by Jayla Jasso
Jiandra smiled gently. She felt a little guilty for invading the girl’s privacy, and she certainly couldn’t blame her for what she was thinking about—after all, Jiandra was completely smitten with the other twin. “Good morning, Kitran. I have a question for you. Have you noticed any strangers around the palace in the past few days? Anyone looking for information, by chance?” She held onto the Omaja and focused Knowing again as she watched Kitran’s face.
Kitran blinked, looking puzzled. “No, Your Highness, I haven’t seen anyone like that.”
All Jiandra saw in the girl’s thoughts concerning her questions was a complete blank. And then Yavi’s handsome face reappeared, smirking. Blowing Kitran a kiss.
Jiandra shook off the vision. “All right. Thank you, Kitran. Back to work.”
Kitran curtsied again and turned to gather up an armful of sheets.
Jiandra headed down the large staircase, wondering if Yavi was trysting with the washing girl in real life. The possibility surprised Jiandra a little. He’d tearfully confessed to her and Yajna one night a few years ago after having a little too much wine that he had sworn off seducing women because of his guilt over Svana’s death at Gerynwid’s hands. No matter how much she and Yajna had tried to convince him that the Gerynwid’s own ravenous thirst for blood was the reason for Svana’s death, Yavi insisted otherwise, that Gerynwid perhaps wouldn’t have targeted the serving girl if the sorceress hadn’t been jealous of his attraction to Svana. Yavi felt he was being rightfully punished for the thoughtless way he had entered into romantic relationships up to then, and he’d sworn to Tejeshwar he would never seduce another innocent young woman. From everything Jiandra seen for the past six years, he’d kept that oath. He’d never shown any inclination toward the servant girls before, always seeming completely disinterested in any females in his vicinity as far as Jiandra could tell.
On the other hand, if Yavi was still as healthy and hot-blooded as Yajna, it was hard to imagine him staying celibate forever. And pretty, petite Kitran was definitely willing if he was, from the looks of it.
Jiandra stepped into the kitchen. Terijin was preparing a late lunch of lentil stew and boiled potatoes, and he looked up from his kettle when she entered.
“Good day, Your Highness.” He smiled, bowing. “Lunch will be ready in an hour.”
“Thank you, Terijin.” She quickly thought of an excuse for her visit. “Could I have a piece of the leftover bread from dinner last night to tide me over? I’m starved!”
“Of course, Your Highness.” He disappeared into the larder.
Jiandra seated herself at his worktable, quickly removed the Omaja from around her neck, and held it in her lap.
Terijin appeared with a stack of small, round, flat loaves wrapped in a cloth, then unwrapped them and picked up a knife to cut one of the loaves in half.
Jiandra focused Knowing, and the scenes came quickly. Terijin was speaking with someone outside the south gate, a shadowy figure wearing a hooded cloak. The cloaked person looked like a man, tall, with massive shoulders. He placed a hand on Terijin’s shoulder as they spoke.
Usurpers! Terijin said to his visitor. They’ll get what’s coming to them.
Jiandra saw Yavi and Yajna’s faces appear in Terijin’s thoughts, and through his eyes, they appeared to be grinning cockily, gloating over their newfound power in Nandala.
Terijin finished cutting the bread, placed it on a plate, then held up the knife. “Butter, Your Highness?”
Jiandra shook herself, realizing she was staring at his face too long. “Ah—yes, that would be lovely.”
His gaze dropped to her neckline, where the Omaja stone should have been hanging. His eyes widened, then he darted a glance to the side, as if looking for an escape route.
“Thank you for the bread,” Jiandra faked a warm, innocent smile and reached for the plate of bread with both hands, leaving the Omaja stone hidden in her skirt pocket.
He glanced at her hands, seeing they were empty. “Yes. I’ll—ah—fetch the butter right away, Your Highness.” He disappeared into the larder again, returning with a small container of butter. He set that down in front of her and hurried out of the kitchen toward his quarters.
Jiandra jumped up, replaced the chain of the Omaja around her neck, and ran out of the kitchen. She darted into the Great Hall and hurried to the back of the large chamber, and then followed the rear hallways out into the courtyard.
