CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
It amuses me when I’m right, even if I’m the only one who knows I’m right. The large dining room really is so extravagantly oversized that it blows my mind. You could easily fit a thousand folk at the tables in this hall, and still have space for six or seven musical groups to play at the same time while a few hundred folk are dancing.
Okay, that may be an exaggeration, but if it is, it’s not by much. There are twenty or thirty tables in here, and each table looks like it can seat thirty or forty folk comfortably. The area surrounding the tables is large enough for a landcraft to pass through without bumping anything. I could probably throw a ball and not make it completely across the room in any direction. These Stenchstone Kings sure know how to build a palace!
Along with my crew, there are another forty-or-so folk that are joining the lunch party. I notice the Guard captain among them, so I assume they’re all important folk in one way or another – probably other important officials that work in the Palace, but possibly also reporters and rich businessfolk. I also notice a few goblins that seem to just be normal, regular folk. The King appears to leave himself open and available to his subjects, which is probably quite a bit different than the previous warlord kings before ‘the last goblin king’ fell.
The King sits himself, Admiral Shockpaw, Cap, and the Overseer at the head of one table, then gestures for the rest of us to take whatever seats we choose among the tables. The seats nearest him, both at his table and the tables on either side, fill up quickly with local goblins as well as some of my goblin platoon leaders.
I see Sergeant Bigstick choose a seat directly behind the Admiral, then hold the two to his left against all takers. When the commotion dies down slightly, he waves to someone. I glance in that direction to see Zaxn wave back, then begin to escort his mother toward the empty seats. When they get closer, the Sergeant pulls the closest chair for Mrs. Gloomfire, while Zaxn sits on her left side.
Needing to find my own seat, I give Tanna a questioning look, and she gives Aelon a questioning look. Aelon doesn’t notice, though, as his eyes are on LC Darkmuck at the farthest table. He turns to Tanna, shrugs, pinches her ass, then strides off to sit with the LC. Tanna looks back at me with wide eyes, but all I can respond with is a shrug and a hand gesture to follow me. Once it appears everyone is settled, I walk to the closest table and grab two seats farthest away from the King. Just as I get comfortable, I see Kesn escorting Rosa into the room, and wave her over to take the seats opposite us.
A few seconds after we’re seated, a steward approaches and offers to hang our jackets. Rosa hands over the light blue suit jacket she’s wearing, revealing a dark blue top with her pink skirt. Tanna and I both remove our jackets, and the steward takes them to a rack which mysteriously appeared a few meters behind us.
The steward is immediately followed by servers with glasses and carafes of light red wine. We each receive a full glass as the workers move down the tables. Once everyone has a drink, the King stands and raises his glass. “To peace, prosperity, new friends, and old friends!” We all raise our glasses to his toast, then drink. The wine is sweet and tastes a bit like cherries. This is another thing I need to see if I can requisition for the trip back to Terra!
As the servers immediately come back around to refill our glasses, another set of workers begin moving carts filled with food to the tables. The servers finish filling glasses, set their carafes down, and start circling the tables again to pass out food. A male goblin approaches us and bows slightly. “Ladies, might I have your requests?”
I gesture to Kesn and Rosa to go first, as I fully plan to just copy their choices. Rule number one of eating at a new place is to trust the regulars! Rule number two is to trust your girls to know what you’ll like. I’ve only known these two for a few days, but I’ve noticed patterns in the folk I tend to become friends with, and I expect the same here.
Sure enough, as Kesn makes her food requests – a small salad, bowl of cobblestone casserole, and slice of bizzonberry pie – her eyes dart to me as she chooses things she thinks I should try. Rosa does the same thing with her requests, suggesting a bowl of antlerbeast stew and two small fruit tarts. A quick look to Tanna, and we’re sorted. She copies Kesn’s requests and I copy Rosa’s. We then spend the next ten minutes sampling bites of everything from each other’s dishes.
