Swan Sister Read Online Free

listen.
    “The gates will be opened to you today. Once you areinside, the Guardians will surround you. Be brave, for they are fierce to look at, their claws like daggers, but they will not harm you as long you do not draw your sword. They will ask you to dine. Use your wits, mark where they sit.” Then she yawned widely. “And now I shall sleep, for I am a night creature.” She crawled into the pocket of his cloak and curled into a ball.
    Khan went to the gates, and just as Golden Fur had said, they were opened to receive him. But no sooner had he set foot inside the courtyard than he was surrounded by the Guardians. There were four of them, and though they were longhaired beasts, they were richly dressed and reared back on two legs, towering over him. They had flat faces, their eyes emerald disks, and their tufted ears pricked forward from a ruff of silvery fur. They howled and hissed at him, and though their sharp teeth and gleaming claws frightened him, he did not draw his sword. They circled him, tails twitching, until, satisfied by his stillness, they sat back on their haunches and licked their terrible claws.
    “Join us at our table,” the largest Guardian rumbled in a deep voice.
    “You honor me,” Khan replied humbly.
    “Well, at least this one has manners,” the second Guardian whispered to the third.
    “Mannered or not, they all taste the same,” snarled the fourth, and a cold drop of sweat prickled down Khan’s back.
    They entered the Great Hall, where a fire roared in the hearth. Serving women rested on their haunches,pulling thin sheets of bread off the baking stones. Low tables were set with golden plates filled with rice, pine nuts, cinnamon, and raisins. Crystal goblets brimmed with steaming sweet tea. Silken pillows and thick carpets covered the floors. On the walls hung tapestries bearing scenes of royal hunts, the hawks flying over the scrubby forests of the desert hills.
    Khan sat, being careful to note how the Guardians arranged themselves at the low tables.
    “Well, my prince,” rumbled the largest Guardian, “you shall cut the capon.” The Guardian passed Khan a tray on which sat a whole roasted bird with plump breasts and brown crackling skin. The head was decorated with cherries and plumes of peacock feathers.
    Khan carved first the head and, placing it on a golden plate, gave it to the largest Guardian, seated at the first table on his right hand. “To the father goes the head, for he must guide the family well,” he murmured.
    Then Khan carved the back and presented it to the Guardian with two gold earrings in the tips of her ears, seated at a smaller table to his left. Henna stained her whiskers red. “To the mother goes the back, for she shoulders the cares of her family and sees to their needs.”
    Next he carved the legs and passed them to a Guardian with silver-capped teeth seated to the right of the largest Guardian. “To the son go the legs, for he must run to follow his parents’ commands.”
    Khan took the two wings and gave those to the Guardian with only one earring in the tip of her ear. “Tothe daughter go wings that she may fly away from her family to marriage.”
    “And you, my prince,” rumbled the largest Guardian, “will you not eat?”
    Khan was hungry, the sight of so much food enticing, but Golden Fur had warned him to keep his wits, and he knew that the food of the Guardians was not meant for mortals. He politely refused. At that the Guardians sprang up from their seats, hissing angrily and baring their sharp teeth. The servants cowered against the walls as the Guardians arched their shoulders and flattened their ears. Khan tensed, expecting the slash of those claws. But in a moment they were gone, disappearing into a cloud of blue smoke.
    With them went the room’s grandeur. All its rich furnishings were returned to stone. Even the wonderful food dissolved into desert plants with thick leaves and stout thorns. Brown lizards scurried along the walls