by Connie Mason
“Kamel speaks the truth,” Ali Hara concurred. “Your beauty has not been diminished, lady.”
Willow smiled through her tears. “Think you Prince Dariq will like it?”
“Most assuredly, lady,” Ali Hara replied.
Willow remained in her chamber the rest of the day, unwilling just yet to face Ibrahim’s concubines. She knew she would be ridiculed by women with long, luxuriant hair and needed time to adjust to the change in her appearance. It wasn’t until after she’d broken her fast the next day that she ventured from her chamber.
Willow knew immediately that Umma had spread the tale of her daring deed, for Willow was met with titters and whispers. Holding her head high, she sat down on a couch and tried to ignore the gossiping females and their disparaging glances. To Willow’s surprise, a shy young woman named Tallia sat down beside her.
“ ’Tis not so bad,” Tallia assured her. “Perhaps Ibrahim will be charmed.”
Willow sent Tallia a warm smile. “I sincerely hope not.”
“ ’Twas wrong of Umma. I would fear for my life if I captured the sultan’s attention,” Tallia said quietly. “I have not been summoned to Ibrahim’s bedchamber yet. But Hetice likes me; perhaps she will shelter me from Umma’s ire.”
Suddenly Tallia leapt to her feet. “Umma is looking my way, I must leave. Please forgive me.” She scurried off in a whisper of skirts.
Umma ambled over to Willow and sat down beside her, her smile smug. “You are uglier than I imagined,” Umma purred. “Ibrahim will lose interest as soon as he sees you.”
“Then you have done me a great service,” Willow shot back. “Thank you most kindly.”
Umma stared at her blankly, then rose and stalked off. Willow smiled, feeling as if she had won a small battle if not the war.
Two days later, Ali Hara told Willow that Dariq had contacted Kamel through Hassan. “The time has arrived. Tonight I will take you to the prince’s old apartment,” Ali Hara said.
Willow’s hopes soared. “Will Dariq be there?”
“Aye, but this time he will take you with him.”
“Will you come with us?”
“Aye. When Ibrahim finds out I conspired with the prince, he will slay me in a most painful way.”
Willow blanched. “Perhaps we should not attempt this. If the plan fails, people will suffer.”
“Too late, lady. I will come for you after everyone is asleep. Wear a dark caftan.”
“I will pray for success,” Willow said.
They spoke together a few more minutes, unaware that Umma had overheard most of the conversation. She had grown suspicious when she saw Ali Hara entering Willow’s chamber. There were far too many secret conversations going on between the harem eunuchs and Willow. Umma wanted to know what was taking place behind her back so she could protect her place in the harem.
When Ali Hara had entered Willow’s chamber, Umma had followed and pressed her ear to the door. Though she hadn’t heard every word, she heard enough to learn that Prince Dariq, her master’s enemy, was in Istanbul and intended to take Willow away. Umma didn’t mind Willow leaving, but if she could help Ibrahim capture the pirate prince, she would earn the sultan’s undying gratitude, and a great deal more.
Umma crept away before Willow and Ali Hara finished speaking.
“What about Kamel?” Willow asked. “Will he join us?”
“Aye, he too wishes to be free of Ibrahim. Kamel will leave through the gate, for his departure will raise no suspicion. He often leaves the seraglio at odd hours. Do not fret, lady, all will be well.”
Willow wished she were as confident.
Willow was ready and waiting when midnight arrived. She had been too excited to rest since learning she was to leave the harem this very night. Though she anxiously looked forward to being free again, she couldn’t help worrying about her future. Would Dariq be part of her future? Would he wed her and give up pirating? She hoped so, for it was the only way she would have him.
A discreet knock on the door brought Willow’s thoughts to an abrupt halt. The door opened and Ali Hara stepped inside.
“ ’Tis time, mistress. Kamel left hours ago. Even as we speak, he waits for us with the horses.”
Ali Hara walked to the secret panel. It slid open and Willow slipped through; Ali Hara followed close behind her. Willow tried to ignore her feeling of disquiet as she followed the narrow staircase to Dariq’s chamber. She was so close to freedom, she could almost taste it.
