The Olive Conspiracy (10 page)

The smile broke off at the edges.

***

Rivka loved the chill of the air this side of
the mountains, having come from a place far colder than the steamy
tropics of Perach. Just as during their sojourn in Imbrio, the
coolness gave vigor to her muscles and made her want to jump around
and use them. She felt trapped, riding in the carriage, but with
Shulamit recovering from the trace flour in her dinner, and Isaac
riding on her shoulder still nursing a headache, Rivka knew that
they were all very lucky to have a ride even for this short
way.

With the curtains pulled back, though, she
could see the lovely morning walk they could have had. A perfectly
clear sky domed an earth decorated by orderly rows of trees. Birds
hopped on the ground and here and there fluttered out of branches;
she hoped they were eating some of the
farshtinkener
insects.

“
Riv?”

“
Hm?” She turned to face the
queen.

Shulamit looked pensive. “You don’t think Queen
Carolina’s mixed up in this bug thing, do you?”

“
How’d you get there?”

“
The timing, partially.” Shulamit
twisted one edge of her scarf into a tight coil, then let it relax
in her hands. “This wasn’t happening before King Fernando got
sick.”

“
You think she’s capable of this
kind of malice?” Rivka asked. “Because of… the way they are over
there about human rights?”

“
That’s probably part of it,” said
Shulamit. “Plus, I mean—she doesn’t seem mean, and she thinks she’s
my friend, but since she’s not down here she’d be sheltered from
all this.” She gestured out the window at the brown and sickly
trees. “She might just think she was taking us down a peg to make
things easier for Imbrian economic interests.”

“
Or going along with someone else’s
plan to take us down a peg,” suggested Rivka, thinking of the other
queen’s husband. She remembered him saying something competitive
when he saw the Perachi olive oil in the shivah basket.

“
Or she could just be lashing out
emotionally as a reaction to all those proposed boycotts,” Shulamit
continued. “That might have hurt her feelings deeper than she was
showing, especially since when we saw her she was more preoccupied
with grief than anything else.”

“
If she even knows.”

“
Right. But do
you
think she
does?” Shulamit studied Rivka’s face intently.

“
I have an open mind,” said Rivka.
“Right now, I’m just tracking my chicken farmer.”

There was a silence, and Shulamit stared at her
hands in her lap. “When I was about sixteen I wanted to marry her
and combine the two countries.”

Rivka smiled to herself. “What do you feel
now?”

“
I-I’m afraid of her.”

Moving carefully so as not to dislodge Isaac,
Rivka scooted closer and put her arm around Shulamit’s shoulder.
“She’s probably harmless. And even if she’s not, remember—I’m
always here.”

The carriage stopped, and both women looked up
to see an older but tidy little farmhouse with a large,
well-planted property behind it. “Guess we’re here already,” said
Shulamit, adjusting her hair and scarf.

“
I think I can hold my human body
up for this,” said Isaac. He crawled down Rivka’s arm and
transformed, ending up lying down on the seats across from Rivka
and Shulamit. “Oof.”

“
Can you get up?” Rivka looked him
over.

“
Yes, yes,” he muttered, moving
slowly. Finally, he swung his great weight upright and took a deep
breath. “At least the air smells good.”

Rivka was first out of the carriage and held
out her arm to help the queen down. With other guards leading the
way, they walked toward the farmhouse.

The two young farmers and their workers had
been prepped for the royal appearance, no doubt by a dawn visit
from one of Gil and Eliana’s numerous offspring or in-laws. They
stood outside the farmhouse, nervously watching the party’s
approach.

It was easy to pick out the women Eliana had
been speaking about. One of them was very short and very pretty,
with a curvy figure and long hair tied back under a scarf. The
other was a little taller and made of wiry muscle, with short, wavy
hair that was parted on one side. Their body language hinted that
Shulamit’s glee had been on point; they hovered in each other’s
space, most likely feeding off each other to create a more
confident being together than they would have each been
separately.

Shulamit approached them with Rivka close
behind. “Peace, everyone. Thank you so much for welcoming us to
your grove.”

The two farmers exchanged a brief, unspoken
conversation with their eyes, and then the shorter, curvier woman
stepped forward. “It’s such an honor to have you here, Your
Majesty.” She bowed daintily, with her companion and her workers
following suit. “I’m Halleli, and this is Hadar.”

Hadar bowed from the neck. Rivka found herself
looking over the woman’s muscles. She wondered if Hadar knew
anything about fighting, even in sport, or if her strength was of
yet simply the task-taught type.

“
It’s so wonderful to meet you,”
said Shulamit, brimming over with sincerity. “I know our people
have a hard time talking about these things, but…” She took a deep
breath. Rivka smiled at her beneath her mask, hoping the good vibes
helped. “I have a female companion too. Her name is Aviva. She’s
back home at the palace with the princess.”

Rivka was proud of her, but looking at that
pained yet exalted face, she wondered if that conversation would
ever get any easier.

The couple in front of them were clearly
happily surprised. Halleli’s eyes widened, and Hadar broke into a
huge grin. “See, didn’t I tell you? There are rumors, Your
Majesty,” she explained.

“
I hoped there were,” said Shulamit
sheepishly, but Rivka was pleased to see that she was relaxed now.
The bottle was uncorked and flowed freely. “That makes things
easier! Besides, I’d want everyone like us to know I was out
there.”

“
People talk about
them
more.” Hadar nodded toward Rivka and Isaac. “Does he really… the
dragon?”

“
Oh, I would
love
to see a
dragon… I love dragons! When my parents were alive, they used to
take me high up in the mountains and we’d watch the wild ones,”
Halleli gushed and dreamed.

