A Failure of Trust?

I remain worried about Don, though. Could he still be trying to trace my whereabouts after all this time - it has been several weeks now since I was sold as a concubine - or has he accepted that he will never find me and gone home? I hope that it's the latter because, though he's clearly very capable, given the bad blood between Laralia and Artazia - not to mention that Maris and his thugs are likely to be on the look-out for him - Artazed is not a safe place for him to be. But if Don is still in the city I have no way of finding him or getting a message to him, so I shall just have to hope that he will be OK.

"All right," I tell Munaf, having thought things through. "Will the disguise that you have in mind for me work, though? With my fair skin and hair, I will be very conspicuous seeing that all Artazians are brown-skinned."

"We've thought of that. We can dye your hair black and your skin brown. I'm not sure exactly how long the dyes will last, but it should easily be long enough for you to get well clear of the city." [Inspired by 2403 in our other thread.]

When I tell the other girls that I will be sleeping in a separate room tonight because I have a slight cold that I don't want to pass on to them, Sefira [2160] gives me a quizzical look. "Do you take us for fools?" she asks. "You're planning to escape tonight, aren't you? Naturally we've heard from the serving girls who bring our meals [2160] that Arif's claim to be Sultan has been accepted by the council, and we know what that is likely to mean for you if you can't get away. You used to be more frank with us. [2317] Don't you trust us anymore, Haria?"

I blush, though to be fair it was Munaf's idea that I should sleep separately from the other girls tonight, rather than let them into my confidence. I also recall Usman telling me that if Arif came to power and discovered that I had been given refuge in the harem then the other concubines could be in trouble as well as me. [2290]

"I'm sorry," I say.

"If you're escaping, then we want to escape with you," another of the concubines, Mileena, says. "Now that, as Sultan, Arif can come into the harem he may find out sooner or later that we were harbouring you here. Even if he doesn't, I don't want to be the concubine of a man with such a reputation for cruelty."

There are murmurs of agreement from the other girls. I realise that, though it is likely to be much harder for five girls [2151-1] to escape rather than just one, it would be a mean trick to leave them behind. But when the Sultan unexpectedly finds his harem empty, or has it reported to him by one of the serving girls, he'll surely spare no efforts to try to track down his missing concubines, which doesn't bode well for any of us.

I decide that I can't make a decision on this by myself. As the one organising the escape, Munaf needs to be consulted. I poke my head out of the door of the room that we are in, and call for him.

1. Munaf reluctantly accepts that the other girls should come with us for their own safety. That makes seven in all: myself, the other four girls, Munaf and Usman.
2. Whilst sympathising with the other girls, Munaf is adamant that it would be impractical for them to come with us. Seeing the dirty looks they give him and me, I wonder if they can be trusted not to pass word of our plan to Arif via a serving girl.
3. Munaf says that he and Captain Usman will help the other girls to escape from the palace with us, but after that they are on their own.

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