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“Co,” he had said

“I can hardly avoid it,” she had answered him

“I will come away from the crowd, and I will find you, and how clever we shall be, to meet with all such folk about!”

“Be sure that in your cleverness you coh away”

But a thought had begun in hiold He was not sure he dared—but how the smoke filled his chest! How it prickled and burned and billowed! He felt his heart catching; he felt hi to burn

And so it was that the boy ould one day be Sultan went into his sister’s chaner in one blow Dinarzad sat at heraround her like a desert tent, and before her on her little old and dark blue Her eyes were tired; her lips were thin

“I ahtdress

was laced tight around her, like armor “I cannot breathe for its stink”

“I am sorry,” the boy said

“It is not your fault Are you not glad? Another night and you will be rid of me”

“If you are glad, I alad,” he answered carefully

“It does not lad”

She was quiet then, looking at herself in the mirror “You may brush my hair if you like,” she finally said, aard and hushed

The boy went forward and took her bone-handled brush He ran it through her hair, afraid at first to snarl it, to hurt her, but she made no sound He smoothed her black hair with his hands, amazed at the heat of her scalp He had never touched her so before

“What…” Dinarzad cleared her throat, her voice faltering so “What do you think happened to the Papess? Was she happy, do you suppose, in her tohen the as done? Was she bitter? Did she rip books apart with her teeth and plot against the others? Did she rail like a caught tiger in that place? Did she throw herself froo to sleep and never wake up? Did she wake up oneand find that her heart was as white as a silkworolden on the sill, and did she then believe that she could live, and hold peace in her hand like a pearl?”