Alamut (39 page)

Yusuf touched her cautiously. He got up, walked around the pool, and with an uncertain look examined the girls, who followed him with their eyes. When he got back to Zuleika, he exclaimed, half to himself, “By all the martyrs! Sayyiduna was right. And I didn’t believe him!”

Then he slumped down onto his cot. He felt weak and had a bitter taste in his mouth.

“Where are Suleiman and ibn Tahir?”

“Also in paradise, just like you.”

“I’m thirsty.”

“Bring him some milk,” Zuleika ordered.

He emptied a dishful of it.

“Do you feel better now, you weary traveler?”

“I feel better.”

“What were you laughing at when you woke up?”

Yusuf tried to think back. Suddenly he was overcome with laughter again.

“Oh, nothing. Just some stupid dream.”

“We’d like to hear about it.”

“You’ll laugh at me. Sayyiduna gave me this little ball, and suddenly I felt I was flying upward. If I thought about it, I realized I was still lying in the same place. Oh, by the seven prophets! How did I get here then? I couldn’t have really been flying, could I?”

“Of course you were flying, Yusuf. We saw you float through the air and into our home.”

“All-merciful Allah! Is that true? Wait, let me tell you what I dreamed after that, if I was even dreaming at all. You see, I’m flying over these vast landscapes and I come to a huge desert. Beneath me in the sand I catch sight of the shadow of a hawk that’s moving just like me. ‘A bird of prey is hunting you, Yusuf,’ I say to myself. I look up, I look down, then left and right. No trace of a bird. I wave with my left arm, I wave with my right. The shadow beneath me repeats the same movements with its wings. (I have to tell you that as a boy tending my father’s herd, I often saw shadows like that sweep over the ground. The animals would get scared and run away from them. So I know something about these things.) ‘You can’t have changed into an eagle, Yusuf?’ I think. Then I’m above a huge city. I’ve never seen anything like it. Palaces like mountains, with squares, mosques with different-colored cupolas, minarets and towers like an army of lances. ‘Could this be Baghdad or even Cairo down there?’ I say to myself. I come flying over a huge bazaar. Lots of commotion coming from down there. I come to a stop in front of a tall, slender minaret. Some caliph or other is standing on it, shouting and endlessly waving his arms. It seems like he’s hailing someone and bowing to him. The minaret bows down with him. I look around to see who the bowing is for. But I don’t see anyone. ‘Now there, Yusuf,’ I say to myself. ‘You’ve come pretty far up to have caliphs and minarets bowing to you.’ Then I realize that the caliph is Sayyiduna. I’m terror-struck. I look around for a way to escape. But Sayyiduna jumps from the top of the minaret like a monkey and starts dancing strangely on one leg. He’s surrounded by flute players, like the ones who come from India and tame snakes, and Sayyiduna begins to twist in a circle to their music like a madman. What can I do? I start laughing out loud. Then I see all of you around me. Really, really strange! Reality outdid my dream.”

The girls laughed.

“That really was an odd dream,” Zuleika said. “It accompanied you as invisible wings brought you to us.”

Then he noticed the tables on which food had been set out. He felt ravenous. He inhaled the smell of the food and his eyes sparkled.

“Would you like to eat?” Zuleika asked. “It’s written that you have to wash first. Look, water, nice and warm, all ready for you.”

She kneeled down beside him and began undoing his sandals. The others tried to remove his robe. He resisted.

“Don’t resist, Yusuf,” Zuleika said. “You’re in paradise, and everything we do here is decent.”

She took him by the hand and drew him along after her toward the pool. He threw aside the cloth he had wrapped around his hips and slipped into the water. Zuleika unwound her veils and followed him. She removed the fez from his head and handed it to her companions for safekeeping. She helped him wash and splashed him in fun.

After he stepped out of the pool and dried himself with a towel, they offered the food to him. He attacked the many delicacies, devouring everything within arm’s reach. “Allah is great,” he said. “Now I know I really am in paradise.”

They offered him wine.

“Didn’t the Prophet forbid it?”

“Don’t you know the Koran says that Allah permits it in paradise? It won’t go to your head.”

