by Victor Poole
"Was he mad at you?" Fashel asked.
"No," Ajalia said. "He was angry with Philas for lying to me." Fashel seemed to think about this for a moment.
"So Philas is a liar," Fashel said slowly.
"Yes," Ajalia said. "Although, to be fair," she added, "Delmar has spent a lot of time lying to me as well. He was lying to me yesterday again."
"What does Delmar lie about?" Fashel asked. Ajalia did not answer this question. Fashel seemed to sense that she had crossed a line, because soon she rephrased her question. "Does he ever lie about loving you?" Fashel asked.
"No," Ajalia said. "He has never lied about that."
"Really?" Fashel asked quickly.
"Yep," Ajalia said. Fashel seemed to be lost in thought. Ajalia peeled the tubers, and Fashel shaped the dough into round loaves, and set them aside to rise. She went and stirred the pot of soup, and then came to the place where Ajalia was peeling, and picked up the tubers she had finished. "Aren't we going to cut them up?" Ajalia asked, watching as Fashel took the tubers to the pot, and dropped them in.
"The halles dissolve, and form a thick paste in the soup," Fashel said. She stirred the soup again, and then began to clean the kitchen. Ajalia peeled, and Fashel cleaned, and after some time, Isacar appeared at the door of the kitchen. He did not see Ajalia, and began to speak at once to Fashel.
"Fashel, have you asked for money yet, because I know you used your last bit yesterday, and I don't want you to get behind." Isacar uttered all this in a swift stream of speech. He looked as though he was only ducking into the kitchen for a moment, and was heading somewhere else. "I can lend you more, if you haven't asked," Isacar added. Fashel's face turned into a flame of color.
"I have money," Fashel muttered.
"I just wanted to check," Isacar said. "I'm going out to meet with the other new boys now. We've got a practice room set up in Card's house. Chad told us. We won't be back for dinner."
"Yes, you will," Ajalia said. Isacar blinked, and then he turned quite red as well.
"I didn't know you were here," Isacar said. "I'll bring them back for dinner, then," he said, and then paused, as though doubtful of whether he should turn away.
"Fashel wants to ask you something," Ajalia said. "If she doesn't like to ask you, I'll do it for her."
"Don't!" Fashel whispered urgently at Ajalia.
"Sure, what?" Isacar asked. He stepped into the kitchen and waited, looking terrifically efficient. Fashel burst into tears, and ran out of the room, a wet rag clasped tight in her hand. Isacar looked utterly stunned. He came quickly to Ajalia. "Have I done something indiscreet?" Isacar asked, looking quite disturbed.
"Someone told me that you were disparaging Fashel's food," Ajalia told Isacar. Isacar's mouth turned down at once, as though Ajalia had touched on a very sore point.
"I did not say anything was wrong with it," he told Ajalia. He looked at the tubers she was peeling. "Do you need help with those?" he asked. Ajalia shook her head.
"What did you say about Fashel's food?" Ajalia asked. Isacar sighed, as though he had been talked to death already on this subject.
"I said it was excellent food," Isacar said, "and very plain. I meant it as a compliment, but I think Fashel's taking it to mean she's awful at her new job."
"Well," Ajalia said, "what did you mean when you said it was plain?" She saw Isacar bite his tongue, and breathe in deeply.
"I only meant," Isacar said, "that very wealthy people will expect fussy dishes, when we have big parties. I never said anything against her cooking," Isacar added, looking annoyed. "Fashel cooks very well." Ajalia, who thought that Fashel made dishes worthy of a god, nodded peaceably. "Has Fashel been complaining about me?" Isacar asked.
"No," Ajalia said. "Someone else told her."
"Was it that Philas person?" Isacar demanded. Isacar looked furious. "He has been sneaking around my Fashel," Isacar told Ajalia, "ever since he first saw her in the house." Ajalia did not say anything. Isacar, who no longer looked in a hurry to leave, crossed his arms, and furrowed his brow. "I'm beginning to wonder," Isacar said, "about Fashel."
