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By Root 1643 0

move to the capital, he had taken first one, then another nubile concubine. When the usually meek mother of his children had raised her voice in violent protest she had found herself shipped, complete with her three younger children, to a comfortable but distant country house. After all, she was now forty. Her dark hair was streaked with gray, and her figure was matronly from childbearing. She had grown older, and there was no help for it’ but though her husband suffered the years, too, he was constantly buying and discarding maidens. She could hardly compete with the plump, blond sixteen-year-old from Crete or the dusky-skinned nineteen-year-old from Egypt who currently shared her husband’s bed. So, having no means other than what her husband gave her, she was forced to remain in lonely exile with her youngest son and her two daughters.

Cyra had met young Ibrahim on the beach several years before. She liked this bright, amusing, and clever boy, and after discreet inquiries into his family, character, and habits, had asked him to study with the young princes. As Cyra had foreseen, Suleiman and Ibrahim had become good friends, and because they were, Ibrahim knew the secret of the Jinn’s Cave.

Although the Greek boy had seen no one about as he walked through the prince’s estate, Captain Riza refused to allow them outside the cave. Too much of an exodus was likely to attract attention, and the secret of their hiding place could be lost. Hopefully, Prince Kasim had reached Constantinople safely, and even now would be on his way back with a rescue party. In the meantime, the captain decided to send one mounted soldier out on the Constantinople road to meet their lord and tell him his family was safe.

The sun was now up, and in the confinement of the cave the prince’s household and family found it hard to keep their dispositions even. The smell of the penned-up animals was overpowering Everyone was getting restless. Then, about noon, the tower sentry shouted down to Captain Riza that the prince was coming.

The five women dashed to the observation post, Cyra and Zuleika helping Lady Refet They could see Selim mounted on his magnificent black stallion, Devil Wind. Next to him rode the sultan, and beside the sultan, Kasim

“Praise Allah,” sighed Cyra.

Behind the royal horsemen rode several troops of Janissaries and Selim’s Tartars. They reached the palace, and Cyra ordered Captain Riza to open the stone door. “We are all safe now.” Grinning, the soldier complied.

Selim and Kasim were the first to dismount and they ran across the gardens to the beach stairs. Cyra reached the top of the stairs as they did. For a moment the prince and his bas-kadin devoured each other with their eyes. Then they flung themselves into an embrace.

“When I thought I should never see you again, my heart died within me,” whispered Selim. He bent and kissed her hungrily. Cyra returned the kiss with equal passion, then raised a relieved, tearstained face to her lord. “I knew we would be safe, my love, but what frightened me was what Besma might do to you after she had moved against us”

“Do not fear, my jewel, her hours are numbered. The black camel of death will soon have a passenger.”

The sultan bustled up. “My dearest daughter, praises to Allah that you are safe. Are the children all right?”

Cyra knelt and kissed the hem of the sultan’s robe. “Yes, my gracious lord, and not only the children but all the slaves and the farm animals as well. We are most fortunate, but had we not had such a wonderful hiding place, we should all be dead. The assassins even burned a nearby village in an effort to find us.”

He raised her up and wiped her tears away with his own handkerchief. “You will never know such terror again, my daughter. I, Bajazet Sultan, promise you this.” The sultan moved on to his former ikbal, Lady Refet, and Selim tenderly embraced his other kadins.

The chief eunuch, Anber, began to organize the slaves into work parties. The ashes of the palace were cool now, and he hoped to salvage something from its ruins. The Janissaries began to set