Zuleika compelled him to drink. He was very thirsty and emptied a full jug in one draught.

He stretched back onto the pillows, feeling pleasantly tipsy. Zuleika snuggled up to him and placed his head in her lap.

“Boy, if only Suleiman and ibn Tahir could see me now!”

He felt like a god. He couldn’t resist starting to tell them about his heroic exploits of that morning. Rokaya kneeled in front of him and continued to serve him food and wine. When he had finished, the girls picked up their instruments and began playing and singing the song they had just composed. Yusuf listened to them. His heart melted with tenderness and swelled with pride.

Zuleika wrapped her arms around Yusuf’s neck and drew his head close to hers. Gently, caressingly, she kissed him on the lips.

His head spun with delight. Before he knew it, she had risen again and given the girls a signal. They reached for their instruments and began playing a dance melody.

She raised her arms so that her breasts became taut, and she began bending at the waist. At first she danced lightly, barely moving, solemnly and with great dignity. Yusuf watched her with aching eyes. He was overcome with a languorousness that made it impossible for him to think. All he saw was the beautiful body twisting and dancing before him.

“Allah is great,” he whispered to himself.

Zuleika’s dance became more and more animated and expressive. She gyrated her waist faster and faster, undulating from top to bottom like a waterfall, with artful quivers animating each of her limbs in succession. Finally she began spinning wildly around her axis, ten times, twenty times, and then, like an arrow out of a bow, she went flying into Yusuf’s arms. Instinctively he embraced her, pressed close to her, and forgot about the rest of the world. Rokaya approached the pair on tiptoe and spread a coverlet over them.

A while later, when Yusuf awoke from a pleasant slumber, he was again amazed. In his half-sleep he had become afraid that he would be back at Alamut when he woke up, and that it would turn out he had just dreamt everything. But now, not far away from himself, he saw the seven girls surrounding Zuleika. In itself, paradise didn’t seem all that mysterious to him. He felt rather comfortable around these girls, so that it was a real pleasure to be with them. Their beautiful limbs shone white through their veils. He saw Zuleika’s taut breasts, and he felt a dull twinge of desire. His face flushed red, and the recollection of the moments of pleasure made his thoughts spin.

“Will anyone in the fortress ever believe me when I tell them about all this?” he wondered.

Meanwhile, the girls were discussing something among themselves. “Now let us have some fun with him,” Rokaya whispered to Zuleika.

“You’ve got no business barging in on my affairs. I’m in charge, and I’ll tell you when I need you.”

“Well, what an egotist! Does she think Sayyiduna sent us here just to watch?”

Rokaya was red with anger.

“Let Zuleika make the decisions,” Jada said, trying to pacify her.

“Be quiet, you little dwarf. She’d like to have him all to herself.”

“Be glad he hasn’t noticed you. Otherwise he’d start doubting he’s really in paradise.”

Zuleika looked down her nose at her.

Rokaya was about to fly into a rage. At that moment they noticed that Yusuf was awake again and watching them. Zuleika’s eyes glinted angrily. They quickly picked up the platters and jugs and began serving him. She herself got down on one knee beside him and, with the loveliest of smiles, asked him, “Did you rest well, my dearest?”

Instead of responding, he wrapped a heavy arm around her belly and pulled her tightly toward himself. As he did this, though, his eyes slipped over her shoulder to take in the other girls. He noticed Jada and Little Fatima, who were kneeling on pillows up against the wall and half-timidly, half-admiringly staring at him. He winked at them encouragingly and thought,
Nothing wrong with those two turtledoves
.

“What are you looking at, dear?”

Zuleika could sense that his thoughts were elsewhere.

“Out the windows. I just now noticed how light it is out there. I’d like to go have a look at paradise.”

“I’ll take you, Yusuf.”

“Let’s take the others along, so they don’t get lonely.”

He nodded to Jada and Little Fatima.

“Why don’t you go with them if you prefer their company. I can wait here.”

This almost frightened Yusuf. He could hear a stern accusation in Zuleika’s voice.

“Zuleika, that’s not what I meant. I just felt sorry about leaving them here alone.”

