His eager lips found her equally eager ones and soon his mouth was scorching hers, then moving down her body, tasting of breast and belly. When finally he entered her she was but half-conscious: never, never had she known such sweetness. She cried with joy in his possession of her, and again as he released his seed within her. And in that single blazing moment before pleasure claimed her completely, she knew she had conceived a son.
Chapter Seventeen
After two years, the city of Adrianople had fallen to the Turks. There had been virtually no help from Constantinople. The emperor, being a vassal of the sultan, had simply not dared to send his troops.
The wealthiest of Constantinople’s merchants had raised a troop of cavalry and two troops of foot soldiers. Having outfitted them and paid them a year’s wages in advance, they sent them off to protect their vast investments in the Thracian city’s factories and export houses. Once within the city, however, the mercenaries were trapped, along with the inhabitants. The latter were not delighted by having to feed several hundred additional mouths.
Adrianople was one of the last real jewels in Byzantium’s crown. One hundred and thirty-seven miles northwest of Constantinople, it was set on the banks of the Tunja River where it met with the Maritsa River. Located in the center of the Thracian coastal plain, it was surrounded by fertile, well-watered valleys and a surprisingly barren upland. It was said to be located on the site of the ancient city of Uskadame. Certainly something had been there when Hadrian rebuilt the city in the year 125 B.C. Two hundred fifty-three years later the Roman emperor, Valens, lost the city to the Goths. They later lost it to the Bulgars, who lost it to the Byzantines, who lost it to the Crusaders, who lost it back to Byzantium. Byzantium had now lost it forever to the Turks.
There were several reasons for the desirability of possessing Adrianople. It was the marketplace for the entire agricultural region surrounding it, a region that grew fruits and vegetables of every kind, wine grapes, cotton, flax, mulberry bushes, and flowers-especially roses and poppies. The people produced silk, finished cotton cloth, linen of every grade, woolen goods, leather articles, and exquisite silk tapestries. Also produced and exported were rose water, attar of roses, wax, opium, and a red dye that was to be known as “turkey red”.
It was here that the Turks intended to move their capital from Bursa. Adrianople, soon to be renamed Edirne, was to be the Ottomans’ first capital city in Europe. Those sections of the city which had surrendered without a fight were spared the conqueror’s vengeance.
Those sections which had resisted once the Turks breached the city walls were subjected to the traditional three days of pillage and rape. The aged and useless were slaughtered or left to starve, unless they had relatives who could ransom them and remove them from the city. Pregnant and nursing women were the first to be sold into slavery, for a healthy, fertile female slave was a valuable possession. Stripped naked on the block, the way they carried their unborn was discussed knowledgeably by the interested buyers. The space between their hipbones was thought to be a good indication of how easily they would bear their young. Good breeders were welcome in a man’s house. Their unborn, especially sons, were an added bonus to the sale.
Those women who had already borne their babies and now suckled them, were examined for the heaviness of their breasts and even manually milked by the prospective buyers to check the richness of their milk. A woman with more rich milk than her own baby needed could suckle an orphan or the child of a dry mother. The weeping that issued forth from this particular slave market was piteous. But none of the crowds paid a great deal of attention. Such were the fortunes of war.
The children were the next to be sold. The prettier ones, both boys and girls, went quickly in the fast and furious bidding. Next came the young men, beauty and strength being the most obvious assets. Many young men were purchased by their relatives from other parts of the city. They were desperate to retain the young male members of their families who were responsible for breeding the next generation and keeping alive the family name. There were tragedies here too. Twin brothers were auctioned separately, and the family could only afford to retrieve one. The remaining brother was sold to an Arab trader who hoped to make a fortune on the blond boy further south. The identical brothers were torn apart to the sound of awful sobs.
The sisters and female cousins of these young men were less fortunate. Most of the young girls caught by the Turkish soldiers had been raped. Placed last on the slave block as part of the legitimate booty, their youth and their beauty brought good prices from everyone except their families, who were not eager to regain their dishonored daughters. Many a sobbing girl was led away before the stony faces of her own parents.
The sultan, of course, was offered the pick of the captives. But Ali Yahya chose the artisans and craftsmen because Murad intended building a new palace.
The site he had chosen was a large island in the Maritsa River. On one side of the island the view was toward the city, on the other toward the distant, forested mountains. The island was well-treed with a large hill upon the crest of which the palace was to be located. The design was similar to the Alhambra’s, and indeed its architect was a young Moor. There would be courts and fountains, and the entire palace would be surrounded by a carefully cultivated, terraced parkland of gardens, meadow, and woodland. There would be dockage facilities on either side of the island.
The work began immediately, for Murad hoped to have it finished in time for the birth of Adora’s child. Giant blocks of marble were quarried and brought from the Marmara islands. Other pieces were taken from nearby Roman ruins to be cleaned, polished, and recut. Great logs of oak and beech were hauled from the mountains, and several shiploads of cedar from the Mideast arrived at the mouth of the Tunja to be reloaded onto barges and taken upriver to Adrianople.
The finest craftsmen, both free and slave, were brought to work on the palace. There were simple carpenters as well as master builders and carvers. There were plumbers to lay the copper piping for the baths, kitchens, and fountains; painters and gilders; men to lay roof tiles; men to set the wall and floor tiles. In the cities of Bursa and Adrianople the weavers spent long hours at their looms turning out silks, satins, gauzes, and wools. These fabrics were then turned over to the master weavers and seamstresses to be turned into tapestries, rugs, draperies, and other hangings.
Murad drove his architect, who in turn drove his craftsmen and workers as hard as he could. But he dared not tell the sultan that the palace would not be finished in time for the child’s birth. It was finally Theadora who solved the dilemma by suggesting to the architect that he concentrate his men’s efforts into completing her part of the palace first.
Hers was one of six courts. It was to be called The Court of the Beloved.
The Court of the Sun faced southwest and was tiled in red, yellow, gold, and orange. All the flowers in this court were gaily colored. The Court of the Stars and the Moon was done in blue- and cream-colored tiles. Here were planted heavily fragrant nightblooming flowers such as sweet nicotiana, lilies, and moonflower vines. About the deep-blue tiled fountain were set twelve silver plaques, each one representing a sign of the zodiac. There would also be the Court of the Olive Trees, the Court of the Blue Dolphins, and the Court of the Jeweled Fountains.
Adora’s private court faced south and west. It contained her own kitchen and dining room, a complete bath, a nursery for her expected child, her own spacious bedroom, a small library, three reception rooms, and sleeping quarters for her slaves. The open courtyard was large and boasted several small reflecting pools and a beautiful fountain, the water spouting forth from a golden lily. There were dwarfed flowering trees-cherry, apple, almond, and peach. In the spring there would be pink and white blossoms, blue and white hyacinths, yellow, gold and white narcissus, and all varieties of Persian tulips. In the summer the garden would bloom with multicolored roses, windflowers, and lilies-Adora’s favorite. In the autumn the apple trees would offer their fruits to the inhabitants of the Court of the Beloved exclusively.