USUAL DISCLAIMER

"THE BLACK CLOVER" is a gay story, with some parts containing graphic scenes of sex between males. So, if in your land, religion, family, opinion and so on this is not good for you, it will be better not to read this story. But if you really want, or because YOU don't care, or because you think you really want to read it, please be my welcomed guest.

THE BLACK CLOVER by Andrej Koymasky © 2018
written on 3rd of April, 1986
Translated by the Author
English text kindly revised by an Australian friend
CHAPTER 9

TTAA

Both Amin and I were overwhelmed by the size and magnificence of the Sultan's Palace: it seemed we had entered a city within the city. On our horses, we passed through great gates and majestic portals, each of them garrisoned by sentries in splendid uniforms, more beautiful and rich as we penetrated further into the complex. We passed through immense courtyards swarming with a thousand activities, filled with servants, soldiers, officials, dignitaries, postulants, mullahs, slaves, until we finally arrived at the real Palace. Here we passed into ambiences of exquisite beauty where everything showed wealth, richness, power, refinement and a love for fine arts.

After being received by different officials, each time of superior rank, we were at last admitted to the Grand Diwaan. The Sultan, Ahmed III, was waiting for us. Mansur introduced us and extolled our praises to the great emperor. He listened with a benevolent attitude, than talked with us. Almost an hour passed during our audience. At the end, the Sultan conveyed to us the reason why He had summoned us: His elder sons wanted to go in Hajj to Mecca: we two were to organize the escort, since we were native to those parts of the empire and had shown ourselves valorous in war and skilled in peace.

It was an enormous honour and we accepted with gratitude. So, soon after the audience, we started to organize the travel and the caravan. It had to be composed of around one thousand five hundred people, of which about one thousand were to be hand-picked soldiers. Mansur would assist with the selection of the soldiers, we two would handle the technical details. We worked on the project for about three months, until everything was ready, down to the smallest detail. The five Sultan's sons who would be making the Hajj were aged between fourteen and seventeen and among their number was also the Heir Prince, who these days is the reigning Sultan, Mustafah III. We were introduced to the Princes: they were very different from each other, both physically, being sons of different mothers, and in character. Probably the most open and extroverted of the five youths was Prince Selim, who soon demonstrated a strong empathy toward Amin.

When the great caravan started, there was a splendid ceremony at the Palace, and some messages for the local Lords and Officials we would meet along the way were handed over to me. We had arranged that we would avoid Mussa's territories, in fact we had advised, for the outward journey, the sea road, more flat and safe. A dispatch rider informed the locals in advance of the arrival of our caravan in the territories we would cross and in the cities where we would stop, and at the same time explored the way ahead us. We were received with maximum honours, given hospitality with magnificence and each local Lord competed with the others to demonstrate his fidelity to the Great Emperor and to His sons. The journey went on slowly but safely, with no obstacle, inconvenience or discomfort being allowed to hinder us in any way. We did not really face much danger, because our soldiers were all armed with the most modern turk guns while the majority of the soldiers of the territories that we crossed, as well as the predators of the nomadic tribes, still used the traditional weapons - knives, spears, swords, bows and arrows.

We had just left Damascus, when Prince Selim summoned Amin asking him to be his company for a stretch of road. This was not unusual, in fact between them had been born a strong rapport. We stopped in Ammam for the scheduled halt, and, assisted by the local Shaikh, I was giving my orders to arrange everything, when Amin came near me and, in a moment when we were alone, whispered to me:

"As soon as you can, I have to talk to you."

"Some problems?"

"I do not yet know..."

"Is it urgent?" I asked in a low voice, alarmed, looking at him and noticing his serious expression.

"No, but..."

He broke off because the Shaikh was again approaching me, and he held off. After giving the other orders, I excused myself to our host and approached Amin:

"Well, what is wrong?"

"Prince Selim... I am afraid he suspects something."

"About what?"

"About we two. He asked me why you, my elder brother, seem to defer towards me. He thought that strange, because it is the younger brother that has to respect the elder and not vice versa..."

"And what did you say?"

"I denied it, of course, but he did not seem convinced. Rather, at that point he said to me that we looked too refined to be the sons of a donkey breeder. And that physically we do not resemble each other."

"And how did you react?"

"I said that we left the mountains so many years ago and that others had said to us that we do not resemble each other... Then he asked me if we have the same mother and I answered yes... Probably I made a mistake..."

"I do not think that to be a real danger: his are just impressions, he does not have anything concrete."

"But he is a perceptive observer and I think he will continue to observe us. You have to treat me more as your younger brother, it is important, very important..."

"It will be not so easy for me to change so... and moreover after him noticing my behaviour, a change towards you will catch his eye even more. I do not think we have to worry, Amin." I concluded.

