One Night with the King Page #2

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preserve your throne.

Looking for someone?

I'm fine, thank you.

You can run back to Rebecca now.

Oh, I'm sure you're fine.

Only tell me, Hadassah,

or whoever you are,

how do you intend to get into the palace?

You didn't come to take me back?

Come, or I shall call you

Hadassah the mouse.

Wait!

I appear to you by the gracious command

of the great king of kings,

the emperor of the world, Xerxes,

son of Darius.

Great king.

(ALL CHEERING)

We drink.

We drink also to my guard,

the immortal 10,000,

but I fear I would soon have to send them

out to conquer new vineyards for me.

(ALL LAUGHING)

Then let us drink to Queen Vashti,

the most beautiful in the land.

Bring forth Vashti!

Vashti!

(ALL CHANTING)

Bring forth Vashti!

They are serious? They demand

Vashti be here before all?

Already rumors circulate

as to why the Queen holds her own feast

instead of attending yours.

They sound riotous, my lord.

They fear a divided kingdom.

My lord,

you know the Queen's position on the war.

Send for her.

They go to fetch the Queen.

She must be lovely,

reigning in a place such as this.

None is more lovely than you, my queen.

- My thanks, fair prince.

- Prince?

Why is it for years you threatened

to join the caravans to Jerusalem,

yet you never do?

What holds you back?

Perhaps the courage to face it alone.

What if you had someone to join you?

MAN:
The herald returns!

The Queen asks the King's forgiveness.

She cannot leave her guests.

VASHTI:
I'm queen, not a pawn,

and I will not lower my dignity

or shame my reign

by wearing the royal crown

before your drunk

and thinly veiled war council.

MAN 1:
What news of the Queen?

MAN 2:
Where is our queen?

WOMAN:
Queen Vashti!

MAN 3:
Queen Vashti!

Am I to be a mockery before my subjects?

Or Greece as well?

- Continue, Cousin.

- Might not this

deed of refusal

travel abroad to all women,

making their husbands

contemptible in their eyes?

Will not it be said by all, "Xerxes

commanded his wife to come before him,

"but she came not"?

Vashti's guilty not only of

disobedience to the crown

but against the protocol of our fathers.

And tell me,

what dictates the protocol?

A royal edict must be issued

and written into the rolls of the land

that Vashti...

That Vashti come no more before the King,

but that her royal position

be given to a new queen,

more worthy

than her.

My lord,

what answer do I send the Queen?

Vashti!

Vashti!

(ALL CHANTING)

The land has no more queen!

I wish not to be queen here any longer.

Mordecai is giving me his blessing.

Let us leave tomorrow,

together.

MORDECAI:

Thus the scribes were assembled,

and a decree sent forth.

The princes did indeed press upon Xerxes,

the king, soon to depart for war,

"Leave behind a queen

"to keep the people unified."

Every maiden was to be considered,

the choicest of whom

to be brought from across the empire

and into the palace.

In accordance with the protocol,

young men were also rounded up

to become eunuchs

who would serve the queen's candidates

during their time of preparation.

MORDECAI:
There's no need for alarm.

In all likelihood they will not come for you.

And not all that are taken will be chosen.

Doubtless, the queen

has already been selected

through bribery or chicanery.

How do I keep our laws?

How do I pray?

What excuse do I offer God

for not keeping his commandments?

Oh, Hadassah.

God sees the inward observance.

The court is a dangerous place.

I think it will be better

if you forgot that you were a Jew.

If this is a sin, then...

Then let it be on my head.

Promise me that you will do that

if you're taken. Promise me that!

If I am taken,

I will do as you say.

I should give you a different name.

Hadassah is too Jewish.

Esther.

Esther is a good Babylonian name.

Yes. That's what we shall call you

from now on.

Esther of Susa.

Promise me.

Promise me if you are taken.

I said, "If I am taken."

If, if, if.

But for now,

you should look for me

in the streets of Jerusalem,

dancing

like David before the glory of the Lord.

- Hadassah!

- Who?

Uncle Mordecai!

(GASPS)

MORDECAI:
Is this the way

the King's orders are carried out?

Senseless brutality

in the middle of the night?

Father, please show us favor

and turn these dungeons

into someplace wonderful.

Is this the dungeon part

or the wonderful part?

(ALL GASP)

Look!

Sarah, it matches your eyes.

Have you ever found anything

so wonderful in your life?

And Hannah,

was it not made for you?

Am I never going to see my mother again?

Only if you wish not to.

Two, three days, and who knows?

Home you go.

Do you think we're not beautiful enough

to be asked to stay, Hadassah?

Welcome to a brand-new life.

The method of your arrival

was not of my choosing.

I am Hagai, His Majesty's Royal Eunuch.

I have been assigned

to oversee your preparation.

All right, it's okay.

(GIRL SCREAMS)

MAN:
Don't let them escape. Kill them all.

Which way to the quarter of the Jews?

(GIRL SCREAMS)

(GIGGLING)

You have a very bad habit.

The palace is no place for children.

You think of me as a child?

Well, you're wrong.

I am much younger than that.

How do they call you?

- Esther.

- Curious name.

From where do you come?

I am of the wind

whose sound is heard, yet none can tell

from whence it comes or where it goes.

Well, we gather within the hour.

Try not to blow away before then.

Another 4,000 talents

for metal, weapons, armor.

And we must not forget

the pay of the mercenaries.

I know this is not a favored opinion,

but if used for peaceful purposes,

such amounts could serve many needs.

Two different ways of life are involved.

The Greeks have no king

and they want none.

It is one thing to beat our chests

and parade our boldness

pretending this is

still the empire of our fathers.

But you hear the costs

of an actual campaign!

If we are not honest with ourselves,

I fear we lose much more

than just our stature.

Then, let us sit back and do nothing?

Let the Greeks conquer.

Let them establish democracy.

Would not the King be the first to suffer,

the first to die?

Or does the memory of his father's death

not stir as deep in his bones

as it does in ours?

I speak to you as one

not without empathy.

I, too, have stood in the battle

and stared into the unknown.

For the very sword that took my eye

took from me my manhood as well.

But be at peace.

This is no warfare that you embark upon.

This is only the life

that a great dreamer could imagine,

or at least it can be,

if you so choose to embrace it.

Think not I heard your

whispered orchestrations that night?

And how you drew even me

into your schemes?

In these troubled times

it is easy to name any man traitor.

I even recall a certain campaign

in Ionia under King Darius,

where someone allowed

the defeated Greeks

to keep their own form of government,

their democracy,

instead of placing the protocol

of the empire in control.

Favoring democracy.

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