Zuleika and the Barbarian

sultan here alone. Prince Haroun has taken all his attendants, and I alone remain.'

'When did this happen?' Zuleika asked.

'Yesterday, while we were all in the sultan's hall of audience. When I returned with your father afterwards everyone was gone. When I sought an explanation I was told that the prince had ordered it. I was very afraid, princess. If I leave him, what will happen?'

'You may go and rest,' Zuleika said. 'I will keep watch by my father's bedside this night.'

'I think the prince seeks his inheritance, princess,' Maryam said in a low tone.

'I believe you are right, Maryam,' Zuleika answered the old serving woman. 'Haroun has never been patient, even when we were children.'

'I curse the Gods that they took your brothers from us!' Maryam said passionately.

'Do not curse the Gods, Maryam. They had, I think, very little to do with it. How interesting is it that my cousin encouraged my father and my brothers to war with Amir Khan while he remained safe behind the walls of this city. The Gods allow us a modicum of freedom, Maryam. But they are there to judge us when we exchange life in this world for a life in the next. More important, the Gods know what is in our hearts. There are no secrets from them, although we may believe we are clever enough to keep our innermost thoughts from them.'

Maryam sighed. 'You are right, princess,' she said. Then seeing the basin in Zuleika's hands she asked, 'Shall I take that for you, my princess?'

Zuleika shook her head. 'Nay. I will put it aside. Rafa is coming tomorrow with a change of garments for me. It is my foot basin. She left it behind. I will have her take it back to the khan's camp with her when she returns.' Zuleika set the vessel aside casually. 'Go now and rest, dear Maryam.'

'I have fed your father, what little he would eat,' Maryam said. 'He is tucked in his bed, but not asleep yet, I suspect. He will be pleased to know you are here.' Then she turned and left the sultan's apartments.

Haroun had not yet put in an appearance, and Zuleika knew that he was sure to do so. He would know now of her presence in the palace. He would want to appear concerned. She was eager to consult Kansbar, but it was too dangerous until her cousin had come, and then gone. The princess went into her father's bedchamber and seated herself upon a padded stool next to the elderly man.

'Kansbar?' he husked at her softly.

'I have retrieved the bowl, father.'

'It must be given, by tradition, to the next sultan,' Ibrahim said to his daughter.

'Not Haroun,' Zuleika replied in a determined voice.

'You are strong enough to lead Dariyabar,' her father replied.

'The khan is stronger, father. And more worthy. Please trust my judgment in this, though I be but a woman,' she told him.

A cynical smile touched his lips at her words. 'And a diplomat as well, my daughter. I know that it is you who have inherited my intellect. Your brothers were good men, but they had not, any of them, the strength or ability to rule Dariyabar. Tell me of your khan.'

'He is strong, not simply of body, but of mind,' she began. 'His people respect but fear him as well. Not because he is cruel, rather because he is mighty. On our short acquaintance I have found him to be kind, and fair.'

'Do you trust him, my daughter?' the sultan asked her.

'Yes,' Zuleika answered unhesitatingly, 'although I have told him that I do not.'

'Why?'

Zuleika quickly explained in soft tones her visit to the khan's encampment the night before he entered Dariyabar. 'But then when he came he did not ask for me as his wife, and took me for his concubine.'

'He is clever,' the sultan said. 'He realized that if he insisted upon having you for a wife, Haroun would become suspicious, and plot his demise. Could you not see that, my daughter?'

'I did, upon reflection, my father, but he must believe he has to re-earn my trust lest he betray me ever again,' she said.

'There speaks the woman in you, Zuleika,' her father chided her. 'How was he to communicate with you before he entered the hall of audience? The khan did the right thing. I believe that your judgment is correct. It is Amir Khan who should follow me upon the throne of Dariyabar, but there is still the matter of your cousin, Haroun.'

'He must be killed,' Zuleika said implacably.

'Let the genie make that decision, my daughter. I dislike having the blood of my nephew on my hands. Kansbar will do what is best for Dariyabar. You must bring him to me that I may tell him of my desires in this matter,' the sultan said.

'Haroun has not yet come, father, and he will come, I know it. Let us wait until he is gone. Sleep now. I will stay by your side.'

'You are not afraid of Haroun, are you, my daughter? Yet you must not be overconfident. He is a dangerous man.'

'Yes,' she agreed, 'he is, father. But he did not realize that I was the key to Dariyabar, so great was his greed for the kingdom. That greed will cost him dearly.'

'You must also beware of Golnar,' her father warned.

'Why? She is a simple creature who has told me she cannot do without her special hairbrushes,' Zuleika said scornfully.

'She is more to be feared than your cousin,' the sultan said. 'Her eunuch is in my pay, daughter. Golnar is the whip that drives your cousin, Haroun. Your cousin has no mind of his own to scheme. He is merely an avaricious fool. It is Golnar who plans and plots the strategies that will lead to Dariyabar's downfall. She is a crafty creature, far more treacherous than Haroun. He but concerns himself with satisfying his own desires for wealth, women, wine and the power she promises him will be his when I am dead.'

'Why did you not tell me all this before, father?' Zuleika asked her parent, surprised by the depth of his words.

'Because you needed an ally to fight Haroun,' her father said.

'I have Kansbar,' the princess responded.

'It is not enough, my daughter. Dariyabar will not accept a ruling sultana. There must be a sultan, and without a viable alternative candidate you would have been helpless. That is why I allowed Haroun to believe he had convinced a senile old man to give his daughter to the enemy,' Sultan Ibrahim said.

Zuleika had to laugh at this revelation. 'Father, you sly fox!' she chortled.

'Old age and cunning will always triumph over youth, my daughter,' he responded with a chuckle. 'It is a good lesson to remember.'

'I will indeed remember it,' she promised him. 'Now get some rest, father.'

The old man closed his eyes, and Zuleika settled down by his side to watch over him. Until this night she had not fully realized what a clever man her father really was. He had spent more time trying to teach her brothers how to be rulers than being with his daughter, though it had been a useless exercise. Cyrus, Asad, and Jahi had been men of brawn, but little intellect. Zuleika came to realize that it was this that kept her father from giving in to, his own desires, and joining his beloved Jamila in the afterlife. Dariyabar needed him. And the truth of the matter was that of his four children, only his daughter had the wit to rule. And in order to do that she must have a husband. He had parented his half-brother's nephew in hopes that Haroun could be molded into a ruler, but Haroun was controlled by his insatiable desires and his greed. He was worse than the sultan's sons.

And then Haroun, encouraged by his favorite, Golnar, had come up with the idea of giving Zuleika to Amir Khan.

Zuleika smiled to herself as she sat by the sultan's bedside. The old man had played his part to the hilt, nodding and agreeing with his nephew that this would be the answer to their problems. But Haroun was not defeated yet. Zuleika sighed. She wished she were back in the khan's pavilion, naked and in her lover's arms. This second night, alone and together, would have been magic. But first things first! Her cousin must be dealt with as quickly as possible now that her father's health was in such a precarious state. She started as two hands fell upon her shoulders.

'Zuleika, my dear and beautiful cousin, how dutiful a daughter you are,' Haroun's voice murmured softly. His hand caressed her neck lightly.