Storm Breaking

folk around and about Haven have the funniest attitude; you can tell them and tell them that the protection we've given them from the mage-storms is only temporary, but they act as if it's permanent. They aren't doing anything to prepare themselves for the worst, they aren't even thinking about it.' Now she sounded and looked very frustrated. 'When you ask them why, they just shrug and can't give you an answer, or they say something stupid, fatalistic, or both.'

'I think,' he said slowly, 'that ordinary folk just can't imagine anything awful happening to them. It always happens to someone else.'

'Well, you'd think after years of war and bandits and all they should know better,' she replied acidly. 'At any rate, now that things have settled down, they aren't at all interested in asking us about things they can do when the Storms come again, they just want to know how long it is going to take before a bridge will be up. Or if the steam boiler is likely to explode again.'

'I hope you're on bridges,' he said, trying not to show alarm. 'And not steam boilers.'

'Actually, I'm on metal stress,' she replied, running her hand through her hair absently. 'I get to make some very interesting and loud noises. We're trying to make tougher alloys, but I don't want to bore you with what we're doing. I spend some time in the forge, because at the moment, work on steam boilers is stalled until we can find a better way to make the boiler itself.'

He sighed, resting his chin on his hands. 'It wouldn't bore me, but I'd be lost,' he admitted. 'Sejanes is trying to teach me some specific kind of exercises for working with magic, and those would probably mean about as much to you.'

'Probably.' The conversation died for a moment. 'Still, I hope you aren't—I mean, I don't want you to think that—' her face twisted with frustration. 'Just, if you're doing something dangerous, don't take more on yourself than you can carry all right?'

He smiled. 'As long as you promise to do the same,' he replied, and she laughed.

'Grain for the gander is good for the goose, hmm? Well, I'll promise to try but my judgment is sometimes faulty.'

'So is mine, so don't hold it against me.' His smile took on an ironic edge. 'We can't all be infallible Sons of the Sun.'

'Oh, even Solaris admits to fallibility,' she chuckled. 'Believe it or not.'

'Solaris?' he chuckled. 'That would be an entry in the annals, especially if she admitted that she was fallible to you polytheistic barbarians.'

'But she did!' Natoli protested, and as he continued to regard her askance, she looked surprised. 'Oh! I'll bet no one told you, any of you! You will not believe what has happened with Grand Duke Tremane!'

As she outlined the astonishing developments in Hardorn since the arrival of Elspeth and Darkwind, Karal felt his eyes growing larger and larger. No one had seemed to think that any of this was significant enough to pass on to any of the other members of his party—

Which is probably because they all have their own preoccupations and not a one of them thinks anything is important outside those preoccupations! But you'd think someone would have said something to Sejanes!

'We have a Herald and a Companion stationed down in Karse in Solaris'—court, I suppose you call it—' she added.

'Conclave,' he corrected.

'Conclave, then. We sent him down so that we could get information to her by way of his Companion and Talia's Rolan.' She laughed. 'Actually, it's not just a 'Herald,' it's my father, and he seems to be enjoying himself. Anyway, we sent her word about this, and the reply she sent back was: 'Since he has voluntarily placed himself in the hands of a higher judge of character than myself, I feel impelled to point out that Natoli, An'desha, and Karal were correct in their assessment of his basic character, and I was at least in part swayed by nothing more substantial than emotion.' What do you think of that?' She grinned, as if she had somehow won a great prize. Then again, winning a concession like that from Solaris would have been a great prize, particularly as it was her father who had sent the message on to Haven.

It's a small thing, but she just proved to her father that she doesn't have to be a Herald to accomplish something important, he realized. And maybe she just proved it to herself as well.

'I think she didn't use the ecclesiastic plural, which means that she was speaking for Solaris and not for the Son of the Sun,' he told her, but he felt very pleased, nevertheless, for the sake of his own people. Historically, it was a tremendous temptation for the Son of the Sun to always think of himself as speaking for Vkandis, until even the most minor personal opinions were incorporated as doctrine. Solaris appeared to have overcome that particular temptation. 'Which is not a bad thing.'

'No, it's not.' She appeared to have run out of things to say, and another awkward moment of silence