Emissary (32 page)

Ana was escorted back to the harem and was met by an equal amount of cheering and excitement from the girls, who had stayed up late to welcome her.

‘They haven’t yet grasped that she is their enemy,’ Herezah murmured to Salmeo when he joined her.

‘Oh, but they will, Valide. Most are still barely out of childhood, excited by the novelty.’

‘How did she seem directly afterwards?’

‘No weeping, if that’s what you mean, Valide.’

He noticed how his news disappointed her.

‘Boaz finds it hard to hurt an insect,’ she retaliated. It sounded sour even to her own ears, and wrong, considering that her son was showing exemplary composure in making hard decisions that did mean injury to others. ‘So, tell me, how was she?’

Salmeo took a moment to consider his response. ‘Calm, dignified. There was definitely something between them.’

‘Be specific, Salmeo—what?’

‘It’s hard to say, Valide, I only delivered and collected Ana, so my time with them both was limited to barely moments. She appeared visibly nervous on the way to the Zar’s chambers but she struck me as sedate and entirely in control, with her usual sneer for me, when I reclaimed her.’

‘She doesn’t appear flushed or too dishevelled.’

‘No, but then she did ask me for a few moments to tidy herself and I suspect one of the mutes helped.’

‘One of the mutes?’

He nodded. ‘That very serious one, never smiles, Salazin’s his name. When I was summoned, he met me and then slipped into the chamber himself, gesturing for me to wait.’ He shrugged. ‘Is something amiss?’

Herezah’s frown eased. ‘No, I just remember my first time.’ She smirked. ‘Joreb made sure I could barely walk.’

‘As I recall, Valide, Zar Joreb kept you for many hours. Boaz lay with Ana for less than one.’

‘He’s young, probably still a bit shy, unsure. The main thing is it’s done. So how did they receive the bloodstained sheet in the Throne Room?’ she asked, looking now to where the girls were admiring that same piece of silk. It was the harem’s turn to follow its traditional custom. She watched the girls taking the four corners of the sheet, billowing it up into the air over Ana’s head and dancing around her. A particular song about marriage, the spilling of
blood and fertility was sung with great enthusiasm.

‘Oh, it was an inspired idea of yours, Valide, with excited applause and celebration—as you can imagine—and with quiet relief for those of us who realise what’s at stake.’

‘And Boaz, how was he?’

‘Looked rather pleased with himself, Valide,’ Salmeo lied, knowing this was what she wanted to hear, even though he, too, was a bit confused by the circumspect manner of the Zar. This moment was surely any young man’s greatest sense of triumph but the Zar had also carried himself with tremendous dignity and reserve.

‘Excellent,’ the Valide said, cutting across his thoughts. ‘As much as it galls me that she is the Zaradine and Absolute Favourite, we should be glad that things have fallen into place as they have.’

This surprised the Grand Master Eunuch. ‘How so, Valide?’ he asked politely, knowing that things had gone so against their original intentions.

Herezah didn’t mind explaining on this occasion. It helped her to carefully lay out her own thoughts that had finally sorted themselves whilst the despised Ana had lain with her son. ‘Well, Salmeo, she is no longer in quite such an unpredictable position. Her duty is now directly to the Zar and I suspect our feisty Ana will not be so inclined to try any of her tricks to defy Boaz.’ Salmeo thought differently, felt that Ana followed
rules only with herself, but he kept his own counsel. ‘But she remains very much under our control in the harem. I think if we take things slowly, carefully, we can begin to use Ana to our own ends.’

Salmeo couldn’t imagine Ana would ever put a grain of faith in either of them again. He could not hide his surprise at her comment. ‘Ana’s not gullible enough, Valide. She knows we manipulated her towards her own demise. I can’t imagine how you will use her to your own ends.’

‘Can’t you, Salmeo?’ came the haughty reply. ‘That’s because you lack imagination. Ana can always be controlled. We simply have to establish what she cares about.’

‘But, Valide—’

‘Don’t be disingenuous with me, eunuch, I know your mind is as cunning as my own,’ she snarled in her soft, feline way. ‘There is no undoing what is done. She lives—it is not my choice but it is how things have turned out. We move on. Because of the Galinseans—Zarab save me!—Ana is now the wife and Absolute Favourite of my son. I cannot change this but I can learn to live with it and see how best to work with her new status to achieve what I want.’

