by S. K Munt
The dress was short and binding enough to make me feel more uncomfortable than I could bear, and I’d had a heart attack when I’d seen it for the first time, and so Lindy had attached a skirt at my hips- one crafted in tiers which cascaded backwards to reach and then drag along the floor. It was white and bilious, and left my legs bare in the front so that I could move, and it may have just been the gown of my dreams that I would have enjoyed strutting about in (I was rather proud of my muscle tone and strength and eager to display that I was not, in fact ‘an albino’ anymore) if not for the fact that the fabric she had used for the skirt fluffed with a million feathery-white tendrils.
“I’m a swan now!” The dress declared to the world. “I was ugly once but LOOK at me now! Look, lust, dream… and save up because in a few years, I can be your swan and these feathers will be yours to stroke!”
I turned away from the mirror and back into Karol. ‘I told her it was wrong…’ I whimpered softly to his shoulder. ‘That I didn’t want people to think that I…’
‘That you KNOW, that you’ve blossomed beyond compare?’ Karol corrected me, taking me in his arms and swinging me away from my reflection and I sucked in a relieved breath. ‘Sorry sweetheart, but you may want to try wearing something out of my wardrobe to the next ball if you want a chance in hell of hiding those curves.’ He chuckled, amused at my distress and I hated him for it. ‘In fact, you’re welcome to come in any time and try on my stuff.’
‘I’ll never set foot in your room!’ I bit out at him, remembering suddenly that he was the reason why I was upset, not the hero whirling me away from harm. ‘I don’t care if I’m penniless, or used, or-’
‘Let’s see if I can’t change your mind,’ Karol said and then suddenly, we were slowing and I was being thrusted forward. ‘Your highness, here she is as promised- Larkin of Eden.’ He released my hand and though my thoughts were all simmering and soupy, I remembered enough of my etiquette training to drop into a curtsy at the sight of a platinum crown gleaming on a bald head.
‘Your highness…’ I said to the glittering gold floor.
‘Rise dear- it’s a shame to waste that pretty face on such formalities,’ the man said and when I looked up, was relieved to see that his smile was warm, not syrupy like Kohén’s and that he had a beautiful woman his age on his arm whose golden marriage band matched his.
‘Oh, you’re a lovely little thing, aren’t you?’ the woman said with a grand-motherly voice that was a welcome change to pitching teenage girls voices, or the terrifying baritones that I’d become accustomed to hearing in my daily life.
‘Thank you sir...’ I said politely, stiffening when I felt Karol touch my back again. ‘Madam... you also look lovely.’ And she did- her platinum lace gown was elegant and understated, perfect for a woman in her seventies.
‘Thank you, dear,’ the woman said, and I smiled widely, for there wasn’t even a glimmer of judgement in her eyes!
‘Larkin, this is the king and queen of Yael,’ Karol said, and my heart skipped an excited beat. Forget dancing with the boy of my romantic dreams- Elbert Yael was the king of my cotton-field ones!
29.
‘Oh!’ I exploded the word in my elation, and bowed again. ‘Your highness! It’s truly an honour to meet you!’
‘Elbert and I were just talking earlier about your future plans to raise cotton in the southeast,’ Karol said charmingly to me, his eyes glittering more than the flaming chandelier in the centre of the ceiling behind him, ‘and he demanded an introduction.’
‘You did?’ I glanced at Karol, surprised, then back to the man waiting expectantly to be included on the conversation. ‘Really?’
‘He did,’ Elbert Yael said, and I grinned, a little star-struck. I’d been dreaming of meeting this man and discussing the soil in Yael for years! And Karol had gone out of his way to mention me? I was grudgingly grateful. And Yael had a queen too! When had THAT happened? Why had their not been a celebratory parade in Arcadia?
‘I had to meet a girl who was as beautiful, ambitious and forward-thinking as Karol claimed you to be…’ the king offered me his arm. ‘But I plan on hearing every detail of what Karol assures me are your well-researched plans, and you look quite flushed from dancing. Can I offer you a glass of champagne?’
