“Allah veiling, it will be as you say.”
I bowed to her words and made my way back to the eunuchs’ quarters by the gate where I joined a crowd of my colleagues, watching anxiously from the windows. We heard a shout and a groan from the firefighters, but what caught their attention escaped us, the angle of the wall blocking our view.
We didn’t have long to wonder. The head eunuch soon came running in. “To our charges, khuddam. They tried to hold the flames back at the gate, but it’s breached now. Come, to the ladies.”
In some respects, it was good the head eunuch’s quarters were on the outer side of the gate; he had already lost his possessions to the flames and was now able to think clearly about other things. When his seconds stopped by their cubicles to gather what they valued most, he was able to knock silk robes, fine ceramics, and books from their hands, saying, “Put that down, my friend. You will need your arms for the children.”
“But where shall we take our charges?” someone asked.
“The garden,” the head eunuch said. He answered on the spur of the moment. Nonetheless, given all the time in the world, anyone would have come to the same conclusion; the garden was the only sanctuary.
“But we can’t take them into the garden. It’s not ladies’ day in the garden. The Sultan is there, entertaining friends.”
“I’m sure the men will be circumspect enough to look away if they realize the only alternative is the flames. And if they are not—well, then, you will have to work harder, won’t you?”
We were met at the harem vestibule by several ladies who had been drawn by the smoke and came to wonder.
“Into the garden. Into the garden, ladies,” the head eunuch said, and set one of his seconds to accompany them. They stood at the door to the outside, blinking and hesitating, as skittish as horses when the stables are on fire. Inside was safety. Outside was something worse than pain or death—a loss of honor.
“Come on, come on,” the eunuchs encouraged.
“We’ll have a time of this,” I warned the head. “I know many women have gone up to the second floor to watch from the windows. You’ll have to get them down.”
“Yes, thanks for the word,” he said, and went up the first staircase we came to with half of his staff following.
When I opened the door of the room where I’d left my lady, the smell of smoke followed me quite strongly and gave force to my words. “Come, lady. It’s too late to leave by the front in the sedan. That way is already in flames. We must go out the back on foot, into the garden. Come, I’ll help you.”
I’d given all my seconds the day off because I’d assumed, in the Serai, I wouldn’t need them. I cursed that assumption and the lack of another pair of strong arms. But three of her maids and I managed to half carry, half support Esmikhan out of doors. Our task was made even more difficult by the fact that, as soon as she saw we were in earnest, as soon as she saw the smoke, and caught the panic of the fleeing women passing us, my lady remembered her daughter.
“Gul Ruh!”
“I’ll go for her when we’ve got you safe, lady,” I promised.
She called out her daughter’s name again and began to struggle, making our task more difficult.
Gul Ruh no less than her mother was my responsibility to see safe. I knew that, but I couldn’t be two places at once. To calm her, I spoke to Esmikhan as if I were already working on that problem.
“Where is she, lady? Do you know?”
“With Muhammed, her cousin. I haven’t seen them since this morning. They went off to play together. Allah knows where that might be.”
Allah knew indeed.
XVIII
Anywhere in the palace was possible, for the girl was only three, and if the Prince’s school was not in session, under few restrictions of honor. It was proverbial how those two had been found, hand in hand, gaping at the sick in the infirmary, watching the boats from the wall, dropping pebbles on the turbans of petitioners as they passed beneath the Sublime Porte, stealing (Allah forbid they were there now) dates from the kitchen stores. This spunk was mostly the girl’s doing, for it was known that by himself or even with other playmates, the Prince tended to be quiet and pouty.
Once they had even wandered into the Sultan’s baths when he was sporting with his favorites. Neither of the children had ever seen a naked man before, and one erect had been a sensation. Investigations on their own persons were found wanting and their questions continued to be the scandal of the harem. My earlier attempt at an explanation of the will of Allah paled by comparison.
“That is what will happen to me when I am circumcised,” I overheard the little Prince tell his cousin.
“You will grow big like that?”
Muhammed nodded soberly. “That is what it means to be a man.”
And Gul Ruh was duly impressed.
But though their nurses and tutors slapped them and the less conscientious merely hid their faces and tittered, no one thought of prohibiting the children’s rambles. The Sultan merely doubled his guard when he wanted to indulge.
“I’ll stay here,” Esmikhan said firmly now. “Now you go find Gul Ruh.”
“Lady, you’re too close yet. The roof of this kiosk could easily fall down on you if it should catch.”
“Then here. I’ll go no further without my baby.”
“Lady, I still fear if this wing goes, you may get scorched.”
“I can make it on my own from here. Please, please, my baby.”
“Here. We’ve given you that expanse of lawn as a break. Allah willing, the flames will not leap to these trees across that. Unless, of course this
