Chapter 37: Death of an Emir

In the next two days Elaheh was filled five times by the Emir and whipped twice. Then she was told that the Emir expected her to be more co-operative in future, and that the whippings would stop if she was. She thought long and hard about this and decided that desperate measures were called for.

On the fourth day after her father's death, Princess Elaheh wandered into the kitchen and picked up a long sharp kitchen knife. None of the kitchen slaves dared to question this and she slipped the knife up her sleeve. Returning to the harem she sat beside the pool near the entrance and waited. For four hours she sat there and then, as she had hoped and expected, the Emir Mustapha came bustling into the harem and caught sight of her.

"Are you ready to come willingly to my bed and bear me a son?" he asked, "Or must you be punished more before you obey?"

Elaheh moved to a position just in front of him and made a deep obeisance.

"Up," he said, and she rose swiftly, lurching towards him.

The knife slid easily up under his ribs as she rose and blood flooded out. She twisted it round as she withdrew it and then plunged it into his neck as he stood swaying with a look of utter surprise on his face. She let go of the handle as blood sprayed everywhere from the severed carotid artery, and he fell to the floor, his limbs twitching in his death agony, his life's blood pumping out on to the harem floor

After he had been still for a minute or so she knelt and closed his eyes. Slipping her bloodstained silk gown off and dropping it beside the body, she slid into the pool and washed the blood from her body and hair. Rising from the pool she took up a towel and dried herself. Throughout this process the watching concubines and eunuchs had not moved, they just stared at her trying to decide what to do. Surely she was not acting on her own initiative? She must be part of a palace plot by one of the Emir's brothers and would be under the protection of the new Emir?

Seeing the doubt on their faces she quoted, "Treason never prospers; for if it do, then none dare call it treason."

Moving into her own room she donned her trouser suit and a white blouse. When she came out the body was gone and a slave was washing the floor. Taking a deep breath, Princess Elaheh walked calmly to the door of the harem. There the Chief Eunuch stood waiting.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"If you wish to address me, start by making obeisance," she snapped, "And my honorific is Mistress."

The Chief Eunuch thought for a moment, and decided that discretion might well be the safest course. Whoever became Emir would surely protect her, at least for the moment, though he would undoubtedly be rid of her soon. If, as he suspected it might, a miracle happened and Princess Elaheh took power into her own hands as Regent for one of the under-age sons of her father, then it would be infinitely better to be in favour than out. He dropped to the floor with a practised ease.