As Emi. Kati, Naomi and her mother slept in their private quarters, things were about to happen which would alter plans, devastate lives and change events in Constantinople for an entire generation.

In the long, vaulted kitchen down in the second courtyard of the Topkapi Palace, a young slave boy, careless from exhaustion after working for the entire day fetching hot water, carrying prepared dishes almost as big as him to the serving hall above and running errands for the sweating, cursing cooks, forgot his primary task for the evening. The banquet in the Royal apartments had been a lavish affair. Hundreds of meat, fruit and exotic sweetmeat dishes had been ferried up corridors stairs and across grand chambers filled with splendidly dressed guests. A visiting European prince, eager to make political gain, had paid court to another of Selim's pretty daughters. His entourage numbered dozens and all had to be fed according to rank. It was long past midnight before the weary and footsore servants finally cleared the detritus of three hundred meals away and were able to scurry back to the lower courtyard to rest.

Ahmed was this slave...this careless, doomed slave. He stacked endless oval metal dishes in the vast sinks to soak overnight and dutifully piled up dirty table cloths for the laundry slaves to collect at dawn. But the task he had been ordered never to forget, he missed. One simple task...to thoroughly dampen the embers under the great stove.

His own master the chief cook, had retired an hour since. Once the food was cooked and served, his work was done until tomorrow. He slept soundly in a side room a few yards from the vast kitchen, safe in the knowledge that his orders would be carried out to the letter, as they had been for more than two years. His assistant was a good servant, as Egyptians go. Willing and eager to please...in fact, in the past month, he could not recall having to inflict a single beating with his heavy ladle.

Praise indeed.

But tonight, exhaustion and complacency were Ahmed's enemies. Lethal enemies as it would prove.

Across the aisle from the great stove, a tall pile of discarded napkins lay unattended. Usually they would be stacked neatly on a shelf, ready for the bleary eyed laundry servants to collect in the morning and take to the steaming wash house in the lowest courtyard. But another slave, as tired and bored as Ahmed, decided that this was as good a place as any to leave them. His feet hurt and his arms ached from fetching and carrying all evening...why should he do the laundry servants work for them too...a few more yards to walk would not hurt them…?

As with any catastrophic event, it is not a huge issue which precipitates it. No...it is normally something small...insignificant even.

As insignificant as a glowing coal, reduced to marble size after burning brightly for hours. A coal which rolled, slowly at first from the settling pile of red glowing wood embers on the open fire. As it hit the polished wood floor, it rolled quicker...and within two feet... gently came to rest against the pile of napkins. Nothing happened immediately. As Ahmed sank gratefully onto his straw pallet next door, kicking off his sandals and tossing his sweaty turban to one side, the coal began its work. Just a wisp of whitish smoke at first...a thin line curling and twisting upwards in the silent darkness. Then the pile of cloth began to smoulder. At the bottom, a napkin soaked and then dried in a spilled exotic spirit made from grape juice specially imported from the Roman port of Avlona in Albania, as a gift to the Sultan, was the first to ignite properly. Fuelled by the residual alcohol, the napkin burst into instant flame. Around it other less flammable, but equally vulnerable napkins charred, then caught. In seconds, as Ahmed and his master snored unknowingly, the pile began to flicker then burn. Above the napkins, a thick wooden counter 20 feet long stood as it had done for a hundred years. Made from a single mighty plank of dark hardwood, it had endured a thousand knife cuts, a million pounding fists as dough was shaped on one end it and meat butchered the other. But the heat from the napkins was not so easily resisted. Gradually under the counter, a circle of black widened. Then a glow...then a single yellow flame.

Five minutes later, the whole counter was ablaze. The wood, several inches thick and suffused by gallons of cooking oils from years of use, was a natural fire magnet. But no one had even thought it possible that something like this could happen.

Five more minutes and the licking flames had travelled sideways and upwards. A rack containing oils and spices was next to feel the lash of the fire. Then the roof beams were showered by a thousand spitting sparks as storage jars exploded. Like the counter, the beams had been there for centuries, dry and tindery...and like the counter, they submitted far too easily to the growing inferno below.

