Frays In The Weave

"Admiral Radovic, please be seated."

"After you, Madame."

She nodded and pulled out a chair for herself before he had a chance to offer it to her. The outworlder was polite as always, sometimes a bit too much so for her taste.

"Admiral," she said after they were both seated and both had a small sip of the watered wine the servants had left on a tray together with some dried fruit. "I would want you to know that the taleweaver is back with Master de Garak."

Admiral Radovic frowned. "That"s excellent news, but I a.s.sume that by giving Arthur Wallman a t.i.tle like that you still consider him an, ah, permanent guest of yours."

Mairild smiled back. "Prisoner? No, not at all. He"s free to return to your world." She dropped the smile and mustered her haughtiest voice. "You, however, are not free to force him to."

She watched the admiral, Rear Admiral Erwin Radovic and outworlder diplomatic envoy, force a smile to his face. "There"s no need any longer," he said with an uncertainty that for once matched his years. How did one so young rise so high in rank where he belonged? "It"s too late anyway. He"s already done the harm we wanted to prevent."

Mairild licked her lips. "He hasn"t done any harm to us," she said, careful not to anger Erwin too much. She had got her message through anyway.

Erwin shook his head in disagreement. "He has. In ways you don"t know. For the sake of protocol, though, you have my promise we"ll not attempt to capture him again."

She sighed and raised her gla.s.s to get a few moments to think. With this problem solved they"d need to continue rebuilding the relations between Keen and the outworlders. She didn"t know how much power the man facing her had, but she did know he represented a government with enough power at their disposal to have ma.s.sacred a full regiment of imperial cavalry ten years earlier. That was, as far as she could recall, the one single major mistake blackening the career of her colleague and Minister of War, Olvar de Saiden. Mistake or not, how did you coerce that kind of power to increase the amount of metal sold in Verd? Metal that was desperately needed by a nation starved by naval blockade for four years.

"We"re willing to allow you to land more of the sky ships you use, even to the degree of granting you more land," she said knowing fully well she was resorting to bribes.

"Why, thank you." There was genuine surprise in Erwin"s eyes now. He raised his own gla.s.s in a toast, something she"d learned he usually only did when he was embarra.s.sed, or grateful. That had to mean the outworlders wanted the increased traffic almost as much as Keen did. She smirked. As much as the ruling body of Keen wanted. Most of the population wouldn"t care. Not any longer when the novelty of outworlders had worn off somewhat and sightings of them were still rare enough not to cause consternation among those living outside the capital.

That would change, she knew, when the outworlders were commonplace, and with that change there would be new fears. There were always new fears.

Mairild turned her attention back to her guest. He had been watching her. Young maybe, but definitely not stupid. He"s wondering what I"m thinking, what I want from him, what I fear of him. She shrugged, as much in apology for not being a perfect hostess as to banish the concerns she had.

"Oh, my, I see your gla.s.s is almost empty. Please, let me remedy that." Aw, what a stupid thing to say. If I keep this up he"ll start believing I"m flirting with him, and he"s younger than my youngest. She blushed a little at the unwanted thought.

"Madame, thank you," Erwin answered. "Ah, that"s enough," he said as she filled his gla.s.s. "I am, you know, authorized to disclose some information, especially now when Arthur Wallman is, if you excuse my expression, running rampant giving his view of what we are and what we want to anyone who"s willing to listen."

Mairild sat up straighter. So, there was going to be a gift in return for the promised land? "You have my attention."

"It"s come to my knowledge that you are constructing rail roads of your own. We could help you with rail cars that don"t require the burning of wood."

"Thank you," she said nonplussed, "but why would you want to do that?"

"We have some concerns about environmental matters." When it was clear she hadn"t fully understood what he meant Erwin continued, "We have our own history of mistakes. The steam engine I a.s.sume that you plan to copy was never meant to be put to use in any large scale."

Mairild grinned despite her attempts not to. She"d known the engineers going through the machine would be seen of course, but the artillery commanders wanted the knowledge for other reason than to propel wagons on a rail. Olvar himself had said they desperately needed a weapon that could throw missiles far enough to protect their harbours from the raiders.

"I"ll think about this offer of yours," she said. "We all will," she added.

"Please do. And, by the way, you do understand that I will report the return of one of our citizens to my superiors?"

"I never doubted that," Mairild admitted with a laugh. "It"s been a pleasure meeting you."

"The pleasure is entirely mine," he said and rose acknowledging that the meeting was at an end.

She rose as well, and they shook hands; another of the peculiar customs the outworlders had.

Erwin bowed, wheeled and marched out of the room. He was definitely a military man, she thought when she had her chair and table for herself again.