The quiet young janissary who guards Nilüfer's pavilion. It is he who finds Batak's "trump"; he becomes Aybars's brother and the keeper of the palace gate. He never draws his sword.
- Age
- Nineteen (at the start of the story)
- Börk
- White, with a golden plume
- Invention
- Trump
- Nature
- Speaks little, sees much
- His face on the cards
- The jacks
- In the palace
- Ağa of the great gate; warden of the Batak wing
In war, every army has its trump. When you play your trump, you beat everything else.
Who He Is
Doğan is a young janissary sent to guard Nilüfer's pavilion. But in truth he volunteered; no one asks him why, and he does not tell. When Nilüfer's laughter spills from a window while he stands at the gate, the very faint smile that appears on his face says everything. Every jack Nilüfer draws wears his face.
His Path in the Story
On the night at the Paper Palace he stays silent all evening. Until, as they discuss how whoever takes the bid ought to have some privilege, he speaks up: "Trump, my Sultana." As one who knows war, he knows that every army has its trump; play it and it beats everything, waste it and you are left with nothing in your hands. The heart of Batak is born of that single word. Nilüfer gives him such a look that Doğan's ears turn red.
But that same night Nilüfer chooses Aybars as her partner, and a loss and an acceptance appear in Doğan's eyes. Aybars sees it and goes to him: "Half this game is yours. There are no soldiers at the table. There are partners." For the first time in his life, Doğan leaves his sword beside the door and sits down at the table. He and Aybars become partners. What begins that night is a brotherhood.
In the caravan bound for the Black Winter he takes his place without a word; he has no need to say one.
In the Palace
He becomes the ağa of the palace's great gate. But as Hasan Efendi wrote, "not to keep the gates shut, but to keep them open." It is his task to show a newly arrived traveler who their partner will be. All his life he never draws his sword. If you see a smiling jack in a Batak deck, that is Doğan; Nilüfer drew him smiling in her second deck.