The first man to wake was the chief cook. Under his door there was already a baleful reddish glow. Then tendrils of thick, oily smoke began to drift lazily across the floor of his sleeping quarters. Enough to tickle his nose. His luxuriant moustache twitched as the acrid smoke crept stealthily into his nostrils. Suddenly shockingly awake, he leapt to his feet and ran in a panic to the doorway.

Which is where he died.

As the door crashed open, a wall of flames, craving the fresh oxygen in his room, engulfed him from head to foot instantly. He had time for one shout of disbelief before intense heat and cruel flames roasted his lungs and blistered his body. He collapsed dying, as the heat rushed into his room to greedily claim more things to burn.

Ahmed too was an early victim. Not for him a private room...instead he shared with two other kitchen slaves, but they died too as the smoke not the flames, stealthily suffocated them as they slept.

Ten more incinerated victims were found the next morning when the flames were finally extinguished, but there was much more mischief the fire could do before dawn. A few minutes after the cook and his slaves were roasted or suffocated, the entire kitchen was fully engulfed in vicious, roaring heat. Then the building next door, and soon the one after that. By the time the sleeping guard house was aware of the impending catastrophe, there was little anyone could do apart from evacuate a few lucky survivors. Any water available to fight the flames would be impotent against so great a conflagration. The Palace was ablaze...and everyone was in peril now.

XXX

An hour before the first spark ignited, Naomi had been hosting her own incendiary event. Emi had been a very diligent teacher over the past day or so and Naomi was as good a pupil as ever attended a lesson. Her libido now fully woken, she was hungry for everything Emi could show her. But soon even that wasn't enough...Naomi was madly in love with Emilia and there didn't seem to be enough hours in the day for her to demonstrate that love. The books she had taken from her fathers library were pulled out of her private cabinet and laid on the silken bed sheets to be absorbed by both sets of amazed eyes. Some of the positions were just silly and others seemingly anatomically impossible, but they tried a few, with mixed results.

Then Emilia turned one beautifully illustrated page and stopped dead. Naomi, naked as her lover, craned her neck over Emi's shoulder to see what she was looking at.

"This one..." Emilia said in a whisper, "...I want to do this one with you my sweet?"

Naomi chuckled and kissed the side of Emi's neck, making her lover shiver, even though they had both been fully satisfied not half an hour earlier.

"Why that one my angel…?" she asked. The position was not particularly exotic or unusual...she couldn't see quite what fascinated Emi, but she was never going to refuse her anything. Then Emi got off the bed abruptly and walked to the other side of the bed chamber. A tall mirror, embossed on all edges with gold leaf, stood in a frame. Tall enough to see yourself from head to feet...a dressing mirror, imported from Venice her mother had said when it arrived. It stood inside a similarly ornate gold frame on small metal castors.

Naomi watched with amusement as Emi struggled with the heavy piece, eventually getting off the bed and helping her. The two girls pulled the mirror to the foot of the bed, Emi fussing with its position until she was finally content.

"There..." she said in satisfaction, looking up at Naomi and grinning "...perfect"

"Perfect for what, my love...I saw no mirror in the book, just two girls, one standing behind the other...what…?"

Emilia grinned again and kissed Naomi soundly on the lips before bouncing onto the bed and beckoning to her.

"Here my love...you kneel here in front of me...and I'll just..."

Naomi did as she was asked and knelt on the soft bed, facing the mirror, Emilia placed two cushions behind her princess and got onto them, so that her face was visible over the taller girls shoulder. Their faces stared at their reflection in the perfect surface of the mirror. Naomi was still puzzled...what purpose did the mirror serve...surely they had seen each other naked for most of the past two days?

Emi kissed her neck, then nibbled at her ear suggestively.

"Now, my beautiful girl...I can play with you...and watch you when you umm….and so can you?"

Naomi flushed as she looked at herself in the long mirror and understanding dawned on her. They had explored each other voraciously for days, but now she realised that she had never actually seen herself in the throes of passion...suddenly she was embarrassed.

"Emi...no...what, I mean why would I want to see myself…?" she found it hard to say the words, even though she knew the deed itself was intensely pleasurable.

"Because I want to share that perfect moment with you, my beautiful girl...we can both watch...like a sort of magic show...and if you're good...and make me happy too...I'll be sure to change places with you afterwards...wouldn't you like to watch me pleasure myself for you?"

Naomi decided there and then that she definitely did want to see her lover in that way. But first she had to give something. The nervousness made her blush again.

