There Are Rivers in the Sky

by Elif Shafak

Arthur knows they were frightened of death, even the mightiest rulers. It was the one thing they had no control over. He also knows that not far from here, on a day like this, thousands of years back, people of all ages lined the streets to watch the funeral of a Mesopotamian king. Leading the procession were the king’s favorite wife, the king’s youngest wife, the king’s favorite son, the king’s barber, the king’s storyteller…Also accompanying them was a retinue of soldiers, servants, musicians bearing harps and lyres, and members of the court, clad in dazzling garments adorned with carnelian and lapis lazuli. They marched in silence, each carrying their own small cup. When they arrived at the place designated for the royal grave, one by one, they drank the poison in their cups. They were all to be buried in the very same tomb, just so the king would still have his barber and his servants to serve him and his musicians to play him songs and his storyteller to tell him stories in the afterlife. That afternoon they all killed themselves as arranged, simply so that a man accustomed to power would not have to face his own mortality alone.