19 Chapter 19: Life is unfair, deal with it

In Samarkhand, Shirazad gave her best to understand the political situation between the two kingdoms, mostly because of her innate curiosity. The King of Samarkhand was a cousin of Shahryar, and King Shahryar seemed to trust him immensely; perhaps because, rumors claimed, the King of Samarkhand's wife also betrayed him in a similar manner to Shahryar's.

Now, to be honest, Shahryar's actions towards her last night sort of scared Shahrazad a bit. Of course, as much as it was possible to talk about "fear" and Shirazad (a.k.a. lion-born) in one sentence.

She met many people during the celebration and she was still ordering the pieces of the puzzle in her mind. Although many people doubted the King of Samarkhand's allegiance, actually he really looked like a dependable person. She couldn't help but ask King Shahryar at a convenient moment,

"I can't understand. Lady Sanaz may have an affair with King Zaman," she said, or sort of stated the obvious since this lady either wanted it to look like she had an affair or she aimed towards it. "But, when we sat for dinner, why did Lord Badan ask her so insistently about her relationship with the king and the reasons for it? ...Is he blind?"

King Zaman was very attractive, so Lord Badan needn't ask why a woman would want to pursue a relationship with him.

"Why didn't you ask this yesterday at the assembly?" Shahryar replied.

"I can't ask such a thing. I was afraid I might say something inappropriate."

There was a moment of silence. "...Everything you say is inappropriate."

"Oh, Your Majesty knows what I meant," she said in a matter-of-fact voice. "Lady Sanaz doesn't need other reasons to be with the king."

He smiled, "However, women are rarely with a king just because he is handsome."

"But how much does your cousin like her?" Shirazad wondered aloud. The Lady was from an enemy's kingdom. We must understand just how reliable—your cousin is. Yeah, she almost said that. But then it struck her that of all people in the world, perhaps Shahryar trusted this cousin of his the most, and he would immediately disapprove of any such suspicions. That was the reason why counselors back in Persia were worried; although they believed King Zaman to be trustworthy, he might be influenced by other people. Treacherous behavior did not have to be initiated by him, but just silently prosper behind his back.

"Scheherazade," Shahryar said. It was the first time she heard him use this name... She wasn't sure if she should tell him she'd heard this nickname before, or she should pretend she didn't know what he was saying. "Do you spend as much time analyzing your own relationships as you do with King Zaman's?... Perhaps you should have married the Prince of Bauldor. ...But, life is unfair, deal with it, eh?"

The name immediately rang a bell. Why was he mentioning it?

A long time ago, when her father wanted to marry her, during one assembly, he'd announced that his daughter will publicly explain what stops her from getting married and share her marriage conditions... So, she told all of the gentlemen they had to prove their sincerity... and then she was forced to explain how they could do it. She simply said she'd give them a series of tests. Some had rolled their eyes and left. Others were willing to hear and stand whatever test she had for them. The bravest of all seemed to be the Prince of Bauldor.

"There is a horse in our manor's stables that is very wild," Shirazad told them. "We call him the Tamalian horse because it was brought from Tamalia and given as a gift to my father. Many a horsemen tried to tame it, but always unsuccessfully. Since most of them use brute force for the job, I think that the key to tame it is perhaps to use one's wits instead. So, if you can tame the Tamalian horse and use your brains to do that, this would be proof enough for me that you are reliable and reasonable." And so, many princes and dukes and generals tried to tame the horse unsuccessfully. And even though Shirazad said they should use their brains, most of them tried to exhaust the animal. Finally, the first prince to accept her challenge was the last one to face it. The Prince of Bauldor came, and he brought with him a mare that was very calm. Day in and day out as the two horses spent a lot of time together, the Tamalian stallion started to calm down like his partner. And finally the animal was tamed. But Shirazad was not happy that the Prince of Bauldor had found a solution.

She wasn't over. She invented another challenge, this time to test loyalty and devotion.

