'Let's do it.'

Eliana had wrestled with her conscience, but the baby's welfare had to come first. Sarri relied on her mother and aunt to give her the best quality of life they could, that was the nature of being a parent. Eliana had finally convinced herself that Sarri would have a better quality of life away from the palace, away from Samsu.

She would have a chance to grow up free from fear, cherished by an adopted family and free to marry whom she chose when the time was right. Being denied that privilege herself, Eliana was all the keener that Sarri would not end up chained to a monster who would only take her for the dynastic advantages. She deserved a man like Isin, who loved her and was willing to go to the ends of the earth to help her.

Isin. He was the next fence to clear.

'Are you sure?' whispered Mari. 'Once we commit, there's no turning back.'

'I'm sure. Get Isin to meet me at my garden at dusk – we'll be safe there.'

Eliana's garden was in a tranquil, secluded spot. Not so far from the stream that she couldn't still hear its soothing babble, but far enough to take her comfortably off the path and into a patch bordered by trees on three sides and a wall on the fourth. She felt safe there. When she sat with her back against the sun-warmed stone wall, nobody could sneak up on her. She had her plants to amuse her, the soft grass for a bed, and the sun for company as he drenched her little space with his rays.

Even shut away in the depths of the palace, she had found a place to call her own.

After dinner, she took the lyre and went to sit out amongst her herbs. The sky flamed as Utu began to lay his head to rest. She had intended to practise her playing, work on a tune she had been composing, but in the end it was irresistible. Stretching out on her back in a pool of sunlight, luxuriating like a cat in the warmth, she watched the sky as it dimmed from orange, to pink, to purple twilight.

A light cough came from the trees.

'It's safe, Isin.' She said in a low voice.

He stepped out from behind a date tree. If it was possible, he was even paler than when she'd last seen him. His eyes were large and bright in an almost emaciated face.

She gasped. 'Have you been ill?'

'Just heartsick,' he mumbled.

'You haven't been eating, have you? Here,' she stood and plucked a ripe fig from one of the trees.

He shook his head. 'I'm not hungry.'

Pressing into his hand, she insisted, 'eat.'

Taking the fruit, he made no move to put it in his mouth. 'You didn't ask me here to ask after my health – what do you want?'

Eliana hesitated a moment, searching for the right words. 'It's Kisha,' she began.

'Well obviously it's Kisha – do you think I'd have come otherwise?' he snapped. Her shock must have been visible, for he immediately hung his head, flushing in shame. 'I'm so sorry ahatatu,' he used his pet name for her, little sister, 'it's just that I've been under a great deal of strain lately. I'm thinking of leaving the city altogether. It's clear I'll find no happiness here.'

'Will Samsu let you leave?'

'Willingly – he's granted me safe passage to Umma, and offered to give me an introduction to the Ensi there, on the understanding that I never return to Nippur.'

She pulled a face, 'and are you going?'

'I suppose so. There's nothing for me here. I'll never love anyone other than Kisha, and my career is limited here because of our relationship, though we've not laid eyes on each other in over a year. I might as well start afresh somewhere else.'

His thin shoulders shook with a barely repressed sob.

Not knowing what to say, Eliana put a hand on his back. She was shocked to feel the lumps of his spine standing up from his flesh through the pale linen of his scribe's tunic.

'What if... you could have a piece of Kisha to take with you?' she ventured.

Isin's head snapped up, his eyes suddenly alert and focused. 'What do you mean?'

'The baby isn't safe here, and Kisha constantly puts herself in danger on her daughter's behalf. We both know it's futile, Samsu will have what he wants whether she inconveniences herself first or not. It would be better for everyone if Sarri was taken to safety outside the palace walls.'

His jaw dropped, 'you can't be serious? What will happen when Samsu finds out?'

She shrugged. 'Who knows? It won't be pleasant, I'm sure. I'll take the blame, and if he kills me, then so much the better.'

'You can't seriously want to die, ahatatu?' he said softly. 'Life cannot be all that bad?'

'Life is as bad for me as it is for you. I'm a prisoner here – I'll never have the freedom of my own life or love, I'll never have a career. My life is a long, flat road, stretching out before me in an endless monotony with no destination. I can take it or leave it.'

'We all leave it eventually.'

'Yes. Death is so very final, but it comes to us all, and with no prospects in life, what matter if it comes to me sooner rather than later?'

