Part 11 (2/2)
His wife pa.s.sed his cup over. ”Not at all. She nags and pesters them all the time, but she's very good at her job, and they appreciate that. They can make allowances for her age, or at least the older ones can. No, it's her constant nattering about voices.”
Es.h.i.+ala decided that there was more to worry about than Ukka. This was just preliminary chatter.
Ionfeu shook his head sadly. ”She's convinced them the place is haunted?”
”Or that she's mad. Half of each, I think. Cake?”
”I have heard no supernatural voices. Thank you. I have seen no wraiths. Has anyone?”
Everyone murmured denials. The great house was a spooky place, but there had been no reports of hauntings, except from Ukka herself.
”I don't know what we can do about her, my dear. Excellent coffee! She's been here half a lifetime. We can hardly throw her out in the hedgerows.”
”I have tried to retire her,” Eigaze agreed. ”Three times now. She pays no attention at all, just goes on running everything.”
A brief silence was broken by one of Hardgraa's rare flashes of humor, delivered poker-faced as always. ”The army would transfer her to Guwush.”
Ionfeu smiled thinly. ”I don't know that even the gnomes deserve that! You must just continue to pray, my dear, that one day she will collapse completely under the weight of her wardrobe. Where does she find all those garments?”
”I pray for the patience not to brain her with a warming pan,” Eigaze remarked mildly. ”In the attic. More cream, anyone? Honey?”
No one wanted more cream, or honey. The count twisted his head around stiffly, inspecting the hall to confirm that the domestics had withdrawn. Now he was going to get down to business.
”Ma'am,” he said to Es.h.i.+ala. ”Centurion.” Evidently his wife already knew what was coming. ”We have been here almost four months. So far Yewdark has served us well as a sanctuary. The Covin has not discovered us, the neighbors have been discouraged.”
He meant that Maya was safe, of course. This lonely exile they had all accepted so willingly had no purpose except to protect the child upstairs.
”However, I foresee a problem.” Hardgraa nodded. ”The grounds?”
Ionfeu raised his silvery eyebrows to acknowledge the hit. ”Indeed! They are a jungle, as you know. Years of neglect. And spring is coming. Were we what we pretend to be, we should have done something about them already.”
With a steely glance, the centurion deferred to the impress. She did not see any difficulty. ”Can we not just hire gardeners?”
”That would be the logical procedure, ma'am. But it will require a small army of them, at least at first.”
”Oh. Money?”
”Money,” the old man agreed uncomfortably. ”We did as we were instructed. We hired servants and set out to live the normal life of country gentry. We live modestly and try not to attract attention. It was what his Majesty wanted. Unfortunately, this establishment is draining our resources at a very alarming rate.”
Es.h.i.+ala had never had to worry about money in her life. Her parents had lived simply, within their means. Her mother had been a frugal homemaker, her father a practical merchant. They had never hankered after luxuries they could not afford. They would not have regarded Yewdark as modest, although now they might. Ever since the prince imperial had wooed and won their daughter, gold had poured into their lives like a spring flood.
The count's embarra.s.sment was mirrored in his wife's face. These two would never have had to fret over money, either. An odd glint showed in the centurion's eye, but he did not comment.
”More coffee, ma'am?” Eigaze said. ”The real problem is not money as such, you understand. Everything we possess is at your service. The problem is getting money. Honey? We could write to Tiffy and he would bring us gold in a wagon.”
Now Es.h.i.+ala understood. ”And bring the Covin also?”
”We fear so,” the count said, squirming to ease his crooked back. ”We must a.s.sume that our household is watcheda”all our houses, for we have severala”and our relatives, also. We can think of no safe way to tap our resources, my lady, much as we are eager to do so.”
Sometimes Es.h.i.+ala wondered if she really believed in that mysterious army of sorcerers. If it did exist, it had proved strangely inept at fording her. Perhaps Zinixo did not much care about the imperor and his family. The Impire seemed to be surviving very well without them.
The centurion laid his cup on a nearby table, the fragile china incongruous in his powerful fingers. ”The fault is mine, my lord. I inspected the supplies the warlock had provided. I did not think to estimate our requirements.”
The proconsul shook his head impatiently. ”You could not be expected to know them. Nor, I regret to say, would the warlock.”
He meant that Raspnex was a dwarf, and a dwarf would live a lifetime on what an impish aristocrat spent in a week. Raspnex probably thought he had made ample provision. Shandie knew nothing about domestic expenditureslogistics of armies and whole impires were his expertise. Even the king of Krasnegar, who had not been directly involved, would not be familiar with finances of this kind. Es.h.i.+ala felt a surge of anger at herself for not foreseeing the problem, but she was no more to blame than any of them.
”It seems very ironic.” The count sighed. ”We elude a legion of sorcerers and now we face being defeated by something as mundane as cold cash.”
”There is no use worrying about what we have done or should have done,” Eigaze said firmly. ”The problem exists. What we must do is find a solution.” Common sense was another of her strong points.
Hardgraa waited for someone else to speak, then said, ”Art? Those pictures? Silverware?”
”Possible,” the count agreed. ”But the servants will chatter, the neighbors will hear of it, and who is to sell them for us? If you ride into Faintown with a wagonload of art, Centurion, you will be accused of theft. You might dispose of a piece or two at a p.a.w.nshop, but not very often. The normal procedure would be to summon a dealer from Hub . . . That risks attracting attention and starting gossip. We have no legal right to be here, remember. I agree with your suggestion, but it is a limited one, if you see.”
The soldier nodded impa.s.sively. ”I'd like some time to consider the matter, if I may.” He was speaking as Shandie's chief of security, but he must be feeling sadly out of his depth battling a matter of household finance.
And now it was Es.h.i.+ala's turn. How could she solve a problem that had baffled the wily Ionfeu and his practical wife?
”Move to a smaller place? No, of course not.” Shandie and the others might return here, to Yewdark. It had been designated a headquarters, as well as a sanctuary. ”Well, why not just let . the servants depart? Let them spread the rumor that the place is haunted. We know it's not. The five of us could live here very cheaply, guarded by rumors of wraiths.”
”It would be an uncomfortable life,” the count said. ”Stranger to you than to me, my lord. My mother never employed more than three servants, usually only two.” He nodded uncomfortably and did not reply. He had thought of that obvious solution already, obviously. Eigaze nodded, her various chins pulsing. ”It may be the only way out, dear. But it will cause gossip in the district, and we hoped to avoid that. Well, the problem isn't urgent, is it?”
Her husband shook his head. ”Not very. We have gold enough for a few months; enough for a couple of years if all we need buy is food. But I am disinclined to hire a legion of gardeners.”
”If only we could send word to Tiffy!” Eigaze said. ”Let us all think about it.” Hardgraa frowned angrily. He probably felt guilty at having failed Shandie.
3.
”Awaken! Awaken!”
The shrill voice slashed into Es.h.i.+ala's sleeping mind like a runaway coach and four. She gasped, struggling to make sense of the candle flames whirling in the darkness over her bed. Who? What? Her door had been locked. She always locked her door. It had been one of the first things she had been taught at court.
”He is here!” The bundled apparition was Mistress Ukka, of course, waving a candelabra perilously near the bed curtains.
<script>