'I thought I'd find you here,' Rubrik said cheerfully, as he limped up to the desk where Karal was leafing through an illustrated book of Valdemaran birds. 'This is the person I wanted you to meet. Natoli, this is Karal; Karal, my daughter Natoli.'
His eyes widened involuntarily at the thought, and he frantically tried to marshal some kind of excuse to get away, but Rubrik's next words collapsed that notion.
'She's one of what the Heraldic trainees call 'the Blues,' for their uniforms,' Rubrik continued. 'What that means is that they share classes with the trainees without being Heraldic, Healer, or Bardic trainees themselves. Some of these students are the children of nobles, but many are lowborn or of the merchant classes, young people with high intelligence who distinguished themselves enough to find patronage into the ranks of the Blues. Most of Natoli's friends are mathematicians and crafters, like Natoli herself.'
The girl nodded briskly, with no attempt at flirtation, which relieved Karal immensely.
'I've asked her to give you a tour of the Palace and Collegia as a Blue would see it, then introduce you to some of her friends.' Rubrik grinned. 'You might be surprised. Some of them actually speak rudimentary Karsite.'
Before Karal could stammer his thanks, Rubrik limped off, still chuckling to himself. His daughter examined Karal for a moment, with her arms crossed over her chest and her feet braced slightly apart.
Evidently she approved of what she saw. 'Actually, Father doesn't really understand what I want to do,' she said, with no attempt at making small talk. 'I'm going to construct devices,
'What, like wind and water mills?' Karal hazarded, and she grinned with delight.
'Exactly!' she replied. 'And I want to build special bridges too, that would allow for the passage of masted ships and—well, that doesn't matter right at the moment. There's still some sunlight, would you like to take that tour now?'
She seemed friendly enough, even if she wasn't like any female Karal had ever encountered before. It occurred to him that he was meeting a great many women here in Valdemar who weren't like the females he knew at home. He nodded, and she motioned to him to get up and follow her. 'You're in the Palace library, I'll show you the others, and the classrooms for the three Collegia first,' she said—and proceeded to do just that, with a brisk efficiency that had his head spinning.
She pointed out things to him that he would never have had any interest in on his own—details of architecture and the mechanics that created the many comforts in the Palace itself. How the chimneys were structured so that the fireplaces in each room drew evenly for instance, or the arrangement of rainwater gutters and cisterns on the roof that put water in every bathing room. It was quite clear that she loved her avocation, and equally clear that flirtation was the farthest thing from her mind.
The sun set just as she completed her tour, and she marked the crimson glory with a nod of satisfaction. 'The Compass Rose should be just about filling now,' she said, a non sequitur that caused him to knit his brows in puzzlement.
'Compass Rose?' he repeated.
'Oh, that's the place where all my friends and their teachers meet, just about every night,' she replied airily. 'Father told me to introduce you around, so I figured that I'd take you there tonight and get all the introductions over at once.'
'Tavern?' he echoed. 'Uh—tonight? You mean, right now?'
'Of course,' she said, and set off down the path that led to the small gate in the wall he had first entered when he and Ulrich arrived here, without waiting to see if he was going to follow her. 'That's much more logical than trying to track them down tomorrow, one at a time. And much more efficient as well.'
He had the feeling, as he trailed in her wake, that 'logical and efficient' played a very large part in how she regarded the world. He could only wonder what some of his teachers back at the Temple would have made of her.
The gate guards let them out without a comment, and they made their way through the lamplit streets. Natoli threaded her way through the traffic with the confidence of someone who passed this way so often she could have done so blindfolded. The tavern lay just beyond the ring of homes of the highly born or wealthy, but Natoli knew shortcuts that Rubrik apparently hadn't, little paths that led between garden walls and across alleys he would never have guessed were there. By the time the last sunset light had left the sky, they were already at the door of the Compass Rose itself.
Karal knew what to look for in a good tavern, and he was pleased to find all of it in this one—clean floors and tables, enough servers to take care of the customers without rushing, decent lighting, and no odors of spoiled food or spilled drink. In fact, in the matter of lighting, the Compass Rose was as well-equipped as the Temple scriptorium, which rather surprised him.
