Storm Rising

'One of the Masters came up with a water pump for draining mines that was steam driven, and someone else realized that the same principle could be used as the motive power for a carriage, by basically adding wheels to the whole affair rather than having a stationary boiler,' Natoli explained. She snatched a stick of charcoal out of someone else's hand and began to draw on the paper covering the table in front of them. 'You see—here's the boiler, in front of the firebox; pressure builds up in here and you vent it into the cylinder—the piston gets driven back—that turns a wheel—'

As she sketched, Karal began to see what she was talking about. 'But why steam carriages at all?' he asked. 'Aren't horses good enough?'

Natoli's eyes sparkled, and he realized he had uncovered her secret passion. 'But these go faster than horses, Karal,' she said. 'They never get tired, they can pull more than horses can without hurting themselves, and the only time they have to stop is when they run out of fuel or water.'

'Huh.' He could think of places where that would be useful. In the mountains, where the roads were cruelly hard on cart horses Or any time you needed to send something very quickly somewhere. Supplies, perhaps, or soldiers. Of course these things would be limited to places where the roads were good, which was quite a limitation, when you thought about it. Using them on a regular basis meant that the roads would have to be improved and kept in repair, and that could get rather expensive....

'We're thinking about putting them on rails or in grooved tracks,' Natoli continued, waving a sausage roll in one hand as she spoke. 'Like the coke carts at the big iron-smelting works. The only problem is that takes a lot of metal, so where do we get all that metal? And if you used cut stone, it would wear out rapidly from the wheels. Every time you solve a problem you bring up twenty more.' But she didn't look particularly discouraged. 'The point is, we know we can use large versions of this in places where windmills don't work and there isn't any water for water mills. We can use the waste heat to heat houses, or even the Palace. Wouldn't that be a sight!'

'Wouldn't it be a sight as you get in everyone's way digging up the Palace and grounds to lay all your pipe,' An'desha pointed out sardonically. He pushed a fall of his long hair back from his forehead, showing his pale eyes crinkled in smile lines. 'I can't see the Queen holding still for that! Especially not in the foreseeable future.'

'Oh, I didn't mean right now,' Natoli said airily, waving her hands in the air. 'I just meant eventually. After all, it's not as if it hasn't been done. Think of the mess it made when all the new indoor privies and the hot and cold water supplies were put in. That was in the first couple of years of Selenay's reign, and I don't hear anyone complaining about it now!'

'A point,' An'desha acknowledged. 'I'd like to see you folk find some other source of heat than a fire, however. Fires are not very clean.'

'Some magical source, maybe?' Karal said without thinking, and blushed when every eye on the table turned toward him. 'I don't really know what I'm talking about, I'm just speculating—' he stammered. 'Don't pay any attention to me, I'm just babbling.'

'But your babbling makes some sense,' Natoli responded, her eyes lighting up with enthusiasm. 'A practical application of magic! That might be the answer to my chief objection as well.'

The talk turned to possible magical sources of heat then, and An'desha held center stage as he speculated on how this might be accomplished in such a way that the mage would not actually have to be there to make the source work. It led into talk of binding magical creatures, small ones that thrived on fuel of one kind or another, and it was clear to Karal that An'desha was in his element. Karal was able to watch Natoli to his heart's content, as her face grew animated during the heat of the discussion, and she tossed her hair with impatience or excitement.

'So,' An'desha said, as the door of the Compass Rose closed behind them, shutting off part of the noise, which had not in the least abated. 'Feeling rested and relaxed?'

Karal paused and took stock of himself and blinked in surprise. 'Why—yes!'

An'desha laughed. 'Good. That was what I hoped would happen. Now are you wondering why I pulled you away after Natoli left?' He started off down the street in a fast walk, and Karal followed.

'A little,' he admitted, sniffing in the cold and damp, 'Though I must admit once she left I got a bit bored when they all started talking about mathematics and drawing on the tables again.'

'Because you and I are going to go to the ekele. Firesong is up to his eyebrows in some discussion involving the Tayledras, the Shin'a'in, and k'Leshya at Haven, so he won't be there. I'm not taking part because I've been told I'm not Shin'a'in enough to satisfy the envoy. He doesn't like halfbreeds.'

'Hmph, I'm not surprised. He seems to dislike all sorts of people,' Karal growled. 'Well, I don't like him, so we're all even.'

Karal walked on in silence, seeming lost in thought, then turned to An'desha. 'What did you have in mind when we get there?

'You are going to soak in the hot spring, and you are going to have a nice, relaxing cup of Shin'a'in tea, and then you are going to go to your suite and sleep.' It was too dark to read An'desha's face, but his voice told Karal