"Could you...I mean would you touch me...before I...at first, at least Emi...I'm suddenly shy?"

The deep chuckle in her ear made her knees go weak and she swayed slightly as Emi pressed her small breasts onto her back. The nipples were already hard and excited. Naomi shuddered at how daring she would have to be now…

So with Emi helping her, reaching round to cup and knead her breasts and laying wet kisses up and down her neck, the show began. Naomi was shy...even after everything they had done together...but when Emi pressed Naomi's hand between her own legs, she obediently began to tease and probe herself. The sharp gasp from Emi as Naomi surrendered made her pant too...suddenly it wasn't so hard to do any more. Her thighs parted as Emi used her hands all over Naomi's body, both sets of eyes stared intensely at the erotic tableau in the mirror.

Naomi moaned deep in her throat as Emi whispered encouragement into her ear. Such a sweet, innocent face...but such a filthy mind she thought, before her own fingers lost their reluctance completely and began to rub and circle forcefully. She was as fascinated now as her lover at the image in front of her and soon forgot her reluctance to do this most personal activity for an audience.

By the time Emi slid a cool hand down her back, cupping her behind with a covetous palm, Naomi was undulating her hips and her fingers were fast and uncoordinated. She was close now...so close.

"I love you my princess" Emilia breathed into her ear as the sensations began to crest inside her lover. Then the hand that was cupping her so possessively moved quickly. As she started to convulse, mouth open and eyes still on her own image, a sly finger penetrated her from behind and massaged inside her sex deliberately.

"Ahhh...ohhh...Emi...I'm…." Naomi cried out, unable to resist her orgasm another second. She jerked forwards and back violently, craving that probing finger as much as her own. Again and again she spasmed, unable to stop the rolling waves of pleasure shaking her. Finally she sagged backwards, chest heaving and at last able to look away from the picture show she had been a central part of.

"Emi...you just have to do this..." she panted "...its...its.."

Emi grinned

"My princess...I know...I was there...I was right there..." she giggled.

It was the work of seconds to reverse their positions. Naomi tossed the cushions aside...she was tall enough to see over her lover shoulders without them. Unlike her, Emi was excited enough already after seeing Naomi lose control. Without promoting, she parted her thighs slightly and began to play…

Amazingly to her, Naomi found her lovers lack of inhibition released something primal inside her too. Remembering Emi's whispered encouragement, she searched her mind for anything that would increase the girls excitement. Then she remembered a passage in an erotic book she had read one winters night under the blankets of her bed by glow-light. She knew that the words would mean nothing to Emi...who's education began and ended with mathematics and basic grammar. But Naomi had a skill with languages...and she thought French was perfect for this moment.

Cupping one of Emilia's soft breasts in one hand and resting the other on her stomach, just above the dark eyed girls busy fingers, she began to whisper a passage from the book she recalled goggling at.

Emilia's eyes widened as Naomi used the richness of erotic French literature to arouse her further. She truly had no idea what was being said, just that the way it was being whispered to her spoke of swirling passion and dark desire. She'd been already half way to climax when they swapped roles, so this additional ingredient made her moan and gasp over and over.

Her moan briefly turned to disappointment when Naomi released her body and pulled back from her, but it quickly disappeared when, with a rustle of movement and a bounce of the bed, she found her princess burrowing, face up underneath her. Emi's eyes flicked desperately from the looking glass image down to the flushed face and tousled hair of her lover. The first lap of that newly educated tongue on her folds undid her completely. Abandoning the exotic theatre of the mirror, she clutched at the blonde head below her and allowed Naomi to tip her straight over the edge. Never had she imagined she would be in this position, her princess...her mistress in the ultimate submissive role. Her orgasm was long and hard as she knelt above Naomi's busy tongue...and loud enough to wake a grumpy Katerina in the next room.

Her twin groaned in frustration as she recognised all too well the hoarse shout next door...as if it wasn't bad enough knowing her sister was enjoying all the pleasures a willing girl could offer while Kati was forced into occasional solitary pleasure, she thought it utterly unfair that she should be forced to actually listen to them making love. She pulled a large silk cushion from the floor and pushed it down hard over her ears…grumbling savagely.

