The Drache Girl

by Wesley Allison

  “You didn’t have all this when I was last here,” wondered Yuah.

  “No, I’ve purchased most of this from Mirsanna over the past two years,” replied Egeria. “I’ve done quite well here, writing programs for the Result Mechanism, along with a bit of free-lance inventing. Unfortunately it makes me suspect, in light of the accusations against Mercy.”

  “You don’t think he’s guilty?” wondered Honor.

  “Yes. I do. I don’t think he would have killed himself if he weren’t.”

  “So you’ve heard.”

  “I think everyone in the colony has heard. It would be big news, even if he wasn’t married to Iolanthe.”

  Egeria leaned her head to one side, arched her brow, and said to Yuah. “I’m not a traitor. I had nothing to do with the programs Mercy created for the Freedonians.”

  “I didn’t think you were,” said Yuah.

  “I just thought it needed to be said. Please come in and sit down.”

  Yuah and Honor sat down on the parlor couch, which was as comfortable as it was beautiful. Egeria sat in a matching chair. A lizardman wearing a simple white apron with lacy edges carried in a tray with an antique teapot, three antique cups, and three small matching plates carefully stacked with butter biscuits. It sat down the tray and poured the tea.

  “Thank you, Chunny,” said Egeria.

  “You were expecting us?” asked Yuah.

  “I thought that Honor would be by this morning. You my dear are a surprise—a pleasant one.”

  “Well thank you for having us,” said Honor.

  “It is definitely my pleasure. I don’t have very many visitors.”

  “Really?” Yuah was surprised. “You’re one of the best known and best liked people in town.”

  “That’s kind of you to say. Of course I would expect nothing less of someone who is practically my daughter.”

  Yuah reflexively rolled her eyes. “You’re only a biscuit older than I am.”

  “Yes, but I am engaged to your father.”

  “Have you decided upon a wedding date?” interrupted Honor.

  “Not yet.” Egeria’s face betrayed nothing, as she poured the tea and then handed a teacup to each of her guests.

  “Is that because you have chosen not to set a date, or because Yuah’s father hasn’t?”

  “I am ready at any time,” said Egeria. “But I’m putting no pressure on Zeah. He needs to be ready too. As you know, we had a previous date set, but it wasn’t right for him.”

  “Why is he hesitant?”

  Egeria’s laughter was light.

  “He has always been hesitant.”

  “Why do you think he hesitates?”

  Egeria looked thoughtful, but didn’t say anything.

  “Is it because you are a Kafirite?” continued Honor.

  “He knew I was a Kafirite when we met. Anyone would.”

  “How is that?” asked Honor, stopping her teacup only inches from her lips.

  “Because of my name.”

  Honor looked on blankly.

  “Egeria was the name of one of Kafira Kristos’s apostles,” said Yuah. “One of the more important ones.”

  “Yes, she along with Fantin the Elder, was very important in spreading the gospel of Kafira across Sumir.”

  “I’m surprised that you are so well versed in Kafirite theology,” said Honor to Yuah.

  “I did grow up in a Kafirite household,” Yuah replied.

  Honor nodded and turned her attention back to Egeria.

  “He knew that you were a Kafirite, but you told him that you were not religious.”

  “That’s true,” said Egeria slowly, arching her brow. “I believe I told him that in private.”

  Honor shrugged again. “Yet you go to church every week, and have since I’ve known you.”

  Yuah smiled to herself, seeing one of her father’s affectations in Egeria, who chewed on her lip as she formulated her reply.

  “I never really believed—not in the church, not in God, not in anything. I suppose I always wanted to believe, but I was immersed in objectivity and reason from the time I was very small, all the way through college.”

  She looked at Yuah, who was looking through her.

  “Did you have a similar experience?”

  “I had rather the opposite experience, I think,” said Yuah. “I always believed, even when I didn’t want to.”

