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"What, I just go? On ht San’a was three weeks’ trek into the Arabian et there? How did you ree to that?"

"Abreha is in his port at al-Muza until Epiphany Your father will take you as far as our own port in Adulis You know you’ll be safe with hiht and keep you away frorandfather’s merchant ships When you arrive in Himyar, you’ll take your recoovernor’s mansion in al-Muza Abreha will see you on to San’a"

Goewin rapped her fingers against a sealed letter that lay alongside Teles and instruht"

"What are you doing withup here?"

Her white face was so pale she looked unearthly Her eyes seemed depthless pools of black water, and the skin around theht, bruised look to it

"I think I heard you crying," Telemakos said "I can’t remember oke et back to sleep"

"I kno it is I could not evenwas left on the doorstep I sat awake all night long"

"Goehat happened to Hara?"

She turned over Telemakos’s map Beneath it lay another, the sahted, and behind that lay another elaborate scorpion pricked out in stars

"He fled Aksum with his final contraband load of salt," Goewin said, "so he may be alive and free soular delivery of dead birds" She thuainst Telemakos’s maps "Mother of God, Telemakos, I wish I knew"

"He wasn’t really the kind of hten you," Telemakos said "He just barked out orders to have you whipped if you did so, and carried on with his own business He wasn’t as frightening as Anako Anako liked to watch people being hurt"

Telemakos crossed the roo close to her with his left side against her skirts She laid one hand on his ruined shoulder, paging through his maps with the other

"Maybe you should sendwith envy of Sofya She, too, ht have earned the hatred of the salt pirates, but as Britain’s new Aksumite ambassador, she was already safe ahile the dust cleared "Grandfather said this on"

Goewin stopped his mouth with her hand "That is not exactly what he said You should treat that possibility as if it were as secret and dangerous as your work for the e and took her hand away

"Does Abreha knoho I a to tell him the real reason I am there?"

"You mean, will I tell him Gebre Meskal’s spy needs a place to hide?"

Telemakos bowed his head He bit nervously at the ers

"Abreha does not knohat you are," Goewin said "The najashi, the king of Himyar, is a kind man, but I have never met a more manipulative political serpent Abreha , worrying the blunted nails

"The emperor thinks these threats are not pointed at you," Goewin continued, and gently pulled Teleleaned your name--not your real name, of course, but your secret na to use it to scare us without knowing its realIt is outdated code, after all; two years have passed since you were in Afar Theyourselves" She paused "They may think it is my name"

"They may think they can learn your name from me," Telemakos whispered "They do in ain

"God forgiveher face into her fists, with her elbows against Grandfather’s desk "I even figure in your nightmares" She pushed the papyrus leaves aside Fanciful scorpions scattered over Telemakos’s lap "Just look at these"

"I should have done them in wax and rubbed them out after They are a waste of paper"

"I have destroyed you," Goewin said

Telelanced over his shoulder at his aunt and saw her eyes briain

"Your father can blame Solomon, you can blame Hara or Anako, but I blaht happen if you were caught, and I sent you anyway Look at these"

She held up a scorpion of stars in either hand On both sheets the star Antares, the scorpion’s heart, was so fiercely drawn it pierced the pages through Laes down