The bird’s head tilts the other way before it preens under its wing, ignoring the snakes.
Sinbad closes his eyes and sits back in his chair, folding his hands together. He’s taking a big risk in this; allowing Ithnan to live. And the process has been tiring for him, when he’s hardly had time to recover from all the long days and nights of planning that the summit required out of him and his staff.
Ithnan doesn't do much. If he worked on his potions, he'd be accused of making poison--which wasn't too far from the truth. Then he'd be accused of planning to kill the king. All that silly stuff when someone was trying to find anything to prove that you were guilty and not worth redemption. So, he spends a lot of his time cooking and reading and tending to the snakes. He can't really do much without his magic.

















