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you know the girl is a virgin?” he asked.
    Ali held up two fingers. “The Sudanese—I heard him talking to that old graybeard Hassan—he tested her.”
    “Hassan or the other man?”
    “Hassan, that licentious old goat.”
    “Careful, Ali.”
    Ali cast a furtive glance at his master, knowing he had said too much. Hassan and his master’s witch of a mother were two people no one could insult, even in jest. “Ah, master, will you have me bastinadoed?”
    “Perhaps,” Kamal said easily. “Or perhaps I shall repeat to Hassan what you said, and let him decide your punishment.” His eyes remained grim until he saw fear in Ali’s eyes.
    “Young fool,” he said, and rose from the marble table. He continued in disgust, “I feel as oily smooth as a girl.”
    “Ah, master, but you do not smell so sweet.”
    “You have a quick tongue, Ali,” Kamal said as his slave dressed him.
    “It serves me well with the women, highness,” Ali said, grinning.
    “So you would like to have tested the new slave yourself?”
    “I would have done as well, highness.”
    “I should have made you a eunuch,” Kamal remarked, but Ali merely smiled, secure in his master’s goodwill.
    Kamal allowed Ali to finish dressing him, then sat on a bench to have him brush his thick hair. When Ali was done, Kamal rose, resplendent in a white wool tunic and full-cut white wool trousers. A soft blue leather belt hugged his narrow waist, and from it hung a curved jewel-handled dagger. He wore light blue leather shoes with curved toes and a long golden chain about his neck.
    “I am told that you greatly resemble your father,” Ali said with satisfaction.
    “Yes, though I am even more fair than was he. There must have been a Norse princess in our lineage years ago.”
    “I am also told that the famous Khar El-Din delighted in favoring more than one of his harem girls at the same time. It is said that their cries of pleasure could be heard all over the palace.” Ali shook his head, as if confused. “Odd, master. Could he have had more than one tongue?”
    “Perhaps I shall have your tongue removed, Ali,” Kamal said, and buffeted the boy on his slender shoulder. Even his light blow sent Ali tumbling to the floor.
    “Dammit, boy, when are you going to grow some muscle?” Kamal leaned down and dragged Ali to his feet.
    He grinned down into Ali’s face. “A man has full measure of pleasure for a woman between his legs.”
    “You more than others, master,” Ali said.
    “Impertinent young fool,” Kamal said without heat. He was silent for a moment, then said withoutenthusiasm, “I will see the representative from the Sudan first, before the evening meal.”
    Ali nodded in agreement. “A man should have his pleasures, highness. You must, after all, put your women to use, if only to let the people know that you are potent as your father was. You have not yet even taken a wife.”
    Kamal only shook his head. He did not wish to take a wife. He thought briefly of the virgin it would be his responsibility to take to his bed tonight. Another addition to his harem, another woman to reflect his power and wealth. He wondered idly how a European man would react if he suddenly found himself with a willing virgin in his bed. He would likely think he had gone to his heaven.
    He dismissed Ali, and his thoughts quickly returned to his mother. When he had arrived in Oran, he had given her freedom no Muslim woman could have dreamed of. By all that was holy, what had she done with it?

Chapter 4
    K amal walked through the huge central courtyard that set off the harem from the main palace. The evening was warm, but not unpleasantly so. A quarter-moon, just beginning its ascent, lit the darkening sky with a few of the brighter stars.
    Guards were placed discreetly along the perimeter of the harem walls, and two eunuchs stood at its double gate. The harem walls were nearly twelve feet high, to prevent anyone from seeing in, and the women from seeing out. The