As they led her lover out of the room, she added to them, “And please have the governess bring my daughter to me.”

  She remained motionless by the window, watching the bare branches outside pierce the white sky. Isaac would have comforted her, had his presence not been a gigantic faux pas to begin with.

  But he needn’t have worried. Soon, the door opened and little Princess Sophia appeared. She ran to her mother, who knelt and embraced her. “Mamae, what’s wrong? Are you crying?”

  “I will be fine,” said the queen, “with you here.”

  Isaac used the opportunity to make a quick exit, not transforming into human flesh again until he was well outside the palace and near the carriage where he was supposed to have been all along.

  Shulamit and Rivka turned when they heard his footsteps on the gravel. “What’s going on up there?” Shulamit hissed under her breath.

  “She’s your loyal friend,” Isaac verified, “but she has a rough time ahead.”

  “Poor thing.” Shulamit stroked the fur lining of her cloak again. “At least her husband will know how to make her laugh. And she’s got her kids.”

  “Sophia is with her now,” said Isaac. They all looked up to the window of Carolina’s salon, where mother and daughter were visible at the window.

  “Who’s that?” Shulamit pointed to a second woman at the window.

  “Sophia’s governess, I think,” Isaac answered. “It looks like they’re talking.”

  “Maybe she did take what I said to heart, and is talking to the working people like they’re people.”

  “I knew you could do it!” Rivka clapped Shulamit on the back soundly. “Time to go home?”

  Shulamit nodded vigorously. “I miss my girls! Besides, this place is too cold.”

  24. Grandmother Swan

  Great, sprawling oaks and silent armies of pines gave way to palms and papaya trees as Shulamit’s caravan made its way back toward Perach and sunshine. Fleeing the chill of the Imbrian winter, and of Carolina’s broken heart, Shulamit was hungry for Aviva’s velvety embrace and the rightness of her presence. As the leaves got larger and greener, and the sun more bold, she perked up and dreamed of her love and their baby daughter.

  At last the carriage arrived at Home City. Shulamit would have begged Isaac to fly her straight home, to reach them even just minutes sooner, but he lay asleep in the form of the great yellow-and-cream python. He was coiled up around Rivka, his tail spilling out across the narrow floor area, both of them dozing away their night watch. Shulamit didn’t have the heart to awaken him.

  They reached the palace in the pink of sunset. Shulamit leapt from her carriage, calling, “We’re back!” with her face toward the kitchen-house.

  Voices from inside surprised her in their deepness, and she hurried closer. The first person to emerge from the kitchen-house was not Aviva, but a wiry, bearded man with a head of unruly curls. Holding the baby princess close to his chest, he smiled and called out, “Hey, Shulamit!”

  “Kaveh!” Shulamit exclaimed in happy surprise. “And Farzin! Oh, yay!”

  For the Prince-Consort’s stout, amiable-faced partner had appeared behind him. “Wow, that’s great timing. We’ve only been here since this afternoon.”

  “I’m so glad to see you two!” Shulamit hugged them both, kissing her daughter on the cheek in the process.

  Aviva came out last, a wooden spoon in one hand. “My absolute favorite queen ever.” Without another word, the two women melted into each other’s arms. Shulamit almost couldn’t move for a few moments; this was the longest they’d been apart in ages. Couldn’t they just stay here like this, bare skin sticking together a little, for another hour?

  “You smell like home,” Shulamit mumbled. Then her brain clicked. “Wait, if they’re here…”

  She unpeeled from Aviva and tore across the garden to see if wishful thinking was lying to her eyes. But, no, there she was, the graceful middle-aged lady with black hair graying in streaks, with her striking, unusual long face and gigantic eyes. She sat under the coconut palm holding Halleli’s kitten, and Halleli knelt across from her studiously drawing.

  Queen Aafsaneh set the cat down and hobbled to her feet when she saw Shulamit coming. “My dear girl!”

  “Oh, don’t get up for me! Your foot. I’m so—oh, goodness.” Shulamit hugged her tightly.

  “This young woman of your employ was drawing me,” Aafsaneh explained, gesturing.

