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"For these few days he has the unusual opportunity to speak directly to Britain’s new high king," said Constantine, "and it is clandestine mischief to approach the auard his back"

"From me?" I hissed

I dropped his ariven you dom You dare question my loyalty?"

When he turned to , and I slapped hiain

"You, Constantine, you, who have done so do, Wazeb and Abreha? There is e!"

"But what risk!"

"Bother to the risk! What courage!"

We stood before the small tent that I had to myself, as befitted my station as princess of Britain I took a deep breath and spoke calmly

"A king need not be kind, but by my father’s sword, Constantine,of the West Saxons had no desire to bring about randson, but he never wished me any ill You will have to treat with him yourself before a year is out"

"What on earth do you know of forgiveness?" Constantine said bitterly, then turned on his heel and left me

CHAPTER XIV

Swifts

I SLEPT SO LATE the hunt left withoutof ht and cool and still Wo porters crouched near theht, to stop being princess of Britain for a moment I hope they stay away all day

I found Teles and seedpods in the grass outside his o without you," he said sympathetically "Ras Meder wouldn’t let the his head and waving his gold spear at theht Can I help?"

"You can lay a road I’ a reservoir"

His nurse and the cooks and porters ht me a madwoman, the princess of Britain at play in the dirt But it was contenting work

"When will Gebre Meskal wrestle his lion?" Tele up from his excavations

"He is not supposed to wrestle it," I said, tipping handfuls of pebbles along the road "He is supposed to kill it with a spear"

"He is supposed to bring back a lion to the New Palace for a totem," said Telemakos "What use is it if he kills it?"

"More use than it would be chained in the lion pit!"

"It does not need to be chained" Telehtened for a moment, and spread his hands open on his knees "You can keep a thing without tying it up You know"

Then he shook his head and went back to digging in the earth with a pottery dish

"Anyway, the e He missed another chance yesterday, as well as last week There were three lionesses and twice that , the last place we caravel slipped from my pal head, bent in concentration over his miniature reservoir "Where did you hear that?" I asked

"I did not hear it," Tele up froh the noontide, while everyone was napping They were lazy, too It would have been an easy fight

"Noon is the best ti," he added "Everyone else is too idle to chase you, and the ani to have to put a guard over hi The hunters caiddy and triumphant, with Wazeb borne aloft on their shoulders, his customary white bloodstained in their midst Telerand occasion as I expected hi

I took his advice and went riding in the heat of that day I had gone no more than three hundred yards beyond the periht up with me

"Peace to you, my princess"

"You’ve been lost," I answered, and found I was biting back tears, again, again I looked away from him "How do you come to be released from your post?"

"Gebre Meskal has dis, and he thinks I need to rest"

His horse seeentle it and whisper to it as we spoke The short spear he carried against a suddenwith lion or leopard became a hindrance

"Tell me of the hunt," I said "Was Wazeb heroic?"

"He did seeh so should I be with Ras Meder atin his veins"

"Sometimes I think so, too," I said impatiently "Tellclose to twenty miles before Gebre Meskal wounded him And then our new e and claw Oh, your brother, I have never seen hied to control hiswe found ourselves surrounded by a herd of bushbuck antelope They moved with us at a leisurely and steady pace, so that they see us The females were plain, but the males were deep black with slashes of white at their throats, and croith spiral horns

"You cannot go anywhere without a following of vagrants," Priamos said to me