"I hid my necklace in the forest. A necklace I love so much," she said. "Whoever finds it would definitely prove his sincere love for me."

"Crazy woman," they said. "How could anyone find a necklace in a forest? She wants us all to die of hunger in the forest." And again there were also a lot of volunteers who wanted to try and find the necklace. Now, the Prince of Bauldor remembered that King Shahryar, his cousin, had a bird, a falcon, which lived in the castle and loved everything that glittered. The King had found this falcon when it had been but a little bird, and this falcon was especially trained to find golden items. And so this falcon found the necklace in the forest. Once again, Shirazad wasn't happy. But the one who was going to be unhappier was the Prince of Bauldor. For as soon as he reached the gate of the vizier's manor, he was forbidden to go inside.

"We apologize, Your Grace." The guards and maids sincerely apologized to him several times, "Our mistress's orders..."

The prince couldn't understand. He'd found the necklace, hadn't he?!

"My prince. Our mistress guessed that you would find the necklace too, so she ordered not to let you into the manor again. ...She also said that life is unfair and a truly reasonable person should have predicted this."

Life is unfair. He has to deal with it, Shirazad had said when her maid had tried to reason with her, 'but miss, your reputation... you gave your word that you will marry the man brave enough to complete your tasks...'

...Back in the king's quarters, Shirazad shivered...

"I am really sorry about what I did to him!" she hurried to say. "It was dishonorable. He was brave and did not deserve it. But I was only fifteen, and I truly did not want to get married. It is true I promised in public that if anyone fulfilled my conditions, I would marry him. But I would never have given that promise if I hadn't been forced to! So back then I thought -- why should I stick to a promise that was forced upon me from the very beginning?" Shirazad was thoughtful. She still felt a twinge of guilt about that prince. "Why does His Majesty mention that?" she said.

"I was just curious about your love life. Just like you are curious about King Zaman's."

"I do not have a love life," she answered.

"...Just a long history of refusing men," he laughed. "Except Lord Javion that is, who was engaged."

She frowned. "Er, no. His Majesty has the wrong information."

"Really? Did not he write this letter to you?" He produced a letter and handed it to her. It was a letter from her personal correspondence. "My information comes from none other than yourself." He did indeed give her a letter she'd received from this lord, probably found in her father's manor. "Didn't you write back to him?"

"Since His Majesty asks me," she said, "then perhaps he already knows I did write back. I don't know how much of my personal correspondence you have read, but make no mistake: I did not feel sad because I had a crush on him. I was just disgusted with him and sorry for his wife-to-be. When I did write back to him, I was more polite than I should have been, and this is because I was still unaware of all details of the situation. I forced myself to say some things out of courtesy. I did not know what else to say."

"You? Did not know?"

Though it was an authentic letter, she feared his interpretation of the events was far from the real situation.

She was surprised by this conversation, which had sprouted out of nowhere and was very much the conversation between jealous lovers, which they were not. She would understand if she had a lover now and the king was afraid she'd ruin his reputation, but he was talking about things that happened years ago.

"I was shocked because I thought I knew this person, that's all..." Shirazad said. "It turned out we were not even friends. It turned out he was sharing more accurate personal information with strangers than with me. Why wouldn't he tell me about his engagement? I'd share his happiness." Wait a second. Why was she trying to excuse herself? It was he who was reading her personal correspondence. Suddenly, she became silent.

"Hm," Shahryar half-smiled, "Maybe he was unhappy, that's why he didn't share his happiness."

He was staring at her as if to assess her answer and her personality. Then he came close to her and said,

"In my life I have met many women who tried to manipulate me. ...But you, you never do it." He stared at her. Then his tone changed as he smirked, "...Because you think of yourself as too smart to actually make an effort to influence other people. Because you are so smart that people should heed your advice without you doing anything on your part. (Maybe pay you?) ...And if they don't... well..."

She pondered on his words.

"Are you trying to offend me or pay me a compliment?" she whispered.

Soon, they returned back home.