“Did you hear, Buzurg Ummid? Hasan could be right.”
“So, has it begun to make sense to the two of you? We know that we’re masters of an infinitely tiny point of the known, and slaves to the infinite mass of the unknown. I’d compare us to some vermin that glimpses the sky overhead. ‘I’m going to climb up this stalk,’ it says. ‘It looks tall enough that I should get there.’ It starts in the morning and climbs until evening. Then it reaches the top and realizes that all of its efforts were in vain. The earth is just a few inches below. And above it the starry sky arches just as immeasurably high as it did when it was on the ground. Except that now it doesn’t see any path leading farther upward, as it did before it started to climb. It loses its faith and realizes that it’s nothing against the inexplicable vastness of the universe. It is robbed of its hope and its happiness forever.”
He nodded to the grand dais.
“Let’s go! We need to welcome the first believers ever to return to earth from paradise.”
The girls around Fatima noticed through the glass that the eunuchs were approaching with the litter.
“Like three gravediggers,” Sara said.
“Fatima! Uncover Suleiman so we can take one more look at him,” Zainab asked.
Fatima exposed the sleeping youth’s face. He lay peacefully, breathing almost imperceptibly. There was something childlike to his appearance now.
The girls stared at him wide-eyed. Halima put her fingers in her mouth and bit down on them. She felt unbearably miserable.
Fatima quickly covered him up again.
The eunuchs entered and wordlessly lifted him onto the litter. They left just as silently.
The curtain had barely dropped behind them when the girls burst into tears. Halima shrieked with pain and fell to the floor like a stone.
When the Moors carried Yusuf away, only Jada and Little Fatima cried. Zuleika mutely followed their arrival and departure with her eyes. Pride didn’t permit her to give free rein to her emotions.
“Now your fame is over too,” Hanafiya prodded her when they were alone again. “You had a husband for one night. Now you’ve lost him forever. Those of us who didn’t have him at all are better off.”
Zuleika tried to say something nonchalant in reply. But the pain was so much for her that she rolled up on the floor and buried her head in some pillows.
“You’re heartless, Hanafiya,” Asma said angrily.
“I didn’t mean it that way.”
She went over to where Zuleika was and stroked her hair. Others also came and tried to comfort her. But Zuleika kept crying until she fell asleep.
When the eunuchs walked out with ibn Tahir, Miriam called on the girls to go to their bedrooms. There were few of them that night, because the ones who had been with Fatima and Zuleika stayed in their pavilions.
Miriam also slept alone. But tonight, of all nights, she wished Halima were there, with her lively talkativeness. Who knows how she made it through this fateful night? What had happened with the other girls? She worried about them. If only morning would come!
Oppressive thoughts stayed with her all the way to dawn.
The eunuchs brought their live burden into the cellar. Hasan asked them, “Is everything all right?”
“Everything is fine, Sayyiduna.”
They set the litters down inside the cage. The three commanders went in behind them. In silence they waited for the invisible arms of the Moors to lift them to the top of the tower.
Once there, Hasan uncovered the sleeping youths.
“They look exhausted,” Buzurg Ummid whispered.
Hasan smiled.
“They’ll sleep until well into the morning. Then comes the awakening, and then we’ll see if we succeeded.”
He left the curtain over the entrance to the cell raised, so that the youths would have enough air. He posted a guard to the door. Then he dismissed his two friends.
“This brings us to the end of the second act of our tragedy. I’ll see you tomorrow. Good night.”
Down in the gardens the eunuchs were extinguishing and removing the lanterns. Some of them had already burnt out. Here and there a flame still flickered in the night. One light after the other sputtered out. It grew darker and darker all around. Startled moths fluttered over the men’s heads. Bats swooped after the night’s last vermin. An owl hooted from a thicket. The snarl of a leopard answered it.
The last lamp had sputtered out. It was a wonderful summer night with its thousands of mysteries. Stars shone in the sky, blinking and shimmering, remote, inexplicable riddles.
Mustafa circled a torch above his head, causing it to flare. He lit the path ahead of him with it, and six eunuchs followed him to the boats.
“Let’s look in on the girls on the way,” dance master Asad suggested. “This evening was a hard test for them.”
They went to the pavilion where Fatima was asleep with her companions. Asad pushed the door open and lifted the curtain over the entrance. Mustafa entered the room holding his torch high.
The girls all lay athwart the pillows. Some of them were completely naked, others were barely covered with coats or blankets. One or the other had already managed to remove her jewelry. Most of them, however, were still wearing theirs. Their lovely, soft limbs sank lightly into the silk and brocade. Their breasts rose and fell.
“This one sure mowed them down,” Asad said in a low voice. “They’re strewn around like casualties on a battlefield.”
Mustafa shuddered. The torch practically slid out of his hand. He bounded outdoors and hurried back toward the river, wailing out loud.
“Man is a beast. O Allah! What have they done to us?”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The following morning the grand dais joined Hasan, as agreed. He told them, “I was just with the boys. They’re all still asleep. It’s time for us to rouse them.”
They entered his chambers. He pulled the curtains aside, letting sunlight pour into the room. They looked inside the lift. The youths lay on their cots sleeping peacefully, just as they had the night before. The commanders approached them. Hasan inspected them closely.
“They haven’t changed a bit on the outside since last night. What their souls are like is something we’re about to find out.”
He shook Yusuf by the shoulder.
“Yusuf, do you hear me?! It’s broad daylight outside and you’re still asleep!”
Yusuf opened his eyes in alarm. He lifted himself up on his elbows and shook his head in confusion. He stared at the commanders dully and without understanding.
Gradually things began to dawn on him. His face took on an expression of utter astonishment.
“What on earth were you up to last night that you’ve slept so late?”
Hasan smiled roguishly. Yusuf timidly raised his eyes.
“I was in paradise by your grace, Our Master.”
“Must have been quite a pleasant dream, my boy.”
“No, no, I really was in paradise.”
“Go on! Your friends are going to laugh at you if you tell them that.”
“I know what I know, Sayyiduna. I really was in paradise.”
“Then do you believe that I’ve been given the key to the gates of paradise?”
“I know it now, Sayyiduna.”
The loud talking woke Suleiman. He sat up on his cot and furrowed his brow. His eyes went from Hasan’s face to Yusuf’s.