"He thinks you would be obedient, and not object to Golnar, or thwart her authority in his harem," Zuleika noted.
"They say Golnar has magical powers," Bahira remarked. "Do you think it is true?"
"She is an odd creature," Zuleika replied. "I cannot imagine what Haroun sees in her. I find her too-pale hair, skin and eyes repellent."
"I should not like to share a harem with her," Bahira said. Then she stood up from the marble bench where she had been seated, and stretched. "If I am going home, I had best leave now. It is almost sunset, and I prefer my litter traversing the streets while it is still light." She bent, and kissed Zuleika's cheek. "I will be back tomorrow."
"I may have some interesting news for you then," the princess of Dariyabar answered her best friend. And when Bahira had gone, Zuleika said to Rafa, "I think I shall bathe after I have had my evening meal."
Rafa bowed low. "I shall bring your food now," she said, and went off to fetch it for her mistress.
Zuleika sat quietly, letting the peace of the early evening and the fragrance of the flowers soothe her. At the far end of her garden she had a view of the blue sea beyond a low wall. There was no need for a high wall, for that end of the sultan's palace sat upon a steep cliff. The sun now set to the west in a magnificent display of color. Zuleika liked to watch the sunset every day, for no two were alike. Tonight the sky above was a rich blue, streaked with glorious pink and peach clouds edged with gold. The sun itself blazed scarlet as it sank into its bed of orange and gold with just the thinnest line of pale green. As the colors muted in crimson and tangerine, she noted a bright diamond star directly above her. Rafa's voice broke into her thoughts and Zuleika turned with a smile.
"Your meal awaits, my princess," Rafa said, and she smiled too, knowing her mistress's love of the sunset. "It is especially beautiful this evening, isn't it?" she noted.
Zuleika nodded, and then rising, followed the older woman back through the colorless gossamer draperies that separated her quarters from the gardens. "What have you brought me? I find I am ravenous tonight."
Rafa chuckled. "You cannot tell me that you do not plan some mischief, my princess. You are always extra hungry when you do." She seated the girl at her table. "See for yourself."
Zuleika's violet eyes swept over the table, and then with a grin she began to eat. There were chunks of lamb upon a skewer with tiny whole onions, and bits of melon that had been brushed with olive oil and roasted over a slow fire. There was a plate of warm flat breads, and a dish of yogurt that had been strained through a piece of silk, and then mixed with an apricot puree.
"Will you drink wine tonight, my princess?" Rafa asked.
"Nay. I will have pomegranate juice," came the reply.
Rafa's eyebrow raised itself just slightly as she poured the required beverage from the silver pitcher. Something was indeed afoot, that Zuleika would not have her usual cup of wine with her evening meal. She placed the pomegranate juice by her mistress's right hand. If Zuleika did not wish to tell her what she was up to, there was nothing she could do, but she still worried. She had raised this maiden from her birth when the poor sultana had died.
"Is it dangerous?" she probed.
"Nay, and ask me no more," Zuleika replied. "Do you think I am a fool to risk my own safety, and that of Dariyabar?"
Rafa nodded. "I worry," was all she said.
"Do not, old woman," came the command, and the princess turned back to her meal with enthusiasm.
"Because you tell me," Rafa said with a wry smile.
"Because I tell you," Zuleika nodded.
Rafa chortled. "I will see that your bath is prepared," she told her mistress.
And when the princess had finished her meal, and bathed, she lay down to sleep. She would awaken at the proper hour, she knew. And when she opened her eyes again and arose, she looked at the water clock and saw it was the midnight hour. With a smile she slipped a pair of kid slippers upon her feet. Rafa lay sleeping soundly on a mat at the foot of her bed. A soft smile touched Zuleika's face. She loved Rafa as she would have loved her mother had the sultana Jamila lived. Taking up a dark cloak from a cedar chest, the princess slipped from her apartments.
