The Devil's Concubine Read online

  “The captain, angered by the scene, ordered all of us to be locked in the boat’s hull. But being locked in the hull was what saved our lives. As we reached San Pietro Island, which was close to Sardinia, we sailed through a storm of such magnitude that two of the boats travelling with us sank. The remaining five were completely destroyed and were missing half of their crews. During the rest of the journey we had to work together to repair the damages; we also performed all the duties on the boat which included rowing. They treated us like the slaves we were soon to become.

  “I lost all sense of time. After all, why would I care to count the days? Some days later, we were peacefully approached by a Saracen squadron of boats. It appeared that they were anxiously awaiting the merchandise that Hugo, “The Iron”, and Guillaume, “The Pig”, had brought for them. Exactly at that moment, three of our ships departed. ‘A military strategy,’ they lied. I didn’t know what happened to the ships until I read about it later in history books. Guillaume, The Pig, accompanied those three ships to their final destination: Bagdad. Hugo, The fierce, who was on the other boat that travelled with us, led us to our destination: Alexandria.

  “Our ship docked on Alexandria’s eastern port and we were lashed with whips and forced into carriages that had awaited our arrival.

  “The lighthouse stood tall in the harbor, oblivious to our suffering and anguished pleas, just like the thousands of people who flooded the dirty Egyptian streets who barely seemed to notice our arrival.

  “One after another, the carriages arrived at the slave market and by the time ours arrived, selling had already begun. It wasn’t until precisely that instant that we understood, with absolute certainty, that our fate was much more worse than death. They made us exit the carriages and then various men took us, striking us with whips, to a quiet corner in the market where they divided their merchandise into different groups. All the priests were put to one side. Geniez and I screamed with fright and pain as they separated us. They placed me with the women and him with the rest of the boys. Then Hugo, “The Iron”, dismounted the carriage he had ridden and after helping unload the remaining children, began to divide us more specifically.

  “ ‘How many of you have studied?’ he asked. ‘Who knows how to read and write?’

  “No one responded so he lashed one of the boys with the whip and grabbed him by the ear.

  “ ‘How about you rich sissy? Didn’t your dad take you to one of those good schools?’ he asked while shaking him as violently as he could. The boy howled with pain and answered that he had studied in Paris.

  “ ‘Then he’s for governor Al-Kamil,’ The Iron said and threw the boy into the group of priests and then he screamed, ‘Let’s go! All of you who know how to write or count, get beside him!’ He cracked the whip several times above us. ‘The governor manages many businesses and needs secretaries and interpreters. Those of you who go with him will be more fortunate than the rest, I promise you.’

  “Celine and her brothers looked at each other and then, along with many others, began running toward the group that would belong to the governor. Geniez approached me, grabbed my hand and took me to the group.

  “ ‘No!’ The Iron screamed while grabbing my arm. ‘You’re worth a lot more than a common secretary. All women stay put! The governor already has his share and I’ll get a lot more for you in the market.’

  “Our cries must have deeply moved heaven’s heart. But if they did, we never found out. Ignoring the whip that fell upon our bodies, we fought, kicked and screamed to no avail. I lost sight of Geniez forever as I was tied to the leg of a platform awaiting my turn to be sold. The customers shielded themselves from the relentless sun under some canopies that covered the platform where their victims would be displayed.

  “Celine was there but she was far away and the men kept us from getting close to each other. It was her turn before it was mine. It was horrific. They lifted her onto the platform and stripped her of the few, dirty, and ruined clothes that still covered her body. She tried to grab onto her clothes, screaming like mad, while neither the public nor the auctioneers could contain their roars of laughter. She doubled over, covered her body with her arms, and screamed all the insults she knew.

  “The scorching air was permeated with a foul, penetrating odor. Blood pounded in my head with such force that I became dizzy. I thought I was going to faint from the stench, the suffocating heat, the pure terror I felt and the lurid cheering of those bastards. The market was very busy and the men started to bid higher and higher, greatly entertained by their victim’s suffering. The auctioneer unscrupulously pointed out Celine’s appealing features. He grabbed her by the arms making her show herself and not for one moment did she stop fighting or insulting them, which didn’t do anything but raise her price. Finally, someone took her.

  “I was going to suffer through many more auctions before it would be my turn. During that time, as I was looking at the buyer’s faces and thinking about my future, I made a decision: I would commit suicide the first chance I got. The decision made me happy. Suddenly nothing mattered. I felt calm and at peace. Soon I would be safe and would never suffer again. I promised myself that I wouldn’t cause a scene, that I wouldn’t say a word, and that I would let him take off my clothes without making any moves to stop him.

