The Architect's Apprentice (46 page)

Balaban’s wife, taking Jahan into her care, applied a poultice to his wounds and pigeon dung to his cuts. Morning and evening she forced down his throat a brew that was the colour of rust and tasted no better. The cut on his cheek, which bled whenever he moved a muscle, had to be sewn, she declared. So she did, her fingers not trembling once, even when he screamed and kicked in agony. When done, she assured him that from now on he would have lovers galore, since women were fond of men scarred on the battlefield.

‘I was in no battle,’ Jahan protested weakly.

‘Who’s goin’ to know that? They’ll drop in your path like ripe plums. Mark my words,’ she said, spitting in her palm and stamping it on the wall. ‘But your foot looks bad. We’ve summoned the Mender.’

‘Who’s that?’

‘You’ll see,’ she said mysteriously. ‘When he’s done, you’ll be as good as the Almighty first made you.’

Stubby and scraggy as a reed, dressed in tatters and with a wooden spoon dangling from his neck, the man who showed up the same afternoon didn’t seem at all remarkable to Jahan. How wrong he was. With a quick glance at Jahan’s foot, the healer declared it was not broken but badly dislocated. Before Jahan could ask what that meant, he had shoved the spoon in Jahan’s mouth, taken his foot in the hollow of his hand and twisted it. Jahan’s scream was loud enough to frighten the pigeons in the courtyard of the Suleimaniye Mosque. Later the Mender would show him the teeth marks on the spoon. Apparently, his weren’t the only ones.

‘All broken bones?’ Jahan asked when he could speak again.

‘Those and women giving birth. They bite harder.’

‘Keep an eye on your piss,’ continued the Mender. He explained there were six shades of yellow, four of red, three of green and two
of black. A healer would not waste time looking at the patient; he would inspect his urine and see what was wrong. At his behest Jahan peed in a pot and watched the man swirl, sniff and swallow the liquid.

‘No hidden bleeding in the organs,’ said the Mender. ‘Advent of dropsy. Prone to melancholy. Otherwise, fine inside.’

Thus sewn, fixed, washed, fed and tucked up in bed, Jahan slept uninterrupted for two days. On the third afternoon, when he opened his eyes, he found Balaban by his bed, weaving a basket while waiting for him to come round.

‘Welcome to the land of the livin’. Wonder where I’ll save your skin next time.’

Jahan chuckled, although it hurt because of the stitches in his face.

‘How is the elephant?’

‘Chota is dead.’

‘Sorry, brother. How sad.’

They were pensive for a moment. Jahan was the first to break the silence. ‘Do animals go to heaven, you think? Imams say they won’t.’

‘What do they know about animals? Farmers do. Gypsies do. But imams, nay.’ Balaban paused. ‘Don’t brood. When I go to heaven, I’ll have a word with God. If He says there’s no room for creatures, I’ll beg Him to spare Chota.’

Jahan’s eyes lit up with amusement. ‘You steal. You drink. You gamble. You bribe. You still think you’re going to Paradise?’

‘Well, brother … I look at the holier-than-thou. I say to myself, if these chaps are goin’, I sure am goin’, ’cause they are no better than me. That’s how I measure my sins.’ Balaban poured himself some wine. ‘Pity he won’t see his father.’

‘Who?’

‘Your elephant’s son.’

‘Chota has a son?’

‘
Tatcho!
*
You thought all that effort brought no result! Poor Gulbahar was pregnant forever. Did you know?’

‘Yes,’ Jahan said, nodding. ‘They have long pregnancies.’

‘Long? Seemed like an eternity!’

‘What did you name him?’

‘Remember, you told me four elephants held the universe. If one moved, there were earthquakes, you said.’ Balaban took a sip. ‘I named him Panj. It means five. Just in case, you know, someone should stand in the centre.’

Jahan’s throat constricted.

‘Do you want to see him? Your grandson?’

‘Indeed!’

