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Farmer's Crown (Fallowtide Sequence 2)

Farmer's Crown (Fallowtide Sequence 2)

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Sediryl has always yearned for responsibility--and power--and she was convinced she was ready for them... until the events of the Chatcaavan war demonstrated just how immense those responsibilities were, and just how parlous the power necessary to fulfill them. Even so, she's determined to prove herself worthy to her empress and all the Eldritch: the rich, the poor, the disenfranchised and the entrenched. Showing that she can be all things to all people is hard enough without Liolesa's former heir stirring the pot. And that's without Eldritch history casting its long shadow over the proceedings....

She has less than a month to convince the Eldritch that she deserves the heir's coronet, and none of them can afford for her to fail. The road to the future leads through her cropfields, and only Sediryl can lead them to it... if they'll follow.

Farmer's Crown completes the Jubilee Summer duology and sets the stage for the next generation of Peltedverse novels. There's a storm on the horizon....

Genre (setting): space opera (Pelted)
Tags: politics, space elves; multicultural; city building; feel-good story 
Rating: R for references to adult relations, difficult family relationships

Excerpt from Chapter 1

“Sediryl! Should you be bringing me with you?” Lili kept her voice hushed as they hurried up the stairs. “I was introduced to Lady Jeasa but surely that is not sufficient to constitute license to interrupt her toilette!”

“Jeasa is the most wonderful woman imaginable,” Sediryl said, “in a way completely different from your mother, who is also wonderful. She’s not going to mind. Besides—” Struck even as she said it, “she’s incredibly insightful, and we could use that insight.”

“Nice job,” Maia said in Sediryl’s ear. “I like your new ‘let’s finally take advantage of the native talent’ line of thinking lately.”

“Finally?” Sediryl said dryly, and shook her head. “Nevermind, I deserved that. I should have taken some time out of my schedule to worry about the situation on the ground. Not the literal ‘people are starving and dying from very basic diseases’ situation, but the one that might cut off our attempts to stop that at the knees.”

“Well said,” Lili murmured. When Sediryl glanced at her, she blushed and finished, “Ah… your companion granted me earrings of my own.”

“That’s right, you asked about some.” Sediryl chuckled. “Good! Thank you, Maia, for handling that while I was occupied.” She stopped at the top of the last flight, resting a hand on the banister. “Did she tell you why I was away?”

“That your father was unwell?” Lili touched her breast. “Yes, cousin. I’m glad he’s doing better. It was good to see him at the wedding… my mother particularly mentioned it, that she was relieved that situation has been… addressed.”

“Your moth—” Sediryl suppressed the urge to curse. “How many things have I missed because I haven’t been paying attention? Goddess. I’ve been a fool. Hopefully I’ve figured that out before it bites us all.” She sighed. “Come on, Lili, she should be in her room still. It’s too early for her to be up.”

“Too early?” Lili said, hesitant. “But it lacks two hours until lunch…?”

“Exactly.” Sediryl brought her cousin down the broad hall to the master suite and knocked on the door. At the muffled invitation, she pushed the door open and called, “Lady Jeasa?”

“Over here, Sediryl.”

“I’ve brought a guest…”

“That’s fine. I’m decent.” Jeasa beamed at them both from the chaise longue in her spacious bedchamber, the one she’d had placed beside the window so she could read while drinking her morning—very late morning—chocolate. She was still draped in her dressing gown, a lush, lined thing in satiny forest green in complete defiance of the tradition that heads of household should always be seen in their House colors. Green suited her better, Sediryl thought, and so did the informal hair, lying in two soft braids on either shoulder like a young girl’s. Sitting up, Jeasa said, “Oh, Lili! How delightful. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“I wish it were pleasure.” Sediryl perched on one of the chairs facing the chaise. “I’ve come to borrow a brooch, or a necklace, or something appropriately showy. Lili tells me that the nobles have discovered the Pad, enough to want to use it to come see the wedding.”

“Oh dear,” Jeasa said. “How inconvenient.” She pursed her lips. “And yet, how predictable. They must have planned that long in advance to manage it.”

