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There was always fresh water in the lion pit There was never any guard

Sheba was out on her nightly rounds, prowling the palace grounds, but Soloently beneath the pencil cedars

"Lazy old beast," Telenized his friend in spite of the stink He shared his water willingly He would never tell a soul Telemakos had been there Telemakos buried his face in Solomon’s mane and felt loved

He stayed in the lion pit all that night; but even he did not dare to sleep there

Hiswhen Telemakos presented himself on Grandfather’s front steps, and wrinkled her nose in disgust Telemakos bowed his head and waited for her excla care of your hair, I see," she co

"Go take a bath," she said, which hat she usually said when he ca trip

He was clean, fed and rested, and wound up like a spring when he ran back to the New Palace in the afternoon He actually made it to his Noba lesson for the third tiht of Karkara’s office and watching the weary-looking official build toith the small tablets of salt that were piled on his table, while he told Telee of his childhood and listened absently as Telemakos repeated them Both their minds ran elsewhere, Karkara’s to the pile of docureat challenge:his way unseen into the emperor’s study for the Hour Alone

Teleain He had to endure a few nerve-racking ot to reht when two young soldiers sifted through the wall hangings with their spears a few o, Teleh in just such a search But when the emperor at last ca coolly beneath the , legs crossed and hands folded in his lap

He hesitated a fraction of a second before he bowed, to let the emperor see him there Then he fell on his face on the leopard skin at Gebre Meskal’s feet

"Well played, Lij Telemakos," said the emperor

Telemakos smiled, his face hidden in his hands, elated

"Get up and sit with ht, thank you, Your Majesty"

"Sit here Tell me what you know I take it you in"

Telemakos dutifully repeated asGebre Meskal listened with the same air of detached interest that he had shown in Tele When Telemakos finished, Gebre Meskal said, "This is all true, and well spoken, but there is nothing here you could not have learned frorandfather, if he were minded to tell you There were no secrets passed in yesterday’sAnd I cannot trust you asme proof that you were there: an object, a token, perhaps"

"I am not a thief," said Telemakos coldly

"I need proof"

"You stayed behind after the others left," Telemakos said "You looked inside the mesob basket table, and underneath the podiu to find hed, and spoke aloud, saying, ‘Perhaps it is wrong to expect sosilence Gebre Meskal rubbed at his beard, and Tele across his solemn face "Where were you?" the emperor asked

"Should I tell?"

"Well, your proof is sufficient But now tellI don’t already know"

Tele them back and forth in his lap Then he laid them on the mesob table between thean slowly

"Anako, the Deire archon as in Aksu of the season, had a conversation with a salt merchant while he was here," Tele of a black market in salt to open in Arsinoë, and they meant the conversation to be secret Or private, anyway One of Anako’s porters overheard them, and was punished for it I heard the, so I wasn’t punished The porter had his tongue cut out And they cut his hands off"

Teleainst the table

"So ht," he finished "Maybe what you want is too much to expect from me"

"You could do it"

"I know I could"

Gebre Meskal stood up and crossed the roo by the wall he took a ain," said Gebre Meskal "That game we played three times in your mother’s house"

It took some concentration for Telemakos to re-create the fiasco, but he did at last successfully