The sack of Babylon had begun.
* * *
The defence of the palace was stubborn, led by Sargon himself. However,
by that evening devon aoki nude Trok devon aoki nude had opened a breach in devon aoki nude the outer walls of the first
terrace. devon aoki nude he led a strong contingent through and the defence collapsed. When
they burst into Sargon's bedchamber he was kneeling before the image of
Marduk, the devouring god of Mesopotamia, with a bloody devon aoki nude sword in his hands.
Beside him lay the body of his favourite wife, a grey-haired woman who had
devon aoki nude been with him for thirty years. He had given her a merciful death, compared
to what she might have devon aoki nude expected from devon aoki nude Trok's men. However, Sargon had not
been able to steel himself to fall devon aoki nude on his own sword. Trok knocked the
weapon out of his grasp.
'We have much to discuss, Your Majesty,' he promised him. 'Was it devon aoki nude not
you who referred to me as the Black Beast of Seueth? I hope to convince devon aoki nude you
devon aoki nude that you painted me the wrong colour.'
The women from the zenana were herded out of the palace, only five
hundred of them, not the five thousand of which Ishtar had spoken. devon aoki nude trok
selected twenty, the youngest and prettiest, for devon aoki nude his personal
entertainment, and the rest were devon aoki nude given to his senior officers. After they
had enjoyed them, they would be passed on to the common soldiery.
It took another two devon aoki nude days to break into the treasury buried deep
in the
earth below the palace, for many ingenious constructions devon aoki nude and devices
guarded it. Without the expertise devon aoki nude and first-hand knowledge of Ishtar the
Mede, it might have taken even longer to penetrate to the main treasure
chamber.
When the way was clear, Trok and Naja, Heseret following
them, descended
the stairway and entered the chamber. Ishtar had lit the interior with a
hundred oil devon aoki nude lamps, their rays cunningly reflected by burnished copper
mirrors to show off devon aoki nude the booty to full devon aoki nude effect.
Even the two pharaohs and Heseret devon aoki nude were stunned into silence by the
splendour of the treasure. The silver had been cast into bars, the gold
into conical ingots that fitted into each other to facilitate stacking.
They were all stamped with the goldsmiths' marks and
devon aoki nude the royal cartouche of
Sargon.
Heseret, for once speechless, had to shade her delicate eyes against the
dazzle of the masses of precious metal. Naja walked forward slowly between
the stacks, which were higher