  “Looks great!”

  “I can finish it later.” Halleli withdrew modestly with the kitten, bowing slightly to Kaveh and Farzin as they walked over. Aviva followed them, holding Naomi against her hip.

  “Thank you so much for coming!” Shulamit couldn’t stop smiling; she felt surrounded by so much love.

  “Of course I came!” Aafsaneh petted her hair. Shulamit noticed with a squeeze of her heart that Aafsaneh was always careful to pet her hair in the direction of her braids, to not disturb them, because she respected Shulamit’s quirks. It meant more than she could articulate.

  “But your foot!”

  “I’m… it’s getting better.” Aafsaneh demonstrated her limping walk. “Things happen.”

  “How did it happen?” asked Shulamit.

  “I tripped over a cat if you can believe it. On a marble floor.”

  Shulamit tried not to giggle. “So, how is Eshvat, anyway?”

  Aafsaneh smiled. “No, not her. It was a real cat, not a shifter. But she’s doing well. The tavern is busier than ever, actually—she got a lot of publicity when two men fought a duel over her a little while ago.”

  “A duel?” Shulamit’s eyes widened.

  “I know, isn’t it silly?” Aafsaneh brushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “Pointless of them to be so possessive when she doesn’t want anything like a regular boyfriend.”

  “I bet it made her want them both even less.”

  “Well, yes, at first,” said Aafsaneh. “When they first talked about it, with all the shouting and posturing, she rolled her eyes at them and looked the other way. She was pretty annoyed. But then, when the actual fighting started and it was clear it wasn’t just all talk, and she realized she was selling twice as many kebabs as usual from the attention, she just laughed at them and figured it was part of life.”

  “And so what happened afterward?” asked Shulamit. “When she, no doubt, rejected them both.”

  “Well…” Aafsaneh looked at Kaveh and Farzin, her eyelids delicately downcast but her cheeks merry with a smile.

  “That’s not exactly what happened,” Farzin volunteered.

  Shulamit, tired from the past few days’ journey, looked back and forth between them in puzzlement. “I don’t get it.”

  “Like Maman said,” said Farzin, “Mother Cat made twice as many kebabs as usual.” He grinned enthusiastically at his own joke.

  Shulamit growled as she comprehended his joke, temporarily stunned. “Wow. Well, okay then. Wow!” She looked at Aviva, who was giggling into the baby’s hair. “I don’t even want to lie down with one man, let alone two at once! No offense, guys, but yecch!”

  “You’re thinking of it the wrong way,” Aviva pointed out gently, “since you don’t like men. Imagine two women at once.”

  Shulamit smirked. “You win! That’s something else.”

  “I know the way your mind works,” Aviva replied. “Speaking of which…” She painted her fingertips down Shulamit’s arm, continuing in a softer tone. “How’s Carolina doing?”

  “What? Oh, well. Like you’d expect. But she’ll move on—and, she’s my friend. She really is my friend.” Shulamit leaned in closer so that she could whisper in Aviva’s ear. “But don’t worry; we don’t need a bigger bed.”

  “Girls?” called Queen Aafsaneh, interrupting their tête-à-tête. “I know I’m needed out in the olive groves, but it’s late and getting dark, plus I’m tired from the flight. We can leave in the morning if that’s all right.”

  “That would be amazing,” said Shulamit.

  “In the meantime, does anyone want to play Pirate’s Payout?” suggested Farzin.

  “We can go in the salon,” Aviva suggested.

  “I think I’ll just watch and nurse,” said Shulamit. “I don’t have the mind for games right now, but I want to spend time with everyone. I’m sorry we don’t visit you more often, Aafsaneh. I wish that we did, but I don’t think your husband can stand me.”

  Aafsaneh cocked her head and smiled sadly. “His loss!”

  Shulamit settled comfortably into the sofa in the salon next to Aafsaneh as Aviva, Kaveh, and Farzin set up the board and game pieces on the floor. Within a few moments she had Naomi latched, and overflowed with relief as her breast fed her child again and not a stranger’s or bare earth. Good she’d expressed often enough out there in her travels. She’d been so scared of drying up.

