Sitt Hatun quickened her step, moving by memory in the darkness. They reached a stairwell that led down to the main harem kitchen and hurried down it. Sitt Hatun froze just before she reached the bottom. A man was standing there, dressed in black and lit red by the banked fires in the kitchen. He wore a black scarf across his face and held a long knife in his hand. He had heard them and was peering up the dark stairs towards them. 'Chi va la?' he called out. Sitt Hatun did not move. 'Chi va la?' he asked again and took a step up the stairs towards them.
Sitt Hatun turned to run, but Anna stopped her. 'Wait here,' Anna whispered. She slipped by Sitt Hatun and down the stairs. When the man saw her approaching he stopped, but Anna only sped up. She met the man at a run, ducking under his thrusting knife and bowling him over. They tumbled over one another and into the kitchen, where the man landed with a thud, Anna sitting astride him, her knife plunged into his chest. She removed her knife, cut the man's throat to make sure that he was dead, and then rose and motioned for Sitt Hatun to join her.
Sitt Hatun led them down a side passage from the kitchen to the harem's central courtyard. She paused before entering the courtyard to make sure that it was empty, but when she stepped forward, a man's hand grabbed her, covering her mouth and pulling her close. She bit his hand and tried to scream. 'Silence,' the man whispered in her ear. 'It is I, Isa.' He let her go, and she turned to face him. His broad Asian face was smooth and his movements graceful and self-assured. He carried a small pack and wore nondescript brown robes. 'The assassins arrived early at your chambers,' he told her. 'We haven't much time. Follow me.'
He led the way down the side of the courtyard, through a door back into the harem, and through a series of storerooms until they came to a windowless room with a rug crumpled against the wall and an open trapdoor in the floor. Isa took a burning torch from the wall and motioned for them to climb down. 'Hurry,' he said. 'This is the way the assassins entered the harem — the only way out not guarded by a janissary. We must move quickly before they return.'
Once inside the tunnel, Isa removed his pack and produced two more brown tunics of the same type he wore. He handed them to the women and ordered them to put them on over their clothes. Then he led them down the tunnel at a jog, his torch guttering in the damp breeze that blew in their faces. The walls of the tunnel were rough-hewn, dripping with moisture, and the floor sloped gently downwards. Sitt Hatun guessed that they were headed towards the river.
They had travelled only a few hundred yards when they heard voices and footsteps echoing down the passage behind them. Isa dropped his torch, and they stumbled on in the darkness. The steps behind them grew louder, and soon they could see the faint glow of advancing torchlight behind them. Sitt Hatun felt something brush by her side, and then heard it skitter along the floor ahead in the darkness. 'Arrows,' Isa hissed. 'Stay close to the walls.' Ahead, Sitt Hatun could see a break in the darkness, a relative brightness that marked the end of the tunnel. A few seconds later they were through, running down a sandy slope towards the banks of the river.
On the shore sat a small boat, guarded by two men holding swords. Isa rushed straight towards the men. He stopped just short of them and flung a white powder into their faces. The men collapsed, clawing at their throats and eyes, and Isa stepped over them and into the boat, waving for Sitt Hatun and Anna to follow. They clambered in, and Isa shoved off. Sitt Hatun glanced behind her and saw five black-clad men rush out of the tunnel, gesturing and yelling. She was still watching them when an arrow sank into the prow just in front of her. 'Stay down,' Isa barked, as more arrows whizzed past. He took a few strokes at the oars and the current caught the boat, pushing it faster and faster down the river. Isa abandoned the oars and joined them in the bottom of the boat. After a minute, the arrows stopped, and slowly they all rose from their cramped positions. Isa took up the oars again, while Sitt Hatun and Anna moved into the prow.
'You are hurt!' Sitt Hatun cried, as she noticed that Anna's clothes were covered with blood.
'It is not mine, My Lady.'
'That man you killed…' Sitt Hatun said. 'Where did you learn to fight like that?'
Anna shrugged. 'My parents died when I was young, and I had to fend for myself.'
It was a cold spring night, and the two of them huddled together in the prow of the boat, looking back on the sprawling imperial palace, the white stone walls lit by hundreds of winking torches. 'The next time we see those walls,' Sitt Hatun swore softly, 'we shall enter in glory, and Gulbehar shall tremble in fear.' They had been on the river no more than a few minutes when Isa began to row for the shore. He docked the boat at a small pier in Manisa's river port. Then, once they were out of the boat, he pushed it back out into the river, letting it drift away. 'Come, we haven't much time,' he told them and led them into the dark, narrow streets of the city. Their short trip ended at the gate of an innocuous white house in the merchant's district. Isa unlocked the gate and led them through a small courtyard and into the home. They emerged into a round common room with several more passageways branching off from it. A low table sat in the middle of the room, lit by candles and set with food and drink. Halil, wearing a green satin robe with swirling patterns in gold, was seated on a cushion beside the table. It was the first time that Sitt Hatun had seen him in person. He was tall and spare, with long delicate fingers that had clearly never seen battle. His olive-skinned face was thin, but still relatively smooth despite his forty-eight years. He wore a well-trimmed moustache that curved downward into a tiny grey-flecked beard. He might have been called handsome but for the jagged scar stretching down from his right temple to his jaw, and his unnerving eyes. Large and palest grey, they were cold and unblinking, like the eyes of a dead man.
Halil rose and bowed as Sitt Hatun entered. 'Welcome, sultana,' he said. His smile — thin lips stretched back over sharp teeth — made him look like a wolf at hunt. 'I am so glad that you arrived safely. Your servant can make herself comfortable in there.' He gestured to a side passage. Anna squeezed Sitt Hatun's hand and left. Halil turned to Isa. 'Isa, you may go,' he said, and Isa retreated quietly. Halil gestured for Sitt Hatun to be seated at the table. 'Some refreshments for you? You must be famished after your adventures.'
Sitt Hatun shook her head. She was nervous, and her stomach rebelled at the sight of food. 'Excellent,' Halil said. 'We have little time to spare anyway. The assassins will be looking for you, and you had best be gone before sunrise. Come, follow me.' He took a candle and led her down a side passage to a small room that was dominated by a large, canopied bed. He set the candle on a table beside the bed, and then untied his robe and allowed it to slip to the floor. He was entirely naked, thin and lacking in muscle. He gestured for her to undress, but Sitt Hatun did not move. 'You understand the particulars of our agreement?' Halil asked.
'I do,' Sitt Hatun said. She chided herself for her squeamishness. Any sacrifice was worth making if it meant that her child would be heir to the throne. She could then deal with Gulbehar as she saw fit. Keeping that in mind, Sitt Hatun turned her back to Halil and methodically undressed. When she was naked, she stepped carefully past Halil and blew out the candle. The room went black.
Sitt Hatun suppressed a shudder of disgust as she felt Halil's cold hand on her shoulder. 'Do what must be done,' she whispered.
MAY 1450: MANISA
Sitt Hatun reached Manisa at dusk, eight days after her night with Halil. Halil had entrusted her and Anna to a Greek eunuch named Erzinjan, who had taken them on a merchant ship down the Maritza river and across the Aegean. Their voyage had been blessed with perfect weather, but it was a tense journey. Sitt Hatun had no illusions as to her ability to elude the assassins. If Mehmed did not protect her in Manisa, then they would find her and kill her.