with Ziqiqu."

"And who was winning?" Miszatu asked disinterestedly.

"Me, obviously." he smiled smugly. "I had Ningirsu's help."

Miszatu grunted a chuckle as she slipped on her dress.

"Well even Ningirsu can't help us if we're found out!" she complained. Miszatu wanted to scold Dan-Ili. In that moment she just wished that he'd have made some effort to be considerate of the time. "You just don't seem to ever take seriously how much I am risking to be with you! If you love me, you shouldn't make things more difficult for me!" she protested, gently.

He stayed silent as she fixed her hair. Without actually hearing him, Miszatu could sense him stewing over what she'd said.

After she'd finished the final touches of her attire, Dan-Ili grabbed Miszatu by the hips and pulled her towards the bed, caressing her stomach and breasts. "Hurry up and marry me then!" He blurted out, his lips muffled, pressed into his lover's gown.

Miszatu smiled. It was always welcome to hear him say that, even if she couldn't take his demands seriously the way things were.

She bent down to him as he lay on the mattress and kissed his cheek. "Maybe someday when you've left the city guard and I've left the Bit Naditu. You've just got to hurry up and defeat all those Kassu warriors!"

She turned around and heard him laugh softly as she slid out the door.

Her flight from their love nest, an old empty storeroom that Dan-Ili had found on patrol in the mushkennu district, was greeted by a chorus of bleating goats, mocking her from their pen which flanked the exit and chidingly announcing her indiscretion to the whole city. Miszatu cursed under her breath and held her head down low as she wrapped her headscarf and attempted to swiftly march towards the Bit Naditu in a way that she also hoped to be sufficiently inconspicuous. She slipped around the stableyard on the other side of the street, crowded with young sheep, and crossed the narrow bed of mud which marked the pedestrian path that stretched parallel the city canals. The sky was patched in clouds, but Shamash had begun to peak out from their edges, like an alert eye framed beneath heavy, sleepless lids.

Miszatu clung to the cover of walls and wound her way through the alleys of the lower town. She was surprised to see that there were few people out traversing the street or working that day. She could still not tell whether this was because her awakening was too early or too late. Regardless, the way things were suited her just fine, as she was just trying to make it home without remark from some official or ruffian as to why a naditu would be out trudging through the commercial district in the bright and early. She passed the short view of the Purattu on her route home, and was disheartened to see dark water rushing so furiously on such a cloudy day.

After she had wound her way across the bridge which lay over the canal and arrived at the towering white walls of Zumun's gate to the inner city, she was determined to sneak into the back of the E-Sirara and Bit Naditu before anyone had noticed her absence. Miszatu's comings and goings were not so policed by her superior sisters, but it would be unusual if she was not present at some point for morning prayer. She passed through the gate without remark from the city guard stationed there, a huge relief. This was the part of her journey that she found most troubling, as moving through the old town Miszatu would encounter not only the strange passersby, but often neighbors and friends of many years.

The old town, built over the earliest settlement of Kharani, was the district for the residences of palace and temple officials where Miszatu had been living since her parents had sent her away to the Bit Naditu. Through the alleys she passed between the beautiful gardens, open courtyards, and painted walls of the old city. The few slaves and temple-staff she encountered Miszatu was able to pass by with a brief yet courteous greeting.

The blue panels of the Bit Naditu's exterior were finally in view, and Miszatu breathed a heavy sigh of relief, yet she stopped as she came closer. Two guardsmen, adorned in their bronze helmets and sheepskin cloaks, stood outside the entrance to the chapel's courtyard. Miszatu's heart froze.

"My lady bless you, kadanu!" she greeted them, bowing her head in their presence.

The guardsmen kept staring at her. They did not respond to her salutation in kind.

"Are you Miszatu, Naditu sha Nanshe?" One of them asked.

'Shit.'

"Yes kadanu, I am she." Miszatu replied, truthfully. Stupidly.

"Where have you been this morning?" asked the other guard.

Miszatu gulped down a lump in her throat. "I have just returned from attending to a dying patient who lives on the other side of the city. His condition has concerned me enough to cook for his family and assist the mashmashu priest."

The officers looked at each other with a grimace frozen on their faces.

"Naditu of Nanshe, you must come with us for an examination under the will of Shakkunakku Nawirnushu, King of Kharani."

Mizatu's heart sunk. 'They know. My life is over.'

"Walk with us." The guards demanded, their posture stiffening. Miszatu noticed as the grip on their spears tightened, 'as if I would even imagine that I had a chance of resisting them!'

She nodded in reply, careful to bind her face to an empty expression as she took her place walking before the two tall men.

As they departed, Mizatu glanced back at the lovely old gates of her home, fearing in her heart that she would never see them again.