the rivers are in place, and they really are in my room. I know it's hard for you to understand, me being male, but try to wrap your mind around it. As it is you keep accidentally insulting the King and really, he's in charge of the whole kingdom, not the Queen, as capable as she is in her own right. It's kind of why we call it a “kingdom”.” He remembered something she'd said last time.
“It had to be in your briefing packet!” His tone was wry and she chuckled again.
“So it was. But… Really, men in charge? What do women do then?”
Sighing Tor told her, which had her thinking he was joking again. Oh well.
“Still, why don't you teach me your language? Even if you only think I'm going to use it to tell jokes? After all, the worst that happens is that you steal me off to your court or whatever and I tell amusing stories everyone can understand, yes?” He kept his voice even and playful. She just couldn't get it and wouldn't just because he got frustrated with her. Besides other than that, she was nice.
The bright figure with her many colors bowed.
“The wisdom of the fool. Very well then Court Jester, I will teach you Afrak and you can come home with me. First, shall I let you lure me back to your room with the promise of magic rivers? Given your people I have no clue if that means you have a joke for me, or if you intend to try and get me into bed… I warn you though, my people take that kind of play seriously and if you wish to lay with me the price is your hand in marriage.” She chuckle and Tor grinned again throwing her a small bow.
“Real rivers, I promise. You know though, it sounds like your ways might be a bit more like mine back home, in Two Bends. Still, this is the Capital of Noram, so you should try to do as they do here… That's a good line to get you into bed without marrying you, don't you think? It even makes sense. Wars start if you buck the customs of a place, especially as an Ambassador.” He shook his head and looked down mournfully.
“You wouldn't want to do that would you? Well, nothing for it now, back to my room then!” Taking her hand he started walking away and to his surprise she followed easily. Laughing, but she didn't resist at all.
They didn't get a hundred feet towards the door when Burks called out to him though, getting him to stop with a smile. He liked the man, even if the whole thing with them being virtually the same person somehow was creepy. They waited for him to catch up, which he did at an easy, but efficient walk, not making a sound with his steps at all. Tor looked at his feet, but the soles looked like hard tanned leather, not soft. That was impressive now that he noticed it. It spoke of control over his every move that Tor couldn't even approach at all. Not yet. He made more noise even with padded cloth around his feet.
“Tor! Good to catch you, I was wondering if you could give me a ride to your event site? I could walk, but going through the streets right now, this time of day, is near a lost cause.” He bowed to Mutta gracefully his eyes taking in her form completely but without a hint of judgment.
Then he said something in a flowing bit of language that Tor didn't track at all. Afrak probably. The woman's eyes went wide, but she didn't speak, instead she took both of them by the hand and moved to a long table that ran along a wall, only about a foot wide from front to back, made of a deep brown stained and finished wood. The work on it was light and elegant. A lot of stuff in the palace was though.
The Ambassador pulled a small, flat, woven bag of bright colors from under her robe on the right and started setting up a baffling array of things on the table in front of them.
Then she grabbed Tor’s right hand and stabbed him with a needle, drawing a large, bright red, drop of blood. That wasn't enough for whatever strange ritual she had in mind, so she pulled some hair from his head and used a flat, tiny metal blade to cut off some skin and mixed it in one little jar, then added a green liquid to the mix, put a ceramic cap on the whole thing and shook vigorously. The only good part about the indignity was that she did the same to Burks, who suffered it in silence too, just waiting for her to find whatever she was looking for or finish invoking whatever magic she needed.
It took nearly five minutes of muttering and putting small strips of paper or possibly skin, in the liquid, then comparing them closely, but in the end she turned and bowed to them both, as if the ritual had made them special somehow?
Gods and all, Tor hoped they weren't married now. That would be… disturbing. Burks talked to her in another burst of language, which made her mouth open and work at first, then she clapped again in glee.
