The Kadin - Bertrice Small [132]
“What has happened to Cyra?” asked the fourth kadin. “Gossip is racing through the harem like fire.”
“My lady will be all right, Lady Sarina. She is resting now. I have taken it upon myself to bring you the tragic news before some gossiping slave does.”
“The two princes are dead?”
Marian nodded “Zuleika Kadin, also. My lady became worried when there was no word for over a day. She went to investigate, and it was she who found them.”
Clinging to each other, Sarina and Firousi wept Marian quietly left the room.
Next the little Englishwoman headed for the kadins’ kitchen, where she gave orders from Lady Cyra that Prince Karim was to have strawberry sherbet with his dinner this night The cook, who had already heard about the deaths from the kitchen gardener—who had it from a passing guard—marveled silently at the fortitude of the bas-kadin to think of her little son’s sweet tooth under such sad circumstances.
When evening came, Cyra had recovered from the initial shock of her discovery and invited Sarina, Firousi, and the children to dine with her. It was a somber meal. The children were aware that their two older brothers and Zuleika Kadin were dead
The bas-kadin had made it very plain that she was taking Zuleika’s little daughter, Mahpeyker, into her care. Curled up in Cyra’s lap, the child fully understood that her mother was dead Cyra, feeling the little one’s warmth against her, thought that God was showing his approval of her plan to spirit Karim away by giving her another child to raise.
At meal’s end, the youngsters brightened with the arrival of the sweet liquid sherbet and almond cakes. Cyra did not even dare to glance at Karim, knowing that somehow Marian had slipped Esther Kira’s potion into his sherbet
She could not sleep that night worrying about her son. Finally, at dawn, she rose to the muezzin’s call, said her prayers, and hurried to Karim’s room
His little body bathed in perspiration, the child tossed upon his couch. She glanced at the nurse sleeping on the floor by the boy. Angrily Cyra kicked her.
“Get up, you wretch! You have slept through morning prayers, and my son lies here ill!”
The girl scrambled to her feet “Madam, I watched all the night and had just dozed off for a moment”
“Liar! Look at the prince! He is bathed in sweat! No fever could come so quickly. You have been sleeping for hours!”
The frightened nurse looked down at Karim, then drew back shaking. “Plague,” she sobbed. “The prince has the plague!”
“Stop that wailing and fetch the doctor!”
The girl fled, to return a few minutes later with Alaed-din Cerdet Quickly the physician examined the moaning, unconscious child, noting his rapid pulse, high fever, coated and slightly swollen tongue.
“Plague,” he said. “The prince has all the signs of the plague. He must be removed at once to an area of isolation, lest he infect the whole palace. I will send a nurse.”
“No,” said Cyra. “I will nurse him myself.”
“Madam, I cannot be responsible for your safety. The sultan would kill me if you should die as did the lady Zuleika.”
“I shall be in no danger, Alaeddin Cerdet I had plague as a child,” she reassured him, lying smoothly. “I shall not go alone. My two slaves, Marian and Ruth, will accompany me.”
“In that case, I cannot deny a mother the privilege of caring for her sick son. I shall inform the kitchens of the diet the prince must have. Try to get him to take some nourishment If a plague boil rises, give it several hours to break. If it does not, lance it Perhaps it will save him.” He handed her a small, sharp instrument from his case. “If there is no boil, then Allah have mercy, for the child will surely die.”
The newly scrubbed and furnished Tile Court was ready within the hour to receive them. A procession made up of Cyra, Marian, and Ruth, who carried the prince on a litter, entered the building. At the gate Cyra stopped to speak with the cowardly eunuch. She graciously apologized for her anger of the previous day and gave him a small purse of coins