I
n the hour before dawn Aidan was awakened by Marta, and she arose to dress for she was going to Istanbul to bring Esther Kira back for a visit. Normally she would have let the elderly lady come to her, but since the matriarch of the Kira family had given her the means of creating her beautiful gardens, she wanted to show her friend the courtesy of coming for her herself. She dressed warmly for although it was mid-spring, it was chilly out upon the water in the early morning, and the lined sleeveless robe of sky-blue silk that she put on over her other clothing was welcome.
Sipping a handleless cup of strong black tea she gave Marta her final instructions. “Be sure to wake my lord Javid shortly after I leave so that he may ride at dawn. Tell Hammed that he is to serve baby lamb for the meal today, but under no circumstances is he to serve any dairy product upon the table with the meat for it is against Esther Kira’s religion for such things to be mixed, I am told. Be sure that the servants use the new dishes, the ones I had blessed by the Jewish priest so that Esther might eat with me. Do we have plenty of Turkish paste candy for Esther does love it?”
“Yes, my lady, yes, yes, yes!” laughed Marta. “Everything is in perfect readiness as you ordered. There is nothing to worry about, and I will oversee all in your absence. Now go, for if you do not then you will not reach the city in time, and then you and your guest will not be able to enjoy the sunrise from the water.”
Aidan slipped back into her bedchamber, and leaning over the bed she kissed Javid Khan. Instantly he was awake, and rolling over he pulled her down into the bed atop him. “My lord! You will make me late,” she protested.
His mouth found hers in a searing kiss, and then releasing his grip only slightly he said, “We have no time at all?” and his hand slipped skillfully through several layers of her clothing to tease at her nipples.
“Shameless one!” she laughed pulling his hand away. “Did you not sate yourself last night?”
“Ahh, my jewel, but that was last night. I am awake and hungry once again for your sweet body.”
“Damn you, Javid,” she muttered, “there really is no time.”
“Then I can but await the departure of our guest who has not even arrived yet. Tonight, however, I shall exact a severe revenge from you for my disappointment of this morning.” His sky-blue eyes twinkled at her. “Go now!”
“I shall eagerly await your rebuke, my lord husband,” she teased him as she went out the door.
“I love you, Marjallah, my wife,” he called after her, and Aidan smiled with genuine happiness.
Jinji, ever mindful of her appearance, would not allow her to travel alone the short distance to the city, and so he and Marta’s daughters, Fern and Iris, were now awaiting her. Together the four of them hurried to the caïque where the oarsmen sleepily awaited them.
The water in the chill of the predawn was black and calm. Above them the sky was slate-colored, its flat surface broken here and there by clear, cold stars, some of which were blue-white in color, and others an icy red. There was absolutely no wind and no sound other than the slap-slap of the caïque’s oars as they creased the water. The prince’s vessel moved slowly from its mooring, and then guided by their helmsman who stood at the stern of the boat gripping his long oar, the oarsmen slipped out into the main channel of the Bosporus. Quickly finding their rhythm the oarsmen soon had the caïque moving swiftly through the mirror-still waters.
Aidan didn’t bother drawing the curtains of the caïque, and looking out she could see the passing landscape although in the predawn darkness there was little to see. The hills on the Asian side of the Bosporus resembled nothing more than great lumps, and the island in midstream that was located halfway between Istanbul and Javid’s palace was equally indistinguishable. Jinji for once was silent. He was not a morning person. Fern and Iris sat sleepily nodding against each other, and Aidan was frankly grateful for the quiet. Esther Kira was to meet them at the waterfront quay reserved for vessels belonging to ambassadors to the Sublime Porte. Rounding a point Aidan saw the towers, the domes, and the minarets of the city come into view. The sky was now a light gray, and the stars had almost all faded away but for bright Jupiter.
The caïque began to nose itself in toward the shore, steering a course between vessels that were anchored in the harbor. The city was beginning to awaken, but it was not yet noisy. Reaching their destination Aidan saw the ornate and comfortable litter of Esther Kira already waiting. Jinji leapt from the caïque as it touched the quay, and hurried over to escort the venerable old lady from her vehicle to the boat. For a moment he stopped to chatter with a eunuch of the Kira household who had accompanied his mistress, and then the two of them aided the matriarch from her litter, and helped her into the caïque of Javid Khan.
