"Oh G.o.d!" she exclaimed surprised, and then she turned to look at the sultan. "What have you done to me?"

"Only given you pleasure," he said softly, and then he said in an ordinary conversational tone, "Do you play chess, Marjallah?"

She nodded.

Murad called the ever-present black eunuchs, and the chess table was brought. Perhaps, thought Aidan, sitting down would ease the terrible, but wonderful feelings of desire which hinted of greater fulfillment with her every movement. They played, and Aidan played badly for she could not escape the building hunger within her. The sultan watched her, the amus.e.m.e.nt in his eyes veiled, for he did not want to offend her knowing as he did that he was far from winning her over.

Finally Aidan could stand no more, and unthinking she leapt from her chair. Her eyes were filled with tears. "Please," she pleaded with him, "please take them out! I am dying from desire!"

"Taking them out," he said "will not give you the surcease that you need. Only I can do that, Marjallah. If you will agree to yield to me willingly then I shall remove them. "

"And if I do not?" she whispered defiantly.

He smiled pleasantly. "Then they remain, my exquisite one. Shall we play another game? We seem to have reached an impa.s.se with this one."

"Does it make no difference to you that I despise you?" she asked him. "What kind of man are you?" She felt suddenly very angry.

"I am a powerful man, and no, it makes no difference to me at all that you despise me. You will not always despise me. One day you will find that you are in love with me for love is the other side of hate." He stood up, and imperiously offered her a hand. "Come!" he said, and he led her across the room to the huge, canopied bed.

Each step they took was an agony to her. She had to get those d.a.m.ned little b.a.l.l.s removed! She bad to have relief! She could bear no more, and when they had reached the bed a whimper escaped her lips.

"Well," said the sultan. "The decision is yours, Marjallah, and whatever it is you decide I will abide by it, but remember that until you yield to me, the b.a.l.l.s remain in the sweet darkness of your tight little pa.s.sage."

"Take them out!" Her voice was almost a scream.

"You will give yourself to me willingly?"

"Yes!" She was beginning to tremble, her legs buckling beneath her. If those devilish little silver spheres banged together inside her helpless body one more time, she was going to go totally mad!

"Lie back, Marjallah, and I will remove them," he said to her.

Carefully, so as not to jostle the tiny instruments of her torture any further, Aidan lay back upon the bed, and opened her legs to him. The sultan knelt, but seeing her tempting pink flesh was unable to stop himself from leaning forward, and tonguing her with slow, sensuous strokes. Her body jerked in surprise, and she screamed as pa.s.sion knifed her sharply. Realizing the cruelty he was inflicting upon her, Murad reached into her aching body with his slender fingers, and withdrew the tiny silver b.a.l.l.s, one at a time. Then he kissed her swollen and throbbing little bud.

"Forgive me, exquisite one," he said raising his head from her. "I did not intend to cause you further pain, but I could not resist that which was so sweetly offered to me." The sultan stood up, and slowly drew off his own comfortable, loose chamber robe of plum-colored silk. Settling himself contentedly in the center of the huge bed he said to her, "It is the custom for a woman coming to me for the first time to enter my bed from the foot, and crawl up to me. You did not follow the custom the last time you were with me. It would please me if you would do so now. When you have shown me your new and properly pleasing obedience, Marjallah, then will I relieve your magnificent body of the excruciating agony it is now suffering. You will obtain no real relief from your distress until I give it." There was no menace in his words, no threatening or bullying tone. His bland voice merely offered her plain fact.

Aidan's pride warred with her aching body. In that moment she would have killed him had she the means, but her pain finally won the battle she fought, and sliding from her place on the edge of the great bed she stumbled to its foot, and facedown, upon her belly, crawled up the emerald-green silk coverlet to crouch at his feet.

The sultan purred with approval. "Verrrry good, exquisite one! Now I give you leave to come farther, and you may kiss my feet and my legs as you move forward."

One part of her was totally and utterly shocked by her easy acquiescence, but the other part of her reminded her that only when she had pleased him fully would he give her relief from the painful tension that racked her hapless body. The quicker she obeyed him, the sooner would she be free of her agony. Mindlessly Aidan straddled the sultan, and began kissing first his feet, and then she moved up his long, slim legs pressing feathery kisses alternately upon each limb. When she came abreast of his groin he reached down with a hand, and lifting his heavy, long manhood he held it out to her. Aidan shuddered, and raising her head looked pleadingly at him. Murad's eyes bore mercilessly into her silently commanding her. Tears spilling from her eyes down her cheeks she bowed her head, and took him in her mouth.

