like this.” A young, pretty maid in an ankle-length tan sarong scurried forward and put a gold-silk shawl on the chair before fading into the background. “This hospital is truly deplorable,” Zahra said. “You should have been brought to my hospital when you were taken ill. I had it built this year.” She gracefully sat down on the silk-draped chair. She wore an exquisitely draped scarlet dress that contrasted boldly with the gold shawl. “It’s like a wonderful palace but with all the modern facilities.”
“This hospital seems entirely adequate,” Eve said. “And I’m not certain patients who are as ill as I was would appreciate being treated in a palace. It’s a little over the top.”
“It’s all what you become accustomed to.” Zahra studied Eve. “And you still appear to be quite pale. Would you like me to have Dalai do a makeover to give you a bit of color? She’s quite clever about all sorts of different things.”
And one of them was evidently how to please Zahra at any cost, Eve thought. The girl had seemed almost frightened as she’d scurried around at her command. “No, thank you. All I need now is a nap. I’m planning on checking out of this hospital soon.”
“So I’ve been told. I’ve come to try to dissuade you. We don’t want someone of your stature to take any chances with your health. What if you had a terrible relapse? It would look very bad for my government when I’m trying so hard to show the world that we are not savages after that terrible war.” She smiled. “Why don’t you transfer to my hospital, and we’ll take great care of you? Then when you’re well, I’ll either send you home or you can return to Robaku.”
“I intend to return to Robaku today,” Eve said. “And I don’t need to remain in your hospital or any other. My work is going very well.”
Zahra’s flashing smile remained, but it was now fixed. “As I said, I’ll have to visit you again and make that judgment. It would be unfortunate for you to go through so much when we might have to send you home anyway.”
“I’ll take my chances,” Eve said. “You’d have to have cause, and, as I said, I have proof that my work is going very well. And I’ll have more proof when I finish the new reconstruction.”
Zahra’s smile was now a mere baring of teeth. “I hate the idea of your being so stubborn. Look what’s already happened to you. That horrible bout of food poisoning. Did they tell you there was a possibility you might die? Wouldn’t that have been terrible? It’s really too bad they don’t have food tasters in this day and age.”
Eve’s eyes widened in shock. There had been a thread of intimidation in those words, and that last remark had been totally bizarre. “Food taster? I’m sure that my food poisoning was accidental, and I’m glad we have no use for food tasters.”
“Yes, of course. But I admit that I’ve often thought that they did have their uses. When one is of a certain importance, naturally there are people who wish to take that stature away from them in any way possible.” She met Eve’s gaze with defiance. “I’m sure my own ancestors must have felt bound to protect themselves by such means. After all, the food tasters at court were only slaves and considered of no importance. The royal line had to be preserved.”
“Why? The idea is totally barbaric.” Then something Zahra had said caught her attention. “Court? I don’t know anything about your family background except that your father was the president of Maldara before you, and it was a republic.” She added dryly, “But I doubt if he appointed any food tasters to his cabinet.”
“No, of course not.” She was smiling again. “But we’re a very old family, and our traditions go back over two thousand years. Did you think that we’d emerged from the same jungle as those crude Botzans?” Her lips curled. “When he was president, it suited my father to pretend that we were one with all these people, but I would never be so stupid as to give up my heritage. We did not make the Great Journey from the north and struggle all through the years to keep our lineage pure just to sacrifice it to those uncivilized barbarians. I told my father that he couldn’t do it.” She drew a deep breath. “And I was right, the Botzans