The dining room, like the deck below, was laid out as a 12-sided shape. At one end of its north-south axis was a stage. At the other was a small bar, complete with stools. Ajax and Xaja entered by a stairway to the right of the bar. The very first thing Ajax saw was a tall, slim woman seated at the other end of the bar. Her skin was olive. Her hair was like pearl and pure platinum. Her legs were long. All that was obvious at a glance. It was her outfit that took figuring out. The glossy blue-black leather resolved itself into something like a one-piece pantsuit with a frill that could be called a skirt covering her hips. Ajax murmured one word, "Dryope."
As he spoke, he registered the song playing from the stage: "Today could be the day..." That was when Agaric stepped into his path.
"My Lord Ajax," said the Lord of the Coral Desert, "I was told that you were busy."
"I was invited by Lord Xaja," Ajax said. He tilted his head to get another look at the woman at the bar. "I thought you would be doing business at the Dowager's Palace."
"My business was to meet to discuss the levies," said Agaric. "Since you were not to be there, I had no reason not to accept my own invitation."
"Come now," Xaja said, "this is a party, not a court function. Here, I will buy you both a drink."
"You are gracious, my Lord," Agaric said. "More than most." Ajax was already approaching the bar as if hypnotized. When the woman turned her head, he froze at the sight of her smooth cheeks and elfin nose.
"Sorry," she said. He was jarred but far from displeased by her boyish, rasping voice. "I was just leaving. All yours." He remained frozen as she disappeared down another set of stairs.
"What would my Lord like to drink?" Nopalina asked pointedly.
His own voice scraped like sandpaper. "Virgin daquiri, please," he said.
He sat between Xaja and Agaric. He discretely examined the Mushroom Man. He was what the Mushroom Folk called a Redcap, and far less human-like in appearance. His cap was an earthy reddish-brown. His body was shrouded in an off-white mantle that approximated a robe. His face, while broadly anthropomorphic, was unpleasant, with a broad mouth and a stiff two-part mustache that made Ajax think unbidden of a catfish. When his kind were in a formal rest position as Agaric was now, it appeared from certain angles that they did not even have arms.
"I ask your pardon, my King," Agaric said. "You know that planting is difficult in our Land. Our yields are unpredictable. Sometimes, we have barely enough to feed ourselves. Every harvest, we must plan carefully. The wisest and best of our Kings have always been gracious. We always deliver what is asked of us, in due time."
"Of course, I have twice extended your credit during times of hardship," Ajax said. "Xaja, too, spared your land in his levies."
"To be sure," Agaric said. "We remain grateful to both of you. We have a saying, weather the storm, wait out the drought. We serve the Realm and the Throne... whoever may sit upon it."
Ajax finished his drink, after belatedly seeing that Agaric had finished his. "There is someone I hoped you would be here to meet," Xaja said. He led the way to one of the tables. "This is Lord Skarff of the Eaters."
At the table sat, if it could be called sitting, one of the most grotesque beings Ajax had ever beheld. The most grotesque part of all was that the being or its kind had evidently once been close to human in form. The figure floated just above the floor, perhaps held aloft by a thick belt around his midsection. The suspension of gravity was by all indications necessary to support its nearly ovoid form, a full 3 Cubits high and nearly as wide. The lower part could have been either limbs or some sort of tail. If Agaric resembled a catfish, the being's broad head looked like an angler of the deep, complete with a bobbing appendage on its forehead and a frill of dangling barbels under the lower jaw. The visibly scaly skin was varying shades of blue. The eyes were perfectly reflective, or else they were some kind of artificial construction. It was all the more disconcerting to hear the face speak in perfect if intermittently slurred English. "Grreetings, Lord Aj-ax of the Red R-realm," the being said. "I am Acquisitoor Skarff of Cygnus Alpha. I hoold the further title of Obserrver for the Star Union. I am here to discuss trrade with your biosphere."
Ajax prepared for a long and tedious talk. In fact, Skarff proved quite charming, if quicker than he needed to be in deflecting any suspicion. "The worrlds that have not attained interstellar civilization always imagine invaderrs trying to take their planets for the resources they value, or just for space to live," he said. He gave what Ajax hoped was a smile. "But what they see as fundamental drives are things we of the Star Union solved or outgrew long beforre we came to the stars. Without the demands of necessity, we have developed moore refined tastes and the most exacting standards of morality. By our own highest laws, we neverr disturb the natural course of the worrlds we make contact with, whether to their benefit or ours, because doing so woould destroy the most valuable commodities of all: Science, art, culturre, unique oorganisms and biospheres. We only trrade in kind for what only free and prosperous indigenous civilizations can proovide, at more than fairr price."
"I can speak only for my own Realm, and it is a small one," Ajax said guardedly. "We ourselves have the means to conquer lands and peoples beyond our World Island. By common agreement, we do not. The Empire of the Lindorms, the largest and most powerful of our Realms, has been the most consistent in favor of isolation. I do not believe I could change their Emperor's mind even if I attempted it."
"All as it shoould be," Skarff said. "Nothing is healthierr than a civilization that knows its own interests. Given time, we have always shown otherr worlds how much we and they benefit from contact. We of the Eaterrs have time in abundance, for we arre among the most long-lived of the sentient species of the Union. Oour investments arre always long-term."
By then, guests were filing in. There was dining, music, and soon dancing. Ajax danced with Persephone and Nopalina in turns. He gave them leave to dance with others, including Xaja and even Skarff, who twirled and bobbed on the floor. At one point, he handed off Nopalina to Xaja in exchange for Cerasa's hand. Suddenly, Xaja snarled, "No! She is mine! You cannot touch her! You shall not look upon her!!!"