* * *
Dariq jumped from the nearby rooftop onto the balcony and eased through the door to his old chambers. Mustafa followed on his heels.
“She’s not here yet,” Dariq whispered.
“Fear not, my prince. Ali Hara will not fail you. Your lady will arrive soon.”
My lady. A smile lifted the corners of Dariq’s lips. Willow was his lady.
The shuffle of footsteps on the stairs in the secret passage alerted Dariq, and he turned just as the panel slid open and Willow and Ali Hara stepped inside. With a cry of gladness, Willow flew into his arms. He hugged her fiercely, then released her.
“Are you ready, my love?”
Willow nodded eagerly. “Aye, the sooner the better.”
Dariq turned to Mustafa. “Show Ali Hara the way. Willow and I will meet you in the alley where Yusuf and Kamel wait with the horses.”
“Are we going over the rooftops?” Willow asked through quivering lips.
“Aye, love. ’Tis not as difficult as it looks. The night isn’t as dark as I would like, but I wanted to get you away as quickly as possible. I couldn’t wait for a moonless night.”
He peered closely at her caftan. “That will never do. You’ll need to move about unencumbered.” He went to his wardrobe and pulled out a pair of dark trousers and a dark shirt that he had left behind. “Put these on.”
“I will leave with Ali Hara now,” Mustafa said. “If for some reason I do not see you following, I will come back for you.”
“Nay,” Dariq protested. “If something unforeseen happens, you are to continue on without us.”
Mustafa and Ali Hara slipped through the door and were soon swallowed by darkness. Dariq handed Willow the trousers and shirt. He watched avidly as she pulled off the caftan and shrugged into the male clothing. When he realized the trousers wouldn’t stay up without help, he grabbed a rope from a drapery and handed it to her. Only then did he notice her shorn hair. Outrage slammed through him.
“What happened to your beautiful hair?”
Willow’s hand went to her cropped curls. “Umma cut it in a fit of jealousy. There is no time now for further explanation.”
Dariq silently agreed. They needed to leave … now. He grasped her hand and led her to the balcony, but fate turned against them.
The door burst open and Ibrahim stepped into the chamber. A cadre of armed janizaries surged into the chamber behind him. Someone held a light aloft, catching Dariq and Willow in a frozen tableau of shock and despair. The look on Ibrahim’s face was a twisted mask of hatred.
“How did you know?” Dariq asked as he pushed Willow behind him in a protective gesture.
Ibrahim shot Dariq a fulminating glare. “Sources faithful to me informed me of your plans.”
“Umma,” Willow muttered.
“Seize them!” Ibrahim ordered. “Take my dear brother to the dungeon until I can devise a death worthy of him.”
First Dariq and then Willow were immediately seized. There was no escape possible.
“Wait!” Dariq cried, digging in his heels as he was being dragged away. “What are you going to do to Willow?”
Ibrahim gave Willow a disparaging sneer. “The woman no longer interests me. She looks like a shorn sheep. I was told she deliberately cut her hair to escape my attention. Aside from that, I have decided I will not have your leavings. She will be punished, and so will Ali Hara for arranging your secret meetings.”
“If you hurt Willow, I will avenge her,” Dariq threatened.
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br /> “You are in no position to spout threats,” Ibrahim declared. “Take him away.”
Dariq fought every step of the way, until one of the janizaries grew tired of his struggling and rapped him on the head with the hilt of his scimitar.
Willow cried out and tried to go to Dariq when she saw him slump against his captors, but she was forcibly restrained.
“Only a heartless monster would kill his own flesh and blood,” Willow spat.
Ibrahim pounded his chest. “I am Ibrahim, ruler of the Ottoman Empire. I do as I please. If I let my brother live, I will always be wondering when he will strike, when he will seize power from me.”
“Dariq has no desire to rule. You brutally killed all your father’s male children to protect yourself. Only a madman would commit such a horrendous act.”
“Enough!” Ibrahim cried, slashing his hand in the air to silence Willow. “This woman offends me. Take her to the dungeon with her lover, but put them in separate cells. Let them suffer before I end their lives.”