Placing Jahan on a horse-drawn litter, they took him to the barn. There he was, Chota’s son, swinging his trunk, grey as a storm cloud. Jahan told the driver to take the litter closer so that he could touch the beast. Under the watchful gaze of the mother elephant, he patted the son’s trunk and offered him a nut, which the animal accepted with delight. Sniffing, Panj searched for more; smart, suspicious, spry. Jahan’s eyes brimmed with tears. For an instant he had the feeling that he was staring at Chota. Something from him continued in this creature, who had never seen his father and yet was, except for his colour, already so like him.

They left the barn, the horse pulling lazily. As they were crossing the courtyard, Jahan caught a fragrance in the breeze that sent a signal to an obscure part of his brain. He shouted, ‘Stop!’

They ran to his side, fearing he had been hurt.

‘Where does this smell come from?’ Jahan asked.

‘Nothing stinks around here. Lie down,’ snapped Balaban.

One of the lads broke into a grin. ‘I know what he’s talking about.
Daki dey
was burning herbs.’

Balaban said, ‘Go get her.’

In a little while they brought in a woman with an upright gait and a dark moustache. She said, ‘Chief says you wanted to see me.’

‘This thing you were burning,’ said Jahan. ‘What is it?’

A look of annoyance crossed her face. ‘It’s called mullein. We throw it in the fire every Monday morning. And at full moon. The
smoke keeps the evil spirits away. If you have enemies, you’d better boil it and take a bath in it. You want some?’

‘Tell me … Who else would use it? Other than the Romany, I mean?’

She gave this some thought. ‘Those who have trouble in breathing. They carry it everywhere.’

‘People with asthma …’ Jahan mumbled, dismayed. He closed his eyes, the floor shifting beneath his feet.

That night, as they sat around a peat fire, Balaban’s wife threw salt in the flames. Embers burst like sparkles of gold. His eyes transfixed by the display, Jahan said, ‘I should be on my way soon.’

Balaban nodded, expecting to hear this. ‘When?’

‘There is one last person I need to visit. Then I am done with this city.’

Davud was right when he said Jahan was not a man of revenge. But he was also partly wrong. Jahan understood it wasn’t only happiness that he sought in life. He also yearned for the truth.

She peered down at the water in the silver bowl. Its surface had formed ripples and its bottom had turned black. She frowned, not liking what she spotted. A sound like a whistle pierced the air every time she inhaled. Her condition had worsened over the years. She placed her hand, shrivelled and lined with veins, upon the cat’s head.

‘Do you see what he’s up to? Maybe he’s no fool after all.’

She glanced at the window, which was letting in a draught. How many times she had ordered the maidservant to keep it closed. But the silly girl threw it wide whenever she found the chance, claiming it was hot and stuffy. She did it to chase away the smell, of course. It wasn’t only her farting and her perspiration that soured the air, she knew. Underneath she gave off an odour like an ancient book that smelled of dust no matter how often it was wiped. The maidservant was scared of her, scared of the
witch
. For that’s what everyone called her behind her back.

She wore a silken garment, too bright and too ornamented for her age, some might have said. She didn’t care. The sleek fabric did not lessen the ache in her joints or her hunched shoulders. Her body was a graveyard of memories. And each passing day as blurry as a shadow dancing on a wall. She had stopped quarrelling with God. She no longer asked Him why He had let her live when He had taken everyone else too early, too fast. She carried her age as a curse she was proud to be afflicted with. A hundred and twenty-one years old. That’s how old she was. Her hair was no longer red and wavy, but it was still thicker than many a maiden’s plait. Her voice was strong, unwavering. The voice of the younger woman who still resided inside her.

She pulled away from the bowl as if she feared the man down there
was watching her, just as she had been watching him all these years. She reached for the pouch on the table, opened it and scattered the herbs on to her palm and sniffed. When the rattle in her chest calmed somewhat, she murmured, ‘He’s discovered us, that Indian. He’s coming to find us.’

