much interest in the song anyway, in case they guess I know about the landwalker.
They reached the end of Main River. Teiti let out a sigh of relief as they stepped out of the crowd, through the gates and into the quiet of the Palace Pool. A guard stepped forward and bowed to Imi.
“The king wishes to see you, Princess,” the man said formally. “In the Main Room.”
“Thank you,” Imi replied, managing to suppress her excitement. Her father wanted to talk to her in the middle of the day! He never had time to see her during the day. It must be important.
Teiti smiled approvingly at Imi’s restraint. They walked down the main stream of the palace at a dignified but frustratingly slow pace. Guards nodded politely as she passed them. The stream was full of men and women waiting to see the king. They bowed as Teiti and Imi walked past to the open double doors of the Main Room.
As Imi stepped into the huge room she saw her father leaning on the arm of his throne, talking to one of four men sitting on stools arranged before him. She recognized her father’s counsellor, the palace steward and the head clothes-maker. Her father looked up, smiled broadly and opened his arms.
“Imi! Come give your father a hug.”
She grinned, tossed all decorum aside and ran across the room. As she leapt into his arms, she felt them wrap around her and the vibration of his laugh deep within his chest.
He released her and she settled on his knee.
“I have an important question for you to answer,” he told her.
She nodded, making her expression serious. “Yes, Father?”
“What entertainments would you like to see at our party?”
She grinned. “Dancing! Jugglers and acrobats!”
“Of course,” he said. “What else? Can you think of something particularly special?”
She thought hard. “Flying people!”
His eyebrows rose and he looked at his counsellor. “Do you think a few Siyee would agree to attend?”
She bounced up and down with excitement. “Would they? Would they?”
The counsellor smiled. “I will ask, but I can’t make any promises. They might not like being underground where they can’t see the sky, and they can’t fly in small places. There isn’t enough room.”
“We could put them in our biggest, tallest cave,” Imi suggested. “And paint the roof blue like the sky.”
Her father’s eyes lit with interest. “That would be a sight.” He smiled at her and she searched for more ideas that might please him.
“Fire-eaters!” she exclaimed.
He winced, probably remembering the accident that had happened a few years before, when an overly nervous new fire-eater had spilled burning oil over himself.
“Yes,” he said. “Is that all?”
She considered, then smiled. “A treasure hunt for the children.”
“You’re not getting too old for that?”
“Not yet… Not if we have it outside.”
His expression changed to disapproval. “No, Imi. It’s too dangerous.”
“But we could bring guards and hold it somewhere—”
“No.”
She pouted and looked away. Surely it wasn’t that dangerous outside. From what she had overheard in the pipe room, raiders weren’t circling the islands all the time. People went out every day to collect food or objects to trade. Whenever someone was killed, it was on one of the outer islands, or away from the islands altogether.
“Anything else?” he asked. She could hear the false brightness in his voice. She could tell when his smile was forced because the wrinkles around his eyes didn’t deepen.
“No,” she replied. “Just lots of presents.”
The wrinkles appeared. “Of course,” he replied. “Now, with all these suggestions to take care of, I have a lot of work to do. Go back to Teiti now.”
She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, then slipped off his knee and walked back to Teiti. Her aunt smiled, took her hand, and led her out of the room.
In the stream outside stood a large group of traders. She heard them muttering among themselves as she passed.
“… waiting for three days!”
“It has been in my family for three generations. They can’t…”
“… never seen such large sea bells. Big as fists!”
Sea bells? Imi slowed and pretended to brush something from her clothes.
“The landwalkers have discovered them, though. They guard them well.”
“Could we arrange a distraction? Then we…”
The conversation became too quiet to hear as she moved away. Her heart was beating fast. Sea bells as big as fists? Her father loved sea bells. Could she ask one of these traders to get one for her? She frowned. It sounded like they were planning one big trip to gather lots of