Melisande Shahrizai
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Melisande Shahrizai is the primary villainess of Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Legacy series. A breathtakingly beautiful woman with alabaster skin, blue-black hair, and sapphire eyes, Melisande is a descendant of Kushiel and a proficient sadist who attempts to overthrow the throne of Terre d'Ange through skillful manipulation and political intrigues.
[edit] Kushiel's Dart
Melisande first enters the narrative when she is 23 and Phèdre nó Delaunay is thirteen; they are introduced by Phèdre's keeper Anafiel Delaunay, Melisande's sometime friend and long-ago lover. She is one of the only people to identify Phèdre as an anguissette at first glance. Phèdre likewise immediately knows her as a scion of Kushiel, and describes her as having "a mind as subtle as Delaunay's, and a far colder heart". She is exceedingly wealthy, having not only the wealth of House Shahrizai, but that of two dead husbands as well. She weds first at age sixteen and again at nineteen, with considerable mystery surrounding both deaths.
She takes Baudoin de Trevalion as a lover when she is in her twenties, only to betray him and his family later. Before she assists in getting him arrested for high treason, Melisande first throws him a birthday party, contracting all of Cereus House for a night, and then buys him a night with Phèdre as a farewell gift.
Melisande contracts Phèdre for herself for a midwinter masque held on the eve of what would be known as the Bitterest Winter. She parades Phèdre before the nobles of Terre d'Ange, having her wear a gown of only white gauze studded with diamonds, and a velvet slip-collar with a diamond teardrop suspended from it and a lead attached. Phèdre loses herself entirely to Melisande that night, and when Melisande uses flechettes on her, she gives her signale for the first time. She gifts Phèdre with the ruins of the gauze-and-diamond gown, providing her with enough money to complete her marque.
When Phèdre and Joscelin try to reach Ysandre de la Courcel following the murders of Anafiel Delaunay and Alcuin nó Delaunay, they encounter Melisande in the Palace, who takes them to her own quarters. Melisande betrays them, drugging Joscelin and sexually tormenting Phèdre in order to find out what she knew, before drugging her as well. Melisande sends Phèdre and Joscelin to be sold to the Skaldi as slaves, and they are taken past the borders of Camlach into Skaldi territory.
It is Melisande who assists Waldemar Selig in betraying Isidore d'Aiglemort, and a letter from her to him is the impetus for Phèdre to finally make her escape from the Skaldi and return to Terre d'Ange. When Phèdre explains the matter to Ysandre, she realizes that Melisande isn't playing for stakes or victory, but rather for sheer love of politics, the deadly game of thrones.
When Phèdre next sees Melisande it is at Tsingani horse fair in Kusheth. Phèdre nearly panics, fearing Melisande will see her and feeling drawn to her at the same time, until Hyacinthe interrupts, speaking the dromonde to assure Phèdre that Melisande will pass by her and see nothing.
Melisande disappears during the war, and is brought to Ysandre's justice by the Duc de Morhban after being sold out by her own kinsmen, Marmion and Persia. Initially Melisande denies all the charges put against her, until Ysandre surprises her with Phèdre, who steps forward to accuse Melisande, throwing at her feet the diamond she gifted to Phèdre, which Phèdre kept throughout her travels.
Ysandre sentences Melisande to die at dawn; Melisande requests for Phèdre to visit her in her cell during the night. In that conversation, she reveals that rather than allowing Selig to rule Terre d'Ange, she had every intention of seizing control of Skaldia. Phèdre leaves her and spends the night alone on the battlements of the city, only to discover later that Melisande somehow escaped her cell before daybreak.
| Kushiel's Legacy by Jacqueline Carey | |
|---|---|
| Novels | Kushiel's Dart • Kushiel's Chosen • Kushiel's Avatar • Kushiel's Scion |
| Characters | Phèdre nó Delaunay • Anafiel Delaunay • Joscelin Verreuil • Hyacinthe • Melisande Shahrizai • Ysandre de la Courcel • Drustan mab Necthana • Waldemar Selig • Other Characters |
| Groups | Court of Night-Blooming Flowers • Servants of Naamah • Cassiline Brotherhood • Yeshuites • Tsingani • Phèdre's Boys • Stregazza family |
| Places | Terre d'Ange • Skaldia • Alba and Eire • Caerdicca Unitas • Other |
| Mythos & Culture | Elua and His Companions • Anguissette • Midwinter Masque |
| Noble Houses | Courcel • L'Envers • Shahrizai • Somerville • Trevalion |
| History | Battle of the Three Princes • Battle of Troyes-le-Mont |
