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"Child, if you should ever need to tell us any private thing while you are in Hi your service to the eainst you--do not confide in anyone there, even Abreha And never write directly to Goewin of such things Hide your secrets in a letter to me Tell me that you send your love to your aunt, and encode yourto her When you do this, we’ll know that we e you send in that letter Do you understand?"

"I think so," Tele to join in the embrace

"You must never lie to Abreha Do you understand?"

"I won’t," said Tele hi of Himyar, whom Goewin had called a manipulative serpent

Turunesh smiled faintly "You look like your father when he is about to wield his surgeon’s knife, so grim and determined Don’t be afraid Abreha the najashi has made his court a houe His own children are dead, all of them, the older ones he had by his first queen and the little ones he had by his new queen Poor man, he is fond of children Reotiate their peace?"

Abreha had indulged him, Telemakos recalled, but so had Solomon, before he tried to eat him

"Abreha was my father’s equal in the hunt," Telemakos said "He looked like Priaht the emperor’s lions, he re for his earliest memories of the Aksumite imperial court "When Aksum was at ith Himyar, he defeated Priamos in battle and sent him horeater man than your father He would seek justice where your father would seek revenge"

Gently, she began to untie Athena Released, the baby cli the top of her head affectionately against his chin the way the young lion did when it wanted attention

"Here’s the satchel There is another gown for the baby, and clean napkins, and her goatskin bottle, and the painted anirandfather made for you when you were born"

The sounds of the harbor reached in to theainst the ship’s hull, the cry of seabirds, the rumble of carts and shouts ofand pushing the shoulder strap of the harness Medraut had ainst his neck "Tena up"

"She is so like you," Turunesh said to Tele on "I look at her when she’s asleep, with her fists behind her head and her lips just parted, and it is like seeing you a baby again, with those curling white lashes in a face like honey wine Ah, Telemakos Meder, you have been ain when you return, striving towardat Telemakos’s side It did not occur to her to miss her : the boat that towed their ship from the harbor, the sails unfurled, turtles in the water She sat in the lion’s crate, cuddling with Menelik; the ship’s ave her a dozen small pieces of ivory to sort and play with She ate happily as available, o and dried fish that Telemakos had to pick the bones out of with his teeth before he dared give it to her As dark fell, Tele for flying fish ski the open sea beyond the Gulf of Adulis She watched the sparkling water with incredible patience, waiting for the fish to surface, and shrieked with surprise and delight when they did She showed no sign of weariness

Close to ed her to have used up all possible energy and good nature He tried to settle her in the sleeping bay

"Milk," she said

When she was tired, she wanted oatskin

"There isn’t any ers Here they are--"

She pushed them away disdainfully

"Have mine, then"

That worked for about thirty seconds

"Milk!"

"Hush, let’s rock awhile," Telemakos whispered So they did, for a few ain and she was uncootten that she wanted milk

"She’ll be happier on deck," came the voice of one of the off-duty sailors beside the to sleep down here Go away

Teleo hold She could not yet walk; she still went on all fours to get about Tele on board the ship to dare to carry her without fixing her in her saddle He went on his knees alongside her as she crept forward on hands and feet, stopping every yard or so to sit down on her sagging ruency, "Milk Tena’s o hold was packed with elephant tusks, soether, others stacked behind wooden slats fixed in the ribs of the ship’s hull Telee himself between the bundles

"Come sit here"