At the end of the cooling season, the hours of daylight shortened, and our training sessions ended with the setting sun. In the semidarkness of twilight I headed to the baths, moving with care to accommodate my bruised ribs. Janco, that annoying jackrabbit, had gotten through my defenses with his speedy little jabs.

As I approached the entrance to the baths, a large shadow detached from the stone wall. Alarmed, I stepped back into a fighting stance. Fear, excitement and doubt raced through my body. Would I need to defend myself? Could I do it? Should I run?

Margg's ample shape coalesced out of the shadows, and I relaxed a bit.

"What do you want?" I asked. "Are you running another errand for your master like a good doggie?"

"Better than being a rat caught in a trap."

I brushed past her. Exchanging insults, while enjoyable, was a waste of my time.

"Would the rat like some cheese?" she asked.

I turned. "What?"

"Cheese. Money. Gold. I bet you're the kind of rat that would do anything for a piece of cheese."

19.

"WHAT WOULD I HAVE TO DO to get a piece of cheese?" I asked. I knew it! Margg was the one leaking information about me, and now she wanted to use me. Finally, some evidence.

"I have a source that pays well for information. It's the perfect setup for a little rat," Margg said.

"What kind of information?"

"Anything you might overhear while you're scurrying around the Commander's office or Valek's apartment. My contact pays on a sliding scale; the juicier the news, the bigger the chunk of cheese."

"How does it work?" My mind raced. Right now it was her word against mine. I needed proof I could show Valek. To be able to finger both Margg and her source would be a sweet treat.

"You give me the information," she said, "and I pa.s.s it along. I collect the money, and give it to you, minus a fifteen percent fee."

"And I'm supposed to believe that you'd stick to fifteen percent cut of a total I'd be unaware of?"

She shrugged. "It's either that or nothing. I'd think that a half-starved rat like you would pounce on any morsel, no matter how small." Margg began to walk away.

"What if we went to your source together?" I suggested. "Then you'd still receive your fee."

She stopped. Uncertainty creased her fleshy face. "I'll have to check." She disappeared down the hallway.

I lingered outside the baths for a while, considering the possibility of following Margg around for a couple of days, but dismissed the idea. If her contact didn't like my suggestion, I'd scamper to Margg with my tail between my legs, begging for another chance. She'd enjoy that! Then I'd follow her. Revealing her as a traitor to Valek would be a pleasure.

My conversation with Margg had used up my bath time, so I headed to the Commander's office. When I arrived, Sammy, Rand's kitchen boy, hovered outside the closed door holding a tray of food. I could hear a m.u.f.fled angry voice inside.

"What's going on?" I asked Sammy.

"They're arguing," he said.

"Who?"

"The Commander and Valek."

I took the tray of cooling food from Sammy. No reason we both had to be there. "Get going. I'm sure Rand needs you."

Sammy smiled his relief and sprinted through the throne room. I'd seen the kitchen during dinnertime. Servers and cooks swarmed like bees with Rand directing the chaos. Barking orders, he controlled his kitchen staff like the queen bee of the hive.

Knowing the Commander disliked cold food, I stood close to his door, waiting for a break in the conversation. From my new position I could hear Valek clearly.

"Whatever possessed you to change your successor?" Valek demanded.

The Commander's soft reply pa.s.sed through the wooden door as an indecipherable murmur.

"In the fifteen years I've known you, you've never reversed a decision." Valek's tone became more reasonable. "This isn't a ploy to discover your successor. I just want to know why you changed your mind. Why now?"

The response wasn't to Valek's liking. With a sarcastic jab in his voice, he said, "Always, Sir."

Valek jerked the door open. I stumbled into the office.

He wore a glacial expression. Only his eyes showed his fury. They were pools of molten lava beneath an icy crust. "Yelena, where the h.e.l.l have you been? The Commander's waiting for his dinner." Not expecting an answer, Valek strode briskly through the throne room. Advisers and soldiers melted from his path.

