[[ The next dayproceeds much like the last. Karla is picked up at her room and taken to the Library and dropped off. She signs out the same book and then spends the morning copying it verbatim, then meets her escort for a long lunch where they do a fast translation.]]

Chapter 4. Escape and News of Isfahan's Fall (1387 AD).

It has been past a month since my last writing as the moon is again but a sliver, just as it was when we escaped from Isfahan and fled North. I've still not been able to keep a daily log as I first intended when the Scholar first gave me a journal and allowed me to write. Nor will I likely be able to do so in the near future as we still may not be safe, so this journal has become more of a collection of sporadic writings.

I mention 'escape' as I am now with my new Master, Centos, a captain in Tamerlane’s private guard charged with watching over his small harem of four girls, along with the eunuch Fortis, the trainer for our small harem. It was Centos that took me from the city and though I call him Master, he is more of a mate and a good one at that, but I've not time to write much of him now. What I wish to relate before the sun rises and Centos returns from his scouting is some of what transpired before my last writings so it might be in context though I fear it must be brief.

Melantha is or was the name of the new girl added to Tamerlane's harem from the Sultan's harem, the other three were Cannias, Portia and Supprina. I say ‘is or was’ as I don't know if she lives or died as I've heard terrible stories about what transpired just days after we made away with three different girls Melantha knew from the Sultan's harem, their names being Serena, Rabia, and Halime. It was said they had been betrayed because they dared speak good words with Melantha whom the Sultan was said had come to despise after giving her to the Emir. Friendship was their only crime, simple kind words spoken to her when she revisited her old harem to gather some of her henna things she’d left behind and for it they were to be skewed in public as a cowardly slight to Tamerlane whom he came to host grudgingly. Somehow Melantha found out about it and convinced Centos who had eyes for me to help. Needless to say they fared with no impalements or at least not of long wood shafts and are safe with us here in the Taleghan mountains that look out over the coastal town of Lahij and the Hyrcanian Ocean though Centos calls it the Gilan Sea.

Melantha, I've come to learn her name means 'dark flower’, made good on her promise to teach me some of the things that harem girls are supposed to know. Indeed, she was always kind to me and any other and looked out for me in the brief time I was in Tamerlane's harem. Long enough to see her practice the dance of two swords, and get Fortis to help her with training me. If it wasn't for her I don't think that Centos would have paid me much mind as my station was a slave to slaves and as such I had little worth, especially as a red headed barbarian girl. If I didn't get to learn some of the harem girl tricks she knows I’d certainly not be writing this now. She taught me more than a few, but she taught me too patience, obedience, love and how to serve with an open heart, and it still makes my Centos happy to act such for him.

Unfortunately for Melantha she was caught up in some sort of political intrigue and sent out from the city as bait for the Sultan to take. But not before she coaxed Centos into stealing me and saving her old friends. I heard too that the Sultan tried to take that bait and paid dearly with his life and that Melantha returned safely back to the Harem and the city that became Tamerlane’s. Other than that I've heard only rumors of what befell her since Isfahan fell. Only two of the Harem girls survive for sure. They being Portia and Supprina. What became of Cannias I don't know but on occasion Centos meets in disguise with Tamerlane's soldiers that were there in the last days of the doomed city and reports on the matter differ and the tales are tall.

Two versions come out most prominently, one being that the people of the city revolted and killed Tamerlane's tax collectors after which he struck back. Others say the nobility of that once mighty city were goaded into rebellion and that in the end a pair of demons arose and began attacking certain noble personages and their families and the rebellion then started in earnest. Regardless which version is true it is said all the inhabitants of city were slain and none escaped the slaughter. Before Tamerlane's army left the city they say that nearly thirty towers were erected using fifteen hundred skulls for each of the towers, which would in my estimate account for the men of the city, which begs one to wonder what became of the woman and children as it was also said no artisans, slaves, or any others were taken from the cities walls and that all had been put to death.

Centos tells me too that besides looking for us, they search for the 'Gnat' Wong, an assassin from the far east, who is said to be taking Melantha to the Muscovites far to the North of us while others say that he is returning her to her original people, the Roma, who seem to be endlessly on the move as they have no ancestral lands in this part of the world and are treated more like weeds every time they try to take root in the land. Anyway, Gnat or not, Centos says when the soldiers speak this man's name they look over their shoulder first before they dare whisper it. So hopefully Melantha is in good hands and I do wish to see her once again or at least learn for sure that she is well, for without her I'd have never met Centos and would of all likely hood died at the hands of Tamerlane or his Mistress Cytheria, who I really believe drives the man insane.

I'd write more, but my three new sisters are up now and beg me to come down to the stream so they can make me ready for the return of Centos. Personally I think I'm fine the way I am but can't help to think Melantha would agree with the three and thus demand my perfection.

~Besh

[[ “And these are some of the things that Tori saw?” The man asks.

Karla shakes her head. “Sort of but not exactly, this is what the witches are supposedly seeing. Tori’s still in a coma but she’s having these visions of this girl Melantha and the witches are seeing those as they watch over her. Or at least that’s what I’m told.”

“Strange.” The man says. “So you find this old article in a travel magazine someone read in the library here in Budapest way back in 1905 that makes reference to this obscure book about this Harem girl in hopes it brings some light on the visions Tori is said to be having while she’s still in a comma?”

Karla nods. “Pretty much. The witches are saying the visions are too constant for it just to be a dream. And this book might just help put the visions in proper context.”]]

~sfe