"What do you mean?" Ajalia asked, keeping her eyes on her tubers. Ajalia put down the knife, and put the other tubers she had already peeled into the pot, and stirred it. While she was doing this, she saw Fashel creep back into the door of the kitchen. Fashel saw Isacar, and Isacar did not see her. Fashel's eyes, which were already pinched and white, widened, and then she turned and went silently away. Ajalia smiled. Fashel, Ajalia thought, was not going to be marrying Isacar.
AJALIA SPEAKS TO FASHEL
"I just think," Isacar said thoughtfully, his eyes on the clean white wall, "that a person of my position should have a very steady partner in life." Ajalia nodded sympathetically, and began to peel the last tubers. She had a generous heaping of the peels pushed against the wall. She did not want to dispose of them until she checked with Fashel, in case the peels of the tubers were going to be saved for some other dish. "Ever since the first meal she cooked," Isacar said, frowning, "and ever since everyone starting cooing over her, she has gotten kind of silly."
"Maybe she is pleased," Ajalia said, "to be doing so well."
"I don't know," Isacar said doubtfully. "She looks very happy with herself. I think this is what she is really like."
"Don't you like Fashel anymore?" Ajalia asked. She was partway determined not to interfere, but the whole situation was intensely interesting to her.
"Oh, I like her all right," Isacar said, as though he was admitting to liking the color blue, "but I just am not sure about her steadiness as a wife."
"Oh," Ajalia said.
"Do you think she would be heartbroken," Isacar asked, "if I told her so?" Ajalia tried very hard not to smile, and failed. "So you think I should tell her so?" Isacar asked, taking Ajalia's smile as confirmation of Fashel's ability to withstand such a conversation. "I'm not saying I won't marry her at all," Isacar added, "but I certainly want to put the wedding off for some time. If she's like this, I'll have to get used to the idea all over again."
"Did you have to get used to the idea the first time around?" Ajalia asked. She picked up the last tuber, and began to peel. Isacar looked surprised at her question.
"Yes, of course," Isacar said. "Marriage is a very serious undertaking. It's an investment of my whole future life."
"Yes, it is," Ajalia agreed.
"I just want to be sure of my intentions, and of what I'm getting into," Isacar said. Ajalia thought that Isacar sounded as though he were talking over a plot of land, and trying to guess if it would produce satisfactory profit when planted.
"Have you ever been in love?" Ajalia asked. Isacar laughed. He saw that she was serious, and his face sobered up at once.
"No," he said.
"Oh," Ajalia said. Isacar studied her expression, which was quite neutral.
"Should I have been in love?" Isacar asked. He sounded like a young man who is making sure to have had all the necessary experiences to move on to a correct state of adulthood.
"It's very risky to marry, where there is no love," Ajalia pointed out. Isacar stared at her.
"Why?" he asked. He did not sound impudent at all, but as though he had never thought of love as a necessary qualifier for marriage.
"Well," Ajalia said, "what will happen if you marry without love, and then discover love later on? Will you give up love, in order to keep the wife and family that you have? Or will you destroy your marriage and family to experience love?"
"But I wouldn't do that to my wife," Isacar said, frowning. "I would keep the wife that I had."
"But if you have no experience of love," Ajalia said, "how do you have any idea how you will act when you are in love?" Isacar thought about this for a while.
"I would do the right thing," Isacar said. "I always do the right thing." Ajalia smiled, and Isacar looked piqued. "Why are you smiling?" he demanded.
"What if following love is the right thing?" she asked him.
"But I wouldn't," Isacar said. Ajalia nodded. "However," Isacar added, "if I feel like Fashel is going to be crying a lot, I won't marry her." Ajalia could not help herself; she began to laugh. She put down the knife, and put the last tuber into the pot. "What?" Isacar demanded. Fashel appeared at the door with very red eyes. She ignored Isacar entirely, and took up the spoon.
"Thank you for putting the halles in," Fashel told Ajalia politely.
"Do you want the peels for anything?" Ajalia asked. Fashel wrinkled her nose.
"They're horrid and sour," Fashel said. "You can use them if you pickle them, but I haven't got any of the supplies, and those peels will turn bad before I can get them. You can throw them out in the pit." Ajalia nodded, and gathered up all of the peels in a bowl. She went out of the kitchen; almost before she was out of earshot, she heard Isacar speaking to Fashel in a low voice. Ajalia smiled, and carried the bowl of peels to the wide garbage pit. She took her time, feeding the peels in one at a time, and watching the black tar-like substance eating up the peels with spits of steam, and gentle bubbles.
