Storm Rising

'Karal?' she said clearly, and her strong, handsome face lit up with a welcoming smile. Natoli was not 'pretty'—but her face had such character written in every line that you never noticed. 'Havens, they finally let you take a night off! It's about time! Get over here! Look, everybody, it's Karal!'

The place erupted again, this time with cheers of welcome, a few playful catcalls, and offers of beer, food, or both. As Karal and An'desha waded through the crowd on their way to Natoli's table, he was staggered often by the hearty back slaps and playful punches his friends aimed at him. It occurred to him then that sometimes being Natoli's friend could be as hazardous as being her enemy!

He didn't manage to get across the room without being loaded down with food and an overfilled mug that slopped every time someone slapped his back. He kept apologizing, but it didn't seem that anyone noticed. Or perhaps they were just used to stray beer going everywhere.

Natoli's table was crowded, as usual, but also as usual there was always room for one or two more. People edged over and places were made for him and An'desha, one on either side of Natoli. As he sat down, Natoli helped herself to one of the many sausage rolls that had been thrust at him and offered him a plate of cheese in return.

He shared his bounty with anyone who didn't have food in front of him, and in the course of getting everyone settled again, he lost all of the apprehension he'd felt.

'You looked like a Bardic student in front of a hostile audience when you came in,' she said, quite matter-of- factly. 'Problems?'

'I suppose I was afraid that you would all be upset with me for not coming here before this,' he said, a little shyly. 'You might think I thought I was too good for you, now that I'm the Ambassador. Or—something.'

She raised a hand and mimed a cuff at his ear. 'Be sensible. Father's a Herald, remember? Just because I don't stick my nose into Court, that doesn't mean I don't know what's going on. They've had you tied up with more meetings and business than any one person has a right to be burdened with, and we all knew it. I made sure everyone knew that.'

He relaxed at that. 'I didn't want you to think that I'd forgotten who my friends are.'

'Ha.' She applied herself to her meal with a grin. 'You've been working, and we haven't exactly been idle. Even if everyone else in Valdemar thinks that the crisis was solved, we know we only put it off for a while. We're still trying to work out a solution. Master Levy thinks there won't be a solution; he thinks we're going to have to come up with one make-do after another, because he thinks that the problem is getting too complicated to actually solve in the time we have.'

'Do the mages know that?' he asked, feeling a chill. More temporary solutions? Doesn't that leave us open to mistakes and the results of mistakes?

'The mages know,' An'desha confirmed. 'At the moment they're trying to let their minds lie fallow while they track the current patterns of mage-energy for Master Levy's crew to analyze. I think some of them are hoping that if they don't try to think about a solution, one will spring forth from the back of their heads, fully formed.'

Natoli snorted but didn't comment otherwise.

'Well, that's not necessarily bad thinking,' one of the others pointed out. 'I'm not talking about wishful thinking—it's just that if you try too hard to put all the facts together, sometimes they won't fall into place. Come on, Natoli, you know that even happens to us!'

'I suppose you're right,' Natoli admitted grudgingly. 'There is Cletius and the bathtub, for instance. It's just that some of these mages are just so certain that they can vibrate their way to answers that it makes me want to drown them all.'

'Let's talk about something else,' Karal urged. 'Something that has nothing to do with mages or mage-storms or the Empire. What's exciting?'

A red head at the end of the table popped up. 'Steam!' he exclaimed. 'That's what's exciting! There's no end to what we can do with it! Who needs magic? Steam will save the world!'

'Don't go too far overboard,' Natoli warned. 'There're problems with steam power that we really ought to consider before we have people riding all over in steam-driven carriages. You have to burn things to heat water, and that makes smoke, and what happens when we start putting more smoke in the air? There's already a soot problem in Haven from all the heating and cooking fires.'

'But you won't need heating and cooking fires if we heat everyone's house with the hot waste water from the steam driven mills and manufactories,' the other argued. 'In fact, we should eliminate most of the soot problem that way.'

'Not if you replace every one of those cook fires with one heating the boiler in a steam carriage,' someone else put in. 'Natoli's right about that. We really need to think about what we're doing before we launch into something we can't stop.'

'Wait a moment,' Karal interrupted. 'Steam carriages?'