The Abode of the Disfavoured, they called it. A giant of a mansion half hidden by tall pine trees and high walls. This was where the concubines who were no longer in the Sultan’s eye or had never been or never would be were sent in due course. Those who were jealous or ambitious in the extreme and had become entangled in the darkest intrigues might also find themselves under this roof, having lost their chance to ascend at the palace. Harem servants and odalisques too old or too sick to work would end up here as well. As a result, its inhabitants were a mixed bunch of young and aged, pretty and ordinary, hardy and ailing.

A mirthless place it was – the ceilings seldom echoed with laughter; the carpets only occasionally, if ever, were trodden by dancing feet. Bitterness exuded from the chimneys like steam from a sizzling dish. What little singing was done was mostly so sad there would not be a single dry handkerchief left. The residents did not ponder the future, for there was no future to ponder. Nor present. There was only the past. They looked back to the old days, resenting the mistakes made, the opportunities squandered, the paths untaken, the youths misspent. And on winter nights, when it was so cold their prayers froze in the air, never reaching the ears of God, many felt their hearts freeze alongside the solid earth outside, no matter how many stones they boiled and put in their beds.

A few had resigned themselves to the women they had become, though more had turned spiteful. A great many were pious, having dedicated the rest of their lives to the Almighty. Being pious did not mean being at peace, however, and they rarely were. Although each and every one, when asked, would say they believed that everything, good and bad, was in His hands, they still preened themselves on their achievements and accused others of their misfortunes. The contrast between the royal harem and its bleak counterpart was stark.
Strict and stable in its rules and codes, the harem was nevertheless a versatile world, fluid and fickle. Its inhabitants had wishes and aspirations to spare. At night they had dreams aplenty. Whereas in the Abode of the Disfavoured it was the dreams that withered first, then, gradually, the dreamers.

This is where Hesna Khatun had been living for the last fifteen years, though she had so frightened the other women she had been banished to a three-room cottage at the far end of the second garden. She didn’t mind. Should she wish it, she could still go to the mansion Princess Mihrimah had endowed for her, but she found its vastness and emptiness suffocating. It was better here, however modest. Besides she did not have to see, day in day out, the courtyard with its roses and flowers, whose heady scents crushed her chest, making her wheeze and cough. Her asthma had worsened. Even so, she never asked for help. They could hate, fear or shun her, if they wished, but she would never allow anyone to pity her.

‘They may all go to hell,’ she drawled, before she realized she had said it out loud. It happened often lately. She found herself saying things that were in her head and would have been better off staying there.

Walking with leaden steps, she extended her hands towards the fireplace. She was always cold. Spring or winter made no difference; she kept the fire burning. When she had warmed up a bit she took her brush and turned towards the cat on the windowsill. ‘Let’s make you pretty, shall we?’

She held the cat and sat down on the sofa to comb its hair. The animal stood still, a bored look in its eyes.

There was a knock on the door. A slave boy appeared, no older than seven, his voice breaking. ‘There’s a messenger,
nine
.
*
He has brought you an urgent letter.’

‘Tell that liar, whoever he is, there’s nothing urgent for me any more. Send him away.’

The boy gaped at his feet, too frightened to meet her gaze.

‘Why are you lingering, ignorant boy?’

‘The man said, if she refuses to see me, tell her I have brought a message from Princess Mihrimah.’

At the mention of the name, Hesna Khatun flinched, blood draining from her cheeks. Never a woman who bowed to threats, she composed herself. ‘How much did he pay you for this? Have you no shame?’

The boy’s bottom lip sagged; he let out a whimper ready to break into a cry should she scold him again.

‘What’s the use of shouting at you?’ she said. ‘Go fetch the rascal. I’ll give him a roasting myself.’

No males – unless they were eunuchs or boys – were allowed in the Abode of the Disfavoured. Certainly no strangers. Still, the nursemaid had her own rules. There were some benefits, after all, to being feared as the
zhadi
.

In a moment, Jahan appeared, followed by the boy who, not daring to enter, closed the door and waited outside.

‘So it is you,’ Hesna Khatun said, her voice a dry, throaty grumble.