Cerasa went back to her Lord's side and held his hand while he breathed in and out. "I am sorry, I am better," Xaja said. "I am calm. I am among my friends. My Lady loves me. I can show my love best by giving her liberty..." Ajax patted his arm and smiled reassuringly. Just over his former enemy's shoulder, he saw the strange woman walk past on the far side of the room.
"Xaja," Ajax whispered, "who is...?" The woman was nowhere in sight. "Never mind."
As the evening went on, Ajax went down to the pool, which doubled as a sauna, accompanied by the Maidens. He separated to change, leaving his bag in a locker. Entering the pool required a key card Xaja had provided. When he opened the door, he was met by a blast of steam and warm air. Before his vision cleared, an already familiar voice said, "Hello, stranger."
Sure enough, the woman with the pearl and platinum hair was at the far end of the pool. Several discrete glances could neither confirm if she wore a swimsuit nor entirely rule it out. Her only reaction to his gaze was a shrug that the King tried not to follow too closely. "Sorry," she said, "I should have put out the 'private' sign. Don't mind me."
That was when Persephone and Nopalina came up behind him in what looked like one-piece swimsuits the same color as their dresses. "Do we have our Lord's favor to join?" Persephone asked.
"Yes," Ajax rasped.
Ajax settled into the pool. The Maidens followed. Persephone stayed at his side. Nopalina went more enigmatically to the middle. "I am Ajax of Papadopoulos, King of the Red Realm," he said. "These are Nopalina of the Coral Desert and Persephone of Punica, my Attendants."
"I've heard of you," the other woman said. "Are you Greek or something?"
"Ah, yes," Ajax said. "I lived in a place called America, before." He cleared his throat. "Might I ask your name?"
She clearly considered a range of options. "If it's among Greeks," she said, "they call me Meliboia." She let a moment of silence pass. "I answer to Mel."
"I believe I have heard of you, also," Ajax said. "I know the name, as well."
"Yeah, it's pretty," Persephone said. "Do you have a House name?"
"Let's say," Meliboia said, "Niobides."
"That's nice too," Persephone said. "Isn't that one of the stories in the book?"
"You're right," Nopalina said. "You should read it some time."
Persephone had already turned back to Mel. "So, are you, like, a Princess? From a noble Family, anyway? Or did you have to learn a trade like Nopalina?"
The other woman seemed amused enough to answer. "My family are the Hoplites of Myrmidon," she said. "They are warriors who wander the stars. Others call them Misthioi, mercenaries and bounty hunters, but they fight according to their Oaths. They found me, raised me as their own and trained me in their arts. At the Age of Choosing, I set out on my own. I do a lot of things. Most of them involve finding objects or people of special interest, or guarding them."
"That sounds like what King Ajax does," Persephone said brightly. "Well, he used to. He went all over our World Island looking for treasure and magic Relics. He also rescued our old Princess. A lot, really. Eventually, he got to be King. Did you ever try to be a Queen?"
"No," Meliboia said, clearly losing interest, patience or both. "I do have a ship plus a permanent berth and a penthouse suite I bought from Xaja. Out here, that's pretty close to being royalty." Ajax nodded. In fact, by his hasty calculations, the cost of her assets would convert to the wealth of his entire Realm. She smiled at him then. "You can come closer."
Ajax moved to her side, with no more than a bemused smile from Persephone. He finally judged then that she was 3 Cubits tall or just short of it, taller than himself but comparable to Hector. They continued to talk. Ajax told Mel of his kingdom and his quests. She spoke guardedly of her own activities, focusing on peaceful excursions in port. After a time, the King said, "Attendants, would you go see if Xaja and Lady Cerasa wish to join us?"
Persephone quickly and happily moved to comply. Nopalina delayed. "Perhaps, my Lord," she said, "we should discuss your plans for the evening?" She pointed discretely, then indiscreetly, in the direction of the changing rooms.
Ajax followed. The steam and the bubbling pool made enough noise that he felt free to speak in a normal voice. "What is it, Nopalina?" he said.
She spoke in a tone he had heard rarely, never with him. "Normally, the last thing I would do is get involved in your love life," she said. Her face was growing red. "But I'm not letting you do something that stupid."
"What do you mean?" he said. He looked her in the eye, trying to look authoritative.
The Maiden crossed her arms. "You were trying to get rid of us," she said. "Me. Then you were going to ask that woman to marry you."
"I... I... It is not like that..."
Nopalina's face was now purple. "If I'm wrong, say yes or no," she said. "Oh, and were you going to tell Persephone if she said yes?"
"Of course," he said. "I mean, if I did choose to, to pursue a union with another, I would tell her, and you. Privately, at the right time..."
"Like when you didn't have to share a room the whole way home?" Nopalina snapped. "I know you, Papadopoulos. And then what? I've heard you discuss the Realm's finances. You need her House's credit for a lot more than a Royal Wedding. How long would you string them along?"
"Lady Nopalina," Ajax said. "These are Royal affairs, which it is my office to conduct at my own discretion. I always value your insight, but it is not your place to-"
He cut himself off as Persephone burst back in, smiling wider than before. "My Lord!" she said. "Lord Xaja is coming!"
"Good," Ajax said. "Let's go back in. Shall we?"
As he reopened the door, steam once again flooded in. This time, however, the air behind it was only lukewarm. By the time the vapor dissipated, Ajax was able to see quite clearly inside.
The pool was empty.