The Olive Conspiracy by Shira Glassman

then collapsed back into a
frown. “Do you think that’s our Lovely Valley traitor, then? I
mean, it would make sense, if she was sharing a map of the farms
with the Imbrians.”
    Rivka nodded. “That works with what I found out
from Yael and the waitresses. I don’t think everyone on Ezra’s list
was actually at the table that night. There was only one woman, for
example, and I think that’s the one he labeled
‘unknown.’”
    “ And this André probably wasn’t
there either.” Shulamit studied the original list.
    “ The waitresses said they were
speaking mostly in Imbrian,” said Rivka. “They probably thought
they wouldn’t be understood, but Ezra must have spoken enough
Imbrian to figure out what they were up to.”
    Shulamit rolled her eyes. “That’s their own
fault. What a silly assumption!”
    “ Does Aviva speak
Imbrian?”
    Shulamit sputtered a little. “That’s not the
point. They were taking a pretty big chance that nobody would speak it.”
    “ Maybe they still kept their voices
down,” Isaac pointed out, “but Ezra, being a career eavesdropper,
had his tricks.”
    “ You don’t mean magic, do you?”
Shulamit narrowed her eyes and did not look pleased.
    Isaac shook his head. “No, just ordinary
cunning. Oh, shayne maydeleh , you must be in such pain,
little one!” he added to the infant in his arms. “Here. Maybe this
helps.” He handed the paper in his left hand to Rivka and then
placed its index finger in Naomi’s mouth.
    Rivka noticed as she took the paper from him
that his hand was startlingly cold, colder than a corpse. It was
like ice. It was unexpected and startled her, but it seemed to
soothe the poor teething baby. “That’s clever,” she blurted,
staring.
    With calculatingly sultry eyes he accepted her
compliment and began to sing again.
    “ Oh, now, that’s just not fair,”
she murmured in their native language.
    That just made him sing slightly louder, his
lips moving sensually and deliberately in her direction.
    Rolling her eyes, mostly at herself, she looked
back at the queen, and at the floor beneath them all. “Wait! I just
figured out why all these papers are everywhere.”
    Shulamit grinned. “Yes, Isaac made me a map! He
cast a spell on the sand outside and drew it in here, in the shape
of all Perach. That way I could place the papers down on the map in
the right place.”
    Rivka shook her head slowly, smiling at the
effectiveness of the idea. “Nice.”
    “ Each one is a report of an
infestation,” the queen continued. “They’re not all the same as the
olive blight, which is apparently carried by these little
brats”—she gestured to the stone—“but I wanted to have all the
information in front of me so I could think.”
    “ And so what do you
think?”
    Shulamit pointed to one of the farms and looked
up at her captain. “I want to go here tomorrow and see, on the
ground, what this really looks like. Who knows—maybe Zayde Lizard
really can eat all the bugs himself.”
    “ I’m a growing boy,” said the
forty-eight-year-old, stocky wizard.
    Aviva appeared in the doorway, and as usual,
Shulamit lit up on cue. “Look, I’m more queen than I’ve ever been,”
she called out, gesturing to the map. “I’m literally sitting inside
my country.”
    “ You’re a pretty little spider in a
web of parchment,” said Aviva, looking around the room.
    Shulamit’s face hardened into determined lines,
and her head rose resolutely. “Then I hope my webbing is strong,
’cause I’ve got a lot of bugs to catch.”

7. The Kiss of Your Land
     
    When Aviva walked into the throne room and saw
Shulamit sitting on the floor, immersing herself in the study of
how she might better her country, she fell in love all over again.
The feelings swelling in her chest made her think of what it was
like to hold a jug beneath a merry stream as it splashed over the
rocks of a tiny waterfall, watching it fill up and overflow and the
cool sweetness washing over her