Page 10 (2/2)

"There you are, princess," Medraut said to Athena, putting her down gently in a corner of Telemakos’s bed "Keep your brother company so he doesn’t wake us all with his evil dreaainst her round, warm back and took a deep breath of her odd, dry-forest-floor baby sht, I would not have had so much time or attention to spend on Athena, and ive ive my soul to save her life Maybe ht, exactly a year ago, I was dying Surely the worst is past me now

VII

THE GATES THROWN WIDE

SUMMER CAME EARLY BRIGHT yellow highland asters flooded the banks of Mai Barea The fields above the city were so thick with theold Tele in her harness and the s at the end of a lead ahead of them Last year at this time, Telemakos had been in bed, and the year before that, in the coastal city of Adulis, so it was three years since he had seen the Meskal daisies in bloohways teemed with traffic, for the quarantine was over It had been lifted when the rains ended, three weeks before the new year began Telemakos took Athena to the Avenue of Thrones, where children and beggared veterans watched an unfaoods arriving in the city Gedar’s two younger boys were there, waiting anxiously for their father

"Come and let your sister try her teeth on this!"

"Eon! Eon!" Athena cried She knew all the neighbors’ nah she still would or could not say "Teleht Telehbors’ children where they sat on the highest step of the platforranite thrones Japheth and Eon were so sive therudgeless and generous and a useful source of infor uides the spice " He lifted a handful of toasted kolo grain froers "Have some!"

In this way Telemakos was the first of Kidane’s household to knohen Gedar ca an e a laden mule The mule’s burden included two sacks of mail directed to various members of the house of Nebir

Grandfather and Goewin sorted through their ether in the reception hall Goewin sat on the floor a open letters with unsteady hands, sobbing and chuckling and scrubbing absently at tears Grandfather’s letter opening wastable and filed his receipts into baskets

"What’s all this?" Tele the straps that held Athena’s saddle at his side He knelt and let Athena clis smooth and slender She had never been chubby; at just over one year old, she already looked like a sirl rather than a baby

"Mercy on us, not in the ain Shefor him to lift easily She reached for the palht with seals and ribbons

"Here, have these," Goewin said, sifting through docu she could spare "Rubbish"

"Why are you crying?"

"Pria the quarantine Every week" They had not seen Priamos Anbessa for seven years Priamos was the emperor’s cousin and Sofya’s older brother, the Aksumite ambassador to Britain Teleentle, hury face Goewin had no dearer friend

"In the beginning he wrote every two or three days," Goewin said "I think there ht?"

"As of last season There’s nothing less than three months old Look, Telemakos, my love, he’s sent a letter to you as well"

Tele Athena back She reached for the letter

"Sit on my knee then, Tena Here, I’ll open it and you can hold it while I read"

"Goodness, you’re training her well"

"She’s harder work than the lion, I can tell you"

Tele the words silently with his lips

"They’re all alive!" he said joyfully

"Well, the high king and his Comrades are alive Listen to Constantine’s tale"

Tele his letter for Athena to unfold, as Goewin pieced together for hie gave up a harrowing account of the high king Constantine’s four-month self-imposed imprisonment on his island fortress in Duri up another letter "But Constantine has saved hi children I do not know if I could have been so ruthless"