Once I finish eating, I have a drink of wine and sit back with a happy sigh. The other girls finish within a minute or so, and we sit comfortably. The servers come back around to refill our glasses and remove our dishes. When they leave, Tanna sits up and looks across the table. “Okay, Rosa. Rylae told me the whole story about the other day, so you know we’re dying to know what happened during your night on the ship and dinner with Simon!”
Kesn sits up straighter. “Which one’s Simon?” I point him out at the other table, and she chuckles. “Oh yeah! I met him at the door of the ship the other day. Swoon!” She turns and pokes Rosa in the ribs.
“Ow!” Rosa giggles and smacks Kesn’s hand away, then turns to Tanna. “If you must know… sadly, nothing happened. Simon’s hotter than a freshly baked fruit tart, but he’s not the friendliest goblin I’ve ever met. All business, that one. The night on the ship, he set me up with a guest quarters, but wouldn’t stay with me even though I was a bit of a mess after seeing the fight and Ambassador and stuff. He had your caregiver check on me, but that was all.
“He never did accept my invitation for dinner. He called me after Rylae woke up and told me she thanked me for the help, but that was all. I tried to chat with him and invited him out again, but got nothing from him. I’m glad I gave him my number, because that worked out for you when you needed me, but there was sadly no connection for us.”
Tanna sighs. “Stupid goblin. Rylae told him to take you to dinner! I’ll kick his ass later when we get back to the ship.”
I chuckle and pat Tanna’s shoulder. “I’ve seen him fight, girl. I don’t think you’re capable of kicking his ass. Get Lada to do it for you.” She laughs and I turn to Rosa. “Sorry, babe. He’d have to be as stubborn as a dwarf to not be interested in you. I tried to help as much as I could!”
Rosa shrugs and takes a drink. “I’m not bothered by it. I have plenty of local men to pick from that I wouldn’t have to wait to see only once a year or so!”
I grin and cock my head to look at Kesn. “Once a year, or, say… once every forty years?”
Her eyes fly open, and I can see Tanna and Rosa perk up as they focus in. No one says anything for a few seconds, then Kesn smiles a big ambassadorial smile and lifts her glass. “No comment, Commander,” she says, then takes a drink.
Tanna gives her a look. “I don’t buy it. Even Aelon commented on how beautiful you are. There’s no way you don’t have a line of men at your door every night!”
Kesn laughs. “Please, ladies! I never said I was chaste! But I also never said I ‘waited’ for anyone.” Her eyes dart between the three of us. “I’ll admit to… hmm… ‘reconnecting with an old friend with whom I had a close working relationship’, and even ‘taking advantage of an unexpected situation’, but never to ‘waiting’. And before anyone has the idea, those points have nothing at all to do with why I’m leaving with you!”
All of our eyes go wide, and Rosa gasps. I shake my head. “No one told me about that! When was that decided?”
Kesn’s brow creases, and she turns to stare at the men sitting closest to the King. “Your Captain was supposed to tell you days ago! I made the request when His Excellency arrived at the Palace on the first day, and it was approved by him and your Captain… the next day after we were in lockdown. Oh.”
I nod and smile. “Yeah, it’s been a busy week since we’ve been here. Aside from direct mission details, I haven’t talked with Cap about many things. And there were those few days where he was locked in the Palace while I was in the hospital ward. It’s possible it slipped his
mind. Maybe we should remind him before you show up at the ship with your bags?”
She nods, then stops and shakes her head. “No, I know things are okay. I confirmed it with His Excellency yesterday after the missions were complete, and he’s technically your Captain’s boss anyway, so I know if he knows then your Captain knows.”
I nod in agreement. “Yeah, those two talk constantly. Well, then, I guess it’s just the rest of us that didn’t know! Why are you leaving? What are you going to be doing on Terra?”
She smiles. “Rylae, I’ve been an Ambassador for 55 years on a world that doesn’t communicate much with other worlds. Most of my job has been validating messages between the King and the few worlds we trade with, checking with message and trade ships that dock, maintaining communication between the Guard and the Overseer, and helping local folk with representation. It’s not a complicated job, but His Excellency gave it to me when he was working on his reorganization plans for Stenchstone, and I was happy for it. It’s just grown a little stale, and there are other assistants that I’ve already recommended as my replacement to help the King with his new ‘interstellar community’ plans.”
