Not A Dry Eye

It seems that Hammid, also, was well loved in the khan's camp. There was open weeping not only from the khan, but from...

The news spread like a plague; people cried openly, fell to their knees, they slapped themselves (particularly their faces) and clenched at their clothing. Men and women hugged the nearest person, just to have someone near.

Before us, the khan was curled up as though over his sprawling intestines. He did not stop when Shinabib took his hand, grasping at it like drowning men grab the nets on the sides of their ships.

The khan, not Shinabib; Shinabib was calm, almost eerily so.

"How?" mother asked. "How did he not know?"

"Be silent." the man told her. "It is enough that he did not. Understanding is not important."

It was an elderly man, the top of his head bald and shiny, who came to collect the khan. There was no familial resemblance, but we shapeshifters look for other things as well.