'I wish I had your sense of purpose, Eliana,' he said seriously. 'No matter what happens to you, you always seem to know what to do next. I feel like a gidim, a shade trapped in the underworld with no future but existence.'

'But we are not all condemned to go on without a future – Sarri could have one, if you'll give it to her. You can take Kisha's child and raise her as your own – it will soften the blow for Kisha when she finds out what I have done. She'd be pleased to know you were raising her daughter in safety.'

'I suppose I have nothing to lose.' He spoke softly, but his eyes were lit with excitement.

'Then you'll do it?' Eliana could scarcely believe her ears. 'I can't thank you enough, Isin. You could be saving Sarri's life.'

He nodded, 'well I have nothing to lose but my own life, and that is worth little.'

'Don't devalue yourself, your life is worth as much as any of ours. But I hope this will bring you happiness. We were going to ask you to take her to my father to find her a foster family, though we were afraid Father would just bring Sarri straight back here, out of fear of being caught. You have solved the problem for us.'

'It's nothing – send me word when your plans are in place.'

'It's far from nothing. Giving a little girl a chance at life is never nothing.' She stretched up and kissed him on the cheek. 'Thank you.'

She watched him depart, disappearing between the trees, and thought of how different life might have been without Samsu. Kisha would have married Isin, and he would be Sarri's father in truth. Eliana would have liked him for a brother-in-law.

She had no idea who she would have married. Perhaps she'd never have married at all, but it would be nice to have the option.

Minutes after Isin took his leave, Mari appeared between the trees, almost invisible in the darkness now as night swallowed the garden.

'Did you see him?' she asked.

Eliana nodded.

'And?'

'He'll do it. He is moving to Umma, with Samsu's blessing. He'll take her away and raise her there.'

A smile split Mari's face, 'that's better than we could have hoped for!'

Eliana allowed herself a smile in return. 'I know.'

'You must come now – one of Samsu's slaves has come looking for you.'

Her heart sank, 'am I summoned?'

'No, he has something for you.'

Intrigued, Eliana hurried back to the apartments with Mari.

The slave stood in the middle of the room, dressed in a soft black tunic as a marker of his status as a personal servant of Samsu. He held a cushion in his hands, draped over with red silk.

He bowed as Eliana entered the room, now lit by half a dozen burning torches in brackets. She raised an eyebrow. No-one but Ashan bowed to her.

'My lady, the prince sends me with a gift and a message.'

'And your message is?'

'That you have satisfied your prince, and he is pleased to take you for his own, to the exclusion of all others on your part.'

Eliana heaved a great sigh of relief. She would only have one bully to deal with now.

'As a token of his ownership, he sends you this gift.' The slave allowed the gauzy silk to slide to the floor.

Gold glittered on the cushion. A slave's collar.

Wide and rich, set with semi-precious stones and exquisitely engraved, Eliana looked at it in horror.

He meant to chain her in deed as well as in words.

The man set down the cushion and picked up the gift. 'May I?'

She nodded, struck dumb. Somewhere in the back of her mind was a dull urge to laugh – she could not recall the last time she had been speechless.

He moved behind her. The metal weighed her down as he placed it around her neck, cold and unyielding. The clink as the clasp snapped shut sounded to Eliana like a bolt being slammed home in its lock.

The slave fiddled for a moment more, then stepped around to take a better look at the collar. In his hand, he held a small golden key.

Her pulse leapt and stomach contracted in panic as she realised what the key was for. She tugged desperately at the collar, which felt too tight around her slender neck, too heavy on her shoulders. It would not come off.

'It is locked, my lady. The prince will take the key. He will decide if and when to remove it.'

She dropped her hands to her side in defeat, abject misery swelling inside her, subsuming the panic. The collar already chafed at her spirit, soon it would chafe at her skin and she would be powerless to remove it.

The man bowed again and left without another word.

Eliana stood there helplessly, the flickering light of the torches bringing the gold about her neck alive.

With a sleeping Sarri in her arms, Kisha walked in from the bedroom. She stopped in surprise, 'that's pretty, Eliana. Where did you get it?'

'Samsu. I'm glad you like it, because you'll be looking at it a lot from now on. It's my slave collar, done up to look like a rich necklace.'

'We all have our slave markings, sister.' Kisha held up the hand bearing her wedding ring. Mari hitched up her gown to reveal the branding on her thigh. 'He likes to be able to identify his property.'

Eliana sagged onto a couch, oppressed beneath the weight.

She could not sleep that night, feeling the discomfort of Samsu's touch whichever way she turned.