The Olive Conspiracy (13 page)

Rivka, however, trained every day in one or
more of the various fighting styles she’d learned, and it was easy
for her to feint away from him. Hopping around with a limberness
that would have surprised someone who’d seen her muscular,
five-foot-eleven frame at rest, she chuckled ribaldly as she
avoided his grasp.

“
You know, I could just start
unlacing your trousers with my mind.” Isaac reached for her and
then quickly shifted in another direction, a direction he clearly
thought would anticipate her next move.

But
ha
, Rivka was already on his other
side. “You can try anything you want—I’ll fight naked if I have
to!”

“
I bet you would.”

“
You’d like that.”

“
I could make you finish while
you’re still fighting.”

“
You were the one who taught me not
to get distracted,” she retorted. She was ready though. His words
only fanned the flames that burned between her legs. This theater
did have a purpose—she wanted to be truly sure of him before she
straddled him on the grass, without that nagging worry that he
would overtax himself and have a relapse.

Plus, she knew he liked it. As if reading her
mind—which he couldn’t do, but one of his tricks was good
guessing—he answered, “If I were your age,
I’d
probably
finish while you’re still fighting.”

That was enough. Time to find the
earth.

Changing tactics, Rivka barreled toward him and
seized his massive upper arms. She tried to force him to the
ground, but he used the weight of his torso to wrestle her down
with him on top. With one final burst of technique that spoke to
why she was a legend instead of just a hired thug, Rivka flipped
him over.

He lay panting on the grass, reached out his
arms, and pulled her down to him.

She had time to say, “I love you,” before their
mouths met.

12. Turning the Tabletop

Rivka’s hair rippled behind her like a flag as
Isaac flew through the morning sky. She gripped him tightly with
her thighs to keep her hands free in case Hadar needed any help
feeling safe on her first dragon ride.

She needn’t have worried; the young woman was
handling it like a pro. All that practice climbing up and down
coconut trees in her youth, Rivka figured. “This is great!” Hadar
shouted into the wind.

“
And I get to do it whenever I
want,” bragged Rivka.

“
I can’t even see Home City
anymore. How far are we going? I thought you just meant
this
, when you said adventure.”

“
Nah, I thought I’d take you on a
little tracking mission,” Rivka said. “Plus, it’s your home
turf.”

“
Hmm?”

“
Lovely Valley. I need to find a
traitor.”

“
What? Wow! Really?” Hadar faced
forward, away from Rivka, but her back and shoulders looked
tense.

“
You got sold out. All of you olive
growers got sold out,” said Rivka. “By a chicken
farmer.”

“
A chicken farmer? Gosh… I don’t…
from Lovely Valley?”

“
A woman.”

“
What do you mean, ‘sold
out’?”

“
A woman shedding chicken feathers
sold a man from Imbrio a map of the olive groves leading down into
the Valley,” Rivka explained. “They planted the bugs and spread the
infection on purpose.”

“
What?
” Every muscle in
Hadar’s body tensed as if she’d been stretched and pulled by unseen
hands. “Someone. Did. That. On. Purpose? I will find them. I
will—”

“
Yes, yes, that’s the idea,” Isaac
piped up soothingly, his great, rumbly dragon voice sounding like
it echoed inside a great hall. “Only, let the captain do the hard
part. The queen needs her in custody so she can tell us what she
knows.”

“
She hurt my Halleli. She ruined
everything we were working toward.”

“
She’s hurting everyone,” Rivka
reminded her.

Hadar nodded slowly. “I promise. I’ll obey your
orders. I’m a guard now, right?”

“
That’s right.”

“
How come you took me along,
anyway? I mean, I know I’m from there and all, but aren’t you
worried I’ll be a liability if there’s violence?”

“
I saw how you fight yesterday,”
Rivka reminded her. “You can handle yourself pretty well. Besides,
today might only be hunting, information, tracking. Sniffing out
the scent. And we’ll have the local police to help us if we get as
far as an arrest.”

“
Thanks!” Hadar took a deep breath.
“Wow. I’m—I’m glad I didn’t know any of this yesterday.”

“
Can you think of anyone it might
be?” Rivka inquired. “The witness seemed to think she was
older.”

“
Chickens… older… not really.”
Hadar was silent for a moment. “I mean, there are some men I can
think of… and I can definitely think of women who have chickens
too, but they’re not… none of
them
could be… This is all
just so fucked up.”

“
I know,” said Rivka.

“
Are you sure it was chickens? Not,
like, limes? Lime juice?”

“
Not unless limes shed chicken
feathers,” Rivka quipped. “Why?”

“
Nothing.” Hadar stared off into
space.

“
You gonna want to see your family
for a few minutes while we’re there?” asked Rivka. “I think we’re
making good time.”

“
Maybe my sister, if she won’t tell
my parents I was there,” said Hadar. “I don’t need my father making
up this week’s reason why I’m a big disappointment.”

“
If that’s how he feels, he doesn’t
know anything,” said Rivka. “If it helps, Halleli’s very proud of
you.”

“
Yeah, it does.” Hadar didn’t look
all that concerned about what she’d just said, but Rivka couldn’t
tell whether she was looking at a healed scar or a pain buried too
deep to discuss.

Given that she had grown up with the uncle
who’d filled in for her absent father treating
her
like she
couldn’t do anything right, she sympathized either way.

***

The built-up part of the Lovely Valley
consisted of a single long street that snaked between the endless
mango groves and avocado plantations. Numerous side streets ran out
in both directions to more remote farms, growing a wide variety of
crops Rivka had never dreamed of during her childhood in the colder
north. Even the names had once been completely unfamiliar to
her—litchi, sapodilla, canistel, jackfruit.

