Chapter 3: The Coronation
Yusef bin Nard, high priest of Oromasd within the holy city of Ravan, approached the house of Alhena—widow of his predecessor, Umar bin Ibrahim—with great trepidation. There were several valid reasons for his nervousness. First, there was Alhena herself. She was a tall woman of quiet dignity, a woman who, though never cold or aloof, was nonetheless eminently in possession of her intellect and emotions. He had never heard her say an unkind word or perform a cruel deed, yet somehow she was the only woman whose frown shamed him. He feared her displeasure more than any other woman he’d ever met. Well, almost any other woman.
In some regards he thought of her as a more complete version of Shammara, Ravan’s new uncrowned queen. Alhena was what Shammara could have been