“Good morning, Esther Kira,” said Aidan. “I believe that we are to have a beautiful day.”
“Indeed, my child, I trust that you are correct.” She turned back to her own servant. “Where is my shawl, Yakob? I am already cold.”
The negligent Yakob hurried back to the litter, and returned bearing his lady’s garment which he handed to a smirking Jinji, who entering the boat wrapped it about Esther Kira with great ceremony.
“Bring the brazier near the lady Esther’s feet, Jinji,” said Aidan, “and where is that soft woolen lap robe I asked you to bring?”
Jinji almost stumbled over himself to do Aidan’s bidding, and very quickly everything was as she had ordered. Taking his seat he signaled to the helmsman and the oarsmen to get their craft under way once again.
“We shall return your lady at sunset, Yakob,” Aidan called out as the caïque pulled away from its dockage. “I hope,” she said turning back to her guest, “that you do not mind my coming for you so early, but I wanted us to have the entire day together for I owe you so much, Esther Kira. Yesterday the sultan, his mother, Safiye, and a party of ladies from the harem including Fahrusha Sultan, and the lady Janfeda came to celebrate our gardens with us. They were most pleased, and went away content. It cannot but help my husband in his position as ambassador from his homeland.”
“It has ever been a woman’s duty to aid her husband along his chosen pathway wherever she may, Marjallah. I am happy I have been able to be of service to you. It has been my life to be of service to others, and the lord God, whom we call Yahweh, blessed be his name forever, has rewarded me greatly by giving my family wealth and a power of sorts in this strange land which we inhabit.”
“Have you lived here all your life, Esther Kira?” asked Aidan.
She loved the tales the old lady told, and she was eager to encourage her to further stories.
“Yes,” said Esther Kira, “I was born here. My family was forced to leave the land of Israel, the homeland given to us so long ago that the date is lost in time, after the fall of the citadel of Masada, when the mighty Roman Empire ruled the world. You call Israel, Palestine, the Holy Land. My family wandered for many years until coming to the city of Constantinople in the days of the great Constantine himself. We have lived here ever since.”
“Then your family has been here hundreds of years,” noted Aidan.
“Yes,” agreed Esther, “we have. We came when the people of the city were yet pagans, worshiping the old Roman gods, but Constantine, who was emperor of the Eastern Empire became a Christian, and we were persecuted for a time. Then in 1453 the Ottoman sultan, Mohammed, called the Conqueror, came from across the Bosporus, and took the city which was then called Constantinople. The old empire had been dying slowly for years, and the Turks even had a small foothold on this side of the water by virtue of a dowry settlement of Princess Theadora Cantacuzene who was married first to Sultan Orkhan, and then later to his son, the first Sultan Murad.”
“She married her own son?” Aidan was shocked.
Esther Kira laughed. “Bless me, no, child! Princess Theadora was not the first Murad’s mother. Murad was half-grown when the little princess was bartered into a loveless marriage with a man old enough to be her grandfather. In exchange the princess’ father obtained military aid from the sultan. The story goes that the first Murad saw her in his father’s house, and fell in love with her. When his father died he married her, and it is their great-great-grandson who was the eventual conqueror of Constantinople which is now called Istanbul. When the Turks came we were not persecuted, nor were the Christians. It is the way of the Ottoman Muslims to tax us for our slightly different beliefs, not only in money, but in sons for their corps of Janissaries, and beautiful daughters for their harems. It is a price we pay, and under the Ottoman rule we have prospered. Their government is a sound and a fair one although I fear the rule of the women that has been slowly overcoming the sultans recently, but enough of this chatter, dear child. Look! The dawn! Blessed be the Lord God! There is no artist like him. Behold, the sky!” and her plump, beringed hand pointed to the dark hills of Asia, now quite visible in the morning light.
The sky just above those hills was brightening, a thin band of molten gold widening quickly, and poured up to banish the dull gray of earlier. It was followed by an array of colors so breathtaking that Aidan caught her breath with delight. Like bolts of the finest China silk the colors—scarlet-orange, rose pink, pale mauves edged in royal purple, and lemon yellow—rolled across the sky until it shimmered and glowed with the ethereal light. Then the fiery ball of the crimson sun burst above the green hills, and the day had begun. A small breeze sprang up to ruffle gently the blue waters of the Bosporus as they drew abreast of the island Aidan considered the midway point in their journey.
