The Chosen Prince Part 26

"I need not tell you what I felt. You have lost your own wife, so you will know. But after a time, those around me grew impatient with my mourning. 'Find yourself a new wife,' they would say. 'She will give you a new son.' But I had loved that woman and that child, and they were not replaceable. So I took my grief and withdrew from court and pursued my studies-medicine, languages, philosophy.

"Then, restless still, I decided to see the world. I eventually settled in Arcos and made a new life for myself. But I never spoke of my past. King Ektor knew who I was, of course, who my brother was, and where I'd been trained in medicine. But the most important things, the true and personal things, n.o.body knew. Not once since leaving my country have I spoken the names of my wife or my son."

"Will you speak them now, to me?"

"I will. My wife was Laleh; that is also the name of a flower in the language of my people. We called our son Hami, which means protector, defender."

"Laleh," Claudio says. "Hami. I will remember."

"It must already be obvious to you that Alexos has become my second son. I did not seek it, nor did he. It grew over time and we never gave it a name. But he is my son and I am his father.

"It has been difficult, of course. His pain became my pain. And while there were times when I was able to ease his way and calm his fears, the very nature of his destiny meant that he must walk alone. As the long-awaited chosen one-we didn't know then that there were others-a lot was expected of him. It became clear over time that he was being tested."

He pauses thoughtfully, takes a deep breath; his shoulders droop as he lets it out.

"There are words often used when speaking of the promise Athene made and the role her champion must play: dedication, selflessness, sacrifice. But no one really knew exactly what the boy was supposed to do.

"And so, being a scholar-as you are, Claudio-I made a study of the ancient scrolls that are kept in the sacred archives. They are written in an archaic form of your language, not easy to decipher. But I have been a student of languages all my life. With time and effort I managed to learn it."

Claudio leans in closer now; Suliman's voice has dropped.

"I read the scrolls from beginning to end. And then, hoping I was mistaken in my translation, I read them again and again. But it was not a mistake. Claudio, the word sacrifice was literally meant-not merely in the sense of doing without or giving something up, but in the same way we sacrifice a bull or a goat."

"He was meant to die?"

"Yes."

"When did you learn this?"

"He was very young, five or six years of age. Since that time I have waited and wondered-how and when would it happen? I prayed to Athene, Let it be easy; let it be quick. Then he was captured by Pyratos, and I understood. His death could not be easy and quick: this was a sacrifice; Zeus required suffering on an epic scale. Thus the false accusation, the prospect of a shameful trial and a public execution. It had to be horrible."

Now he looks at Claudio with amazement in his eyes. "Yet now I see that Athene has managed, with the exceptional cleverness for which she is so famous, to put on such a stirring display of n.o.ble suffering and generous forgiveness that Zeus failed to notice that the ultimate price was never paid. Then, once absolution had been granted and the immortals had moved on to other things, she . . ."

He can't go on. So Claudio finishes for him. "She restored Alexos to life."

"Yes. And so I weep with joy and grat.i.tude, you see."

They are silent now, thinking of their children, thinking of the future, gazing out at the tender blue of the summer sky, the calm waters sparkling in the sunlight, the ships rocking gently, their sails ruffling in the breeze, and the little boats coming and going.

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About the Author.

Courtesy of the author.

DIANE STANLEY is the author and ill.u.s.trator of beloved books for young readers, including The Silver Bowl, which was named a best book of the year by Kirkus Reviews and Book Links Lasting Connections and was an ALA Booklist Editors' Choice; The Cup and the Crown; The Princess of Cortova; Saving Sky, winner of the Arab American National Museum's Arab American Book Award and a Bank Street College of Education Best Book of the Year; Bella at Midnight, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year and an ALA Booklist Editors' Choice; The Mysterious Case of the Allbright Academy; The Mysterious Matter of I. M. Fine; and A Time Apart. She is also well known as the author and ill.u.s.trator of award-winning picture book biographies.

Ms. Stanley has also written and ill.u.s.trated numerous picture books, including three creatively reimagined fairy tales: The Giant and the Beanstalk, Goldie and the Three Bears, and Rumpelstiltskin's Daughter. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. You can visit her online at www.dianestanley.com.

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Books by Diane Stanley.

The Silver Bowl.

The Cup and the Crown.

The Princess of Cortova.

Bella at Midnight.

The Mysterious Case of the Allbright Academy.

The Mysterious Matter of I. M. Fine.

Saving Sky.

A Time Apart.

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