But I was wrong. Prince Selim was back on the subject the day after, but this time with me:

"Nadim, your brother Khaled is a remarkable person, very refined: he seems as if he has lived for a long time at court, and yet it does not turn out to be so. It is really strange: by his manner it is evident to me that he is a person brought up to command..."

I tried to put him off, making a joke, and said: "Yes, from his very childhood he was so: the other donkey breeders at the village said so and called him 'chief-donkey'. He has always been a remarkable boy for character and intelligence. I am very proud of him."

"Yes, but... I have grown up at court, so I can grasp some nuances, probably more than others... more than a donkey breeder, certainly. Who is Khaled? And you, who are you?"

"Khaled is my brother, Prince Selim, and we are sons of a humble donkey breeder..."

"No, your basic education is very different from his. You were not educated at court. I would not say that you are not a valuable person, and cultivated, but... you are different. You, for instance, you often quote the Al Qur'an: quite as if you had grown up in a masjid..."

I was struck strongly by his insight: he seemed to be able to read into our bodies, into our minds. He looked at me smiling faintly, waiting for my answer. Then, seeing that I did not answer, he barely shook his head and continued:

"You can trust me: if you have a secret, whatever it be, I will not betray you. But certainly I know you have a secret."

"Our lives, Prince, are without stain: we have nothing of which to be ashamed."

"It is not necessary that what one hides is something of which to be ashamed: sometimes one hides something that could be dangerous to reveal. What, then, is the danger that menaces you?"

"No danger, with Allah's help. Our lives flow peacefully, Prince, I assure you."

"Nevertheless those talks with me put both Khaled and you on the alert... There must be something," the Prince insisted amiably.

I really did not know what more to say. By luck his preceptor Abdul entered and the Prince dropped the matter. As soon as I was again alone with Amin, I told him. We discussed what to do; Amin said that perhaps we could tell the truth to Prince Selim: he felt we could trust him; but I was afraid that revealing ourselves could be a mistake. Another two days elapsed, in which nothing new happened. Now we were not far from Medinet. When we were alone, we continued to discuss what we should do. Then one day Prince Selim came near us and we immediately stopped our discussion.

"Are you two looking for the best answer to give me to soothe my curiosity?" the Prince asked, smiling cunningly.

Amin looked at me for a moment and I read in his eyes the determination to speak.

He addressed the Prince and said: "Prince Selim, we have full trust in you and we will show that to you, answering any question you have in full sincerity, even if in that way we put completely at your mercy. But in these few days I have come to know you and to understand that we can trust in your magnanimity..."

"What I guessed about you two is then rather... well guessed?"

"Much more than you could think: your eyes are sharp, your heart sensitive, your intellect quick."

"Well then, tell me. I promise that not a word of what you will reveal to me will ever be employed against you, whatever it is."

So Amin narrated to the Prince our story, even to the finest detail. Sometime Selim interrupted him to ask questions, but as the narration proceeded he did not seem at all surprised or incredulous. At the end he simply said:

"How do you think you two alone, can gain revenge, recover your usurped kingdom?"

"We do not yet know, Prince: Allah will give us a sign when the times are ripe." Amin answered.

The Prince openly smiled: "Probably I am the sign of Allah! It is probably not just coincidence that it is on the road to Mecca that this story has come to light! When we return to Istanbul I will talk to my father about you, Amin: I will ask him to support you with his army so that you can recover what is due to you, and so that this Mussa creature will be punished as he deserves. Not only has he usurped your place, but he has betrayed the sacred duty of hospitality and this is a hideous crime that claims revenge in the presence of Allah!"

"I thank you, Prince, but I... I would like to take back my place with only my own forces."

"But how? How valorous you are, you are just two against a powerful man! What do you intend to do, Amin?"

"When I am back amongst my people, I will see if there are yet those who remember my father and in their hearts are still faithful to my family. At that point I will count the men I can rely on and, if they are enough, I will confront the traitor."

"And if there will be no one, or not enough?"

"If that be the case, it would be useless to claim to reign on men that do not support me. I would renounce my claim to the throne and I would come back to be a soldier for my Emperor, for the Sultan your father."

Selim nodded for a long while: "Yes, you are right, I understand you. But you will need weapons, allies..."

"Yes, that is true, but somehow I will find them. If it is Allah's will, nothing and no-one can stop me."

"Well, your time has come. When we return from this Hajj, I intend to talk with my father, if you agree, and I will try to get you all the support you could need, respecting your wishes. Now let us continue our pilgrimage. For the moment we will say nothing to anyone about who you really are."

Amin kneeled in front of Selim and I followed suit.

"Thank you my Lord: you can always rely on my arm, on my sword, on my life."

Selim laughed: "If I had any intention to overthrow my brother to take his place, would I have two allies?"

