***

  After the portrait was finished, Halleli offered to show the queen around the farm. They walked out into the sunlight, guards and Isaac following at a respectful distance. “This is the tree where my father proposed to my mother.” Her hand traced the bark, then drew back sharply. “Ew.”

  “Do you know what those are?” Shulamit found herself asking.

  “Yeah.” Halleli looked at the ground. “They got Gil’s farm pretty good.” With pleading eyes, she faced Shulamit. “That’s why you’re here, right? To help with the bugs?”

  Shulamit gave her a weak smile.

  Thumps on the dirt heralded the approach of Rivka and Hadar. “That’s some great woman you got there, Halleli!” Rivka bellowed.

  Hadar laughed. “Whew! You sure gave me a workout!” She was shining all over with sweat and smiling like seven birthdays.

  “Wish I had her on my guard.” Rivka eyed Shulamit significantly, speaking with her eyebrows.

  Shulamit lifted her own in response, then nodded.

  “What’s going on? What are we doing?” Hadar bounded up to Halleli and caught her in an embrace from behind, closing her arms around her waist.

  “I was showing the queen around the farm,” Halleli explained. “We got interrupted by some bugs.”

  “Those things from Gil’s farm made their way over here?” Hadar wrinkled her nose. “Ugh.”

  “They weren’t here yesterday?” asked Shulamit.

  Hadar shook her head. “Nah, we were totally clean yesterday morning. I’ve been spraying soapy water on the trees, and I thought that would keep them away. It does sometimes, with other bugs.”

  “They moved this fast overnight,” Shulamit murmured to Rivka, who had drawn close.

  “And could be on the other side of the farmhouse by tomorrow.” Rivka’s voice was grim.

  “I thought that if we could get Aafsaneh here, she’d know what to do, how to fight them.”

  “Who’s that?” asked Halleli.

  “My stepmother-in-law,” explained Shulamit. “Well, legally, anyway. I only have a husband so I could have a legal heir. He lives on a vineyard with the man he loves—he’s like us.” She gestured, indicating that she was including her audience. “But, technically, it’s her vineyard, and she lived there for twenty-five years before she married the king of her country.”

  “Plus, she’s a witch who can turn into a swan,” piped up Rivka.

  “She sounds wonderful.” Halleli had stars in her eyes. “You think she can help us?”

  Shulamit scratched her wrist. “Well, if anyone would know magic that would get rid of agricultural pests, she seems like the one…”

  “They’re on those trees there, now.” Hadar was pointing at another row, farther to the south.

  Shulamit looked at the ground. Under the soil, in the roots, the blight spread by the insects was no doubt already taking hold. When she looked up, she faced south. Past the farmhouse, she saw the mountains melting away into rolling foothills, and rows of other people’s trees evening out into other types of plantations. Rice, oranges, mangoes. Vineyards and orchards, fields and furrows.

  She didn’t have to see the detail to know what was there—she’d been there before with her father as a young girl and then as a teenager, and more recently as a queen. There were scores of people down there growing the food that made her country rich and well-nourished, each of them with families and memories and needs.

  In her imagination, she saw the bugs sailing in with each southward breeze, seeking new succulent plants to devour. She saw the blight spreading into every root in the Valley, the mold over every leaf. She saw farmhouse after farmhouse grow dark as their residents were forced into poverty, her cities teeming with the displaced and hungry.

  She saw Perach forced to buy more food from its neighbors, instead of selling so much as they’d done in any life she’d known. From Zembluss, from the city-states, and yes, from cruel Imbrio, who worked its peasants into the ground to keep pretty Carolina in diamond tiaras.

  This was what they wanted.

  No.

  “I wish she was here,” Shulamit found herself saying, “but we can’t get her here in time. Not with four days’ journey there and back.”

  “So now what?” asked Halleli. Hadar stepped in front of her slightly, a move that seemed protective.

  Shulamit looked at Isaac. In a choked, broken voice, she said to Halleli, “I’m afraid I’m going to make you hate dragons.”

  It took her a few moments to understand. “What are you saying?”

