herself on her bunk.
Sitting in Command, Medic said, “Fleet Captain can’t always be here. Does she know this is happening?”
“Yes,” Ship said to Medic, and to Seivarden, “Pull yourself together, Lieutenant. I’ll have Amaat Four bring you tea, and you can get cleaned up and then you need to talk to Lieutenant Ekalu and let her know she’s going to be in command for a few days. And it would be good to apologize to her, if you can do that in a sensible way.”
“Sensible?” asked Seivarden, raising her head up off her knees.
“We’ll talk while you’re having your tea,” said Ship.
I had upset the staff at the detention center with my insistence on seeing Queter. They had, I suspected, appealed to the district magistrate, who did not dare call me to account. Besides, she wanted something from me, so instead of complaining to me, she invited me to dinner.
The district magistrate’s dining room looked out onto steps down to a wide, brick-paved courtyard. Leafy vines with sweet-smelling white and pink flowers tumbled out of tall urns, and water trickled down one wall into a wide basin in which fish swam and small yellow lilies bloomed. Servants had cleared supper away, and the magistrate and I weredrinking tea. Translator Zeiat stood beside the basin, staring fixedly at the fish. Sphene sat on a bench in the courtyard outside the tall, open doors, a few meters from where Kalr Five stood straight and still.
“That’s a song I haven’t heard in years, Fleet Captain,” said the district magistrate, where we sat drinking tea, looking out on the darkening courtyard.
“I apologize, Magistrate.”
“No need, no need.” She took a drink of her tea. “It was one of my favorites when I was young. I found it quite romantic. Thinking of it now, it’s very sad, isn’t it.” And sang, “ But I will sustain myself / With nothing more than the perfume of jasmine flowers / Until the end of my life .” Faltering a bit at the last—she’d taken her pitch from my humming and it was just a touch too high for her comfort. “But the daughters breaking the funeral fast are in the right. Life goes on. Everything goes on.” She sighed. “You know, I didn’t think you’d come. I was sure Citizen Queter meant merely to annoy you. I almost didn’t pass the request on.”
“That would have been illegal, Magistrate.”
She sighed. “Yes, that’s why I did pass it on.”
“If she asked for me in such extremity, how could I ignore her?”
“I suppose.” Outside, Translator Zeiat bent lower over the lily-blooming basin. I hoped she didn’t dive in. It struck me that if she had been Translator Dlique, she might well have done exactly that. “I wish, Fleet Captain, that you would consider exercising your influence with the Valskaayan fieldworkers on Citizen Fosyf’s tea plantation. You have no reason to be aware of it, but there are people who would be glad of any excuse to damage her. Some of them are in her ownfamily. This work stoppage is just giving them opportunity to move against her.” This was hardly a surprise, given Citizen Fosyf Denche’s penchant for cruelty. “The local head of Denche is an extremely unpleasant person, and she’s hated Fosyf’s mother since they were both children. The mother being gone, she hates Fosyf. She’ll take the plantation away from Fosyf if she can. This might give her enough leverage to do it, especially since so many intersystem gates are down and the Lord of Denche is unreachable just now.”
“And the workers’ grievances?” I asked. “Have they been dealt with?”
“Well, Fleet Captain, that’s complicated.” I failed to see what was complicated about paying workers fairly, or providing them with the same basic rights and services due any citizen. “Really, the conditions on Fosyf’s plantation aren’t much different from any of the others in the mountains. But it’s Fosyf who will take the brunt of this. And now some of the more troublesome
Sitting in Command, Medic said, “Fleet Captain can’t always be here. Does she know this is happening?”
“Yes,” Ship said to Medic, and to Seivarden, “Pull yourself together, Lieutenant. I’ll have Amaat Four bring you tea, and you can get cleaned up and then you need to talk to Lieutenant Ekalu and let her know she’s going to be in command for a few days. And it would be good to apologize to her, if you can do that in a sensible way.”
“Sensible?” asked Seivarden, raising her head up off her knees.
“We’ll talk while you’re having your tea,” said Ship.
I had upset the staff at the detention center with my insistence on seeing Queter. They had, I suspected, appealed to the district magistrate, who did not dare call me to account. Besides, she wanted something from me, so instead of complaining to me, she invited me to dinner.
The district magistrate’s dining room looked out onto steps down to a wide, brick-paved courtyard. Leafy vines with sweet-smelling white and pink flowers tumbled out of tall urns, and water trickled down one wall into a wide basin in which fish swam and small yellow lilies bloomed. Servants had cleared supper away, and the magistrate and I weredrinking tea. Translator Zeiat stood beside the basin, staring fixedly at the fish. Sphene sat on a bench in the courtyard outside the tall, open doors, a few meters from where Kalr Five stood straight and still.
“That’s a song I haven’t heard in years, Fleet Captain,” said the district magistrate, where we sat drinking tea, looking out on the darkening courtyard.
“I apologize, Magistrate.”
“No need, no need.” She took a drink of her tea. “It was one of my favorites when I was young. I found it quite romantic. Thinking of it now, it’s very sad, isn’t it.” And sang, “ But I will sustain myself / With nothing more than the perfume of jasmine flowers / Until the end of my life .” Faltering a bit at the last—she’d taken her pitch from my humming and it was just a touch too high for her comfort. “But the daughters breaking the funeral fast are in the right. Life goes on. Everything goes on.” She sighed. “You know, I didn’t think you’d come. I was sure Citizen Queter meant merely to annoy you. I almost didn’t pass the request on.”
“That would have been illegal, Magistrate.”
She sighed. “Yes, that’s why I did pass it on.”
“If she asked for me in such extremity, how could I ignore her?”
“I suppose.” Outside, Translator Zeiat bent lower over the lily-blooming basin. I hoped she didn’t dive in. It struck me that if she had been Translator Dlique, she might well have done exactly that. “I wish, Fleet Captain, that you would consider exercising your influence with the Valskaayan fieldworkers on Citizen Fosyf’s tea plantation. You have no reason to be aware of it, but there are people who would be glad of any excuse to damage her. Some of them are in her ownfamily. This work stoppage is just giving them opportunity to move against her.” This was hardly a surprise, given Citizen Fosyf Denche’s penchant for cruelty. “The local head of Denche is an extremely unpleasant person, and she’s hated Fosyf’s mother since they were both children. The mother being gone, she hates Fosyf. She’ll take the plantation away from Fosyf if she can. This might give her enough leverage to do it, especially since so many intersystem gates are down and the Lord of Denche is unreachable just now.”
“And the workers’ grievances?” I asked. “Have they been dealt with?”
“Well, Fleet Captain, that’s complicated.” I failed to see what was complicated about paying workers fairly, or providing them with the same basic rights and services due any citizen. “Really, the conditions on Fosyf’s plantation aren’t much different from any of the others in the mountains. But it’s Fosyf who will take the brunt of this. And now some of the more troublesome
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