XXX

It was in this position that Tomas found her an hour later. Roused by the noise outside his quarters and the hum of excited voices, he was quick to understand the danger. Fire...that most implacable and indiscriminate of enemies. His first thought as always, was Gia his mistress. Stopping only to put on loose pantaloons and a waistcoat top, he rammed his feet into worn leather slippers and ignoring the concerned shouts and confusion around him, ran straight to the Sultana's apartments. Gia was awake and already hammering on her daughters door. It was locked to her annoyance, and she instantly regretted being so relaxed about Naomi and Emilia's 'honeymoon' period. The scent of smoke was bitter and acrid in the night air around the building. Through an open corridor window, she could see sparks and yellow flames shooting upwards from the compound below. Whatever had started this blaze, it had taken hold frighteningly quickly. It was hard to make out in the darkness what was being done to suppress the inferno, but with more and more smoke billowing up to envelope the Royal apartments, she knew time was of the essence. Again she hammered on the door, cursing herself for being so lenient with her daughter. Privacy was one thing, but death and destruction awaited anyone foolish enough to remain here.

Tomas had not wasted any time, charging through Katerina's door and scooping up the sleeping girl, cushion and all. He hurtled into the corridor where Gia was still beating on the unresponsive door and dropped a shocked Katerina onto her feet by the Sultana.

"Here my lady...you take Kati and leave through the rear doors, I passed them on the way in and they were open to the gardens. It will be safe there for the moment?"

Gia stared at him in shock.

"B...but Naomi….and..."

"Emi!" Katerina shouted in alarm, "...my sister and the mistress...get them out Tomas...please?"

The Nubian nodded and waved at Gia and Kati to make way. The door may have been sturdy and the occupants unconscious, but he would move heaven and earth to save them.

A short run up, then a huge, muscle bound shoulder crashed into the door, splintering the frame and sending it crashing back on its hinges. Tomas ran through the doorway and saw the girls entwined on the bed by the window. Thin clouds of sour smelling smoke was already creeping across their bodies. For a second, the eunuch thought he was too late. They looked like sweet angels, naked and wrapped in each others arms. But as he ran to the bed, he saw with relief that both girls were breathing. Without ceremony, he grabbed two sheets from the cabinet next to them and pulled the sleeping beauties, naked and barely stirring, to their feet. Shocked faces looked up at him but there was little time for explanations.

He merely said "Fire" in a dark brown voice and held out the sheets in each hand. Naomi blinked in confusion and tried to argue...she was naked...people might see?

"Tomas...my clothes?" she begged, tugging at Emi's hand.

"No time!" he shouted "...no time my princess...the fire may be almost upon us. Your mother and Katerina are safe...but we need to leave now"

Again he held out the sheets. Emilia came to her senses first, talking one from him and wrapping it round herself like a Roman toga...then she grabbed the other one and threw it round a still stunned Naomi. Emi cupped her lovers face in two hands and tried to make her realise the danger.

"Naomi...my love...we have to go...now...come on?"

With Tomas behind them, shepherding them like two lost lambs, they were soon in the corridor and through the open doors into the large grassy compound behind the Royal apartments. In the centuries since the palace had been built, many secret corridors and escape routes had been built into its fabric. No one alive was as well versed as Tomas in their exact location. He'd made it his business in the years that followed Cuk's brutalisation and his emasculation, to learn everything he could about this vast complex. If the flames or smoke threatened to overwhelm them, he would lead them to safety. Grabbing from the corridor wall a 3 foot metal torch containing some unlit fuel and still heavy enough to be used as a weapon or battering ram if needed, Tomas marched them to the other side of the walled garden, There was a small door well concealed inside creeping ivy there. He had hoped and still did, not to have to use it yet. The Sultana's plans for her daughter would make use of this unknown exit soon enough...so the less others knew of it now the better. But if necessary, he would sacrifice this small piece of knowledge to save his charges lives. His priorities may be altered lately, adding Emilia and Katerina to his list of responsibilities, but the end result was the same. The safety and security of Gia and her family….which now included the sisters.

