The Kingdom

With everything we'd been able to salvage we'd come up with about a third of the original value of the caravan. Even though there had been so much lost, the caravan was still going to pay for itself.

I just hoped that we were paid.

*****

I mentally reined myself in as I did not want to anger another of the seven kingdoms, but still it was with the expectation of being cheated that I traveled down the marble hallway in the wake of the finely dressed servant.

The journey through the mistress's mansion brought me through numerous groups of jabbering people, whose conversations came to a halt as I passed by before starting back up again. Just who were all these people anyway?

They appeared, for lack of better words, to simply be the idle rich. I did not care for them, as they seemed blind to any familiar reality in the way they talked and dressed.

At last the servant brought me to a room that contained only one individual. She had played my temptress in the desert, but today the temptress side was gone, much to my relief. She was staring pensively out a large window at the streets of the city beyond. I stopped at a respectful distance from her desk and waited.

Finally she spoke, "How much did you manage to save?"

"You're not asking the right question," I responded evenly.

Her head swung to me sharply, "What?" she asked, surprised.

"I said you're not asking the right question," I repeated firmly.

Something about my tone seemed to shake her up and in a meek voice she asked, "What should I be asking?"

"How many of us that you left behind managed to survive. That's what you're not asking. Here you are, safely back in your rich surroundings and your only concern seems to be the wealth you lost. Over two thirds of your retainers are dead and yet the first thing you want to know is how much cargo there still is!"

She'd drawn back from me and for good reason. I was angry and spitting out my words through clenched teeth. I said, "To answer your first question, you have roughly one third of your cargo and before you ask me, I'll tell you. I don't want any of your money! I don't speak for the other survivors though. They deserve to be paid richly and I expect to hear that they have been or I'll be back here to pay you a visit personally!"

Satisfied, based on her shaken appearance, that she would pay the salaries of the others, I left the room, eager to be rid of the distasteful trappings of luxury with which she was surrounded.