Blood Rebellion

"We probably won’t be ready for that for at least a year," Garde offered. "That may give us time to work the ash from Baetrah into the soil and plant cane crops. The barns and buildings on the cane farms will also have to be cleaned up—what still stands, anyway. It will take much work, but Weth and Foth have offered for those lands. If we put Lord Nedevik in charge, I think he will make his High Demons work just like everyone else. He knows how to plant and harvest."

"I like him," Roff said quietly. "He purchased oxberry wine from me many times and occasionally came to help pick berries."

"My brothers still run the cattle herds," Garde said. "We used to depend heavily on comesuli help, but we worked alongside them, much of the time. The beef supply has been uninterrupted."

"The wool that the rugs were made from was really soft," I said. "Orliff’s parent made rugs and they were beautiful. That’s something else you might be able to export."

"I think both planets should work together," Adam suggested. "Since Orliff’s father and the other comesuli weavers know how to make the rugs, the wool could come first to Le-Ath Veronis and then the rugs could be exported from here. The oxberry wine as well—Roff could oversee his own winery, with the berries coming from Kifirin."

"I am in agreement with that—this would mean fewer facilities to be inspected by the Alliance," Garde said. "That would still leave us with cheese, beef and cane sugar as major exports, with the wool and oxberries offered exclusively to Le-Ath Veronis for wine and rug making."

"I’m good with that," I said and tore a bit of bread off in my fingers. It was herb bread and very good. I was going to have to introduce Cheedas and the vampires to olive oil and balsamic vinegar as a dip for bread. "Roff, do you want your own winery? I think you could do very well with this. I can see exclusive restaurants offering oxberry wine as a specialty. I think you could be very wealthy in no time."

"I might like to try this," Roff smiled. Giff was nodding hopefully at her father. Little Toff was being cared for by another comesula, so Giff and Roff could have their evening meal.

"Adam and I would like to help put up the winery, as an investment," Merrill said. He’d tasted Roff’s wine and thought it was exceptional. Merrill had an eye for good wines; he always kept the best cellar. If he wanted to invest, he knew it was a winner.

"Roff, you need to get with Adam and Merrill. When will the oxberries be ready for harvesting on Kifirin?" I asked.

"In two weeks on the Northern Continent," he slumped dejectedly in his chair.

"Don’t worry about it, okay?" I rubbed his shoulders.

"We may be able to come up with something," Adam chuckled.

"Uh-huh," I said. "Roff, you may have your winery by tomorrow afternoon."

"Perhaps in two to three days—we’ll consult with Roff and look into other wineries to see what is needed," Adam said. "It’ll go up quickly after that."

"Hear that, honey?" Roff smiled at my words and leaned in to kiss me.

"Now, about the other business," Karzac sliced into his rack of lamb, which was the latest course. I was full after the quail and silently attempted to auction off my lamb to someone else. Drew winked at me. I kept a little for myself and passed the rest down to him and Drake. They’d been out training the vampires and comesuli that made up our new palace guards and army, so I knew they’d be famished.

"What other business?" I asked, tasting the lamb. It was delicious, but I was about to pop and we still had dessert coming. The strawberry soufflé would have to wait until later.

"The off-days business," Gavin growled.

"Yeah, who isn’t getting off-days? And why haven’t I heard about this before? I may have words with the ones responsible," I grumped.

"Then you need to get a mirror," Tony snickered. "And I want to watch you chew yourself out." My fork was still in my hand as I gawked at Tony.

"Since when does the boss get a day off?" I said and busied myself with a forkful of lamb.

"Since the entire Inner Circle decided," Karzac said. "Lissa, you have yet to gain an ounce, you push yourself for sixteen hours or more at a stretch and are generally asleep the moment your head hits the pillow. I can’t say I’m completely familiar with your power, but it isn’t doing anything to keep you from exhaustion."

"When we confine ourselves to a corporeal shape, it drains us," Kifirin appeared and sat in his seat at the opposite end of the table. "I did that for a very long time and it almost drained me completely. That is why I slept, avilepha," Kifirin accepted a plate from a vampire server. "You will drive yourself into the same state if you are not careful. I have discovered that if I spend one or two hours each day in my energy state, it rests me and I can continue as you see me now."

"But I don’t know how to do that," I said. Honestly, I was afraid to do it, since I was unfamiliar with the concept and afraid to go Looking.

"I know this, m’hala. I will teach you." Kifirin was devouring his quail, a satisfied smile playing about his lips.

"Back to off-days," Karzac grumbled.

"Karzac, I don’t know when I could take any. And I’ve wanted to find a place in this palace for a pool and hot tub and I haven’t even had time to go look."

Everybody at the table was staring at me, now. Gabron cleared his throat. "What?" I asked.

"You have a pool and hot tub," Tony said. "And if you’d take five minutes for yourself, you’d know that."

"I take time," I grumped, feeling embarrassed. "Where the hell is the pool and hot tub?"

"Between the Royal Wing and the Guest Wing," Gabron sighed. "I thought you had the ability to reach out for information, my darling."

"I do have that."

"She’s Looking for other things," Karzac was at his grumpy best.

"I will clear your calendar for tomorrow and then we will decide on regular days off," Gabron went on.

"But what about the City Councils?" We were still hip deep in hammering out universal laws. With this diverse a population from eight different planets so far, everything had to be woven together into whole cloth. We weren’t anywhere close, yet.

"We need days off, too," Flavio weighed in.

"All right, what do you suggest?" I glared at the third most beautiful man I’d ever met, daring him to complain. He gave me a lovely smile. While that might make most women swoon, it wasn’t doing a thing for me at the moment. Kifirin was smiling and ducking his head to keep from laughing at me.