20 Chapter 20: Winter solstice

The visit to Samarkhand was short, and soon enough Shirazad was back at the castle. But she was unaware of the possible effects the short journey could have... for now people were truly suspicious of what was going on between her and King Shahryar. Previously, Shirazad had followed her father's advice, keeping a low profile but now this would be difficult.

Lady Mehrnaz was very friendly towards her, always greeting her and asking if she could help her. Then, one day Mehrnaz approached Shirazad with a suggestion. The day of winter solstice was soon to come, and there would be a special celebration. The tradition was that the king would appear in new garments, especially sewn and prepared for that day. Mehrnaz was in charge of the clothing department in the palace and so she asked Shirazad to join the festive occasion.

"My Lady," Gisi said to Shirazad when she understood about this, "Why would you accept such an invitation? Mehrnaz is an evil person."

"Maybe you are right, but she is trying to be friendly," Shirazad replied. She hadn't forgotten her first meeting with Mehrnaz not long ago. But she saw no reason to be enemies with her. Moreover, she wanted to get involved in palace life, and she didn't want to appear unfriendly or unresponsive – which would happen if she refused.

Mehrnaz led Shirazad to the clothing department, and showed her what types of fabrics she planned to use for the king's garments. The clothes were not something Shirazad had to worry about though; her task was to go to the treasury and choose a crown for the king.

"Once you enter the treasury," Mehrnaz said, "just turn left. There is a long corridor and you should keep walking up to the very end where you will see a small door, smaller than normal. On the other side of it, there is a room where all crowns have been kept for a few dynasties. You should choose a crown, and then take it to the masters of jewelry. They will clean and polish it. You will be shocked how dirty those treasures get having been forgotten for a few decades! Finally, two days before the winter solstice, bring the crown to Armien. Remember, pick a crown that suits the colors and design of clothes that I showed you."

This did not seem like a hard task, and Shirazad was happy that she had something else to do in addition to planning and telling fairy tales. This last thing she loved to do, but day after day, she needed other hobbies as well. Two days before the celebration, she left the crown -- clean, polished, and in a box -- to Armien. But then, one day before the celebration, she was summoned to the throne room.

"My Lady," Gisi said, "other servants say, there has been a problem with the crown."

When Shirazad entered the throne room, she saw Mehrnaz, Armien, and King Shahryar on his throne. Another servant held the crown. But, to Shirazad's dismay, it was not the crown that Shirazad had chosen... So she knew something fishy was going on. Much simpler, with fewer details, it was obviously a crown made for a prince. To send a king a crown made for a prince was a capital offence as it implied that his power was not absolute and perhaps even that he was not the true king. Shirazad, having read enough books about politics, realized this quickly.

"Do you have an explanation for this?" Shahryar asked and pointed at the crown.

"This is the first time I see this crown, Your Majesty," Shirazad replied.

"And do you deny the fact that you have been asked by Mehrnaz to pick a crown for the winter solstice?"

"I do not deny. But the crown I chose was different from the one here."

"Do you have any proofs?" Shahryar asked.

She thought for a while, "The servants who helped clean, polish and prepare the crown all saw it was another one."

"I already spoke with those servants. After all the preparations, you have been left alone with the crown and with the task to deliver it to the clothing department. You have had enough time to substitute it if you wished so. If you claim yourself innocent, this means someone at the clothing department must have replaced the crown. Lady Mehrnaz, you are in charge of the clothing department, what can you say in your own defense?"

She bowed, "I have been working for years in the clothing department and I have prepared your garments for the winter solstice. I have no incentive to question your reign. I only asked the Queen to help because I thought she would be happy to be involved in the palace life."

"Do you have anything to prove your innocence?"

"I bring with me Armien. She is a servant from the treasures department and therefore not my subordinate. She is the one who accepted the crown, directly from Her Highness the Queen."

Then Shahryar listened to Armien.

"Once I took the crown from Her Highness, I never opened the box to see it, but I spent the whole night awake to guard it, which was my task. No one came into the room that night, and Lady Mehrnaz was not even in that part of the department as far as I know."

"Can it be that you have been given a drug and have fallen asleep, but you are now too afraid for having failed in your task and thus you refuse to admit it?"

"No, Your Majesty. I swear I was awake the whole night!"

Then Shahryar spoke, "Since there are no firm proofs of Shirazad's guilt, she will be locked in the dungeon for now. The others can leave."

Shirazad was taken away by some guards. Mehrnaz bowed once again to Shahryar and said,

"Thank you, Your Majesty. May I beg you to be merciful towards the Queen Consort. She is still too young, and it may well be that she was unable to make the difference between a king's and a prince's crown, but in her pride was unwilling to admit it."

Gisi, who had come together with Shirazad, was still in the throne room, heard Mehrnaz and frowned. Mehrnaz was the kind of person whose words did not reach her heart. She claimed to be well educated, allegedly having read many books and being interested in sophisticated hobbies, but still she had many mistakes when she was writing. People didn't always know how to react to her because one moment she'd act in a mean way, the next she would say a compliment. Truly, the nice things she said did not come from her heart; the bad things she did were also not something she was completely conscious of.

Gisi escorted Shirazad to the dungeon together with her guards. She whispered,

"My Lady, I believe you. You are so smart and intelligent, how could you possibly mistake a prince's crown for a king's? They are so different even I can see that. You have obviously been framed."

"Thank you, Gisi. Your words mean a lot to me. But referring to the king as if he were a mere prince is a major crime and it must be punishable by death."

Shirazad was locked in the dungeon. ...It smelled of mold. It was so dark. Not even mosquitos dared come here. There wasn't a single window, but maybe there were one or two rats as big as chickens. One of the guards left a torch with her.

She had completely no idea whether she would ever be able to get out. And as she sat alone, she thought people died in that dungeon for crimes much less severe than the one she was supposed to have committed, so she had to be prepared for the worst. She was not sure if it wouldn't be better to put out the torch because the room was small, but she was too afraid of the darkness. It was so unfair, but she couldn't do anything about it... Armien, that maid surely knew what had happened and she was on Mehrnaz' side...Sometimes, Shirazad would hear some noises and thought there was someone in the corridor, but then maybe it was just a mouse...

She did not know how much time she'd spent there because it was completely dark. But at one point she was told she had to tell another fairy-tale to the king... so she was released. Although she stayed for a short while, they did manage to beat her in an attempt to make her admit to her crime, which she refused to do. Then she was back to the queen's quarters as if it had just been a nightmare. What had happened? Had they finally figured out she hadn't done anything wrong? Judging from Gisi's facial expression, no, they hadn't. Because Gisi was quite talkative and had she heard anything about the case, she would definitely inform Shirazad.

Shirazad shivered. Of course, while in the dungeon, she had been mad, mostly at herself, for being so short-sighted, unable to see that Mehrnaz disliked her so much and could go so far.

At first she thought she could include those mean people like Mehrnaz in her fairy-tales and thus get her revenge on them and reveal their wrongdoings. But then she realized that... no. She didn't want to have anything to do with them. She wanted to go far, far away from all of this.