by Candy Rae
* * * * *
-26-
THE FAVOURITE MANOR HOUSE OF THE DUKE OF HALLAM - DUCHY OF HALLAM - KINGDOM OF MURDOCH
“Your drink My Lord,” said Paul Hallam’s Seneschal, placing both glass and decanter on the table beside him.
“Thanks Mal.”
“I just received a message from Kellen Crawford, he’s on his way here, messenger said he’d be here by Tenth Candlemark.”
“Now that’s good news,” said Paul, “see to his comfort, would you?”
“Of course My Lord.”
Normally Mal would have left at this point but he had something else to tell his master.
“There is, there’s another matter.”
“Shoot.”
“It’s Miss Jill, My Lord.”
“So what’s she done this time?” asked Paul, preparing for the worst. The antics of his youngest daughter were always prone to be surprising.
“I thought you should know My Lord though I’m not liking to tell tales but it seems that she went out riding on her own again, after luncheon it was. Head stableman realised pretty soon and sent out two guards to bring her in.”
“They found her I trust?”
“Oh yes My Lord, I heard she wasn’t too happy about it, she won’t take a telling that going off on her own like this isn’t safe.”
“Thanks Mal,” said Paul, “I’ll have a word with her.”
* * * * *
“Crispin?” answered Robert Crawford, “he’s gathering together a bunch of ne’er do wells. Brainless fools who can’t see beyond the end of their noses.”
“Does the Queen know?”
“She realises all right. I think she’s regretting not going for a home-grown husband for her daughter.”
“Princess Antoinette?”
“Still besotted with him, even now. He’s got her wrapped round his well manicured little finger. He’s taken a mistress but she still believes it’s a passing fancy and that he remains in love with her. He’s a fast talker, charming when he wants to be and a consummate liar. One hundred per cent the son of his father I’d say.”
“Would you say that the Queen and the Crown-Princess are in danger?” asked Paul.
Robert shook his head, “not yet awhile. An heir and one to spare, two if you can manage it. After then, who knows but if you’re asking?”
“I am.”
“Then yes, I think the Queen could be in real danger. Crispin can’t set aside his wife, she’s the blood-heir but with Queen Antoinette out of the way and his wife on the throne, he could take control. He would take control. Send wife to convent, become regent for son, that’s my guess. We need to be on our guard.”
“Perhaps Princess Antoinette will come to realise what sort of man he is.”
“She will in time. The girl’s got brains and she’s been brought up to do her duty. I believe her mother is intending she start attending Conclave and Council meetings.”
“Prince Crispin won’t like that.”
“That’s why Queen Antoinette hasn’t done it yet but I think Princess Antoinette will begin attendances soon.”
“Meanwhile?”
“Prince Crispin must be watched, is being watched, with care. There are those who can be trusted.” He sighed, “politics is such a quagmire.”
“It’s the same the world over,” laughed Paul, “I’ve heard that election time in Argyll can be very interesting.”
“Interesting in Argyll and interesting here are different situations entirely. Here it can be deadly. When was the last time a prospective Argyllian Councillor was assassinated?”
“In AL 695 I believe, thought they don’t make a habit of it like they do here and it certainly didn’t lead to any blood-feuds. If I remember correctly compensation was offered and agreed upon.”
“Very civilised. Were the perpetrators not punished?”
“Might have been, I never read about that, so what do we do next?”
“Charles and I return to court. We’ll talk to Lord Prince Marshall Pierre and Kellen Philip Ross. The Palace Guard, thank the gods is fanatically loyal to Queen and Crown-Princess both.”
“Even the officers?”
“Didn’t I say? Prince Crispin tried to get a couple of his followers posted to the Guard. Queen Antoinette refused to ratify the appointments after Prince Pierre spoke to her. He wasn’t best pleased. An attempt to bribe one of the officers failed too. The lad reported it immediately.”
* * * * *
-27-
CLOSE TO THE GTRATHLIN’S DOMTA - THE RTATHLIANS OF THE LIND
“It is time to confirm what you suspected, the truth about the artefact that has been stolen,” announced Vya. “Gather round and I will explain.”
“I’ll put more wood on the fire,” offered Daniel with a level eye to Vya, “I expect your story will take some time.”
Vya emitted a non-committal whine. “It depends on how fast you understand,” she said.
“I’ll expect we’ll pick it up quick enough,” teased Daniel.
Thalia stifled a laugh. She handed him a mug of kala. “Want some?” she asked Josei.
“Not just now, you know I prefer it colder than how you humans like it. Leave it over there and away from the fire. I will drink it later, after Vya has spoken.”
Daniel shuddered, to him, cold kala was the very epitome of awfulness.
“Fair enough,” Thalia said, taking a sip of her own, “urgh, needs more sweetener.”
“Here,” said Daniel, tossing the packet over.
“When you are quite ready?” asked Vya with impatient irony.
The three settled themselves down to listen.
“We are,” said Thalia and Daniel in unison, they caught each other’s eyes and giggled.