  “Being stabbed by a maniac is a great way to put things into focus,” continued Egeria. “Sister Auni saved my life. That was a demonstration that there are more things in the universe than I could easily explain. I began going to church and taking more of an interest in the spiritual. Sister Auni and Brother Galen are so wonderful. They really made me feel like the Church was an important part of my life that I had been missing. And then Mother Linton arrived.”

  “People must like her,” said Honor. “I note that church attendance is up.”

  “People like what she’s saying. That doesn’t mean it’s right, or even that it’s doctrine. She’s poisoning the Kafirites against the Zaeri.”

  “You didn’t seem to mind what she was saying at the town council meeting,” said Yuah, her anger from that moment suddenly flooding back into her. “You seconded her horrible motion.”

  “That was your father’s idea. He wanted to get the motion on the docket then, when there wasn’t a quorum to vote on it. That way when it did come up for discussion, the governor would be there.”

  “Iolanthe?”

  “Yes. She can be a formidable force when somebody disagrees with her, and she wants the Zaeri here.”

  “What else are you going to do about her?” asked Yuah.

  “Do? What else can I do?”

  “You could show people that there is nothing to fear from the Zaeri,” said Honor.

  “How would I do that?”

  “You could come to Shrine with us this Sabbath.”

  “I don’t know if I would know how to act.”

  “I don’t imagine it will seem all that unfamiliar—people praying in ancient Zurian, only without all the standing and kneeling. You can sit with Yuah and myself.”

  “Do you think your father would be pleased if I went?” Egeria asked Yuah.

  Yuah let out a sigh. “I don’t know. I can’t imagine it would displease him. I know I would like you to come. This week will be the first time that I’ve been to Shrine in years too, and I won’t feel quite so out of place if you come with me.”

  She suddenly narrowed her eyes and looked at Honor, realizing that this was probably just what the black-haired young woman had planned all along.

  “Neither of you have tried a biscuit,” asked Egeria. “They’re from a tin. They come all the way from Brech.”

  Both of the other women reached out and took one of the small wafers. They were very sweet, topped with large sugar crystals, and left one’s fingers slippery with butter.

  “These are delicious,” said Honor.

  “And they’re so perfect and uniformly square,” said Yuah. “That’s so much nicer than homemade treats.”

  “If you look carefully, you will see that they are not square at all, but parallelograms,” said Egeria. “You see how this side is parallel with this side and this side is parallel with the side opposite it, but looking very closely you can see that there is no ninety degree angle anywhere on the dessert.”

  A loud chiming clock in another room began to sound— eleven loud vibrating chimes.

  “Ladies, it is approaching the luncheon hour. Would you care to stay for a meal?”

  “We would love to,” said Yuah, whose desire to return home for lunch fell somewhere between being shot in the kneecap with a rifle, and having all of her hair pulled out by the roots.

  “Three for lunch, Chunny,” Egeria called to the lizardman in the foyer.

  “Do you ever worry about that?” asked Honor

  “What?”

  “How we have exchanged the lizzie’s names for these simpl
ified nicknames. It’s as if we were turning them into pets or children. Sometimes I worry that they will think we’re taking away their dignity or even their identity.”

  “Well they are like children in some ways, aren’t they,” said Egeria. “Before we got here they were completely primitive, wandering around, living off the land, instead of using it properly. We’re teaching them culture and the value of work. It’s only fitting that they make a few accommodations to us, such as making their names easier for us to pronounce.”

  “I didn’t know there were any pianos in Port Dechantagne,” interrupted Yuah, bothered by both the subject and tone of the conversation. “Do you play?”

  “Yes. I find that music and mathematics are so very similar.”

  “Would you play something?” asked Honor.

  Egeria stood up and walked to the massive and highly decorative instrument. She carefully spread out her dress and sat down on the bench, resting her hands for a moment on the keyboard. Closing her eyes and taking a breath, she began to play. Yuah recognized the melody as the first movement of a famous sonata, but she didn’t know which one or by whom. Egeria’s fingers moved quickly across the keys, never faltering, as she brought the complex and fast tempo piece to life. Suddenly, before reaching the end of the movement, she stopped. She pressed one white key again and again, and tilted her head, listening.

