Equal of the Sun A Novel - By Anita Amirrezvani Page 0,71
Our father began to look very ill, and without warning, he vomited in front of everyone. I didn’t understand why until I was older and realized that what he saw as your rebellion tormented him every day. Even your mother couldn’t change his mind, although she begged him so often that he refused to see her or visit her bed. How could I, as a child, hope to calm such wrath?”
“Did you ever try?” he repeated, his small black eyes fierce.
Pari remained silent.
“That is what I thought,” he said. “And why would you? By the time you were fourteen, you had his ear to yourself. If you had succeeded in bringing me home, I would have usurped your place. I was the golden son, beloved by all, and the warrior who had led the country to victory. How could you have competed with that? You would have married Badi al-Zaman and lived in some far-flung province for the rest of your life.”
“That was never in my plans,” she replied. “It never occurred to me that I could gain some advantage through your disgrace.”
“And yet you did,” he replied. “You were my father’s companion while I wasted my youth. For this reason I am just now trying to beget sons as an old man, and I have shriveled in body and in mind. It is a wonder I didn’t become a madman, locked away as I was! But what happened to me is ugly enough.”
His eyes burned with anger as if he thought Pari was responsible for everything he had endured. For the first time, I understood the extent to which the fortress at Qahqaheh had imprisoned Isma‘il’s soul, darkened his heart, and blackened his vision. It was chilling to see his feelings so nakedly displayed.
“I was not the shah to make such decisions about your fate,” Pari replied staunchly. “Our father sent away his own mother and punished his own brother when they rebelled. On the heels of that, how could I convince him of your innocence?”
Isma‘il snorted. “Sultanam told me you did everything you could to shut her out. You pushed all the royal women away and took the place that belonged to me.”
“I could never hope to be you, brother of mine,” she said.
Isma‘il bucked impatiently against his cushion, and the tiny mirrors in the room reflected his movement a thousand times before becoming calm again.
“Then why did you try?”
Pari’s face was flushed, and yet I saw goose bumps on her arms. Her chin jutted forth defiantly.
“The minute it was possible to do so, I delivered the palace to you.”
Isma‘il sat up against his cushion, and now somehow he seemed the taller of the two.
“You are as aggressive as a man. Not long after I arrived at court, Mirza Shokhrollah told me how you pushed the men to declare you had the royal farr. What could be more insulting to a new shah? How dare you assert such a thing? But now the royal farr has passed to me. You are no longer the Shah’s favorite, and you may not make policy decisions on your own. If you do, I will consider it an act of disobedience. Is that understood?”
The cords at Pari’s neck tightened and she looked as if she were choking. She bent her head and remained silent long enough for him to know that her reply was given under protest.
“Chashm, gorbon,” she said, her voice thick with anger.
Now that it was clear that Isma‘il thought Pari had usurped him from the time she was a child, I surmised that he had interpreted all of her subsequent actions as part of the same grab for power. As her new vizier, I must intervene.
“Light of the universe, may I have permission to speak?”
The Shah looked as if he would welcome any diversion. “You may.”
“We are so awed by the royal radiance that we cannot always say what is foremost in our hearts,” I said, speaking for myself and Pari. “If there have been errors in the past, we are deeply regretful, and we seek only to right them in the royal eyes.”
“It is fitting that you are awestruck by my presence.”
“How can we serve in a way that would please the light of the universe? That is the reason we live and breathe. We will do anything”—I looked at the princess for confirmation—“that would satisfy the shadow of God on earth.”
Isma‘il glanced at Pari. She clenched her jaw, bowed her head, and humbled herself as far as