The sultan leaned back against the soft pile of pillows, and sighed with pleasure, his languid dark eyes partly closed in a half-ecstasy. Reaching out his hand he tangled his fingers in her thick, coppery hair, and kneading at her scalp encouraged her onward. "Use your tongue beneath the edge of the k.n.o.b, Marjallah," he said, his voice thick. "Ahhh, Allah! Your mouth was made for such work!" he shuddered. "Enough, now, exquisite one, lest you unman me too soon. Come, and give me your lips."

She released her hold upon him, and he drew her up to take her mouth in a fiery kiss. He ran his lips along hers kissing and licking at them, and then he said, "Open your sweet mouth to receive my tongue, fair slave," and she obeyed him, sucking vigorously upon his tongue as she had only moments before performed upon his manhood. One arm about her waist, his other hand began to play with her large b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Squeezing them lovingly he then pinched the nipples hard, sending a bolt of desire into her very core where she already ached with more hunger than she had ever believed a woman could.

Tearing her head away from his she whimpered, "Please, my lord! Please give me relief!"

"How impatient you are, exquisite one," he scolded her gently. "Have I not warned you that I am the master? It is the master who decides the time, not the slave. What a hard lesson that seems to be for you to learn."

"Forgive me, my lord," she begged him. Dear G.o.d, why would he not give her release? Had he not promised it her? The burning, throbbing, aching pain seemed to grow within her vitals with each pa.s.sing minute.

Murad could see the panic in her eyes, and realizing the total power he held over the object of his desire aroused him even more than she herself already had. "Of course I forgive you," he began soothingly, "but it would not be right if I did not punish you, Marjallah. It is most important that you learn perfect obedience. Do you understand?"

"Y-yes, my lord," she answered him, her voice shaking. What would he do to her now?

The sultan called one of the black eunuchs to him, and whispered something to the man while Aidan, having been put gently to one side sat downcast. The eunuch hurried out of the room, and they sat in silence, the sultan contemplating her beauty of form, Aidan now feeling ignored, and her pain building once more as he scorned to soothe her with his touch. She tried to focus her glance upon the room itself.

The last time she had been in it it had been night, and she had hardly been interested in the decor of the place. Now she tried to take her mind from her fear and her pain by concentrating on something else. They had come down the Golden Road into the Sultan's Hall where a door upon the far wall opened into the sultan's apartment. In her months in Turkey Aidan had gained a small knowledge of tiles having had to see to the repair of the fountains, and several other places in Javid Khan's palace. The walls of the sultan's bedchamber were lined with fine Iznik tiles done in a floral pattern. The lower range of tiles was all of the same coloring. Blues and reds upon a white background with borders in which the deep, rich red predominated. The upper and lower sections of the wall were divided by a frieze of dark blue tiles upon which were written in white lettering verses from the Koran. The most beautiful tiles in the room, however, were those above the fireplace surrounding the cone-shaped bronze chimneypiece. On that curvaceous panel were sprays of tiny plum blossoms stretching upward upon a deep blue background.

The ceiling of the room was domed and decorated with painted motifs in gold on a blue-green background. There was not a surface of the room that was not embellished, but the general effect of the chamber was lofty and lovely. There were two tiers of windows, the upper ones with small colored panes divided by plasterwork.

On one wall was a layered fountain with three projecting basins over which the water flowed, each basin having its own golden faucet in the shape of a lily to add to the flow of water. The fountain was framed in solid marble as were the doorways, and the doors themselves were inlaid in mother-of-pearl and had finely chiseled locks. On three sides, the square room looked out into gardens.

The sultan's hobby was clockmaking, and even now one ticked as they sat awaiting whatever it was that Murad had ordered of the black eunuch. Aidan studied the enormous bed upon which they sat. It was fashioned with four carved and twisted pillars and sat in a corner of the room, a large window of clear gla.s.s in the wall near its foot. Attached to the pillars was a beautiful carved and gilded wooden canopy. At the head of the bed were carved and gilded side rails. The mattress was firm, and upholstered in cloth of gold. Over it was an enormous second mattress of emerald-green silk filled with down. There were bolsters of ruby, and turquoise, and violet with matching pillows. Aidan hugged one of the violet silk pillows to her as the door to the bedchamber opened, and an exquisite girl entered the room.