  “This key is off.”

  “Durch mein sehr lebens,” said Honor. “It is beautiful.”

  “I’ve been practicing this piece for the past week. I’ve almost got it. I practice two hours a day.”

  “Does everything you do have to be perfect?” asked Yuah with a smile.

  “Oh yes,” said Egeria with a straight face, as she pushed a single strand of bright red hair back behind her ear. “Shall we have our lunch now?”

  She led the other two women into the dining room. It, like the parlor and the foyer, was richly decorated. The dining table, though designed for only four places was finely carved and heavy. Its legs would have supported most of the dinosaurs in the neighborhood. The matching chairs seemed too heavy to move, but when Yuah pulled hers out, she found that it moved remarkably easily. Looking down at the floor, she saw that the bottoms of the legs were sitting on some type of disk.

  “They’re casters,” explained Egeria. “Each one has twenty one small ball bearings inside. It allows one to easily move the furniture. I took the idea from something Maalik Murty was working on and adapted it to this. I sold the patent for twenty thousand marks.”

  “Twenty thousand…” Yuah’s mouth dropped open before she could say anything else.

  “It’s not as much as I received for my spring steel paper-holding clip, but every bit helps.”

  The lunch was a simple soup and salad affair, but everything was wonderful. The salad was red lettuce and cress, thin slices of preserved tomatoes and peppers, topped with pecans and crumbled blue cheese. The savory pumpkin soup swam with the flavor of garlic, coconut milk, and pomegranates. Hearty whole grain loaves, obviously from Mrs. Finkler’s, were piled on a plate. And the meal was completed by sparkling white wine from Mirsanna.

  The loud chiming clock in another room again began to sound. This time it chimed twelve. Yuah put down her spoon, making much more noise as it clattered in her empty china bowl than she expected. Both of the other women looked at her.

  “Is there something wrong Yuah?” asked Egeria.

  “I should be at home with Augie.”

  “He doesn’t need you there to eat, does he?”

  “No, he’s been eating porridge for a few weeks now. I just shouldn’t be away from him for too long.”

  “You’re going to spend the rest of the day with him. He’ll be fine.”

  “You don’t know what it’s like to be away from your baby.”

  A look passed across Egeria’s face. “No, I don’t.” A second later, the look, whatever it was, was gone. “You have to stay for dessert at least. It’s trifle.”

  Chunny brought in the multilayered dish and sat it on the table along with several small glass dishes. Egeria scooped out the wine-soaked sponge cake, clotted cream, peaches, and fruit that Yuah didn’t recognize.

  “They’re three different local fruits,” explained Egeria. “I’ve been paying Chunny’s friends to bring me interesting local foods. I’m hoping that I can find something to export back to Greater Brechalon, but so far I’ve found nothing that would survive the trip. These are quite tasty though.”

  “Yes, they’re delicious,” said Honor. “How do you think they would taste with chocolate? I was thinking that I could put some on top of the cake I am making for Hero.”

  “Mmm. I’ll have Chunny wrap some for you to take home.”

  They finished their meal and talked some more, their discussion touching only on unimportant topics. Finally Honor and Yuah bid their redheaded hostess good day and walked out the door and down the steps, Honor carrying a small paper sack filled with strange orange and yellow fruit.

  “We’re only a few blocks away from the square,” said Yuah. “I think I will check on the progress of my dress, seeing that I will definitely need it in only four days.”

  “I still say you don’t need a new dress for Shrine. But if you must, then you must. I’m going to go back home and finish my cake before Hero gets home. You could come by and have a piece later.”

  “Thank you, but I’m going to make a quick check with Mrs. Bratihn and then get back to my little boy.”

  “Good,” said Honor, leaning in to kiss her friend on the cheek. “Give him this kiss from me.”

  “I will.” Yuah waved with two fingers, and walked away toward the Town Square.