“Lady?” Sediryl asked, surprised.

“There are not so many Pads, you know,” Jeasa said. “Most of the people involved will have to use Ontine’s. And the summer court won’t be in session for another two weeks, so ordinarily few people would have yet arrived to the capital. Some number must have left their estates early in order to trouble us with their presence today.” She waved a hand toward her dresser. “There’s a box there, my dear. Use whatever takes your fancy. That dress is lovely, I hope you won’t change out of it.”

Sediryl moved to the dresser. “You don’t think it too simple?”

“Not at all. It suits you, so you wear it like a queen.” Jeasa turned her smile to Lili. “I assume you brought the news?”

“I did, yes,” Lili said, hesitantly. “And… I am… concerned.”

Sediryl opened the velvet box and stared at the splendor hiding under its lid. “Goddess and Lord, my mother-in-law.”

“It is excessive, isn’t it? But putting them in the vault at Ontine seemed a pity, given how many of them were gifts from Kolvin. Looking at them reminds me of him. Now, then, Lili. Why concerned?”

Lili cleared her throat. “I was not introduced to everyone at the wedding, of course, and did not expect it. But the man standing alongside your husband, cousin Sediryl… that was the heir to Nase Galare, wasn’t it?”

Sediryl’s guts knotted. Was it Galare witchiness that made her sense something bad coming, or was she finally developing some political sense? Either way, she didn’t like the careful way Lili was edging into this topic. “The former heir, yes. He’s now Lord Lauvet Imthereli, of course.”

“You… realize… that a good number of our set were personally humiliated by him in the dueling circle before he left the world…?”

Conveniently there was a bench in front of the dresser. Sediryl sank onto it. “Oh… no.”

“He has surely made a formal court appearance since arrival?” Jeasa said. “Did they not run into him then?”

“He has made one, public appearance, yes,” Lili said. “When the Chatcaavan delegation came to the Empress before the throne, after their reception at Laisrathera. Lord Lauvet was with them, but it was assumed that he was their translator, and he did not… put himself forward. He did not speak, even. And afterwards, he was not available to the court, nor were the Chatcaava. They are occasionally seen in the halls, but they do not mingle, and it hardly matters that the summer court has not yet formally opened. There are enough people in town to remark on it… that this will be the first social occasion many of them will have involving him, or the dragons.”

“This should be fun,” Sediryl said with a sigh.

“It is… somewhat worse than that,” Lili said. “Because of the rumors.”

“There are always rumors,” Jeasa said.

“Not like these, I’m guessing.” Sediryl studied her cousin’s face, and the tension around her mouth. “All right, Lili. Better to know in advance. What are they saying?”

“That your husband and the Nase scion are lovers.”

Jeasa rested her cheek in her palm, lying serenely on her chaise. “So?”

Until that one word, Sediryl had been frozen, listening to the thunderous tattoo of her racing heart. Her mother-in-law’s nonchalance put everything back in perspective. “That’s a good question. Why do they care? Don’t they know how many people have arrangements on the side?” She thought of her own mother and the tenant who must have supplied the miscarried child who might have ended up her sister or brother. Pressing a hand to her heart, she said, “No one cares about affairs. It happens too often. The real rarity is someone in love with their spouse.”

“But you see, they perceive you to be in love,” Lili said. “Or at least, so rumor goes. The grand romance! One does not cheat on one’s storybook beloved. And I am afraid it will always be worse for you, cousin, because you are the heir and the heir is always held to a standard applied to no one else.”

“No wonder Liolesa’s single.” Sediryl sighed. “So we have a bunch of gossipmongers showing up, half of whom are already primed to take offense because Lisinthir stabbed them decades ago, and the other half eager to dig up dirt on how my husband is cheating on me with a scapegrace lord who consorts with dragons and either I’m letting him, or I don’t know about it.”

Lili nodded. “Yes. You have the sense of it.”

“I don’t see how any of this is their business!” Sediryl threw up her hands. “Who cares who’s sleeping with whom as long as everyone’s happy?”

“But… there must be children, and the children must know what they are due to inherit,” Lili said, wide-eyed.

