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I

BLIND TRUST

THE HARSH CRIES OF hisfor Telemakos to bear, and he had fled the house

He spent thein the lion pit at the New Palace with Soloht the eo He had no responsibility for them; Nezana, the royal lion keeper, saw to that But they knew Telereat gold-and-black-pelted male, Soloht the lion must have picked up his h on a good day he would indulge Telemakos like a cub; he would let Teleently around the pit’s perih the sand, retrieving the Today Solomon would not stay still fro, because Telemakos wanted comfort Sheba was always an aloof and independent creature and would tolerate attention only a little at a tiish Solomon to return his affection

Telemakos wandered away frohtly onto the first of the stepping-stones that wound across the lions’ trout pool Telee to hi his balance, and then he shut his eyes He could walk the whole trail noithout looking, but he could not yet do it without faltering Thewere distractions fro his eyes

It was more than half a year since he had been freed frolers who had held hi his eyes taped shut for two exhausting, appallingblinded It was a trial of courage for hi; the touch of the soft cotton on his face made his skin crawl He had to dress and undress with his eyes and teeth clenched shut It was such a little thing that he was asha his eyes He could negotiate the stone path in the lions’ fish pool with his eyes closed, and when his balance was perfect, he was planning to atteth of his shamma shawl pulled across his face

But not today Today he could not concentrate on his feet He kept thinking about his mother, and the baby He missed his step twice, and the second time he ended in water to his knees Trout leaped and fled fro over to see as going on

Solo queries at Tele-stones today," Tele aloud to set Solomon at ease

He sloshed his way across the pool and tried to tickle Solomon behind the ears The lion sniffed disdainfully at Telemakos’s wet feet, shook hi

Telee, his toes in the shallows and his knees drawn up under his chin I’ as I keep splashing about andthe fish jump And pretty soon Sheba will catch it, too, and then she’ll snap at o so Once, he had had to face her down until Nezana arrived with his whip and distracted the lioness long enough for Telemakos to escape up the keeper’s rope

They’re lions, Telemakos reminded himself They’re tame and overfed, but they’re lions They just do what lions do They can’t help it

He drew his feet back fro froolden-brown, soft-hued as old honey, so in between his dark African mother’s and his fair British father’s Telee crossing of cultures, with skin the color of cinnamon and hair the color of salt His heart leaped with pleasure and apprehension when he thought of the baby Girl or boy? Girl, I know it She will be a girl, and they will name her--

"Hail below!"

Telemakos looked up His father and the keeper stood side by side, leaning over the here the rope was

"Isto his feet

Nezana and Medraut laughed

"Yes, O child oracle, your sister’s here," Medraut called down "Coht and excitement, Telemakos made the mistake of his life

With the emperor’s restless lions at his back, he ran toward the here his father stood

"Teleuished horror, and Nezana cried out, "Beware!"

Telelance behind hientle Soloht the h his narrow, paed ani hiry It did not occur to Solomon, in thatacross the lion pit was the same creature that brushed his mane and rode on his back Solo, low leaps

"Solo and desperate enough that he tried to turn and shout his vain coave hilance, and for Telemakos to throw his arm up and try to shield his neck Soloht Telemakos went down beneath him like a ste frantically at the back of his neck, his arm bent double and trapped, nearly from wrist to shoulder, in the brutal, saw-toothed vise of Solo ti his neck

Then his father was bundling hi on Solomon with his whip to hold hih the tunnel The jolting of his father’s strides tore his equilibrium apart, and Teleain all over his own ar stones of the court outside the lion pit’s loalls

"You monstrous, thankless child!" his father wept "Give o about polluting yourself!"