  Among the large white two story houses there were few people out. There were however a number of lizardmen working around the structures. One was painting a house exterior. One was repairing a white picket fence. Two were digging in the ground with shovel and rake, preparing a garden for planting. One lizardman was standing in the center of one of the side roads, and seemed to be engaged in nothing but watching Yuah. She looked at it, and it stared unblinkingly back at her. The yellow eyes made her uneasy. Looking away, she continued on. It was a relatively short walk to the Town Square and Mrs. Bratihn’s.

  Yuah’s dress was almost ready. The flowing black material was like liquid night. Relatively unadorned by extraneous bows, buttons, and decorative brocade, it was simple elegance. The only things that remained to be completed were the hems. When she left the dress shop, she had the first real smile of the day upon her beautiful face. Her smile wavered just a bit when she saw Terrence across the square, as she remembered his terse words to her that morning.

  She waved to him, but at that moment he turned and walked around the corner of the bakery. He must not have seen her. She hyperventilated for a moment and then stepped quickly across the cobblestone of the square to the point at which she had last seen her husband. Peering around the corner of the building, she could see him walking east down the road.

  She thought about calling after him, but she didn’t. That he probably wouldn’t hear her, was a reason, though not the primary one. Something in his behavior seemed shifty, and she wanted to see what he was being shifty about. She had never had reason to believe that Terrence had been unfaithful to her, but she had known his brother Augie well, and Augie had been something of a hound dog. Besides, Terrence had other reasons that might send him sneaking around.

  She followed as discreetly as she could. She didn’t duck or hide because there was no way that a woman wearing the height of Brech fashion could duck or hide. Terrence didn’t look back, but strolled along at a leisurely pace that she was able to follow. He wasn’t wearing a corset though, and by the time he reached his apparent destination, she was panting heavily. She stepped as close to the side of the street as she could and took deep breaths, as her husband walked up to the door of Zurfina’s tower.

  “That whore,” Yuah breathed.

  It wasn’t “t
he whore” though that opened the door and invited Terrence in. It was twelve-year-old Senta. As soon as they had gone inside, Yuah hurried to the five-story structure, skirting around the building to the right until she came to a window. She stopped to take a few more breaths, and then leaned carefully over to her right to peer inside. Senta was standing in the center of the room, and Terrence stood across from her. They both had their sides to the window. They were carrying on a conversation—more conversation than she had enjoyed with her husband recently or maybe ever, Yuah thought—but she couldn’t hear what they were saying through the window glass.

  Senta said something with an extravagant wave. Terrence nodded, then stood for a moment, and then said something else. The girl stepped across to him and gave him a hug around his middle. Looking down at her, for a moment Terrence’s expression, all too familiar to Yuah, said that he didn’t know what to do with this display of affection. But then he reached down and grasped Senta by the waist, lifting her up and kissing her on the cheek, and then setting her back down again. The sorceress’s apprentice smiled. She went to the table and retrieved something, bringing it to him. Yuah couldn’t tell at first what it was. Then her husband turned toward the window and held it up to the light. Yuah ducked down out of sight, but not so quick that she didn’t see the object held gingerly in his fingers—a small, blue, cork-stoppered bottle.

  Yuah pressed her back against the side of the house and gulped. How could Senta do such a thing? How could she provide Terrence with the drug that had almost destroyed him? This was evil—evil and horrible.

  Chapter Eighteen: The Paramour Chamber

  The past five days had been more grueling for Radley Staff than the previous five, and that was saying something. Getting his expedition home through the dinosaur filled forest, carrying one dead and one dying, had been more adventure than most people would have ever wanted. A pack of deinonychus had dogged their trail the entire way, but the party was large enough and well armed enough, that the beasts had kept their distance. Such was not true for the utahraptor that had rushed out of the trees. The seven foot tall, twenty-five foot long creature clamped its jaws down on Sanjo’s arm just as Staff pumped five rifle rounds into its fist-sized brain. Crashing to the ground, it nearly ripped the poor lizzie’s arm off. It was a wound that was sure to have killed a man, but after it was bandaged, Sanjo seemed already on the mend.