The Lake of Sorrows Read Online Free PDF

goatherds say, but I am no longer one and you never were. We are rulers of the realm now, my son, and rulers
make fate listen!
”

----
VIII
----
    F or a decade, Alhi Pasha, Lion of Hyperus, Beast of the Balkans, ruled in Yannina. His son fought his wars, his wife ran his harem, and his household, too, and his enemies cowered - those that were not sleeping forever at the bottom of his lake. Even his sister had the occasional night of all but undisturbed sleep.
    And Alhi became so very, very bored.
    In his boredom, weakness or not, Alhi still enjoyed luxury, furs and jewels with all the ill-bred appetite of a former goatherds’ chieftain. He could never have enough treasures, not because he enjoyed
having
them, but because he enjoyed
taking
them. So one day when Levandinos, a famed Venetian-based merchant of precious stones, came to Yannina, he wisely brought his treasures to Alhi first. He had been told that noone would buy anything from a merchant unless the Pasha had first been able to choose what
he
would buy. Noone wanted to possess something that the Pasha wished for himself.
    Alhi examined some pearls more like tribesman marauder than a Pasha. “They are exquisite. So exquisite indeed that I would not feel a bit like offering them as a gift to anyone.”
    “To your highness’ women?” The merchant sensed a profitable sale. “How many wives do you have, honorable Pasha?”
    “One.” Alhi’s voice was suddenly colder than a winter storm. “Eminee.”
    The merchant trembled, thinking he might have offended the Pasha. “I was under the impression you had many. I am mortified.” Alhi looked at the man, silent for a moment, as drops of sweat appeared on the merchant’s forehead.
    “You are thinking of my harem. But those are not wives. They are just baubles, like your precious stones. Common knowledge says that the bigger the harem, the grander the ruler. And sometimes even a Pasha must bow to the knowledge of commoners.” Alhi was smiling again, but the merchant did not feel any more at ease.
    “I understand, your highness.”
    “No, you do not. I trust only one woman in this world. Eminee. The mother of my sons. Pleasure is mine for the wishing, but she is the only one that truly loves me. All the rest, they are capable even of poisoning me, if only they could and thought that would win them a higher place in another tyrant’s harem. It is a hornet’s nest in there.” Alhi cast a dark and gloomy glance in the direction of harem wing of the palace. “I like your beads.”
    Wrong-footed by the sudden change of subject, the merchant momentarily forgot his manners. “Beads? They are pearls. True pearls! From Spain.”
    “Do not agitate yourself. I spoke in jest. I see them and I understand. I am not stupid.”
    “That I would never imply, my honorable Pasha,” The merchant was speaking so hurriedly that the words tripped over one another. Sweat reappeared on his forehead.
    The Pasha smiled at him, like a hungry predator that has found its dinner and sees that the dinner knows it.
    There was a long, terrible silence, for Alhi seemed lost in thought and the merchant in prayer.
    “I will buy your pretty baubles, merchant. But you will stay here in Yannina and stop traveling around. Your assistants will bring us more pearls to choose from. Just for me. Why are you looking at me like a rabbit? I need the best to make a worry-beads chainlet. My wife says that if you put expensive stones on one, it becomes a talisman against the evil eye and all enemies. Nonsense, of course, to an enlightened man, but I like to humor her. Is that too much to ask for? You should know there are plenty of those who wish me dead.”
    “Every man has his enemies.” The merchant gulped. “Yet I doubt your own people would wish your death, my exalted Pasha.”
    Alhi gazed deep into the merchant’s eyes. “There is not a single day they do not wish me dead. It could be no other way. Do you know how many men I have cut down?