Queen Veda returned the black velvet dress to its hanger, stroking the collar one last time. He held the nearly beheaded red rose up to his mouth and nibbled delicately on a thorn. "Yes, Majesty, most becoming," the Beauty Consultant whispered. The queen smiled a slow, satisfied smile. His black eyes glowed silver for a moment, then turned bright green. He regarded the queen from beneath his hooded eyelids. The Beauty Consultant barely raised his head. There were red petals scattered all over his lap. The Beauty Consultant was still absorbed in dismembering the rose. She had inherited him from her mother, the Lady Despina. The queen was not sure how old he was - perhaps a hundred, perhaps older. He had a shriveled bald head and hooded black eyes. He was a tiny man, no taller than her dressing table. He was plucking apart a long-stemmed red rose.īut the Beauty Consultant was engrossed in his rose.
She turned to the Beauty Consultant, who was sitting on his favorite stool. She ran her fingers over the fawn collar. The onyx was the color of her long, shiny black hair the rubies were the color of her lips.
The collar was pure fawn, and the buttons, onyx inlaid with rubies. It was a long, wonderfully soft gown made out of black velvet. She took one of them off its hanger and examined it. The dresses on the far right were for funerals and executions. Then day clothes, then hunting clothes, then clothes for brisk exercise. On the left were the ones for affairs of state. Queen Veda, the second monarch of the royal kingdom of Ran, stood inside her enormous closet and surveyed the contents.
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