He could only admire her. Her whole careful plot had drowned, sunk into oblivion, like the black eunuch. Salmeo knew that the pain of that failure would be intense for Herezah and yet her
survival instincts always emerged to restore her resilience, fuel her creative spirit to think ahead as to how she might manipulate those around her. ‘What do you want, Valide?’ He was careful to keep his query innocent and utterly polite.

‘Nothing more than you do, Salmeo. I simply want control of the regime that is rightly mine, and I shall have it, but it may take just a bit longer. Incidentally,’ she said, obviously finished with this discussion, ‘whose inspired idea was it to have Boaz and Ana marry? Did the Zar come up with that clever plan?’

‘From my understanding it was the Spur’s, Valide. I gather Lazar suggested it when all else seemed lost. Ana speaks the language fluently but no-one would take her seriously enough as a concubine. She needs status to enter the Galinsean court.’

‘I see,’ Herezah said mildly, one perfectly shaped fingernail tapping against her teeth. ‘That does make it more interesting.’

‘How so, Valide?’

‘Because it means our Spur, so clearly besotted by the one who is now my son’s wife, is planning time alone with her and out of the harem. Makes for good sport, don’t you think, Salmeo?’

‘But you’ll be there, Valide, as chaperone,’ he warned.

‘Exactly. And I cannot wait for him to make his move.’

‘How can you be so sure he will?’

She laughed, although it came out as a sneer. ‘Intuition. I’ve told you before, Salmeo, you may be more woman than man but you cannot think like one of us.’ With this insult, she left his side and glided elegantly towards the centre of the room where the excitement for Ana had quietened.

‘Ana, my dear, how do you feel?’

Ana met her eyes with a fierce stare. ‘Empowered.’

Herezah had anticipated a certain amount of defiance but was not ready for such immediate rivalry. She did not show her surprise, however, and continued in the same tone as though Ana had not said anything confronting. ‘You must be a little weary…and sore.’

‘I all but drowned today, Valide. I’m not sure I can describe precisely my physical state.’

‘But you’ve lain with a Zar—surely you feel energised, triumphant?’

‘Neither, Valide. I remain a prisoner of the harem. Until that status changes, triumph is not mine.’

There was a shocked gasp from the girls as Ana so directly challenged the woman who scared them all.

‘Indeed,’ said Herezah lazily, seemingly unflustered, although Salmeo believed she must be fuming beneath her calm facade at such a public rebuke. ‘The Zar is young, he’ll need lots of attention, unless, of course, he chooses others quickly.’

‘He is free to choose whom he wishes, Valide, I’m sure you of all people understand this.’ Salmeo watched a pulse throbbing at Herezah’s temple. Ana was certainly hitting a nerve with her wintry defiance and it seemed she wasn’t finished. ‘I for one will not fret over it. He has taken my virginity now, as you can all see—perhaps he will enjoy more virgins before he returns me to his bed. Certainly he’ll have a long wait as I apparently must make a journey to help Percheron avoid war. I’d be lying if I didn’t suggest that that interests me far more than the vacant pastime of being a concubine with no other role in life but to pleasure a powerful man.’

Every word of Ana’s quiet but pointed speech was a deliberate note of disdain directed towards the Valide, each sentence an accusation, a sneer for the life Herezah had carved for herself. Perhaps Ana didn’t feel the gathering storm or perhaps she did and pressed on regardless, determined to seek some sort of revenge for Herezah’s treatment. Salmeo sensed it moments before it occurred, hardly dared breathe lest the Valide lose her normally nerveless control in front of the entire harem.

Herezah struck fast, her slap across Ana’s face claiming the shocked silence at the Zaradine’s words, its sound as sharp as it was surely painful to the person receiving the blow. Ana’s face flew sideways from the force but she steadfastly
remained on her feet and somehow found the wherewithal to turn straight back and face the Valide again. Her green eyes glittered darkly above the smile she wore openly.

‘Welcome to my new world, Valide,’ she uttered, loading her rival’s title with as much scorn as she could achieve. ‘Fate has stepped in to play her hand and we are now equals and you will never again lay a hand on me or lure me into your dark schemes. You are at the end of your power, Herezah. I am just coming into mine. Both of us enjoy this status because of your son. I wonder which one of us he would choose if he had to?’ Her smile widened, lifting the cheek with its livid handmark from the slap.

