He said, "We never speak of the time before we met."

"My father, your Wazir, he warned me of your. . . trouble. I came to you anyway."

"Sometimes I think I might forgive myself for the wonien, and then forget. But who can forget a tale without an ending? You who know so many tales, what do you really know of the Jinni?"

"Whimsical. Powerful. p.r.o.ne to extravagance. Dangerous, the ones who fought the Prophet's law. Why?"

"Ten years ago, my brother Zaman told me how he had caught his wife in adultery with a slave cook, and killed them. Then he told me he'd seen my own wife betray me. I could have killed him. I followed him instead, and watched, and still couldn't believe. The Wazir must have told you this much."

"Yes."

"Then we swore that we would depart our palaces and never return until we knew that someone, somewhere, had suffered a greater misfortune. Do you know how long we traveled?"

"Father didn't tell me that."

"He never knew. Two hours."

She laughed before she could stop herself.

"We traveled fast. Sometimes we ran to burn off our rage and sorrow. We were seven or eight leagues from my palace and into a meadow, with no dwellings in sight, and exactly one tree.

"Then a black whirlwind appeared and began to draw into itself. No monkey could have climbed faster than I, yet Zaman beat me into the tree.''

She swallowed her laughter. His muscles were rigid and his arms were too tight around her.

"We were hidden before the Jinni became solid. That tree was the only shade anywhere. The Jinni set a crystal coffer down in the shade. There was a woman in it."

"Holes in the casket?" An experienced storyteller would have mentioned those.

"Holes? No, it was sealed like a treasure chest, with seven separate locks, but I could see her through the sides. The Jinni got it open and she came out."

"What was she like?"

"Not a girl. Twenty-two or -three years old, and lovely. Foreign. Yellow like the moon near setting. Straight black hair. Something about her eyes. I'd need a scribe's help to describe her."

"You're doing well."

"The Jinni went in unto her. I . . . wondered what I would see of foreign practices, but she only submitted. Then the Jinni slept. We were going to be there a long time. I tried to shift my weight, and the tree shook, and the woman looked up and saw us.

"She made us come down."

"How?"

"She swore she would wake the Afrit. We came down. She led us away from the tree, and ordered us to go in unto her." Shahryar laughed; he made himself laugh, and Scheherezade dared not. "We are kings, Zaman and I. When we desired a woman, we brought her to our beds and we took her. We are not summoned. summoned. We had a hard time of it-" He laughed again, painfully. "A soft time of it. We'd moved far from the tree, there was no shade, and we were desperately afraid of making noise. But Zaman succeeded in giving her what she willed, and watching them excited me . . . Should I be telling it the other way around?" We had a hard time of it-" He laughed again, painfully. "A soft time of it. We'd moved far from the tree, there was no shade, and we were desperately afraid of making noise. But Zaman succeeded in giving her what she willed, and watching them excited me . . . Should I be telling it the other way around?"

"Was she good?"

"She wrung us dry. We had trouble walking away. . . running when we could. But why not? She claimed five hundred and seventy lovers taken under the nose of the Afrit!"

"Incredible." How could he not feel her tension?

"A disgraceful episode. It put the seal on my opinion of women. If even a Jinni's precautions weren't enough to keep her for himself. .

Scheherezade's mind was racing. She had not thought so fast in many years; and what she chose to say was nothing.

"I was a long time losing that hatred. The Koran warns against women; I cannot blame myself too much. But sometimes I wonder. She told us that the Jinni had s.n.a.t.c.hed her on her wedding night, while she was still a virgin. He keeps her beneath the sea, where no man can reach. How can he have been careless five hundred and seventy times?"

"Did you ask her age? She may have been older than she looked, by the magic of her Jinni lover."

"My clever love. I never thought of that."

"Or perhaps the Jinni set down near a caravan one night."

Shahryar laughed long and loud. And presently he slept; but the night was already turning gray.

Four years ago Zaman had left Samarkand to live in his brother's kingdom in the Banu Sasan. He had married Scheherezade's sister, Dunyazad. Now they took their turns on the throne.

Now the old Wazir, Scheherezade's and Dunyazad's father, ruled Samarkand; but every two years Zaman returned to see how the kingdom progressed.

Zaman had been gone for nearly a month.

