A Place Called Armageddon Read Free Page B

you … often. And I would not have to come to the Edirne docks for my prophecies.’
    Leilah smiled. To be the lover of such a man meant power … for a time. Until another caught his fancy – woman, boy, man, it was rumoured his tastes ran to all. Then she would be trapped, as she had been once before, a slave to the man who had caused her parents to be killed, subject to his … every whim, from the age of ten till his sudden death two years later, after eating some figs she had specially prepared.
    She would never be a slave again. In a saray , she would be. Outside it, her prophecies gave her power. Unlike nearly every woman in Edirne, in the world, they also gave her a choice. And if her prophecies came true for this man, he was just another she would not need.
    She stepped closer, moving in the way she knew men liked her to move. Into red lamp-spill, directly above her now, that revealed the darkness at her large nipples, at her groin, beneath the silks. ‘Master,’ she breathed, ‘you honour me with your desire. And were I to choose to give up my treasure, there is no one alive whom I would rather … took it.’ She emphasised the taking, saw him shudder, dropped her voice to a whisper. ‘But there are many others who can offer you that. While few can offer you the gift I have. A gift I will lose, should you take …’ again, the slightest of inflections, ‘what I yearn to give you.’ She stepped away. ‘So which would you have, master? Me, or my prophecies?’
    Hamza watched, fascinated. His companion was young and was used to having anything – anyone – he wanted.
    Yet there was something he wanted that was beyond such desire. The young man knew it, and looked away. ‘I need your …’ he sighed, ‘prophecies.’ He looked back, his voice hardening. ‘But when they are fulfilled, come to me and I will give you anything you want.’
    She smiled. ‘Then I will come to you, on the eve of destiny. I will ask a boon of you. I will give you something in return.’ She gestured towards the door. ‘Now leave, master, remembering this – if anyone recognises you tonight, your dreams will crumble. Unless he does not live to tell of it.’
    Hamza was puzzled. It was the second time she’d mentioned that. But he had no time to think. His companion gestured the pouch of gold coin from his belt and Hamza dropped it onto the floor. Then his arm was taken and they moved together through the courtyard and out the house’s door, opened for them by a shadow within a shadow, barred silently behind them.
    In the room, Leilah bent and threw a cushion over the gold, then stood silently till she heard the outer door close. Only then did she call out, ‘Come.’
    The inner door to the house opened. Isaac bustled in. ‘Well,’ he demanded, roughly seizing her, ‘did you do it? Did you ask him?’
    ‘Yes,’ she replied, almost relishing the pain in her right arm since she knew it was the last time this man would hurt her. ‘I did as you commanded. Refused his gold, exchanged it for his promise – that when the city fell, I would have free access to the library you spoke of.’
    ‘You?’ he barked, shaking her. ‘It is I who need Geber’s book, not you, you stupid whore.’
    He raised a hand above her and she cowered back, as he liked her to do. ‘I did name you. Blessed you as my guardian. Perhaps …’ she chewed at her lower lip, ‘perhaps if you were to approach him, tell him what I failed to, even now …’ She trailed off.
    He looked out to the courtyard. ‘You named me? He would know me then, favourably, if I spoke to him?’
    She nodded. ‘Oh yes. But he is … occupied with many things. Perhaps he will forget even me.’ She looked up. ‘Go after him. Speak.’
    The man moved to the door. ‘He can’t have gone far. I will catch him.’
    He was halfway across the courtyard when she called, ‘Remember, Isaac. Greet him with all his honours. Name him as he is.’
    ‘Of course I will,’ he