Author/Uploaded by Daniel Nayeri
Contents Half Title Title Page Copyright Dedication Contents Epigraph Chapter One: The First Time I Was Stoned to Death… Chapter Two: Monkey, Donkey, Master, Mule Chapter Three: The Expensive Nature of Love Chapter Four: Our Well-Being Hindered by a Well Being Hindered Chapter Five: A List of Killers and Reasons for Killing Ch...
Contents Half Title Title Page Copyright Dedication Contents Epigraph Chapter One: The First Time I Was Stoned to Death… Chapter Two: Monkey, Donkey, Master, Mule Chapter Three: The Expensive Nature of Love Chapter Four: Our Well-Being Hindered by a Well Being Hindered Chapter Five: A List of Killers and Reasons for Killing Chapter Six: Enter the Viking Berserker Chapter Seven: A Little Sleep, a Little Folding of the Hands to Rest Chapter Eight: Death by Dreaming Chapter Nine: Enter the Mongol Gunner Chapter Ten: The Buyer of Dreams Chapter Eleven: Ablutions and Pollutions Chapter Twelve: A Quick Aside Chapter Thirteen: Enter the Rogue Legion of the Roman Army Chapter Fourteen: The End of My Testimony Chapter Fifteen: The Cost of Six Bolts of Silk Chapter Sixteen: The Expansive Nature of Love Author’s Note Bibliography Acknowledgments About the Author About the Illustrator Some Notes on This Book’s Production Guide Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Dedication Contents CHAPTER ONE: The First Time I Was Stoned to Death… Bibliography Acknowledgments Start of Content Pagebreaks of the print version Cover Page i iii iv v vi vii viii 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 207 209 210 211 213 215 216 This is an Arthur A. Levine book Published by Levine Querido www.levinequerido.com • [email protected] Levine Querido is distributed by Chronicle Books, LLC Text copyright © 2023 by Daniel NayeriIllustrations copyright © 2023 by Daniel Miyares All rights reserved Library of Congress Control Number: 2022945159 Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-64614-303-0 Ebook ISBN: 978-1-64614-331-3 (Reflowable EPUB) Published March 2023 To Alexandrabrighter than all the gemsin all the eyesin every courtof every queenin this worldand the world of make-believe.You, my merchant’s crown CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE The First Time I Was Stoned to Death… CHAPTER TWO Monkey, Donkey, Master, Mule CHAPTER THREE The Expensive Nature of Love CHAPTER FOUR Our Well-Being Hindered by a Well Being Hindered CHAPTER FIVE A List of Killers and Reasons for Killing CHAPTER SIX Enter the Viking Berserker CHAPTER SEVEN A Little Sleep, a Little Folding of the Hands to Rest CHAPTER EIGHT Death by Dreaming CHAPTER NINE Enter the Mongol Gunner CHAPTER TEN The Buyer of Dreams CHAPTER ELEVEN Ablutions and Pollutions CHAPTER TWELVE A Quick Aside CHAPTER THIRTEEN Enter the Rogue Legion of the Roman Army CHAPTER FOURTEEN The End of My Testimony CHAPTER FIFTEEN The Cost of Six Bolts of Silk CHAPTER SIXTEEN The Expansive Nature of Love Author’s Note Bibliography Acknowledgments About the Author About the Illustrator Some Notes on This Book’s Production In the eleventh century, the Silk Road was a network of dirt roads and mountain passes that spanned from Xi’an in China to Baghdad, controlled at every outpost by local warlords and traveled by motley caravans of thieves, merchants, and scholars. It was three times longer than the Wild West, crossed deserts as barren as Antarctica, and stranded more men to die than the Seven Seas. No one dared it alone. No one traveled the entire length, and no one defied the four capital kings … except for a fellow named Cid, and that evil beast was likely just a fairy tale. —JONAS LINDSAY, Professor Emeritus CHAPTER ONE The First Time I Was Stoned to Death … The first time I was stoned to death by an angry mob, I was not even a criminal. I had not stolen so much as a sumac berry, though I will admit now that I deserved the punishment. It was dusk, but the desert stones still sizzled from the daytime sun. I ran like an injured animal as quickly as I could, which was not quick because I was shoeless. In the Tarim Basin, the sand could cook bread faster than a tandoor oven. Stones flew in the air and struck me in the head, one and then another. I screamed. I screamed with my whole neck. “Help! Help! I am a dying child! Grown men are stoning me as we speak!” I screamed even though there was no one around to hear my prayers except for God, and it was not His will at the moment to spare me. I ran more. Behind me rolled a thundering cloud of dirt and grit and ash. From inside the cloud, I could hear the sneezes and grumbling of Brother Mariz and Brother Koor. I knew them, of course, the monks in the dust cloud chasing after me, swinging their old swords in the air in the manner of those unaccustomed to sword-swinging. From the back of the crowd, two of the