She was one of the most beautiful creatures Aidan had ever seen, tiny and small-boned with huge blue eyes and silvery-blond hair. She was very, very young. Throwing off the pale pink silk robe she was wearing she fell to the floor in a gesture of total obedience.

The sultan smiled warmly. "Arise, Zora, and come to me."

The girl ran quickly to the bed, and climbed upon it, seating herself on the other side of the sultan, and holding up her lips to him to be kissed. He willingly obliged her, running his hands over her silken body as he did so, gently teasing her budding b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

"This is the lady Marjallah, Zora," he said, and then turned to Aidan. "Zora is one of my newest ikbals."

"I have heard of the lady Marjallah. She has caused a great stir within the harem for it is said, my lord, that you prefer her above us all, even Safiye Kadin."

Murad laughed. "I long ago learned the folly of confining myself to one woman, Zora, my pet. You may tell the ladies of my harem that although Marjallah pleased me greatly, and is very much in my favor, I shall not neglect them, nor shall any other woman ever take Safiye Kadin's place in my heart."

Zora hung her head, looking shamefaced. "I am rightfully rebuked, my lord," she said softly, and Murad kissed her again.

"You see," he said to Aidan, "what a charming model of docility Zora is, exquisite one? I have called her here so you may learn from her, but first open your legs to me again." Reaching beneath one of the bolsters he withdrew the black silk pouch, and poured the tiny silver spheres into his palm..

Aidan shuddered, but she now knew better than to protest. She was not certain the form her punishment would take, but it began with the reinsertion of those terrible little instruments of torture. Lying back she obeyed him, and felt the cold silver slipping into her, aided by his finger.

"Zora," said Murad, "show the lady Marjallah the movements of the Dance of the Veils. Marjallah, my exquisite one, you will follow what Zora does."

The dainty blond slid from the bed, and watched as Aidan, her teeth sinking into her lower lip, followed her. "It is really quite simple," said Zora, and she showed Aidan the movements involved.

"Now," said the sultan, "you do them." His dark eyes dared her to defy him, and once again Aidan wished she might kill him for what he was doing to her.

Trembling she repeated the movements, each change of position she forced her body into adding to her agony. Zora stood next to her, and the sultan commanded them to dance more quickly. A fine sheen of perspiration broke out over her entire body, and she could feel her heart hammering violently in her chest. For a moment she believed that she was going to die, and she welcomed the release that death would bring her, but then he commanded them to stop, and to return to the bed where he removed for a second time the silver rounds from her tortured body.

Murad motioned Zora to stimulate him further with her mouth, and the girl instantly obeyed her master. Then the sultan said, "Present your second maidenhead to me," and Zora turned herself about so that her bottom was to her lord, the upper half of her body resting upon her arms at a lower angle. Grasping her firmly by the hips he entered the girl's body in. one thrust, and pumped against her for a short time completely overlooking Aidan who was wide-eyed at his performance. Then suddenly the sultan turned to her saying, "Kneel before Zora, my exquisite one," and when she had obeyed him he removed his hands from the blond girl's hips, and reaching out began to fondle Aidan's b.r.e.a.s.t.s while Zora pushed herself back and forth upon his shaft.

"You see, Marjallah, you see how flawless are Zora's manners. She is a perfect model of harem decorum, and eventually under my schooling you, too, will be a model of perfection. She does not find it difficult to obey me, and I am neither cruel nor unkind to her." His slender, but firm fingers dug into the creamy flesh of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s as he crushed the tender skin leaving red marks upon it. Taking one of her nipples between his thumb and his forefinger he pinched it hard, and tugged upon it. A soft whimper escaped her. The sultan smiled, and with a grunt released himself into his blond slave.

Zora fell forward for a moment lost in a little swoon, but then she revived, and slipping from the bed ran to the fountain where a silver basin sat stored in a wall niche. Filling it she then ran to the huge fireplace, and placed the basin upon a small grate above the coals for a short minute, and then gathering several soft cloths from another wall niche returned back to the bed. Murad stood, and allowed the blond girl to bathe his now limp part. When she had finished he thanked her, and patted the kneeling slavegirl upon her blond head.

All the while this whole tableau had taken place Aidan had died a thousand little deaths. When the sultan's manhood had grown long and hard she had desperately wanted him to plunge it into her fevered flesh. Instead she had been forced to watch him service the tiny Zora so vigorously that he had emptied himself, and now there was naught left to ease her pain. She wanted to shriek with her frustration and her outrage. Her tortured mind now added the blond Zora to her death list. Zora had taken what was rightfully hers! Aidan wished Zora dead!

