Endings and Beginnings
With a final embrace, Scheherazade says goodbye to the only man she will ever love. Longing to spend the rest of her life with him, she now knows that can never be. Instead she must surrender herself to her king - even if doing so leads to her execution.
The ‘1001 Arabian Nights’ begins with the madness of a king. Brought on by the infidelity of his wife, the king murders her before vowing that every day hence he would marry a virgin, sleep with her, then have her beheaded the following morning. The people of his kingdom lived in terror for many years before Scheherazade, the daughter of the Grand Vizier, offered herself to the king with a risky gambit that, if successful, would not only save her own life but the lives of countless other young women. The plan she had was simple; on the night of their wedding, Scheherazade asked the king if her little sister could visit their bedchamber so Scheherazade could tell her one last bedtime story. The king consented. Being a master storyteller, Scheherazade spun a tale so enthralling to the eavesdropping king that when dawn broke, and she hadn’t come to the ending yet, the king allowed her to live one more day so he could hear its conclusion. That evening Scheherazade finished the first story but then began another that was left unfinished by morning. This went on night after night until eventually the king fell in love with Scheherazade which ended his madness and his vindictive thirst for blood.
I was curious about what Scheherazade’s life might have been like before she became the heroine of legend so I wrote a story in which she finds herself on an epic adventure with a man who is at first a stranger to her but over time she falls deeply in love with. Together they confront many perilous situations where the only thing keeping them from being separated or killed is her quick thinking and newly discovered talent for deception. Over the months that they are together, Scheherazade matures from a cloistered, protected innocent to a resourceful, worldly wise young woman. It's this growing realization about herself that gives her the strength to finally confront the most difficult decision she will ever have to make.
Now, overcome with emotion, Scheherazade tells her beloved that she cannot continue the journey back to his land with him while he pleads with her not to return to a most certain death.