Odalisque (10 page)

‘Thank you, Valide, for your generosity.’ Lazar moved quickly to business. He wanted to be gone as soon as possible. ‘I present six applicants for your consideration.’

A bell sounded, another set of curtains was pulled back and a line of girls were led in, all naked save a gauzy sheath which gave them a sense of modesty although it hid nothing. He ignored all the others and looked only at Ana. He hated that the other men in the room were enjoying the sight of this girl’s body, just ripening into womanhood.

‘Come, girls.’ Salmeo shooed them into position in front of Herezah and began the introductions. ‘This is Fajel, she is ten and as you can see is straight-limbed with a tendency towards being tall, I would suggest…’ Lazar forced his mind to drift. He did not want to listen to this.

He fixed his own stare onto Herezah, to give the impression that he was paying close attention, but gave nothing of himself to her. He knew she watched him more closely than the child and he deliberately blanked his face, knowing how much it irritated her. She got bored with trying to win any flicker of interest from him and returned to the job at hand.

‘Can you sing something for us, Fajel?’ she asked and the girl nodded. ‘Go ahead, then.’

A sweet sound broke across the mainly silent room, interrupted only by shuffles or coughs. There was no more socialising now. Each man wanted his six chosen above all others.

The girl finished her song. ‘That was very nice,’ Herezah said, condescendingly. ‘Turn around for me, child.’

Salmeo aided the spinning of the girl so the Valide could see her from all angles. ‘This one will stay slim, Valide Zara,’ he hazarded.

‘Yes, we’ll take her,’ Herezah said, sounding slightly bored. ‘Next.’

It continued. Lazar was not involved in any of the choosing but he was required to stand alongside the line and he was pleased that Ana was last and he was able to be next to her as the line dwindled. He could feel the heat from her body radiating to where the back of his hand barely touched the thin gauze that separated his skin from hers. He wished he could hold her hand once more and offer reassurance. It would be hollow, though—it would be a lie and Ana would know it, he was sure.

Finally it was her turn and he took a deep, steadying breath, hoping nothing of the turmoil he was feeling was given away on his face.

Salmeo continued. ‘Valide Zara, this is Ana, found in Shanar. She is almost fifteen and already a dazzling beauty if I might say so. I would urge that this girl is the pick of the forty-two on offer
this evening. I understand the Spur paid a premium for her.’

‘Indeed, Salmeo, and rightly so.’ Herezah stood. Lazar knew her interest had been piqued by the presentation of Ana. It was everything he had hoped would not happen. ‘She’s from the foothills, you say?’

Lazar took a moment to realise Herezah was addressing him. ‘Er, yes, Valide, from the west. She belongs to a goatherd’s family, but she was originally an orphan, adopted by them.’

‘That hair!’ Herezah said, unable to hide her excitement. ‘Where does one find a child of this colouring in the foothills?’

Lazar shrugged, feigning boredom. ‘I’m told by the stepmother that she was found after the Samazen had passed through. She was newborn. Presumably her family perished. As for the colour, I suspect she is from the far, far west, probably merchants.’ He had been pondering the same questions himself since buying her. The story was too thin and yet that had been the only time that Felluj had seemed to be completely genuine with them. The child had been found and adopted—there was nothing else to discover and her real family was probably dead and was almost certainly from a country no-one in this room, save himself, had ever seen.

‘Oh yes, yes,’ Herezah was saying over his thoughts, ‘spin, child, let me feast my eyes upon you.’

Ana obeyed and for the first time Lazar looked too. He felt the tug in his heart—the pinprick of pain he had experienced at her smile. She was perfect. He had been wrong to think her coltish; he had been fooled by the baggy clothing her stepmother had forced on her and the square shoulders. Beneath Ana’s transparent shift was a nubile body rounding into the fullness of womanhood. Her belly was taut, flat; her curves still gentle but filled with promise. Her breasts were already full and high.

Herezah stepped down from the plinth and shocked everyone by reaching out and pinching one of Ana’s nipples. To her credit, Ana did not flinch.

Herezah laughed with pleasure. ‘Oh yes, watch them rise strong and ready to the touch. This one is more than wanted; this one is desired. Boaz will love her. Congratulations, Lazar.’ Herezah looked directly at Ana now. ‘You’re very beautiful, my dear, do you know it? Will you use it in the right way, I wonder?’