  “I want you to understand,” said Shulamit somberly, her hands clasped together, “that I understand if you hate me too. I hate me right now.” She took a deep breath. “I have to stop them. I have to stop the flies.” She closed her eyes, not able to bear seeing Halleli’s face at her next words. “We have to burn the farm down.”

  She felt an arm she knew was Rivka’s descend around her shoulder, and she leaned into the familiar, stiff leather, wishing she was somewhere else and wanting to cry.

  When she opened her eyes, the faces of the women were pretty much what she’d been expecting. Halleli’s eyes were wide, her mouth small and open slightly. Hadar had lifted both brows and was frowning intensely. “How can you just come in here with your wizards and horsemen and take our farm away?” she demanded. Halleli began to cry softly, so Hadar put both her arms around her, glaring around her at everyone.

  “I’m so sorry,” said Shulamit. “I don’t want to. It’s the last thing I wanted to do.”

  “What about him?” Hadar lifted her hand to Isaac. “Can’t he do something?”

  “He tried yesterday and it nearly killed him.” Shulamit’s fingers closed around one edge of her scarf, massaging the soft fabric to soothe herself. “He’s got a lifetime of experience on the battlefield and in courts of at least five different countries I can think of, but this, he couldn’t do.”

  “I wish that I could,” Isaac verified.

  “With this much bare earth, we could hold the bugs off for several weeks,” said Shulamit, “long enough for Aafsaneh to get here and destroy them completely, if she knows how.”

  “But why us?” Halleli pleaded.

  “This is how far they’ve gotten. The bugs just got here, right?”

  With a frantic little motion, Halleli nodded. “But what will we do? We have nothing.”

  Rivka stepped forward, her hand out to Hadar. “Come to Home City and let me train you for the

  Guard.”

  “Me?” Hadar jutted her face forward in astonishment. “You were serious about that? But I’m a woman!”

  Rivka’s response was to draw herself up to her full height, fold her arms in front of her chest, and toss her head so that her hair rippled golden in the sunlight.

  Suddenly, Hadar’s face changed. Her eyes widened in shock, the rest of her face frozen. Then, slowly, the corners of her mouth twitched, and the tiniest smile appeared, just for a moment.

  Shulamit figured she’d just witnessed Rivka wordlessly out herself to her new prospect, and flushed with feminist zeal.

  “You’re young and you have a lot of energy,” said Rivka calmly. “Your body is cut out for it, and so is your mind. And you wouldn’t be the only woman in the Royal Guard. I’ve started looking for more.”

  “I like the idea,” said Hadar, “but it’s all up to her. She’s my other heart.” She stepped back and took Halleli’s hand.

  Halleli turned to look at her. “This is really hard.”

  “I know, love.”

  Bugs flew over their heads. Halleli gazed all around herself, at everything she’d grown, at everything her parents had planted, and her parents’ parents.

  Finally, she spoke, in a voice that was barely audible. “I won’t hate dragons.”

  It was consent. Shulamit stepped forward and took her hands. “You’re a national hero. I promise.”

  “I’m a national basket case.” Halleli squeezed her hands, then dropped them and laid her head on Hadar’s shoulder.

  “My guards will help you pack up your house.” Shulamit’s voice was gentle. She was consciously mimicking the tone Aviva used to sing their daughter to sleep. “I’ll even do what I can, myself. Do you have a wagon we can hitch to my royal carriage? Or have the horses pull?”

  Hadar nodded. “We have a wagon and there’s a donkey who can help, if we need him. He crushes the olives when we make oil. I guess we can sell him in the city.”

  “Not yet,” Halleli whispered.

  “Okay, we can keep him as a pet.” Hadar hugged her, then pulled away. “What about her? Can she work in the palace?”

  “We’ll find something for her,” said Shulamit.

  “I can help in the palace kitchen or if anyone needs help planting things.” Halleli’s voice was barely audible now.