  “However, it wasn’t that simple. I wanted to climb the stairs up to the platform on my own but I felt hands brutally pushing me from behind so I stumbled up the stairs. Up on the stage, the auctioneer savagely pushed me toward the center. You can’t even imagine how I felt with those strange Arabians staring at me with their hungry eyes. I thought they were the most despicable humans on earth, dressed in tunics that fell to their feet and wearing fezzes or turbans and speaking their maddening, unintelligible language. I knew I could end up in anyone one of their beds. When I felt the auctioneer’s hands displaying my blond hair to the public, I couldn’t even remember the promises I had made myself. I twisted around and jabbed him in the face with my elbow. He was so surprised, for a few seconds, he didn’t do anything but touch his nose and listen to the crowd laugh. He grabbed the whip right away and starting lashing me. Outraged, the buyers started yelling phrases at him I couldn’t understand. Some of the slave traders climbed onto the platform ready to take the weapon out of his hands. They didn’t want him to damage me, you understand, so they threw him off the platform and they took over. While two of them held me, the third one tore my clothes off and I was completely naked.

  “It was precisely during this terrible moment that I saw him for the third time. I was paralyzed, lifeless, as though they had taken away my strength along with my clothes. They let me go and I didn’t make the slightest movement, not even to cover myself. He was there! He stood a few steps behind the now speechless crowd. He had that same grave look on his face, as if he harbored a deep hatred for life. I was looking at him as dumbfounded as if he himself were standing naked before me on the platform. I thought, ‘I’m saved!’ After a second, I noticed the slave traders and buyers had become completely silent and that their greedy eyes were looking at any part of my body except my face. I also noticed my own lack of decency. Suddenly, I felt humiliated and ashamed because he had seen me like that, not only nude but also in that situation. That was something stupid I can’t explain. I suppose being helpless and defenseless makes us more ashamed than anything else does.

  “Without taking my eyes off him, I began to hear the buyers yelling their offers for my body. The auctioneers seemed to wake up and started pointing to different parts of my body. I assume they started to praise my beauty to raise the final price. His eyes were so focused on mine that it truly seemed like he didn’t even see me. For some moments, I felt as nonexistent as if I had disappeared. Suddenly, I felt hands pulling me and I awoke from my daydream. One of the men that had held me said, ‘Let’s go, get down. Go to your master.’

  “They sold me and he didn’t even bid! Impossible! Maybe he had sent someone to do it for him?


  “A brutishly repulsive creature waited for me as I descended the platform. He mumbled some words in French that I didn’t understand. Drooling, he tried to kiss me through his unkempt beard. I was disgusted and tried to defend myself but he just laughed. Other buyers seemed to be congratulating him and my hopes vanished with the wind. That man had bought me for himself. Everything seemed to imply this. Confused, I looked back searching for his face again, searching for an answer.

  “ ‘Don’t leave me!’ I screamed with all my might. ‘Don’t leave me!’ But he was gone.

  “ ‘How is that possible?’, I asked myself over and over. He wasn’t there by chance. I had seen him at the port before the ships departed. He must have taken a ship that departed later and had followed us. If not, how did he know where we were going? Unless he knew beforehand... maybe he’s a slave trader like all the others... but that didn’t make sense. There had been seven other ships to choose from, so why did he take one later? Also, he was alone. As alone as I had been when I had seen him in Marseille for the first time. No, he wasn’t one of them. That’s impossible. How could I even think that? Well then, why? Why didn’t he help me? Why did he leave to my own fate?

  “The fat bearded man lifted me into an elegant carriage and appeared to urge the driver to quickly depart.

  “Again, I turned around to look for him. From the height of the carriage, I had an excellent view of the market. At that moment, a boy I recognized was being sold and there was still a long line of frightened children awaiting their turn. But he wasn’t there, he had already left. It was impossible to figure out where he had gone since the market was a closed off square with only one large entrance which we were passing through at that very moment.

  “The fat man spent the trip drooling on me with half of his body lying on top of mine. He wouldn’t stop speaking, as if I could or wanted to understand him. His house was enormous; a luxurious palace, you could say. I assumed he was a merchant or perhaps a government official. I never found out. However, in any case, there was no doubt he was a very rich man. The inside of the palace was lavish and featured a mixture of Greek and Arabic architecture, marble floors, and ivory and gold decorations.

  “He was so excited and satisfied with his purchase that he didn’t stop laughing like an inebriated drunk as he grabbed me by the hand and proudly led me around the house. We went through a beautiful garden that had a fountain in its center. Different doors opened to the garden and we stopped at one of them. He let go of me so he could look for keys, which were in a bag hidden beneath his tunic. He unlocked the door and motioned for me to go inside.

  “Two Arabic women were embroidering a tapestry when we stepped inside. They respectively stood when they saw us come in. They bowed in front of him and stayed in that position while they received instructions regarding what they were to do with me.

  “I clearly remember the words he spoke to me in his poor French before he left the room.

  “ ‘Beautiful for me. Tonight, great night.’ That was what he said.

  “The women took me into another room and gave me a good bath with lots of soap and scented salts. I thought it was wonderful. I hadn’t bathed since that tragic day in Saint-Ange, can you imagine... I was so accustomed to my smell and that of the others I had travelled with that I didn’t even notice it. But the fat man, yes, he had noticed how I smelled and of course let me know this with the gestures he had made, as did the two women who gave off a delicate fragrance of roses.

  “After my bath, they brushed my hair, put perfume on me, dressed me in a beautiful, luxurious tunic of gold embroidered fabric, and then adorned me with some jewelry. Now, all I had left to do was wait for the dreadful encounter. Unless I found a solution...