  “Treasure!” Aviva shouted from the floor. Kaveh stuck his tongue out at her, and she mock kicked his leg.

  “Oh, goodness, that’s two bad rolls in a row,” Aafsaneh exclaimed, looking at her dice with resignation.

  “Maman is showing off how virtuous she is by not using magic,” Farzin joked.

  “I would never!” But Aafsaneh was smiling.

  “Notice how you don’t see Isaac in here playing board games,” murmured Kaveh.

  Surrounded by so many people she cared about whom she saw much less than she liked, Shulamit felt like there were rooms of her heart thrown open and illuminated by a wondrous glow, rooms that were usually shut up and left to grow dusty. The light filled her near to bursting, and she hugged her nursing infant.

  A guard’s boots thumped at the doorway. “Majesty?”

  “Yes?” Shulamit turned to look his way.

  “A message for you—update from the northern farmlands.”

  “Thank you.” Shulamit took the roll of paper and sent him on his way. She opened it, then sighed with dismay.

  “What’s wrong, dear little one?” Aafsaneh wasn’t absorbed enough in the game to miss her distress.

  “I feel so out of control. Here.” Shulamit gave her the paper to read.

  Aafsaneh scanned it with solemn eyes. “So the bugs you mentioned have crossed the burnt farmland.”

  “They’re already eating more of our crops. And now there’s nothing between them and the Lovely Valley but more olive groves.”

  “Come here, sweet thing.” Aafsaneh held out her arm, and Shulamit snuggled into her inviting side, craving something motherly. “I’ve handled worse. I have an idea, and if it works, everything will be fine in the morning.”

  “You promise?” Shulamit found herself saying in a voice that reminded her of a child’s.

  “I’m not promising, but I’m hoping. Is that enough?”

  Somehow, between her gentle confidence and her maternal warmth, it was.

  25. Dragon and Dragonfly

  Shulamit’s dreams were so miserable that night that she was glad when Naomi woke her up to nurse. She clutched her close and felt like crying, the guilt and shame of the nightmare still lingering even though it was obviously untrue.

  She looked over at Aviva, and was surprised to see open eyes. “Did I wake you?”

  “I don’t know,” said Aviva, caressing Shulamit’s feet with her own. “It’s good to have you back. Sometimes we slept in Ima and Aba’s room while you were gone.”

  “I’m so glad to be back with you two that I can’t even describe…” Shulamit sighed. “My dream just now—it had something to do with the new infested farm, and how it was somehow all my fault because I’d gone away for so long without my baby, or because of my complicated history with Carolina.”

  “That just proves that you’re the real Shulamit and Imbrio didn’t capture you and send us back a golem replacement.” Aviva kissed her shoulder lazily. “I’m sorry that you’re stressed out, but it’s only because your heart’s in the right place.”

  “I just have to trust in Aafsaneh at this point, I guess.”

  “Let’s take it as it comes.”

  “In my dream,” Shulamit added into the silence of the night, “they were eating…”

  They had been eating Naomi. She couldn’t bring herself to say it out loud.

  “Shh… you have to think about other things. Maybe pray a little?” Aviva was petting her hair.

  Together, they mumbled their way through the familiar lines, until Shulamit was soothed back to sleep.

  ***

  Another day, another grove, another infestation. Shulamit tried her best to keep her eyes away from the afflicted trees, instead scanning the skies for any sign of the great swan that was one of Aafsaneh’s shapeshifting forms. She stood with the farmers, an elderly husband and wife, with Rivka and the other guards they’d brought close beside. Over in front of the farmhouse, the farmhands admired Isaac, who hadn’t bothered to become human once depositing his ladies on the lawn. Not while there were compliments to be had.

  “Will she be here soon, Majesty?” asked the old woman, wide-eyed with anxiety. It was for good reason. Her trees looked like someone was grinding peppercorns over them, so thick were the bugs in the air.

  “Any minute,” Shulamit answered. “We just got here first, because dragons fly so much faster.”

  “Oh, she’s not a dragon too? I don’t know, I guess I thought they were all like him.” She cocked her head at the preening Isaac.