“
I’m sorry to say I am not feeling
well,” said Isaac gravely, “but I will give you a little show.”
With those words, he grew into his full, gigantic, green-black
dragon shape. Rivka watched him, a little stirred, a little
worried.

He must have noticed her concerned eyes,
because he looked over at her and winked. She smiled involuntarily
and wiped sweat off her face beneath her mask, her heart full of
affection.

“
Oh, he’s so beautiful!” Halleli’s
face looked like that of a child in wonderment.

Hadar chuckled at her. “She draws a lot of
dragons. She’s always drawing when we get some
downtime.”

“
She can draw me if she likes,”
said Isaac. “I may not have much energy today, but it doesn’t take
energy to pose.” He struck a dramatic posture, and Rivka snorted
with laughter.

“
What about Captain Riv?” Hadar
asked brightly. “I mean, I know that
obviously
some of those
stories can’t be true—”

“
I guarantee you I did not perform
my own bris,” Rivka barked.

Shulamit burst into giggles.

“—
but you’re still a giant!” Hadar
finished.

“
He’s
our
giant,” Shulamit
interjected.

“
I’ve been working on my own form,
a little.” Hadar flexed, and Rivka noticed a look of delight cross
Halleli’s face. “She draws that too,” Hadar added. “Anyway, while
you’re here… if it’s not too much trouble… uh…” She scratched her
head. “Maybe you could give me some tips?”

Rivka swelled not only with pride, but also
enthusiasm. Suddenly this young and energetic woman seemed like a
fantastic prospect for the female guard she’d been
planning.

“
I would
really
like that,”
she said emphatically.

10. Abscheid und
Feuerzauber

“
Here, you have to try this one
next.” Halleli opened another jug and fished out a handful of
olives, eating one herself, as she had been all morning, to show
Shulamit’s guards they were safe.

Shulamit and Isaac each took a couple of the
tiny, purple fruits from her offering palm. “Oh, that’s almost
floral
!” exclaimed the queen. “How’d you do that? It’s
really nice and mild.”

“
It’s a secret.” Halleli grinned.
“My mother learned it from her father. We’ve been on this land for
generations.”

Shulamit chewed thoughtfully, concentrating on
the pleasure of the brine slipping down her throat so that her face
wouldn’t betray the guilt Halleli’s words produced.

There were other things on her mind too. “I
would have given anything at sixteen to have known you were out
there.” Shulamit wiped oil from her lips. “Even just as a friend. I
felt so alone, so strange. What was it like for you?”

“
I didn’t know.” Halleli’s smile
was self-conscious. “You’re gonna laugh at me… maybe… I thought
everyone felt like this. When I was that young, I mean.”

“
You mean you thought that all
women…”

Halleli eyed Isaac and the guards, then leaned
in closer to Shulamit so the men couldn’t hear. “Girls are so
pretty and smell good, and men are… something else, and I just
figured that every woman just found a man she felt friendly enough
with to marry and that was it.”

Shulamit grinned. “No, many women actually
like
lying down with men.”

“
You’re teasing me. I know that
now
.” Halleli ate another olive, then replaced the lid on
the jug. “How did you know?”

“
My father had this… adult stuff I
wasn’t supposed to be looking at. The really shameful part is that
I think it was made for men.” Shulamit wished they could have this
conversation in private, without the male guards—even Isaac—but
since she was queen, she couldn’t very well be alone, and Rivka was
off sparring with Hadar on the hillside. It was a good thing Rivka
was planning to introduce more female guards, in case this sort of
thing happened again. “They weren’t always looking at each other in
the drawings—they were looking out at the audience. It made me
feel, you know… radiantly happy and then also shameful at the same
time, like I didn’t belong to myself, somehow.”

“
I bet I could make better
drawings,” said Halleli. Then her face brightened. “Hey, do you
think I could do a study of your face?”

“
That might be fun!”

Halleli disappeared into another room to get
her drawing supplies. While she was gone, Shulamit looked at Isaac,
her face grim.

“
I saw them too,
Malkeleh
.”

“
I can’t do this.”

He looked down at her with compassion swimming
in his hooded eyes. “Because she’s like you?”

“
I don’t know…” Shulamit looked
down at the table. “Even if she wasn’t, they’ve been on this farm
for generations.”

“
This farm lies between the
infestation and the Lovely Valley,” Isaac reminded her. “Your
country’s breadbasket. Or breadfruit-basket.” He made a sickly grin
at his own joke. “And the insects have already begun to feed,
spreading their plague.”

“
Look, Isaac, I know your magic
wasn’t the right spell, but what about Aafsaneh?” Shulamit looked
up at him intensely. “She ran a vineyard since before I was born,
all those years before she became Queen of the City of Red Clay. I
bet she’d have some way of wiping out the insects, or at least the
blight they’re spreading.”

“
That’s a great idea,
but—”

Just then, Halleli came back with pencils and
paper. “I brought you some of my drawings, in case you wanted to
see.” She handed them over, her face glowing but shy.

“
You’re really good at these!”
Shulamit turned pages and saw dragons, olive trees, and some of
Hadar. “I like the way you captured the way her muscles stand out.
It looks like she’s really moving.”

“
Thanks,” said Halleli, shifting
papers around. “She doesn’t like to sit still for them; she’s got
too much energy for that. So I try to do quick sketches of what I
can see in a moment, and then combine them later when I have more
time to work.”

With a blank paper in front of her on the
table, the pretty, young woman moved her pencil in a circle as she
studied the queen’s face. Shulamit noted that only after making
several rounds did she touch its point to the page.

“
Sometimes if I do that, I can see
the picture start to appear before I even draw it,” Halleli
explained.

“
Am I in a good pose?”

Halleli nodded, then jumped up. “Wait! I’ll be
right back.”

She bounded outside, the door swinging behind
her.