Willow’s struggles were quickly subdued by her captors as she was dragged through the seraglio to a thick wooden door. A guard opened the door, and she was taken down a staircase to a dank chamber beneath the palace. A flickering torch beamed a harsh light upon an empty room with several doors leading from it.
A guard opened one of the doors and thrust her into a tiny, airless cell. The door closed; she was locked inside. It was pitch-black but for tendrils of light filtering in through vertical bars set into the upper part of the door. A quick look around revealed a straw pallet and the dim outlines of a bench and a bucket sitting in a dark corner.
“Willow—is that you?”
The voice came from the other side of an adjoining wall. She flew to the bars. “Dariq? Are you all right?”
“I am fine except for a headache. What about you?”
“I am well. What are we going to do?”
“I wish I knew.” The note of defeat in his voice was so unlike Dariq that Willow nearly succumbed to her own despair.
“What about Mustafa? He must surely know that something has gone wrong.”
“He knows but is powerless to help. Are you sure Umma betrayed us to Ibrahim? I felt I could trust Kamel and his cousin, but perhaps I was wrong.”
“Oh, nay, Kamel is completely trustworthy. I do not know how Umma learned of our plan unless she listened at the door while Ali Hara spoke in my chamber. I wonder why she didn’t just let me go. Then she would have been rid of me for good.”
“She probably wanted to gain Ibrahim’s good will.”
The clatter of footsteps sounded on the stairs.
“Shhh,” Dariq warned. “Someone is coming. Move away from the bars.”
Willow moved to the bench and sat down. A face appeared at the bars. It was Ibrahim.
“Your accommodations aren’t as comfortable as the ones you occupied in the harem,” Ibrahim gloated. “You will wish yourself back there when you are spread beneath my stableman. If you resist, he will punish you severely.”
“Let her be!” Dariq shouted from his cell.
Ibrahim crossed over to Dariq’s cell. “You have no authority to tell me what to do. I am not as heartless as you seem to believe. I could have your lover tied, placed in a sack and tossed into the sea, but I did not. Sultans throughout the ages used that method to rid themselves of unfaithful wives and concubines.”
Willow unsuccessfully tried to swallow her gasp.
“I have other plans for your houri. I shall gift her to my stableman. Habib is a crude fellow with a heavy hand, but she will learn not to defy him.”
He laughed. “Aye, ’tis a fit punishment for a gently bred woman. But first, I shall arrange your punishment and death, brother dear. I shall sleep on it a day or two before deciding how you will die.”
Still chuckling, he turned and walked away, leaving a heavy curtain of silence behind.
“Help will arrive,” Willow said hopefully after Ibrahim’s footsteps faded away. “Mustafa will plan a rescue.”
“Pray God and Allah that he does,” Dariq said fervently. “You should rest, my love.”
Dariq knew Habib well, and he would rather see Willow dead than become the possession of the brutish stableman. Dariq didn’t mourn his own death as much as he did Willow’s cruel fate.
Mustafa and Ali Hara were aware of what was happening inside Dariq’s chamber but could do little to help. They realized that rushing to Dariq’s defense would probably get them all killed, so they hovered on the balcony until Dariq and Willow were dragged away.
“What shall we do?” Ali Hara hissed. “You heard Ibrahim. He’s going to give my lady to a stableman and put our prince to death.”
“There is naught we can do without help,” Mustafa answered. I will ride immediately to the Revenge and bring back Prince Dariq’s men.”
Ali Hara shook his head. “They are so many and we are so few.”
“We must first tell Kamel and Yusuf what happened,” Mustafa whispered. “Perhaps Kamel knows a way into the dungeons that we do not.”
Skipping from rooftop to rooftop, the two men eased over the wall and made their way to a dark alley near the seraglio, where the two men awaited with the horses.
“Where are they?” Kamel asked when he realized that Mustafa and Ali Hara were alone.
“We were betrayed,” Mustafa spat.
“By whom?”
“That is what I would like to know.”