Amin stood up, fiercely proud: "I will give my life for you, Prince, on condition that you never ask me to go against superior duties..."

"Well: I was just putting you to the test. Do not worry, I have no envy for my brother, I am absolutely not interested in becoming the Sultan. Now, Khaled, let us continue peacefully our pilgrimage."

At Badr Hunayin we abandoned the coast road to go to Medinet, where we stopped for two days. Prince Selim never again mentioned our secret and of course continued to call Amin by the name Khaled as he was known by everyone else. Returning to the coast road, we finally arrived at Mecca. We carried out all the prescribed rites, remaining in that sacred place for a full week. The Caaba, with his venerable antiquity, moved me deeply. For a long time Amin and I thanked Allah for His benevolence. Then, the rites accomplished, we prepared for the return journey. As we had planned, instead of again taking the coast road, we cut across the Neged desert, so that we reached the Amirates on the Al Arabi Gulf, and from there we went to north towards Baghdad where we stopped for a week to rest.

Amin, from the day we had revealed our secret to Prince Selim, had become thoughtful. So, the first night we were in Baghdad, lying near each other in the room prepared for us, I asked him:

"What happens, Amin?"

"Nothing... That is, yes, something is happening but I too do not know what it is."

"Are you not happy? Perhaps we are approaching the moment when these long waiting years come to their maturity and give us their fruit: you would have to be happy."

"Yes, I am happy. But I do not know... There is something inside me that I would like to understand but that I cannot grasp. There is something I feel the need to tell you, and yet I do not know what it is. You are to me the person I feel closest, and yet I feel that there is still something that divides us, and I do not want this."

"But nothing divides us, you know that: I am faithful to you, my life belongs to you... I am yours." I said with a heartfelt tone.

Amin stood silent for a while then said: "Yes, I know. You too are important to me, more than my mother, more than a brother... And yet... Sometimes I feel I want to communicate with you more deeply, but I do not know how, I cannot understand how. Something divides us, separates us, keeps us in two different worlds. I tried to tell you that you no longer need to consider yourself my subject, but rather my friend, or more than a friend, nevertheless we still are on two different planes... and that lies heavy upon me. And I am afraid that, when I regain my throne, this something will divide us even more, and I do not want... but I do not know what to do, that is why I am so thoughtful, so sad..."

"As long as you wish I will be always at your side, I will never abandon you, I have sworn that to you."

"I know, I know... and yet it is not enough."

"Tell me then what you want me to do. Anything!"

"If I knew, I would tell you... let us sleep now. It is useless to break our heads on... on this problem."

Yes, I understood him: I too I had felt something very close to that, but I had never focused my attention on it. I had never seen it with the clarity Amin had. But now, I too I started to think about it. To my mind also, there was between us, in the great affection that bound us, a kind of uncrossed, and probably uncrossable limit. Because of it, there was not between us as full a communion as both of us would have desired. But in a sense, I thought that the last barrier was created by Amin, or at least accepted, but on the other hand... But of what consisted that last barrier that was weighing so heavily on both of us? What could be done to eliminate it? Certainly nothing until it was clearly spelled out! Perhaps we would never be able to overcome it, perhaps it was natural it existed... To me it was not a heavy burden, but it seemed to weigh heavily on Amin and, since I in my heart his happiness was more important to me than my own, I needed to do something.

We left Baghdad through throngs of farewelling people and continued to travel north, then we turned towards the sea. As on our earlier journey, we stopped some days at Iskanderun; the city where was born the mother of the Heir Prince Mustafah. From there we boarded the ship waiting for us and we sailed to Kybris island, where the Sultan had a palace. We stopped at the palace for ten days. For the first time after we had made Prince Selim aware of our secret, he again talked to us about it. He invited us to his room so that we were safe from indiscreet ears. Even if he was just sixteen, the prince had a judgment and an acumen as prodigious as an adult. He explained to us what his intentions were, what he was going to ask his father for us, and he wanted to discuss with us our plan, give us his advice.

In those days we often went to hunt in the hinterland or to the sea to bathe. Selim had shown to us a wild and secluded stretch of beach, whose access from land was really difficult because you need to slide along big steep rocks, so that it was much more easy to reach it by boat. It was a small crescent of the finest sand at the bottom of a small inlet in the shape of the middle hhaa letter, so that at the mouth could only enter a swimming man or a very narrow boat manoeuvred with extreme care in order not to be smashed against the rocks. Once there on the beach, you were practically invisible both from land and from sea. It was a wonderful and quiet corner, all around there were scented flowers and herbs. Selim was very proud of that place, and having discovered it when a small boy, he asked his father for it as a gift, so that now it was known as "Selim's Kingdom". The Prince told us that we could go there any time we liked, so we went there often, both with the Prince and also alone.

CONTINUES IN CHAPTER 10


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