Heart of Glass

18





Halim’s men crowd around, trying to restrain him.

“Get off me!” he cries, pushing them away. He lunges towards Roberto, fingers grasping the air. Roberto stands his ground, but his face has drained of blood. Halim’s chest heaves, and his eyes are wild. He doesn’t even seem to have seen me. “You murdering monster! Is this what you do to women in Venice?”

He manages to free himself and his fist crashes into Roberto’s face with a sickening sound. Roberto staggers back, but Halim’s men are able to drag him from the room. Roberto is too shocked to do anything but watch, fingers staunching the blood from his nose.

“I’ll tear your throat out!” Halim screams from outside.

I peer out of the doorway to see him being pulled down the corridor. The guards at the door keep their swords trained on him. For a moment, our eyes meet, and I see a flicker of shame.

“Unhand me!” he growls. “I won’t fight any longer.” As the men release him, he straightens his clothes and walks away, his retinue following.

When I turn back into the room, I see that Faruk has remained. He watches my face carefully. Though his own expression is as blank as a mask, I can’t help but sense a smile lurking behind it.

“What’s happening here?” I ask, swallowing hard. My mouth is so dry I can hardly get the words out. “I don’t understand.”

“You should,” Faruk says, darting a glance at Roberto. “I have learned you are engaged to this brute. Did you forget to mention to the prince that you were going to marry a child-slayer?”

A Venetian servant would never dare speak so, but this adviser seems more like a confidante than a manservant.

“Get out,” I command. His glance rolls over me as if to say, And who are you to give orders?

One of the remaining guards takes a step towards him. “Do as the lady asks,” he warns.

Faruk turns his stooped back on us and follows his master outside. Other footsteps pound up the corridor, and the next moment Nicolo appears, swinging around the open doorway.

“I’m not too late, am I?” he gasps. He spots Roberto’s bloodied nose. “Are you hurt?”

Roberto lets out a long exhalation. “I’m fine. But what did that man want?”

His brother walks farther into the room and sinks onto a stool covered in jade brocade. He shakes his head, staring at the marble floor. “You wouldn’t believe it,” he says, almost to himself.

“That was Halim, the Turkish prince,” I say, going to take Roberto’s hand.

“That much I gathered.”

“He asked to see the girl’s body,” says Nicolo.

“The girl from my rooms?”

Nicolo nods and explains quickly that Halim was escorted to the warehouse in the harbor, where the body was being kept ready to be shipped to Lazzaretto Nuovo. The watchmen prised the coffin lid off. “We only did it to keep Prince Halim happy!” Nicolo says. “Even though we thought it very strange. He wouldn’t explain what she was to him. But the girl who was lying there …” Nicolo shakes his head. “It wasn’t good, Roberto. She hadn’t been washed or cleaned up. There was dried blood all over her dress and the air stank with decomposition. The prince—he fell to his knees! Began screaming and howling. No one understood.”

“Go on,” I say in a low voice.

Nicolo gets to his feet and wanders over to a window to look down on the palace courtyard with its bronze wells. Behind him a bird darts from the eaves, just like the little bird I used to feed in the convent.

“Prince Halim had a pendant. He was clutching it to his chest. He seemed to …” Nicolo turns to face us, and his eyes are full of pain at the memory of what he saw. “He knew the girl—said it was his sister. Her name was Aysim. Next thing, that bald-headed fellow is whispering in his ear and Prince Halim curses, swearing to kill you, Roberto. I got here as fast as I could, but he’d already started running up the stairs.”

“I must go to him,” Roberto says quietly. “Tell him I didn’t do this. He has to understand.”

Before I can move to stop him, he is out of the room. I throw a glance to Nicolo, and the two of us give chase down the corridor.

“No, Roberto!” I call after him. “Give him time to calm down.” I know what it is to lose a sister, and I cannot blame Halim for his rage. But by the look in Halim’s eyes just now, he’d be capable of anything. I cannot lose my only love.

Roberto’s marching stride does not falter. “My reputation is at stake,” he says over his shoulder. “And Halim is a prince, an honorable man.” Nicolo throws me a helpless glance, and there’s nothing we can do but follow.

We find Halim by the sound of his shouts. He is in the Doge’s apartments, appealing to him. Appealing—or demanding.

“You put her in a cheap box!” he bellows as we near the door. “A princess of the Ottomans, rotting and soiled in a pauper’s grave!”

We enter, and Halim doesn’t see us straightaway. The Doge sits implacably still in his high-backed chair. Some men from the Grand Council surround him. He holds up a hand.

“We didn’t know,” the Doge explains. “If we’d had any idea, of course we would have paid your sister the appropriate respect. But you must remember, no relatives came forward to claim her and she was an anonymous woman on the streets of our city.”