Yavi was vigorously driving his sparring partner back toward the portico, swinging his scimitars in well-synchronized slices back and forth.
Jiandra’s voice came out in an out-of-breath shout. “Yavi! Stop! It’s Terijin, and I think he’s planning to escape!”
Yavi turned to his sparring partner. “Farrin, alert the southern gate guard. Go!”
Jiandra followed Yavi into the palace, struggling to keep up with his long-legged sprint. He rushed through the Great Hall, through the kitchen, and into the cook’s quarters and found them empty. The back door to the outside was left open, and Yavi headed through it with Jiandra at his heels.
They rushed across the barren side yard, around the gardener’s hut, and headed for the southern gate. Two gate guards had caught Terijin there, the red-faced cook spitting curses angrily as he struggled to free himself from their grasp.
Guard Captain Harshad bowed to Yavi and Jiandra as they approached. “Emperor Yavi, Your Highness.” He nodded to his guards, and they shoved Terijin forward, then tossed a heavy money bag at the cook’s feet. The bag bore the royal ruby symbol of the emperor embroidered into the black velvet fabric. “We caught him trying to leave the palace grounds with this.”
Terijin again turned to flee, and Yavi leapt forward to catch him by the front of his vest.
“Easy there,” Yavi warned, raising him up on tiptoe. “Not so fast.”
Yajna appeared, out of breath from running to join them. “You betrayed us, Terijin?”
“You two are the traitors. Usurpers!”
“The House of Zulfikar ruled Nandala for centuries before Thakur’s grandfather took the throne,” Yajna retorted. “Thakur’s family were the usurpers.”
Yavi tightened his grip on the cook’s vest. “We trusted you, Terijin. Supplies were wasted, lives lost because of your treason. You will pay for this crime.”
“Do what you want with me. Uman will protect me.”
“Uman is dead,” Yavi grated.
“I doubt it,” Terijin laughed stiffly.
Yajna folded his arms across his chest. “The arrow I lodged in his throat last night would suggest otherwise.”
Yavi shoved the smirking cook back toward the guards. “Take this prisoner down to the dungeon until we decide what to do with him.”
Once the guards were out of earshot, Jiandra addressed the twins. “Why would Terijin think this Uman could protect him from the two of you?”
“The ravings of a lunatic.” Yavi scooped up the money bag and turned back toward the palace.
Jiandra and Yajna followed him inside. When they made their way to the lower levels and opened the palace’s vault to replace the money, they found two other large bags of coin missing as well. Jiandra’s heart sank. That money represented everything they had earned with last summer’s crops. Now they were starting from scratch again in rebuilding the palace savings.
“We’ll get that fool talking, find out where our coin went,” Yavi swore.
Yajna examined the lock on the door. “And how he was able to break in here.”
§
Jiandra, Kitran, and Shandri managed to put together a meal for the palace’s inhabitants that evening, but it was almost midnight before they were finished serving the meal, storing the leftovers in the larder, and cleaning up. Yavi and Yajna helped gather up the dishes and haul water in for washing them.
Jiandra pushed a stray strand of hair out of her flushed face as Yajna came in from dumping the last of the used dishwater over the palace’s vegetable garden outside. She placed her hands
at the small of her back and leaned back in a stretch. “Whew. We have to get more organized in here tomorrow. That was a lot of work.”
He grinned and kissed her cheek. “You’re beautiful when you sweat, Lahdli,” he whispered near her ear.
Jiandra grimaced, then gave him a half-smile. “Thank you, but no, I’m not.”
“You are to me,” he insisted, grasping her waist and pulling her against his firm body.
“Brother,” Yavi interrupted from behind them, “if you’re finished flirting with your wife, I’d like you two to join me in my study upstairs for a few moments before you retire for the evening.”
Jiandra cleared her throat and backed away from Yajna, hiding a smile.
Yajna rolled his eyes and turned to face Yavi. “For your information, I’m not finished flirting with my wife.”
“Yes he is, Yavi. For now at least.” Jiandra chuckled as she noted Yajna’s feigned-hurt look. “I’m headed upstairs to get out of this bedraggled dress and clean up. I’ll meet you two in Yavi’s wing in half an hour.” She gave her husband a wink and left the kitchen.