Ajalia imagined Isacar talking to Fashel, and Fashel blushing, and giving short answers, and getting more emotional with every moment that passed. Ajalia thought that Isacar was a nice young man, and that he would be thoroughly changed when love struck him. Ajalia was finding that she had a knack for inspiring love in the young people around her. She reflected that Ocher was not precisely a spring chicken, but, she reminded herself, he was still a very young man in his heart. She had not seen Clare for some time; she wondered how that young lady's burgeoning romance with Ocher was faring.
The dragon temple seemed oddly quiet to Ajalia. She knew that Leed and Daniel were bustling about, and that Isacar was too, and Leed had touched on a whole host of plans he was laying for establishing what sounded like a small army, but to Ajalia, in the last two days, the house seemed utterly deserted. Well, she told herself, as she put the last two peels into the pool, and watched them sink slowly into a puff of white steam, not deserted, but certainly very quiet. Ajalia stood up, and walked back towards the door, and the kitchen. She glanced back at the stables, and saw that Pudge was nosing cheerfully in a pile of thick hay. Ajalia went into the back door, and congratulated herself on having competent servants. Her master, she thought, if he came, would be quite pleased.
Ajalia went into the kitchen, and wiped out the bowl she had used with a rag and a little of the poison juice. The traces of juice and flakes of peel smoked gently as they wiped away. Ajalia thought that it was quite nice to have a kitchen with poison juice in it. She looked around at Isacar, who was standing in one corner and glowering silently. Fashel had a flush of triumph on her cheeks, and she was scrubbing the table vigorously.
"Can I talk to you for a moment?" Isacar asked, when he saw Ajalia coming back. Ajalia nodded, and finished clearing out her bowl. She lay the bowl neatly on the counter, and followed Isacar out of the kitchen. Ajalia was sure that Fashel would let out a deep sigh of relief, as soon as her betrothed was out of the kitchen. Ajalia smiled to herself, and thought again that Fashel was not going to marry Isacar at all. Any affection that had bound the two young people together seemed to have gone up in smoke, and all that seemed to be left was a mutual irritation. They were like two young plants who seemed similar in their early growth, but then became totally different species when their maturity came upon them.
Isacar went out of the kitchen, and into the great hall of the dragon temple. Here, Ajalia saw a slight bustle of movement. She had not looked into the great hall when she had first come down the stairs; her mind had been focused totally on Fashel, and on the kitchen, but now, as she looked around the hall, she saw traces of great activity. A few large piles of stones were against the walls, and some boys were clustered there with baskets, and were sorting the stones into groups by size and clarity of color.
"Where did those new stones come from?" Ajalia asked Isacar, as soon as she saw them.
"Leed told us they were just outside the wall, under the ground near the forest," Isacar said. "He sent out a lot of the boys, and the donkey this morning, and they have been carrying them back here all day." Now how had Leed known, Ajalia asked herself, about the great black worm? She told herself that here, at least, was proof that her battle with the black worm had been real enough. "Most of them have been stored upstairs, with the other stones," Isacar said, "but the poorer specimens, and those with broken edges, have been laid out behind the stables. Leed won't say what the rocks are for," Isacar added, a trace of irritation showing in his eyes, "but he said you wanted them."
"I do want them," Ajalia said, her eyes on the boys, and the stones. She saw in the stones a great mass of potential; they were, to her, a precious resource that would prove enormously valuable later on. She was glad that Daniel and Leed had not shared the glowing properties of the stones with anyone. She knew that Ocher had come into the hall when one of her stones had been lit up, but there had been so much confusion, and disarray, that she did not think Ocher had noticed the stone. By the time he had come down the stairs, Ajalia had lit up the hall by lacing magic through two of the columns, and the light from these columns overwhelmed the brilliant light of the stone.
"May I say something?" Isacar asked. He was watching her with some measure of impatience.
