Emissary by Fiona McIntosh Page A

threshold of the harem and knew he would find comfort here.
    She was sewing, a look of disgust on her face as she poked the tiny needle through her silk.
    ‘Pez!’ one of the other girls cried and it was obvious they were all looking for a distraction.
    The tutor’s pinched expression turned even more sour as Pez scratched at his own crotch and then belched. The class disintegrated into laughter and the helpless tutor, unable by palace law to banish the clown, took her leave but with a promise to return after the midday meal for more of the same.
    ‘Let’s swim with the fishes,’ Pez suggested, pretending to glide through make-believe water.
    ‘We’re not allowed outside, Pez,’ someone told him.
    He looked to Ana, sucking at her finger she had pricked with the needle on seeing him. She smiled. ‘We have to sew adequately first,’ she sighed.
    Already the class had broken up and girls were moving into groups, munching on the platters of fruit and confections being delivered by a host of servants. The garammala pipes would inevitably follow.
    Pez glanced towards the food and back to Ana. It was an invitation she declined with a soft shake of her head. ‘You’re looking thin,’ he whispered.
    ‘And you’re looking miserable. What’s happened?’
    He told her very briefly and watched as something akin to his own pain settled across herface. ‘With Boaz in this mood he might permit anything,’ he concluded.
    ‘Are you sure he said that?’ she asked, referring to the Zar’s dismissal and warning.
    ‘Quite. I could hardly mistake the finality of his words. Our friendship is done with.’
    ‘I don’t think so. Even the little I know of our Zar suggests he will think it through and regret the way the discussion went.’
    ‘You may be right,’ he whispered, moving to stand on his head and act out his part.
    ‘Salmeo for sure will take every advantage of this new turn of events,’ Ana said softly, frowning.
    ‘And the Valide will relish any opportunity to return years of frustrating harassment with cruel interest,’ he reminded, carefully watching that no-one was paying them any attention.
    ‘Oh, Pez. What are we going to do to help you?’
    ‘I must lie low for a while, not be seen around too much. Forgive me if I disappear.’
    ‘Don’t leave me.’
    ‘I won’t, I promise. I’d better go. I’ll come tonight. Leave your window open.’
    ‘My window?’ she queried, watching him roll back to his feet and pull an ugly face at a girl passing by, who giggled. ‘I’m on the top floor.’
    ‘Just do as I ask,’ he said and winked before skipping out of the room.
    The Valide smiled as she took her seat in the Chamber of Silence. It had been so many years since she was in this area of the palace that she had forgotten it existed. This was the chamber where she had been first presented as a newly purchased slave to the Valide Zara of the day; a stern, seemingly permanently scowling woman, who fortunately lost her position soon after. Herezah recalled it all now. The scowling Valide’s son, Zar Koriz, had died suddenly and his death had diminished his mother’s long-sought and powerful position. He had fallen prey to the feared bloatfish, earning its name from the fact that it swelled as it died, gasping in the fishing nets. It was a delicacy in Percheron but needed very special handling by cooks to ensure that the liver of this fish was fully removed. It contained some of the most powerful toxins known at the time and eating even the tiniest morsel of the liver meant certain death. The Zar of the day was a fine cook, priding himself on being skilled in cleaning and gutting this favourite of fish with precision and did just that after one of his regular fishing expeditions. These were days when no-one dared even offer advice to the Zar unless asked, and although one of his newest aides found the courage to suggest that it would be best to take the fish back to the palace, the Zar scoffed. He wanted