Ambition and Alavidha (24 page)

“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 probably 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.”