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"Let us see if she can save you!" the eldest brother said. Once more, he raised his sword. But as he brought it down, a figure suddenly darted forward.
"No!" it cried and thrust its head straight into Shahrayar's stomach, knocking him down. Instantly Shahrazad flung herself across him, and beside her was Dinarzad.
The eldest brother swore viciously when he saw what had been done. Much as he desired Shahrayar's death, he was not yet so far gone that he would make war on unarmed women. That would be the act of a coward. So he turned his sword on 'Ajib, the one who had foiled his attempt on the king.
"What do you think you're doing?" he bellowed.
"Leave him alone!" the second brother cried. "If not for him, we never would have come so far." And so they began to quarrel even in the midst of their triumph. But Shahrayar did not notice this. Instead, he made an anguished sound. The reason 'Ajib's face had stayed in his mind was suddenly clear. Viewed alongside his brothers, his resemblance to them was plain. Though each was different, they were still as alike as coins struck from the same mold.
"Ah!" Shahrayar said. "I see it now. I have harbored a snake."
"Truly," the second brother agreed with a sharp laugh. "A viper. But now that we are victorious, he need hide no longer."
He signaled the soldiers to move forward.
"Give up your sword," he said to Shahrayar, "or I will make your wife and her sister suffer for it, though I keep them alive."
"Shahrayar," Shahrazad cried in a low voice. Not because she feared for herself, but because she knew what he would do, even though he did not love her. Beside her, Dinarzad began to weep once more, and at the sound, 'Ajib turned his head toward her as if pulled by a cord.
"Dinarzad."
"Do not speak to me, traitor!" she sobbed. "For a snake speaks always with a forked tongue."
"I am waiting," the second brother said.
"So," said Shahrayar. He got to his feet, and the women fell back. Hilt first, Shahrayar presented his sword. No sooner had he done so than the second brother snatched it up and brought the hilt Shahrayar had presented down upon his head. The king dropped to the floor like a stone. At this, the soldiers seized the two women. Then the second brother knelt before the first and presented him with Shahrayar's sword.
"The palace is ours," he said. And then he gri
The first brother reached with greedy fingers for Shahrayar's sword. "Let the former king be imprisoned in the darkest dungeon that may be found. No light. No air. No sound. Though he be alive, let him be put in such a place as will make him long for death."
"And the women?"
"Let the girl be kept fast in her own rooms. Take the sorceress to the highest tower. Perhaps she will find a way to admire the view."
So saying, the eldest brother laughed. And all that he had commanded to pass was made so.
Chapter 19
I N W H I C H ' A J I B L E A R N S T O S E E H I S H E A R T
And now began a time which, forever after, the people of that land called the Days Without Light. For though the sun shone as fiercely as ever, the light that had sprung from the teachings of Shahrayar's father seemed, with Shahrayar's imprisonment, to have been completely snuffed out. It was hidden away in a place of great darkness, just as Shahrayar was.
Now fear walked abroad in the land, for the new king's spies were everywhere, and a man could be deprived of all he held dear for no more than an unclean thought. Yet how a thought could be ascertained when it was never spoken aloud, none could tell. It was a thing known to the king's spies alone.
Soon friend was divided from friend, and neighbor from neighbor. Mother from daughter, wife from husband, father from son. No one knew who could be trusted anymore, and so they trusted none. And in this way, a great darkness covered all the land, for it came to dwell in every heart. And in this way did Shahrayar's people come to understand what it was to live beneath a tyrant's thumb.
Great barricades went up in and around the city. For it seemed to the newly proclaimed king that it could not be long before Shazaman would come with an army to defend his brother and reclaim the throne.
But the days passed, the tension increased, and still Shazaman did not come. Gradually the barricades fell into disrepair as the king and his brothers became complacent.
See! How easy it was to rid ourselves of this Shahrayar, they congratulated themselves. We are sostrong, none dare oppose us. And so they stopped being vigilant, but the Days Without Light went on.
For now that nothing could contradict their will, the brothers' true natures were revealed—the new king's most of all. For it was soon seen that he was one who could only put on the outward raiment of a king. He did not possess the heart of one. His people mattered nothing to him. All that mattered was that he sat upon a throne.
Fights broke out within the city as the people daily grew more desperate and hungry. For here, unrecognized by the king and his brothers, the true battle was being waged by Shazaman.
Knowing that it would take time to raise an army to come to Shahrayar's aid, Shazaman had cut off supplies to the city at once. No caravans had arrived from Samarkand since the day Shahrayar had been deposed. In this, though it grieved his heart to know the people would suffer, Shazaman followed not only his own counsel, but that of Nur al-Din Hasan.
For the fool's errand Shahrayar had assigned to his vizier had turned out to serve both well. The vizier was not within the palace when it fell. Hearing what had happened, he made for Samarkand at once to join forces with Shazaman. This his mind knew was the proper thing to do, though it cost his heart dearly, for he had to leave his daughters behind.
When he learned of the peoples desperate condition, the new king posted soldiers around the royal granaries and storehouses so they might be secured for his use alone. In this way did the people learn that as long as the king himself ate well, he did not care if they starved. In fury and desperation, they dared to storm the palace itself. Their numbers were so great, they overcame the guards and streamed into the courtyard where once so many had gathered to see Shahrazad's execution and had learned instead that she would keep her life.
But life was not a thing those who came to the palace learned that day. It was a day to learn of death alone. For the king had his fiercest soldiers cut the people down until the stones of the courtyard ran with blood and were stained red from that day forward. At this, the riots ceased. None came to the palace, and the king and his brothers congratulated themselves yet again.
"See how the people fear and obey me," the new king cried. "Living under Shahrayar has made them weak and bold at the same time. They thought that they could challenge a king's authority. But I have proved them wrong!"
All it had taken was a firm hand. There would be no more uprisings.
Out of all the brothers, only 'Ajib had watched events unfold with horror in his heart. From her tower, Shahrazad heard the cries of the people and wept until she could weep no more. And in later years it was said that if one could find a place in that terrible courtyard that was not stained red, it would be a place where one of her tears fell.
But Shahrayar knew nothing of the massacre of his people, for he was kept imprisoned so deep within the bowels of the earth that he was completely in the dark and alone. Another man's will might have broken in such a place, but not the will of Shahrayar. Day and night, though he could no longer tell which was which, his will burned with its own light: the desire to win back his people and his throne. But even though he dared to dream of these things, he did not know how to dream of Shahrazad. And so, though his will burned bright, his heart still remained in the dark.