Chapter 49: Palace Turmoil

Two years later a telephone call from the Kobekistani embassy broke the news to Prince Ghasaan, now eighteen and about to go to University, that the Emir, his father, had died and that his eldest half-brother had succeeded to the throne as His Magnificence Emir Mustapha, may he live for ever. The funeral was to take place the following day and the new Emir had ordered all the sons, acknowledged or otherwise, of the late Emir to be at the funeral. The Ambassador volunteered that he could not possibly advise the Prince whether he really should attend or not.

Discussing this curious comment with his mother, the Prince decided that it might be dangerous to be in Kobekistan for the funeral, as the new Emir Mustapha was known to have plotted against his own father for many years and might well decide to remove summarily any possible rivals for the throne.

Less than a week later the Ambassador telephoned again to announce that the Emir Mustapha had “met with an accident” and, as he had no acknowledged sons, had been succeeded by the late Emir Mahmoud Abdullah’s eldest child. The Ambassador said that the new Emir Elaheh had actually been declared a man by her father and that this presumably included acknowledgement, and was a part of Kobekistani law until an Emir formally rescinded it. That, at any rate, was the assumption on which the government and the diplomatic service were working.

Princess Aludra and Prince Ghasaan discussed long into the night what they should do about this strange turn of events. They were both certain that someone had murdered Mustapha, and Nicola was not surprised as she had found him a thoroughly nasty person in the twelve years she had been in Kobekistan. He had never sired any children that Princess Aludra knew about or, more accurately, that had stayed in his harem with their mothers, or been acknowledged.

“How many more people have to die before I get to be Emir?” asked the young man.

“Oh, I don’t know,” his mother said, horrified at the idea, “but I expect we could find out.”

“Yes. Do that, please,” came the worrying reply and his mother wondered if he were planning a murderous spree.

The Ambassador had to make inquiries to check, but within the hour he had established that assuming Emir Elaheh’s accession was legitimate, and no other female applicant was legitimate, then fourteen people would have to die in a particular order, sons before their fathers, before Prince Ghasaan could inherit. If the present claimed Emir was not correct in her belief that she was the legitimate heir, then he could effectively never become Emir as many more people would have to die in exactly the right order, including the Ambassador himself. Of course, if there were to be a coup he could become Emir by force and kill whichever other claimants he chose in any order.

“Well, I am very pleased to hear that,” Prince Ghasaan said to the Ambassador, who made a sort of choking noise as he misinterpreted the answer. That worthy was much relieved when Prince Ghasaan continued, “Since I have no ambitions whatever to be Emir. However, what happens about the money we, the Princess Aludra and I, currently receive?”

The Ambassador reassured, “It would take a specific instruction from the new Emir to stop those payments and a new Emir will have many problems to deal with, so will not even think about a tiny detail like that.”

Prince Ghasaan turned to his mother and asked, “How did you get on with Elaheh in the Palace when you both lived there?”

“I barely knew she existed and she probably didn’t know anything about me. She had the Emerald Palace and stayed there,” she reassured him.

“Good,” he said, “Splendid. Then life goes on as before for us. Those who want to become Emir can sort it out between themselves. After all Britain had a queen hundreds of years ago, so why can’t Kobekistan catch up now?”

“I doubt Elaheh is of the standard of Elizabeth the First, but I see what you mean.”

“Who mentioned either Queen Elizabeth? I meant Boadicea.”