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"Damn, damn, damn," repeated his small sister
"Shhh," Tele "That was naughty of ot the door open, but Menelik would not coe, cramped and miserable Tele bent loith Athena clinging to his neck like a bag of lead weights
"Ah, Menelik, Menelik,under his breath, fondling the lion behind its ears and kissing its dry nose "Coht, you are the prince of lions--"
Telee As he hooked the lead into Menelik’s collar, for a single airless second he was iain, held helpless and blind by hands he could not see He struggled, and banged his head on the hutch Dazed, he backed out quickly, still gripping the lion’s lead, and Menelik followed Tele hard, aith relief to find hie of the sand at the city before hihed down by the baby on his hip and the satchel over his shoulder, and his single hand was going to have to be wholly devoted to controlling the lion Maybe I should wait for the porters, he thought
He glanced at the ee and sla hutch Never again"
They crossed thebeach and set out to discover al-Muza
X
THE HANGED MAN
THE AIR SMELLED OF sweet incense and stinking fish, like unrefined aypsuh it lay beneath a filht, our port city lost to plague White Deire, they used to call it
The lion cut a path for Tele the Red Sea Athena kept her head up and alert, staring at purpleoil presses In an alley of saddlers’ stalls and shops, Telemakos stopped to exa a new strap for Athena’s slipping harness He was kneeling before the vendor’s carpet with Menelik’s lead held down beneath one foot when he caught the scent of basil, freshly broken He tensed hiathered in his wake Now they were passing fragrant sprigs of green surreptitiously a it up one another’s sleeves and behind their ears They spoke a local dialect of Ethiopic so mixed with South Arabian that at first Telenized what they were doing: warding off ill fortune He stood up and turned to face the care not to touch his eyes, he shaded his face with his wrist at his hairline and his head bent, so that his terrible dead aze did not fall on anyone It was the safest way to approach a host of strange children
Athena copied hi her face with both hands Then she suddenly threw her arms wide and announced, "Baby!" She reached up to pull at her brother’s fingers so the others could see his face "Boy!"
Everybody laughed
"Aksuuage of the Red Sea She wore a blue headscarf seith a fringe of jingling pale gold shells across her forehead "We thought you were Socotran There is a township on the island where all the people have blue eyes"
"What a fearful lot of basil the other Socotrans must consume," Telemakos said
One or two of the’s wife is of that village," continued the shell girl, "and you do look like the king’s children" She flicked a finger at Athena’s bracelet "Your baby sister could be Queen Muna’s daughter coo, her last child; the queen spent her confine for fish I remember when the najashi came for her, he held up the baby on the terrace of the archon’s mansion and said that her name was Amirah My mother took ’s children, Queen Muna’s children, and his first queen Khirash’s children, Asad his heir and his favorite; they all died of plague" She twisted her mouth wryly, as if to sho little this meant to anyone "You kno it is"
Telemakos did not knoas He looked down briefly and pressed his own lips together in gri, then, Aksumite?" asked an older boy who towered over the others "A sword belt?"
"A ain and picked up Menelik’s lead The children all looked down at Menelik, who had been lying quietly in the shade beneath a screen hung with boot laces and sandal straps
"That’s not a dog," one said, and they edged away
Teleave them his father’s crooked, incomplete smile, and said amiably, "Maybe you can help me I need a tailor to mend my sister’s harness, but I do not knoould best do the work"
"Oh, that’s business for the girls--" A boy whose face was cratered with s one asked suddenly, "Is the lion tamed? Will it let athered audience, not a real gang; they had no leader
"You can hold hi h to do with the baby"
"Not I, thank you!"
The other boys laughed at the tall one Teleh of relief They would notdirections The girl with the shell scarf and the big boy argued briefly in their strange dialect, and were told off by the belt sales on his carpet "Step back," Tele Menelik up close to him, and of the merchant he asked politely, "Which of theht," said the scabbard seller, pointing to the tall one "Call him Alexander, if you prefer Greek His uncle sends me my best customers"
Telemakos looked the children over as he fell in step beside tall Iskinder They were all reasonably well dressed The little boys ooden daggers, and the older boys wore real ones, in wide, curved, ornate scabbards The girls carried shopping baskets Everyone’s wrists and ears rang with silver jewelry Gedar’s children would have looked ragged and beggarly aotten the smell of cinnamon till I landed here today," said Telemakos "All our ports have been closed for the last three years Your country seems very prosperous to me"