Dunyazad had been told of their coming. She arrived with a retinue almost before they had broken camp. Her manner was reserved and overly formal. Cosmetics failed to hide dark shadows beneath her eyes.

By noon they had reached the palace. Dunyazad handled practical matters well, showing her sister and brother-in-law to a suite of rooms, adding her own servants to their spa.r.s.e retinue. There was fruit and spiced meat, a pitcher of sherbet, water for washing, and enough bedding to hold a small party.

When the servants were gone, Shahryar told his wife, "We must go out tonight."

"Yes, my lord," said Scheherezade. "Where? Why?"

"I did not know how much to tell you."

"You have told me only that it was time to visit your brother's house, to see that all is in order. Well, all seems in order."

"But all is not. An accusation has been made. I must see for myself. I want you with me."

An accusation. If she had been standing she would have fallen, for the blood draining from her head. "I hear and obey." If she had been standing she would have fallen, for the blood draining from her head. "I hear and obey."

"Then sleep now."

Dunyazad's dinner conversation was brittle-bright chatter interspersed with silences. Scheherezade and Shahryar retired early, pleading sleeplessness on the trip. And softly dressed themselves, and departed on bare feet.

"We need to enter the harem garden," Shahryar told her. "Can you lead me in?"

"Not all harems are alike. I can enter. You would be killed, and I might be held as a harem concubine, if we were discovered. Your rank would not save you."

"I know that, and it is just, but we must do this." Shahryar's scimitar was in his hand. "If I must kill a eunuch or two. . . well."

Scheherezade led.

The entrance was guarded by two eunuchs. Scheherezade engaged them, asking questions about the doings of the harem, until Shahryar had crept past them. Then she alleged a desire to see inside.

She found a wide corridor with a fountain in the middle. The splashing water would cover minor noises. Someone may have seen them around a corner, and recognized the king, and decided not to meddle in politics; or not. Beyond the large, ornate fountain were wide doors leading to a darkened garden, guarded by a pair of armed eunuchs. To left and right were narrower corridors which must lead into the main body of the harem.

She stood pensively beside the fountain. Shahryar was crouched below its rim. She asked, "Must we enter?"

Shahryar mulled it. "Perhaps not, but we must see. Do you hear footsteps?"

"Left, the corridor."

He sprinted. She strolled the long way around the fountain, to distract the guards. But the guards were watching the garden.

Shahryar had snuffed the torch. From the dark they watched Dunyazad pa.s.s through the doors. The guards' eyes were on her.

Shahryar had found a window.

"I never wanted to spy on my sister," Scheherezade whispered. "Must we do this?"

The garden was small. Dunyazad was in plain sight, walking as if she slept. Scheherezade noticed three low bushes; she jumped when one of them moved. A small sheep, or rather a lamb, got creakily to its feet and came to investigate the faces at the window. Scheherezade fondled its ears and peeked around it.

Dunyazad stopped beneath a wide tree and called softly. "Sa'ad alDin Saood."

A man dropped from the tree. He was big, muscular, black in the moonlight. He landed easily, softly, and took Dunyazad in his arms.

Scheherezade continued to look. The interloper was seated on the gra.s.s; Dunyazad was in his lap; they were locked in s.e.xual congress. The sounds she made seemed wrung from her. The man made no sound at all, until Scheherezade heard him chuckle, once. His teeth gleamed, white and regular.

Shahryar turned away. He slid slowly down the wall until he huddled at its base. He wrapped his face in his arms and sobbed.

A quick glance down the hall: the guards were facing away, standing rigidly with their scimitars before them. Their faces were immobile, but sweat set them gleaming. They could hardly avoid hearing.

Dunyazad and the interloper separated. The man chuckled again. They talked; Dunyazad seemed to be pleading. Then the man swarmed up the tree, very quickly and silently. Dunyazad sat huddled for a time. Then she stood, adjusted her clothing, and walked back inside.

"We must be out of here," Scheherezade whispered.

Shahryar nodded. He stood slowly. She had been afraid he would not move at all.

He reached the fountain in a silent sprint, and crawled backward behind its cover. Perhaps that was unneeded. The guards were looking out at the garden, now that Dunyazad couldn't see them, and they spoke in furious whispers. This must be agony for them, Sheherezade thought. They knew too much. How could their tale end but with a headsman's ax?

