The Olive Conspiracy

The Olive Conspiracy

Mangoverse 4

by Shira Glassman

The Olive Conspiracy

By Shira Glassman

Copyright 2016 by Shira Glassman

Smashwords Edition

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters,
places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s
imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual
events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is
entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the author or
the publisher.

Torquere Press Publishers

P.O. Box 37, Waldo, AR 71770

The Olive Conspiracy by Shira Glassman
Copyright 2016

Editor, Jaymi Lynn

Cover by BS Clay

Published with permission

www.torquerepress.com

ISBN: 978-1-944449-78-0

All rights reserved, which includes the right
to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever
except as provided by the U.S. Copyright Law. For information
address Torquere Press, LLC, P.O. Box 37, Waldo, AR
71770

First Torquere Press Printing: July
2016

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. In the Sukkah

2. The Little Green Spy

3. Imbrio in Mourning

4. Queen Carolina

5. The Map

6. Agent of the Crown

7. The Kiss of Your Land

8. Mi Shebeirach

9. Hadar and Halleli

10. Abscheid und Feuerzauber

11. A Night for Heroes

12. Turning the Tabletop

13. Little Stories

14. A Royal Pain in the Throat

15. Six Weeks Shy of Seventeen

16. En Bateau

17. Sabbath Blessings

18. A Woman Worth Daydreaming About

19. State’s Evidence

20. The Conspirators

21. The Raid

22. The Letter from Imbrio

23. The Pale Queen

24. Grandmother Swan

25. Dragon and Dragonfly

26. Time of Rededication

DEDICATION

For Rania, who got me through my own
“awkward crushing on straight girls” teenage years with sisterly
friendship and loyalty.

Also dedicated in memory of my
perfect grandparents. May all my readers be so lucky as to have
family like them.

The Olive Conspiracy

by Shira Glassman

When Ezra tries to blackmail Chef Yael about
being trans, she throws him out of her restaurant and immediately
reports him to the queen. But when police find Ezra stabbed to
death, Queen Shulamit realizes he may have also tried to extort
someone more dangerous than a feisty old lady.

Shulamit’s royal investigation leads her to an
international terrorist plot to destroy her country’s economy—and
worse, her first love, Crown Princess Carolina of Imbrio, may be
involved. Since she’s got a dragon-shifting wizard at her disposal,
contacts with friendly foreign witches, and the support of her
partner Aviva, Shulamit has hope. What she doesn’t have is
time.

A love story between wives, between queen and
country, and between farmers and the crops they grow.

1. In the Sukkah

Queen Shulamit’s sukkah was everything you’d
expect a queen’s sukkah to be. The lush foliage that made up its
roof represented the best the capital, Home City, had to offer. Its
bamboo walls were reassuringly sturdy, while still fulfilling the
prescribed rules about being obviously temporary.

Inside, the woman herself sat on a chair made
of a piece of thick cloth slung between more bamboo. She’d turned
it into a makeshift throne so that in her typical workaholic
fashion, she could continue to receive subjects and conduct
business during the holiday. She was still human enough, though, to
have her feet up in front of her on a stool, and she was using a
metal straw to slurp the juice from a scalped coconut.

“
Now
this
is a throne.” She
grinned at her bodyguard.

The hulking blonde beside her stretched her
muscular arms forward and then relaxed. “
Nu
? What’s stopping
you from holding court outside whenever you want? Aren’t you
queen?”

“
Have to save some things for the
holidays or they won’t be special anymore,” Shulamit pointed out.
“Besides, I’d feel bad if I abandoned that priceless work of art I
usually perch on.” Even after having a baby her tiny body still
only took up half her father’s throne, but that left a conveniently
clear view of the carvings of fruit, representing the country’s
agricultural riches, that adorned most of the giant wooden
chair.

“
This would probably get old
anyway,” Rivka admitted as she wiped sweat away beneath the cloth
mask that covered the lower half of her face. “I mean, yes, we have
shade, but there are still between those palm fronds bits of
sunlight—”

“
There are supposed to be bits of
sunlight,” Shulamit reminded her. “And I guess
I’m
supposed
to see the next person in line. Who’s there?”

Rivka stepped out into the sun momentarily and
returned leading an older woman. She was tall and thin and bony
with age. On the hips of her gold tunic Shulamit recognized kitchen
stains, a familiar sight since Shulamit’s partner was also her
personal chef. “Aren’t you…?”

“
Yael, Majesty. I own the
Frangipani Table.”

“
Yes, that’s right.” Shulamit
didn’t frequent her capital city’s restaurants the way she did all
the other local businesses, due to a bewildering series of
digestive sensitivities that only her sweetheart respected enough
to navigate. “Here, have a shake.”

