Fairest (2 page)

The gnome, whose name was zhamM, said, “Oh, my!” I turned, startled, and he was waving his hands in the air, applauding the Ayorthaian way. My blotchy blush began, but his arms didn't come down. I smiled at him.

He smiled back, showing teeth that resembled iron posts. “I like your song. It is charming, to be exact. And your voice is more than charming.”

zhamM was a frequent guest at the inn, although we had never spoken to each other before. I thought of him as the green gentleman—
green
because of the emerald buttons on all his tunics,
gentleman
because he was polite and fussy, with a soft, breathy voice and small gestures. He had curly brown hair, small ears set close to his head, and skin almost as pale as my own.

“Shall I leave, Master zhamM?” I said. “I can finish cleaning later.” I hoped he'd say no. I had a question I'd long wished to ask a gnome if the opportunity arose.

“No need. I only want to think a moment. To be exact, I can do that as badly with you here as with you gone.” He sat carefully on the bench by the fireplace.

How nice he was. I worked slowly. I couldn't ask my question until he finished thinking.

I was changing his pillowcase and deciding to scrub the washstand again when he stood up.

“There,” he said. “I am finished thinking, perhaps for the month.”

Was he jesting? I smiled uneasily, holding his pillow by a corner.

He nodded, reading my expression. “Yes, it is a jest. Not so humorous, to be exact.”

I gathered my courage and said in a rush, “Can you see what's to come?” Some gnomes could.

“Hints, glimmers. We never see more.”

I didn't know if a hint or a glimmer would be specific enough. “Would you be so kind … would it be too much trouble …”

“There's something you'd like to know?”

I blurted out, “Will I ever be pretty?” I hugged the pillow, protecting myself against his answer.

“Never.”

“Oh.”

He must have seen my misery, because he added, “All humans are ugly, to be exact.”

“All humans?”

“Yes.”

I was amazed.

He went on. “You are slightly less ugly than most. Your hair is a beautiful color, htun. I've never seen a human with htun hair before.”

I wasn't listening. “Will I ever be pretty to people?”

“To humans?” He stared over my left shoulder. I thought his expression changed, although his face was so leathery and seamed, so lizardlike, I wasn't sure.

A minute passed.

“Maid Aza … that is your name?”

I nodded.

“In Gnomic we would call you Maid azacH.” He folded his hands across his chest, delivering a pronouncement. “In the future, you and I will meet again.”

Even I could see far enough into the future to see that. He stayed at the Featherbed once or twice every month.

“I smelled my home and saw glow iron. To be exact, we'll meet again in Gnome Caverns. You will be in danger.”

What sort of danger, and how would I get to Gnome Caverns? But I skipped to my main concern. “Will I look as I do now?”

“You will be smaller....”

Smaller would be a big improvement! “Do your visions always come to pass?”

“This will come to pass, unless you do something irregular at a crossroad.”

I didn't understand.

“There was one more change in you in my vision. Your hair was black, with little htun left.”

“What's htun?”

“Htun looks black to humans. It is the color I like best, deeper than scarlet, more serene than cerulean, gayer than yellow. Your htun hair is the most beautiful I've ever seen.”

I stared down at the floor, trying not to cry. No one had ever before said that anything about me looked beautiful.

If only humans could see htun.

In the year of Barn Songs, when I was twelve, the duchess of Olixo and her companion, Dame Ethele, stopped at the Featherbed for a night. Father and Mother were thrilled, but also worried. If the duchess liked the inn, she could steer other rich customers to us. If she disliked it, she could get our license revoked by the king.

I was thrilled and worried, too. Thrilled, because I'd never seen a duchess before, and worried, because the duchess had never seen
me
before. I'd stay out of the way, but if our paths crossed, would she hate the sight of me?

I was serving dinner to a party of gnomes when she arrived, earlier than expected, or I would never have been in the tavern. Father conducted a small plump woman and a large one to the best table. The large woman, who was approximately my own size, had more ribbons and bows on her gown than I'd ever seen collected together. The small one was as richly clad, but more simply.

Neither of them glanced my way. I wondered which was duchess and which was companion. It would have been rude to stare, as I knew better than anyone. I stole glances, however, and soon decided who was who. The large one was Dame Ethele, and the small plump one was the duchess.

How did I know?

Well, the small woman's expression was petulant, but the big woman smiled. The smiling one had to be the companion. After all, who would pay to have a petulant companion?

I was perplexed by the duchess's petulance. What did she have to be petulant about? She was a duchess, and she didn't have a face that made dogs howl.

The duchess didn't like her dinner. Ettime had prepared her best dish, hart sautéed with spring onions and Ayorthaian fire peppers.

Unfortunately, the duchess detested peppers of every sort, and she expected everyone to know it. Mother apologized and brought out a double helping of chicken pot pie, but the damage was done. The duchess's frown deepened.

Before she left her table, she told Mother she wanted a mug of hot ostumo delivered to her chamber at nine that night. “Not a second before nine,” she said in a voice that carried, “nor yet a second after, but on the stroke itself—or I shall send it back. And it must be piping hot. Piping! Or I shall send it back.”

