Paulo and Ishtar
By
Valerie L. Egar
A
long time ago, before cell phones and the internet, before automobiles and
electric lights, long before sea monsters became extinct and unicorns
invisible, a mighty king ruled a prosperous mountain kingdom. Merchants from distant
kingdoms travelled in caravans to buy rubies and sapphires mined in the hills
and brought with them the finest woven silk, pearls large as birds’ eggs and
perfumes distilled from thousands of sweet flowers.
People came from
distant villages to trade gems they mined for the wondrous things the merchants
offered and the king welcomed the merchants and his subjects to the capital
with a ten-day festival. Street vendors sold sweet honey cakes, roasted nuts
and barbequed meats. Musicians played music long into the night. Puppet shows
and dance performances entertained thousands. The king invited several of the
merchants to the castle for dinner and it was there that a young merchant named
Paulo met the king’s youngest daughter, Ishtar.
Ishtar was a
clever young woman, curious about the world, and she was fascinated by Paulo’s
stories. His escapes from fierce river pirates. Travelling at night through the desert to
avoid the heat, stars so close he thought he could reach out and touch them. A tiger trailing their caravan for days, its
green eyes glowing in the dark.
Unlike other women
Paulo had met, Ishtar didn’t giggle or ask silly questions. She asked how far
they travelled in a day, and how he knew the animal was a tiger and not a lion
when it was night and hard to see. She asked how pearls were harvested and if the
caravan stopped traveling during the monsoon season. Paulo was fascinated and
soon, though many were seated at the banquet table, the world existed only
between them.
When the guests
left, the king visited Ishtar in her chamber. “Paulo is quite a storyteller, is
he not?”
Ishtar glowed. “He
told me about the pirates and how to
train a camel! And then—”
The king frowned.
“And you are promised in marriage to Prince Raigner.”
Across the city,
Paulo’s father was having a similar conversation with Paulo. “Yes, Ishtar is
smart ,” he said, “but the king would never consider you suitable. Besides, you
are engaged to Lucinda.”
As the festival continued,
Paulo and Ishtar continued to enjoy each other’s company. Their fathers
dismissed their smiles and glances across the room as passing fancies that
would soon be forgotten when the festival was over and the caravan on its way.
the next kingdom, where they were
unknown and could easily marry. They travelled through the night and though
Paulo had purchased the fastest horses, the beasts quickly tired in the rocky
terrain.
The
young couple briefly sheltered in a cave, sleeping only a few hours and then
continued their journey. With the sun’s rise, the king discovered his daughter
missing and in anger dispatched his army to retrieve her. “As to Paulo,” he
said ominously to the Captain, “ I care not what you do.”
The
army had no trouble following the trail of the young couple. Paulo and Ishtar
soon heard the thunder of hooves and the clank of armor and found themselves
surrounded. In the dying light of the evening, only Ishtar saw the glint of an
arrow aimed at Paulo and she stepped into its path.
As
the arrow touched her chest, a drop of blood appeared and she was transformed
into a small finch and flew away.
Paulo
saw what happened and his eyes followed the little bird. “Come back, come back,”
he cried. As an arrow pierced him, he grew into a mighty tree as the soldiers watched. They saw the little bird come back to the tree and knew the tree would
hold her close in its branches forever and ever.
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Copyright 2018 by Valerie L. Egar. May not be copied, distributed or reproduced without permission from the author.
Published August 5, 2018 Biddeford Journal Tribune (Biddeford, ME).
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