“Well, they’re odd about rain for one thing,” the woman told her. “The minute it starts to even sprinkle, they scatter like it was liquid fire rainin’ from the sky ‘stead of a few raindrops. Don’t know why that is.” She shrugged.
“Maybe it has something to do with a custom from their home world,” Elli suggested.
“Could be.” Tully nodded. “I hear tell they come from a planet that’s mostly dessert and Pok ‘ent like that—thank the good Goddess. Couldn’t grow thunder melons without rain!”
Elli had to agree with that. The reason thunder melons were so heavy was the fact that they were mostly water inside. Pok must have a fairly wet climate—or at least a wet growing season—to make them a feasible crop to grow here.
“But then, for all their fear of rain, I hear the lot of ‘em take baths together,” the woman continued. “I mean all of ‘em at once—the whole Court! ‘Ent that strange?”
“It certainly is,” Elli said, digging out another chunk of melon.
“And then, they got all these high falootin’ manners,” Tully said, frowning. “Always bowing and prancin’ around dressed up with gold and silver lace at their cuffs and collars.”
“They sound fancy,” Elli offered and the other woman nodded.
“Fancy—there’s a word for ‘em,” she said. “Stuck up is another. But listen to this—I’ve heard tell that for all they wear their fine clothes around the city, on the inside of the palace, they wear a lot less—especially to their fancy balls. They—” She stopped short, eyeing Elli. “Well, maybe I ought not to tell you what they wear and do at those parties of theirs. I don’t want to ruin your innocence.”
Elli wanted to protest that she wasn’t as innocent as all that—not after breaking her vows of chastity. But she thought she ought to keep that to herself. So she only said, “They sound like very…interesting people.”
“Interesting, my eye!” Tully snorted. “They just think they’re too good for everyone else. Why, they ride all over town on their fine bred zorels and they won’t hardly even look at one of us poor folk. It’s like we don’t even exist!”
That didn’t sound too promising to Elli. What if she couldn’t even get into the palace to see the Crown Prince? How could she possibly get the sliver of Healing Lattice if they wouldn’t even acknowledge her?
But the Goddess had brought her this far, she reminded herself. She had sent Tully with her lame doe and her cart full of thunder melons to give Elli a ride to Capital City. Surely, if she meant for her to succeed, she would send more help once she got there.
Have faith, Elli told herself. And no matter what happens, remember that at least you’re not back at the Priory of Extreme Atonement. Thank the Goddess for that!
The next step would be revealed once she got to the city—she was sure of it.
Well, almost sure…
Nine
Capital City was bigger than any city Elli had ever been to, back home on Torl Prime. The closest thing she could compare it to was Yamden town, where the annual zorel fair was held. She’d gone with her brothers and father the past five years to help sell their trained and broken zorels and buy new, unbroken ones to work. Of course, the Mother Ship was a huge place too, but it was laid out differently than a planet bound city and besides, Elli hadn’t been allowed to see very much of it.
As Tully drove the rickety wooden cart through the arching gates of the city and up the winding cobblestone road, Elli looked around eagerly. There were shops lining the main thoroughfares and clusters of houses down the side streets. At the very top of the hill the city was built on, sat the Tenebrian palace but she couldn’t see much of it yet, except as a dark shape far in the distance, rising into the sky.
Capital City was divided into districts, according to Tully. They went through the Silk District first, which was strung with lines, each displaying rich, colorful fabrics flapping in the breeze.
Looney was inclined to shy at these until Elli jumped down for a moment and talked to her. Once she had made the zorel understand there was no real danger from the flapping fabrics, they were able to proceed.
“You really do have a way with beasts,” Tully said, shaking her head. “Is that why you want to see the Tenebrian Crown Prince?”
“Something like that,” Elli said evasively. “But zorels aren’t that hard to deal with, you know. They’re actually quite intelligent. Some of them have the understanding of a five year or six-year-old child—I’ve even heard of some trainers teaching their zorels to read or count.”
Tully snorted.
“Readin’ and countin’ is all well and good but I’d just as soon Looney kept her mind on pullin’ the cart.”