The Sultan's seal

52

I was in waist-deep water tearing at my clothes when Violet’s head emerged beneath my legs.

“Where is she?” I cried. “Why haven’t you found her?”

Violet lifted herself onto the platform with her muscular arms, her body streaming with water. “She’s stuck in the net.”

“Allah save us! Can’t you get her out?” I scrambled onto the platform to better take off the ballooning trousers that hindered me from submerging enough to join the search.

She moved rapidly to the pile of her clothing and returned with a short knife. Her body sliced into the black skin of water.

I removed the last of my clothing, held my breath, and flung myself in after her. My hands scrabbled about in the darkness like crabs. Handfuls of sand. Under the floorboards, even the moonlight disappeared. The slimy rope scraped my palm. I held fast and, tucking my foot into the net behind me, began to crawl sideways along it. When my breath gave out, I pushed off to the surface to get air. My foot twisted in the rope and I struggled to free it. Suddenly, powerful arms wrapped themselves around my chest and pulled me loose.

“Get out of the water and watch for her from up there,” Violet demanded, thrusting me toward the steps. When I tried to return to the water, she warned, “If she dies, it’ll be your fault. I can’t take care of you both at once. You’ll do more good up there. Hurry up.”

Shaking, I climbed onto the platform. I hunched tensely by the side of the water, scanning the surface for signs of movement. Violet was gone a long time, and I began to worry that she too was caught in the net. I rocked back and forth, naked in the lamplight, uncertain what to do. I heard my voice, keening a prayer between chattering teeth. At last Violet’s head appeared.

“She’s gone. I don’t think it’s a good idea to bring her body up here.”

I began to climb into the water again. “She must still be alive.”

Violet blocked my way. “I’ve seen her. It’s too late. She wrapped herself up in the net. I wasn’t able to cut her loose.”

“Allah protect us,” I cried, struggling to get past her. I had seen the dead, but this was a death that I fully possessed. Violet’s arm circled my waist and anchored my flesh to the wooden boards. When I had exhausted myself with struggling, she let me go.

“What should we do?” I knelt by the side of the pool, blinded by tears, by the lamplight. Violet’s eyes were in darkness, but I could sense the intensity of her gaze.

“We can let the current take her,” she said matter-of-factly, as if she were disposing of kitchen leavings. “No one will know where she died or how. By morning, she’ll be frolicking with the dolphins in the Marmara. But we’ll have to get her farther out where the current is stronger.”

Frolicking. I couldn’t decide whether to be appalled by Violet’s levity or absurdly comforted by the image of Mary, golden hair streaming, riding a dolphin like a Greek deity.

“We have to call the police,” I said numbly. “Ismail Dayi will know what to do.”

“And tell them what? That three women were alone at night in an abandoned sea hamam and one died? How are we going to explain how she died? They’ll blame you, you know.”

I looked up at her. “Why me? It was an accident.”

“They always blame the weakest person. The cracked vessel shatters first.” Her face, lit from below, was distorted by the lamplight.

I rocked back and forth, eyes on the black window of water.

Violet submerged again. After a while, her hands pushed a shoe onto the platform, then another, Mary’s skirt, shirt, and undergarments. I crouched by the pitifully small pile.

“The clothes would make the body float,” she explained, gasping, climbing out of the water. “I couldn’t get the jewelry. I’ll try again.” The bracelet of woven gold from the Bedestan where we first met. The silver pendant I unclasped in childish greed from Hannah Simmons’s neck and gave many years later to Mary, who adored Ottoman jewelry. The necklace of a drowned woman was clinging to Mary, who had suffered her same fate.

Appalled, I stayed Violet with my hand on her thigh. “Leave it.”

She explained in a calming voice, as if to a child, “I’m going outside now. There’s a landing in the front. If I jump in there, I can pull her through from the outside. There’s a strong current just a short way out. Stay here.” She disappeared into the shadowy corridor. A dog barked, then was abruptly silent.

I sat on the wet quilt, its satin stained by seawater, regarding the garments of my friend whom I had meant tonight to join in living. They lay before me like the remnants of a lifeless sea creature. I pulled the lamp closer. The pool’s black eye regarded me malevolently. The sound of a splash tore through the silence. A thin line moved across the water.