Claire’s Bluff

The Tomato Queen glared at the children. The Chief of the Capsicum Guards stood behind her smiling in a nasty way that made Claire’s stomach flip. The other members of the Court, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants alike, suddenly found the ground fascinating, staring down in silence.

The Queen left off examining the children, and looked at Lady Aubergine. “Well?”

Adolphus looked in panic at the twins, who were huddled together, speechless. Gerhardt still scowled, but Bettina had put Eglantine’s skirt between her and the angry tomato.

“Majesty,” Eglantine began, but was interrupted.

Claire stepped forward, willing her stomach to stay where it belonged. She approached the Queen and dropped to one knee before her.

“Oh Great Queen,” she said, “our parents are searching for us. They are big people-”

Mirabelle hissed a word from behind her.

“Important people, with much wealth. When they arrive you shall be repaid for your loss.”

The Queen considered her. “How do you know they will come?”

“Of course they’ll come,” Gerhardt said. His tone was belligerent; his belief unfailing.

“We are only children,” Claire said, “yet we survived in the wilds for weeks. Our parents have great power. They shall come.”

“Power? What sort of power?” The Queen spoke sharply. “Have they soldiers?”

“They don’t need soldiers,” Adolphus said. “They are-” He looked down at his brother and whispered, “What’s Merlin?”

“Wizard,” Gerhardt said, but as he answered German in German, did not give his brother the information he needed. But Mirabelle understood Adolphus’ ploy.

“Magicians,” she spoke loudly, staring down the Queen. “Our parents are great magicians. When they come, if we are unharmed, you shall be glad to meet them.”

The Queen stepped forward and grabbed Claire by the chin, pulling her face up to examine it. “Are you threatening me?”

Claire met the Queen’s eyes with as much dignity as she could muster. “Of course not, your Majesty. My siblings and I only speak the truth. Our parents will come, and they will pay you back.”

Later, in Lady Aubergine’s rooms, with the raucous finches giving them cover from eavesdroppers, Gerhardt exploded.

“How can you lie like that?”

“I never lied,” Claire said. “Our parents will come, and they will pay her back for however she treats us.”

“They are not wiz-” His voice crept louder with every word, so he was interrupted by a pillow, held to his face by Mirabelle.

“Beheld by a primitive culture, advanced science is explainable only as magic,” Adolphus said. “You’ve always had trouble understanding the relativity of truth.”

Gerhardt escaped the pillow, but kept his voice quiet. “Either something is true or it’s false!”

“In this case it’s just a matter of semantics.”

“What?”

“Of which word you use and what you mean,” Adolphus said. “If we’d said scientist, they wouldn’t have understood. We say magician and they understand. It amounts to the same thing – these people don’t even have metal. If Father shows up with a ball-lightening generator, or even a pistol, it may as well be magic.”

“I hope Lady Aubergine is all right,” Annabelle said. “She didn’t do anything but take care of us like the Queen told her to, but her majesty seemed angrier at her even than us.”

“When you’re as nasty at that queen,” Claire said quietly, “just being nice is a challenge to her authority. I don’t think the queen likes Lady Aubergine. Why would she make her lady-in-waiting if she doesn’t like her?”

“Dash it! I hate bullies,” Adolphus said.

“Particularly a bully with an army,” Claire added. The children lapsed into uneasy silence, waiting for their protector to return.