After I finished waiting on the gnomes, I was sent to the stable to help another gnome find a belt buckle in one of his trunks. It was a prolonged business. The buckle, naturally, was in the third and final trunk.

I returned to the kitchen while Ettime was preparing the ostumo, a mixture of grain and molasses that was Ayortha's favorite beverage. She was so flustered by the duchess that she scalded the first pot and had to throw it out.

By five before nine, the second pot was ready. Mother poured it into a mug and placed the mug on a tray.

A crash and a loud oath came from the tavern. Mother turned toward the tavern door. “I'd better …” She stopped and turned back to the
piping!
hot mug. She looked appealingly at Ettime.

“Not me, Mistress Ingi. I won't bring anything to that duchess. And I'm no tavern wench.”

I wished I was still in the stable. I couldn't settle a tavern brawl, and the duchess wouldn't want to see my face looming over her ostumo.

We heard another crash and more swearing. There was no time to get Father or my brothers.

“Aza …” Mother wet her finger and wiped a smudge off my cheek. She tucked a stray strand of hair into my bonnet. “Take the ostumo to the duchess and come—”

“I can't!”

“I've no one else. Come right back and tell me what she says.” She put the tray with the no-longer-
piping!
-hot ostumo into my hands.

The clock began to strike nine.

“Hurry!” Mother snatched up the broom and dustpan and marched into the tavern.

I left the kitchen and started up the stairs, although I wanted to hide in the cellar. It will be over in a moment, I told myself. And answered myself, Yes, the duchess will toss the ostumo in my face. Then she'll call for her carriage and leave.

Imilli was snoozing on the stairway landing. I scooped him up. I could hold him high so the duchess would see less of me.

She was in our best room, the Peacock chamber. I knocked on the door.

T
HE DUCHESS OPENED HER
door. “You're late. Take it away. I—” She saw Imilli. I don't think she noticed me. “Oh, the sweetie.” She took him. “Aren't you a sweetie?” She gestured at the ostumo. “Put it next to the bed. I have sweeties at home. Would you like me to tell you their names?”

She was talking to Imilli, but I nodded. She no longer looked petulant. I followed her into the room.

“I have ten sweet cats. Their names are Asha, Eshe, Ishi, Osho, Ushu, Yshy, Alka, Elke …”

The duchess didn't seem to have much imagination. I said the next two names in my mind as she spoke them.

“… Ilki and Olko. Then there are my sweet kittens.” She sat on her bed. Imilli leaned against her chest and purred.

I put the ostumo on the night table and backed away.

“I've named only two kittens thus far.” She looked at me.

I raised my hand in front of my face.

She went on. “Do you have any suggestions for the rest? Sit down. There are seven in the litter.”

I sat on the stool by the washstand.

“Not there. There.” She nodded at the chair by the fireplace, where I wouldn't have dared to sit.

I took it. “Perhaps you could name them Anya, Enye, Inyi, Onyo, and Unyo.”

“Those are possible. What's this sweetie called?”

“Imilli, Your Grace.”

“Ah. Then I will name the rest Amilla and Emille and so on.” She tasted her ostumo.

I held my breath.

Her complaining tone was back. “It isn't hot. Moreover, it's weak. The kitchen will have to do better when I come again. Would you like me to tell you which is my favorite sweetie?”

She would come again! I nodded. The duchess told me, and told me which was her second favorite and her third.

Two hours later, wild with worry and curiosity, Mother opened the duchess's door a crack. There was the duchess, snoring in her bed, Imilli curled up in the crook of her arm.

And there I was, sleeping in the duchess's chair.

The duchess became a regular guest at the inn. She remained fractious and difficult to please, but she adored Imilli and tolerated me.

In the year of Forest Songs, when I was fourteen, I discovered a new way to sing. I was cleaning the Falcon chamber, which had been occupied by a Kyrrian merchant, Sir Peter of Frell.

After I dusted the mantelpiece, I went to the washstand. The basin was there, but not the pitcher. As I sang, “Where is the pitcher?” I began to hiccup.

I sang, “Did Sir Peter”—hiccup—“steal the pitcher?” I knew the tricks of less-than-honorable guests. “But,” I sang, “it's very large for stealing.”

I opened the top drawer of the bureau. “Empty. Then where is the—” I hiccuped. My next word,
pitcher
, seemed to come from the center of the canopy over the four-poster bed.

The hiccup had flung the word across the room. How odd. I opened the middle bureau drawer. Empty. I opened the bottom drawer.

“Ah-ha!” Shards of pitcher. “Sir Peter”—hiccup—“hid his crime.”

An honorable guest would have confessed to breaking the pitcher and would have paid for the damage.

“Sir Peter is a—” I hiccuped again.
Scoundrel
seemed to issue from the flowerpot on the windowsill.

Hmm. I stopped cleaning and began a love song that was on everyone's lips lately.

I tried to fling
thorn
from my throat the way the hiccup had flung
scoundrel
, but it wouldn't go. I sounded half strangled instead. I tried again and failed again. I went on with the song.