Chapter 22. Plum

I rang the bell at sunrise but nothing answered.

I rang it again twenty minutes later, and then a third time after that, in case the first two had been impolite somehow. I sat very still on the stones in front of the tree for an hour, and nothing came. I tried hiding behind one of the low structures at the back of the garden, in case the spirit was the type that only showed himself when he believed himself unobserved, and I held the position long enough that my left foot fell asleep. Nothing came.

But I was not discouraged.

I tried walking the perimeter of the garden three times in a slow circle, based on something I once read about spirits, then I tried sitting cross-legged in front of the bell and chanting the only ritual phrases I could remember from any of the books, which were not very many and which I was reasonably sure I was mispronouncing.

I tried saying hello in a clear loud voice toward the tree, then please then I begged, yet nothing happened.

Around midmorning, I noticed some sorts of fruits on the tree, so I climbed it and found them hanging in small clusters on the inside of the canopy where the pink flowers were thickest, dark red and round.

I picked one. The skin gave under my fingers in a way that suggested it was ripe. I held it for a moment, looking at it, and then on impulse I climbed down and laid the fruit at the base of the tree as an offering and climbed back up to hide and wait.

But nothing, so came I climbed down and took the fruit back and ate it.

“Mhmm.”

It was one of the best things I had ever put in my mouth. The juice ran down the side of my hand and the flesh came apart against my tongue, then a slow warmth spread through my chest the way it had spread through it when I had drunk the tonic in the forest, only deeper and quieter and longer-lasting. My channels felt fuller a moment after the swallow than they had felt a moment before.

+3 Mana Pool
+2 Stamina

I picked another and ate that one too.

I was four fruits deep, sitting in the fork of one of the higher branches with juice on my chin and a small contented heat running through my mana pool, when I heard footsteps on the flagstones below.

“Young Lord.”

Mireth was standing at the foot of the tree with her hands folded in front of her, looking up.

“Mireth. Hello.”

“Those are suren plums.”

“They’re very good.”

“Yes, Young Lord.”

“Are they… should I not be eating them?”

She smiled.

“They are yours, by every right this place recognizes. The tree produces only a few each season. The keepers leave them for the birds, since none of us would presume. I am told they are the finest fruit in the kingdom. I would not personally know.”

“Oh.”

I looked at the half-eaten one in my hand. I had been about to reach for a fifth.

“It is midday, Young Lord. If you would care to come down, the meal is ready.”

I came down with two of the fruits in one hand and started up a branch for two more.

“How many will there be at the meal?”

She blinked up at me.

“Your meal will be served separately, Young Lord. In your quarters.”

I stopped halfway up the branch.

“Oh. I was hoping I could eat with you, actually. If that’s allowed. I… I like the company.”

The keepers were not like the people who had moved through my old wing back at the estate. The four attendants who had dressed me in formal robes for two separate councils had not met my eyes once between them. Mireth had met my eyes the moment she straightened from her first bow at the gates and had not stopped meeting them since, and so did the other keepers. It made it easier to ask things.

She paused for a beat, then…

“…There would be three of us, Young Lord.”

“Then four plums.”

I climbed back up, picked two more, and came down with all four cradled against the front of my robe.

“I thought we could have these later. With the tea, perhaps. They really are too good for one person to eat alone, and it seems unfair that you’ve been tending this tree for so long without ever having tasted what it grows.”

“Young Lord, I could not. It would not be—”

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“Please. I would like it very much.”

She looked at the plums in my hands, and then at my face, and the small smile from the garden returned.

“…Thank you, Young Lord. We would be honoured.”

“Thank you. Please. Lead the way.”

***

The meal was simple. Grilled fish I did not recognise, a small bowl of pale brown grain I had never tasted before, and a few cold vegetables on the side. I was not going to pretend it was the finest thing I had eaten, but Mireth and one of the older keepers had cooked it themselves, and I was not about to say anything other than what I said, which was that it was good.

“You are too kind, Young Lord.”