“You know, I can't understand a word either of you is saying, but if you want to keep talking, we could do it while going to my house? Mutta needs her rivers and I need to get to my daily running and then be beaten by giants for a while. Well, I don't need to be beaten, I haven't done anything wrong, but that's what's going to happen anyway, so I may as well accept it now.”
The Ambassador looked like the cat with all the cream as she packed up and allowed Tor to take her by the hand gently in order to lead her out while she jabbered at his grandfather. Finally, as they got outside she saw one of the transports and stopped talking.
“These fly? I heard… but they're so big! How much power does it take to keep them up? We don't fly in Afrak, well, some of our animal friends do, but the people stay on the ground.” Her voice was hesitant.
Tor set up the carriage they were using, shifting the color to look official, which made the woman stop talking and start staring, unmoving. She finally touched it, pushed at the gold and cream colored carriage, the scroll work a little closer to the actual royal carriages this time, Tor thought, and after Burks showed her it was safe and had a top to it, even if invisible she climbed in, shaking.
“Tor, could you make the top opaque? I think that might be easier for the first trip.” Burks held her hand now, his face serene. Taking the hint Tor tried for a similar look, but added a smile to it.
The ride over was punctuated by gasps, but no crying out or begging to land, which showed a good bit of courage from the lady, since she was obviously terrified. He landed on the stage behind the performers, jugglers this time, who didn't miss a single beat as the carriage set down gently, or even when the incredibly exotic Ambassador stepped out.
In fact people cheered and stomped their feet on seeing her, so one of the jugglers signaled for them to all stand in the middle of the flying torches for a bit, realizing that a bit of color can’t hurt no doubt. Tor wincing away from the fire obviously and comically, getting some hoots from the audience. He straightened and stuck his tongue out, fingers wiggling in his ears, then finally getting the field they were using just walked out of the star of fire being made without breaking the pattern. Burks followed him easily, but Mutta had to wait for the men and women to let her go, which they didn't want to do, because the crowd had more than tripled suddenly, with her there in the middle. She was just that exotic, and everyone had heard about her already. It was even fashionable to try and dye hair the same color as hers Tor had heard.
Of course.
Taking down the carriage was an event itself and caused a happy roar, as if they hadn't seen it before a dozen times. Well, right now almost anything would make the crowd happy. They'd come for that purpose and that always made things easier. Once inside Mutta took a good look at the place. Her head tilted and a smile curled on her lips.
“Court Jester? This is your house? A castle nicer than that of the Queen? How is that?” Her gaze scrapped the walls, the lovely decorations that looked a good bit more tasteful than the palace did, if what Varley had told him was right. No gaudy displays of wealth, past the polished stone, wood, and silk on the walls. The big staircase in the middle was carpeted all in red now. It had been stone earlier, but Collette took joy in changing things around, since it was so simple here.
“Oh, it's magic. Don't worry, it's not really here at all. It's like the carriage we came in, a little focus stone amulet. But if we turned it off right now all the things and people would end up in a jumbled pile on the ground, which would be a big mess, so you'll have to trust me on that one.”
Burks bowed to Mutta and made his way out to the little magic house that had been set up earlier by someone for the school testing. It was directly in back of the large house so that the noise from the festival wouldn't disturb anyone trying to get a scholarship.
Taking her hand again and walking slowly so her robes wouldn't trip her up, Tor led the Afrak woman up the stairs, the gaze of nearly twenty royals following them as they went. Well, she was certainly worth looking at, given her exotic coloration. The red hair alone, bright like a birds, not copper like Rolph's, but true red. Brighter than blood even. The dark skin looked like polished stone under the magic lights, dimmer in here than the sun outdoors.
At his door, which had his name on it, he pounded and then waited for a few seconds before entering.
“It's my room, in my house, but the last time I just walked in there were four nobles on my bed doing… stuff. Really, I think if I described it you may have to run away in shock. Then I'd have to find you again to deliver the
