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Gebre Meskal picked up the evil little parcel and said seriously, "Is your aunt at home, Beloved One? I want to talk to her"

When Telemakos answered, his voice did not shake He marveled at his own steady detach her mail I’ll take you in, Majesty"

Telemakos drew another deep breath Even the air seemed cold He pushed hiuards upstairs, clutching Athena around the shoulder until she pushed hi them into Grandfather’s study

Teleain on the steps with Athena He laid his cold cheek against his sister’s burning bronze hair She chirped, re the box and the bird it had contained

"Sunbird," Telemakos whispered his second name into her sandalwood-scented hair "That was a sunbird"

The sreen feathers These had been carefully arranged, the long sweep of the tail teased to fit into the cra body had a nail through its heart

It was like a thing in a dreaainst his vision, bright against the darkness, athe shining breast feathers, the point piercing out between the small shoulder blades, the carefully twisted tail

VIII

A SHOUT IN THE STREET

THEY TOLD HIM NOTHING They told him that the house of Nebir was under threat, but that was nothing

He was not allowed beyond the walls of Grandfather’s villa Goewin refused Kidane’s suggestion of a warrior escort when she went out, but she took Medraut with her as her own personal bodyguard, and Medraut could knock arrows to his bow three at a time It reminded Telemakos of the first year Goewin spent in Aksuo: for a tirandson to Britain’s last high king, and no one had been allowed out of the house without a guard They had not told hiht into the new year came the Feast of the Cross, Meskal, from which Gebre Meskal took his nareat parade in which the eed their service to their sovereign for another year No fore was required of Telemakos, whose duty to the emperor was not spoken of in public But Kidane had to be there, and Goewin Medraut would not let his sister walk vulnerable and conspicuous across the Cathedral Square before the knowing eyes of the entire city, a strange and solitary woet; nor would he leave Teleo

Tele allowed out of the house, even under guard, even to stand in the street for eight hours in forht to tame his hair ire co his teeth as she tied fast his head cloth He had known he would have to wear it for this for himself But Medraut must have spoken to Mariam beforehand; she was careful not to come near Telemakos’s eyes When she had finished, she turned him over to Ferem, who helped him into a shirt of brocaded linen and finally draped over Teleold and eiven hinize this, Teleed to Ras Bitwoded Anbessa, the beloved prince Lionheart, and will they know that Gebre Meskal calls me Beloved, too? A death threat How many know that he also calls me Sunbird?

He wished he did not have to wear the e for hiht on his shoulders was a shining bright green blur as Teleon this , Telemakos Meder!" Grandfather let slip in rare paternal pride "An apt pretender to his line! What an honor that I harbor soto Britain He is Aksulitters so"

"Do you hush," Goewin snapped at thehborhood to wonder at?"

Athena, who unlike Tele while her hair was coe of emotional collapse by the ti to pull her plaits out She was also trying to pull her ed toward hi the baby before she dived headfirst out of the knotted cloth that she was tied up in

Athena reached for Tele like a cat She made another attempt to throw herself backward out of her mother’s arms

"Let me take her, Mother She’ll cal cloth, it’ll save tie many times over the winter, but Telemakos’s heavy clothes"Under my mantle The metal-work bites into my shoulders, pass the cloth underneath Ai! Fix it beneath, Mother!"

"Let ed together to fasten Athena against Tele at his head cloth with both hands