“Be quiet. I can see through that. You’ve gotten tired of me.”

“As the Prophet and the martyrs are my witnesses, I’m not lying.”

“You’re in paradise and you swear?”

“Why won’t you listen to me, Zuleika?”

“Admit it. You like Little Fatima and Jada.”

Yusuf didn’t know how else to excuse himself.

“All right, let’s go, Zuleika. The others can do whatever they want.”

The tears gleaming in her eyes were subdued by a victorious smile.

“Follow along behind us. So that you’re close by if we need anything.”

They left the pavilion.

Yusuf looked at the strange lighting and shook his head.

“Nobody at Alamut is going to believe that I really saw all this with my own eyes.”

“Do they have so little trust in you, Yusuf?”

“Don’t worry. I’ll throw anybody who refuses to believe up against a wall.”

They walked on the paths through the fragrant gardens. Yusuf and Zuleika, arm in arm, walked in front, and behind them came the seven other girls.

“What a magical night!” Jada gasped. “It keeps seeming more and more like the real paradise.”

“How do you suppose Yusuf must feel, if he believes it really is!” Rokaya observed.

“Would you believe, if you suddenly woke up in these gardens like he did?” Asma wondered.

“I don’t know. Maybe, if I hadn’t seen anything of the world yet.”

“Our Master is an unusual man. Do you think that Allah really commanded him to create these gardens?”

“Don’t ask questions like that, Asma. He’s a powerful master, maybe even a magician. You have no idea if maybe he isn’t listening to us now.”

“I’m scared, Rokaya.”

Jada clung onto her tightly.

“Sayyiduna said I would spend only this night in paradise. Do you think he’ll send me here again?” Yusuf asked.

Zuleika flinched. How should she answer him?

“I don’t know, Yusuf. I just know that when you leave that world forever, you’ll be our master and we’ll serve you eternally.”

Yusuf felt a strange anxiety. He held onto Zuleika more tightly.

“Are you sorry you’ll have to leave us?”

“Of course I am, Zuleika.”

“Will you think of me?”

“I’ll never forget you.”

They embraced.

A chilly breeze roused them.

They returned to the pavilion.

They began to drink. Yusuf, who had sobered up in the cool air, was soon tipsy again. He had new courage. While Zuleika was busy pouring wine, he drew Jada close and kissed her.

“Will you be mine when I come here for good?”

In response she wrapped her delicate arms around his neck. The wine had given her courage too.

Zuleika looked back at them. Her eyes flashed angrily.

Jada pulled away from Yusuf and timidly crept away.

Yusuf began laughing. Red with embarrassment, he went over to Zuleika and whispered to her.

“Didn’t you see, I was just joking?”

“Don’t lie to me. It’s just good I’ve found out who you are in time.”

He tried to embrace her.

“Leave me alone! Go, follow your heart.”

She turned her back on him. Then through the glass she saw Apama’s face looking at her threateningly. Another instant and she was gone.

But Zuleika was suddenly sober.

“Oh, Yusuf, Yusuf! Don’t you realize I was just teasing you? You’re master over me and all of us.”

She took him by the hand and gently led him over to the girls.

“You reign here and can choose as you wish.”

They gave him more to drink, and his heart melted with pride and delight. Now he really was a true ruler, master over the souls and bodies of these seven girls, owner of magnificent gardens and a fabulous pavilion. Only here and there through the drunkenness he had a flashing realization that he would have to leave soon. But a new jug of wine helped to drown the sorrow that threatened to overtake him.

The signal reverberated, and Zuleika prepared the drink. Her hand shook as she dropped the ball into the cup. Little Fatima covered her eyes. Jada fought back a sigh. Yusuf drank the wine, oblivious to everything. Soon he dropped back onto the pillows and fell fast asleep. The girls covered him. A chill blew over him, as though the sun had been blotted out.

“Actually, it’s still not clear to me,” Abu Ali said atop the tower, “what benefit you’re expecting from these ‘ashashin’ if your experiment succeeds tonight. Do you really think you’ll build the strength and power of the institution on them?”