Free Brechalon by Wesley Allison

in these words, but Miss Dechantagne appeared not to
notice.
    “ No. When the time comes, we will
hire our own spellcasters—ones we can trust.”
    She stood up and the Prime Minister walked
around the desk to take her hand, though he seemed far less
enthusiastic about it than he had on her arrival.
    “ You can’t trust any of them,” he
said.
    “ It is not a question of whom one
may trust, Prime Minister,” said Iolanthe. “It is a question of how
far. I will trust them precisely as much as I trust anyone
else.”

Chapter Six: Blood
    Yuah Korlann woke so suddenly that for a moment
she didn’t recognize where she was. She was of course, in her own
bed, in her own small room, in the servant’s quarters of Number 1
Avenue Dragon—in Brech… in Greater Brechalon. She threw her legs
over the side of the bed and stuck them into her house shoes. What
a queer dream that had been.
    She had been walking down a road. It had been
winter. Patches of snow lay here and there on the ground and some
of the trees were bare, although there were many evergreens. She
had been bundled up in a thick fur coat, far more luxurious and
expensive than anything she would ever really be able to afford.
She even had a fur muff. The most extraordinary thing though,
wasn’t where she was, but who or more precisely what, she was with.
It was an alligator, walking upright and wearing a yellow evening
gown. As they walked along, they talked about the strangest things:
the state of the Kingdom, literature, and religion.
    Reaching for the glass of water on her
nightstand, Yuah saw the open book lying there. She had been
reading Night of the Snake by Ebrahim Detsky. That was the problem.
She ought not to read books like that right before bed.
    Getting up and throwing the housecoat over her
night dress, she shuffled out the door, down the hallway and into
the servant’s hall. It was just light enough to see and she
realized it was a quarter past four when the wall clock sounded
four sharp chimes.
    Padding her way on into the kitchen, she
thought about having a cup of tea, but that would have meant
starting a fire in the oven. Instead, she opened the door of the
icebox and withdrew a glass bottle of milk—one of six, and got a
glass from the cupboard. She poured her milk, put the bottle back,
and carried the glass into the servant’s hall, where she sat down
at the great table. As she drank her milk, she could hear the clock
tick-tocking in the other room. It seemed to get louder and
louder.
    “ You’re up early.” At the sound of
the voice Yuah jumped, dribbling milk down her chin.
    “ Heavenly days! What’s wrong with
you?” Both the exclamation and the question were out of her mouth
before she turned around to find Terrence staring wryly at
her.
    “ Good morning,” he said.
    “ Don’t look at me! I’m practically
naked!”
    “ You’re kidding, right? You’ve got
more clothes on that an Argrathian virgin.” He stepped past her and
made his way into the kitchen.
    “ I’m sure I wouldn’t know,” said
Yuah.
    “ About Argrathians or about
virgins? Shouldn’t there be some cheese in the ice box? Oh, here we
go. Now where’s the breadbox?”
    “ Why didn’t you just press your
buzzer?”
    “ What?” He poked his head back in
through the doorway.
    “ You have a buzzer in your room
next to the bed. When you press it, whoever’s on duty, I think it’s
Eunice, will bring you whatever you want.”
    “ When did I get one of
those?”
    “ Your sister had it put in a few
months ago.”
    “ How much do you suppose that cost?
Oh, here’s the bread.”
    “ You would think that you would
know. After all, it is your money she’s spending.”
    There was a clattering of knives and plates,
but Terrence said nothing else until he emerged back from the
kitchen with a cheese sandwich on a plate in one hand and what was
left of Yuah’s bottle of milk in the other.
    “ If I’m not worried about it, you
shouldn’t be,” he said,