The Olive Conspiracy (16 page)

Naturally, it made her urinate constantly, but
the concoction did wonders for her raw and aching throat, and even
the steam felt like it was doing something healthy to her
nose.

Isolated, out-of-context fragments of the
previous day’s hours of interrogation passed through her
mind.

“
We want to give you the benefit of
the doubt, Tova.”

“
Maybe tell me what’s hard for you
to talk about here?”

“
It’s the right thing to
do.”

“
Was it men who knew the traders,
maybe? Since they travel, they might have gone up to Imbrio
and—no?”

“
How did they find you? Or did you
find them?”

“
You’re trying to twist this around
and put words in my mouth!”

“
I never said that. Did you hear
what he said? I never said that!”

“
I don’t have to talk to
you.”

“
Then,
fine
! I’ll just
stay here. You already brought me here under false pretenses. Can’t
believe some people say how fair and free this country
is.”

“
Is the Imbrian throne behind
this?”

“
And another thing—this pita is
dried out and nasty.”

Shulamit sighed into her tea. Rivka was in
there again, ready for another day with Tivon at her side, trying
to run down Tova’s stubborn will through sheer persistence. Isaac
was at his customary position behind the queen’s throne, since he’d
already antagonized Tova too much to be of any use.

“
Majesty, are you sure it’s a good
idea for me to draw you when you’re not feeling well?” Halleli
piped up from a small cushion on the floor. With a board beneath
her paper, she was yet again sketching the queen.

“
It’s fine,” said Shulamit. “This
is just practice, anyway, right?”

“
I can practice Isaac, too, while
I’m in here. I’ll need to get good at all five of you if you really
want that portrait done.”

“
I do!” And Shulamit really did.
Even if half the reason for the project was to keep Halleli busy
and around for conversation while she found her a more permanent
job. She was also helping out in the main kitchen, but the
companionship was nice. None of Shulamit’s ladies-in-waiting shared
her attraction to women.

“
You’ll need taller paper,” Isaac
quipped, and Halleli smiled a little.

Shulamit asked Isaac who was next for royal
audience, and he went to check. “Yael’s here.”

“
Bring her in.”

“
Nice to see you looking so human
today!” Yael’s greeting was warm and mirthful, and Isaac grinned
back at her. Then she bowed toward Shulamit.

“
Good morning!” said the queen.
“Please excuse my voice. I was running around in the mountains,
and—”

“
Oh, you poor thing! You have to
let me make you chicken soup.”

Shulamit choked down her initial response, gave
Yael a weak smile, and asked, “So, what brings you to the royal
sickroom today?”

“
Well, Majesty.” Yael drew closer
so that she could speak in low tones meant only for Shulamit, “I
found out how Ezra knew I’d had a male name.”

“
Go ahead,” prompted
Shulamit.

“
Apparently,” said Yael, “he was
having a thing with one of my waitresses, and she’s like me. She
swears she didn’t tell him that I was too, and he must have just
put two and two together since I guess if you stare at me long
enough, once someone puts the idea in your head… you
know?”

Shulamit nodded, coughing into her hand. “That
makes sense. What made her finally tell you?”

“
Well,” Yael sighed, “she didn’t.
Up and left me in the lurch, and wrote me a note. She says after
Ezra got knifed and the guards set up house in the restaurant, she
got skittish and didn’t want to get mixed up in anything. She’s got
an alibi, anyway, but I don’t think she cares about
that.”

“
At least now you know.”

“
I’m glad I know, although at this
point it would be more useful just to have my waitress
back.”

Shulamit lifted an eyebrow. “So you’re looking
to replace her, then?”

“
I have some ideas, but nobody I
know who’s a sure bet to leave what they’re doing now.”

“
What if I had somebody for
you?”

“
How do you mean?” Yael cocked her
head to one side.

“
Halleli!” Shulamit called
out.

Startled, the girl dropped her pencil and
scrambled to her feet. “Yes, Majesty?”

“
Can you wait tables?”

“
I’m a hard worker, Majesty,”
Halleli said. “I can do anything someone teaches me to
do.”

“
She grew up on a farm. And I know
she knows her way around a kitchen. Yael, she helped out in the
main kitchen here yesterday and I heard only good things,” Shulamit
explained.

Yael looked Halleli up and down. “Your name’s
Halleli?”

“
Yes, ma’am.”

“
And you’re from a
farm?”

“
Yes, ma’am. We had an olive grove,
but we had to burn it to stop the—”

Yael clapped her hands together. “You’re one of
those little girls everyone’s been talking about in the
marketplace! I heard about you. The heroes! Yes, okay, I’m
definitely
giving you a job. Plus, I need a waitress. Just
don’t tell me too loudly what I’m doing wrong with my
olives!”

Halleli’s eyes were wide in shock. “Thank you,”
she sputtered.

“
Maybe you can make some sense out
of our kitchen garden too,” Yael continued. “My husband was really
the one who looked after it, so with him gone it’s just a complete
mess.”

Hope spread across Halleli’s face. “I’d really
like that! Uh, Majesty, should I stay and finish the sketch
or…?”

“
We can do that later, at leisure.”
Shulamit waved her hand. “I mean, you live here now. Hadar’s got
guard’s quarters. So there will be time.” She coughed
again.

“
Thank you.” Halleli looked like
she was getting happier by the moment. “I’ll go tell
Hadar.”

“
I think she’s lifting weights with
the rest of the afternoon detail,” Isaac contributed
helpfully.

