The Olive Conspiracy (9 page)

Rivka nodded. “This is fine. Thank you. What
about—”

“
Ginger? Yes, now where did I put
that? I’m sure if you want me to peel it first… I’ll just… can you
use the ginger tea to wet his cloth too?” Not waiting for Rivka to
answer, she continued volubly, “Because that way, I can put the
pieces in as soon as I get them peeled, and you won’t have to wait
for a second kettle—”

“
Yes, that’s fine.” Rivka loved how
helpful Eliana was, but she also desperately hoped her voice wasn’t
loud enough for Isaac to hear.

When the water boiled, the air was full of
spicy steam from the ginger. Rivka dipped a mug down into it and
then a bowl. With the cloth draped over her arm, she carried both
mug and bowl back to Isaac’s sickroom.

His face still looked bloated, pale, and
sweaty, but she wasn’t scared anymore now that he was awake. He’d
managed to push the black
sherwani
jacket off his shoulders,
but his arms were still stuck in the sleeves. The sleeveless, white
shirt he wore underneath was soaked through and clung to the curves
of his chest and stomach. He looked imprisoned. For a moment, Rivka
was tempted to unsheathe the dagger in her right boot and cut him
out of his clothes, but they were stranded out here several hours
from home and most native Perachi men were nowhere near his
size.

Blue glints appeared between barely open
eyelids. “When did I inhale a sword point?” Weakly, he ran a couple
of his fingers across the place between his eyes where his nose
joined his face.

Rivka sat down beside him on the bed. “I hope
this works.” She dipped the cloth into the bowl of hot water,
squeezed out the extra, and placed it across his forehead. “Not
just the heat, but the steam.”

Isaac relaxed slightly. For a few moments he
simply lay there, breathing steadily. Rivka imagined the pain in
his head as an enemy she could soundly trounce, either with her
sword or her fists. She would force it to the ground, her boot on
its face, and roughly wrestle its hands behind its back to be tied
together in submission. It was a satisfying image, but ultimately
useless.

“
Can you sit up and drink the
tea?”

“
I’ll try.”

“
I’ll get your jacket
off.”

With great effort, Isaac struggled to hoist
himself up with his elbows. When he was upright, Rivka quickly
shucked the jacket the rest of the way down his arms. She handed
him the mug of ginger tea, and he accepted it with both
hands.

He sipped at it slowly, carefully. “What’s
going on out there?”

“
Shulamit sent two of the guards
back to the palace so people wouldn’t worry.” Rivka folded the
sherwani
over the back of a nearby chair. “They’ll go off
duty, and two more guards are coming back with a carriage and extra
horses.”

“
Sorry your, uh, ride conked out on
you.” Isaac’s features drooped slightly. “She didn’t want to buy
horses from the farmers to ride back?”

Rivka squeezed his shoulder affectionately.
“You are not ‘our ride.’ You’re our Isaac.”

“
But still, I let you
dow—”

“
Stop!” She wasn’t loud, just
firm.

“
So we’re going back in the
carriage?”

“
Well, actually,” Rivka answered,
“if you think you’re feeling well enough, Shulamit wanted to stay
the night and continue to the next farm south in the
morning.”

Isaac nodded slightly. “I think I can do that.
If only the men in my head would stop kicking my skull, I could get
some rest and be normal again.”

“
For dragon-transforming,
wisecracking definitions of normal.”

“
Yes, Mighty One, but that’s what
you like.”

“
I like you healthy, but I like you
alive too.” Rivka gave him a significant look, reminding him with
her eyes that she’d known for three years what it was like to live
in a world where she thought him dead.

Isaac drank more tea. “Have the bugs reached
the next farm?”

Rivka nodded. “Gil thinks so. They haven’t done
too much damage yet, but this morning while Gil’s wife was passing
by with her baby, she saw that there were bugs in some of the trees
on the edge of the property.”

There was more silent eye-conversation as new
worry crept into his face. “We’ll lick this,” Rivka reassured him.
“That little girl out there will never let the country be eaten
alive.”

“
Perach is in good
hands.”

“
Is the tea helping?”

“
I think so. With the nausea only
though. Not with the pain.” Isaac took a last drink, then handed
the mug back to Rivka. “Do the farmers have any other herbs they
can put in it, anything to take away the pain so I can
sleep?”

“
I’m sure they have something. I’ll
go ask.” Rivka stood again.

Eliana was happy to provide a mixture of leaves
selected as a pain reliever, and it wasn’t too long after Rivka
brought Isaac his second cup of tea that he was able to lay his
head back down on the pillow and drift off. Tenderly, she drew a
thin linen sheet over his body, one that would shelter him but
still keep him cool. Then, after a few minutes of watching him
breathe with the slowness of slumber, she left him in
peace.

Outside, with stones in her hands, she
exercised her muscles. She worked out regularly, but now it was
done to flood her body with the cheering chemicals of physicality.
Rivka craved that humming in her blood. Isaac’s collapse and
unconsciousness this morning had strained her heart to the point of
snapping.

This way she could finally see to her own
mental health while letting him have the quiet he needed to
heal.

Some of the farmers were watching her, from a
safe distance—especially the teenaged boys. Well, that was fine—it
was good for the reputation of the famous Captain Riv, which also
indirectly enhanced the power of the throne. It also inspired the
younger ones to consider the Royal Guard in their
future.

Rivka was happy to notice that some of the
women were watching her too. She had decided only recently to start
scouting for the Guard’s first female members, so that when she
unmasked, some day, she’d be one of many, instead of a freakish
exception proving nothing by herself. Maybe some of this farming
lot were good prospects. After all, they certainly knew how to
work.