"Yes," Ajalia said. "but first, do you know where Leed is now?" Isacar pointed up at the ceiling; Ajalia looked at where he pointed, and saw a group of about five boys, and Chad, hanging in the air right up near the tall ceiling of the hall, seemingly suspended in nothing. Ajalia was sure, by the way they all hung still near the ceiling, that they had climbed up the cords of power in the air. Leed was a little apart from the others, and was speaking quickly, his hands waving expressively in the air. Ajalia could not hear anything that he said, but she saw the rapt attention with which the other boys followed his words.
Ajalia looked at Isacar, who seemed not at all impressed with these flying children. Chad, she saw, was quite relaxed in the air. He looked as though he were in some state of repose as he listened to Leed lecture.
"Can you fly as well?" Ajalia asked.
"Everyone can fly, except the smallest ones," Isacar said, waving a hand. "We all learned this morning. Delmar is the best."
"Where has Delmar gone?" Ajalia asked. She remembered the feeling of snuggling close to Delmar, and kissing him thoroughly, and she repressed the trace of a blush that threatened to color her cheeks. She gazed at Isacar without embarrassment, and Isacar, who was regarding her avidly, seemed to suspect none of her emotion.
"He's reading some books, I think," Isacar said. "He went out on business after the flying this morning, and was gone for most of the day, but when he came back, Leed gave him books. Cross told me that," Isacar said. "Cross has been following Delmar around."
"I told him to do that," Ajalia said. "Now what do you want to ask me?"
"Do I have to marry Fashel?" Isacar asked. He sounded quite anxious. Before Ajalia could reply, he pressed on. "I know that I got her into your house," Isacar said, "and I didn't want to tell you about her at all, but I have been feeling more and more lately that it's just a mistake. I don't think I care for her very much, and I know she doesn't like me at all." Isacar's face turned a little tart when he said this, as though he was disappointed in Fashel's poor taste.
"How do you know she doesn't like you?" Ajalia asked. Isacar frowned, and Ajalia saw that he was holding back a sneer with great difficulty.
"She told me so," Isacar said, "just now." His voice was level, and Ajalia could see that the young man was attempting to maintain his calm, but she thought she saw a volcano of indignation and hurt pride trembling just under the surface. "And she told me," he added, as though he could not help but air his grievances to someone, "that Philas liked her more than I did, and that was shameful, since she had only just met Philas, and I was supposed to marry her." Isacar's mouth was twisted up into an angry snarl. "And she told me that I don't love her at all," Isacar s
aid moodily.
"Well, do you?" Ajalia asked.
"No!" Isacar snapped, "but it's very poor form for her to say so out loud." Isacar looked out over the hall, and seemed to be thinking of something far away. "Anyway," he added, "this is very embarrassing, and I'm sorry that she's here now, but is there anything I can say or do that will convince you to let me not marry Fashel?"
"I don't want you to marry her," Ajalia said. Isacar's eyes widened. His mouth became first surprised, and then a little angry.
"But you brought her here, or you had me bring her here, because you said there was a fold in my heart, and I wouldn't be good at my job until it was taken care of," Isacar pointed out. "Now Fashel is here, and it turns out I don't want to marry her at all, so now you have someone else to worry about, and that's my fault. I feel awful," Isacar added, though it was plain from his expression that he was more annoyed with Ajalia, than remorseful for his own part in the current situation. Ajalia, who felt the sensitivity of Isacar's position, kept back her smile.
"I understand how you feel," she said.
"No you don't!" Isacar said quickly. His eyes brightened a little; Ajalia saw that Isacar thought that if he got her off balance, and on the defensive, he would not feel so guilty for being the means of Fashel having a job here now. "I feel quite awful about this whole mess," Isacar said.
"No, you don't, Ajalia said calmly. "You're very relieved, and now you think I'm going to be angry at you. Do I look angry?" she asked. Isacar bridled, and then examined her eyes.
"No," he admitted. The curiosity she had aroused in his eyes was squelched at once by his previous determination that she was going to be mad at him. "But you're very good at hiding your emotions," he reasoned. "You might be very upset about the money."
"What money?" Ajalia asked. Isacar's mouth pursed up again. Ajalia thought it was clear that Isacar was following a script he had followed several times through with Tree, and that Isacar was annoyed at the failure of the script to play out predictably with Ajalia.