‘Champagne?’ I asked, surprised. ‘Not wine?’
‘No, the Romanese sent several cases of the real deal over for Kohén’s birthday,’ Karol said motioning to the bar. ‘You should get into it before it’s all gone though, because it is delicious as they say.’
‘Yeah! Oh! I mean yes please,’ I said quickly, taking Elbert’s arm and smiling gratefully at Karol, who winked back. I wanted to roll my eyes- if he thought getting me a fast introduction to the king of Yael and a glass of bubbly wine was going to get him in a prime-plucking position, he was less mentally equipped to inherit the throne than even I had supposed!
‘And you owe me a dance,’ the queen said to Karol, offering her hand which he bowed to and kissed. ‘I cannot get over how handsome you and your brothers have become!’
‘Behave yourself,’ the king teased her as he led me away. ‘I may be as old as the mountains, but I still hear gossip quite well.’
‘Yes darling,’ the queen responded and I giggled. What a fun couple! Why couldn’t Elijah and Constance get along so well?
‘If you want to hear my plans, I’m more than happy to share them with you,’ I said the moment Elbert had turned his attention back to me. ‘But first- you seem excited by this idea… so does that mean that the soil is now viable for cotton to grow on? I mean, I know that the radiation levels have gone back to normal, but I’d heard that the lands that were previously used to cultivate cotton on were still quite damp in the summer and winter months? That’s why you’re still using them for cattle, isn’t it?’
‘Yes, the territory has been much more suited to grazing than farming for the past thirty years since I inherited the region from Arcadia, and food a priority over fabric,’ Elbert said, taking a glass of champagne and handing it to me before getting one for himself. ‘But now that the winter frost is abating by mid January, we’re seeing much lower moisture levels in the following months, and with the warmer weather- well, we’re beginning to sweat in silk. Obviously, you won’t be looking to put your plans into motion until after your twenty-first year, but I can assure you that by the time you are in a position to invest in Yael, the soil will be well worth that investment and the demand for cotton high.’
I grinned at the king. ‘That’s wonderful to hear!’
‘It’s a relief,’ he agreed. ‘In fact, if it weren’t for the locusts, I’d probably attempt to raise some cotton fields now but…’ he made a face. ‘Your king, for all of his talk, has failed us there, and I’m not in the position to start battling Boll Weevils as well.’
I took that a little personally on Martya’s behalf, but did not let it show. ‘He’s come close, I can assure you of that,’ I said. ‘The last pesticide he tested-’
‘Couldn’t have come even as remotely close to solving the problem as he claimed it did.’ Elbert said, looking irked. ‘He raved about it but, well, Elijah is all talk and believe me, I know it- I come from the land of men who talk in bigger strides than they can walk.’
‘It did come close,’ I insisted.
‘Well either he doesn’t think so, or he likes knowing that his people are hungry because if he truly wanted to cure this problem, he’d reveal what almost worked so the rest of the kingdoms could try and close the gap between Arcadia’s swing and a continental miss.’
‘He won’t share the formula?’ I asked, surprised. ‘That’s odd. He’s so set on solving the problem!’
‘That’s not odd darling, that’s politics,’ Elbert drawled, his vowels elongated in a way that made it seem like he had an actual accent, for the people in Arcadia were instructed to speak quickly and concisely. ‘Arcadia was the first kingdom established and had the best quality soil after the apocalypse,
which means that from year AA 1, they’ve been on higher, lusher ground than the rest of us. But that is mostly grassy ground- aside from grains, rice, cattle and vegetables your kingdom has very little to trade. And now that a few hundred years have passed and the rest of Calliel has been deemed arable again, this locust issue has struck at the worst possible time for your king, because it’s done what he vowed he would do and now fears- it’s equalised us as far as hunger goes.’
‘But people aren’t hungry,’ I said, motioning to the buffet of finger foods. ‘Look.’
Elbert laughed. ‘Not within these walls no, but there are hungry people out there, young Larkin, and they’re growing scared and impatient. There’s enough food left for perhaps two years, but if we see another spring and summer like the one we just endured, well, we could all be stretched thin by next winter, and then we will have to turn to another continent for aid or consider migrating.’