  “The women took me back to the room where I first saw them and continued their embroidering. I desperately looked all over the room, searching for a knife or anything I could use to end my life. There wasn’t anything in that room capable of causing me the slightest bit of harm, and just as the door to the garden was locked, so was the one that led into the house. That door had been locked by one of the women when we entered the room so as to prevent my escape.

  “Through the lattice I could see the garden. I was horrified and knew that as the night approached, so did my dreadful fate. I can’t be certain about the amount of time that went by until we heard someone knock on the door. After hearing the voice of the person behind it, one of the women stood and opened it. They spoke some words and then the woman urged me to go with her. I think we must have gone through the palace from one end to the other before we reached the empty room where the scene of my romantic soiree would take place. I walked in. The woman shut the door behind me and I heard the key turn in the lock.

  “The room was large and well lit with many floor candelabras.

  “I had another opportunity to find a weapon which I would desperately put to good use. I quickly looked at the few pieces of furniture in the room but didn’t find anything that could be of use. I sat on the bed and started crying. Then, I looked up and realized that all the walls in the room were entirely covered in mirrors. I could break anyone of them and use a shard to slice my wrist. Good, I found a solution. When I realized that my abstract idea was about to become a real possibility, which I would have to carry out without the slightest delay, my heart felt like it was going to burst. It was during that sublime moment of awareness when I had to admit what I had always known: I didn’t have the courage to kill myself.

  “I stood and walked to the wall in which I saw my reflection infinitely multiplied. Standing in front of the mirror, I tore off the hideous dress I was made to wear to arouse the man that was going to rape me. I tried to destroy it as best as I could, then I furiously took off the jewels and the tiara that held my hair in a ridiculous bun. I was completely naked and the mirrors reflected my image wherever I looked.

  “ ‘No!’, I screamed. ‘No! God damn it! God damn humanity! God damn humanity! God damn humanity!’

  “The room filled with my uncontrollable screams which reverberated from the mirrors just like my image. I kept swearing incessantly, ‘God damn! Pigs! Scum! I hate you! I curse you! Damned race! Wretched race!’

  “Screaming those words, I grabbed a stool and threw it at a mirror screaming. I wanted to erase my misfortune, the suffering for having lost my family, the loss of my past life. But it was only my reflection that disappeared. ‘Help me God! Help me!’, I begged and fell at the foot of the bed.

  “A few moments later the Egyptian entered the room and found me like that. He became confused once he saw how his erotic den had been destroyed. He closed the door behind him and I saw his smug face redden with rage as he approached me. Terrified, I quickly stood. For the first time, filled with rage, it occurred to me to fight instead of committing suicide. I began looking around for a piece of glass I could use to stab him.

  “He came to a halt when he realized I was naked. Dumbfounded, he looked me up and down with no other intention than to rape me. I watched him suspiciously and now the only thought running through my mind was finding a shard of glass to kill him with. I thought it would be simple since there were fragments all over the floor. However, he was a strong man and I needed to act quickly so as not to worsen my situation.

  “The man didn’t even give me time to try. Before I knew it, he threw himself at me like a hungry beast and made me fall onto the bed, his body on top of mine. He was excited and awkwardly managed to take his clothes off. I could feel his hardness and knew he was ready to enter me.

  “I was filled with terror when I felt him between my naked legs. I was so innocent, much more so, certainly, than girls of that age today. My only experience with a man had been a secret and brief kiss. I tried to keep my legs closed as tightly as possible when I realized what was about to happen. But he, breathing heavily, didn’t find it difficult to force them open. I opened my mouth and screamed in terror and prayed to God, but it only made things worse since he took advantage of my screams
to stick his tongue into my mouth.

  “I bit his tongue and he moved away, but only to slap me. I let the tears escape from my closed eyes and, with a last and vain attempt to defend myself, sunk my long nails into his back. He screamed and hit me in the head but he didn’t move away.

  “When I opened my eyes, I saw him in front of me. I couldn’t believe it. How had he managed to get in? Why was he there? He looked at me with that same guarded expression. In the flickering candle light, he looked like a ghost. He held a knife in his hand and extended the hilt toward me. All I had to do was hold out my hand and the knife would be mine. This is what he wanted? But why didn’t he do it himself? Why didn’t he himself save me from that torture?

  “I didn’t have time for questions or doubts. As soon as I took the knife, I felt the man penetrate me. With both my hands, I plunged the knife into the left side of his back and pressed and pressed until the hilt hit his skin. I assumed the knife went through his heart because as soon as he felt the blade enter him, he let out a choked scream, spasmodically shuddered and then stopped moving.

  “I kept crying and tried to get the dead body, which had me penned beneath its weight, off me. But at that moment, I felt so weak and distressed that my efforts were useless; it was like my muscles or my body or my soul refused to keep living without help. Then, he pushed the body effortlessly onto the other side of the bed.

  “Confused and distressed, I stood and looked at him. A million thoughts burned through my mind, all of which questioned his miraculous appearance. He leaned over and as he did so his dark hair slid in front of my eyes and, just for a fraction of a second, I felt his warm cheek next to mine. He put his arms under my waist and legs and lifted me.