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But, but The ee is he now?"

Medraut answered with dull, mechanical politeness "He will be twelve at Trinity next month"

"I have kept my eye on your lionhearted son this past half year," the e a servant as a spy another tiht back after the captivity And I have lain awake so how publicly I involved hiing anyone’s wrath against the boy"

Medraut let out a sharp breath of dish with unhappiness "Majesty, what does any of that matter now? What more evil could be done to him than this? If any one of these wounds should fester, only one…Tooth and claw There are so many I dread their infection"

"It is past curfew, Ras Meder," the e the Guardian’s Gate open for you I want you to go home"

Medraut let one hand fall on Telee throbbed beneath the pressure of his father’s touch, but it was a relief to feel its firm reality He was not in Afar

"I ht," said Gebre Meskal "You, Ras Meder, have the boy’s grievingfor your coo home now"

There were not many who could coon, Medraut ould now be high king of Britain if he had so desired "I should do this for no otherto his feet

"Do it for no hter Ras Meder--"

The emperor spoke steadily "Ras Meder, I have a question to put to you before you go Let me ask it quickly, for I do not like to consult you on matters of policy when you are so pressed with hope and fear for your children But it cannot wait A dispatch has co, and I must send an answer before rainof Himyar, Abreha Anbessa, whom the Himyarites name Lion Hunter, wants me to lift my quarantine"

Tele at this distraction Even only half-conscious, he was fascinated as always by the complicated adult world of power and influence that surrounded him

"Why do you consult me?" Medraut said "Consult my sister, the princess Goewin, your so-called British ambassador She is your Mentor, not I; your Athena, your queen of spies"

"Do not ever call her that," the eh we are alone"

"Your pardon, sir," Medraut muttered "But why consult me?"

"Because you are a doctor I want to knohat risk I run of bringing plague to Aksum if I lift my quarantine and resume trade in the Red Sea Abreha has his eye fixed on the Hanish Islands, and I fear he will try to secure theht of dominion there He has been host of ue you heard when no one i

Telemakos tried to divest hi, flashed return to last summer’s captivity, to concentrate on the low voices over his head

"What do you lose if you lose Hanish?" Medraut asked

"A colony of exile and our first port of entry froue took Deire A vast rounds"

"Majesty, run the risk of losing Hanish Have you condeed nobles into poverty with your quarantine, to be teates before tiue like corn to locusts; they will have no hardiness against a disease they have scarcely encountered"

Medraut drew a long breath But he finished fir his request Abreha Anbessa is a forgiving man Show him that you trust himent of Telee

"So The quarantine holds Thank you, Ras Meder"

"It is advice easily given It is not so easily enforced"

"The quarantine holds"

This assertion see Tele deainst Teleht, so that Telemakos hardly felt it "Look at this,on our every syllable"

Medraut bent near hi his face Telemakos watched but could not ue and teeth, but no sound caathered himself

"Queen of spies?" he whispered

His father and Gebre Meskal glanced at each other over Telemakos’s still forer raised to his own lips

"It is a secret," he said "No man entle--"or that of my sunbird"

That had been Gebre Meskal’s name for Tele secrecy, alone in Afar a the salt pirates, the year before

But no one knows ht Our ports are closed, the black o, the ht, and this ti to: "Why now, if all is finished--?"