Her shoulder still ached, but at least it no longer debilitated her. When she attempted to turn both handles of the double doors-which were presumably the chamber’s entrance-they were firmly sealed from without, just as Shahrzad had expected. Indeed, she could see very little outside this prison of sandstone and ivory. She could not see past the intricate screens at the edge of her balcony. Her suspicions as to her whereabouts mounting, Shahrzad rose from the mass of silken cushions and took a turn about the room. When Shahrzad examined the tray of food more closely, she noticed her host had not provided her with a knife, nor was there a utensil or sharp object of any kind in sight. On the gaudy table was a basket of flatbread and a copper tumbler, along with a platter of fresh herbs, rounds of goat cheese, small cucumbers, and an assortment of sweet chutney. The pillows tossed about were bold and fringed with tiny mirrors embroidered by threads of gold and silver. It was as though a crazed artisan had taken a hammer to a rainbow, destroying something beautiful in an effort to create something decidedly less so. In the corner was a table fashioned from many bits of colorful tile. Thick tapestries clung to every exposed surface. Branches of flowering trees hung over the terrace, threading through the white latticework like drapery, their bright pink blossoms heavy on their boughs.
Shahrzad series part 8 series#
Beyond the screens, Shahrzad could see a series of trellises shading a marbled balcony.
The richly stained wood was inlaid with ivory, flecked by dark green jasper. The open screens to her right were far more ornate in their carvings. Indeed, it could be argued that it might even surpass them. True, she was still dressed in the same rumpled qamis and dirty sirwal trowsers she last remembered wearing, but the chamber she’d slept in rivaled the finest rooms of the palace in Rey. Yet beneath it she felt nothing but the sense of being controlled. W HEN SHAHRZAD WOKE, IT WAS TO THE SOUND of birds and the feel of silk.Įven the faintly scented breeze around her conveyed nothing but light and beauty.
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