Also watching Rivka, from their perches on
every damaged tree, were the insects at the center of all this
drama. In a frivolous way, she wanted them to watch her working.
Let them see how easily she lifted this boulder. Let them see the
flexibility of her immense yet perfectly agile legs. If only they
could fear the power of her fists. If only they knew the
unstoppable force that Perach’s human population already
respected.

The insects only knew how to eat and reproduce.
But there were people behind these evil deeds—people who could
definitely be taught to fear Rivka and her fists and
weapons.

She vowed to hunt them down and bring them to
every bit of justice they deserved—for Isaac, for the olive trees,
and for Shulamit and her beautiful, generous, afflicted
country.

9. Hadar and Halleli

Shulamit slept awkwardly that night. Gil and
his family did their best to put up their unexpected guests, with
offspring who usually didn’t share beds squeezing in together to
make room, and they were amply rewarded with gold from the
treasury. Still, the best they could provide was stiff and rough to
a queen’s pampered skin, and even more importantly, Aviva was miles
away. Shulamit woke up several times in the middle of the night
panicking at her absence before she remembered.

There was also the little matter of the stealth
flour that had crept into last night’s sauce…

It would have been nice to wander outside,
among the olive trees, as she would have done if she were back home
in the palace. But that would have required waking up guards—which
it didn’t back home—and the idea felt ridiculous and
selfish.

She awoke at the sun’s light with a false
alertness she knew would only last a few hours if she didn’t drink
serious tea. A spare pillow made a lousy stand-in for her beloved,
and her breasts felt uncomfortably full. More food for Eliana’s
little one, then.

After washing her face in a basin of water
provided by one of the farm daughters and fixing her braids,
Shulamit stepped out into the crisp dawn air. It was chillier than
on her side of the mountains, but that was what olives
liked.

Her guards were already up and milling about,
preparing the horses and carriage for the short journey to the next
farm. Rivka was sitting on a rock, her legs in a wide stance and
her arms resting on her thighs. In front of her slithered Isaac in
his buttery-yellow python form.

“
How do you feel?” asked the
captain.

“
Light-headed more than anything,”
the snake answered. His tongue flicked out, waved around, then
darted back into his mouth. “There’s, you know, a kind of dizzy
buzzing.”

“
Queen’s up.” Rivka had noticed
her. “Hey.”

Shulamit gave her a half smile. “How is
he?”

“
Magic’s back, but he’s not himself
yet.” Rivka looked back over at Isaac. Shulamit followed her line
of sight and noticed he’d moved over to his lizard form.

“
This doesn’t feel so bad,” said
Isaac. “Maybe I’d better ride on your shoulder today.”

Rivka nodded. “It’s warm and waiting like
always!”

“
Better try this just to see… am I
clear?”

Rivka shook her head. “Hey! You two. Move that
way so he can test his dragon form.”

The guards scattered warily as if they’d
touched hot coals.

Isaac expanded into the dragon form.
“Oy.”

“
Not good?” Rivka’s brows looked
concerned.

“
I feel fatigued like this.” He
tried to flap his wings, but they wouldn’t move. “That’s
weird.”

Rivka got up from her stone and walked over to
him. “You’ll be all right soon,” she cooed, rubbing his
nose.

Just then, Eliana came out of the house,
holding her baby in her arms. “Morning, Majesty!”

“
Good morning.” Shulamit eyed the
baby. “Does she need to nurse?”

“
Oh,
Majesty!
” Eliana
glowed. “You’re too generous. I’ve never heard of anyone, king or
queen, like you before. I mean, they said you were just, and
enthusiastic, but they also said you were really young when you
ascended the throne, and—”

“
Baby needs food, right?” Shulamit
smiled weakly. The fussing embarrassed her and she wasn’t awake
enough to be gracious. “Here, let’s get her taken care
of.”

“
So sorry about last night’s dinner
giving you indigestion,” Eliana commented as Shulamit adjusted the
baby against her chest. “That mutton came from a very old sheep,
and you must be used to the tenderest lamb. Plus, we don’t peel our
carrots way out here in the country…”

Shulamit let Eliana talk. She knew most people
weren’t ready to understand that it wasn’t a refined palate that
caused her stomach pain if not under Aviva’s strict and watchful
eye—it was the simple presence of wheat. Or chicken, but that was
an entirely separate problem with much worse consequences. She’d
been so busy making sure there was no fowl in her food that she’d
missed the flour in the admittedly clear-looking sauce.

Well, anyway. Maybe the next few meals could be
rice. “Who owns the farm where we’re going next?”

“
Well, it used to belong to the
couple who taught the children’s class at temple when my oldest
were that age,” Eliana began, talking in encyclopedias as usual,
“but they’ve died, so their daughter takes care of the grove. Her
name is Halleli. Beautiful little thing. About your height! Would
have thought she’d have found a husband by now. She hires in a lot
of her farm help and some of those men—would you
look
at the
muscles. Well, of course, what am I saying? You’re around
that
one
all the time, so you know what I mean.” She pointed
unobtrusively at Rivka, whose bulging biceps stood out from her
sleeveless tunic.

Shulamit looked away and tried not to smirk at
Eliana’s admiration.

“
She’s got a friend there with her
though, so maybe she likes it better that way.”

Shulamit’s ears perked up. “A
friend?”

“
Yes, a sturdy young woman called
Hadar who dresses like a man and—”

Shulamit was unable to disguise her shimmering
glee. “Oh?” It was so hard to find women like her in this world of
silence and propriety. Of course, she could be wrong, but
really
.

“
Her people live in the Lovely
Valley, I think,” Eliana mused. “Coconut farmers, I think. That’s
why she’s so strong—had to learn to shimmy up trees.”

Shulamit was practically vibrating. Then a
sober truth spoke in her ear. She was about to visit these happy
women, these women just like her, and probably give them bad
news.