“Then let us begin,” said Vya, ignoring this, quite unaware that she was echoing the traditional human beginning of a story with her words. She shifted her front paws, stared into the flames and did.
“You were correct. The artefact is the power core of the WCCS Argyll.”
A ‘told you so’ look passed between Thalia and Daniel.
Daniel whistled.
“I still half believed it was some kind of religious object,” he admitted.
“It was dug up out of the ground, out of the spaceship, some years after the Dglai War,” Vya continued, “then taken to Dagan then to the Gtrathlin’s cave.”
“How dangerous is it?” asked Daniel, “I mean, nobody knows how to use it, do they?”
“About as dangerous as anything could be,” Thalia answered for Vya. “In the wrong hands, with some person who did know how to use it, why, I don’t even want to wonder what it might be capable of. We don’t know that the person who stole it, the ultimate person I mean, the one who has paid to get it stolen doesn’t know how.”
“Yes,” said Vya, “I have received words about that too. The Avuzdel believes that the explanations have been stolen. Artem and Larya have told the Susalai that some papers have gone missing from the library at Stewarton. Thalia, what is a library? It is a word that I do not know.”
Thalia explained.
Daniel began to serve out their respective portions of travel rations.
They all began to eat.
“So why was the power core moved in the first place? I would have thought Dagan the safest place on the planet,” asked Daniel of Thalia.
“I don’t know for sure, but with the expansion of Talastown perhaps they thought that there were too many people there. Someone might have found out and stolen it. They’d’ve thought the Gtrathlin’s cave safer. It’s right in the middle of the rtathlians for Lai’s sake, few if any, humans ever visit it,” Thalia answered, having explained the concept of libraries to Vya. She wasn’t entirely sure she understood completely however.
“Then? Before the northern trade route was founded?”
“Probably, it’s comparatively new, only been running for a hundred years or so. Trader caravans use it, it’s quicker and probabl
y cheaper to travel from Port Lutterell to Dagan. Ships founder and the Trent Reef is dangerous. There are Trade Stations all along the road. There’s also an unwritten law that traders stay on the road and not stray into the rtathlians along the way. It started with the Holad Stations, they needed supplies and so the trade began.”
“The Lind didn’t mind?” asked Daniel.
“Why should they? Holad look after everyone and everylind. It’s part of their oath of service.”
“I thought the Holad just looked after the Vada.”
Thalia shook her head, “no. Holad was in existence long before we arrived on the planet. It’s a Lindish word meaning healer. Doctors look after humans, Holad doctors and medical people and Lind look after all living creatures.”
“Including the Larg?”
“Yep. Their physiology is much the same as the Lind because they’re descended from the same ultimate ancestors.”
Daniel got back to the power core. “So the Lind were supposed to guard it?”
“They might not have thought it needed guarding. No Lind would enter the Gtrathlin’s cave without permission.”
“A holy place?” ventured Daniel.
“That’s one way of looking at it but let’s just say that it is the repository of all the history of the Lind. The original writings of Tara and Kolyei are kept there as I think I told you before.”
“What else?”
“Only the Gtrathlin knows.”
“But someone found out that the power core was there. I wonder how.”
“It might not have taken a great deal of detective work. Apart from the place where the Lai live it is the only probable place to where the core could have been taken. The cave is supposed to look after itself,” explained Thalia.
“Someone talked.”
“Or someone wrote it down,” she countered. “I think that the more likely explanation myself. The person might not have thought it a great secret either.”
“So when we get to this cave we interview everyone?”
“Human and Lind,” agreed Thalia, “I don’t think we need bother too much about how the news got out. It happened. It’s the consequences we have to deal with, the actual theft. We need to find out if anyone or anylind saw or heard something, anything.”
“A boy.”
“What makes you think that?”
“Boys are inquisitive creatures, everyone knows that. They’re always poking their noses into places they shouldn’t. If he was seen his inquisitiveness would just be laughed off as being the actions of a typical boy.”
“A man seen round the cave would be chased off or questioned, a boy told to run away and play, it that it?”
“Clever girl, got it in one!”
* * * * *
The next day, not long after they had set out for their day’s travel, Thalia and Josei had a private ‘conversation’.
: He admires you :
: Well, I wish he wouldn’t keep looking at me :
: Why? :
: It makes me feel uncomfortable :
: But why? If I see an attractive female with a well-turned paw I look at them :
: That’s different. Why? Because it just does, that’s all. He’s far to young for me : Now, what had made her tell Josei that?
: He looks at you like I do Andirya :
: Andirya? :
: Andirya : confirmed Josei, his eyes gleaming : she is Freya’s ltscta :
: The Susa’s ltscta? :
: The same. Andirya is very young yes, but she will grow up. Already much attracted to her am I. In five summers she will be adult and maybe the summer after the summer after that she will be ready to take a mate :
Thalia was shocked, not at the revelation that Josei was intending taking a mate nor that his future eln might be much younger than he was but that Josei seemed to believe that Daniel was thinking of her in the same way.
