SERAGLIO Read Online Free PDF Page B

loot or else die and go straight to Paradise. They had nothing to lose and were sent in first at every charge; 'moat fillers', Ibrahim called them.
    The regular cavalry - the Spahis of the Porte - thundered by, their horses caparisoned in gold and silver cloth, saddles studded with jewels, their conical helmets and burnished steel chain mail gleaming. They were spectacular in purple, royal blue and scarlet according to rank and regiment.
    Next came the Yeniçeris , enormous Bird of Paradise plumes waving in the wind like a moving forest, blue skirted cloaks swinging with every stride, muskets slung over their shoulders. The huge copper cauldrons that served as each regiment's standard went with them. A white banner emblazoned with the flaming sword of Mohammed fluttered in the wind, embroidered with gold text from the Qu'ran.
    Next came the dervishes, naked except for green aprons fringed with ebony beads, wearing towering hats of brown camelhair, chanting from the Qu'ran. Madcaps rode up and down the lines, long hair straggling from under their leopard skin caps, horses festooned with feathers. They were the crazy scouts, the religious fanatics who carried out the suicide raids no one else would attempt.
    At the rear came the Divan, judges in green turbans, viziers on horseback glittering with jewels. With them came the camels bearing a sacred fragment of the holy Ka'aba, lumbering under the brilliant green folds of the standard of Islam. A metal sanchak Qu'ran, in miniature and inscribed in bronze, jangled at the top of the standard.
    Finally there were the supply wagons, camels bowed under the weight of powder and lead, rumbling bronze siege cannon.
    I should be with them, Suleiman thought.
    'I will bring you back the Shah's head!' Ibrahim shouted.
    What was it Hürrem had said? Do you not worry sometimes that he might abuse his power?
    'We must regain Baghdad. As Defender of the Faith, I am sworn to protect it!' He felt a stirring of unease. I have put all my faith in you, Ibrahim. God grant that I have not trusted you too much.
     
     
    Pera .
     
    Julia was sitting on the terrazzo . Ludovici stopped on the steps on the way from the garden to admire her. Abbas was right, he thought. She is so beautiful. If only I could make her feel about me the way she felt about him.
    She is mine, but only because she has no choice. She is virtually a prisoner. She cannot leave my protection for fear of her life; having once been a concubine she may not return to Venice, for they would treat her like a whore. Serena would send her away to a convent.
    There is nowhere else for her to go.
    She looked up from her book. Ovid. So remote, like an angel carved from ice. She saw him watching her. 'Ludovici,' she said. He was wearing a rust-coloured kaftan, like a Turk. 'You enjoy playing the renegade, don't you?'
    'It has nothing to do with it. It's cooler in such hot weather.'
    'What is wrong? You look worried about something.'
    'We must talk,' he said to her.
    She fixed him with those ice blue eyes. A vision, as Abbas had once described her.
    He sat down, fidgeted, wondered how to start. Finally: 'Julia, you have been here under my protection for almost three years.'
    'And I have always been grateful to you for all you do for me.'
    'Are you happy here?'
    'Happy? What is happiness?'
    He shrugged. Well, I don't know, he thought. Meat and wine on the table, a silk doublet, a woman to warm the bed. 'You should be married.'
    'I am married. If Serena is still alive.'
    'I don't know if he is. You said he was sick the last you heard of him. He was an old man when you married him. I could make enquiries, find out.'
    'I don’t' really care about him.' She picked up her book.
    He spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness. Their conversations always went this way. It was as if she had been scooped hollow with a spoon. She was broken. How to find repair?
    He felt like a father with a disgraced and unmarriageable daughter. What was he going to do