She handed over her lulav.

Yael took the bouquet of myrtle, willow, and
palm from her, waved it around perfunctorily, then gave it back,
her eyes darting around the sukkah, peering at its inhabitants.
“Majesty, I’m sorry, I know it’s the middle of Sukkot, but I
couldn’t wait. I’m just so angry; I had to report him right
away.”

“
What’s going on?”

“
Someone tried to blackmail me this
morning.”

Shulamit lifted an eyebrow. “I’m sorry you had
to sit through that. Who was it?”

“
Some fool named Ezra. Came into my
restaurant this morning and demanded I give him enough money to pay
his next week’s rent or else he’d cause me no amount of
mischief.”

“
What, he threatened to vandalize
the restaurant?”

“
Well, no, not that.” Yael craned
her neck, peering around the outside of the sukkah, then dropped
her voice. “My husband and I owned the restaurant together, but he
died over the summer.”

“
I heard about that. I’m sorry,”
said Shulamit. “May his memory be blessed.”

“
Thank you, Majesty,” said Yael.
“His sisters would love to get their hands on the restaurant, the
farm, and any other property we shared as a couple. Ezra threatened
to go to my sisters-in-law and tell them that our marriage wasn’t
legal so they could swoop in and take my restaurant.”

Shulamit rolled the edges of her filmy white
scarf between her thumb and forefinger. “I take it he was wrong,
and you did have a legal marriage, or you wouldn’t be coming here
telling me this.”

“
Better than that,” said Yael,
standing up a little straighter. Shulamit noticed she was almost as
tall as Rivka but had been slouching all of her weight on one hip.
“When he died he left a very clear will, leaving all his property
to me
by name
, and not just my name now, but the boy’s name
they gave me when I was born. Ha! So there’s nothing those two old
bats can do.”

Shulamit was surprised to hear the part about
Yael’s former name, but she hid it with practiced ease. She admired
the way the woman spat out such private details so casually. “That
was really clever!”

“
As if we’d leave something like
that up to chance.” Yael let out a delicate sniff that reminded
Shulamit of a sulking cat. “Who does he think we are?”

“
I’m glad you came here to report
this,” said Shulamit, “but unless he comes back and bothers you
again, it may be difficult for us to prove anything and arrest
him.”

“
Well, he doesn’t need to be
running around Home City bothering people, so…” Yael was clearly
trying to be as respectful as possible of her sovereign queen, but
the agitated hands she held in front of her shook with repressed
irritation.

Shulamit licked her lips. “How did it end with
him? Did you flat-out tell him you wouldn’t pay him?”

Yael considered this for a moment. “I don’t
think so. I think I just told him to get out of my restaurant
before I decided he was on the lunch menu, and not to come
back.”

“
Did he say anything after
that?”

“
Said… he said I’d come around,
that ‘people always do,’—” Yael huffed “—and that I knew where he
lived when I was ready to send for him. Dung beetle,” she added
under her breath.

“
So as far as he knows, you might
still ‘come around,’” said the queen.

“
I am not—”

Shulamit held up her hand. “No, no, I know. I
just have an idea. How we might be able to trap him into giving
himself away in front of the authorities.”

“
I’m up for anything.”

“
Are you willing to wear a
lizard?”

“
What?”

There was a rustling noise from the vicinity of
Rivka’s shoulder, where a nondescript green lizard was crawling out
from the thick, bushy golden straw of her hair. It stopped when it
was sitting smack in the middle of her leather tunic.

Yael yelped loudly. “What the fuck is that? Oh,
I’m sorry, Your Majesty.” After jumping back, she quickly composed
herself and now covered her mouth with embarrassment as she tried
to recover from swearing in front of the queen.

“
Sorry; they’re sort of a matched
set,” Shulamit murmured as the lizard scampered to the ground and
began to transform.

Soon, an impossibly tall, blond man with a
healthy stomach to match his broad shoulders stood with them in the
sukkah. “I am
deeply
sorry, Yael,” he said in a rich and
chocolatey voice with a heavy accent that matched Rivka’s. “I never
intended to startle you.”

“
You know Isaac, right?” Shulamit
smiled, and hoped as usual that it looked more like a smile than a
grimace, but knew that it probably didn’t.

“
I thought you were a dragon,” said
Yael. Her wide eyes and stiffened muscles showed that she hadn’t
entirely relaxed, even though her tone was more comfortable around
Isaac’s human form than the lizard. “What happened? Skip
breakfast?”

“
I have… other abilities,” was
Isaac’s only explanation.

“
I take it from your reaction that
it might be a little uncomfortable for you to sneak him into your
shirt, then?” Shulamit was thinking furiously, trying to come up
with another idea.