by Jade
"So to free you, I would need to find you a husband who would love you, yet who has a kingdom to rival your father's, so that you could marry the man?" He raised his eyebrows.
Maram laughed. "Wealth to rival my father's, now, I think. He has all the alliances he needs, thanks to me, but he would marry me to a wealthy man if he thought the man's wealth outweighed my value to my father as an ambassador." She shook her head. No such man existed, she was certain. And if he did, he wouldn't love her. He'd want a virgin princess, not a well-used courtesan.
Yet Aladdin's eyes lit up at her words, as if they'd given him hope. "So if I were to amass a fortune, your father might be willing to bestow your hand on me? Then we could both have what we desire. You would be free, and I would be honour-bound to make love to you."
Her mouth was dry. "I wish it could be so."
Aladdin bowed low. "As do I, Princess. But you are a princess, so beautiful you put the sun and moon to shame, and I am a humble spinner's son, with not even the coin to pay you for the meal you have so kindly given me."
Maram waved away his compliments. "It is not necessary. Consider it fair payment for your refreshing conversation and company and...that kiss." She licked her lips, wanting another.
Aladdin seemed to read her thoughts and he backed away, toward the shadows from whence he had come. "My first, Princess, and I am honoured that it pleased you. I fear it will also be my last. Farewell." He disappeared into the darkness, and reluctantly she let him go.
He was just a man, and a lowborn one, at that. So why did she feel so bereft with him gone?
Maram summoned her servants to help her dress, but her thoughts were on Aladdin, the one man who could resist her spell.
FOUR
His thoughts filled with Princess Maram, Aladdin had to force himself to sneak out the back of the bathhouse instead of returning to her, like he wanted to.
She was a princess and he was nothing. He repeated this to himself, hoping that if he said it often enough, he would believe it. Because for that hour he'd spent in her company, he'd dreamed of more. More kisses like the one they'd shared, more such meals, maybe joining her in the bath, and...
No. She was a princess and he was nothing.
A princess who wished to be free. A beautiful caged bird who would soar, if only her father would let her.
"Did you find work today?"
Aladdin glanced up to meet his mother's enquiring gaze. He'd walked home without realising it, he'd been so deep in thought. "No, Maman. I'm sorry."
She sighed. "There must be something for you. Perhaps tomorrow you will have better luck. I have spent all day spinning, so if I take this thread to the tailor's, perhaps I will have enough coin to buy bread for your supper."
His unusually full stomach ached at the thought that he'd eaten, but he hadn't thought to bring anything home for his mother. "I'm not hungry, Maman. Save it for tomorrow, or for yourself. I will just go to bed."
But even lying on his thin straw pallet, Aladdin could not sleep. Maram and her melancholy haunted him. The perfect princess, whose kiss had awoken a longing he'd never known before.
When day dawned, Aladdin was no closer to getting the girl out of his mind. He trudged to the alley where he and the other labourers waited for work that never came. Day after day, he made the journey there, then home, in a dreamy haze that wouldn't lift. Hunger gnawed at his insides, but he ignored it.
"I can make you rich beyond your wildest dreams. The Sultan's daughters will mistake you for a prince, you will be so wealthy, and you may have your pick of them!"
Gwandoya's boasting burst through the haze in Aladdin's mind, as though he heard it for the first time.
Aladdin rose to his feet. Yes, he wanted to pick one of the Sultan's daughters. Because he dreamed of nothing else but Princess Maram.
"What about Bugra? Did you make him rich, so he married some princess?" Berk asked. "Is that why you need someone new?"
Gwandoya shrugged. "The boy made his fortune so quickly, he now has more gold than he can carry. He has no desire to work for me any more. Will you be next?"
Berk spat on the ground at Gwandoya's feet. "Not me. I'm not crazy."
"What about you?" Gwandoya looked Aladdin up and down, no doubt seeing what the other men did – that Aladdin was not strong enough for hard labour. Too many years with too little to eat had seen to that. "You will be able to eat like a king for the rest of your life if you come and work for me."