“Is it not glorious?” said Esther Kira. “I will shortly be celebrating my eighty-ninth year, and no matter how many sunrises and sunsets I see, each one is different, each one a testimony to the greatness of God. It makes me feel quite unimportant in the scheme of things.” She chuckled. “I believe I enjoy sunrises and sunsets because they have the ability to keep me humble and sensible. I tell my son, Solomon, and my grandsons, of this, but they, being superior beings, think I am naught but a foolish old woman.”
“I do not believe for one moment that you think men superior beings, Esther Kira, no matter what they think,” Aidan laughed.
“Men!” The matriarch smiled. “Men begin as helpless, crying infants who spring forth from women’s bodies. They are nourished at a woman’s breast, by a woman’s milk, but for some reason the moment they begin to use their legs their brains tell them that they are superior to their mothers, and their sisters, and all other women. I find this an interesting phenomenon, don’t you, Marjallah?”
“Indeed I do, but you have still not answered my question,” replied Aidan.
Esther chuckled again. “You are an intelligent woman,” she said, and then, “No, I do not necessarily consider men wiser than women in all cases, but that, as you well know, is a most radical viewpoint on my part. It is necessary for a wise woman to allow the men in her life their small illusions, is it not? They tell me that Prince Javid Khan loves you deeply, but you do not love him, I am certain, yet you give him the illusion of love, and he is satisfied.”
Aidan flushed. “I do care for my lord Javid,” she said, and then she sighed, “but you are right when you say I do not love him as he loves me. Perhaps in time I shall for he is such a kind and good man, and I do not want to cheat him of what should rightfully be his. Still, I cannot forget Conn, my true husband, Esther Kira. Pray God that in time I do.”
“Again we are ruled by the infernal workings of the male mind,” said the old lady. “You are given to the prince, and expected to wipe from your feeble female brain your entire past. It is a tribute to our stamina that women survive and cope so very well, Marjallah.” She reached over, and patted Aidan’s hand with her plump one. “Still you are happy, I can see, and I am glad. Now tell me of the gardens for we are almost there.”
“Your bulbs are wonderful, Esther Kira! The sultan and his party were utterly enchanted, and I have promised to give the sultan some of the mauve crocuses with the orange throats. He was most taken by them.” She went on to tell her friend of how she had arranged it so that all the bulbs were virtually at their peak, and Esther Kira nodded.
“You are a clever girl, Marjallah,” she said. “Although the sultan’s hobbies are clockmaking and painting, his trade is gardening. He is a very high-strung, intense man, and he enjoys the solitude that the gardens offer him. Working about the plants and flowers is very soothing to him.”
“I can understand that,” answered Aidan. “Plants ask only to be pruned and watered, nothing more. They do not talk back at you or argue with you over trifling matters.”
Esther Kira laughed an amused chuckle which suddenly died in her throat. Her dark eyes widened, straining to see the shore, and she pointed with a finger toward the land.
“What is it?” Aidan followed the direction of Esther’s finger, and a chill swept her body.
“Stop the vessel!” the old woman croaked in a surprisingly strong voice. “Do not go any farther!”
The helmsman nodded to the oarsmen who raised their dripping oars, and they all looked toward the palace which had just come into their view. Out over the water they could now hear shouting, and the sound of discord. Then without warning a spear of flame shot up from the palace itself to be followed by another, and another, and another.
“Oh, my God!” whispered Aidan. “It is my lord Javid’s nightmare all over again. Quickly! To the shore! We must help them!”
“No!”
The word was sharp, and they looked to Esther Kira. “Marjallah, be sensible. Do not allow your heart to rule you in this instance. Someone is attacking your palace. Three young women, an old lady, and a handful of slaves cannot help whatever is happening. We have no weapons. If we step ashore we shall all be killed. What purpose would that serve?” She looked to the helmsman. “Turn the caïque about,” she said, “and row as swiftly as you can for the Yeni Serai!” Then as the vessel was being swung around she said to Aidan, “We will go to the sultan for aid. He will send his soldiers.”