“We can run paternity tests now,” Sediryl said. “That’ll take care of ‘who’s the father’ nicely.”

Before Lili could respond, Jeasa said, “You must be patient, my dear. Your family arrangements are… unusual. People will want to fit them into a mold they understand, and there is no mold to accept what you’re doing. Have you considered the pearl choker?”

Sediryl forced herself to resume sorting through Jeasa’s jewelry. Right now, ‘choking’ was something she wanted to do to others, not to suffer herself. “I still don’t see how it’s their business, as long as I do my job.”

“Our happiness affects our ability to do our work,” Jeasa said. “Anyone with a miserable family will tell you thus.”

“She is right,” Lili said. “It isn’t their affair, cousin, but it isn’t unwise of them to question whether it will affect your equilibrium.”

“If that was the reason they cared, I could forgive them for it,” Sediryl said with some asperity. “But they’re interested because they want to use it against me. And for the salaciousness of it…” She trailed off. “How did these rumors start, anyway? Who would ever have even seen Lisinthir and Jahir together? Lisinthir was barely on-world after the war. I think he came down for all of a few days? And he only saw Jahir once, at the Seni townhouse.” She mulled that, one of Jeasa’s necklaces hanging loose between her hands. “Even stranger, if they’re calling him a dragon-lover… how did they find out about Lisinthir and the Emperor?”

“He does introduce himself now as the Emperor’s consort,” Jeasa said.

“To us,” Sediryl said. “Did he at court, Lili?”

“The Chatcaavan Queen called him the Ambassador to Foreign Courts…?” Lili hesitated. “He does treat her with all the courtesy he would a wife, however.”

“But that’s her, not the Emperor.” Sediryl’s eyes narrowed. “What did Amber hear? It must have been Amber. Maybe from the refugees… they were the Emperor’s women, and they must have seen them together, or heard about it.”

Jeasa’s eyes had grown solemn, but it was Lili who spoke, “You think it was Jahir’s brother who would spread such rumors about him? Would not a servant from the Seni townhouse be a more plausible source?”

Sediryl tried to remember the details of the night Lisinthir had taken his leave of them. Had the door been fully shut? Could someone have seen through a crack? Or heard their voices? What language had they been speaking? Did it matter? Galare servants were trained in Universal. “That’s also possible, I guess. Maybe both, for all we know.”

“If it is one of my servants…” Jeasa’s voice sounded severe.

“It could have been an innocent act,” Lili said. “Sometimes when servants are proud of their masters they talk about them, and that talk can be misconstrued.”

Sediryl was sure Lisinthir’s freedom with touch would have played well to people who wanted scandal fodder. “Can I just set everyone on fire and get it over with?”

“May I choose your first targets?” Jeasa asked, hopeful.

Surprised, Sediryl laughed. “Really! You! I wouldn’t believe it of you. You’re so…”

“Meek?” Jeasa said, playing with the tassels at the end of her robe’s ties. “Like my son, whom you married?”

Flashes then, of the past few days in Jahir’s arms, and in his bed. Sediryl cleared her throat. “Well played, Mother-in-law.” Returning to the matter at hand: “So our separate problems are that some of our set are arriving, they’re expecting a wedding it turns out they’re too late to attend, and most of them will be disposed already to find fault with us.” She made a face. “I wonder how many of them are already on Beth’s side.”

“Or are still,” Lili said. “We must not dismiss loyalty as a motivation, cousin. Particularly among the Galare partisans. They were for Beth, and you… you are…”

“The outcast Galare.” Sediryl sighed and thrust the box out. “Maybe the two of you should pick. I’m not up to dressing myself for this kind of battle.”

“You did pretty well last time,” Maia murmured.

Sediryl refused to let those memories coalesce past vague images of Kamaney’s avaricious eyes. “That didn’t count.” To the women in the room, “Anyway, how bad could it get? Jahir and I will be there to greet guests, so we can do some smoothing of ruffled feathers for people disappointed they missed the grand event… the ones who like us, anyway. The ones who don’t are going to hate everything about the feast anyway, since it involves aliens and me and them feeling embarrassed that they missed the important part. I can talk politely to them, but they’re still going to gossip. The worst that could happen is… what? Someone spots Lisinthir and remembers he humiliated them, and then… they call him out? Not likely, right?”

