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In my heart I suspect Heliopolis dwelt in that world where my friend Didymus was born, but Rastno himself, the Bazil of the phoenix, the emperor who makes such beautiful toys, does not know, not anymore. Only the former Bazil knew the place, and when a matron went to her conflagration he would whisper the way into her ear, so she might perish in peace. But this chain of emperors was broken, and the map is lost.

Long ago, you see, Alisaunder the Red came to this country. You remember I spoke of him with Didymus Tau’ma in his hut. Do you know why he was called the Red?

Ikram, Who Sat in Awe of All Warriors, And Longed to Be One, Whispering: Because of the crows.

Because of the white crows, the merules, who can see so many things we cannot. When he first came over the Rimal, which in those most ancient of days was not so forbidding as it is now, not so full of salt and fish with teeth, the merules drew back from him, and whispered that they could see his death hovering over his head, a red splash like a crown. He came with his wife, who was called Roshanak, and his lover, who was called Hefaistes, and four young men with shoulders like stones who carried his palanquin across the sea of sand while he and his beloveds rested on rose- and sky-colored pillows and shared bread and honey together. He exclaimed with delight when a delegation of sciopods greeted him, led by Tarsal, who was their greatest princess. Alisaunder marveled at their ropy, muscled legs, their enormous single knees, their broad, flat feet, and how such a wonder could be. He eagerly asked of Tarsal, whose hair streamed silver: Is there a sea on the other side of your country? A great sea that spans the world? It is this thing I seek.

And Tarsal replied: I do not have time for children’s lessons. Take food, if you want it. Take water, and oil for anointing. Take even fresh pallbearers to hoist you back to your own country. For we are at war, and the merules say you are soon to die.

Alisaunder smiled, for he was a god of war. He knew it better than marriage or eating or sleep. He beamed so broadly that Tarsal was charmed, and her retinue laughed at his childish enthusiasm as he put his hand to her shoulder and pledged: I can bring ten thousand officers, and as many horses, and each of these mounted nobles have in their service a dozen infantrymen. And each of the infantrymen have a brace of servants, and even the least of these knows how to march in formation, and hold up a shield, and cut down an enemy between two breaths.

Tarsal, whose foot had broken the necks of many soldiers, was no fool. What would they have to give him for such things? No man makes war for nothing. But Alisaunder the Red said that he asked only to allow some few of his officers to intermarry with us, if they could find willing mates, and to call some small town or hamlet by the name of Alisaundry. He required also that the merules take counsel with him, and speak unto him concerning his death. Tarsal, who had done with marriage after her third husband, to whom the kingdom referred as her Third Irritation, took stock of the tall Roshanak, with her skin like cassia, and the gentle, almond-eyed Hefaistes, both of whom watched the Red with patient love. As long as Tarsal herself would not be compelled to take on a Fourth Irritation, she felt well-satisfied to sound Alisaunder’s horn across the sand-road.

But no officers came thundering across the crisp sand. It roiled and crashed in white-gold waves behind him, as the road that had borne Alisaunder’s palanquin off the course of his constitutional vanished once more. Alisaunder smiled a second time. I do not need them, he laughed. Only tell me the root and cause of the war at your door and I shall end it.

And so the sciopods took a knee, and Alisaunder and his family sat in the shade of their silver palanquin and listened closely, not only the Red himself but also his man and his woman, and even his four servants.

Tarsal explained, very gravely. For those were the days of