The amount of packages that were pulled out nearly made Tor blanch. Sorlee and he stood blinking into the sun as the two headed off, followed by four large cargo containers all filled with things people wanted delivered. It was impressive.
The man that flew the transport for Sorlee and him turned out to be named Haper, which could have been his first or last name, Tor knew. It turned out he was actually a slightly better pilot than Godfrey. Most of the military people went by their last names all the time, unless you were a close personal friend. That seemed to be the rule at least. He’d really had this driven home when Godfrey had come by one day trying to find out when Debri would be around for a delivery to the other base. It was strange hearing her referred to that way, but at least the “other base” made sense.
That was the flight training one, which didn’t have a name yet, except for “flight school”. It seemed that the flight school wanted to start a transport fleet too and Haper was slated to go and be their first instructor. No one wanted to lose the man, because there weren’t enough pilots to get them around that way as it was.
The dark brown man impressed Tor a bit when he showed Sorlee how to fly the transport and let her control it on the way back. She seemed to do all right to Tor at least, since they got back alive and all. Haper nodded towards her before they all climbed out.
“Would it be all right, do you think, if we trained her to be my replacement sir? She actually did slightly better than most of the flyers do, for some reason once you learn to fly outside on your own it seems to mess up good control of the transports. It can be done, but it’s better to start fresh like this. Plus, you know, if a little girl is doing it, it gives the men a reason to try harder while they’re learning. We can have her come in near the beginning of training and shame them into doing better and not giving up if it gets a little hard. Maybe have her teach a class or two if she’s up for it?”
It was sound thinking and since Sorlee would only have to work at it about two hours a day, making runs to the Capital in the afternoon to start with while Haper made sure she knew what to do, she readily agreed. For a few seconds Tor felt a flash of jealousy.
Not because the country girl might sleep with the man instead of him. That would just be stupid to even think. For one thing, she had sex with a lot of guys, for all he knew Haper was a regular client. Besides, Sorlee would have slept with Tor or done almost anything else he could think, of and probably a lot he couldn’t begin to dream up, right then.
He knew because she’d told him so on the flight down, several times. He’d winked at her, but didn’t plan to take her up on it. That would be too much like buying her. Tor felt bad enough about the thing with Ursala already, he didn’t want to compound the situation with Sorlee.
No it was because he’d never gotten to fly a transport at all. Haper said it was harder for flyers to learn to do, but the controls were designed to be instinctual for him personally. If anyone had an edge there, he should. If not, he could still give it an honest shot at least, right?
First things first though. When he got back he had to do some of the hardest things he ever done, then work out how to do some others that might even be worse.
Chapter sixteen
Rolph, Sara and Ursala all sat in his hut and tried to help him craft the perfect letter. The only problem was that everyone had their own take on what that was. Rolph thought he should play the whole thing very seriously and use Varley as a goad. Sara, pacing on the red carpet holding a rock about the size of Tor’s fist that seemed to be made of focus stone, disagreed.
A lot.
“She might take it as a signal to leave off what she’s doing and come back now. She loves Tor, so if she thinks he’s giving her a real signal, she might just take it, after what happened before with them. This has to be a lot harder on her than it seems from here… You didn’t see her after everything went down after the restaurant, Tor, she cried for days.” Sara kept pacing, annoyingly enough she tapped the rounded piece in her hand on the table each time she walked past it. It wouldn’t have been so bad, except that Tor was trying to write, and it made the table bounce just enough that his pen jumped a little each time. Tor was just about to ask her to stop when Ursala pointed at the odd rock like thing and asked what it was with her eyebrows raised.
“Oh, um, well, one of the guys from the work shop gave it to me, he, uh, wanted to know if I’d get Tor to put a light on it, if it’s possible. It’s cheaper than wood even and if it works he figured that a lot of items could be done that way and you know, get the price down, since it’s pretty, but cheaper than gems are. I told him I’d ask, but didn’t promise anything. It’s basically stone, and I know that’s harder to do really than metal. Sorry, I shouldn’t-” She stopped when Tor put his hand out.
“Right, I’ll try tonight. It’s a good idea. Here, give it to me though, so you don’t break the table with it.” He grinned and set it next to him. If it would take a field at all, it was more than just a good idea, it was a brilliant one. Everyplace had dirt after all. Dirt cheap was even a saying. At least in Two Bends.
Ursala thought that he should be more demanding and bossy in his letter, telling Trice that she had to apologize to him. Rolph shook his head, his long hair fanning out, because he’d left it loose, which he almost never did.
“No. I know Trice and while that would make her mad, it won’t have the same effect as if Tor writes something more positive that gives her hope. Plus, think about it, if he says “I love you come back to me, I’m a better person now” and she slams him in front of the Wards, that will have a lot more impact than if he’s a jerk to her.”
Ultimately it was up to him, so he split the difference.
Tor told her that he missed having her as his friend and that he’d tried to change some of the things she’d mentioned, even though he was still short, of course. He mentioned the engagement to Varley, but that it wasn’t set yet, so if she’d come back, even if she didn’t want him, just so they could be friends again…
It wasn’t anyone’s idea of perfect, but Tor hoped it would be enough, because that and some stuff he had laying around was what would be going. It wasn’t real junk, but it was odds and ends. Some things he simply wouldn’t give her to trash. She couldn’t have a river, or a shield, not past the one she already had. It might end up on one of the Wards after all. He did send some temperature control plates, one for an oven, a griddle, complete with metal top and focus stone stand and pretty much one of everything else he had around. At the end Ursala whistled and pointed at the pile of stuff that was packed into a shipping crate with a float on it.
“Sara, what would that market value of all that be? Roughly I mean?”
Short blond hair moved a little as she swung towards the open face of the box and looked in. Pointing and obviously counting something up she moved her head slightly, but rhythmically from side to side.
“Really hard to know, I mean half of this stuff isn’t even on the market yet, which makes it worth a lot more than you’d think, to tell the truth. At a guess, since we know Tor and could probably get a discount if we’re nice to him?” She grinned and looked at Tor with a smile. “Just kidding Tor. I know that you wouldn’t charge us… Um, about… five thousand gold. Maybe six thousand. If it were being sold on the market by Debri and we used my family discount. Way more right now since a lot of it just isn’t. About five times that?”
She said it casually, but even Rolph did a double take when he heard her say it.
“Welcome to Tor’s shop of the curious.” The Prince said with a grin while spreading his hands in a grand fashion, as if presenting the pile of junk in the box to an audience.
Tor chuckled.
“Oh! That reminds me, Sara… Godfrey mentioned that we need a store here, the soap and needles kind, and I don’t know any merchants other than you. I know that you can’t do it, of course, because you’re military now, but, do you know someone that could? Real things mainly, but if they want I’ll make up some stuff like this for them to sell too, if that would help? I don’t know if a lot of people here would buy it but…” He looked at her with a shrug, and she stared at the far wall, then nodded.
“I think I might, if… Well, let me ask first?” Shaking her cute blond head she stood up and started pacing.
Tor realized that he had an appointment soon, so dressed in his oldest pair of student browns and headed for the door again, taking him past the crate. To his surprise Rolph did the same and joined him as soon as he saw Tor