“Not on the streets, in the house of a …” His words fade away as he notices Roberto’s presence in the room. “You! In your house. In a murderer’s home! What was she doing there?” He strides towards Roberto, hands twitching. Roberto opens his mouth to respond, but Halim has reached to his waist and drawn a sword. One of his servants must have given it him, because he wasn’t wearing it just a moment ago in Roberto’s rooms, nor was it the one he had on our tour of the city. There are gasps, and people shrink back against the walls.

I have never seen a sword like Halim’s before. It curves in a smooth, lethal sweep of metal. There is a cross of gold at the hilt and calligraphy engraved near the top of the blade.

“I demand my honor,” Halim says in a low, thunderous voice. “I will fight you, Roberto, until one of us is dead.”

A sudden clamor of voices fills the apartment. Only the Doge sits silently at the heart of it, staring at the man who would kill his son. One of the elder statesmen takes a cautious step forward.

“This cannot happen,” he beseeches the Doge. “Roberto has not yet even been tried for murder.”

“Let God decide,” says Faruk. His thin lips are pursed into a smirk and I feel I could strike him down myself, if I only had a blade. He holds out a hand, palm up, and waits. One of the Ottoman servants scurries forward and places the hilt of a sword in his hand, and his fingers close around the metal. With a flick of his wrist, he turns the sword around so that the hilt faces Roberto.

“No!” The cry bubbles out from me as Roberto steps forward. This can’t be happening.

Roberto grasps the sword, and for a moment, I feel unsteady on my feet. Nausea squirms within me. I’ve seen Halim kill two men already today, each with lethal efficiency. After everything we’ve been through, for my beloved to be killed like this.…

Faruk smiles as Roberto takes the sword from him. Servants slip out of the room, and one of the women has begun crying. I feel fixed to my spot. It’s as if I’m watching a play unfold, and can do nothing but witness the actors’ performance. Roberto looks around the room, his gaze finally coming to rest on Halim, who rolls his wrist to flash the blade back and forth. This is nothing like our practice sessions—it’s so horribly real. Sweat beads on the prince’s brow. “Ready?” he says.

In reply, Roberto extends his sword. Its blade gleams beneath the chandeliers. Then something remarkable happens—I watch Roberto’s fingers peel away from the hilt and the sword clatters to the floor, its blade ringing as metal meets marble. Now, even the Doge’s eyes widen. A servant hurries to snatch the sword up and out of harm’s way. Roberto has done the unthinkable: he has refused a duel. I want to rush to his side, but I daren’t move.

“I won’t risk your death because of a misunderstanding,” Roberto announces.

Halim strides towards Roberto until the point of his curved sword presses against my beloved’s shirt. I can hardly watch.

“Fight me,” Halim demands. He looks close to tears now, his anger transformed into something else. Despite everything, I feel a wave of sympathy for him. It is grief that has brought him to this.

Roberto shakes his head. He keeps his face neutral, neither mocking nor full of pity. There’s a flicker to one side and I glance over to see a woman whispering into someone’s ear. Already this scene has become gossip. Halim must notice too, and something passes behind his eyes. All of a sudden the anger has returned. He shoves Roberto hard in the chest with his hand and draws back his sword, ready to strike.

“No!” I shout. The servant who rescued Roberto’s sword stands beside me and I snatch it from him. My hand slides around the hilt and my feet slap against marble as I rush forward. Ringing metal echoes as my blade parries Halim’s.

“Get back!” Roberto hisses to me. I don’t respond. My eyes are trained on Halim’s. There’s respect there, but confusion too, as if he doesn’t understand my gesture.

“Step away,” I urge him, my muscles straining as I hold back the weight of his blade.

“My sister’s spirit watches,” he tells me. “You step away!”

I shake my head. “There’s been enough killing today.”

“Laura,” the Doge protests. It is the first time he’s said anything. But it’s too late.

Halim gives a sudden twist of the wrist, bringing his sword beneath mine. Another jerk and my weapon goes clattering to the floor and I stagger sideways. Halim raises his sword into the air and steps towards Roberto, his face implacable. Roberto jerks sideways to avoid a lunge. Halim swipes and just misses his throat.

“He’s unarmed!” The shout comes from Nicolo, who throws himself forward, panic twisting his features. His eyes lock onto Halim’s face, widening in recognition. I drop my glance to his chest and see what everyone else has already witnessed: Halim’s blade between his ribs.

Nicolo sinks to his knees as blood trickles down the curved metal, spattering in fat droplets on the floor. Howls of shock and sudden grief fill the room. Nicolo’s mouth hangs open, and scarlet rivulets run between his fingers. I hear a scream and realize it’s my own.