Valek's anger seemed extreme. Everyone in Ixia knew that one of the eight Generals had been chosen as the Commander's successor. In the typical paranoid custom of the Commander's ruling, the name of the selected General was kept secret. Each General held an envelope that contained a piece of a puzzle. When the Commander died, they would a.s.semble the puzzle to reveal an encrypted message. A key would be required to decipher the note. A key only Valek held. The chosen General would then have the complete support of the military and the Commander's staff.

The theory behind the puzzle was that secrecy would prevent someone from staging a rebellion in support of the chosen heir, since the heir was unknown. The added risk that the inheritor might be even worse than the Commander was another deterrent. As far as I could see, a change in the chosen General probably wouldn't affect day-to-day life in Ixia. We didn't know who had been originally selected, so the switch would have no bearing until the Commander died.

I approached Commander Ambrose's desk. He read his reports, unaffected by Valek's rage. I performed a quick taste of his dinner; he thanked me for the food then ignored me.

On my way back to the baths, I wondered if the information I had just overheard would fetch a decent price from Margg's contact. I quenched my curiosity; I had no desire to commit treason for money. I just wanted to get out of my present situation alive. And knowing Valek, I had no doubt that he would discover any clandestine meetings with Margg. For that reason alone, I had to prove that, no matter what Margg believed, I was not a spy. Just the mental vision of Valek's burning eyes focused on me sent a hot bolt of fear through me.

A long soak in the bath eased my sore ribs. As it was still early in the evening, I thought it prudent to avoid Valek for a while. I stopped in the kitchen for a late dinner. After helping myself to the leftover roast meat and a hunk of bread, I carried my plate to where Rand worked. He had an array of bowls, pots and ingredients messily spread out on his table. Dark smudges rimmed his bloodshot eyes, and his brown hair stuck straight out where he had run his wet hands through it.

I found a stool and a clean corner on Rand's table and ate my dinner.

"Did the Commander send you?" Rand asked.

"No. Why?"

"I finally received the Criollo recipe from Ving two days ago. I thought the Commander might be wondering about it."

"He hasn't said anything to me."

Two large shipments of Criollo, sans the recipe, had arrived for the Commander since Brazell had left the castle. Each time, the Commander had responded with a "thank you" and another request for the formula. As the quant.i.ty received had been plentiful, the Commander had given Rand some Criollo to play with. Rand hadn't disappointed. He had melted it, mixed it into hot drinks, invented new desserts, chipped it and remolded it into flowers and other edible decorations for cakes and pies.

I watched Rand stir a mahogany-colored batter with tight agitated movements. "How's it going?" I asked.

"Horrible. I have repeatedly followed this recipe, and all I've gotten is this awful-tasting mud." Rand banged the spoon on the bowl's edge to knock off the pasty residue. "It won't even solidify." He handed me a sheet of once-white paper smeared with brown stains and flour. "Maybe you can see what I'm doing wrong."

I studied the list of ingredients. It looked like a normal recipe, but I wasn't a cooking expert. Tasting, on the other hand, was becoming my forte. I took a scoop of his batter and slid it onto my tongue. A sickeningly sweet flavor invaded my mouth. The texture was smooth and the batter coated my tongue like Criollo, but it lacked the nutty, slightly bitter taste that balanced the sweetness.

"Maybe the recipe's wrong," I said, handing the sheet back to Rand. "Put yourself in Ving's position. Commander Ambrose loves Criollo, and you hold the only copy of the recipe. Would you give it away? Or would you use it to manipulate a transfer?"

Rand plopped wearily onto a stool. "What do I do? If I can't make Criollo, the Commander will probably rea.s.sign me. It'll be too much for my ego to stand." He attempted a weak smile.

"Tell the Commander that the recipe's a fake. Blame Ving for your inability to duplicate the Criollo."

Sighing, Rand rubbed his face in his hands. "I can't handle this type of political pressure." He ma.s.saged his eyelids with the tips of his long fingers. "Right now, I'd kill for a cup of coffee, but I guess wine will have to do." He rummaged around in the cabinet and produced a bottle and two gla.s.ses.

