The prince accepted her explanation, and after that questioned her both about life in the lower classes and her own life as a wizard’s apprentice. Questions in the former category were easy to answer, but the latter tested Selima’s resourcefulness to the limit. Time and again she thanked Oromasd that life with her father had provided her with a good imagination and a ready wit. She made up answers and stories of her own, knowing they were not as good as her father could have done. Fortunately for her Prince Ahmad was not inclined to be critical; he seemed more interested in the speaker than in the words being spoken.
Prince Ahmad absorbed what Selima said about daily life in the lower classes and tried to learn from this new information. Even Umar’s many past lectures about the lot of the
