THREE BROTHERS ⋅ A NEW GOD ⋅ CITY OF SALT ⋅ LAKE OF DREAMS ⋅ SUSPENDED! ⋅ THE TWO STREETS ⋅ ON THE EDGE OF THE MARSHS ⋅ BLACKSUN ⋅ DEMON ⋅ GAZELLE ⋅ THE HARDRIIM ⋅ RIDER ⋅ THE FLYER ⋅ ARABIAN NIGHTS ⋅ THE EMPTY MIRROR ⋅ THE SOLDIER ⋅ THE BICYCLE ⋅ THE CROCODILE ⋅ THE THREE TRAVELERS ⋅ OCEANSONG ⋅ THE FLUTE ⋅ THE TREE ⋅ THE TOWER

In the great desert, where the sands blow for month upon month, there was built a city of two streets. One day a dervish was spotted as he wandered down a small alleyway between the two streets. He was in tears; a great sadness seemed to weigh upon him. “Someone must have died!” exclaimed a passing child. &8220Someone has died on the other street!” The dervish continued carving the sweet onion he had purchased for his supper from the woman at the tea shop. The child, meanwhile, told his friends. Soon they were running from the dervish, screaming, “The plague has come, the plague has come to the other street!” Soon the people of the first street were panicking. “The plague has come, block off the two streets, make haste, the plague has come to the other street,” they cried. In no time, the rumor had cemented itself so firmly into each street that the dervish could do nothing to convince them otherwise. And so he watched as they packed their carts high with their dusty baggage and headed for the sandy hills that surrounded the fearful city to build two new towns where one had sufficed before. Now many years have passed, and the City of Salt is a doomed ruin, and the two villages each tell the story of how they came to run from a nameless evil that had invaded their street from the other street, and how fortunate they are to have abandoned their disease-ridden brothers. -home-