As she sat in a shallow tub of tepid water in her own quarters, scrubbing away the day’s grime, she thought about their predicament of losing their cook as well as two large bags of coin from the palace treasury. Traitor though he might be, Terijin had been skilled at producing three meals for the entire palace on a daily basis, with only minimal help from the other servants. After tonight’s experience with dinner, she wondered how they were going to manage the kitchen without him.
With the treasury extremely low after his apparent theft, they would have a hard time paying the salary of a new cook. That person would have room and board, of course, but it was going to be difficult to find someone with Terijin’s level of skill who would be willing to work for free until they could complete fall harvest and sell another crop or two. And that was assuming the summer crops were successful, which wasn’t guaranteed.
There was a light tap at the door, and then a soft female voice called out to her. “Your Highness, a letter has arrived for you.”
“Very good, Shinza; you may slide it under the door, please,” Jiandra replied loudly.
There was the sound of parchment brushing against granite, and then Shinza’s footsteps retreated. Jiandra rose from her tub, dried on a towel, and wrapped herself in her robe. She slid her feet into her slippers and went to retrieve the folded parchment from the floor.
It was a letter from her sister, Gracie.
Dearest Jia, I have missed you terribly during the last few weeks. I miss you always, but it has been harder lately because I’ve been cooped up inside with the chilly weather, with nothing to do but clean and bake. Spring is almost here, however, and you promised to have me come to Nandala for a visit when the weather is warmer up there. I have saved up enough coin to pay my own coach fare, so just say the word, and I’ll be on my way.
Jiandra stopped reading and looked up. Why not have Gracie come to stay with them at the palace for a few weeks and run the kitchen while they sort out what to do about finding the money to hire a new cook? She would have to make sure Gracie didn’t mind working while she was here, but knowing her good-hearted, energetic sister, Jiandra guessed she’d be more than willing to help out. And no one, no one made better porridges, stews, cakes, and breads than Graciella Stovy.
Jiandra quickly donned a clean muslin dress, braided her hair over her shoulder, grabbed a candle, and headed for Yavi’s wing in her slippers. Reaching his study, she rapped lightly on the door. “It’s me, Jiandra.”
A few seconds later, Yajna opened the door. “Hello, beautiful wife,” he grinned, escorting her inside and shutting the door behind her.
Yavi was standing at his sideboard pouring a glass of katsuri. “Care to join us in a drink, my lovely sister-in-law?”
“Yes, please.” She followed Yajna to the couch at the far end of Yavi’s study. Yajna picked up his half-empty glass of katsuri and sat down next to her, resting an arm along the back of the couch behind her.
Yavi brought her a drink, then retrieved his own glass from the low table and sank into the armchair facing her and Yajna. Jiandra noticed dark circles under his eyes, no doubt from a lack of sleep in the past forty-eight hours.
He sipped his drink, then set it down on the low table and leaned back in his chair. “Yajna and I plan to interrogate Terijin tomorrow, find out more about his connection with this ‘Uman’ fellow and where the stolen money went. And we’ve called an assembly of the nobles to decide Terijin’s punishment tomorrow night.”
Yajna caressed her shoulder. “We want you to read his mind with the Omaja while we’re talking to him, but out of sight, so he doesn’t know you’re there.”
“Yes, agreed,” she nodded. “I think that’s a good plan.”
“Another question for you, Jiandra,” Yavi said. “After the robbery, does the treasury have enough money to hire a new cook?”
“Well, not really. I wasn’t able to provide food and clothing to all the returning refugees who arrived last month without dipping into reserves. The only crop that came in strong enough to make any profit this winter was the burdock root, which we sold a caravan full of to Villeleia. With those two bags of coin gone—we’re close to broke.”
Yavi rubbed a hand over the shadow of a beard on his jaw. “Then we will have to make do without a cook until we either find the stolen money or find some new income.”
Jiandra sipped her katsuri, feeling the burn of the sweet alcohol in the back of her throat. “I have an idea for a temporary cook.”
The twins waited.