Aladdin would settle for sharing his meals with Maram. "What would you have me do?"
"Come with me and I will show you," Gwandoya said.
Berk caught Aladdin's shoulder. "Don't, man. Bugra's likely dead in the gutter somewhere, and if you go with him, you will be next."
If he didn't find work soon, Aladdin knew he'd be dead in a gutter anyway. He hadn't eaten in two days, and his mother was too tired to spin. A quick death was better than starving to death, and if there was a chance he might be able to free Maram...
"So be it. I shall take my chances," Aladdin said. He dropped his voice to a whisper that he hoped only Berk would hear. "If I survive, I swear I will return here, if only to tell you the truth of what happened to Bugra and the others. If I do not...please tell my mother that I love her, and my last thoughts were of her." Whatever happened, he would no longer be a burden on his mother, for her spinning was enough to support her alone without him.
Berk looked like he wanted to say more, but he pressed his lips together and nodded. "May you have better fortune than the rest of us."
Gwandoya clapped Aladdin on the shoulder. "Good boy! You will be rich, you shall see!"
Aladdin wanted to believe him, so he hoped, but in his heart, he dreaded what would come next. Anything that made a starving boy rich had to be unpleasant. Otherwise, why would Gwandoya share such riches with anyone?
FIVE
Maram trudged back to her apartment, vowing not to return to the bathhouse unless he was there. Somehow that one encounter with Aladdin had left the place empty of all joy for her. She had returned every day, yet he had not. She wanted, no she needed to see him again. She'd been touched by so many men, but that one kiss from him had burned through her memories of all of them so that only he remained.
Who was Aladdin? More than some simple spinner's son. More than any man she'd ever known...they'd shared one moment, but that moment was everything.
"Did you put him up to it?"
Maram blinked. Two hulking shadows bracketed her favourite couch and the dark-clad figure who reclined upon the cushions.
"I'm still in mourning, you know," Anahita said, throwing herself down in a picture of despair.
Maram smothered a laugh. "In mourning for which husband? Do you even remember his name?"
Anahita sat up indignantly. "Of course I do. It was...um, Abd-something-or-other. I think. Oh, what does it matter? He never wanted me to address him by his name. I was supposed to call him Master, like I was a slave. Me! It is not fitting to speak ill of the dead, but that man..."
"Is not mourned by anyone, least of all you," Maram finished for her. "Father has a problem with Sheikh Basit. He is attacking the outlying towns and camps, taking our people as slaves."
Anahita frowned. "Then he is a fool, and Father does him too much honour, giving me to him as a bride. Is he at least a handsome fool?"
Maram shrugged. "I do not know. I have never seen the man. What do you care? All of your husbands meet untimely ends. One might think you drive your husbands to suicide."
"Oh, hush." Anahita flapped her hand at the nearest guard. For all that her sister never went anywhere without them, Maram had never learned their names. "Get us something to drink."
The man bowed and left without a word, while his twin folded his arms across his chest to appear even more formidable.
Anahita didn't even seem to notice. Maram would never understand why her sister favoured these two enormous men as her personal guards. They'd been a gift from her first hus
band, a man Maram knew deserved his untimely death ten times over.
"He cannot be handsome, or you would have kept this sheikh for yourself," Anahita said. "The gossip in the palace is that you have a new lover in the city. One you meet in the old bathhouse near the city gates." Anahita's eyes sparkled. "Who is he?"
Maram's heart ached at the mention of Aladdin. "No one." She wet her lips. "And he is not my lover. I met a man there once. I have not seen him since." But she would give everything she owned to see him again. Or for more than a kiss.
Anahita whistled. "A man who can resist you! A superior creature indeed. You must introduce me to this paragon. Perhaps he can keep me company when you go travelling again. A widow always needs so much consolation!"
"No!" Maram snapped, more sharply than she'd intended. She softened her tone as she continued, "You'll be living in marital bliss with that sheikh, I'm sure."
"Marital bliss is not for the likes of me, or you," Anahita said. "Why else would Father allow us to have apartments outside the protection of the harem?"
