Vladimir Bartol - Alamut

“Can he allow what the Prophet has forbidden?”

“Of course he can. Allah has given him the power to issue commandments and prohibitions. He’s also given him the key that opens the gate to heaven.”

Unused to wine, the soldiers soon got drunk. They cheered the supreme commander and the Ismailis, deliberated and argued about him and his teachings, and asked the men of Alamut for explanations. Many of them decided that, once they finished their service to Muzaffar, they would return to the castle to serve Hasan.

The fedayeen gathered on the roof of the school building and watched the noisy goings-on below. They roasted a lamb and, when they had eaten their fill, they continued their discussion of the day’s events. They drank no wine. They felt they were an elite force. Instinctively they looked down on the men chaotically swarming around the fires. Those who had been helping the doctor treat the wounded talked about their impressions. But the seizure of the flag remained the focus of discussion and analysis for a long time.

At the same time that the army of Alamut was battling with the sultan’s vanguard, the gardens behind the castle were becoming as busy as an anthill.

At first light Adi ferried Apama over to the girls. The old woman was furious when she saw they were all still asleep. She grabbed a mallet and began banging the gong wildly.

The girls rushed terror-stricken from their bedrooms, a hail of curses greeting them.

“Lazy monkeys! Sayyiduna will be here any minute, and you’re all lazing about in your beds as though it were a holiday. He’ll have all our heads if he catches you like this.”

They dressed quickly. A feverish feeling came over them as they realized that their master would be visiting the gardens. Apama and Miriam assigned them their work. They set to it enthusiastically.

Apama flew among them like a woman possessed.

“If I could only tell them what’s in store for them,” she murmured loudly enough for the girls nearest her to hear. She managed to fuel real chaos among them, and Miriam had to work hard to maintain order.

Hasan had sent parchment, dyes, candles and everything else needed for making the lanterns. Apama explained to Fatima what needed to be done. Fatima immediately set to work, and within a short time the first lamp was ready. They made the room dark and lit a candle in the lantern.

The girls squealed in delight.

“Stupid geese! Stop wasting time gawking and get to work!” Apama scolded them.

Fatima immediately divided the labor. One group of girls transferred her designs onto parchment, another mixed the dyes, a third used them to paint the sides of the lamps, a fourth cut them out, and a fifth pasted the various parts together. They carried the finished lamps out to the fish pond to let them dry in the sun. They quickly grew in number.

The whole time, they talked about the arrival of Sayyiduna.

“I imagine him coming here like a king,” Jada said. “He’ll be dressed all in gold and scarlet.”

“He’ll come like a prophet,” Halima contradicted.

“I suppose he told you that himself,” Jada teased her.

Halima was just on the verge of revealing what Miriam and Adi had confided to her. But at last she managed to control herself. Apama was close by and could start questioning her.

“Mohammed was a prophet and a king at the same time,” Fatima said.

“Are you talking about Sayyiduna?” asked Apama, who was walking by. She grinned maliciously.

“Some of you may lose your heads before the night is over,” she added. “This evening you’ll be getting another visit, and any one of you who gives away who you are and where you are will be beheaded immediately. Which of you has enough sense in her head not to blurt that out?” Terrified, they turned to look at Miriam.

“Apama is right,” she explained to them. “Sayyiduna has had these gardens modeled on paradise itself. From now on you’re going to have to behave as though you really are in heaven. You’re not ordinary girls anymore, you’re houris. You need to take on that role, which shouldn’t be so hard if you try. But if any one of you gives us away to our visitors, she’ll have to die immediately.”

“I’m not even going to open my mouth,” Sara said. “That way I won’t have to worry about letting anything slip.”

“You’re going to have to respond in detail to everything they ask you about,” Apama retorted.

Halima burst into tears.

“I’m going to hide so nobody sees me.”

“Just try,” Apama upbraided her. “We’ll put you on the rack.”

The girls were seized with fear. They kept quiet and worked diligently.

“Oh, what’s the use,” Fatima remarked at last. “What will be, will be. I’ve been in a harem where we had to act and pretend constantly. Men, especially when they’re still young, aren’t all that bright. It’s easy to fool them. Playing houris in these gardens won’t be that difficult either.”

“I just had a thought,” Zuleika said. “Maybe this is why we had to learn those passages in the Koran that describe life in paradise. What do you think?”

Miriam smiled. She herself hadn’t made that connection before. Now she had to acknowledge again how carefully Hasan had thought through every small detail.

He really is the horrible dreamer from hell , she thought.

“You’re right, Zuleika. Let’s review what we know from the Koran,” Zainab suggested.

“Girls! You’ve all got imaginations!” Fatima said, encouraging them. “Imagine you’re in paradise and everything else will come of its own accord.”

“The more naturally you behave, the easier it will be to do a good job,” Miriam added, coaching them. “Don’t overdo anything. Act as though it’s the most natural thing in the world that you’re houris. So don’t even talk about it, unless you’re asked.”

Halima had calmed down in the meantime. Her old curiosity drove her to ask, “But why does Sayyiduna want us to pretend we’re in paradise?”

“Because,” Apama said, dismissing her, “that way little monkeys like you will learn to keep their mouths shut.”

Moad and Mustafa returned with hunting bags full of partridges, quail, water fowl and fish. Apama and her assistants went to the kitchen to clean and prepare them.

The girls began breathing easy again.

But Halima’s curiosity kept troubling her.

“And the visitors we have to tell that we’re houris—what will they be like?”

Her question was met with laughter.

“First of all, you mustn’t tell them that,” Miriam scolded her playfully, “because it has to be obvious and go without saying. Second, Sayyiduna is visiting us to give us detailed instructions. But just so you don’t trouble your head about it, I’ll tell you what I think about our visitors. They could be handsome young men.”

Halima turned as red as a poppy. All the others looked at her. She lowered her eyes and stamped her foot on the floor.

“I’m not going to be there.”

“You’ll have to be,” Miriam said sternly.

Halima banged her foot on the floor once more.

“I won’t be there.”

“Halima?!”

Miriam flushed red with anger.

“So you’re going to ignore Sayyiduna’s command?”

Halima kept silent and compressed her lips. Finally she relented.

“And what will happen then?” she asked tamely.

Miriam laughed.

“You’ll see.”

The other girls started to tease her.

“You’re going to have to kiss them,” Fatima said.

“And do all those things you learned from Apama,” Sara added.

“I’ll throw something at both of you if you don’t leave me alone,” she threatened them.