I couldn’t believe it. ‘If the situation is so dire, why is this the first I’m hearing of it?’
‘Because the Barachiel family is more dependent on their people’s faith than they are on food, and so they’re distracting you all with gold and pineapple juice, fish from Janiel and grade A meat- bought from MY kingdom- to keep people wondering where the potatoes are. This ball-’ he motioned to the room around us, ‘was thrown by a man who is desperate to prove that he’s got plenty of money left, and perhaps that’s true because they’ve been trading the people of Tariel corn for gold bullion for years. But you can’t eat gold anymore than I can drink oil. And if I can’t find grain to feed my cattle, then I’ll have less to trade for your vegetables, the people in Tariel who have no food will panic and start trying to move to Janiel where the fish are in abundance, and then when we’re all fished out, we’re all going to end up paying the president of Rabia to ship us food. And what happens when that money runs out, huh? They don’t need our oil, for they have a surplus of their own. They don’t need our fish, and their gold mines are still shallow. They’ll go from being that country that doesn’t need us, to the country that every other is dependent on, and Arcadia will slide to the bottom of the food chain while the rest of Calliel slave away in the gold mines of Tariel to buy what we cannot produce from foreigners.’
My brain felt like it was going to burst from the influx of information, and it suddenly occurred to me that never before in my life had I heard Callielian politics addressed from the point of view of someone from outside of Arcadia. ‘B-but…’ I grasped at straws, trying to reconcile what king Elbert was implying against what I knew of the Barachiel family- and all that Kohén’s tutor had been teaching us! ‘As bad as that sounds, the Arcadian monarch is duty-bound to God, to protect his people. Of course, I know that Elijah Barachiel wouldn’t be happy about losing power to another kingdom or nation, but I do know that if he creates a pesticide that will help corral the locust issue, he will share it with the rest of the kingdoms.’
‘Oh he’ll share it,’ Elbert said. ‘One harvest after he’s already ‘tested’ it, and pulled back into the lead as far as food production goes so that he can fund another venture, and for a price. And though it’s one I’ll gladly pay, I’m through waiting for his ‘almost’ cure to become an actual cure, so I’ve got my own Academics on it now.’
‘To beat him to the punch?’
‘Precisely. We’ve always had more doers than thinkers in Yael, but I’ve recently appointed forty researchers to the task of finding a cure for what ails our tomatoes. They’re from Janiel originally, and Jasper Bronx took forty members of our Blue Collar brawn up into the fishing industry in exchange for their brains, so if I do find a cure, I have to split the production costs and profits of it with the Janiel government. And if we fail, King Emmanuel-’ he nodded and lifted his glass to the dark-skinned and gold-dusted king who waltzed by with Constance Barachiel in his arms, ‘-will try to develop one, if he hasn’t sneakily started to already. But regardless of who is the most dependent on this pesticide for survival, the kingdom that discovers it first will become the most powerful of all, because even Rabian fields are susceptible to locust damage.’
‘Wow,’ I said, completely blind-sided and wondering why the duchess had just shot me another dirty look. It could possibly take forty trained academics up to five years to crack the code that fifteen-year old Martya had almost broken alone, AND lead to political domination? No wonder the king had torn up her Companion contract! Why, if creating a pesticide was that valuable, she could have asked for a lot more than her freedom!
She did. She asked for yours too- and you turned her down to get where you are right now… tipsy, pretty and lonely!
‘I know, but don’t fret, little Lark- Boll weevils are a much greater threat to Cotton fields than locusts are, and if I had cotton to trade, well- I’d be a happy man indeed! And you a wealthy young lady! I do hope that Karol was right when he said that you are dedicated to this goal of yours, and he to helping you see it through.’
‘I am dedicated…’ I looked down at my glass, trying to gather my courage and sort my words into socially acceptable phrases while my skin crawled at the idea of Karol looking over my shoulder- and down my shirt. I could not reveal to this man that by the time I made it to Yael, I hoped to do so as an Academic with a fine education- not a whore with fistfuls of gold and a prince’s fixation, because no one was supposed to know how focused I was on making it through the virgin loophole.