"Coffee?"

"You're too young to remember, but before the takeover, we imported this absolutely wonderful drink from Sitia. When the Commander closed the border, we lost an endless list of luxury items. Of all those, I miss coffee the most."

"What about the black market?" I asked.

Rand laughed. "It's probably available. But there's nowhere in this castle that I could make it without being discovered."

"I'll most likely regret asking you this, but why not?"

"The smell. The coffee's rich and distinct aroma would give me away. The scent of brewing coffee can weave its way throughout the entire castle. I woke up to it every morning before the takeover." Rand sighed again. "My mother's job was to grind the coffee beans and fill the pots with water. It's very similar to brewing tea, but the taste is far superior."

I sat up straighter on my stool when I heard the word beans. "What color are coffee beans?"

"Brown. Why?"

"Just curious," I said in a calm tone, but excitement boiled within me. My mystery beans were brown, and Brazell was old enough to know about coffee. Maybe he missed the drink, and planned to manufacture it.

My efforts to ferment the pod's pulp had resulted in a thin chestnut-colored liquid that tasted rotten. The purple seeds inside the pulp had been sopping wet, and covered with flies. I had closed the window and dried the seeds on the windowsill. As they dried, the seeds turned to brown and looked and tasted like the beans from the caravan. Thrilled to link the pods with the beans, my excitement had faded when I hadn't been able to learn anything further.

"Does coffee taste sweet?" I asked.

"No. It's bitter. My mother used to add sugar and milk to half of her finished pots, but I liked it plain."

My beans were bitter. I couldn't sit still any longer; I had to find out if Valek remembered coffee. I felt uncomfortable asking Rand, unsure if Valek wanted him to know about the southern pods.

After bidding farewell to Rand, who stared morosely into the failed batter as he drank his wine, I rushed back to Valek's suite. The sound of slamming books greeted my entrance. Valek stormed around the living room, kicking piles of books over. Gray rock debris littered the floor and clung to impact craters on the walls. He clenched a stone in each fist.

I had wanted to discuss my coffee hypothesis with him, but decided to wait. Unfortunately, Valek spotted me staring. "What do you want?" he snarled.

"Nothing," I mumbled and fled to my room.

For three days, I endured Valek's temper. He vented his ill humor on me at every opportunity. Thrusting the antidote at me, speaking curtly, if at all, and glaring whenever I entered a room. Weary of avoiding him and hiding in my room, I decided to approach him. He sat at his desk, his back to me.

"I may have discovered what those beans are." It was a weak opening. What I really wanted to say was, "What the h.e.l.l's the matter with you?" But I thought a soft approach more prudent.

He swiveled to face me. The energy of his anger had dissipated, replaced by a bone-chilling cold. "Really?" His voice lacked conviction. The fire in his eyes had extinguished.

I stepped back. His indifference was more frightening than his anger. "I..." I swallowed, my mouth dry. "I was talking to Rand, and he mentioned missing coffee. Do you remember coffee? A southern drink."

"No."

"I think our beans might be coffee. If you don't know what coffee is, perhaps I should show them to Rand. If that's all right with you?" I faltered. My suggestion had sounded like a child pleading for a sweet. "Go ahead; share your ideas with Rand. Your buddy, your best friend. You're just like him." Icy sarcasm spiked Valek's words.

I was stunned. "What?"

"Do as you like. I don't care." Valek turned his back on me.

I stumbled to my room, and then locked the door with shaky fingers. Leaning against the wall, I replayed the last week in my mind to see if there had been some clue to Valek's withdrawal. I could remember nothing that stood out. We had barely said a word to each other, and I had believed his anger had been directed toward the Commander-until now.

Maybe he had discovered my magic book. Perhaps he suspected I had some magical power. Fear replaced my confusion. Lying on my bed that night, I stared at the door. With every nerve tingling, I waited for Valek's attack. I knew I was over-reacting, but I was unable to stop. I couldn't erase the way he had looked at me as if I was already dead.