‘I am how I am, Valide,’ Ana said levelly, taking everyone by surprise. Herezah’s question was rhetorical and no-one had anticipated a response. When it came it silenced those gathered, including the Valide. Salmeo glared at the child.

‘And headstrong too, I see,’ Herezah continued. ‘That we shall need to work upon.’ She looked towards the chief eunuch. ‘Salmeo.’

‘Yes, Valide,’ he lisped enthusiastically.

‘I may even take this one on myself.’

Lazar’s heart sank. How much worse could it get for Ana?

‘Who better to prepare her for Boaz than the person who knows him the best?’ the Valide asked no-one in particular and laughed beneath her veils.

‘That is a high compliment to the girl, Valide,’ Salmeo admitted. ‘You are fortunate, child,’ he said to Ana, still glowering at her audacious comment earlier.

‘Ana, you are now odalisque of the harem of Zar Boaz, King of Kings, Mightiest of the Mighties.’ Then Herezah smiled. ‘And I am your mistress now.’

Ana said nothing this time, even though everyone now anticipated some response. It was Lazar who filled the pause.

‘Valide?’

‘Oh yes, Spur, you will be paid handsomely for this find.’

‘That is not my query, Valide Zara. There were conditions with Ana’s purchase.’ He wondered whether he could pull this off.

‘Conditions?’ she said in the quiet voice he knew well. Herezah had learned long ago not to fall into the trap of screeching as other women might, or raising her voice when she disagreed. She had taught herself to harness the emotion into a deadly calm.

Lazar, however, was ready for her. ‘Yes, that’s right. It’s unusual, I agree.’ He contrived a tone of embarrassment. ‘Valide, this girl was too special to pass up. I thought you might be prepared to make an exception. But I understand if you’d take umbrage at being dictated to by a mere peasant.’ He did his best to insult her politely, hoping against hope she’d rise to his bait and banish both him and the girl. ‘In fact, if you are offended—and I would not blame you if you were—I shall stand by the rules you have made.’

‘Which are?’ she asked.

‘That the money I spent on her is my loss and I must make it up as best I can.’

‘I see,’ Herezah said and he knew he had not won the gamble. Her interest in the girl was too strong, and he knew how she loved to trade words with him.

‘So what are these “conditions”?’ She laced the final word with grim humour and he could hear the men muttering behind him, could imagine the wry smiles on their faces.

‘The mother insisted that Ana be permitted freedom one day each month.’

‘Preposterous!’ Tariq cried on behalf of the Valide, his beard jewels flashing in harmony with his anger.

Herezah raised a hand. She looked towards Salmeo, a question in her eyes.

‘Never permitted previously, Valide Zara,’ the eunuch replied, equally outraged.

She nodded and returned her dark gaze to Lazar who refused to squirm beneath it.

‘I understand,’ he said, beginning to bow, hoping to remove himself.

‘Not so fast, Spur,’ she said softly. ‘The girl is young. What sort of freedom did her mother have in mind for her daughter? Perhaps if we could send Salmeo to escort her. She would be veiled completely, of course, at all times.’

Now he did squirm. ‘Er, well, Valide, I think she rather had in mind something less constricting.’

‘Oh?’

‘Her mother impressed upon me that Ana is startlingly intelligent. She had hopes that we might be able to encourage learning language, culture—’

‘Yes, of course,’ Herezah interrupted, ‘she would no doubt get all of that and more if she shows talent.’

‘I’m not explaining myself well, Valide. Perhaps it’s because I feel extremely awkward about the full extent of the mother’s conditions.’

Herezah’s patience was wearing thin now. ‘Why don’t you lay out the full extent of the conditions, Spur, so I can make a firm decision.’

‘She required me to be her escort,’ he said firmly.

‘You!’ Her voice was soft but as angry as he could recall.

He nodded. ‘My apologies, Valide. Felluj entrusted this most precious child of hers to me
personally. She charged me with Ana’s safety and education. She understood me to be a soldier and decided that I was the most appropriate…um…guardian, for want of a better word.’

The pause—and what wasn’t being said in the dread silence that followed his words—was so palpable and heavy, Lazar felt quite sure it could be cut up, served on a platter and forced down his gullet. He had played his hand.

‘And if I did not choose Ana, Spur, what would you do with her? Make her your own?’

‘I would sell her, Valide,’ he said, adding an undertone of insult to his voice. ‘I have no need for a child in my life.’

The eyes sparkled in between the slit of the veil. She was loving watching him bristle.

