Lora of Two Worlds

Half a moon in the canal, half a moon in the sky. The moon above fished for the moon below; the moon below pillowed on gentle ripples and dreamed. By law, canal boats didn't travel at night and didn't moor in the wild. This was for safety, but it also let anyone with a mind to calculate the boats' schedule. At gray dawn, the polemen rose. A crowd of men washed their faces in the river, then lined up along the grass and relieved themselves. Occasionally, a man upstream would play a joke and pee toward the river, and the men downstream would curse him blue. Green, miserable, was hiding behind a bush, taking care of business quietly, when someone clapped his shoulder. Lyle grinned: "What's the embarrassment? Look, Lord Envoy isn't being shy about it." Up on the bank, von Klein had come ashore. Two attendants stood guard while he watered the bushes at his own pace. He was older, and no one dared mock the King's own envoy. A man who'd lost something essential could still crush you with one finger. "How can I compare to His Lordship? What rank is he? What rank am I?" Green muttered. He was a low-ranking chamberlain from the palace, "a white-body official," rankless. He'd clambered up to Voss, hoping to be adopted as a godson. Voss had sent him on this Lohenheim errand, neither big nor small. Last night he'd iron poten to find himself on a pirate ship, drugged, two hundred miles from Lohenheim. If he dared send word to Augustburg, someone would beat him to it, and tell Voss he'd gone over to Baron Chaun. His first thought: My career as Voss's godson is over. "Follow the lord well, and you'll have your day to pee without anyone laughing. Hurry up. I'm going back." Green blinked: Right, why am I so hung up on being Voss's godson? If the lord succeeds, I rise with him. If he fails, this life of mine, sold by my parents for one silver mark, is for sale to anyone. He brightened, hitched up his trousers, and trotted happily after Lyle. On the boat, Lora had iron poten too. Hearing the polemen's cursing, she understood why Shawn had told her not to come out early. No matter how she dressed as a boy, no matter how casual she was, she was a girl. And a nobleman's daughter at that. "Shawn, when do we cast off? I want to go into town and buy some things." "Bridgeford isn't really a town, it was just a ferry crossing. People settled, a county was set up. Tonight we overnight at Watchford. The polemen say we'll reach the ferry before the city gates close." "Oh, we're already in Weybrook territory?" Shawn laughed: "Weybrook, yes, but not Watchford the capital. Close to the border, though." Before Lora could answer, a voice rang out: "Anchor up!" The polemen sang out together: "Left pole, heave~ Right pole, heave~ Long poles drive the boat along~ The river rises, the canal gives way~ Canal boats bring the grain that saves the day~" Lora stood at the stern, watching the ripples. She smiled through tears: The common people of the world wanted nothing more than to eat their fill and stay warm. This was the last golden age of wheat, the limits of cultivated land had been pushed to the edge of what this age's technology could manage. The miracle grain that would save the continent from starvation, Southland grain, wouldn't arrive for centuries. And the high-yield crops, sweet potatoes, maize, potatoes, wouldn't come for centuries more. Wait, the Americas were out of reach. But the southern coast was close! Lora gripped the gunwale, her fingers tight with excitement. "What are you thinking about?" Roland swatted the back of her cap. Lora jumped, then turned with a grin: "Brother, have you ever been to the Southern Protectorate?" "No. Why?" "I heard from a man who came from there, the Empire has a tiny neighbor called the Kingdom of Southland. They grow a type of dryland grain. Long ears, no awn, short growing season. From planting to harvest, fifty days. Isn't that amazing?" Roland was stunned. Last night he and Leon had been talking about drought. And now, first thing in the morning, his sister tells him about a grain he's never heard of: "Such a grain truly exists? The grain we grow now, in good years, two crops in three. With these droughts, the rains come late and leave early, we can barely manage one. If there were a grain that ripened in two months and didn't need flooding..." "Lil, you've done a great deed. I'm reporting this for a commendation right now!" Watching her brother hurry off, Lora's heart stirred: This must weigh heavily on Leon, otherwise Roland wouldn't be so excited. Why... does he pretend to be crippled? To survive the Silver Coup, when he'd been killed and six hundred officials slaughtered, tens of thousands of family members and innocents implicated? Could he... be a fellow traveler? She needed to find a chance to test him. Today, Lora had her kitchen organized. The jar of pickled vegetables and the cured meat were for the guards. The fresh meat, kept cold in the river, was for Leon and the officers. There were also dried beans and gourds that kept well. The guards didn't get white grain. They ate mostly flatbread, which was why last night's sentry had said they'd "lived like kings for a day." There was a sack that looked like animal feed, bran mixed with broken grain. The guards' supplement. If the Count's household could only afford this for its own men, no wonder Roland was excited about a fast-growing dry grain. With the iron plate, Lora stir-fried cured meat with green beans. The beans soaked up the fat and salt from the meat, far better than boiling. The stern boat's food had suddenly gone upscale. If Roland hadn't forbidden boasting, they'd have made up a song about it just to make the forward boats jealous. Past the Heyford border, they entered Weybrook territory. Crossing the river, the landscape changed. Everything was gray and dusty. Spring's vitality was nowhere to be felt. At the ferry crossing, Lora took Shawn and Keane ashore. Close to the ferry was Jaxham, a small county town, not the prefectural capital, but a necessary stop on the road to Watchford. Enough traffic that they didn't even need to ask directions. The town's market had people, but the goods were the same few things, over and over. Years of drought and locusts had hammered the region. Weybrook was powerful, but power couldn't fight the weather. Even with the crown's tax remissions, the common folk struggled. White grain was nowhere to be seen. Everyone would be eating bran. To Lora's surprise, she found purslane and shepherd's purse, the best wild greens of spring. The two young men each shouldered a sack of flour. Lora carried a basket of greens and a bundle. They headed back. She'd insisted on going to town for one infuriating reason: Before leaving, Margaret had packed two sets of clothes and personal items in a bundle, left in the wardrobe. But when Lora opened the cabinet before dawn, she'd grabbed the wrong one, a dance dress she'd modified in her spare time. Useless on a boat. And it was wrapped the same way, with the matching soft-soled slippers inside. When Lora opened the bundle on the boat, she'd nearly died of rage. No spare clothes. Her brothers were all taller, even if they gave her a tunic, she'd need needle and thread to alter it. So she had to buy. By the time they returned, dusk was falling. They walked along the riverbank and spotted the boats in the distance, the last one with a torch at the stern. Roland had been watching for his sister. He came down the gangplank to meet her: "No cooking tonight, someone's delivered food. I've had the next boat's cook handle the guards' meals." "Someone delivered food? Who's that generous?" "Ha, a fly on the carcass. Jaxham's justice, one Theo Yannic. Never mind him. Wait on our boat, I'll bring food back." "All right, free food. I'm guessing he's here for Lord von Klein. I'll tag along for the ride." "Smart, that's exactly who he's currying favor with. Now guess, what gift did he bring the envoy?" "Gold and jewels?" "Keep guessing!" "Silk and brocade?" "Ha, so even you have off days. Get on board. I'll tell you when I'm back." Roland kept the suspense, standing still until Lora climbed aboard. "Just tell me..." Lora was about to pester him further when she saw, from the corner of her eye, Leon step out of the forward cabin. She ducked her head and scrambled aboard.

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