But I did need to know that he was okay with a woman running a plantation using money that she had saved and without King Karol’s supervision- because if he thought I’d be riding over to Yael on the prince’s lap to be a silent investor, he was in for a rude shock. ‘You are rather progressive in the south, aren’t you?’ I finally asked, looking up. ‘I mean, hopefully I will be a young woman, as you say, when I apply for my transfer, and I plan on overseeing every aspect of these visions of mine. And with this locust issue well, the Arcadian monarchs may be too pre-occupied to help me out, regardless of how interested Karol may seem now.’
‘Yes, I see how he could become distracted by needs within his own kingdom, of course.’
And refuse to help me in any way once I kick him in his crotch!
‘Exactly. And I’d hate to think that the circumstances of my upbringing, or my age, or my gender, will influence your willingness to sell me land if I have the money to purchase it?’
King Elbert grinned at me. ‘Larkin, we are the very definition of the word progressive in Yael, so please, don’t let the tales of the old deep south fool you… we are as blind to race, gender and social status there as you are here- and we like gold very much.’ I laughed, though it was a little forced. I was probably supposed to be comforted by that revelation and I was- on every word but ‘gender’ because there was nothing progressive about the fact that I was wearing feathers to impress a man in a crown- to get me out of a government-appointed harem, seven centuries after the suffrage movement had gathered steam.
But I smiled winsomely and said: ‘Good.’ I tapped his wedding band. ‘And this is a pleasant and welcome surprise.’
‘My Allegra and I got these last spring after our daughter turned twenty-one, and are equals in every sense,’ he said. ‘And she is just as excited as I, by your ambition.’ He clinked his glass against mine. ‘So… to equality for the mutual benefit of Calliel and our very first female plantation owner! With or without a Barachiel monarch helping- preferably without!’
‘To equality!’ I toasted, feeling a little disloyal, and then took a sip-humming when my taste buds buzzed in pleasure. ‘Wow! No wonder people get drunk off this and quickly! I could down an entire bottle!’
Elbert chuckled. ‘Then I will have a bottle waiting for you when you come to me,’ he leaned in and then added: ‘Just don’t take too long to rid yourself of Kohén and Karol’s favour, all right? Your beauty has already caused my heart to fail a few times this evening… in ten years, I’m certain that the sight of you soaked in champagne would be
fatal to a man my age, and I’d hate to be buried in the land before we’ve sown oats in it first.’
My heart stopped. ‘You want…’ I swallowed down bile. ‘Me?’
‘Yes,’ Elbert’s time-faded blue eyes glittered and all of the oxygen went out of the room. ‘Very much, when the time is right of course.’
Of course! Heaven forbid someone saw you as a creep for hitting on a girl who is fifteen months and fifty-one week’s old! You’ll be far less repulsive one week from now, after all, when I’m sixteen!
‘But…’ I could not BELIEVE this was happening! As if having a man Karol’s age make assumptions about my sexuality wasn’t bad enough, now I had to tolerate the leering of a man in his seventies? My stomach heaved, and my dreams withered. I hadn’t waited five years to meet this asshole! How could I ever hold onto my dreams of Yael now, knowing that he expected my body to be thrown in with my coin purse? ‘But you’re married!’
‘No, we’re joined and always have been,’ he said. ‘But she likes the words wife and queen far more than partner and duchess, and so I let her lie with them and these golden bands in public, in exchange for the right to do as any other joined man would in private.’ He winked at me. ‘So do not fret, little Lark- when you come to my bed, God will smile upon you. And if you bring Karol there along, well… I don’t see any reason why we can’t all toast the future of Yael together.’
His wife wanted KAROL? Her flirtations had been real? I could have screamed in horror! Could have, but did not, not audibly anyway. I returned his grin with a weak one of my own and took a sip from my glass as though pondering an orgy, while I cursed them all on the inside.
