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"Your crystals are in the way," Telelitter--"

The roo in its beauty

"I cannot see," said the astrono the crystals, but not the soft lights against the do so they are out of the way We’ll do that tolobe, using both hands, and the stars wheeled at a dizzying pace

Malika gasped Athena shouted, "Again! Again!" She pulled herself up to stand behind Tele the show froainst one side of hiainst the other, while Athena leaned over his back, cheek to cheek with him Never in his life had Telemakos felt so loved, and so at ease, with others e He had not missed it; he had never known life could be like this And noas ready to learn to hunt

Telelad to be here

He did not flinch when Tharan bound fast his eyes in the training ring the nextnear his shoulder, and Tele, reached up blind to fondle its bony head and rub its coarse-silk cheek against his own When Tharan helped hi the saddle cloth behind him, he wondered briefly, What ae I am not a servant Abreha can’t expectme such mastery?

He wondered only briefly He did not care He had never expected anyone to give hirateful to question it

Daily after that, at daybreak, Teleet practice The cadets were all at least a year older than he, so even if he had been whole as the rest of them, he would not have been expected to achieve their standards But Teleence The vizier Tharan directed them in this as well, and he was a hard task the h it was thepuzzle he had ever been set Tele so with his father in years to co when Teleh the library on his way back to the Globe Room after his daily practice, he found the custodian carefully copying a list of royal transactions of olive oil Supervising this work, of all hbor from the villa across the street to the house of Nebir

"Peace to you, Tele "Are you surprised to find me here?"

Telemakos knelt, swiftly and sincerely, and bowed his head My poise is coht; I ized to Gedar "Of course I know you traffic with the Hiain," Gedar said "I aiven me letters to deliver you"

"Oh, thank you, sir!"

"Coerly, for Gedar’s expression changed He warned, "You’ll be disappointed They are badly sea-da was nearly unendurable" He handed over to Telemakos a wallet of woven raffia, warped and stained with salt Telemakos bent over the packet and knew, even before he opened it, that the letters within would be unreadable The pages fell to shreds when he tried to pull theainst the outside of the folder, feeling suddenly desolate He longed for another letter from Goewin

"What filthy bad luck," Harith the librarian said sylect on my part, not luck," Gedar said "I am sorry, Telemakos I should have kept them with my invoices They would have survived inon the floor beside him "You see" He laid open the lid Paper and parchment scrolls lay packed in dry ranks like rows of bone Telemakos smelled dust and faint decay

It was like a blow to the skull For a long ainst his knees, sick hat that breath brought to his e of the h its back

Teleain

His whole house smelled like that, Telemakos remembered

God help me, I do not dream when Athena is there by me, I can ride a horse and carry a spear blindfolded, Afar is on the other side of the Red Sea and Hara is dead And yet still the smell of dust makes me faint?

"It can’t be helped," Teleuest, was invited along to view the parkland beyond the blossoroves north of the city, the very first tiazelle hounds The hunting party was ss Gedar stuck by Telee The olive merchant’s endless questions of polite interest quickly wore Tele the lion loose was ly nervous, even without Gedar distracting him; he knew that neither he nor Menelik was ready for this

Menelik startled at everything, at insects, at nodding leaves, at birdcalls It becaive up the two short lances strapped over his back It was his first ti weapons any distance, and he was not yet coht to carry them and keep fast Menelik’s lead

"I should take hietically Abreha held the lion while Tele to admit to weakness before half a dozen courtiers, turned his spears over to Gedar