The Great Slave Escape

The next morning, Julia enters Queen Mariam’s apartments carrying two carefully folded letters. The attendant clears the writing table and places sealing wax, cords, and court stationery within reach.

Julia lays both copies before Mariam. Her pale, slender hands remain steady, though she watches the queen closely as the court stationery is sorted into separate piles.

The attendant warms a small lump of wax over a lamp and sets two blank slips beside the letters. Mariam studies the routes, considering which officials may safely receive each document.

Mariam studies Makeda for a measured moment. Julia remains beside the table, silent, while the attendant pauses with the warmed sealing wax.

She indicates a narrow register beside the wax. Its columns name the recipient, bearer, seal, and date, leaving little room for an unrecorded promise or private alteration.

Makeda’s proposal turns the uncertain trade route into a specific diplomatic possibility. Julia watches Mariam, while the attendant keeps one hand near the warmed wax.

Mariam draws a fresh slip beside Julia’s letters and marks it for an inquiry to the official. The eastern route is now accepted for examination, without promising a carrier or payment.

Makeda goes with Julia to the writing table, where the Moscow draft and court stationery await under the attendant’s supervision. Angela is not present.

Julia compares the address forms already prepared, but their spellings do not align. Makeda cannot begin a clean copy because the writing materials remain under the attendant’s control, not hers.

The letter’s family details are ready, but its multilingual address remains unresolved. Julia sets the draft aside for Angela’s consultation, making a solitary copy no longer the sensible next step.

Makeda leaves Julia with the disputed address forms and follows the attendant’s directions through the adjoining offices. The palace clerks’ quiet scratching grows louder near the account tables.

She finds Angela bent over several ledgers, comparing supply entries in different hands. Loose notes, tally slips, and a small ink pot crowd the table before her.

Angela closes the ledger on its proper page, gathers a strip of clean paper, and rises with the practiced care of someone unwilling to lose her place. Makeda has found her and can return with the help Julia needs.

Makeda returns through the adjoining offices, finding Angela already poised over her ledgers. She carries the disputed address forms carefully, preserving Julia’s marked corrections.

Angela closes the ledger on its marked page, places the tally slips in a precise stack, and follows Makeda with the clean paper and ink pot. Her stern concentration promises no careless alteration.

Makeda returns to the account tables and takes up a quiet position where she can watch the ledgers. The place Angela left them is empty.

A clerk stands at a neighboring table with Angela’s ledgers open before him. The tally slips have been separated into small piles, and one marked page lies beneath his hand.

He turns another page, exposing a gap where Angela’s careful stack no longer matches the account order. Watching the table cannot restore the arrangement or prevent the review already underway.

The clerk removes his hand and sets a blank notation slip beside the papers, touching nothing else. The separated piles and marked page remain exactly where he found them.

The clerk’s compliance secures Angela’s work from alteration, but his wording gives Makeda a public responsibility for the delay. Nearby scribes glance over before returning to their calculations.

The warning falls quietly, but the nearby scribes hear it. The clerk’s hand withdraws from the papers, and his confidence gives way to careful restraint.

He moves the notation slip aside without disturbing the separated piles. The marked page stays visible, and the review remains suspended under Makeda’s stated condition.

Angela takes her place beside the table and surveys each pile before speaking. The clerk waits opposite her, now bound to preserve the arrangement he questioned.

Makeda leaves Angela to explain the ledgers and returns through the quiet offices toward the writing room. The palace resumes its measured routine around her.

Julia remains at the writing table with the Moscow draft, disputed address forms, and a length of clean paper set neatly before her. She looks up as Makeda enters.

Makeda gives her the situation in brief: Angela is addressing the accounts, while the clerk must preserve the ledgers exactly as they stand. Julia listens, one hand resting on her unfinished draft.

She gathers the marked forms into a single orderly stack and leaves the ink untouched. For now, Julia’s letter is ready in substance, while Angela’s judgment controls its final address.

Julia taps the orderly stack of disputed forms, then indicates the unfinished Moscow draft. Angela’s language work is preserved there in marks and corrections, while her accounting review continues separately.

The arrangement is clear: Angela settled the language question provisionally, then protected her accounting work from alteration. The final copy still awaits the official’s review, not Angela’s understanding.

Angela returns with the disputed forms corrected and the account review secured. She places the confirmed address beside Julia’s Moscow draft, leaving no language question unresolved.

