Singing of Mount Amara

A Khan dreams a house with the sky in it. Two courteous guests who have never told a lie offer to help him build it.

Kubla’s summer city rises over a cleft in a hill: a white marble dome with its crown open to the sun, and a court full of musicians, astronomers, builders and guards. Among the gifts sent east is a captive girl from a mountain she has not seen in six years, who plays a five-string lyre and sings the only kind of song she knows.

Almaz plays one plain tune, five notes with room between them, and something beneath the hill answers. She calls, and she is answered. Her choice is a quiet one, made out of homesickness, and it cannot be undone.

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