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But guilt rode us like a bull-tamer, and the Djinn built statues over the place where Kashkash had been buried They swore in his name They made a secret of what had been done, and naer of his shade and lure some part of the beauty that had been his To the world we say he was great, and only to ourselves do hisper: We are glad rid of hi beard haunt the streets, but no one can say if this is because we keep his nas, do we not?

Do you understand, little long-hair? May we go now to our luncheon? And if we hear you swear by the naue from your mouth and that will be that

THE TALE OF THE

CAGE OF IVORY

AND THE

CAGE OF IRON,

CONTINUED

I BLINKED AT THE KING AND THE QUEEN, WHO peered at me like teachers saddled with a particularly dense student “I… understand,” I said “I suppose a Queen s she would rather not”

“Quite” Kohinoor snorted

They showed h the Alcazar of Eer to leave me alone Finally, we cainable stone, froaped, I did not knohat to say—there were hundreds upon hundreds, each of the shawls and intricately carved with faces, men and women, human and otherwise, Djinn and else, each different from the other as a rose from a turtle

“What are these s?” I cried

The Hearth-King snickered a little “They are your wives,” he said

Kohinoor rolled her eyes “Don’t be a child, Khaamil In the years after Kashkash perished, the six n Hureater and wiser and lovelier thandecided by worried priests that no King or Queen of the Djinn should ever be allowed to e, as you should well know, is not counted from parent to child, and should we bear children like an apple tree bears apples, surely some one of us should be tempted to wrest the throne for their little ones Thus this rather pretty coo, and they are passed fro, for if the humans count their poives, should any Queen of ours be counted less? We have the most delicate, pliant, and quiet wives in the world, more beautiful than flesh, and easier to transport And more than any human ruler could dream of” She sniffed “We treat our stone wives with much more care than they treat their warm ones, anyway I personally dust ives the These are yours—they are in your care, and you must be faithful”

With that, they leftshadows on my hands I crawled onto h the arched , trying not to feel hundreds of stone eyes on me until I fell asleep

I was Queen for one day before I was asked to lead an army