Julia gathers the Warsaw and Moscow drafts without altering their wording. The attendant checks the seals and register, then opens the way toward the chancery office.

The attendant leads Makeda, Julia, and Angela into the chancery office. The official looks up from the outgoing register as the two letters are placed before him for inspection.

Makeda’s thanks is brief and formal. Julia keeps both drafts aligned before the official, while Angela rests one corrected address beside the register.

The official compares each address with the wording, then enters the recipients and destinations into the outgoing register. The attendant waits beside the wax and cords.

The official makes a final notation and passes the drafts to the attendant for sealing. The letters have entered the court’s recorded process without surrendering the women’s control over their meaning.

Makeda leaves the chancery and crosses the palace precinct toward the market, carrying no letter and making no claim to speak with the queen’s authority. The crowded stalls offer spices, cloth, metalwork, and travelers’ news.

Near the eastern stalls, she finds three merchants sorting bales beside pack animals. Their Russian goods and guarded attention suggest they may know the road, though none appears eager to welcome a stranger’s commission.

The merchants refuse her approach, but their directions give the search a proper channel. Returning with a named route and recorded inquiry is now more promising than approaching market carriers privately.

Makeda turns back toward the palace, carrying no promise and no merchant’s agreement, but she has learned where the court can verify an Isfahan route before Julia’s letter is sealed.

The attendant receives the question without surprise. Makeda’s clear purpose and formal manner turn a market inquiry into an ordinary request for palace guidance.

She points toward a side passage leading away from the apartments and names the turns precisely: through the records court, down the covered stair, and along the lower arcade.

The route and the proper explanation are now clear. Makeda can reach the eastern caravan office and ask for the register without claiming authority she has not been given.

Makeda takes the covered stair beside the account tables and reaches the lower chancery without delay. The records court gives way to a cooler arcade lined with locked offices and travel notices.

At the eastern caravan office, a middle-aged man with a spare build, brown beard, ink-stained fingers, and a dark wool cap sits beneath a shelf of registers. He looks up as she enters.

He unlocks a chest and lays the eastern register open before Makeda. Entries for Isfahan, Armenian receiving houses, and onward Persian trade offices are marked by dates, agents, and seals.

The caravan registrar turns the register toward Makeda and traces the entries with an ink-stained finger. The Moscow notation belongs to correspondence forwarded after the caravan reaches Isfahan.

He separates two permits from the register, one listing an Armenian receiving house and another naming a Persian office. Neither guarantees Moscow, but both provide recorded hands through which Julia’s letter might travel.

The direct route has vanished from the register, but the inquiry offers a documented opening. The caravan registrar leaves the relevant permits open beside the blank request slip.

The caravan registrar draws the blank request slip closer and copies the relevant permit numbers from the open register. His careful hand leaves no uncertainty about the destination or the inquiry’s limited purpose.

He sands the fresh ink, folds the slip, and marks its entry beside the two permits. The route remains indirect, but the court now has a formal question before it.

The caravan registrar places the sealed inquiry with the outgoing papers and closes the register over the permits. Makeda leaves with the request prepared and properly recorded for the queen’s officials.

The registrar considers the question, then reopens the register and checks the fresh entry against the sealed inquiry. His answer is practical, but not casual.

He adds Makeda’s name to the margin as the requesting party and notes that she is answerable for the inquiry’s purpose. The entry gives her a clear appointment, but makes her standing visible to every clerk who handles it.

Makeda returns to the writing room and finds Julia at the table, her Warsaw and Moscow drafts secured beneath the attendant’s careful arrangement.

Julia listens without interrupting. Her fingers rest on the Moscow draft, while the uncertainty of an untested route gives way to a recorded inquiry and a definite appointment.

Julia returns the drafts to their ordered place. The plan is clear: wait for the recorded reply, then let the court decide how the letters may safely travel.

The attendant sets aside the register and leads Makeda through a quiet passage to a smaller council room. She enters first, then closes the door behind Makeda.

King Rostom stands beside a table bearing maps and sealed reports. The attendant remains outside, leaving the king and Makeda alone with the closed door between them.

The private audience is granted without delay. Rostom gestures toward the maps, ready to hear Makeda’s military concern before deciding what should follow.

Rostom studies Makeda across the map table. His expression sharpens at the military possibility, and he draws one finger along the roads leading toward the palace stables.

He takes a fresh slip from the table and writes an authorization for Daria’s instruction, naming the stable demonstration and a later cavalry exercise under palace supervision.