They regarded each other with a dislike neither of them cared to conceal. He saw how impossibly old and thin she had become. Every inch of her face was furrowed; her back was crooked; her ears had enlarged. From under her scarf a streak of silver hair showed, reddened with henna on the ends. As unrecognizable as she was, she had the same calculating, hard stare as always.

‘How dare you utter her name?’ she rasped. ‘I should have you lashed.’

‘I had no choice,’ Jahan said. ‘Otherwise you wouldn’t have seen me,
dada
.’

She recoiled upon hearing the name that Mihrimah, and only Mihrimah, had called her. Her mouth opened and closed in an angry silence.

Knowing the effect the word would have on her, Jahan was observing her every move. He stood tall and erect, neither bowing low nor
kissing her hand. His insolence had not escaped her. She said, ‘To what do I owe your visit – and lack of manners?’

He took a step towards her, only now noticing the snow-white cat curled on her lap. Carefully, he took out the hairpin he had stolen years ago and placed it on a table for her to see. ‘I want to return this. It is yours.’

‘How generous. At my age one needs a hairpin,’ she said scathingly. ‘Is that why you are here?’

‘I came to tell you I’m going away for good.’

‘So long, then,’ Hesna Khatun said with a condescending smile.

‘And before I leave there is a score between us that needs to be settled.’

‘You and me? Don’t think so.’

Stung by her mockery, Jahan closed his eyes for an instant and addressed the darkness inside his eyelids. ‘You were more than a nursemaid. You cared for Mihrimah from the time she was a baby. She adored you, told you her secrets.’

‘I raised her. Sultana Hurrem, may God forgive her rotten soul, had no time for her children. Surely not for her daughter. Not until she reached the age of marriage. Then she wanted to make her an innocent dupe in her games.’ Hesna Khatun paused, short of breath. ‘Do you know I was her wet nurse too? Mihrimah grew up on my milk,’ she said, touching her flat chest with pride.

Jahan said nothing, feeling the encroachment of a sorrow he knew only too well.

‘When Mihrimah burned with fever I, not her mother, waited by her bedside. When she fell down, I swathed her knees. I wiped her tears. When she had her first blood, she ran to me. She thought she was dying, poor thing. We slap a girl in this state. You can’t do that to a Princess. So I held her in my arms. I said, “You are not going to die, your Highness. You are a woman now.” ’

Reaching out her fleshless hand she caressed the cat on her lap. ‘What did the Sultana do? Aside from using her children to write letters to the Sultan?
Come back from war, my lion, return to my arms. Your absence kindled in my heart a fire that does not abate. Your infants are desolate. Your daughter Mihrimah is in tears
. Always scribbling rubbish.’

‘How do you know what she wrote in her letters?’

A hoot of laughter rose, high-pitched and full-throated. ‘In the harem there are no secrets,’ Hesna Khatun intoned. ‘The Sultana was a cunning wife but a careless mother. She doted on her sons. She forgot her daughter.’

Ambushed by the memory of an afternoon, Jahan puckered his lips. He recalled Mihrimah confiding in him how lonely she was and his own surprise that a woman who had everything could ever feel this way. ‘When she was a child the Princess had the best tutors. Her father wanted her to be well read. You used to attend classes with her. Mihrimah was so fond of you; if you weren’t around, she wouldn’t listen. Everything that was taught to her, you also learned.’

‘So, is that a sin?’

‘Not at all,’ Jahan said. ‘Hurrem didn’t notice how devoted Mihrimah was to you. She was too preoccupied with the Sultan – and her plots. She let you take control of her daughter. Then something happened. Hurrem didn’t want you around any more.’

‘How do you know all this?’

‘Mihrimah told me but I never put the pieces together. Till now. Why was the Sultana upset with you?’

‘The Sultana …’ She began to cough, as if her name was a poison she had to purge from her body. When she spoke again, her voice sounded strained. ‘Once Hurrem wanted to go to Bursa with her children. My Mihrimah didn’t want to travel. She was only nine. She said to her mother, if
dada
comes, I’ll go. That was when Hurrem understood her daughter loved me more than she loved her.’

