Page 52

“What a generous spread of food,” I said as I sat down, “and a lovely garden.”

Lady Pehine preened, clearly satisfied with the compliment, even if it came from someone she saw as a northern barbarian. “It has taken years of work. When I first arrived as Lord Pehine’s wife twenty years ago, he had only managed a few local bushes. It was my suggestion to dig the sand and dirt out and replace it with imperial soil so that we might grow the Imperium right here in our home, as my lord hopes to with the local populace.”

“It must require a great deal of water,” I said.

“Yes. We did have to draw from the well at the local village when General Bemishu was not able to bring enough water from the Imperium itself.” She frowned, her lips twisting, carving wrinkles into the thick makeup on her face.

“Didn’t the local villagers need it?” I asked pointedly. Several servants stiffened, and I saw two of them were goblins, their horns sanded down. None of them moved beyond that.

Lady Pehine waved her hand dismissively. “As they have always given us such trouble, I’m sure it did them a world of good to go without for some time. They tell us that goblins can go without water for months. A few weeks of a dry well is nothing in exchange for this.”

She may as well have watered the garden with the blood of the local villagers. I could not believe that even goblins could survive so long without water.

“General Bemishu has been generous, giving you water from his own supplies,” I said.

“Yes,” Lady Pehine said, then frowned. “Except this time. He was quite rude when he visited. Demanding everything he could lay his hands on. We had to give him half of our stores. My lord insisted his subjects come make up the difference.”

She glared at the ladies at the table, and I realized that by “subjects” she didn’t mean the local population, although I was sure Pehine had bled them as well. No, she meant the other lords of the Ariphadeus.

It seemed that though Kacha had supporters within the Imperium willing to supply him, Bemishu had not had the same benefits, so he’d demanded from Pehine, who had turned around and demanded the same of the other lords.

That was why they were all in one place. The lords, along with their wives and children, were hostages until the lords of the Ariphadeus could pay Pehine what Bemishu had demanded from him when he had visited on his way into the Ariphadeus.

Now more than a few ladies had their fans up, gently swaying them, although the large trees and greenery made this spot the coolest place in the entire Ariphadeus.

I took some of the dessert from the table, and one of the servants rushed forward to pour me a cup of chilled sweet tea. As I sipped, I looked up. Beyond the canopy of the trees, I finally saw the ceiling. I had assumed it was glass, but now I realized it was marble that had been carved so that it was nearly as thin as glass. The stone let in light while providing some relief from the direct sun.

“The ceiling to your greenhouse is an amazing construction,” I said. “Did you design it yourself?”

Perhaps I had underestimated Lady Pehine. Perhaps she spoke so bluntly and with such little consideration because she was intelligent in other ways.

“Oh, no. That was done at the insistence of the goblins who built the palace. I wanted glass as all of the great atriums are in the north. But they insisted on this.” Her lips twitched and she made a gesture indicating disgust.

But glass would only have trapped the heat inside. All of her precious plants would have died from heat before they even took root in the dirt Pehine had brought from the Imperium.

Lady Koque took over smoothly when it was clear I was not going to say anything else. I mulled over the situation, a solution becoming clear. I would need Koque’s support, as she had spent more time with the ladies in the room, but I had a good idea already of who we could use.

Nineteen

The party went on for so long that eventually I stood, asking for a tour of the large garden. Lady Pehine, not able to get a rise out of me, nor able to get functional conversation once I had gotten what I needed from her, waved me off and indicated one of the servants should give me the requested tour.

“Xuetie will take you. She has been here even longer than me.” Lady Pehine gestured and a goblin stepped forward, bowing low enough to show a deep respect.

The goblin was older, her face lined with wrinkles and her horns cut down to her forehead. When she moved, she favored her right arm, her left shoulder slumped forward as though it had been broken and never healed correctly.

“Your Highness,” Xuetie said. She maintained her bow while moving her arm to indicate that I should follow her.

The room was not quite as large as I had initially assumed. Sitting in the middle of the estate, it benefited from the cool granite around it, and the relief from the sun that the ceiling provided. But that meant it was still bounded by the walls of the building.

“It is beautiful work,” I said. “Are you in charge of maintaining it?”

The goblin startled, glancing over her shoulder, although we were far enough away from Lady Pehine and the others that no one could overhear us.

“No. One of the imperial servants manages it,” Xuetie said. “A goblin would find it hard to know what to do with these delicate plants.”

“Delicate and foreign. None of this should be growing in Ariphadi soil.” Slowly, I glanced over my shoulder in the direction that we had come.

The goblin stiffened, clearly understanding my implication that none of the imperials should be surviving on Ariphadi soil either.