The king folds the authorization and sets it beside the sealed reports. Daria’s stable lesson now has royal approval, and a successful demonstration will place her directly before Kartli’s cavalry officers.

Makeda leaves the private council room and crosses directly toward the stables, carrying the king’s authorization in the certainty of her report.

Daria is still beside the chestnut mare, correcting the broad-shouldered groom’s seat while the lean groom watches. Both turn as Makeda enters.

The grooms straighten at once. Daria takes up the currycomb and resumes the lesson with renewed authority, while Makeda’s message settles the stable’s purpose.

Makeda crosses the palace garden and finds Sofia beside the western beds. Morning light rests on the vines, tools, and orderly water channels.

Sofia has rolled her sleeves and is examining a row of young plants while the garden steward watches from the nearby path. She holds herself like someone measuring work against familiar farm practice.

Sofia gestures toward the channel and the adjoining beds, explaining what she has observed. The steward listens without correcting her, then nods at two practical suggestions.

The garden steward accepts her terms and marks the bed for her care. Sofia has chosen her work, and Makeda finds her settled into it by her own judgment.

Makeda crosses from the garden toward the household offices, taking the shortest passage and arriving without delay. Clerks glance up as she reaches Angela’s table.

Angela sits amid aligned ledgers and tally slips, her multilingual notes placed beside the account books. The interrupted review has become an orderly comparison under her control.

She turns the key toward Makeda, showing each clerk’s responsibility and the marks that confirm the totals. The document gives Angela a practical advantage: future reviews can proceed without surrendering the ledgers to another clerk’s rearrangement.

Angela is safe, occupied, and no longer defending disordered papers. Her work has earned a defined place in the office, while the address forms await her attention when she chooses to resume them.

Angela gathers the key and approaches the senior woman’s desk. Makeda’s direct recommendation turns an open question into an immediate administrative check, without disturbing the ledgers.

The senior woman records the instruction and assigns a clean register page. Angela copies the key under supervision, gaining formal recognition for the system she established.

Angela returns the original key to her table and places the copied version in the household register. Her authority over the account system is now recorded, not merely tolerated.

Makeda leaves the household office and returns to the writing room. Julia remains at the table, with the Warsaw and Moscow drafts arranged beside the corrected addresses.

Julia offers Makeda the Moscow draft first, then the Warsaw letter. Both are complete in substance, but the opening sentences leave room for a careful advocate to sharpen their purpose.

Makeda examines each letter beside its address slip. She identifies where the request for family contact should precede any mention of travel, and Julia marks the changes neatly.

Makeda brings Angela from the household office. Julia places the Warsaw and Moscow drafts between them, while the attendant watches from beside the sealed stationery.

Angela takes the corrected forms and compares them against Julia’s drafts. The help is secured, but Julia now expects Makeda to answer for bringing another reviewer into the court’s delicate correspondence.

Angela finishes comparing both drafts and addresses, then places the corrected forms beside Julia’s letters. Julia reviews the family details once more, satisfied that each request is plainly stated.

The attendant gathers the drafts without disturbing their order. Julia keeps one hand near the Warsaw letter while Angela indicates the confirmed addresses.

She carries both letters to the chancery register, where the wax, cords, and outgoing record await. Julia and Angela follow to answer any final question about the documents.

The official accepts the Warsaw and eastern drafts for sealing. Julia watches the documents disappear into the recorded process, while Angela keeps the confirmed addresses at hand.

The following day, Makeda returns to the eastern market and finds the Moscow-bound merchants, three middle-aged human men with weathered faces and beards, wearing layered brown travel coats, wool caps, and sturdy boots beside their registered bales. They recognize the request but listen cautiously.

The merchants do not offer a carrier or accept the letter. Makeda’s market approach has instead fixed the condition: the third letter must enter the court’s register before any merchant will consider it.

Makeda returns to the eastern caravan office and finds the caravan registrar already holding the outgoing register open. A fresh notation stands beside the Isfahan inquiry.

He turns the register toward Makeda, showing the caravan permit, the Armenian receiving house named in Isfahan, and the clerk responsible for forwarding correspondence toward Moscow.

The caravan registrar prepares the attachment while Makeda supplies the third letter’s purpose: news and safe passage for a protected Christian refugee. He records the wording without adding a promise.

Makeda leaves with the permit number, the named Isfahan receiving house, and a reserved place in the next registered caravan. The third letter now has a lawful route toward Moscow.