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So this is Our Master’s paradise? he thought. And it was so they could get back here that Yusuf
and Suleiman killed themselves this morning?
An unspeakable revulsion came over him. What a fraud! he thought. And Abdur Ahman and
Jafar  don’t  suspect  a  thing!  What  would  become  of  them  all?  He  couldn’t  give  himself  away.
What could he do if Sayyiduna ordered him to stab himself, like Suleiman? If he resisted, he
would  meet  an  even  more  terrible  fate.  “Horrible!  Unbelievably  horrible!”  he  gasped  to
himself.
Quick  footsteps  approached  his  cot.  Now  he  would  have  to  pretend  to  be  waking  up  in
paradise. Someone took the sheet off of him. For a split second he opened his eyes. It was
enough time for him to imprint the image in his memory. He was surrounded by the most
beautiful girls he’d ever seen, all of whom were staring at him with a mixture of curiosity and
timidity. He suddenly felt an immense, insane desire. He would have liked to have jumped up
among  them  and  given  full  rein  to  his  passions.  But  he  didn’t  dare,  not  yet.  What  was  it
Suleiman  had  said  about  waking  up  here?  He  pretended  he  was  still  fast  asleep,  but  he
listened  intently.  He  could  hear  that  something  completely  unexpected  was  going  to
happen …
No matter how many times they told Halima that Suleiman wouldn’t be coming back, it was
no  help.  Her  silly  little  heart  was  immovably  obstinate  in  believing  he  would  come.  Once
again,  Fatima  was  her  group’s  leader,  and  Sara  her  companion,  as  they  had  been  the  first
time. But Zainab and several others were elsewhere. The location was different this time too.
They had been assembled in the central garden, where Miriam had been leader the first time.
Once the eunuchs had brought in the litter with the sleeping youth, she trembled over her
whole  body.  She  hid  behind  Sara’s  back  and  waited  fearfully  for  Fatima  to  uncover  their

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guest.  When  that  happened,  instead  of  handsome  Suleiman,  Obeida’s  Moorish  face  was
revealed.
Halima  felt  thunderstruck.  Her  entire  wonderful  world  collapsed.  Her  eyes  opened  wide
and  she  couldn’t  make  a  sound.  She  put  her  hand  in  her  mouth  and  bit  into  it  in  pain.
Gradually she realized that Suleiman was lost to her forever.
Suddenly  she  darted  toward  the  doorway  like  an  arrow  in  flight.  Now  everybody  could
laugh  at  her  for  refusing  to  believe  them.  She  ran  down  the  corridor,  and  before  her
companions could collect themselves, she was racing down the path toward the rocks where
the lizards sunned themselves by day.
“Rokaya! Sara! Go after her!” Fatima ordered in a subdued voice. They both flew into the
gardens  after  her.  They  didn’t  even  notice  when  Ahriman  joined  them.  They  ran  straight
toward the edge of the stream.
They caught sight of Halima standing on top of the rocks. Her arms flailed, and she went
pitching  into  the  waves.  There  was  a  desperate  scream  and  a  splash,  and  the  current  was
carrying her off.
Ahriman leapt into the water after her. He caught up with her, grabbed her hair in his teeth
and tried to drag her to shore. But the current was too strong. In mortal fear Halima clutched
onto his neck. They came closer and closer to the cliff under Alamut. Used to the darkness,
his  eyes  could  make  out  the  nearby  shore.  He  tried  to  reach  it  with  all  his  might,  but  his
efforts were all in vain. He gave a labored snort and shook off his load. The lock of her arms
was  released  and  her  body  vanished  in  the  waves.  But  now  he  was  trapped  between  high
cliffs on both sides. He reached them, but his claws slipped against the smooth rock surface.
He  tried  to  swim  against  the  current,  back  to  the  gentler  banks  of  the  gardens,  but  his
strength was gone. A whirlpool caught him and dragged him into its depths.
Sara and Rokaya went back with horror in their eyes. Zofana met them at the entrance and
they broke out in tears.
“She’s gone. She jumped into the water. Into the rapids.”
“O  Allah,  Allah!  But  keep  quiet  about  it.  The  boy  has  woken  up  and  he’s  behaving
strangely.  He  doesn’t  seem  to  believe  that  we’re  houris  at  all.  What  is  Sayyiduna  going  to
say!”
They wiped the tears off their cheeks and followed Zofana.
Obeida  was  sitting  on  pillows,  confidently  embracing  first  Fatima,  then  Jovaira,  and
smiling  disdainfully  through  it  all.  They  tried  in  vain  to  get  him  drunk,  but  he  barely
moistened his lips in the wine.
Then, with a knowing smile, he began to tell the girls about life at Alamut, and he kept a
careful look on their faces as he did. He noticed some of them exchange glances when he
mentioned Suleiman’s and Yusuf’s names. With an almost fiendish delight he described their
departure  for  paradise  that  morning.  He  saw  them  blanch  and  try  in  vain  to  conceal  their
emotions. This gave him a certain satisfaction. It bothered him that those two had enjoyed
the delights of these beauties sitting before him.
Then  he  caught  sight  of  Sara  and  was  taken  aback.  “So  that’s  black  Sara  that  Suleiman
talked  about,  although  her  name  is  different  now,”  he  said  to  himself.  The  blood  of  his
ancestors stirred in him. This is what the slaves of their grandees must have looked like.
He reached out, seized her by the wrist, and drew her toward him. His nostrils flared. He

