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The Sultan dised hand She blushed deeply red, the shade of harem silk, and walked out of the throne rooh

“That girl is a little autocrat It is a pity she was not a son She would haveto his supper

Of course Dinarzad was bound to obey her father’s word But as she wove through the halls like a swift loom, she rubbed her shoulders where one of hersuch treason in their house She was cruel because it was necessary—the Sultan did not take the time to know that the indiscretions of the children were visited on her by the hares, and her eyes watered painfully In hera new punishrew in her like a slim stalk of wheat

Turning the heavy key in the lock, she entered the high room where she had left her brother She was entirely prepared to find hione, the room empty as a dried well She steeled her stoainst blows to come

Instead, the boy lay sleeping in the sill, his tousled head resting against the ashed stone, eyes darting beneath his lids as though he was deep in dreah his hair, turning it to erate, to black-rimmed flames Dinarzad allowed herself a soft smile, pleased at his reluctant obedience Nevertheless, when she shook hih as crocodile hide

“Get up, you little urchin You have slept far too long Today you ork in the kitchen If you like to roll around in the Garden like a dog, youat the Palace tonight, so there is plenty for you to do By the end of this day you will be so exhausted you will not even dream of your little demon friend”

The boy woke quickly—he knew better than to show her grogginess or the sand of his night eyes He followed her in a sullen humor down from the tower and into the bowels of the Palace The kitchens were as noisy as a sta froic brew steeped within the at each other with equal fury, their smocks stained with all ave him a harsh shove into the room

“Cook will look after you You obey her, now I don’t fancy returning to this inferno today One prefers to see food only when it is pleasantly on the plate Have a lovely day, little brother” With this she disappeared in a flurry of white skirts and dark, flowing hair

Cook towered over hi coith cheeks fat as a hound’s jowls and a belly that tumbled over the waistline of her apron in a massive heave of flesh Her eyes were a pale, fishy shade of blue, and her right one had gone a bit rheuaze seemed to slither on his skin like a snail She appraised hi up a soldier

“Eh,” she grunted, her belly shaking with the sound, “soft thing like you isn’t fit to cook a scrap of toast, so you’d better get to washing the flagstones Stay out of the way of estured at a wooden bucket of gray water that stank of lye and hurtled towards a clutch of chefs faster than he would have thought possible, like a hippopota at one of the helpless maids

The boy scrubbed until his fingers were raw and wrinkled as paper pulp, but he was secretly filled with delight, hiding it within hiirl such a feast tonight, anything she could possibly want froe banquet for the Royal Guard, ere so rarely barracked within the Palace gates that their entrance caused lavish holidays to spring up like dandelions in the courtly soil A gargantuan boar had been killed earlier in the day, and it sat on the central table like awith fat All he had to do ait until thelike muskrats, to serve at the banquet hall, and the cooks went to report the uarded

And indeed, as night drew on the sky like a bodice, lacing it with the last beaht, the kitchen cleared of all its citizens and he was alone Cook, by this tiotten his existence entirely

Slicing off a few fat pink hunks of boar flesh with his little dagger, he rearranged the slick green garnish to cover the led sugared loaves and a rind of cheese into his vest, packing them in with smoked fish and a few of the little dormice soaked in pepper and honey that the Sultan favored As he made his escape, the boy looked back over the sorry prison his sister had devised, and with a grin, snatched the shining red apple from the boar’spast the glittering silver Gate and into the Garden, clutching his prizes to his chest, where his heart beat like a ha an ivory bell

In the Garden

BUT THE BOY DID NOT FIND HER THAT NIGHT