She pointedly nudges Rosa with her elbow, which makes the younger goblin girl tense up in surprise. I smile in agreement and wink at her. Rosa would make an excellent Ambassador.
Kesn chuckles at her reaction and continues. “As for what I’ll be doing…” Her smile takes on a hint of sadness. “It wasn’t originally in my plan, but when His Excellency and your Captain agreed to my request, they made me a very specific offer. After I fast-track through some training on Terra, I won’t be staying on Terra. I’ll be joining the Corsari as the ship’s new Ambassador.”
I look at Tanna, but her face is as blank as mine must be. I don’t know how to respond to that. So many things running through my head with that revelation. On one hand, I’m thrilled that my new friend is joining my ship. On another hand, I’m glad to know the open position on my staff is being filled with someone I can trust. On yet another hand, I know that senior officer hiring decisions are the Captain’s to make, but I’m disappointed that I wasn’t consulted. On one more hand… Calgonnel.
I push the bad emotions away and let the happy ones win. Smiling, I extend my hand across the table. “Ambassador, it’s an honor to welcome you to the Corsari, and to have you on my team.”
I see her release the breath she was holding. I guess my warring emotions were a little too plain on my face. She smiles and reaches out to shake my hand. “Commander, it’ll be my pleasure to work with you… eventually… after my training period.”
Releasing her hand, I take another drink. “When are you coming to the ship?”
She shrugs. “I think it’ll take at least another four days. I still need to break in my replacement, which will be best to do while helping the currently-docked starship’s Executive Officer with resupply needs. And I’m pretty sure His Majesty hasn’t even offered her the job yet, so I need to get on him about that while her boss is also here today.”
Rosa tenses up again, which makes Kesn laugh. Looking around, I notice some folk have started walking around to have conversations with others. Kesn also seems to notice, and stands. “Ladies, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go ask His Majesty about that point right now.” She winks at Rosa and walks away.
Once she’s out of earshot, I pick up my glass and turn to the goblin. “It sounds like a lot of things are about to start changing on Stenchstone. I sure hope the new Ambassador is up for the job! But I can’t imagine anyone Kesn recommends would be unprepared for it.” I raise my glass to her and take a drink. She just stares back at me, too dumbstruck by the entire situation to reply. I smile as Tanna chuckles beside me.
I hear footsteps approaching and turn to see Cap and the Admiral walking toward us. I tap Tanna’s shoulder and we stand to meet them. The Admiral smiles at us. “Commanders. From the questions I just heard Kesn ask of His Majesty, I assume she has informed you of the details of her transition.”
I nod and smile. “She has. I wish I had known sooner, but we’ve been a bit busy so I understand. I’m glad to have her.” I turn to Cap for the next part. “We’ll have to discuss what this means for our departure time, along with other details I know the two of you have already worked out.”
Cap grins behind his beard. “We’ll get the work done, elf. No need to ride me like a borrowed landcraft! We still have a few days to get things sorted before launch. Tonight, though, we’re gonna take a much-needed break and have some fun. His Damnationcyship over there has been goin’ on all this time about the damned card game we didn’t get to have the other day and how we’re doin’ it today instead.”
The Admiral chuckles. “Rylae. Indeed, Xarm would like to have you join us. I believe he has some folk he would like to introduce you to.”
Before I can reply, Tanna wraps an arm around me. “Are any of them tall, attractive and single? This girl still needs a boyfriend bad, and I didn’t have time to find one for her on Terra.”
I punch her in the shoulder as Cap rolls his eyes and the Admiral chuckles behind his hand. Behind them, I see Kesn and the Overseer walking toward Rosa. I gesture quickly to draw everyone’s attention to them instead of me. I’d much rather hear and see that conversation happen than continue this one!
The squeal of delight that Rosa had been keeping bottled up for most of our after-lunch conversation is totally worth it.