In Kelja, beyond the Northern Desert, a
King's Chef often knows the King's mind better than any advisor.
--
A cool Autumn night outside, and the
noise of dockside taverns up and down the street. Ayel walked the
cobbled street, headed to The Turning Cow, one a few taverns offering
lower prices while still maintaining the type of clientele that were
likely to depart on the same ship they had made port in. Pushing
aside a door built to block winter's chills, Ayel entered, and was
warmed to see Kinoch at the bar, and hear his
wrong-a-different-way-each-time attempt at greeting her in the
blended vowels and doubled consonants of Kelma.
--
When the castles, plantation estates,
major ports, and all sorts of other Hundered Holders' assets were
brought under control of The Second Crown, there was naturally
frequent contention for prestige and power. In the Year of Smooth
Water, knowing that the Monarchs before him had come and gone far too
rapidly, most with assistance, Monarch Luam realized there was a need
to communicate more directly and more discreetly with the Hundred,
letting each know the Monarch was aware of their plans and desires,
and whether the Monarch approved. A message to each of the Hundred
Holders would mean three hundred hands and eyes that might betray
secrets of state, so Monarch Luam searched the lands for a chef
supreme in both execution and knowledge of tradition, and the next
year held the first Banquet of State, serving each of the Hundred
Holders an entirely different meal.
Advised by his newly appointed Royal
Chef, Tala, and her staff, Monarch Luam set each Holder with an
appetizer featuring a food most characteristic to the lands she or he
administered: beef to the grassland barons and wild game to the
timber magnates, of course, but then catfish to the river merchants
and cod to the spice traders. To the Generals, boar and horse and
lion, and to the Mountain Lords with their mines, goat, and so on to
each of the Hundred. For himself, the Monarch ate only plain rice as
an appetizer.
As some lords grumbled that the Chef
had missed some small but significant detail, and others speculated
on what Monarch Luam intended, a hundred servants removed a hundred
covers from a hundred dishes, and a hush fell over the hall. For the
main course, Monarch Luam had ordered one hundred variations on rice.
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