: Daniel and me? :
: All the signs are there if you look for them Thalia :
: But, but he’s a noble from the southern continent! There’s no way I could marry him :
: There are precedents. We cannot live in his home in Murdoch so he can stay with us :
: Now you’re living in a fantasy world : a cross Thalia retorted : and just for the record, I certainly am not thinking of him terms of a potential husband, or a mate. He’s a friend, that’s all it is, all it can be :
: Friendship is a good place to start : Josei agreed.
* * * * *
-28-
THE FARM OF CHADWICK SMALLHIDE - STANTON - ARGYLL
Meanwhile, Chadwick Smallhide was lying low. He had no idea that the four had cottoned on to his plan. He believed that he was home and dry, almost, his tracks were covered and he had no inkling that Thalia, Daniel, Vya and Josei had connected the bogus prospector and the theft. He decided to wait a little longer then leave for Port Lutterell. He had no intention of taking Zeb along with him.
Deliver the box and get my coin. There’s nothing to keep me here. I’ll be long gone before Nonder finds out and comes looking.
Zeb, he was sure, was convinced that the box was to be delivered to his employer in the southern continent and that he would be travelling south to take ship from one of the small trading ports in southern Argyll, Port Wylie by choice.
Once I’ve been paid, he thought with glee, I’ll take another ship to one of the further islands, set myself up there and live like a king! The island of Galliard was a busy trade nexus. Ships left Galliard for all over the Great Eastern Sea.
I’m going to be filthy rich!
Chad would leave his farm without a backward glance.
* * * * *
“I’m going on a short business trip,” he told his housekeeper later that day. “I’ll not be gone long, three days, four at the most.”
“Very good sir,” she answered without a trace of suspicion. “I’ll inform the staff. Perhaps we can do a spot of summer cleaning whilst you’re gone. Some of the upper rooms are in dire need.”
“As you see fit,” acquiesced Chad and dismissed her with a nod of thanks.
* * * * *
Young Zeb wasn’t suspicious when he heard the news. Later on he wondered how he could have been so stupid.
* * * * *
-29-
VERY CLOSE TO THE GTRATHLIN’S DOMTA - THE RTATHLIANS OF THE LIND
The four of them were sitting by the campfire again.
“Now you’re looking at me,” Daniel grinned.
Thalia averted her eyes with a flush.
“I was wondering if you were okay if you must know,” she said in a hurry, trying to cover up her confusion, “I thought you were looking a bit under the weather, peaky even.”
“I’ve never felt better,” said Daniel, bestowing on Thalia a beaming smile, but a smile that held a challenge deep within it and within the murky blue of his eyes.
* * * * *
-30-
DOMTA GTRATHLIN – CLOSE TO THE MOUNTAINS OF THE NORTHERN CONTINENT – WITHIN THE RTATHLIANS OF THE LIND
Apologetic and shamed was how Daniel would later describe the Gtrathlin.
“It was ours to guard and keep safe,” she told them, “and we failed him.”
“Him?” queried Thalia.
“Haru the Lai. He gave it into our charge, said that too many men were moving to Dagan, to Talastown for it to remain there. In these days few humans came here. These seasons are not so now. He trusted us.”
Thalia glanced at Daniel with a ‘told you so’ look about her which he ignored.
“No blame is attached to you,” she comforted. “No person should have entered your cave. There are few who even know about its existence.”
“So said Maru the Lai when he flew in,” said Tanalya in that same self-accusatory voice.
“Maru the Lai is here?” asked Daniel, his excitement rising. To see a Lai close up, perhaps he might even be able to talk to him!
“He is,” confirmed Tanalya, “he flew in not
long after we discovered the theft. Maru is the grand-lai of Haru. We told him that you were coming and so he has stayed. He waits for you at the lake-grove, on the other side of the lian.”
* * * * *
“Are we really going to meet a cold-drake?” whispered Daniel in Thalia’s ear as they, Vya and Josei padding at their heels so close as to be in danger of tripping them up, made their way to where Maru the Lai waited.
Thalia looked at Daniel in shocked disbelief.
“Cold–drake?”
Daniel looked embarrassed and said in self defence, “well, that’s what they are called in the stories back home. It slipped out. I’m sorry.”
“And so you should be,” she admonished. “Cold-drake indeed! Maru is a Lai and don’t you forget it.”
“I’ll remember,” Daniel promised, his excitement rising. Would this Maru be as wonderful as he hoped or would he be the fierce and threatening creature like in the stories of his childhood? He couldn’t believe his luck. Many people, well it was enough to say that there was considerable debate about their very existence. Few disputed that they had once co-inhabited the planet but most believed that their species had died out. Perhaps, he thought, with a flash of inspiration (and close to the truth had he known it), that this was what the Lai wanted people to think. It had taken six hundred years of human habitation on their planet before the Lai had come out of their planetary hideaway to help humans, Lind and eventually the Larg to save the planet from the Dglai.