***

The atmosphere at the Shabbat table that
evening was reassuring and even festive. Shulamit, taking her cue
from the way the twin lights of the Shabbat candles danced
defiantly against the darkness, felt hopeful about the problems
with which she’d been wrestling. Her two little displaced farmers
now both had employment, and since tomorrow would be four days
since she’d dispatched the messenger to the City of Red Clay, it
wouldn’t be long now before Queen Aafsaneh would come and share her
magic. Plus, there were cold cooked carrots in herbed vinaigrette
on the table, and lentils fragrant with spice.

Even Rivka was in good spirits, which surprised
the queen after Rivka’s reaction to her first few hours with Tova’s
conversation. “I left her in there with candles and challah and a
glass of wine,” she explained after the blessings. “She seemed to
appreciate it. To be honest, I don’t think it’s long now. She’s
very flattered that I listen so much.”

“
I don’t think anybody’s been
listening to that woman in months,” Tivon commented, “but they’re
smart not to. If you take her seriously, everyone she meets has
done her dirty three times over.”

Rivka served herself a quarter of a chicken
from the main dish by spearing it with her fork. “But having us
there spending two days on her, it makes her feel important. She is
almost there
.”

“
Such a long time, two days,” said
Mitzi breathily. “It’s a shame you can’t, you know, threaten her or
something.”

“
We
have
been threatening
her,” Rivka told her mother. “She’s an accessory to international
sabotage, which counts as treason. She could lose her farm or go to
prison.”

“
No, but I mean, you know,
threaten her
.” Mitzi slashed at the air with a dainty fist,
which looked far less threatening than she meant it to. Shulamit
had to hold back a laugh so she wouldn’t spew lentils all over the
table.

“
That’s not how we do things,
Mammeh…”

“
Do you think these carrots are
soft enough for her to try one?” Shulamit turned to Aviva, who was
holding Naomi on her lap.

“
Let’s put one on the table in
front of her and see what happens.” Aviva shifted the baby around
so she could pat the table with her little hands.

It was a good dinner with loved ones, and
prayers that were designed to set the night apart for contemplation
did their work on Shulamit’s heart. She slept well, head tucked up
against Aviva’s fleshy shoulder, her other arm around
Naomi.

Queen Shulamit woke up to find Aviva already
gone, probably in the kitchen working. She held Naomi to her breast
and roused herself slowly, blinking into the bright sunlight coming
in through the window curtains. In her half-awake stupor, she
didn’t even register the chatter outside until a guard’s voice
called, “Majesty, are you awake?”

“
Yes, I’m just nursing.”

“
A message just arrived for you
from the royal house of the City of the Red Clay.”

Languor fell from her shoulders like a robe,
and she sat bolt upright. “Yes! Please. Come in.”

The guard entered and approached her, a paper
in his hand. It was folded over and sealed with wax. “Their
messenger just arrived. He’s refilling his water vessels while he
waits for a response.”

Shulamit took the paper in her free hand and
looked at the seal. It was definitely from Queen Aafsaneh. Holding
it against the bed with the heel of her hand, she pried apart the
two halves of the paper and then held it up to read it.

Greetings to Queen Shulamit, and
best of wishes for her health and happiness. Her Royal Majesty
Queen Aafsaneh is recovering from a broken foot and therefore must
regretfully delay her aid to the farms of Perach while she heals.
She will arrive when it is safe for her to do so. Until then, much
love and all blessings. —A.

There was a feeling like being stuck in time.
Setting the paper down on the bed, Shulamit bit her lower lip.
She’d never anticipated this; Aafsaneh’s visit seemed so certain
that it somehow felt as if she were still arriving today, or
tomorrow, even though that was obviously not happening. Shulamit
had the curious sensation of existing in two timelines at once—the
one that she was expecting and the real one.

So the Swan Lady wasn’t coming. At least, not
until later. How much later? Would she heal faster than the bugs
would make their way across the barrier of bare earth?

Besides, her injured foot! Shulamit wondered
what had happened and felt sorry for the poor woman. If they were
in the same place, Shulamit would have rushed to put pillows behind
her and under her, and order her decadent cold drinks made with
rosewater and strawberries. But she was far away, and it was hard
to dote on somebody in the abstract.

“
I guess I should send her
something nice,” Shulamit murmured into Naomi’s curly, black hair.
“Since the messenger is waiting for a reply anyway.”

Still, she felt deeply selfish and guilty,
because she knew that her “get well soon” came with a heavy dose of
“because you’re my only way out of this mess.”

***

Isaac sat beside Shulamit in her salon as she
lounged on a sofa playing with fabric samples. The little queen
kept shifting and fidgeting on the cushions, her fingers nearly
shredding the delicate silks and weavings. He placed his book of
magic spells down carefully on a small mosaic-topped table beside
the sofa and tried his best to calm her. “I’m sure she’ll heal
quickly. Aafsaneh is a healthy woman, and her magic is
strong.”

“
I believe you,” said Shulamit,
“but I wish I had at least
one other idea
. It feels so
dangerous to be hanging everything on this one hope.”

“
I read books every night, you
know, to see if I can find a different spell.” Isaac sighed. He was
frustrated by what had happened at Gil and Eliana’s
farm.

“
Thank you,” said Shulamit. “I wish
I could help!”

“
You have your own
responsibilities, without adding to them to learn magic,” Isaac
chuckled. Then he unconsciously straightened in his seat, hearing a
familiar confident step just outside.

In a burst of brown and gold as usual, Rivka
thumped into the salon.

Shulamit craned her head to follow Rivka’s
progress around the sofa toward them. “It’s not even lunchtime.
Does that mean she cracked? Where are they?”

“
I don’t have it, not yet, I don’t
have much.
But
”—Rivka stood before them proudly—“I know this
now—the men who paid Tova are being bankrolled by someone who’s
been inside the Imbrian palace.”

Shulamit froze. Pieces of gauzy, pink silk
floated to the floor. “You don’t mean—you
can’t
mean—”