The Kadin - Bertrice Small [98]
Talat arrived. “Let no one but the doctor enter this room,” said Hadji Bey to the returning guard.
“Master,” whispered Talat “what has happened here?”
“The sultan has killed Besma and now suffers a seizure. Send a message to Prince Selim that he is to come with all possible speed. His family, too. We must secure the palace before word of this reaches Prince Ahmed. The sultan has declared in the presence of witnesses that Selim is to be his heir.”
“We have won, master! After all these years Kiusem Kadin is avenged. If only she had lived to see her son sultan.”
“Silence, you fool! Bajazet is still our lord, and only Allah has the right to call him to Paradise. As long as Prince Ahmed lives, we are all in danger. Now go, and send our fastest messenger. Swiftly! But arouse no suspicion by your actions.”
Talat left the sultan’s suite as the doctor entered. Going immediately to his royal patient he made a swift but thorough examination.
“Will he live?” asked Hadji Bey.
“I cannot be sure,” replied the doctor. “He has suffered seizures of both the heart and the brain. He is now paralyzed from the waist down. I do not know yet whether the seizures have affected his speech, as he is in shock I will give him an opium pill to help him sleep.” He pushed a gilded ball between the sultan’s teeth and, holding an amber goblet to his patient’s lips, forced water down his throat Turning to the agha, he asked, “How did this happen?”
Hadji Bey lifted the rug. The doctor’s eyes widened at the sight of the woman’s body. “Besma?”
“She defied him once too often,” replied the eunuch.
“It is as Allah wills it,” said the doctor. “Does anyone else know of this?”
“The two guards and my servant Talat, who at this moment sends a message to Prince Selim.” He watched for the doctor’s reaction.
The doctor smiled slowly. “How convenient that Prince Ahmed has fled the palace,” he observed. “His fate is surely cursed Do you know where he is?”
“On the Adrianople road according to our latest reports,” said the agha, “but he will be brought back.”
“To what my friend?”
Hadji Bey studied the doctor. He knew this man had always been loyal to Bajazet but with the sultan’s demise, where would his loyalties lie?
As if reading his thoughts, the doctor spoke. “I could never support Prince Ahmed, my friend You of all people should know that Do you not remember it was I, a young man then, who fought so hard to save Prince Mustafa? I sat by his bedside through the night while the child writhed in an unspeakable agony that I could neither cure nor ease. When he finally succumbed, I wept with joy that Allah had given him the release I could not The sultan rewarded me by making me court physician. I know them all. Prince Ahmed has been weak, spoiled and depraved from the beginning. He is as rotten as an overripe peach. Prince Korkut is a good man, but happy governing Macedonia and indulging his love of ancient artifacts. Prince Selim is the only logical choice, and more important he is the sultan’s choice. I bow with a happy heart to my lord Bajazef’s wisdom,”
“Save the sultan if you can,” replied Hadji Bey. “He must repudiate Prince Ahmed publicly, or there will be civil war. We must avoid that at all costs, and there are those who will support Ahmed in hopes of ruling through him.”
“Not the Janissaries?”
“No, no,” replied the agha. “Bali Agha is loyal first to the sultan, and then to Selim. The Janissaries will follow his lead.”
“Then half the battle is won, and the people adore Prince Selim and his family.”
“The people? Bah! The people will follow whom they are told to follow. It is certain jackals in this palace whom I fear, but I will root them out”
The doctor nodded his agreement “I must get back to my patient”
“Good I will make arrangements for the sultan’s convalescence,” said Hadji Bey, “and see to the posting of special guards. Word of how serious his illness is must