Sultan's Wife
“I suspect he would request her presence every night if it did not provoke Zidana’s wrath so.
As it is, the empress fulminates about Alys. She refers to her as the White Worm, the Serpent, the English Stick and other such unflattering names. In this, as in other matters, I have become Zidana’s confidant. She complains constantly to me about Ismail’s neglect of her, for since Alys entered the harem the sultan has not spent a single night with his Chief Wife. She demands information from me as to ...every detail of Ismail’s state of mind, his temper, his eating habits and bowel movements. She wants reports on everything I hear him say about the Englishwoman. Of course, I do not fully comply: Zidana does not recognize the logic that separates message from messenger. And so I report back to her what I deem to be safe, committing many sins of omission; and, in an uncomfortable twist of fate, find myself acting as her mouthpiece and go-between with her rival.
Zidana encourages me to spend time with Alys Swann – under the cover of teaching her Arabic (which she is learning with greater ease than I had expected) – to win her trust sufficiently so that she will drink without question the noxious concoctions she brews up to prevent her from conceiving Ismail’s child; or to kill it in the womb.MoreLess
As it is, the empress fulminates about Alys. She refers to her as the White Worm, the Serpent, the English Stick and other such unflattering names. In this, as in other matters, I have become Zidana’s confidant. She complains constantly to me about Ismail’s neglect of her, for since Alys entered the harem the sultan has not spent a single night with his Chief Wife. She demands information from me as to ...every detail of Ismail’s state of mind, his temper, his eating habits and bowel movements. She wants reports on everything I hear him say about the Englishwoman. Of course, I do not fully comply: Zidana does not recognize the logic that separates message from messenger. And so I report back to her what I deem to be safe, committing many sins of omission; and, in an uncomfortable twist of fate, find myself acting as her mouthpiece and go-between with her rival.
Zidana encourages me to spend time with Alys Swann – under the cover of teaching her Arabic (which she is learning with greater ease than I had expected) – to win her trust sufficiently so that she will drink without question the noxious concoctions she brews up to prevent her from conceiving Ismail’s child; or to kill it in the womb.MoreLess
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