Murad could tell that his proud Marjallah was close to the breaking point, and so he called to his black eunuchs to pour them some wine. He did not often indulge in alcohol as it was forbidden by the Prophet, and his drunken father had given him an example he most certainly did not wish to follow, but nonetheless it was occasionally a good restorative especially the decanter from which his black eunuchs now poured two drafts. The decanter had had added to it a strong opiate which acted as an aphrodisiac.

The wine was brought to the bed, and the sultan took one of the goblets and drank it down. "It is not for you, Zora," he warned, "but you, my Marjallah, may drink down but half the goblet. No more, however," he cautioned.

With trembling hand she reached out and brought the crystal goblet to her lips, tasting the first wine she had had in well over a year. It was hard not to gulp it, but she managed, replacing the goblet upon the tray held by the eunuch when she had taken the portion allowed her. The strong Cyprus wine slid into her stomach like boiling oil, and then flamed into her veins. Color began to return to her cheeks.

Murad could already feel the aphrodisiac beginning to work upon him, but he knew one thing that would restore him even more quickly. "Arise from the bed, both of you," he commanded, "and stand facing one another at its foot."

The two women obeyed, and Aidan wondered what new horror he had devised to torture her.

"Zora, my pet, I want you to take Marjallah into your arms and comfort her for she is in great pain."

Horrified at what he was suggesting Aidan stepped back a pace, her distaste quite evident upon her face.

"Are you disobeying me, exquisite one?" the sultan demanded. He rolled the little silver b.a.l.l.s about in his open palm, displaying them threateningly, sliding them from one hand to the other.

Aidan shuddered hard. "No, my lord, I am not disobeying you," she whispered low, and she then submitted to the blond girl's soft embrace, kneeling so that they would be of a similar height.

She could not meet Zora's gaze, but strangely the ikbal was tender and gentle in her caresses. Murad watched them, his own ardor rising fast, as the two women's b.r.e.a.s.t.s met nipple to nipple, as they fondled each other's b.u.t.tocks for Zora spoke low instructions to her reluctant partner, and in an odd, kindly way encouraged Aidan onward so that the sultan would be pleased.

"Don't be embarra.s.sed," Zora whispered softly, her words not available to Murad.

"I hate him!" Aidan whispered back.

"So do I," came the startling reply.

"Then why do you submit?"

"Because what else is there for us if we do not?" said Zora.

"Come back to the bed," said the sultan, "and then, Zora, my pet, you will prepare her pa.s.sage for my entry."

"Of course, my lord!"

Taking Aidan's hand Zora pulled her up, and led her back to the emerald-green coverlet. The two women climbed upon the bed, and then Zora told Aidan to lie back, and she firmly spread the older woman's legs.

"Ohhhh!" The small shriek escaped from between Aidan's lips as Zora's mouth and tongue began to tease and play against her badly overstimulated and sensitive flesh. Her eyes flew back in her head as she sought Murad fearing her cry had offended him, but instead the sultan leaned over her head, and kissed her lips tenderly while gently fondling her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

"There, my exquisite one, is not Zora's mouth soothing?" He smiled warmly down at her. "When she deems you ready, my Marjallah, I will ease your discomfort entirely." He moved himself around so that he lay on his side next to her. "Come, my love," he said taking her hand, and placing it about his hard shaft. He nibbled at her lips. "Give me your tongue, sweet," and he sucked upon the morsel offered. "Work me with your hand, exquisite one," he told her, and kissed her eyelids.

"She is ready, my lord," came Zora's voice, and the blond girl arose from the bed.

Murad swung himself over Aidan saying, "You may go now, Zora, and as your reward Zaad will give you the replica of my manhood. You may keep it until the morning."

"Thank you, my lord," said Zora, and a black eunuch at her heels she hurried from the room.

Murad turned back to Aidan who lay trembling beneath him. She was like a finely tuned instrument, and very ready to play. "Tell me what you desire of me, my exquisite one?" he said softly as he sat astride her thighs, fondling his large weapon, moving it casually from one hand to another.

"I want you to make love to me," she said low.

"You want me to fill you with my shaft, and make you weep with pleasure?"

"Yes!"

"You desire this of your free will? I have not forced you to it?"

"Yes, I desire it of my free will!" she half-sobbed. "Please! Oh, please!" she begged him, beaten.

