"I drive," he was still smiling at me. He drove. The vehicle was an ancient hovercar, but it ran. I got the idea he was the one who kept the vehicle in good repair. Xiri and I learned he was called Nenzi. Nenzi took us to a thriving market about a click away. Solar power was in use, so meats and other items in need of refrigeration were kept cold or frozen.
"Buy missing food." Nenzi held up a necklace chip.
"How much?" I asked, unsure how much he wanted to spend.
"Whatever," Nenzi flung out an arm. Plants, dust and children seemed to be everywhere as we made our way through the market. The children were all wearing the least amount of clothing one might get away with. The native population was darker-skinned than the reptanoids—I saw that right away. The children were running and shouting as they played, using a language I didn't know.
Xiri and I made our choices, Nenzi right behind us. He paid for everything—we had to get quite a bit to feed the crowd at the plantation. Nenzi didn't seem to mind. I was thankful the plantation had several large keepers—we were going to need them. Tropical fruit was everywhere and freshly picked. I had a sauce recipe that required some of the fruit we found. That went into our purchases.
The hovercar was packed full for our return trip, so I paid more attention to the fields we passed on the way home. I was looking for drakus seed but didn't see any from the road. That didn't mean it wasn't there, though.
They have grapefruit, orange, nanna, mango, pineapple, avocado and round melons, I sent to Lendill. All growing locally. They also had meat from a sheep they called palaca, I added. I found green nuts too.
Reah, I know that's important to you, but I'm not sure what good it will do us, Lendill replied. I'd have gotten out my comp-vid and gone looking to see where all those things were grown in one place. But then I wasn't Vice-Director of the ASD, either.
Then give it to Chash as a research assignment, I grumped and ended our communication.
"It would have worked perfectly, if somebody hadn't gotten wind of us," Norian wanted to shout or put his fist through a wall; he couldn't decide which. "When we caught that fool wizard Haral on Reliff, Aryn's compulsion worked flawlessly. Haral spilled the information that the reptanoids were in this up to their foreheads. We would have had all of them; we were an arm's length away from having them," Norian wanted to go to lion snake so badly it was almost painful. He wanted to bite something—kill something. Realizing it was very close to the full moon on Le-Ath Veronis, he did his best to calm down.
"If we'd known this wasn't going to work, we could have turned the wizard over to King Wylend. He has a death warrant out on that one, and probably most of San Gerxon's other wizards too." Lendill was nearly as frustrated as Norian was. They should have had Reah back by now. Both he and Norian had thought it would only be a matter of days. Now, they had no guess at a timeline—they didn't even know where Reah and the others were. Lendill didn't want to hand the information to Tory and Aurelius. Gavril, too, young as he was, wanted information and was begging his mother to ask Norian about Reah every day.
"Reah, do they expect you to do this every day? Work from dawn until they go to bed at night? What are those house servants for?" Teeg was hauling me inside the door. We'd been at the plantation for a week and there hadn't been anyone there to offer us a day off or give us a break. I fell in bed every night, asleep before my head hit the pillow most of the time. When the alarm went off, I dragged myself to the shower, cleaned up and went off to the house.
It took Xiri, Ande, Malin and me all day to serve three meals, drinks and snacks for all the people at the plantation. Arvil went off in a hovertruck a time or two with Farzi, Nenzi and several wizards. I wasn't invited along. I could only assume they were going to inspect the crops. Jazal, Anith, the twins, six courtesans and Delvin stayed behind, lazing around the pool and sipping drinks that we made for them. We were now serving thirty-six people—that included the staff at the plantation. Nenzi had driven us to the market twice since we'd arrived. Now Teeg was seething over it.
"Teeg, just let it go, all right? I don't see anyone else with cooking skills, do you?"
"I don't see any one of them helping, and Arvil doesn't think you need more assistance?"
"Come on, I want to go to bed, not get into an argument." I pulled Teeg's arm, leading him away from the door.
"Reah, I get to knock off work before the evening meal." Teeg had been rebuilding walls and woodwork damaged by termites.
"That's nice." I was headed toward the bed.
"Reah, I want to love you. But I'm not about to take advantage of my girl when she's so tired she can't stay awake."
That stopped me where I stood. "Teeg, I'm sorry. I have to go to bed."
"Then I'll take you," he grumbled, lifting me right off the floor.
