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"Girl, do you knohat he said when he came before us? ‘Solo us in your wisdoh he had a base traitor in one nepheithout another being a groveling sycophant"

"My lady o and repeat to ue," Priamos interrupted quickly "I will leave you alone with the princess"

Candake paused for breath, chuckling and wheezing "Priamos was sick, sick with nerves After the presentation to Caleb they took the children out to see the aniuards itching in his atteo!" Pria quickly "Tedla, Ebana, I swear I’ll have you whipped for insolence Go! I auards before hi

"No coward," his runted darkly "He will find little ti to keep hirand woman’s feet He leaned low to the floor and chirruped softly Three slender cats the color of sand, with faint stripes across their noses and tails, ca out from beneath baskets and behind curtains and swar its head against his face and purring so violently you could have heard it from across the room

"You may trust my handmaids, little Sheba," Candake told me kindly "Say what you like; who shall repeat it outside this court shall have her tongue cut out"

She patted Telemakos on top of his head with one of her fat, painted hands "Isn’t that right, my fox kit?"

He tossed his head "You don’t scare me," he said loftily "And anyway--I’ two or three times over before I could fully understand it, but I think that is hoent Candakeer, the queen of queens demanded: "Tell ood and holy Wazeb, heir to the king of kings? A king-priest shall we have in hih his father thinks hient? Let me touch your hands while we speak, your smooth pale hands Constantine will not let s to tell nant questions I let her stroke my hands, fascinated by her

"Can you explain--" I ventured "Can you tell hthe tean to feed her pieces of fruit cut into stars and crescents and diamonds "Why should Caleb hen another can do it for him? Hyena! Caleb sent one after another ofany more of his own The day rave, Caleb sent the order that ht to him to train as his warriors My brother has emptied his treasury on war and this palace He looks at his heir and sees that Wazeb chants and dreaed kingdom will fall to a son without aon’s here and let another patch up his empire for hirasp and grab at authority Ha! You watch hione froave another burst of elephantine laughter

"So Caleb looks about hi, Which of these attendant insects will suck up the ins to whine so irritatingly that Wazeb is forced to snatch up the imperial fly whisk? Caleb reviews them all and fixes on theand pedantic And no one is so dispensable So they go up to Mai Shum with the bishop, the abuna, and a cloud of priests, and in the reservoir they baptize Constantine again with our own baptism, and so you see hi at last, wheezing

"So if Constantine fails, the bladom is Wazeb’s Whatever happens, no reproof will come to Caleb It is not so unaccountable as it looks"

"A princess and a politician!" Candake chuckled "Bring coffee Feed some of those to the princess," she ordered suddenly; and to an to put the fruit stars intowill Wazeb endure it?" I asked, when I could "Does he seem likely to snatch up the fly stick?"

"Fly stick!" Candake creased herself laughing again "Why should he put down his prayer stick? It is good enough for swatting flies, and his British viceroy is bringing order and wealth to the mess his father left behind him The tame lion ait and watch"

Then she screaone?" Candake demanded suddenly "He likes coffee"

The cats had slipped silently away, and Telemakos had disappeared after them I have no idea when it happened Only the distance of Candake’s enormous knees had separated him from me, but I had never even seen his were laid before her

"He does that all the tie of h!" Which she did, violently, before lighting her burner "His mother won’t allow him coffee anyway Now, my little queen of Sheba, set aside the ether"

"Look e found in the tax office"

I was onwith Constantine, but he found me first, in the breezeway that connected Candake’s private ith the main body of the palace Constantine ca on the back of the child’s head Behind them stood the impassive ceremonial spear bearers Telemakos was still and serious, more than usually contained He did not show it in any obvious way, but I was seeing so I had not seen in hirown spies in future," Constantine toldon you," I answered in an equal tone

Teleht if she did" He tilted his head back, suddenly, and winced