Chapters 4-6: How Shahrazad is Bold, In Which the Vizier Takes a Chance, The King Takes a Wife But Receives a Surprise Summary

Shahrayar behaves as if nothing is bothering him until the end of Shazaman's visit, at which point he locks himself in a high tower where he believes "treachery could hide where it was least expected, even in the heart of the one he loved and trusted most" (p. 40). After going through the agonizing pain of cutting love and trust from his heart, Shahrayar emerges with a heart made of stone, and he orders the vizier to make a decree throughout the land: each month on the night of the full moon, Shahrayar will take a new wife who will be killed...