Shahryar sat limp on the pillows. His face was ashen. "It's like a recurring nightmare. How could this happen to us again? Has Allah decreed this as punishment for me and Zaman? Because once we behaved like rabid hyenas after our wives betrayed us-"

"What will you do?"

"I will not kill Dunyazad. I will not kill a woman ever again. Enough is enough!" He looked at her at last. "A woman came to me, one of your sister's harem retinue. She got past the guards somehow, came to me in the roof garden. She said that Dunyazad was betraying my brother. I should have been enraged. I wasn't. I was afraid."

Scheherezade only nodded.

"I knew knew I should kill the old woman. Lying or not, her mouth must be shut. You agree?" I should kill the old woman. Lying or not, her mouth must be shut. You agree?"

"I..."

"But I've killed too many women! So I put her in a cell and we set out for Zaman's palace. But Zaman would kill Dunyazad, I think. And the children, because they might not be legitimate. How could could she? She must she? She must know know what a risk she takes." what a risk she takes."

Scheherezade said, "Allah is not your enemy."

"Do I have any enemy besides my own fate?"

"I think so." For her life, Scheherezade had learned how to be tactful; but this was not a time for tact. "You must have been thinking of betrayal last night, when you told me the tale of the Jinni and the crystal casket. Well, the woman was a Jinni too."

He stared at her. "The woman woman was a Jinni?" was a Jinni?"

"She was."

"But how can you know?"

"There were no holes in the casket. A woman would have suffocated. And, really, my lord! Five hundred and seventy lovers? And Jinni fly, don't they? Yours must have seen you and Zaman from leagues away, yet he came straight to you."

"May Allah take my soul. Now."

"Not yet, my lord. We have work before us."

"But this is terrible! I've killed more than fifty women!"

"Far more. I can count, my lord. Three years, one each night-"

"No! I tried to live without a woman. I could not. Your father can count them, for he procured them for me. Each night I took a woman's virginity, and each morning I slew her. But not one each night!

"The first half dozen, it felt like vengeance on all the breed of women. After the sixth I would have stopped. But she was not a virgin, and the tenth and eleventh weren't either, and-I was mad, of course."

"You were made mad."

"Scheherezade, I took my revenge on women for three years, for the wrong our wives did to us and the wrong that woman did to her Jinni husband despite all of his extravagant precautions. But that was a lie, lie, and she wasn't even a woman!-You knew?" and she wasn't even a woman!-You knew?"

"It was obvious. I knew you'd suffer if I told you, but it's gone beyond that. Now Now what?" what?"

For Shahryar had gone rigid. He said, "I thought thought I knew those grotesque syllables. My wife's lover called out his name when . . . when. 'Sa'ad al-Din Saood.' It's him. The same Jinni. Not a man. Again." I knew those grotesque syllables. My wife's lover called out his name when . . . when. 'Sa'ad al-Din Saood.' It's him. The same Jinni. Not a man. Again."

"It would seem," said Scheherezade, "that a pair of Jinni have chosen our family as exceptionally entertaining playthings. See how it fits. Zaman discovered his wife in adultery and slew both. A pair of Jinni saw. They wondered if you would do the same. One seduced your wife, which I grant must have been easy enough; the orgies sounded . . . well, practiced. Afterward they heard you and Zaman swear your oath. Everybody likes a good story, my heart. Everyone wants to improve it a little."

"But why is Dunyazad-" why is Dunyazad-"

"We'll have to ask."

"He threatened me," she said.

Scheherezade wondered what Shahryar would say now. You chose dishonor over death? You chose dishonor over death? But her husband only sipped his coffee. But her husband only sipped his coffee.

"I was in my garden the evening after Zaman departed. I heard a laugh from all around me. A whirlwind s.n.a.t.c.hed me into the air, flew after the caravan, circled high over my husband's tent! Then came to earth leagues ahead of the encampment. I was rigid with fear. I kept thinking, What would my sister do?" What would my sister do?"

"Scream."~ "I screamed, I begged, I p.i.s.sed myself, I vomited into the wind. When I reached the ground I ran. The whirlwind became a man twenty feet tall. He ambled alongside me with a big crystal casket under his arm, until I fell over with black spots before my eyes. Then he set the casket down, and unlocked it, and a woman came out."