Helena nodded. “I will give you two days, Ali Yahya. Come to me at this same hour. Remind your master that the longer he delays his decision, the longer the object of his lust lies in the arms of another man.” She laughed cruelly. “My sister’s new husband is quite handsome. The silly women of my court compare him to a Greek god.”
The eunuch withdrew from the empress’s private chamber. Two days later he returned and was again received.
“Well?” she demanded impatiently.
He reached into his robes and drew out two velvet bags. He opened the first and spilled some of its contents into a flat dish. Helena’s blue eyes widened with greedy delight at the perfectly sized and matched pearls. The other bag was opened to reveal a bar of gold.
“Have it weighed, Majesty. You will find it ten thousand ducats’ worth.” To his vast amusement, she went directly to a cabinet and drew out a scale. She weighed the gold.
“A trifle over,” she remarked knowledgeably. “The sultan is more than fair.” Returning the scale to the cabinet she drew out an unrolled parchment and handed it to Ali Yahya. “These papers give your master, the sultan, complete custody and legal ownership of a female slave known as Theadora of Mesembria. She and her bridegroom are still at their villa near the city. However, you cannot get her there without placing open, public suspicion on your master which I am sure he does not wish. The execution of my plan will take time. To act hastily would mean to risk questions, which your master certainly does not want. No, it is better if my sister is widowed in Mesembria. You see, no one there would think to harm Alexander. They all love him. For that very reason his death will look perfectly natural.
“When he does die, in a few months, I will beg my poor sister to come home. I will house her royally at the Boucolean Palace, which happens to be directly adjacent to the imperial yacht basin. You and I will arrange a time, and I will see that her wine is drugged on the appointed day. You and your men will then remove her through a secret passage which opens out by the harbor. The guards will be bribed. They will let you through without question.”
Ali Yahya bowed, filled with a grudging admiration for the empress. She was a wicked woman, but this knowledge allowed him to complete his mission. There would be no blood on his hands. “What drug will you use to put her to sleep?” he asked.
She reached once more into the cabinet and, drawing out a small vial, handed it to him. Uncorking it, he sniffed. Satisfied, he handed it back to her. “I do not have to tell you what will happen to you if you attempt to trick me, or if you harm the princess,” he said quietly.
She smiled nastily. “I will not harm her. Why? I will gain far more pleasure in the weeks ahead by knowing that she is a slave. She must obey her lord and master, or be punished. If she obeys, she suffers-for I believe she is a cold woman. But if she refuses her lord and master she will be beaten. I do not know which gives me more pleasure, the thought of Thea naked and enduring the sultan’s vigorous attentions, or Thea being whipped.”
“Why do you hate her so?” Ali Yahya was unable to contain his curiosity any longer.
For a moment Helena was silent. Then she said, “I am the elder, but my parents always preferred Thea. They never said so but I knew. When my mother died I nursed her, and what do you think her last words were? I will tell you, Ali Yahya! Her very last words to me were, ‘Theadora, my best loved! Now I will never see you again.’ No word for me! I loved her too! It was always Thea!
“Then there was my father, always talking about her intelligence, and how she should have been his heir. Such drivel! What has she won with her wonderful brain? Nothing! Nothing! Now she endangers my city, and my husband defends her every move, and grows soft-eyed at the mere mention of her name. I want her out of my life. Now! Forever!”
“You have gained your heart’s desire, Majesty. Within a few short months your sister will be back across the Marmara and well on her way to Bursa.” The eunuch rose and bowed. “How will I know the correct dock in the imperial yacht basin?”
“There is a wharf decorated with statues of lions and other animals in the Boucoleon Harbor. Have your galley wait there on the date we agree upon. The passageway exits just a few feet from that wharf.” She reached into her robes and drew out a red silk pendant with a two-headed imperial eagle embroidered on it. “Have your galley fly this from its mast and no one will challenge you coming or going.”
For the rest of the day Helena could barely contain her excitement. At last she would be rid of Thea. Never again would she have to fear her sister’s threat of so long ago…the threat of her returning to the sultan’s side, to snatch the city from Helena! Thea would finally be powerless! A slave! Why, when Sultan Murad tired of her, as he inevitably would, he might even sell her farther east! Helena laughed with joy. Her vengeance would be complete.
That night the empress sent for a man who was one of Byzantium’s most respected physicians. Julian Tzimisces occasionally enjoyed Helena’s favors. Tonight she awaited him in a loose robe of palest turquoise-blue gauze through which her lush body gleamed like mother-of-pearl. Her nipples were painted vermillion, and they were provocatively visible through the silk. By her side was a beautiful little girl who, like Helena, was a blue-eyed blonde. The child was garbed as the empress was, even to having the tiny buds of her unformed breasts painted vermillion. Tzimisces’ particular perversion was children.
Helena smiled a feline smile and said bluntly, “I need a very special poison, dear friend. It must kill quickly, harm only its intended victim, and leave no trace.”
“You ask a lot, Majesty.”
Again Helena smiled. “Do you like my little Julia?” she asked him. “She is a Georgian, and just ten. Such a sweet little girl,” and the empress kissed the child on her rosebud mouth.
Julian Tzimisces shifted nervously, his eyes moving rapidly from the child’s unformed body to the empress’s large, gleaming red nipples. Helena lay back, drawing the child with her, and slowly caressed the little slave’s body.
“I have something new from Italy,” said Julian Tzimisces a trifle breathlessly. “Is the victim male or female?” He was beginning to perspire beneath his robes, and he felt himself growing harder with each minute.
“Male.”
“It can be put in his bath water.”
“No! He may bathe with his wife, and I do not wish her harmed. In fact, it is vital that she not be harmed.”
“Then it can be put in his shaving water. It will take several days for the poison to be absorbed through the skin. There will be no signs of illness, nothing to raise suspicion. When the poison has been absorbed, the man will simply drop dead. Will that be satisfactory?”
“Yes, Julian, that will be very satisfactory.”
The physician could not take his eyes from the two females on the couch. He was in a terrible quandary for he wanted them both-the child first, then the woman. The empress laughed. She knew his tastes.
“You have been very cooperative, old friend, and you shall be rewarded. You may have my sweet Julia. But you must not spend, Julian! That joy you must save for me.”
The physician tore his robe open and flung himself on the child who, although she knew what to expect, nevertheless screamed in agony as the man drove himself into her. The screams continued for several moments, finally fading into pitiful little moans.
Beside them Helena crouched on her heels, her eyes shining, her lips wet and slack. “Yes, Julian! Yes! Yes! Hurt her! Hurt her!”
The child had fainted now, and Tzimisces’s passion was reaching its peak. Panting, Helena ripped her own robe off and, lying back, spread her legs wide. Shoving the child away, the man covered the eager woman’s body with his own. Together they writhed in an almost violent mortal combat until suddenly, with a shriek, the empress was spent. Her partner quickly followed.