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tore the pink veil off of her. He embraced her so hard that they both felt their bones crunch.
Then he groaned like a rutting cat and threw himself at her in total abandon. Sara even forgot
about what had happened to Halima.
Now it became easy to get him drunk. Powerless and devoid of will, he accepted everything
they offered him. The fatigue was so great that he soon dozed off.
“Rokaya! Go get Miriam fast! Tell her everything! That Halima jumped into the river and
that Obeida doesn’t believe.”
A boat was moored to the bank of the canal with Moad sitting in it. Rokaya jumped in.
“Take me to Miriam! Now!”
“Miriam is with Sayyiduna.”
“Even better.”
The boat set out gliding across the water’s surface.
Along  the  way  they  encountered  Mustafa,  who  was  ferrying  Apama  back  from  another
garden.
“Halima has drowned in the river!” Rokaya called out to her.
“What are you saying?”
Rokaya repeated it. The old woman and the two eunuchs were aghast.
“Show me the place! Maybe we can still save her.”
“It’s too late. The river’s long since carried her off past the castle.”
“Allah, Allah! What is the point of it all?”
Mustafa dropped the oars and buried his face in his hands.
For a long time Hasan and Miriam sat silently in the small hut. Finally he broke the silence.
“This will be news to you,” he said. “That night when I sent the fedayeen to paradise, my
grand dais plotted to throw me off the tower into Shah Rud.”
Miriam looked at him in surprise.
“And why was that?”
“Because they couldn’t grasp that a man has an obligation to himself to complete what he’s
begun.”
“Which  is  to  say,  they  were  horrified  by  what  you’re  doing.  What  have  you  done  with
them?”
“Done with them? They’re still roaming around the castle grounds, as they did before. We
are all full of evil wishes, so I don’t resent them. What could they do to me anyway? We all
depend for our salvation on my machine functioning properly. I just hope it also succeeds in
destroying our bitterest sworn enemy.”
He chuckled almost inaudibly.
“Which is to say, my old arch rival, my bosom foe, my mortal enemy.”
“I know who you mean,” she muttered.
Again there was a long silence. He knew what was weighing down on Miriam’s soul. But he
avoided touching on this delicate subject himself, and she was reluctant to bring it up. Only
after a long time had passed did she ask.
“Tell me, what have you done with the three boys who were in the gardens?”
“This morning Yusuf and Suleiman helped to fray the nerves of the sultan’s army that’s got
us surrounded.”

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She looked at him as though she were trying to read his innermost thoughts.
“Did you kill them?”
“No, they killed themselves. And they were happy to do it.”
“You’re a cruel beast. What happened?”
He related the story. She listened to him with a mixture of horror and disbelief.
“And  you  didn’t  feel  a  thing  when  you  sacrificed  two  human  beings  who  were  utterly
devoted to you?”
She could see that this was difficult for him and that he was on the defensive.
“You wouldn’t understand. What I’ve begun, I have to finish. But when I gave the fedayeen
the command, I had to shudder. Something inside me said, ‘If there’s a power above us, it
won’t permit this. Either the sun will go out or the earth will shake. The fortress will collapse
and bury you and your whole army …’ I’m telling you, I was trembling in my heart, like a
child  trembles  before  ghosts.  I  expected  at  least  some  little  sign.  It’s  the  truth,  if  just  the
slightest thing had stirred, if just then a cloud, for instance, had suddenly blocked out the sun,
or if there had been a gust of wind, I would have reconsidered. Even after it was over, I was
expecting a blow. But the sun continued to shine down all the same on me, on Alamut, and
on  the  two  dead  bodies  lying  before  of  me.  And  this  is  what  I  thought:  either  there  is  no
power above us, or else it’s supremely indifferent to everything that happens down here. Or,
it’s favorably inclined toward what I’m doing. It was then I realized that somewhere secretly I
still believed in a divinity. But that divinity bore no resemblance to the one of my youth. It
was like the world itself, evolving in thousands of contradictions, yet firmly fettered to three
dimensions. Limitless within its limits. Vast chaos inside a glass beaker. A terrible, grimacing
dragon. And I knew at once that I had been serving it all my life.”
He looked past her with his eyes wide open, as though he were looking at indescribable
wonders.