“You said that…”
Ibn Tahir stammered to a halt.
“I said that I would open paradise up to you, and that is what I’m going to do. Are you ready?”
Some invisible force put all three of them on their knees. They touched their foreheads to the floor in front of Hasan and stayed that way.
For a moment Hasan glanced at his friends. Their faces conveyed stern interest.
“Stand up!” he commanded.
They obeyed. He pulled a candle out of a chandelier and used it to light an area behind the lift. Three low cots had been prepared there. They were covered with rugs that reached down to the floor.
“Lie down on the cots!” he ordered.
He handed the candle to Abu Ali and gave Buzurg Ummid a jug of wine to hold. He took a gold box off a shelf and unlocked it. He approached the fedayeen, who, pale and miserable, were trembling on the cots.
“The way to paradise is long and arduous. Here are food and drink to fortify you. Take them from my hands.”
He went from one youth to the next, putting into each one’s mouth a tiny ball that he took from the gold box. Yusuf was so excited that at first he couldn’t open his jaws. Suleiman and ibn Tahir tried to swallow the ball as quickly as possible.
At first it tasted pleasantly sweet. Then came a disgustingly bitter taste. Hasan ordered them to drink wine to get rid of it. Then he watched closely for the effects.
First to intoxicate the youths was the strong wine, to which they weren’t accustomed. Everything spun before their eyes, so that they had to lie down flat. Yusuf groaned like a felled ox. Then he began to yield to a dizzy slumber.
For his comrades, drunkenness battled with a terrible curiosity. What if I’ve swallowed poison? was the thought that came to ibn Tahir. But countless fantastic images that began chasing each other were already pressing down on him. He could only follow them with his gaze like a mesmerized young ox.
Hasan saw his timid, wide-open eyes.
“What are you looking at, ibn Tahir?”
Ibn Tahir didn’t hear him. He was staring at the images drawing him along, until he submitted to them completely.
Suleiman was angrily battling the phantoms that threatened to distort his reality. Just a moment earlier he had seen the faces of the three commanders intently looking at him. But in the next instant a marvelous apparition was enticing him to watch it. At first he suspected Hasan had given him poison. But soon he forgot that thought. His internal battle had exhausted him, and the images had become so strong that he finally succumbed to them completely.
Yusuf moaned and tossed for a while. Then he fell fast asleep. Soon Suleiman and ibn Tahir followed him.
Hasan took thin, black blankets and threw them over the youths. Then he gave a sign and all six of them descended to the base of the tower.
Hasan’s bodyguard met them. Hasan quietly gave Captain Ali several more instructions. Then, in teams of two, the Moors picked the cots up by their handles and, accompanied by a third, carried the youths into the gardens.
The commanders waited silently for them to come back. Hasan asked them quietly, “Is everything in order?”
“Everything is fine, Sayyiduna.”
Hasan gave a deep sigh.
“Let’s go to the top of the tower,” he said. “All of this is unfolding like a Greek tragedy. Praise be to Allah, the first act is over now.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
By evening, preparations in the gardens had been completed. The girls dispersed just as the supreme commander had determined. Miriam and her companions remained on the central island. The eunuchs rowed Fatima and Zuleika and their entourages to their designated gardens. Viewed from the castle, Fatima was to the left and Zuleika to the right of their permanent residence. Canals separated the three areas. Shah Rud embraced them at their circumference, drowning out voices in its roar, so that sounds from one island didn’t carry over to the others.
With the girls’ help, the eunuchs strung cords from shrub to shrub and from tree to tree around the pavilion, and then hung from them the lanterns that had been fashioned that morning. They were all sizes and shapes, and of varying designs and colors. When night fell, they set about lighting them. The surroundings came to life in a thoroughly new light, in new shapes and shadows. Everything was changed. The girls stared in amazement. They looked at each other. As they strolled down the paths, their faces and bodies glowed first in one color, then another. Spider-like shadows danced over them. Everything was quite wonderful and unreal. It was as though an image that they normally only saw in dreams had materialized. All around, where the band of light ended, everything was dense, impenetrable darkness. Neither the mountains nor the castle nor the stars could be seen.
The pavilions were practically buried in flowers. A fountain gurgled in the center of each of them, its streams of water falling to all sides and glinting in thousands of rainbow-like pearls. Food sat out on low, gilt tables, arranged on silver and gold trays. Braised fowl, baked fish, exquisitely prepared desserts and whole stacks of assorted fruit—figs, melons, oranges, apples, pears and grapes. Each table was surrounded with six jugs of wine. Off to the sides were dishes of milk and honey.
At the time of the fifth prayer Adi rowed Apama from garden to garden one last time. She inspected everything closely and then issued final instructions. She handed Miriam, Fatima and Zuleika two little balls each, for putting the visitors to sleep—the second in case the first wasn’t fully effective. As she left she spoke to them.
“Don’t give the boys a chance to ask too many questions. Keep them busy. Above all, get them drunk, because Sayyiduna is just and strict.”
Once she had left, the girls knew that the decisive moment was approaching. Their leaders told them to drink a cup of wine to bolster their courage.
Fatima’s pavilion was the most lively one. The girls stifled their nervous impatience by shouting and laughing. The magical lighting and the wine did their job. In numbers their fear dissipated. The pending visit roused no more than the shivering excitement of an unfamiliar adventure.
“His name is Suleiman and Sayyiduna said that he’s handsome,” Leila remarked.
“I think you’re already out to get him,” Sara sniffed at her.
“Look who’s talking, the horniest one in the bunch.”
“Let’s have Halima start,” Khanum suggested.
But Halima was nerve-wracked.
“No, no, I for sure won’t.”
“Don’t be afraid, Halima,” Fatima comforted her. “I’m responsible for our success, and I’ll tell each of you what to do.”
“Which of us is he going to fall in love with?” Aisha asked.
“Your wiles aren’t going to help you much,” Sara belittled her.
“And your black skin even less.”
“Stop arguing,” Fatima pacified them. “It doesn’t matter whom he falls in love with. We serve Sayyiduna, and our only duty is to carry out his orders.”
“I think he’s going to fall in love with Zainab,” Halima said.
“Why do you think that?” Sara asked angrily.
“Because she has such pretty golden hair and such blue eyes.”
Zainab laughed at this.
“Do you think he’ll be more handsome than Sayyiduna?” Halima persisted.
“Look at this little monkey,” Fatima exclaimed. “Now she’s gone and fallen in love with Sayyiduna.”
“I think he’s handsome.”
“Halima, at least for tonight don’t be stubborn. Sayyiduna isn’t for us. You mustn’t talk about him like that.”
“But he’s fallen in love with Miriam.”
Sara was furious.