  Shulamit nodded. “While we find a place you’ll be happiest, you can draw pictures for me. In any case, there’s plenty of work in Home City.” That’s part of what I’m trying to preserve here…

  They worked quickly over the next few hours, staying one step ahead of insect invasion. Gil and Eliana showed up with some of their family, fetched by a Royal Guard and one of Hadar and Halleli’s workers, and they did what they could to help pack while saying good-bye. Putting so much energy into a task distracted everyone from the sorrow of the moment, and Shulamit was able to avoid her guilt by carrying bundles from the house to the wagon.

  It was late afternoon by the time the house lay empty enough to satisfy its owners. “I think that’s all we really need.” Halleli’s face looked like she’d aged ten years in a morning. She put her hands on her hips and looked around the empty house. One hand reached out and caressed a wall.

  “You are a brave and beautiful woman,” said Shulamit.

  Halleli answered with a half smile. “Guess I’d better go outside.”

  They found Isaac transformed in the front garden. “Everybody secure?”

  “We’d better do a roll call,” said Shulamit.

  The guards all counted off, and Shulamit verified that Hadar, Halleli, Rivka, and of course Isaac were all safe.

  “The horses and donkey with the wagon and carriage are up on that hill where Hadar and I were wrestling earlier.” Rivka pointed. “I think that is a good place for us to wait, out of the range of the fire.”

  Just in case, each of the guards carried buckets of water, including Rivka. Everyone followed her to the peak of the hill—everyone except Isaac.

  As she trudged up the hill with her guards, Shulamit heard a strange puff of noise behind her. She turned around to see Isaac testing his flames in the air. Black smoke and tiny, glowing sparks, like little orange jewels, flew from his mouth.

  He noticed her watching “I’ll wait for your command,” he called out.

  She nodded in response, then kept hiking.

  Once atop the hill, she stood gazing out over the land. The farm was a healthy size, and hopefully its absence would create a barrier the bugs would be too confused to cross for a while. She knew it wouldn’t last forever though. They’d smell food on the other side, and then they’d come.

  But this was their best hope—for now.

  Halleli stood beside her. “I want to remember it. I’m so scared I’ll forget and then it won’t exist anymore.”

  “You should draw it when we get back to the palace.”

  Halleli was silent, tears streaking her cheeks.

  Rivka busied herself checking the horses, making sure they were ready for the journey that would take them back to the palace in time to sleep tonight. Hadar joined her, already instinctively treating her as her commander.

  The air was so still and so peaceful, Shulamit almost couldn’t believe what they were about to do to it.

  Well, there was no reason not to start now. “Isaac, go ahead.” She was surprised at how confident she sounded.

  Down in the grove, the great dragon nodded, then reared back on his haunches.

  Brilliant yellow flame shot from between his jaws. It consumed the tree in his immediate path and began to move down the row to the next.

  His wings were starting to work again, but they were frail like a chicken’s. He was able to get about his own height into the air again before he was forced to land. Here he set another tree ablaze.

  Soon, more trees were on fire. Everything was orange, and the air was full of the scent of burning wood.

  Halleli was crying. Shulamit hugged her, and then she was crying too. Her shoulder was sticky from the other woman’s tears, but she ignored it and held her closer.

  Hadar stood on the top of the hill, her hands on her hips as she watched the inferno consume the grove.

  Finally, as if she’d seen enough, she walked over and joined the other two women, putting her arms around both of them.

  Shulamit’s breaths were deep and even. The decision had been made, and it was all over. Hadar and Halleli would come to Home City and rebuild.

  But the danger was only halted, not stopped.

  Shulamit watched the fires leap into the air, licking the blue sky. If only there were a way to surround all her country’s farmlands with such fire, benevolent fire, protective fire, that would keep out all who threatened them. She imagined them, guarded like a sleeping goddess on a hilltop, protected from harm.

  11. A Night for Heroes

  Shulamit and her found family did their best to make the ride back to Home City as cozy and rejuvenating as possible. Isaac rode on Rivka’s shoulder as a lizard so that Hadar and Halleli would have the other cushioned seat to themselves, and he and Rivka entertained and distracted the two women with stories about their days on the battlefield together.