‘But you want to be her guardian, is that right?’

He deliberately took a controlled but audible breath to suggest he was getting tired of this line of questioning. ‘The promise under which she was sold demanded that I agree to this condition on your behalf. I knew I had no right to do this, Valide Zara, but I believed the girl was worth it. She is special, I’m sure we all agree on this, and someone to match minds with Boaz, who is something of a scholar. Ana has the potential to be a fulfilling mate for him, rather than just a plaything. I’m sure you above most would understand such a thing.’ His words couched insult with compliment, deliberately done. Certainly his final line was meant to remind her
that Joreb had chosen her for Absolute Favourite not only because of her beauty and prowess as a lover but because she had a bright, quick mind to match his own.

‘One day a month you say?’

‘That’s right. She would be in my care for that full day.’

‘She would be veiled fully. No-one may look upon her.’

‘Of course,’ he said indignantly.

‘Let me think on this, Spur. Ana must pass her Test of Virtue. Present yourself at the palace for my answer in the late evening tomorrow. We shall take supper together and discuss it. Until then, you are dismissed.’

He bristled silently, hating the position he found himself in, being ordered around by this woman. Supper! Allad save him, he thought, calling upon his homeland god. ‘Thank you, Valide Zara.’ He bowed and as he did so a loud sneeze exploded from nearby. It wasn’t someone in the room.

Salmeo looked thunderstruck, and with a single signal, men began to swarm.

‘You fool, Kett,’ Boaz hissed, terrified.

‘I…I couldn’t help it, Zar. I will not let them know you were here,’ the youngster beseeched, scared that he might bring down the wrath of the harem on the Zar. ‘Run!’

Pez had to admire the young servant’s courage.
‘No use running. There would be guards at every point since Herezah left her chambers.’

‘What can we do?’ Boaz asked, head swivelling this way and that looking for an escape.

‘There is no escape. We must wait.’ They could hear men’s voices, footsteps.

‘Wait!’ Boaz somehow managed to convey a yell in his whisper.

Pez noted how calm Kett appeared, his only show of anxiety the way he shifted his weight from foot to foot.

The dwarf spoke in a voice Boaz had not heard before. ‘Boaz, stand close to me.’ The Zar began to splutter noises of hesitation but Pez ignored him. ‘Do it now! There is no more time.’

‘What can this possibly do?’ Boaz asked, putting his arms around the shoulders of the dwarf who leaned back against the Zar.

‘Hush, Boaz, not a sound!’ Pez commanded. ‘Forgive me, Kett,’ he added in a whisper. ‘I cannot protect you as I warned, but you and I will see each other again.’

‘Who are you?’ Kett asked, frightened but remaining stoic as the voices got louder.

‘Wait for me,’ Pez said, remembering something the old woman had whispered to him. ‘Betray me not.’

It was all he had time to say before the guards were upon them.

They descended on Kett; the boy made no protest. Boaz couldn’t understand it; they were
standing so close to him, it was obvious—surely—that they would be seen as well. Yet the guards’ gazes appeared to slide past them. He wanted to shout at them but in truth his mouth was too dry to utter a sound. He felt as though the light shining through the latticework had lit them up like the trees they decorated for the Festival of Light, but no, the guards ignored the Zar and Pez and simply manhandled Kett away down the corridor.

They were left alone, the voices and footsteps dissipating as the confusion in the Choosing Room increased.

‘Pez,’ he whispered, quite sure his bowels had turned to water. ‘What just happened?’

The dwarf sighed. Boaz was too intelligent to trick and he needed the boy to know that this was all for a reason.

‘I told you I could protect us, not him.’

Boaz broke away from his friend, spinning the small man around. ‘What do you mean by that? The guards were as close as I am to you and they didn’t see us!’

‘Hush, High One, or they’ll be back.’

‘You tell me how it can be that they saw Kett but not us.’

‘Another one of my tricks, Your Majesty,’ Pez answered.

‘No!’ the boy hissed. ‘That was nothing like pulling kerchiefs from your nose or doves from your hat. That was much, much more.’

‘Boaz, I have asked you to trust me and I’m going to ask you to indulge me a little longer.’

‘It’s impossible what just occurred,’ the Zar moaned. He was prevented from saying any more with the arrival of Kett into the Choosing Room, hanging between the grip of two guards. The Zar’s attention was diverted but he gave Pez a warning glare that their conversation was not done with yet.