Tree of Pearls, Queen of Egypt

The Meeting

 The Meeting a page emerged from the palace and beckoned to him to follow. There, at the doors of the sumptuous edifice, stood Sallafa, arrayed in her most magnificent robes and jewels and armed with her most effective arts of seduction. Rukn al-Din marshaled his prudence and his abiding love for Shwaykar. He greeted her, and she returned the greeting with effusive words of welcome. She invited him into a hall sumptuously furnished with mokado carpets, tapestries, and couches. “Who would have thought that we should meet again in this country?” she began as she beckoned him, with a beguiling smile, to be seated. “Indeed, the coincidence is a marvel of marvels, my Lady,” Rukn al-Din replied. “Coincidence? Do you suppose that we meet now by chance?” “Yes my Lady, for it did not occur to me that you had reason to travel to Baghdad.” “Perhaps so. For myself, however, wretched and desolate as I am, no course of action is too farfetched. I would give my comfort and my very life to encounter Rukn al-Din, wherever he may be.” Sighing deeply, she continued, never once taking her opaque, restless eyes off his, “I have watched and considered your every step in Egypt, Rukn al-Din.” Rukn al-Din began to grow uneasy at this inauspicious introduction, and he attempted to change the subject. “I thank you my Lady, for your good opinion of me,” he began. “I have received your letter and have come at your request. I come to you, in turn, with a query, and I beg that you shall answer it honestly.” “Speak,” Sallafa replied. “I have heard that Shwaykar was lodged of late in this palace, and I call upon you to enlighten me as to where she may now be found.” The many fears he the meeting |  entertained on Shwaykar’s behalf danced before him, and he steeled himself for the reply. Sallafa dawdled over her answer. “Poor girl,” she murmured. “Why speak you so? Where is she, my Lady?” It was all he could do to keep from crying out in despair. Sallafa sighed sadly. “She is not here, good Prince. You must recall that I once considered her a rival, and that I desired to be rid of her in order to enjoy sole possession of your affections. But when I became acquainted with her engaging person at the Caliph’s palace, I regretted the torment that I may have caused her, for she is truly a sincere and kind-hearted girl.” Rukn al-Din grew exceedingly impatient with these evasions. “Sallafa, this is not the answer I require of you. What has happened to her? Where is she?” “I have already told you that she is not here.” “I understand, but where is she, then? Speak!” She glanced reproachfully at him. “By God, how hasty you are! Can a prince such as yourself, who seeks the throne and finds himself on the verge of acquiring it, be so impatient of receiving a short communication regarding a slave girl? Listen then—I shall tell you what has befallen the poor wretch. I saw her on the first day that she arrived at the Palace of the Crown, and I was greatly taken by her and regretted having been the author of her suffering. She, too, took comfort in my presence and she recounted her story to me from beginning to end. She spoke touchingly of her love for you, and how she could not bear to be separated from you, even if she were a favorite in the Caliph’s palace. I advised her to feign illness and was able to convince the Caliph’s Qahramana of the truth of her claim. I persuaded the woman that the girl was in dire need of a change of air. The following day, I came to this, my temporary abode, and I sent for her.” She swallowed and fell silent. “And then? Did she come?” Rukn al-Din prompted. “Believe what you will. She is dead—that is all that matters,” Sallafa suddenly blurted out. Rukn al-Din rose furiously from his seat. “Nay, she is not dead,” he declared. “You have hidden her somewhere.” “She is dead, Rukn al-Din, and you must believe me when I say that I do most sorely regret it. The sailors in whose charge she was sent informed me that she had fallen off the boat that carried...