“My sister Gracie has been begging to come for a visit for some time, and I promised to invite her to come stay at the palace for a few weeks this summer. But I can send for her a little early, tell her we need help running our kitchen until we can afford another cook. I’m sure she’ll be more than glad to help.”
Yavi shook his head. “We can’t expect the girl to spend her visit here working in our kitchen. She should be comfortable and at ease while she’s here.”
Jiandra chuckled. “Gracie’s a farm girl, like me. She’s never had a life of comfort or ease, especially after we lost our parents. She’s worked in our kitchen since she was seven, started baking bread at age ten.”
“Still,” Yavi frowned, “we can’t expect such a young girl to manage a palace kitchen. How old is she? Fifteen or sixteen?”
Jiandra laughed. “Oh, Yavi. It’s been awhile since you’ve seen her, hasn’t it? She’s just turned twenty a few weeks ago.”
His eyebrows raised. “Twenty? Little Graciella is twenty?”
Yajna spoke up. “It’s not a bad idea, brother. When Jiandra and I went to visit Stovy Farm last year, Gracie clearly enjoyed cooking for us and serving us her delicious meals.”
Jiandra leaned forward to emphasize her point to Yavi. “Gracie loves to be in the kitchen. Before I left home, she daily fed a household of seven, plus two farmhands and their families, efficiently and cheerfully. She knows how to make do with very limited resources, and she won’t need a lot of fancy meats or rare ingredients to feed us all very well. And give her a sack of flour and some yeast, and you’ll have the best bread supply you’ve ever had in your life.”
“It’s true, brother,” Yajna chimed in. “The woman can cook. I think it’s a great idea.”
Yavi studied them both. “I just don’t think it’s fair to burden our young sister-in-law with such an onerous task during her visit.”
“It would only be for a month or two, and I can promise you she’ll jump on the chance to come stay with us and lend a hand,” Jiandra assured him. “All I need do is say the word.”
Yavi released a sigh. “All right, let’s invite her to come for a visit, but don’t mention our need for a cook. When she arrives, she works in the kitchen only if and when she really wants to. I’ll wash the dishes myself if need be, and Yajna can peel potatoes and boil them. I would like for your sister to enjoy her
time with us, not be our servant.”
Jiandra smiled. “I appreciate your consideration for her, Yavi. But I can guarantee that she will be more than thrilled to be of service while she’s here. You’ll see.”
§
The next morning, Jiandra finished writing her sister back, asking her to come for a visit as soon as she could. She summoned a courier to take the message along with a small bag of coin to help pay for Gracie’s journey north. The letter instructed Gracie to tell her hired coach that she would be meeting a palace guard escort at the border with Nandala who would accompany her the rest of the way to Darpan. Jiandra wasn’t taking any chances with the bandit gangs that had been plaguing the highways of Nandala, their attacks now on the increase since a few goods and meager coin were just starting to flow again.
Once the courier was gone, Jiandra joined the twins in the dining room.
They rose to greet her as she entered. Yajna grasped her waist and kissed her forehead. “Good morning, Lahdli. We found a bit of cold lentil stew in the larder for breakfast.”
“Yajna figured out how to boil water for tea,” Yavi added, toasting her with his cup.
“Wonderful,” Jiandra chuckled, taking her seat at the table. “I’ve just sent off a letter to Gracie. She should be here in less than a fortnight. With any luck, we’ll be dining on her delicious soups, pies, and baked breads soon.”
After breakfast, they headed out of the back of the palace, to the dungeon entrance. The guard on duty unlocked and swung open the heavy door to let them in. He led them down the steps, where they entered a darkened hallway. The guard lit a torch and took them to the block of cells where Terijin was being held, in solitude. He was the palace’s only prisoner.
“He’s in the last cell on the right, Mahajin,” the guard told the twins, handing Yajna a key.
“Good. Stand watch here by the entrance,” Yavi ordered. He motioned Yajna and Jiandra to follow him down the long row of cells.
Yajna motioned her to wait, out of sight, while he and Yavi unlocked the door to Terijin’s cell. Jiandra listened from outside the door as they strode inside and addressed the prisoner.