  In between, Shulamit told them all about Aviva and how they’d met because as the palace’s Second Cook, she was the only person to figure out that the queen—well, Princess Shulamit at the time—was sensitive to certain foods.

  “I can’t eat chicken or any other fowl,” said Shulamit, “and wheat gives me stomach cramps.”

  “Wheat?” exclaimed Halleli with surprise. “But it’s in everything!”

  “Tell me about it!” the queen agreed. “No pita, no challah, no sufganiyot at Chanukah, she has to make me my own separate batch of tabouleh without the bulghur…”

  “What about beer?” asked Hadar. “Does the fermentation get rid of… whatever it is?”

  Shulamit shook her head. “No, but I mean, that’s not something I miss.”

  “What about the princess?” Halleli shifted against the cushions to get more comfortable. “Can she eat any of this?”

  “She’s really too young for us to know,” said Shulamit, “but we’re being careful.”

  Isaac sang for them to pass more of the time; his voice was deep and luscious and he knew it. Shulamit could tell he was deliberately choosing cheery or exciting songs that wouldn’t send Halleli into fits of tearful nostalgia, and she was grateful for his foresight.

  The sky was already a rich lapis-blue deepening into black by the time the royal carriage and its guards on horseback arrived at the palace with their wagon and donkey cargo in tow. Members of the palace staff were gathered to meet them, and Shulamit was glad to see their happy faces in the light of the hanging lanterns when she stepped out of the carriage.

  Especially two faces in particular. “I missed you guys sooo much.” Shulamit enveloped Aviva and the baby in a meaningful hug. Aviva felt warm and squishy, and Naomi smelled like bananas. Shulamit sighed, happy to be reunited.

  “Wow…” A breathless voice came from the carriage. Shulamit turned around to see Hadar helping Halleli out into the courtyard. The two farmers blinked around themselves with wonder at the palace’s grandeur, standing out against the black night with its white walls and red-tiled roofs.

  “New friends?” Aviva inquired, handing Naomi over to her other mother.

  “New friends like us,” Shulamit replied, saying further things with her raised eyebrows.

  Aviva’s eyes bugged out and her mouth bloomed into a grin. “That’s great! I—”

  Shulamit made a face. “It’s sort of great. I’ll explain in a second.” She unpeeled herself from domesticity and walked over to the guards on duty. “Please get everybody out here. Everyone who’s not sleeping, I mean.” Some of the guards, cooks, and cleaning workers had early morning shift, and it would be unnecessary cruelty to disturb them.

  The guards nodded, and scattered.

  Soon, the palace courtyard was filled with people, milling underneath the palms, confused and excited. Through the middle of the crowd emerged Mitzi, fluttering around like a confused bird in her flamboyant dressing gown, with Tivon, off duty and from whose room she’d likely emerged, in her wake. Her piercing gaze darted from person to person. “What is it? What’s going on? Majesty? Riv, is the palace under attack?”

  Rivka held up both hands. “Everybody’s safe.”

  “Oh, well, that’s good to know!” Mitzi huffed indignantly, then settled back against Tivon’s chest and waited with everybody else.

  Shulamit stepped out in front of her family and staff. “My friends,” she began, “these past two days, I’ve been with the farmers up on the mountains. I’m sorry I didn’t make it home last night, but we were busy doing everything we could to try to stop those bugs. I’m happy to say that we managed to buy ourselves three or four weeks, and hopefully, well before then, Queen Aafsaneh of the City of Red Clay can come to our aid. She spent literally my entire lifetime on that vineyard before she married King Jahandar, and she is a trained and excellent witch. She is, right now, our best hope.”

  She paused, glancing behind her at the two farmers. They were huddled together in the darkness beside a banana plant.

  “Tonight, I want to recognize one of the bravest acts I’ve ever seen, and the two amazing women who shared it. These women are my heroes right now. They let us burn their grove to make a bare-earth barrier to hold off the bugs. Their names are Hadar and Halleli, and I invite you all to recognize the amazing sacrifice they made for their fellow farmers.”