Sikander, Don't Die

chapter three: odile

Roshanak fidgeted with the ends of her skirt and turned stiff when seeing her reflection on a bowl of water. The veil was gone for good, but the intensely sparkling blouse she was wearing didn't live up to the sanctity of such a significant meeting. She wanted to change into a decent robe and pants, but her mother Melissa was too desperate for the meeting to occur soon.

She knew now what her mother wished. Kazu being dead and her father not an independent ruler anymore, it would be tough for her to find a suitor. To make her dance as the main girl attracted attention. Melissa was successful, despite Omkara's attempt to hide her beauty from the Shah. Roshanak had known her mother to be bolder than this, one who even fought the soldiers of this Shah, but she accepted defeat when it came to her daughter's fate. Her father, however, must have had better men in his mind, than such a stranger king.

The servant led her to the queen's hall, where the mother of the Shah was being entertained. Unlike normal days, this section of the palace was deadly silent, so much that the clinking of the chalices could be heard from outside the door. Roshanak was made to wait while the servant went in. She came back after a few moments. "The Kandake summons you."

Kandake was a word the Persians used to refer to the queen mother, who usually would be the living parent of the king or his sister, if the mother wasn't alive. The words of the blond Shah made sense now– he had made it clear that the gardens of Persia would soon dazzle her eyes which were otherwise accustomed to only paltry scenes of nature's flamboyance.

She crept in quietly, feeling foreign and unwelcome in her own home. This was no longer hers, she stayed here on a condition. She didn't look up and knelt before the table where the meal was served.

"Raise your head."

It was a command. Her voice was looming over the hall like a war cry. It was bold and unparalleled in depth, used to no compromising. Roshanak heard the order and matched her gaze with the women on the table. There were only two sitting there.

"What is your name?" The voice belonged to a brunette. Her hair was chestnut brown and her eyes were cold silver. Beside her sat a younger lady, with reddish-brown curls and dark eyes. She had a round, sweet face, unlike the older woman whose jawline rivaled the cut of a pointed spear.

"Roshanak."

"Daughter of Omkara, Roshanak. The shining star." She sipped wine from the chalice. The lady beside her didn't drink, just swirled the contents and watched in silence. "I am Kandake Odile, mother to Shah Sikander. The woman beside me is Euphemia."

The dark-eyed beauty smiled. Roshanak curtly bowed, deciding to not smile. Euphemia probably didn't know the lines of formality.

"How many siblings do you have?"

"I am an only child."

"I see. So your father married only once?"

"Yes."

"Strange. He should have married again to get an heir. His bloodline is going to dry out."

Roshanak kept mum. What was she to say? It was kind of her father to not burden her mother with another competitor of his affections. She found it too hard to share love with someone, especially when it was romantic love.

Maybe she would find it easy now, because she didn't love any living man anymore.

"You are fortunate. Being a daughter of a minor lord and unimportant to history, you have miraculously got the chance to rise in status. My son, who otherwise never casts an eye on women, was moved by your exotic presence. Maybe it is in your blood; I have heard the women of the East and beyond know magic."