No-one knew what to do. The festive atmosphere had changed entirely to something dangerous, threatening. Some of the younger girls began to weep. Herezah looked oddly bereft of any words to shape a pithy response and Ana’s left cheek was turning bright red—she touched it now and nodded. There was something knowing in that gesture, Salmeo believed, and he moved as fast as his huge body would permit.

‘Valide! Zaradine Ana! Enough.’ His voice had lost its usual high, breathy quality. Now it sounded lower, angry. ‘This behaviour is unseemly for the harem.’ If he was shocked by Herezah being baited into acting so totally out of her own character, he was more stunned by Ana’s equally out-of-character response. Her words had chilled him. In
one day it appeared that they were no longer dealing with a broken young woman, still rather innocent, certainly naive and driven to the point of wanting to die. Before him Ana stood proud, defiant, and utterly confident in her own new status as wife of the Zar. There seemed not so much as a speck of fear reflected in those once wide, unsure eyes. Something had happened in that bedchamber with the Zar. It appeared that in taking her virginity, Boaz had given her something very precious in return. It’s not that Ana ever lacked spine but she was someone clearly acting instinctively, driven by the need to be free. This new Ana—if this was how she was going to be—offered a fresh trait that suggested she was suddenly and incredibly self-possessed. How that had happened in the space of an hour baffled Salmeo, and if he had not witnessed her transformation in person, he would have scoffed at such a thing.

‘Valide, we must get you prepared for travel. Zaradine Ana?’

‘Yes,’ she said, turning her gaze for the first time in a long time from the Valide.

‘You, too, must prepare for a long journey. I shall send some slaves.’

‘Do I return to my chamber?’

Salmeo almost laughed. Already Ana was, despite her carefully couched enquiry, suggesting she should be based in her own wing of the harem—as was fitting for a Zaradine and Absolute Favourite.

He cleared his throat. ‘I know you can appreciate that there has been little time since this morning—’

‘In preparing for a death and a wedding, you mean?’ she said, her voice hard.

He nodded, determined not to be intimidated. ‘Precisely. There has been no time to set up your new accommodations. And there is no point as you leave tonight anyway. I would appreciate it if you would return to your old chamber and guide the slaves in what to pack. You will need warm as well as light clothing. The desert is contrary at best.’ He stopped, needing to get the Valide to her rooms. ‘Come, Valide. Girls, amuse yourselves,’ he said the last brightly, although no-one could take their eyes off Ana and the Valide, or let go of the cold silence that washed like a winter stream between them.

Boaz sighed at Bin. He was in no mood, not after this day’s events. He thought again of Ana and their odd bargain made between the same satin sheets that had been so admired in the Throne Room and were no doubt now doing the rounds of the harem. ‘Yes, of course, show her in. Bring some apple tea.’

The servant bowed, closed the door momentarily before it opened again and the Valide swept into the chamber. ‘My Lion,’ she said, affection oozing from every pore.

‘Salutations, mother.’ He looked at her
quizzically. ‘Shouldn’t you be preparing for your journey?’

‘Oh, I’m letting Salmeo handle all of that,’ she said dismissively. ‘I wanted to see you. You’re sure I should be going?’

It was not like his mother to pass up any opportunity and this was by far the most generous chance she’d had in her lifetime to slough off the restrictions of the harem and taste a sense of freedom. ‘Very sure. My wife needs a female chaperone. I can’t think of anyone more suitable or wise.’

She ignored the compliment. ‘My wife. How enchanting that sounds. How do you feel?’

Boaz felt his well-honed skills of awareness about his mother go on the alert. Her voice sounded too innocent, her tone too chatty, and there was nothing normally sickly sweet about Herezah, yet here she was displaying the breathy interest of a mother with nothing else on her mind but domestic concerns. She was here on a mission and he would just have to do the dance, as he liked to think of it, until she got to the point. He opted to be evasive. He didn’t set out to irritate her but he had learned this past year of his reign that deliberately provoking the Valide tended to bring her to her point rather fast. ‘About what, marriage?’

‘Of course, what else could I mean? Oh,’ she said, apparently startled, ‘I wasn’t referring to your losing your virginity.’ She tinkled a laugh coquettishly.

He knew she lied. A bell sounded. ‘Come,’ Boaz answered, distracted by his mother’s odd behaviour.