"I see we tire our cooks." Farzi walked into the kitchen the next morning as I was pulling the second pan of pastries from the oven. The kitchen was hot from the oven—the plantation's solar air cooler could only do so much and the humidity inhibited its effectiveness. Xiri was already fanning himself and Ande and Malin looked like a bucket of water had been dumped over their heads. If my hair was longer, I imagined I'd look just the same.
I didn't really have time to talk with Master Farzi but I wasn't rude, even if I wanted to be. I drizzled glaze over the pastries as Xiri put plates of sliced fresh fruit out, and then added broiled strips of bacon. Eggs were difficult to find, so we saved those for sauces and baking most of the time.
Farzi followed us as we carried huge trays of breakfast plates into the dining room—it was cooler in there, at least. Arvil was served first, as usual, and then Farzi, who sat down, still watching us. We went down the sides of the table after that, putting a plate in front of everyone. The staff's plates were left on the island in the kitchen—at least they came to get their own after it was cooked. Teeg did the same, only he usually took his breakfast outside where it was cooler.
When I got back to the kitchen, I broke with tradition and took my plate outdoors to eat beside Teeg. He sat on a low wall surrounding a flowerbed. I leaned against him while I ate, then set my plate aside after eating only half my food. I closed my eyes.
"Reah, wake up." The words were soft.
"Hmmh?" I moaned softly when I opened my eyes. Teeg had wakened me, but Arvil was standing in front of me when my eyelids lifted.
"Take her to the bungalow. I'll handle this," Arvil said and stalked off.
"What happened?" I was suddenly frightened.
"Farzi informed Arvil that there were too many people for four to wait on hand and foot," Teeg pulled me up. "Come on, sweetheart, we just got the day off."
I was happy to shuck my clothing, wash in a cool shower and climb into bed in clean pajamas. At least our bungalow had a clothes machine—it washed and dried. Teeg stripped down to his underwear and crawled in bed with me. I slept until late in the afternoon.
"Reah? Sweetheart, wake up." Teeg was nuzzling my chin and neck. He nipped my neck lightly, too. "Come on, baby, open your eyes."
I reached up to run fingers through his dark hair. It curled just a little. Teeg gave me a crooked grin before leaning down to kiss me.
The covers were on the floor, we were both naked and Teeg was giving me pleasure. "I know what my Reah wants," he whispered as his body stroked into mine. His kisses covered my moans as the waves of ecstasy came. I felt like a wanton, wrapping my arms and legs around his body and digging my nails into his back. He didn't seem to care.
"Want more?" Teeg's body was between my legs as I sat on the bar in our bungalow, eating a slice of melon with my fingers. He wiggled suggestively, letting me know he wasn't talking about the fruit. I fed him a chunk of melon. He let me finish the rest of it before he took what he and I both wanted.
I learned what course of action Arvil had taken the moment I walked into the kitchen the morning after my day off. The place was a complete mess.
"Those women not know how to cook," Farzi was there and shaking his head. "I and mine were forced to hunt."
"Sorry," I heaved a helpless sigh.
"None of your fault. You were tired. I have hope you are rested, now?"
"I am rested now." I started cleaning up the mess.
"Perhaps Master Arvil will bring those here yesterday and force them to learn?"
"I have no control over that," I said, wiping flour off the counter and into a waste bin. They'd wasted at least five pounds of flour—it was scattered across the flat surfaces in the kitchen.
"What you control, young cook?"
"Nothing." I ran water in the sink, preparing to wash dishes. Xiri walked in, yawning widely. He took one look at the state of the kitchen and moaned.
"I will find help for you—three days out of eight." Farzi nodded to me and walked out.
"How long are we going to be here?" Xiri hissed as soon as we were alone.
"No idea," I said and started washing plates.
"Thank goodness we get decent food, now." Haral was gazing angrily at the six courtesans—that let me know who it was that had been ordered into the kitchen while Xiri and I had been off. The women didn't take Haral's criticism well. If he'd been bedding any of them, his favors might have just dwindled. I didn't have any expression on my face as I handed out plates of food.
Farzi hired six locals to cook three days out of each eight-day. They went home at night, too. I thought that was a good thing. Teeg was overjoyed to have three days each week to spend with me. Things might have worked out, if spawn hadn't come.
"They killing my workers," Farzi moaned as he walked into the kitchen one morning.
"What? Who?" Xiri and I were staring at Farzi immediately. Ande and Malin had also stopped peeling fruit to listen.
"Those creatures—we not know how bad they could be." Farzi was pretty upset, I could tell.