With a look of triumph that he was unable to keep from his dark eyes he slid into her pa.s.sage with one smooth thrust, and she cried with relief as he began to move vigorously upon her. Clasped between his muscled thighs she felt blessed relief begin to pour through her entire body as he brought her to the first peak. Suddenly her brain was clear again, and in place of her previous helplessness came a white-hot anger at what he had done to her. To her amazement she was able to separate her mind from her body, and while he gave her o.r.g.a.s.m after o.r.g.a.s.m, releasing the terrible s.e.xual agony he had inflicted upon her, her brain allowed Aidan to slip back into a secret place, and watch all that was happening to her body. Her body felt the release, but her soul did not. When once again her mind and body melded into one ent.i.ty, she fainted from the excesses that had been visited upon her.

With a shout of victory Murad poured himself into her beautiful body, and exhausted fell to one side. Within a few minutes, however, the sultan had regained his senses, and he looked to his fair partner. He revived her with kisses, and as she awoke Aidan knew that she had gone about this the wrong way. She had wanted either her freedom or her death, and they had denied her both. Now she would make them give her the death she sought. She would convince the sultan that she had been won over, and when he trusted her, she would kill him! Then they would have no choice but to kill her. It was a foolproof plan, and she felt no remorse for the suffering she would cause to Nur-U-Banu, and Safiye. Neither, she decided, was really her friend. Well, perhaps Safiye was.

The valideh, however, had used her to keep her son's favor. She deserved to be brought down for pandering for her own son. As for Safiye she would hardly miss a man who hadn't paid any attention to her in years. She would, at Murad's death, have as the new sultan valideh, the power she sought in place of the love she had lost. At least Safiye had been kind, and welcomed her honestly. Safiye had been her real friend. Murad's death would free her as it was going to free Aidan, and the lovely Zora, and all the other poor women who were prey to the incredible l.u.s.t of this wicked man!

"Have I given you pleasure, my exquisite one," he asked, "for you have certainly given me pleasure."

Raising her eyes to him she felt her cheeks grow pink which perfectly suited her purposes. She let her sandy lashes sweep back over her gray eyes. "Oh, my lord," she murmured, "I am ashamed to have resisted you! How could I have known? I did not, and I beg your pardon, sweet master." She twisted her body into a kneeling position upon the mattress, her coppery hair spreading across his thighs, a perfect picture of total submission.

"I understand," he said to her. "I understand perfectly, my exquisite one. I gave you no time to mourn your beloved Javid Khan, but my desire for you was, is so very, very great." He lifted her up, and kissed her pa.s.sionately. "You are like a fever in my blood, Marjallah. Nothing is ever enough! For the last fout days I have sat in the divan in the mornings, and it is your face that has been before me, the memory of your body that has tortured me beyond reason! Sinan, my architect, comes to me with plans for buildings we have been planning for months, and I cannot concentrate upon what he says. Perhaps now, my exquisite one, that yo.u have yielded to me, at least some of my senses will be restored to me."

She smiled sweetly at him. "I would not cause you distress, my lord," she said, and slipping next to him she blew softly in his ear, then bit hard upon his lobe.

Murad chuckled, a pleased sound. He enjoyed getting his own way. "What a little tigress you are, Marjallah, and so full of surprises!"

"May I continue to surprise you, my lord," she said. "I should not want you to become bored with me."

Her dulcet tone inflamed him, and though it was but late afternoon, the sultan felt yet fresh. It was as if her acquiescence had renewed his vigor. "There is little chance of my becoming bored, my exquisite Marjallah." Arising from the bed he said, "I have a small surprise for you," and taking her by the hand he led her across the room, and touching a small floral panel on the tile he revealed a little door that swung easily open upon well-oiled hinges. Stepping through he drew Aidan with him, and she found that they were at the head of a narrow flight of stairs.

The walls of the inner pa.s.sageway were covered in black and white tiles with just a touch of yellow. Holding tightly to the sultan's hand, Aidan followed him down the stairs, and through another door which opened into a large room which Aidan realized was directly beneath the sultan's bedchamber. It was domed, its marble arches supporting the sultan's rooms above. In the room was an amazingly lovely marble bathing pool which was entirely surrounded by a low, pierced marble bal.u.s.trade which offered only one set of steps down into the pool at the far end. Directly in the center of the pool was a spurting fountain, and the marble columns had spouts from which water sprayed forth.

"Can you swim?" the sultan asked her.