Maram shot a pointed glance at her sister's remaining bodyguard. Either one of them would be quite the temptation to her father's wives, some of whom had not spent a night with their husband since their wedding night. Someone who hadn't grown up in a harem might think it a place full of secrets, and it was, but secrets were the currency of the place, and they flowed as freely as coins in the marketplace. For a politician like Maram who was known to have her father's ear, nothing stayed a secret for long.
"Fate is fickle. You don't know what she might have in store for either of us. Perhaps you will find a handsome prince of a husband who will outlive you. And I..." She might meet Aladdin again, a man of vastly changed fortunes, who could marry her the way he wished to.
"You might find some prince who doesn't know the difference between a virgin and a courtesan, a man so stupid he allows you to rule in his stead," Anahita finished for her with a smile. "I know you. You would never be content to be anything less than a queen. I think you like the power you have over men when you travel to foreign lands. There are tales of queens who rule like men, I am told."
Maram thought of Queen Margareta, a world-weary widow who was lonely without her husband. "There are a few such women, and their lives are not easy. I would not aim so high. But sometimes it would be pleasant to be loved."
Anahita laughed. "As opposed to just being desired? You speak of that thing all the crusader knights long for. What do they call it? Some sort of divine cup? Or is it a bowl?"
"The holy grail," Maram said. "And no one knows what it truly is. They speak of a story about a knight named Perceval, or Gawain...ah, I forget. It is a favourite among foreign courts. The object is a myth, no more."
"Ah, there is always some truth in old tales, even if it is hidden deep. There are men who love their wives above all else." Now Anahita looked wistful.
"Those men are not princes, or men with power of any kind, then," Maram said gently.
Anahita grinned. "Not powerless at all. He must have the power to please you, surely?" She pumped her hips like a rutting man might, making them both blush.
"Enough about men. They are poor gamblers, for they never bet anything of value. I have new jewels and trinkets from my travels and I'm sure you have gifts from your latest husband that you haven't yet lost in a game of chance. What say you to dice, or a round of chess?"
"It has been a long time since I have played chess. I suspect you are after that necklace...or is it the jewelled dagger?" Anahita asked. "I must teach my men to play, so that I might stay in practice while I am with this new sheikh."
"Dice, then, for a fair match. You will like some of my new jewels, and I always did like that dagger." Maram clapped her hands, and one of her serving women fetched her dice box.
"Now you are home, we should go hunting. I have a splendid new falcon, Merlin, who has a taste for frogs above all else." Anahita grinned as she selected a die made of green glass.
"Frogs? She sounds like a very strange bird. Has she never tasted a fat pigeon?" Maram asked, choosing a die of rose-coloured wood.
"Plenty, but if she hears a frog, she will abandon the hunt to dive for the frog. Why, I've seen her skim through the bathhouse, making all the harem girls scream." Anahita's smile turned wicked. "They screamed even louder when they saw the size of the frog Merlin had plucked from their bath."
Maram tucked her feet up under her and shivered. "I'm sure I would scream, too. I do not like frogs. Slimy creatures."
"I'm told the crusaders eat them as a delicacy at home," Anahita added. "Perhaps Merlin was a crusader's falcon."
Maram felt sick at the thought of a frog anywhere near her mouth. "Enough talk of your crazy bird. Before you cast the dice, what do you hazard?"
"What would you like best, the necklace or the dagger?"
"The dagger, for it will defend me better against frogs," Maram said.
Anahita pulled the jewelled dagger from a fold in her robes, its sheath glittering with more jewels than the blade itself. "The dagger it is, then, though I doubt you will ever use it. A blade is not your style, sister. You are far more subtle than that."
"When men have had too much to drink, subtlety is lost on them, and a woman has need of a dagger," Maram said.
Anahita nodded. "You should train with me and my men one day, so that you might better defend yourself, dagger or no. For the times when a guard is not close enough to call."
Anahita's eyes met Maram's in shared pain. Both had known the violence of men, and neither wished to be a victim again.
Maram broke the silence. "So you bet the dagger, sheath and fighting lessons with your men. I will counter with an amber comb, gifted to me by the king of Kasmirus."
