<div class="floatleft">(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/f0/6b/54/f06b54355d16dfef1f2a014fde7b9cc9.jpg)</div>Abir looked over how his love looked in the white cloak and found that, strangely, he agreed with him; white was not his color. Not that Alden wasn't still beautiful in his sight, but Alden was dark, mysterious, and dangerous. The white cloak hardly fit who he was and what was most attractive about him.<br/><br/>"This way," Abir said, leaving the tent with Alden close behind.<br/><br/>They moved through the camp together, passing musicians and dancing girls who moved in alluring ways, more graceful than either swans or serpents. All were far more dangerous than the latter.<br/><br/>The scents of spices, cooking meat, and perfumes still permeated the air as they moved through, to the opposite edge of the camp. There, sequestered away from the rest, sat a large tent with smoke rising through screens in the fabric.<br/><br/>Abir stopped outside the tent's flap and said, "Hey, Zaruk? Can I come in? I have a friend who needs your help."<br/><br/>"Come in," called a wispy voice from within.<br/><br/>Abir lifted the tent flap and entered with Alden close behind. New aromas filled their nostrils; odd, foreign ones, even to Abir. A cauldron boiled in the middle of the tent over hot coals. Against one of the tent walls stood a table covered in mortars and pestles, alembics, and other alchemical supplies. The shelf next to it held jars full of herbs, ointments, and assorted monster parts.<br/><br/>"I have a gift for you," said Abir, producing from his inner pocket the box which held the cockatrice's body.<br/><br/>What had appeared at first to merely be a cape hanging on a hook turned around, revealing the half-covered face of Abir's borther, Zaruk, the second-born prince. Zaruk took the box and peered inside. "Wonderful! Thank you. This will help with my experiments. What would you like in return?"<br/><br/>"You'll give me any favor I ask for?" Abir asked.<br/><br/>Zaruk shrugged. "Any that's within my power to give. And you know the powers I have."<br/><br/>Abir gestured to Alden. "This is the man I love, and he has a problem that you may be able to fix."<br/><br/>Zaruk raised an eyebrow at Abir. "The 'man you love'? What happened to the little brother I knew... the one afraid of commitment, who never bares his heart to anyone? Come now, Abir, what's this really about? Who is this?"<br/><br/><div class="floatright">(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/5b/77/b5/5b77b5143cfd6bb6f09677db5be6bcca.jpg)</div>