XXX

Down in the main courtyard, with messengers advising him already of the safety of the royal family, the Grand Vizier was taking charge. Unlike the majority of the staff, running here and there with useless pails of water, his ability to see a problem and then the solution to it came to the fore. He instructed a dozen servants to go to the Royal apartments, after finding the captain of the guard, then secure the area. The Sultan and his wives and concubines, plus the body servants were to be led to safety below, via a winding brick back stair that the fire had not reached. The Imperial Guard major from the barracks had formed up twenty of his best men. They would second a suitable building out of harms way, ensure the security of the royal party and man the perimeter. That done, the Vizier called for a hundred volunteers from the citizens inhabiting the lower reaches of the palace. Not to put out the fire as they expected, but to build fire breaks from earth and bricks instead...the kitchens and lower living quarters were unsaveable, it was time to protect the most important ones...the treasury, the barracks and if possible the fourth courtyard buildings. As yet it was only smoke that had penetrated that level. Water was to be used to douse the upper buildings only, to stop the sparks and embers catching woodwork. All curtains and silks were to be ripped down and stored away from the direction of the wind.

That done, he spent the next hour ensuring his instructions were carried out in full.

XXX

Dawn brought relief to the palace. The still smouldering remains of the kitchens and three other less important buildings were still being damped down, but the fire had not spread any further. Now that the flames had been all but extinguished, the smoke damage was less severe than he had feared. In a small antechamber off the barracks, the Vizier met his master for the first time since the alarm was raised hours before. Around the great man were grouped his favoured wives, a couple of particularly beautiful concubines and his daughters and sons. Naomi, Emi and Kati were huddled together, still wrapped in the sheets Tomas had given them. No one had had time to fetch new clothing, but no one thought that was important right now.

Selim called the Vizier to his side. Normally his conversations with this, his closest advisor and most senior minister were carried out in strict privacy. But the shock of last night had made them all forget protocol. As Selim thanked his minister for taking charge of the fire fighting and security of his family, Gia and the girls huddled close to the Sultan, shivering slightly in the cool dawn air.

"Truly Kamal...you have proven yourself a worthy holder of your office today. The palace is safe and my family are with me. I am sure they are as grateful as I am at your prompt and effective governance of the rescue work. I am in your debt Vizier...tell me... what can I do to show our gratitude...a new province to rule maybe...some fine Persian jewellery? Or maybe some exotic additions to your harem? Name your gift, my friend..."

Tomas was close by his mistress as the Sultan spoke and he stiffened at the casual way Selim had offered the Vizier his pick of gifts. Something about the gleam in the old mans eyes told him this was not likely to be a pleasant choice. No one knew who had entrapped Cuk, but he had caught the Vizier watching him with a curious eye several times recently. The portly prime minister was as cunning as a fox….

"Master...you think too highly of me. I merely did what a good servant would do for his Lord. I have quite enough land and fineries...Your highness has been very generous to me many times in the past...so, no there is nothing I desire..."

He bowed deeply...or as deeply as his considerable girth would allow, then leaned closer to Selim.

"But perhaps my lord….?"

His mouth got closer to the Sultan's ear and his voice dropped to a whisper. Tomas exchange a look with his mistress which spoke of his mounting alarm. But there was nothing he could do. The Vizier was in the most powerful position possible right now...whatever he asked, the Pasha would undoubtedly grant.

Selim's eyes widened as the Vizier moved back. For a second his face clouded as if to refuse..but he had promised and he was a man of his word.

"Very well Kamal...I agree. Wife?...You have surely had sufficient time to educate your daughter by now. The Vizier has pressed his suit once again and I see no reason to deny him this time. The wedding will be announced on the full moon, in ten days time...prepare Naomi for the nuptials accordingly. She is to be the Viziers new first wife.

Tomas tensed as if to spring at the Vizier...an act which would have resulted in his immediate and painful death. But his mistress hissed one short word in his ear and with reluctance, he held himself in check. Naomi however, was not to be restrained with a word. Her horrified face told its own story...Dropping to her knees, she began to sob...crawling towards her father like a beggar in the dust. Emilia was frozen to the spot as the words she had just heard sunk in.

They couldn't...they just couldn't...could they?

It seemed not only could they...they most definitely would. Within a few short days, her beautiful princess Naomi, her lover... was to be sacrificed on the disgusting Viziers bed...her virginity taken like a mongrel bitch then used nightly for his corrupted pleasures. Now tears came to her eyes too…

XXX

Oh dear, what a pickle. If there's anyone out there who cares...I have a plan, honest! Comments welcome.

Err...hello…?