Equal of the Sun A Novel - By Anita Amirrezvani Page 0,56
white beard and mustache were closely cropped and bright against his walnut-colored skin. “Your presence adds joy to our festivities. Please join us for tea.”
The astrologer was in the middle of describing how he had once accompanied Tahmasb Shah on a fishing expedition to a river full of small, tasty trout. He had lost his balance and fallen in, getting soaked from his beard down. When he emerged wet and confused, the Shah burst into laughter, and the astrologer, though embarrassed, joined in with his whole heart.
“My sons, be sure to take any dunking with a sense of humor, even a big one,” he concluded.
When they had finished their tea, his sons left, and Looloo turned his attention to me.
“Thank you for visiting. I was released from service by Tahmasb Shah shortly after you joined the court. I have returned to see if I can find employment with the new Shah, and I hoped you could help. Also, I wanted to see how you were getting along after all these years.”
“I apologize, but I don’t recall your name. Did you know my father well?”
“Just as a passing acquaintance. How sad for you that his life was cut short when you were so young.”
“It was,” I replied. “For many years I have been trying to find out exactly what happened to him. Do you know anything about his murder?”
Looloo tugged at his black cap. “Yes, but I must caution you that I always seem to be telling people things they don’t wish to hear. The reason I was banned from Tahmasb Shah’s court was because of an astrological reading that outraged him.”
“I wish to hear everything. I have always wanted to clear my father’s name.”
His eyes darkened. “I can’t help with that.”
I was taken aback. “Why not?”
“Every man wishes to think his father innocent,” he said.
“Mine actually was.”
“How would you feel if you learned yours wasn’t?”
“I wouldn’t believe it.”
“My friend, let me tell you what I remember. Your father was a good man, may God be praised. But the reason he was killed is that he was discovered diverting money from the treasury.”
“That is preposterous! We had plenty of money. My father wasn’t a common thief.”
“No, he wasn’t,” Looloo agreed. “He didn’t take money for his own personal gain, but to fund a rebellion.”
“My father was a loyalist to his core! He would never have done such a thing.”
“Sometimes being a loyalist means rebelling,” he replied. “It is one of the paradoxes of serving the court. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he had decided to rebel for your sake, with the idea of bequeathing you the results of his labors.”
“I have faced such malicious slander about my father ever since I was a young man,” I said, in an angrier voice than I intended. “I am sick of it!”
The astrologer’s eyes were compassionate. “Yes, I can see that.”
“Who made these allegations against him?” I said, feeling the angry perspiration gathering at the back of my neck.
“I think it was another accountant.”
“But why?”
“Most likely he would have found a discrepancy in the accounts and reported it, or if he was eager, he might have taken justice in his own hands by murdering your father and explaining himself to the Shah later.”
Something in Looloo’s sincere demeanor made me feel I should listen. As I tried to speak, my voice closed in on itself and grew tight. “Your words bruise me. I have been trying to return the luster to my family name. How can I do that, especially in my own heart, if my father wasn’t loyal?”
“Some men would consider your father moral for trying to change a situation he felt was wrong. It takes great bravery to do that.”
Could it be true? Could I love my father for being a rebel?
“You and your mother were probably the dearest things to him in the world. He must have felt very strongly to risk so much.”
“But do you think he had good cause? What are the just reasons a shah can be removed?”
“If you are the shah, there are none,” Looloo replied with a laugh. “But from the point of view of citizens, the reasons can include incapacitating illness, imbecility, inability to sire an heir, or madness.”
“What about evil behavior?”
“That, too,” the astrologer said. “The question is how much evil is too much. That is when some men, like your father, take the law into their own hands. Had he been successful, everyone would now praise his name.”