Outside her doors the guards slumbered, leaning upon their lances. Everyone she passed within the palace slept. She walked through a small door in the tightly shut palace gates. The city was silent. There was not even the barking of dogs, or the howling of felines at the bright full moon. Zuleika moved swiftly through the quiet streets, now coming to the closed and barred city gates. Again she made her way through a small door within the barrier, stepping out into the countryside beyond. There, but a quarter of a mile ahead of her, lay the camp of their enemy. Zuleika walked more swiftly now, and reaching the throng of tents she stopped momentarily to get her bearings.
Amir Khan's tent would be in the center of the encampment, the genie had said. Then as if a puzzle had revealed itself, Zuleika saw the proper path to take. She moved forward, and made her way to the magnificent pavilion with its multicolored pendants now at rest in the still night air. As everywhere else, the guards were asleep before their campfires. Zuleika moved past the entrance of Amir Khan's tent, saying as she did so, "Good evening, my lord."
He looked up, startled at the sound of the woman's voice. "Who are you?" he asked, moving away from the table where he had been studying several maps. "And how did you manage to gain entry? My guards are usually not so lax, but if you are an assassin I warn you that my dagger tip is poisoned. If I touch you with it, you will die almost instantly."
The princess let her cloak fall from her shoulders. She was garbed in the sheerest garment that appeared to have been woven by spiders out of moonbeams. "I am Zuleika of Dariyabar, Amir Khan," she said quietly. "I have not come to assassinate you, but rather to parley with you."
"Your father has offered you to me as my concubine," he answered. His dark brown eyes roamed slowly over her visible form. She was probably the most beautiful creature he had ever seen, with her long ebony hair, her heart-shaped face and the unflinching violet eyes now observing him boldly. He felt a tingle in his loins. Just looking at her made him lustful.
"It is my cousin Haroun's idea to offer you the princess of Dariyabar, not my father's. But my sire is ancient, and no longer strong. His will has been weakened by his many years. He wants only quiet days, and peaceful nights. Haroun actually believes that you will go away if I am given to you. He thinks that you have come to realize Dariyabar is impregnable. He assumes the gift of its princess will allow you to withdraw while saving face, the sultan's only child now in your possession."
"What do you think?" he queried her, curious.
"I think you will not go away," Zuleika began. "You have not been besieging my city for three years for spoils, my lord. You need a window on the sea, and Dariyabar can give you one. But the city is indeed impregnable. We have never in our known history fallen."
"So you have come to dissuade me from having you, princess? Seeing you, I do not think I could now deny myself the pleasure of your body," Amir Khan told her.
A faint blush touched her cheeks, but then she continued, "I can help you gain your objective, my lord, but I want something in return for my aid. Tell my father you will not accept me as a concubine, but rather you wish to take me for your wife. I know you have no wife."
"Why do I need one?" he asked her, amused. She was tall for a female, but he still topped her by almost a foot, he considered.
"You do not need just any wife, Amir Khan. You need this wife. You need me. I am the key that can open the gates of Dariyabar to you. And I shall do it without further bloodshed, but for one man."
"Prince Haroun," he said.
"Aye, my cousin. He is an evil man, and will destroy my land if he is allowed to follow my father to the throne. If you take me for your wife; if you slay Haroun; it is you who will be the next sultan of Dariyabar. And you will be followed by the son I shall give you, insuring that my father's blood remains in the line of descent to follow. Haroun encouraged my father and my brothers in this war against you, my lord. I suspect he would have cajoled my father to battle were he not so old, and feeble. As it is, Haroun remained safe within the walls of the city while my brothers marched out to defend Dariyabar, losing their lives in the process. Now he would rid himself of me, and you as well. He would take my best friend, Bahira, daughter of our vizier, Abd al Hakim, to wife, against her will. He chooses Bahira because he believes her a ewe sheep who will allow his favorite to continue to control his harem. He will bleed the people of Dariyabar to fill his own coffers, and my people will suffer."