The Queen

Domicella spent some years in the service of the Queen, bargaining on Her behalf with the men of the cloth about where saints' days should fall on the calendar. She opened a competition to all the shoemakers, daring them to sew slippers that were mere shadows to Her feet, perhaps with straps of the softest birch meat. She inspired a tailor to make a handkerchief that would hold a change of clothes for the Queen, so She could knot it over her shoulder and make away without a moment's notice.

She herself wore a wisp of a scarf, white gauze frozen like camel's breath in the desert morning. She dreamt such fantastic things, that if she could record them, she would eliminate the film industry. She recounted the dreams to the Queen at breakfast, which was always a feast of toast and hibiscus-rosehip tea. The Queen liked a good rhyme. She also paid a pretty penny for a bottle of Orangina.