“Do not glare at me like that,” Kamel warned. “Think you I would betray our prince?”
“I know not what to think,” Mustafa growled.
“Perhaps someone overheard our plans,” suggested Ali Hara.
“Umma,” Kamel speculated. “Either she or Hetice. I must return to the harem immediately.”
“Is that wise?” Mustafa questioned.
“To my knowledge, my involvement in Lady Willow’s foiled escape is unknown. Most likely, Ali Hara was overheard speaking with Lady Willow in her chamber. Was my name mentioned during your conversation with Lady Willow, Ali Hara?”
Ali Hara thought back over his conversation with Willow. “Aye, but perhaps the informer didn’t hear or had already left. Your name was mentioned but once at the end of our conversation.”
Kamel frowned. “Nevertheless, I must return. Mustafa will need someone inside the seraglio to keep him informed.”
“It would help,” Mustafa concurred. “But not if it places your own life in jeopardy.”
Kamel laughed. “Ibrahim would not think a eunuch bold enough to take part in such a plan. Leave word with Hassan, and I will do the same. Pray Allah that we can find a way to save Prince Dariq and his lady.”
Then they parted.
Chapter Eighteen
Ibrahim left the dungeon and immediately summoned Kamel. There were many unanswered question about Willow’s escape that needed explaining … questions only Kamel could answer.
“You summoned me, master?” Kamel asked, making his obeisance before the sultan.
“How did Ali Hara arrange meetings between Lady Willow and my brother without your knowing?” Ibrahim barked. “You are supposed to know everything that takes place in the harem, yet I only heard of this plot from Lady Umma.”
“There is a great deal of intrigue taking place in the harem, master,” Kamel explained. “Had the Lady Umma come to me with her suspicions, I would have taken steps to stop the meetings and informed you of Prince Dariq’s presence in Istanbul. But she chose to bypass my authority.”
Ibrahim stared at Kamel a full minute, as if trying to discern the veracity of the eunuch’s words. “You have never lied to me before, so I will accept your explanation. I caution you, however, to exert more control. Thanks to Lady Umma, Prince Dariq is now in my dungeon. He will be executed in the city square two days hence. As for the Lady Willow, my stableman will claim her as his concubine after she watches her lover die.” He waved his hand. “You are dismissed.”
Kamel hurri
ed off. He had to get word to Mustafa immediately, though he feared there was little the man could do to save the prince. He tapped his chin, a sly smile curving his lips. What if the citizens of Istanbul could be provoked into rioting against Prince Dariq’s execution?
It hadn’t taken long for Ibrahim to decide that Dariq should be beheaded, and he felt justified in holding a public execution. Dariq was a brigand, a pirate who had attacked his ships and disrupted shipping and naval operations. In Ibrahim’s opinion, the world would be a better place without him.
The Grand Vizier, when told of Prince Dariq’s fate, was swift to voice his opposition.
“My lord Sultan,” Selim Pasha said, “executing your brother in public is not a wise decision. Your people hold him in great esteem.”
Ibrahim fixed him with a quelling glare. “I cannot afford to let him live. His popularity empowers him.”
“Precisely.” Selim Pasha nodded. “He is considered a folk hero by your people for escaping your assassination plot. Holding a public execution could provoke a rebellion.”
Ibrahim silenced him with a slice of his hand. “You are too soft, Selim. My people fear me too much to rise against me.” He pinned Selim with a hard glare. “If you refuse to obey me, you can be replaced. If you value your life, I suggest that you make arrangements for a public execution. Have I made myself clear?”
Selim Pasha bowed to Ibrahim’s wishes. “Very clear, my lord. Your brother will be beheaded according to your direction.”
“Post notices,” Ibrahim ordered. “A public display will affirm my authority over my subjects and make them aware of my power.”
Selim Pasha bowed himself out of the chamber, leaving Ibrahim feeling highly pleased with himself. At last! He’d waited a long time to end Dariq’s threat to his power. He couldn’t wait to see his brother’s expression when he was informed that he had but two days left to draw breath. In fact, he decided to do the honors himself.