Rebekah slammed shut the book that lay idle on her daughter’s lap. “You won’t find these intimate details in books. I’ll disclose secrets men murmur in my bed, between my thighs, to my cleavage-eye—secrets that will help you confront life like a well-armed soldier.”

Rebekah spoke of the hidden weaknesses of kings, of muscular bodies that became slaves to the female touch, of cutting words that concealed sweet invitations, of manly roars that were nothing but boyish whimpers, and of the power of the heart over the body. “And don’t fail to listen to your bones. In the end, life is judged by highlights, not by days.” She looked at her daughter and saw a woman. “Have you been chosen?”

“Yes,” Gold Dust replied.

“Gold, I didn’t prepare you for the evils in people’s hearts because I was foolishly hoping you’d not need it so early in life. But the palace is a different world … things happen fast here … there’s a force here I can’t control the way I can at home.”

Gold Dust did not reveal her fears. How she had caught Gulf Lily prowling around her quarters at dawn. How she had heard Moon Face order a delivery of iron of calabar, a deadly poison from Niger. How one of the tasters had drunk Gold Dust’s tea laced with belladonna and had suffocated.

Rebekah heard the echo of solemn bells in her daughter’s bones. “What could be so important?”

“I’ve not been called to the Shah yet.”

“You will be, Gold, I have no doubt. Allow time to sharpen the edges of his passion, then he’ll savor you as you deserve to be.”

“Madar, tell me how to conceive sons.”

Rebekah recalled the past. Jacob the Fatherless forced her to consume foreskins so she would give birth to sons. For the same purpose, Heshmat the Matchmaker sold a concoction from the dried gills of a rare fish mixed with ground pearls and alligator semen. Many of her visitors assumed a drink of dates aged in red wine and saffron added to their virility and the flow of semen that ensured sons.

Rebekah knew better. “Gold, sons are the fruit of passionate love between a couple. A man who desires a woman will not leave their love bed until he satisfies her, and she, in return, will surrender her intimate juice. It’s essential for a woman to experience deep orgasm before her man ejaculates. The moist environment of her womb is conducive to the survival of the male seed.”

16

Narcissus carried a velvet vest with gold trimmings, a flowing skirt of Arabian silk studded with crystal tears, and satin slippers with bows of colored gems.

Gold Dust stepped out of the tub of donkey milk and rubbed cucumber unguent on her armpits.

He draped a veil over her head.

“The Shah has summoned you!”