"A little," she admitted. Would it be possible, she wondered, to drown him? No. Alas, she was not strong enough even if she was large for a woman.

He led her into the water, and they swam about for a few minutes. To amuse himself Murad lifted Aidan up so she might straddle the spurting fountain with her legs, and then he swam to the edge of the pool to observe her as the water sprayed between her long and shapely limbs. Sliding her hands up her torso she cupped her own b.r.e.a.s.t.s, and held them up as if she were offering them to him. He moved toward her, and she laughed aloud, taunting him when he commanded her to jump from the fountain back into the pool. She watched him where he stood just outside the range of the fountain's spray, and releasing one of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s she took a single finger, and rubbing against her little jewel then put the finger into her mouth to suck upon it. At no time did her eyes leave his.

With an animal bellow of pure l.u.s.t Murad leapt toward the fountain, and in a burst of mocking laughter Aidan dove into the pool from the other side, and swam away from him. He was quickly after her, and catching her by her ankles he dragged her back into his embrace. She laughed up into his face, and furious Murad backed her against the side of the pool, and snarled at her, "Put your legs about my waist, slave!" and when she did he rammed forcefully into her, slamming her spine against the marble wall of the pool.

Her arms wrapped about his neck, and she kissed him pa.s.sionately, and bit at his lips, and licked at him with her tongue. It was if she was possessed by some lewd devil, and the sultan was overcome by what he believed was her deep and growing ardor for him. Cupping her b.u.t.tocks in his hands he used her fiercely until they were both overcome with their excesses, and Murad carried her from the pool and back up the stairs to his bedchamber where they slept until midevening.

With each day that pa.s.sed now Murad grew more and more enamored of Aidan. He possessed her daily, and she no longer refused him. Indeed she entered most willingly into his pa.s.sion, and yet there was something about her that he could not seem to possess try as he might. He showered her with gifts, but when he sought to move her from the little apartment next to his mother she begged he leave her there, and so he acquiesced. Quickly the impersonal little rooms took on a personality of their own, as the sultan gave to his exquisite Gift from the Sea rare pieces of furniture, made from fine woods, and inlaid with mother-of-pearl and semiprecious stones. The lamps in the apartment were all replaced with gold ones, and the simple rugs that had graced the floors had given way to thick wool carpets in dark jeweled tones from villages without names.

Her wardrobe expanded as Murad saw Aidan had her pick of the finest bolts of silks, and silk gauze, and cottons", and satins, and wools so delicate that they could be drawn through the band of a ring. The sultan could not gift her with enough jewelry for she had lost everything in the fire that had destroyed Javid Khan's palace. Ropes and more ropes of pearls were now hers, and emeralds and sapphires, and rubies from the East, and diamonds and all manner of precious and semiprecious stones set within red and pink gold, and some silver. She had refused his offer of more slaves telling him that she needed only Marta and her daughters along with the voluble Jinji to serve her.

She was neither aloof nor overly friendly with the other women of the harem, but she had rewarded Zora with jewelry and cloth for her kindness, and she was invariably good to frightened newcomers. She was befriended by the four most important women in the empire: Nur-U-Banu, Safiye, Janfeda, and Fahrusha Sultan; and so if she had any enemies amongst the harem women, they were not open enemies for fear of severe and cruel reprisals on the part of the powerful.

Esther Kira came often to the harem these days, and it was to her only that Aidan confided her misery. Esther was in a genuine quandary as to what to do. She liked Marjallah, and it was no secret that the sultan's vices and l.u.s.ts were many, and sometimes perverted. Lord Bliss would be back any day now from his expedition to Brusa, and she did not know what to tell him. She had attempted to subtly set Nur-U-Banu against Marjallah so that she would aid her in leaving the Yeni Serai, and returning to her home, but with Marjallah openly content, and the sultan ecstatic with his new inamorata, Nur-U-Banu could not be persuaded of the possibility of future difficulty. Besides, the lady Marjallah had not conceived with Javid Khan, and had not yet conceived with Murad. It was entirely possible, the sultan valideh told Esther Kira, that Marjallah was sterile.

Only Esther Kira knew of Aidan's true misery, and she desperately wished she could aid the young woman in returning to her husband. She had not dared to tell Marjallah of his presence in Turkey. There was something about Marjallah these days that worried the old lady. She seemed the same, and yet she was not. Esther Kira could not betray the royal Ottoman to whom she owed so much despite her deep wish to help the lady Marjallah.