  “She does birds,” Shulamit murmured distractedly. “Wait! Look!”

  Her pointing finger toward the sky heralded the approach of the Swan Lady. She was like a piece of sky come to life, come down to them with blue feathers gleaming in the sun. Shulamit heard gasps from everyone around her as they marveled at the sight.

  Aafsaneh transformed as she landed in one graceful, coordinated motion and walked toward Shulamit, smiling and hands outstretched.

  Shulamit took her by the hand and led her over to the landowners. “I present Her Royal Majesty Queen Aafsaneh of the City of Red Clay. She’s the Prince-Consort’s stepmother,” she added, in case they needed reminding how the great lady was connected with Perach.

  “Your Majesty,” said the old woman breathlessly.

  The old man simply kissed her hand and bowed.

  “Can you help us?” the old woman asked earnestly.

  “I plan on it,” said Aafsaneh serenely. She looked over at the insect-laden trees, cocking her head to one side, then the other as she peered around.

  With a flap of her arms she suddenly disappeared into the form of a tiny songbird. Swift on the wing, she was in the middle of the olive trees within moments, and was off catching bugs.

  A wave of panic rose in Shulamit’s gut. “We tried that already. Aafsaneh! Isaac already—”

  Then a hand squeezed her shoulder protectively. She looked back at Rivka. “What’s she doing?”

  “Let maybe the expert work, all right?” Rivka’s eyebrows were lifted.

  Well, if Rivka had faith, maybe there was faith to be had. After all, what virtue has faith when all is already sure and comfortable?

  Maybe birds have better stomachs than lizards for these awful things, she mused.

  But then Aafsaneh was walking back toward them in human form, pulling something from her mouth. It was the insect. As everyone stared, she studied it in her hand.

  Her face lit up. “Yes, I know these. They’re just what I thought. Perfect.”

  Perfect?

  Aafsaneh stood back on the bare ground and held her hands in the air in front of her. With palms outstretched upward, she began to breathe deeply in solemn rhythms.

  “What’s she doing?” Shulamit asked Isaac.

  “You are an impatient little chipmunk,” he replied obliquely, and she fluttered her eyelids in bewilderment.

  Oh, wait, he has no idea either, and he doesn’t want to admit it. Shulamit grinned. I love my family!

  Something tiny zoomed through the air. It came from the east and headed straight for Aafsaneh. Another just like it followed close behind, then a third from the north.

  Soon, dozens were whizzing all about her head. What were they?

  “What is that?” Shulamit called out.

  With a little smile and a nod, Aafsaneh sent one of them over.

  Shulamit held out her hand, and on the tip of her middle finger alighted—a dragonfly. Two sets of translucent wings glittered like sunlight on the stream in which it had undoubtedly spawned.

  “I don’t get it. More bugs?”

  “There’s our cavalry,” gasped Rivka in wonder and appreciation.

  All eyes were on Aafsaneh, with now at least a hundred dragonflies crossing the air over her head around and around, over and over. Then, with careful deliberation, she changed the aim of her hands, flipping her palms down and aiming her fingers straight at the olive grove.

  The dragonflies followed her command and made straight for the trees. The red-and-blue pestilence was like candy to them, and they devoured the other bugs as if breaking the fast. Shulamit’s mouth dropped open and she was unable to move. The whole thing was so beautiful and so perfect that she could almost feel the earth hum.

  “This is the best thing ever” was the totally unintelligent thing she said when she managed to find speech. “I am… wow.”

  “Queen Aafsaneh is a genius!” Rivka bellowed, and the other queen smiled deferentially.

  Isaac came up behind them as a human, folding his arms across his chest. “Neat trick! I never would have thought of that.”

  “Can she get more?” asked the old woman who owned the farm. “There are so many more trees than the ones they’ve reached.”

  “Aafsaneh!” called Rivka. “Can you summon any more? This batch is doing great, but they’re staying in that one area.”

  Aafsaneh, her eyes wide in concentration, bit her lip. “I’m trying. Maybe we’ll just have to work slowly.”

  Isaac marched over to her. “Can I help?”