Storm Rising

Karal spun around, hardly able to believe his 'ears' and hardly daring to hope—but there was Altra standing behind him in a pool of sunlight, ears slightly flattened and tail twitching. There was a message-tube at his feet, but at the moment, that hardly seemed important.

The Firecat looked no different than he had the last time Karal had seen him; to all outward appearance, a blue-eyed, cream-coated feline with orange tabby markings on paws, ears, facial mask and tail, and thick, soft fur. Of course, there was one thing that marked him as out of the ordinary; his size. He easily stood with the top of his head even with Karal's hip.

'Altra!' Karal exclaimed joyfully, relieved beyond words at the Firecat's appearance and all that it implied. Vkandis is not displeased with me! I have not been heretical or blasphemous! I have been doing what He wants here—I have not been abandoned to my punishment—

Altra flattened his ears further, looking decidedly apologetic. :I am sorry, Karal. We have tried to be patient, and it is not your fault, but it does not seem that you are being granted the respect that you are due here. No one in Karse wanted to undermine your position or your authority, but things are getting out of hand. Would you feel terribly betrayed if Solaris took control of the situation here?:

Karal could not help himself; his jaw went slack with surprise for a moment. At last—at last!—the plummeting situation was going to be taken out of his hands and put into the hands of someone old enough to deal with it properly!

'Not only would I not feel betrayed, not only would I not be disappointed, I would be overjoyed,' he replied, trying not to laugh aloud with relieved gratitude. 'I thought I have made that perfectly clear in my dispatches! I am here to serve the interests of Karse and Solaris, not to indulge myself in fantasies of prestige!' He finally gave way to his feelings and laughed giddily. 'I cannot even tell you how happy it will make me to be able to go back to being a simple secretary again!'

I might actually have something of a real life again!

This was the last thing he was going to admit to Altra or anyone else, but this message could not have come at a better time. His enforced idleness had given him a great deal more time with Natoli than he had ever enjoyed before, and things were developing in ways he found both pleasant and a bit unnerving. He would much have preferred to be able to capitalize on that—except that once he had resumed his duties, he had gone back to the same dull round of not having enough time to spend on anything but duty. It had been frustrating, to say the least.

But I'm not telling Altra that! Oh, no!

The Firecat's ears came up, and his tail stopped twitching. :You know I promised you that I wouldn't rummage around in your private thoughts, and I haven't. So I really didn't know how you would feel about being relieved of your authority.:

'Relieved is the correct word,' Karal told him, taking his mug to the table and sitting down with the sensation that a vast weight had been taken from his shoulders. 'Who is coming here as envoy? And how soon?'

:Ah—that's the thing I was told to prepare you for,: Altra replied nervously, :But I'm not certain that I can prepare you for it. The—person—is only coming up here to reestablish your credentials in such a way that no one will be able to treat you like a nonentity without creating a diplomatic incident. And the—person—is Solaris.:

He was very glad he was sitting down; doubly glad that the had not been drinking his tea, or he would have choked. 'Solaris?' he repeated, dazed. 'Solaris?'

:She wants to make a state visit.:

'Can she do that? Is she secure enough at home?' Solaris' rule was by no means rock steady; there had been several times in the past when only the intervention of events—or Vkandis—had kept her on the Sun Throne.

:Oh, she's secure.: Was that a hint of a chuckle in Altra's tone? :Believe me in that. Karse is closer to the Dhorisha Plains than Valdemar, although it's farther away from Lake Evendim—and before the breakwater went up, things were very... interesting. There is not a man, woman, or child in Karse that does not know how this Alliance has saved them.:

'Oh,' Now he took a gulp of tea, as much to steady his nerves as his stomach. That was important information, but it was not something he had truly wanted to hear. Some small part of him had hoped that because Karse was so far from Evendim it might have been spared some of the worst effects of the storms. Evidently its proximity to the Plains caused nearly as many problems. He couldn't remember the model; couldn't remember how many intersections of the two series of waves happened over Karse; it was the intersection points that were the places where real damage took place—

Altra went on, ignoring Karal's furrowed brow. :She thinks now that it is time she actually met Selenay in person—and equally time that Selenay met her.:

'I have to admit that I find it difficult to disagree with that,' Karal told him candidly. 'I think it would prevent misunderstandings when things get tense again if each of them knew how her counterpart thinks.' He frowned. 'But I'm still not certain about this. Even if she feels secure enough to come here, can Karse afford to be without her? Things can happen without notice, without warning. What if a crisis arose and she wasn't there to deal with it?'