"Just a comb? My dagger is worth more than that," Anahita scoffed.
Maram pulled the comb from her hair and laid it on the table. "Ah, but this comb is immune to dragonfire. A dragon roasted the princess wearing it, crisping her hair to ash before it ate her, but the comb is untouched."
Anahita's eyes widened. "Did you see the dragon?"
Maram flashed an enigmatic smile. "If you want to trade for tales of foreign lands, you must increase your bet."
And so the game began.
SIX
Gwandoya led Aladdin out of the city, to where he had tethered a couple of camels. Aladdin glanced apprehensively at the large beasts with hooves as big as his head.
"Have you ever ridden a camel before, boy?" Gwandoya asked.
Aladdin shook his head, not trusting his voice. He might emit an unmanly squeak.
Gwandoya barked a command at the beasts, and they both knelt down on the sand. "Climb on here, and hang on here," Gwandoya said, pointing. He waited for Aladdin to obey before he nodded slowly. "Good." He climbed aboard his own animal, then barked another order that made the animals rise to their full height once more.
Aladdin grabbed for the hairy hump in front of him to stay on the beast. "Maybe we could walk instead?" he asked weakly.
Gwandoya laughed. "And how will we carry anything back, hmm? These camels can carry very heavy loads – more than you, I think, boy. And we will reach our destination faster with them, oh yes."
"Where is our destination?" Aladdin asked, but Gwandoya didn't seem to hear him. Instead he urged his camel into motion and Aladdin had to hang on for dear life. How could something so huge move so fast? Surely its teeth were rattling in its head, like Aladdin's own.
An eternity later, when Gwandoya slowed to a halt beside an oasis, Aladdin pried his cramped arms off the camel's hump. When the animal lowered itself to the ground, Aladdin slid off into the sand. He staggered toward the water. "Is this our destination?" he croaked.
"Of course not, silly boy. This is where we stop to drink," Gwandoya snapped, before hitching his smile back up. "Drink your fill, for we have far to go until nightfall."
Aladdin's heart sank. "On the camels?" He swallowed and nodded. "Of course, on the camels. As you sai
d, we will get there faster."
Gwandoya eyed him. "You learn fast. Maybe you will do better than the others."
The others who had died, Aladdin thought before he could stop himself. He forced a smile. "So I will get so much gold the Sultan will give me two of his daughters as wives?"
Gwandoya seized Aladdin by the shoulders and shook him. "Not the gold. Don't touch the gold." He released Aladdin. "There are other kind of wealth, things far more valuable than gold."
Aladdin opened his mouth to ask what, but then he closed it again. Gwandoya had talked about Bugra having more gold than he could carry...and now Aladdin couldn't touch it? Did that mean gold had killed Bugra, or something else? Something that owned the gold, perhaps? Aladdin had heard tales of dragons, but he'd never seen one. He wasn't sure he wanted to, either. Not if it would be the last thing he saw.
Gwandoya took out a parcel of food and proceeded to eat his fill. Aladdin watched him with his belly growling, wishing he had the courage to ask for some from his new employer, but he didn't dare. What the man had unwrapped didn't look edible at all. If Aladdin wasn't mistaken, Gwandoya was happily crunching through a handful of large bugs. Aladdin might be hungry, but he wasn't that hungry.
"Didn't you bring food, boy? Here, have one," Gwandoya held out his hand.
A closer look only confirmed that they were indeed beetles and what looked like the most enormous crickets Aladdin had ever seen, mixed with salt and spices.
"I'm not hungry," Aladdin lied, waving the creatures away. "I am eager to start work." And finish riding this benighted camel, he thought but didn't say.
Gwandoya brightened. "Good. Then we shall go, arrive by sundown, yes?"
Aladdin swallowed. "Yes."
SEVEN
By the time Gwandoya called a halt again, Aladdin was ready to leap off the camel with the sincere wish never to ride one again. Whatever flesh he'd had on his backside had been bounced off by the crazy animal's gait between the oasis and what looked like a pile of boulders.