‘And she sent you away.’

‘Allah knows she did. She tried to get rid of me. Twice.’

‘What happened then? How did you come back?’

‘Mihrimah stopped eating. She got so ill they feared she would die. They had to bring me back. As soon as I reached the palace I asked for a bowl of soup, fed her myself.’

‘Is that when people started to gossip?’ Jahan asked. ‘They called you witch. They accused you of casting a spell on the Princess.’

‘The biggest
zhadi
was the Sultana! Everyone knew that. She’s the one who spread rumours about me. Oh, the evil in her!’

‘A war of two witches,’ Jahan said, transfixed.

Hesna Khatun gave him a disdainful look. ‘Well, she’s dead, and I’m still in the land of the living.’

A shudder ran through Jahan. ‘How about the second time? You said the Sultana sent you away twice.’

‘That was … when Mihrimah was betrothed to Rustem Pasha. Hurrem didn’t want me around. Can you believe? She sent me on a pilgrimage when my daughter needed me most. They put me on a ship. How I cried, Allah is my witness.’

‘On the way back your ship was attacked by corsairs, we heard.’

‘Oh, it was a sham.’ She broke off, seized by another fit, her body convulsing. ‘The Sultana wanted to finish me off. She arranged the attack to get me killed or incarcerated. One way or another. Wouldn’t have made a difference to her.’

‘How did you escape?’

She glanced up, her eyes brimming. ‘My daughter saved me. She stopped eating again. She cried so much that Sultan Suleiman sent an Ottoman fleet to save me – me, a nursemaid! Who has heard of such a thing?’

‘Where did your power come from,
dada
?’

‘Sorcery, you think? It came from love! My daughter loved me.’

Jahan leaned forward, his gaze fixed on the cat. ‘You loved Mihrimah, too. But it wasn’t only her you doted on … I have been thinking about this. You were besotted with the Sultan – how could I have missed this before.’

Her expression darkened.

‘You burned for him,’ said Jahan.

‘He burned for me,’ she said with pride. ‘It was me he wanted, not Hurrem. That vixen was in our way.’

‘Do you really believe that? You are not in your right mind,’ Jahan
said so softly that it was almost a whisper. ‘You live in your dreams. And wishes.’

She wasn’t listening. ‘If it had not been for that she-devil, Mihrimah would have been my daughter. But she was, I always knew she was. Our child. Mine and Sultan Suleiman’s.’

For a moment they were quiet – she sourly, he disconcertedly. It was he who spoke first. ‘When the Sultana passed away, Mihrimah became the most powerful woman in the empire. You were in the background. In the shadows. Unseen. Unsuspected.’ Suddenly Jahan broke off. ‘Why is that cat not moving?’

‘She’s sleeping. Don’t bother her,’ Hesna Khatun said. ‘Why are you here?’

‘To find the truth –’

‘Truth is a butterfly: it lands on this flower and that. You run after it with a net. If you capture it, you are happy. But it won’t live long. Truth is a delicate thing.’

Her breath was laboured, her body ached down to the bone. She was tired, he saw, but he was not ready to let her go. ‘Where does Davud fit into all this?’

A shadow crossed her face.

‘He was your puppet for years. It was you who sabotaged my master’s buildings. People died. Why?’

Hesna Khatun caressed the cat harder. Not a purr. Not a swing of its tail.

‘I never suspected you,
dada
. No one did. Who would have suspicions about a nursemaid? You were clever, left no trace.’

‘There must have been one. Otherwise you wouldn’t be here,’ she said bitterly.

‘The herbs you burned for your asthma. Mihrimah’s hair and clothes always smelled like that. The other day Davud had the same smell. I remembered afterwards.’

‘You have a strong sense of smell, Indian,’ she said, propping herself up.

‘My elephant taught me.’ Jahan paused, stroking his beard. ‘You
used Davud, but he got out of control. He would not listen to you any more.’