Karal thought of all those eyes, curious, occasionally hostile; thought of trying to choke down a meal with all of them watching him, and shuddered. This position was far more public than he had thought. Ulrich chuckled. 'I will take that as a 'no,' and leave the arrangements up to you,' he said. 'Meanwhile, I will go consult with Herald Talia and discover if this is to be an informal or a formal meeting.'
'I'll see to it,' Karal said, taking that as his dismissal. Evidently they no longer required a Guard; he was allowed to leave the Throne Room and return to their suite without one.
After he rang the bell for the servant, he went to the desk in the sitting room, where he had just this morning laid out pen and paper. By the time the servant arrived, Karal had already begun on the list of dignitaries they had just met. He ordered a meal to be served in the room with all the absentminded confidence of someone who was actually used to having a servant at his beck and call, and it wasn't until after the young man disappeared that he realized what he had just done.
The thought made him stop in his tracks. For just a moment, he was stunned. He had only been in this land a few short days, and already it was changing him.
He could not help but wonder where the changes would lead.
Nine
Ulrich returned to their rooms about the same time lunch arrived. He ignored the food for a moment to fetch a brown-leather document case from his room; Karal took just long enough to bolt his portion, then returned to his frantic note-taking. Ulrich watched him for a moment, then said, 'If you would be so kind as to take a change in direction, I'd like your notes on the business of offering the skills of our weather-workers as a trade measure, and please tell me any observations you made on Herald Talia. The meeting is to be an informal and closed one, and I was specifically asked to come alone.'
Karal stopped writing, his pen poised above the paper. 'Do you think they believe me to be a spy? Do you think my function offends them?' he asked.
Ulrich shrugged. 'I am not certain—remember, these people are more familiar with mind-magic than with true-magic, and as a consequence might believe that you are actually somehow speaking mind-to-mind with an agent outside. I shall attempt to determine what it is they think you do; in the meantime, complete your notes on the Court dignitaries, then relax until I return.' He smiled. 'I saw some of your books; I do not think you will have any trouble passing the time.'
Karal flushed, because fully half of his books had been nothing more enlightening than popular romances and tales of high adventure. Ulrich chuckled.
'Please, Karal,' he chided, 'A young man who buries himself in scholastic tomes is learning nothing of life— and a young man who knows nothing of life will find ordinary people baffling. We can't have that, can we?'
'No, sir,' Karal replied, still flushing. He turned quickly to his work and took out a fresh sheet of paper, making neat notes in the short version of Karsite hieratic script. It would be enough for Ulrich to use as a guide; he just wished that he was going to be there for this initial conversation. He would have to make notes based on whatever Ulrich remembered.
As he completed the page of notes and dusted it with sand to dry the ink, he looked up at his mentor. Ulrich was standing with his back to the room, looking out the window at the gardens below.
'A copper for your thoughts, Karal,' his mentor said, without turning back to face his aide.
He looked at his list, remembering all the conversations they had shared with Rubrik. 'Not very original, master,' he replied. 'Only that, even though we are so very different from these Valdemarans, there are fundamental things we have in common. And some of them I never expected—the Companions being like Firecats, for instance.'
'Yes, although personally I am just as glad that the Cats are fewer in number than the Companions,' Ulrich said with a chuckle, as he turned away from the window. 'I am not certain I would care to share as much of my life and inner thoughts with any creature, as Solaris shares with Hansa.'
Karal had nothing whatsoever to say to that; he knew that Ulrich had been a good friend to Solaris before she became the Son of the Sun, but he had not known that she continued to speak as informally with him as his comment just implied.
'I was hoping you would be thinking along those lines by now,' Ulrich continued, going to the mage-sealed case he had placed on the table. 'I have something for you to read besides those old books of law you brought with you.'
He unsealed the case with a whisper of invocation and a touch of his finger. The seal glowed briefly, then parted; he reached inside and brought out a handful of small, dusty books. The bindings had all faded to a mottled brown with age, and the edges of the pages were yellowed. He opened each of them, glancing at the first pages, and selected three, replacing the rest in the case and sealing it up again.
