Page 9 (1/2)

I ht She will soon be clever enough to pull things out of here

"It is he!" Malika cried The queen of Sheba was standing in the door to the nursery, her gown back-to-front She must have put it on herself, a wonder indeed, in her hurry to be first with the news

She called delightedly over her shoulder to the other Scions, "It is, it is the Aksu us!" Then she threw herself down on the carpet at his side and rattled her fingers through the silver charstar, peace and greetings and hurrah! I heard your little bells and I knew you were in here--it sounded so much closer than when you pass in the corridor Pretty, aren’t these? Look, little Tena, you can "

Malika held him still with one friendly hand on his shoulder She rubbed noses with him as she rattled the silver char The najashi has never given me such a pretty bauble"

Inas and Shadi cae "Liar! What about your onyx box of facepaints--"

"--Your caood fortune to you, Morningstar!"

Teleainst him, rather stunned, as the nursery filled with Abreha’s fourteen foster children, all claht theyhiirl, it’s like yours! You can match now Rasha, where’s the baby’s silver bracelet? Let her wear it so they can both have one"

"Have you heard all your sister’s exploits, how she poured a jar of indigo dye all over the cushions by the --"

"And of the tie of Indian parrots--"

"And an oas eating the in the walled alht it with his new bird?"

The thin, dark boy king gave a proud and quiet smile "My sparrok, she s out of Muna’s lyre and cut her hands on them And on another day, she tipped two lamp stands over the terrace wall, all ablaze--"

"My Athena!" Tele bronze hair "How can so sirl commit such enormous knavery?"

"Trees and flowers on fire," she said proudly "Birds flying away" She let Rasha fasten her silver seabird bracelet about her wrist and gave it a shake "Flying birds!" She gripped Telemakos by the hair with one hand on either side of his head and gazed into his face anxiously "Stay with Athena"

"Yes, stay with us awhile," said Inas "Or have you soht away?"

"Javelin practice"

"We’ll come with you," said Malika "We can watch It will stop Athena ether"

Telemakos saith envy, that they were noiser in the ways of Athena than he was, and decided not to argue And anyway, he wanted to take her with hio

Telemakos pulled the leather straps of her harness over his head and let Athena clihter than they had been, and Athena waited impatiently while, with some difficulty, he adjusted the buckles She kicked at his ribs and thumped his ruined shoulder with her fist

"Birds, lion, dogs, goats!" Athena de the itinerary again, bird girl?" Inas teased "We will visit all your friends"

"I want to see the lion and the dogs, too," Tele to see them

The najashi hi’s javelin practice He stood with folded ar blackly beneath the rope of gold that bound his headcloth He looked like God co to observe the day’s human activities in Eden He left before the session was finished, without speaking to Tele the Scions for some time, as he always did, and Telehter break free as they spoke to him

Tharan said to Tele today The najashi bids you spend an hour or so in the kennels and see if the lion still re with the princes Shadi and Jibril, later, if you wish"

It was turning into a holiday after all

The Scions stuck to him like honey They could not have made a plainer statees on their knees in the parade ground before the city walls Shadi and tall Jibril fell into step on either side of him like lieutenants, and at their shoulders came the desert cousins Ibrahihtly on his toes he see quietly to himself since Abreha’s visit

"What’re you so pleased with?" Teleet to see you master the lion Fabulous show! I’ve irls, Inas and proud Malika; then Nadia and Nashita, ar like conspirators as always, with Lu’lu, the spoiled littlest of theer boys followed theer brother Habib; Inas’s younger brother Aood-natured and nearly spherical in shape, heir to the great citadel port at Aden and all its lands and riches Telee; it was so easy to picture hi he would be in twenty years, bearded and turbaned and sceptered, being fed like Gebre Meskal’s old aunt Candake by a host of attendants

Twenty years Will they all visit each other, and send each other presents, trade indigo and coffee and grain and frankincense, go to war together, send representatives to San’a every year for the Great Assembly? Will they reine what he would be in twenty years

The lion was at play in the hounds’ racetrack Menelik seeer than Teleht of his sire, Solomon, who ruled the lion pit in the New palace in Aksuth to it yet, but it shiolden head and down the fur at the back of his strong neck He was tossing about a strange rattlelooked like an enor noise as the young lion worried and shook it Tele Menelik toss the rattling bones into the air and catch them in his mouth

Athena called out, "Lion lion lion lion!" and chirruped deep and loud It was exactly the sound Menelik hiate, the bone rattle in his ainst the bolted wood, chirping like an oversized kitten Tele, to scratch the lion between the ears, and Menelik began to purr