A cynical smile touched his lips at her words. "And a diplomat as well, my daughter. I know that it is you who have inherited my intellect. Your brothers were good men, but they had not, any of them, the strength or ability to rule Dariyabar. Tell me of your khan."
"He is strong, not simply of body, but of mind," she began. "His people respect but fear him as well. Not because he is cruel, rather because he is mighty. On our short acquaintance I have found him to be kind, and fair."
"Do you trust him, my daughter?" the sultan asked her.
"Yes," Zuleika answered unhesitatingly, "although I have told him that I do not."
"Why?"
Zuleika quickly explained in soft tones her visit to the khan's encampment the night before he entered Dariyabar. "But then when he came he did not ask for me as his wife, and took me for his concubine."
"He is clever," the sultan said. "He realized that if he insisted upon having you for a wife, Haroun would become suspicious, and plot his demise. Could you not see that, my daughter?"
"I did, upon reflection, my father, but he must believe he has to re-earn my trust lest he betray me ever again," she said.
"There speaks the woman in you, Zuleika," her father chided her. "How was he to communicate with you before he entered the hall of audience? The khan did the right thing. I believe that your judgment is correct. It is Amir Khan who should follow me upon the throne of Dariyabar, but there is still the matter of your cousin, Haroun."
"He must be killed," Zuleika said implacably.
"Let the genie make that decision, my daughter. I dislike having the blood of my nephew on my hands. Kansbar will do what is best for Dariyabar. You must bring him to me that I may tell him of my desires in this matter," the sultan said.
"Haroun has not yet come, father, and he will come, I know it. Let us wait until he is gone. Sleep now. I will stay by your side."
"You are not afraid of Haroun, are you, my daughter? Yet you must not be overconfident. He is a dangerous man."
"Yes," she agreed, "he is, father. But he did not realize that I was the key to Dariyabar, so great was his greed for the kingdom. That greed will cost him dearly."
"You must also beware of Golnar," her father warned.
"Why? She is a simple creature who has told me she cannot do without her special hairbrushes," Zuleika said scornfully.
"She is more to be feared than your cousin," the sultan said. "Her eunuch is in my pay, daughter. Golnar is the whip that drives your cousin, Haroun. Your cousin has no mind of his own to scheme. He is merely an avaricious fool. It is Golnar who plans and plots the strategies that will lead to Dariyabar's downfall. She is a crafty creature, far more treacherous than Haroun. He but concerns himself with satisfying his own desires for wealth, women, wine and the power she promises him will be his when I am dead."
"Why did you not tell me all this before, father?" Zuleika asked her parent, surprised by the depth of his words.
"Because you needed an ally to fight Haroun," her father said.
"I have Kansbar," the princess responded.
"It is not enough, my daughter. Dariyabar will not accept a ruling sultana. There must be a sultan, and without a viable alternative candidate you would have been helpless. That is why I allowed Haroun to believe he had convinced a senile old man to give his daughter to the enemy," Sultan Ibrahim said.
Zuleika had to laugh at this revelation. "Father, you sly fox!" she chortled.
"Old age and cunning will always triumph over youth, my daughter," he responded with a chuckle. "It is a good lesson to remember."
"I will indeed remember it," she promised him. "Now get some rest, father."
The old man closed his eyes, and Zuleika settled down by his side to watch over him. Until this night she had not fully realized what a clever man her father really was. He had spent more time trying to teach her brothers how to be rulers than being with his daughter, though it had been a useless exercise. Cyrus, Asad, and Jahi had been men of brawn, but little intellect. Zuleika came to realize that it was this that kept her father from giving in to, his own desires, and joining his beloved Jamila in the afterlife. Dariyabar needed him. And the truth of the matter was that of his four children, only his daughter had the wit to rule. And in order to do that she must have a husband. He had parented his half-brother's nephew in hopes that Haroun could be molded into a ruler, but Haroun was controlled by his insatiable desires and his greed. He was worse than the sultan's sons.
And then Haroun, encouraged by his favorite, Golnar, had come up with the idea of giving Zuleika to Amir Khan.
Zuleika smiled to herself as she sat by the sultan's bedside. The old man had played his part to the hilt, nodding and agreeing with his nephew that this would be the answer to their problems. But Haroun was not defeated yet. Zuleika sighed. She wished she were back in the khan's pavilion, naked and in her lover's arms. This second night, alone and together, would have been magic. But first things first! Her cousin must be dealt with as quickly as possible now that her father's health was in such a precarious state. She started as two hands fell upon her shoulders.
"Zuleika, my dear and beautiful cousin, how dutiful a daughter you are," Haroun's voice murmured softly. His hand caressed her neck lightly.
She arose. "Come into the outer room, Haroun," she whispered. "I would not wake my father, and he has just fallen asleep." She knew, however, that the old man was fully awake.
In the outer room he held her in his embrace and said, "A night in the khan's camp has sent you back to us with a new lushness, my cousin. Were you well fucked last night? Did you find his barbarian ways pleasing to you?"
Zuleika smiled boldly into her cousin's face. "I was very well used, Haroun, not just by the khan, but by his general as well. They took both Bahira and me to the great bed in my lord Amir's tent, and shared our favors between them. It was very exciting. I could never have imagined such a thing, but I will admit to enjoying it." She smiled again. "You would not have shared me, and allowed me such pleasure if I had been yours, cousin, would you?" she taunted him.
His too-handsome face darkened. "You could yet be mine, cousin," he replied. One arm about her waist, his other hand clamped about her breast, and he squeezed it.
Zuleika's tongue ran provocatively across her lips, and she pressed herself against him. "Do you dare to steal what is not yours, Haroun," she mocked him. "Golnar wants me gone lest I influence you instead of her. That is why she has chosen a mere child, a little girl who cannot be a true wife to you for several years, for your mate. If you take me, and keep me in your harem, cousin, Golnar and I will fight for supremacy. One of us will die. Even if it is I, Golnar will never forgive you, and she will find a wonderful way to revenge herself upon you. If I survive, I shall kill you myself, Haroun, and thus rule our land alone. But perhaps Golnar and I will conspire together against you, Haroun." She laughed. "If you think it is worth it, then take me now! Of course you will also have to deal with the khan, who has found my favors much to his satisfaction."
"I am well rid of you!" the prince snapped, backing away from her. "How long are you to remain with us?"
"They say it is a possibility my father is dying," Zuleika replied. "I will remain until either his health improves, or he leaves us for the afterlife."
"May he join your mother quickly, then," Haroun said nastily, "so we may be rid of both of you!"
"You are too kind," Zuleika murmured, bowing to him from the waist. "My serving woman, Rafa, will be traveling back and forth between the city and the khan's camp each day with a change of clothing for me. The khan would not let me bring anything with me, so fearful is he that I might not return," she said.
"Yet you claim to have enjoyed his lust," Haroun responded.