Page 60 of The Ruler
Pearl closed her eyes and euphoria rose in my chest.Come on, Pearl, come on…I silently cheered, picturing her verbal claws just under her skin.
“May I ask why women aren’t allowed to own anything?” Pearl asked and this time the softness in her tone lessened.
“Because we don’t want women to be independent of their husbands, of course,” I said and arched a brow meant to make my angel fall.
Pearl’s nostrils expanded as she took a long deep breath.
“It’s all good,” Zobel said in a jovial manner. “My daughters lack for nothing. Their husbands may be dimwitted but they’re rich as fuck.” He laughed at his own joke and I joined him just to provoke Pearl further.
“So you’re planning to sit on all these riches until you die and then give it to two of the already richest men in the country, is that it?” Pearl asked with a calm but firm voice.
“Uh-huh,” Zobel answered and popped a large forkful of veal into his mouth.
Pearl squirmed in her seat, and I was just waiting for her burning fuse to hit the explosives and go off.
“On our way here…” she said. “We passed a town that had burned down.”
“That’s Larson’s Creek,” Zobel nodded enthusiastically and sipped from his wine glass. “Poor fellows lost almost everything last year.” He held up his fork and pointed at us. “Good thing they have me to provide them with jobs or they would be completely lost.”
She stared at him.
“How many died?” Magni asked.
“More than half. It was very unfortunate,” he muttered. “Now I have to recruit workers all the way from Old Waterloo.”
“And what have you done to help the survivors?” Pearl asked; her fork and knife were on her plate and she pushed it away as if she had lost her appetite.
“Done? What do you mean?” He shrugged. “I didn’t start the fire; why should I do something?”
She sucked in a breath as if it were going out of style and turned pink from biting her tongue.
“What would you suggest Mr. Zobel should do?” I asked her challengingly. “Remember this isn’t the Motherlands.” I laughed to make the fuse burn faster, and it worked.
“And you wonder why some people conspire to overthrow you,” she said. “Don’t you see that you can never live a truly fulfilled life in your castles until no man is hungry on the streets?”
“I’m sorry to burst your bubble, dear,” Mr. Zobel laughed, “but I’m quite content.”
“That might be. But contentment and fulfillment are two different things. You live a shallow life and measure your worth in how much you can accumulate for yourself. Fulfillment isn’t staying in a golden castle full of security guards to protect you from being robbed. Don’t you see that all this stuff…” she waved her hands around, “…is what is truly robbing you? You have lost your freedom and even worse, your humanity.”
“My humanity?” He scrunched up his face and my mother shot Pearl a displeased look.
“Yes, people are suffering and you have the means to help them, yet you won’t. If only you knew that helping others would be the fastest way to help yourself.”
“Nonsense,” Mr. Zobel frowned at me. “What a peculiar thing to say. I create workplaces, and that is plenty of good deeds for one man.”
“I dare you,” she said and stood up. “To come with me right now and feed the hungry men. I guarantee you’ll feel a deep satisfaction seeing their smiles as they fill their bellies.”
Zobel’s eyes flickered between Magni, Finn, and me, probably waiting for one of us to reveal that Pearl was part of a prank.
“I don’t have time to go there. It’s so very far,” Zobel said when no one offered him a way out.
“Then give me the food and I shall hand it out for you,” she offered with fire in her eyes. My heart was beating fast as I watched her come back to life after hiding from me all day. Yes, this was the woman I craved and lusted after.
“Is she out of her mind?” Zobel asked me with deep frown lines on his forehead. “An unmarried woman couldn’t possible survive walking into a town like that. They would rape her for the fun of it.”
I opened my mouth to speak when Finn cut me off.
“That’s not happening,” he said and for once his humor was gone. “If this truly means so much to you, Pearl, then Magni and I will hand out food while you stay protected in the drone.” He looked at Zobel. “If you’ll sponsor some food that we can take with us.”