Dawn arrived, and I moved through my day like a zombie. Valek ignored me. Even Janco's ever-present good humor couldn't snap me out of my funk.

I waited a few days before bringing the beans along to show Rand. He was in better spirits. A big smile graced his face, and he greeted me with an offer of a cinnamon swirl.

"I'm not hungry," I said.

"You haven't eaten in days. What's the matter?" Rand asked.

I dodged his question by asking about the Criollo.

"Your plan worked. I informed the Commander that Ving's recipe was wrong. He said he'd take care of it. Then he inquired about the kitchen staff: were they working well? Did I need more help? I just stared at him because I felt like I was in the wrong room. I'm usually greeted with suspicion and dismissed with a threat."

"That doesn't sound like a good relationship."

Rand stacked a few bowls and straightened a row of spoons. His smile faded. "My interaction with the Commander and Valek could be considered rocky at best. Being rather young and rebellious right after the takeover, I attempted every trick of sabotage possible. I served the Commander sour milk, stale bread, rotten vegetables and even raw meat. At that point, I was just looking to be a nuisance." He picked up a spoon and tapped it against his knee. "It became a battle of wills. The Commander was determined that I cook for him, and I was determined to either be arrested or be rea.s.signed."

Thump, thump, thump went the spoon, and Rand continued his story, his voice husky. "Then Valek made my mother the food taster-that was before they implemented that d.a.m.n Code of Behavior-I couldn't bear to have her taste the garbage I served the Commander." Old sorrows pulled at Rand's features. He twirled the spoon in circles between his fingers.

Words failed me. Dread crept up my spine as I contemplated the fate of Rand's mother.

"After the inevitable happened, I tried to run away, but they caught me just shy of the southern border." Rand rubbed his left knee. "They shattered my kneecap, hobbling me like some d.a.m.n horse. Threatened to do my other leg if I ran again. And here I am." He snorted, sweeping all the spoons off the table. They clattered on the stone floor. "Shows you how much I've changed. The Commander's nice to me and I'm happy. I used to dream of poisoning the b.a.s.t.a.r.d, of taking that final step in our battle. But I have this weakness of caring for the food taster. When Oscove died, I promised myself never to care again." Rand pulled out a bottle of wine. "Only I failed. Again." He retreated to his rooms.

I hunched over the table, regretting that my comment had caused Rand pain. My pockets bulged uncomfortably with the beans. I shifted in my seat. Liza would have good cause when she blamed this mood swing on me. Valek's actions with Rand's mother seemed harsh from Rand's perspective, but when I thought about it from Valek's point of view, it made sense. His job was to protect the Commander.

I lived the next two days in a fog. Events blurred together. Tasting, training, tasting, training. Ari's and Janco's curses and attempts to rouse me remained unsuccessful. The news that I could start knife defense failed to produce any enthusiasm. My body felt as wooden as the bow I held.

When Margg materialized after one of my training sessions to inform me that a meeting with her contact had been scheduled for the following evening, it was with great difficulty that I summoned the strength to rally.

I thought out each possible scenario, and each combination of events kept leading me to one conclusion. Who would believe me if I reported the meeting? No one. I needed a witness who could also act as a protector. Ari's name sprang to mind. But I didn't want any suspicion to fall on him if something went wrong. It was also possible that Margg's contact had a boss, or a whole network of informers, and I could be getting in over my head. Dance as I might, there was but one course of action, and it led to but one person: Valek.

I dreaded the encounter. My interaction with him had dwindled to the silent awkward dispensing of my antidote every morning. But after tasting the Commander's dinner, I sought Valek out, my stomach performing flips. His office was locked, so I tried his suite. He wasn't in the living room, but I heard a faint sound from upstairs. A thin slash of light glowed under the door to Valek's carving studio. A metallic grinding noise raised goose b.u.mps on my flesh.

I faltered at the entrance. This was probably the worst time to disturb him, but I was to meet Margg's contact the next day. I had no time to waste. Gathering courage, I knocked and opened the door without waiting for an answer.