“No one duels the former Nase scion,” Lili said, so emphatically Sediryl glanced at her in surprise. She checked Jeasa’s expression, found her mother-in-law nodding.

“She is correct.”

Which made her realize she’d missed Lisinthir’s grand entrance to society, and all the tumult it had inspired. “What was it like? When he was here.”

Lili shuddered. “Terrifying.”

Sediryl eyed her. “I thought you liked duels? I seem to remember you trying to drag me to this or that sword fight all the time when we were girls.”

“They were not fights,” Lili said. “They were demonstrations of prowess! Posing, strutting. Displays to impress us. What Lord Nase Galare did… that was… that was real.”

Both Sediryl and Jeasa were studying Lili with interest now.

“It was real,” Lili finished. “When so much of what we do is not. And it stripped away all  pretense and forced us to look at the truth… which is that most of us could not make good on anything we claim. Women professing to power, who cannot feed their tenants or make a baby stay in their wombs. Men boasting of strength, who cannot kill and shy from bloodshed. Lord Nase Galare never played our game. He didn’t respect our rules… or… no. He did, but they were the rules we have long since stopped believing in. He forced us to confront our hypocrisy. It did not go over well.”

“Goddess, Lili,” Sediryl said, wide-eyed. “I could listen to you talk forever.”

Lili blushed. “You are too kind, cousin.” Glancing at Jeasa, she said, “But you were there also, Lady Jeasa. What did you think of him?”

Jeasa, resting against her pillows, said, “He reminded me of his father.” A smile, faint. “He doesn’t, anymore.”

“He’s still dangerous,” Sediryl said.

“But not likely to cast down the gage at an arrogant pup,” Jeasa said. “Lord Lauvet Imthereli does not need to cuff children, and knows it. I would not worry overmuch on that score.” She peered at the box. “I do like my jewelry, but surely the women of the Alliance also decorate themselves extravagantly. Do you have anything like that with you, Sediryl-love? Something dazzling? Like those useful pins of yours, but more ostentatious.”

“What pins?” Lili asked, curious.

“The Alliance has hair pins that work,” Jeasa said. “They’re a marvel. A few of them here and there and you could walk through a storm without a loose hair.”

“The wonders of our allies never cease,” Lili said. “Also, I need several dozen of these magical devices.” She handed over a pendant, a faceted iolite set in gold. “Here, use this one. Pin it in place at your breast.”

“Purplish-blue? Really? With this gown?”

“The contrast is necessary. And it draws attention to your neckline.”

Sediryl sighed. “Right. Exactly where I want everyone looking.”

“Be of good cheer, daughter,” Jeasa said. “No matter how many people cross that Pad seeking scandal, there will be far, far more who are here because they honestly wish you well.”

The way her heart jumped when Jeasa called her ‘daughter’ so lovingly, and so easily… how had she been so lucky? “Or want to eat our food?”

“Or that,” Jeasa agreed serenely. More impishly, “It is a mighty spread.”

“The farmer princess wouldn’t settle for less,” Sediryl said.

“I like that,” Lili said. “The farmer princess. Do you mind if I….”

“Spread it around?” Sediryl thought of Vasiht’h’s earlier comment and chuckled. “You might be too late to be the first.”

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R
R.S.
Not a standalone in any sense, a wonderful treat for those who've read the rest.

It's hard to review this one in isolation from Healer's Wedding, and it's hard to review either out of context with the rest of the series. Don't come into these expecting them to standalone- and I am not dinging them for that, because it's clear to me that they were never meant to. The duology does what it set out to do, which is establish the going-forward conflict and status quo after Prince's Game and Her Instruments. It does that very well, and as a jumping off place for what will come next. In that sense, it is a capstone for what has gone before, completing a doorway through which a cathedral under construction waits. I think it will be worth the wait, myself.