Free The Empty Kingdom by Elizabeth Wein Page B

captain among us, and since he has no falcon to fly, he may carry his sister with him if he likes.”
    Shadi turned to Telemakos.
    “Why don’t you make a pledge not to curse anyone with those evil eyes of yours? Swear by your remaining hand.”
    “By this hand,” Telemakos swore solemnly. He had not realized Shadi could be such a performer. He bit his lip and covered his evil eyes, so the local boys would not have to look at them while he swore.
    “You may pass the word along the treetops,” Shadi said.” The Morningstar is one of us. Our guide and captain.” He flung a silver coin into the basket of almond fruits that stood beneath the tree, and added, as a parting shot, “The Morningstar does not have a hawk, but he does not need one. He has his sister, and she is better than a hawk.”
    Athena was, indeed, the bloodiest hunter among them.
    “Bird in the grass,” she would whisper, one finger up by her cheek, pointing carefully to a red-legged partridge shuffling through the tall brush of the savannah. “Fat fat fat! You get that one, Boy.” She would call to it alluringly in perfect imitation of its own chuckling cluck, and then she would hand to Telemakos a stone for his sling. Sometimes he did not even notice her retrieving them from the pockets of her saddle; she was always ready with them when he needed them. She was as obsessed with accuracy as her marksman father, and judged Telemakos’s shots critically.
    “Too low. That hen is scared now; Shadi can get it with his big bird.”
    Once she was so angry with Telemakos for missing that she began to pound him in the face, brutally, with both small fists. Short of hitting back, he could do nothing to stop her, as they were bound together. The other boys had to come to his aid and prise her off him. They got the buckles of the harness undone and lifted Athena away, kicking and screaming, and set her on the ground. Telemakos found himself shaking like an empty wasp’s nest in the wind. His fingers scarcely obeyed him as he wound up his sling and fumbled to hook it back into his belt. It occurred to him for the first time that, for his own protection, Athena’s wild temper might need to be trained. A few drops of water spilled over his feet could transport him back to Afar as a quivering prisoner; being beaten over the head could do the same or worse.
    “Shadi will carry you home,” Telemakos told Athena as coolly as he could, and tucked his disheveled hair back behind his ears. “Or you can scamper back yourself. I won’t carry such a monster.”
    She wailed in outrage, “Boy! Athena’s boy carry me! No, not Shadi—” She pulled herself up to stand, hugging Telemakos around the legs. But he was still trembling, and it took all his will not to push her away.
    “Listen, Athena, these are your choices,” he said levelly. “Shadi carries you, or nobody carries you. What are you going to choose?”
    “I choose you , Boy,” she said stubbornly.
    “ Telemakos ,” he snapped in deep and uncontrolled frustration. “Why do you never call me by my name? I am Telemakos .”
    Shadi came suddenly to Athena’s defense. “Nobody calls you Telemakos,” he pointed out. “Why should she? The Star Master calls you ‘boy,’ too.”
    Telemakos prised himself free of his little sister’s hands. “I’ll carry you tomorrow. Let go. You may not hit me. You choose Shadi, or nobody.”
    “ You .”
    “Shadi or nobody.”
    “ Shadi ,” she muttered ominously.
    “Good choice.”
    Telemakos held Athena by the back of an arm to keep her from clutching at him again, and made her sit.
    “You wait here while I take Shadi’s hawk. Behave yourself, or this bird may hurt me, for I don’t know how to tell it what to do.” Telemakos was inspired with a threat that she would take seriously. “If you hit Shadi or pull his hair, I will tell the najashi not to let you play with his salukis for a week. No dogs if you hurt Shadi, do you understand? Mother of God!