Now they were as ordinary to her as apples once
were. Litchis were Queen Shulamit’s favorite food, so there were
always some around in the palace; sapodilla were satisfying and
sweet. Canistel was soft and mild, and Princess Naomi had been
enjoying it lately, and jackfruit—Rivka would have loved jackfruit
even if it didn’t have such a wonderful taste, simply because of
its ridiculous size. If someone had told her as a teenager that
fruit came in a twenty-pound variety, she’d have laughed them out
of her uncle’s castle.

She was here to protect all this. The richness
and prosperity of Perach was bound up in her agriculture; nowhere
was that more obvious than here in the midst of a living fruit
salad.

“
Why aren’t we sneaking in?” Hadar
asked. “Word’s gonna get around the Royal Guard’s here. I was still
here when you first came to Perach, and I remember people running
from farm to farm, saying, ‘Everyone, go watch the sky to see the
dragon!’”

“
What makes you think they can see
us?” Rivka grinned and patted Isaac’s scales
affectionately.

“
Wait, what?”

“
It’s my new trick. We look like a
cloud,” Isaac explained. “I can only keep it up for a few seconds
though.”

“
Land here,” said Rivka. “We’ll
walk.”

Isaac landed slowly, carefully having to
maneuver his wings and his other magic at the same time. Rivka
jumped off and helped Hadar down, then let Isaac place his great
clawed paw in her hand. Within seconds, he’d dwindled down into his
lizard form and crawled up her arm to sit on her
shoulder.

“
Wow, that’s… wow.” Hadar nodded,
impressed. “He’s something else. Where’d you find him?”

“
He taught me to use a
sword.”

“
Oh yeah?”

Rivka threw a hooded cloak over her head and
arms so her noticeably light skin and blonde hair wouldn’t alert
anyone they passed that Captain Riv was in town, and then the two
women set out for the main drag.

They passed block after block of one-story
buildings, modest but shining clean and white in the bright
sunlight, before reaching the more formally built ones belonging to
the local government. There was a man outside, a guard from his
uniform, but he was leaning against the wall eating what looked
like a pita stuffed with raw vegetables instead of standing at
attention.

When he saw the travelers approaching, he held
up his free hand. Without moving his butt from the wall, he called
out to them, “Hey! This is official headquarters. What’s your
business here?”

Rivka flipped back her hood. “It’s me. That
looks like a good sandwich.”

The guard scrambled to attention, straightening
as if a rat had crawled up his pants and nearly dropping his
sandwich. “Captain! Oh. Sorry. Wow.” Then he squinted. “Is that—is
that
Hadar
? You look so different with short
hair!”

“
Yeah, it’s me.” Hadar looked
pleased with herself. “I joined the guard!”

“
What?”

“
Just yesterday,” she
added.

“
The
Royal
Guard?”

“
We need to come inside and talk
business,” Rivka interrupted.

“
Oh, right, sure. Just in
there.”

“
Business and national security,”
added a voice from Rivka’s shoulder.

“
Oh, you brought the dragon man?”
The guard peered around.

“
When do I not bring
Isaac?”

The guard shrugged. “I have to stay out here
and keep watch, but the Sheriff’s in there with his deputy. Go on
in.”

The Sheriff of Lovely Valley was sitting at his
desk trying to scratch dirt off a dagger. He looked up at the sound
of footsteps, then stood to greet the newcomers. “Captain Riv! Down
here checking on us?”

“
I’m actually here about something
serious,” said Rivka.

“
Here, sit down,” said the deputy,
pulling over a chair. To Hadar, he added, “Do you want my
seat?”

“
I can sit on the floor,” said
Hadar brightly, folding herself into a pretzel.

“
Hadar?”

“
Yup!”

“
You cut your hair!”

“
Nope, my wife did.”

“
Your—”

Rivka clapped her hands together. “Mr. Sheriff.
Deputy.”

“
Yes, sir.”

“
Sorry, sir.”

“
You’ve heard of the insects and
the blight up north in the mountains.” Rivka noticed Isaac
scampering down her arm as she talked.

“
Yes,” said the Sheriff, suddenly
looking more sober.

“
The insects and the blight they
carry were spread deliberately by foreign agents.” Rivka watched
the two men’s faces freeze in shock at her words. Out of the corner
of her eye, she noticed Isaac spring up from the ground in human
form and lean against the wall, his arms folded across his
chest.

The Sheriff lifted one hand in greeting to
Isaac as he replied to Rivka. “Foreign agents? Like—spies?
Saboteurs?”

Rivka nodded. “’Fraid so.”

“
Someone would want to hurt Perach
that badly?” said the deputy in disbelief.

“
It may not even be about Perach,
really,” said Isaac from the back of the room. “Just greedy people
wanting their own crops to do better on the international
market.”

“
Or back home,” Rivka
added.

The Sheriff and the deputy looked at each
other. “So, what can we do?” said the Sheriff.

“
Right now there’s a barrier of
burned earth between the infestation and Lovely Valley,” said
Rivka. “That buys us a few weeks. This morning, the queen sent a
man on horseback to the City of Red Clay. Their queen is a witch
who spent half her life managing a vineyard, so we hope she’ll have
a good plan.”

The Sheriff snorted. “I hope so
too!”

“
The reason I’m here,” Rivka
continued, “is that we have evidence that a traitor from Lovely
Valley sold a map of the farms to the Imbrians.”

The Sheriff’s eyes narrowed and he rubbed his
beard. “Great,” he muttered. “Well, what have you got?”

“
We’re looking for a woman, at
least thirty-five but probably older,” answered Rivka. “who owns a
chicken farm or works with chickens.”

The two men’s reaction was utterly unexpected.
It was almost comical the way they looked at each other with
dropped jaws, as if on cue.