The Sack of the Summer Palace

A key to the royal suite?

We have already spoken of the various elements that various other Northern constituencies have used to tickle the fancy of the King. Although the Amalgamated Loggers must be commended for their originality and showmanship up to this point, the subsequent procession proceeded in rather a traditional structure: with music, with banners and other displays of local heraldry, with men performing manliness in martial dances and women performing femininity in seductive ones, with static spectacles wheeled in for general admiration, and the like. Wherefore we turn our gaze away from the ceremony and toward Chesa and Aditi, who had just noticed the approach of Mme Jampa, the Mistress of House.

"You," she said, pointing at Chesa. "What are you doing right now?"

Chesa froze. In fact, she was carrying a tray with two full goblets, for the use of Gregarious Lin and the Iron Rhetorician as the King retired for his afternoon meditation, before the banquet. 

"Queen Sarisha called for wine," Aditi said smoothly. "I accompanied Chesa for protection. It is not wise for girls to walk the halls alone, not with all these mountain men about."

"I suppose it isn't, at that," said Mme Jampa. "But it's you I need, and her to assist. Queen Mani's had another upset."

Aditi swallowed and looked faintly sick.

"If staring's all you do with those eyes, girl, perhaps it will please you to be relieved of them? You know the King can't concentrate with sick and nightsoil all over the suite like that. Make it go away yesterday." She turned to Chesa. "You're out of your expertise here, girl, so you're for stripping and hauling. Your froggy-eyed friend puts clean on and arranges. Please tell me you don't have any questions."

The two women shook their heads, both a bit stunned by Mme Jampa's onslaught. The Mistress of House gave them a look of some slight pity. "Drain those goblets if you must, ladies. I'll have more sent. Only move!"

Chesa's eyes went wide and she began to shake her head, but Mme Jampa had already turned on her heel and bustled halfway down the corridor. 

A bewildered silence hung between the women for a moment. Chesa took a deep breath, let it down slowly, put down the tray, and took a cup. "If I must clean a Queen's sick," she said, "I'm pleased enough to have her wine."

"No," said Aditi, swiftly interposing her hand between the goblet and Chesa's lips. 

"Whyever not? Do you want to do this sober?"

"It will go worse drunk," said Aditi. "These are not odors that mingle well with a stomach full of wine. After." She began walking to the stairs toward the royal suite; Chesa picked up the tray and followed.

"We will have enough trouble with two unasked-for cups of wine," said Chesa. "Or did you forget that Queen Sarisha never asked for it?"

“Nothing of the kind, though you have forgotten to thank me for my quick thinking. Here is what we will do. We will set these goblets down in the customary place, so that we will not be tempted by them as we work, and so that Gregarious and Iron will find them. If the work is as grim as Mistress says it is, the new wine will surely arrive before we finish, and Queen Sarisha will doubtless have vacated the suite for more fragrant quarters. The interception will be child's play, and we shall have our libation—for drinking after the work is done."

By this point they had reached the royal suite—unguarded, the great gilt doors seeming strangely bare. Chesa set the tray down on the decorative table by the doors. "The Queens have vacated the suite, no doubt," she said, "and their sentries with them. Shall I run to Mme Jampa for the key, or will you?"

"No need," said Aditi, producing one from a fold of her dress—a notched steel rod easily as long as a poignard, and similarly nicked and battered.