Some people talk about developments. Arlayna takes an interview
Chapter 35.
House Aravaris
Thasinia grinned as Naesala came into the parlor. “I have heard that you are planning to leave us.”
“Not so much that, as the Republic needs a more or less permanent home here for our Representative and Harald is going to be replaced at some point. For that matter, Harald has things to attend to at home. We were all lucky and the Axemaker Administration didn’t care, so we stayed.”
“Derry will replace your husband, won’t he? At least he isn’t likely to want to leave.”
“He will be here, but the actual ambassador may change with a change of administration. That is more frequent in places like the Fellowship and the Kingdom and less so in the Mortal Kingdoms. I don’t know where the Empire will end up where the ambassadorship is concerned.”
“Having the Residency here has been a gift for me, you know. It has done wonders to relieve the dreariness and make my things entertaining.”
Naesala grinned. “You will just have to keep inviting Derry and Gunag, then.”
“Not that Bennie, I hope.”
“He’s actually been better the last few five days.”
“That has been a change.”
“Yes it has.”
The Lower City
Lymseia grinned as Tad came into the bakery. “You are by yourself today, young lord.”
“Not a lord, yet.”
“Yes you are, whether you believe it or not. Since the bakery has more or less sold out and you are not in habit of buying bread here in any case, what brings you here? You did not bring your princess today.”
“I want to talk to Donal, Fairia, Rogar and Lillia.”
“With your maps?”
Tad held up a tube. “I have some guesses as to where they came from. The Justiciars are interested.”
“Not Jorge?”
“I haven’t seen him since the wedding. He will probably be interested, but he hasn’t sent anything to me. Mhaenal gave me what the people sent to the wedding had and I did some looking. I wanted to go over my guesses with the people you purchased.”
“Then you came at the right time, as they should be sitting down for their evening meal. Let me take you to them.”
Lymseia led Tad into the back of the bakery where a rather rowdy crew of flour covered bakers and rather less flour covered girls were gathered at a large table grabbing food and talking back and forth. The four newcomers were together at one end of the table, but they were joined by some of the others. The table looked at Lymseia and Tad and Clay called out, “Welcome, Tad. Sit down and have a bite.”
“It is too early for me, thanks. I have something for your newcomers.”
Clay turned to Donal and said, “Tad here is from the Umevan estate. He is very good at finding places. Somebody probably set him to looking for where you came from. Silvy, let’s clear a space for Tad to lay out his work.”
They quickly cleared a spot and wiped the table. The four newcomers looked curiously as Tad started to pull out pictures and maps. “I started looking at duplicated pictures and didn’t find anything that fit what I had. Then I looked for portals and the lake mentioned. I have three possibilities.”
Donal and the others looked at the pictures, Donal pulled one out and said, “This is the lake.”
“How do you know?”
“This little cove right here. This where we go to make company. The sheep pasture is over there, with a shed and you can see the paths.”
Tad wrote the coordinates down and grinned. “Thank you. That will make mother happy.”
“How did you get these?”
“That is a long story and I have to go.”
Tad packed things up again and left. Donal turned to Clay and said, “Who was he? He was Silverin.”
Clay laughed. “That is a long tale. Grab some brew and I will tell it. The short answer is that he is the current heir to House Silverin, but that will change, since his uncle is getting married later this year. He also True with Princess Immianthe, who we didn’t see today.”
“Then why is he running errands himself?”
“He does that.”
“He was wearing a collar. So he is a slave.”
“He was. That didn’t stop Princess Immianthe from grabbing him. She did that when he was with Jorge Umevan soon after the estate was returned. She hasn’t let go.”
Tad walked into the Residency and found Immianthe with her mother. “I think that I found where people that were dropped into Jorge’s wedding came from.”
“Excellent,” Princess Arlsyn said. “I do hope that whoever sent them can persuaded not to repeat that. Justiciar Percaryn is competent, but I would prefer that my things not have the odd explosion disrupting things.”
Immianthe said in a serious voice, “We have an incentive, don’t we, Tad? After all, it will be harder to sneak into parties if people have suppressors and shields all over the place.”
Tad laughed. “I didn’t think of it that way. Mother will be visiting the Village all too soon.”
“She almost certainly will.”
Chapter 36.
Chatsrey
Itham looked at the card and at the elegant woman in front of him and frowned. “Mrs. D’ Adard from the Times sent you, Mrs. Lightfire?”
“She did.”
“Do you work full time at the Times?”
“Not at all. I have sent pieces to various magazines and publications here in the Republic and the Fellowship. Edea Inneiros has used me frequently.”
“Edea no longer runs Chats.”
“She sold the magazine, I know. That was one reason that I started to send things to the Times. Mara asked me to follow this story and made the appointment with you for today.”
“We are rather busy with the conference starting the day after tomorrow.”
“I just have some questions about the internships the Economics Club is bringing some students to the conference for.”
“I can discuss the program. The internships here are part of a larger program with the elite universities to start to prepare our future leadership.”
Itham went over the program as the woman charmed the answers to her questions out of him with tact and grace. Finally she said, “Thank you for your time, Chancellor.”
“I will tell Mara that you did very well with this.”
“That will be good for me. I am hoping that I can interview some of the students when they arrive.”
“That should be possible. You can contact my secretary and make the arrangements.”
Arlayna left the hotel and waved for a cab. A cab pulled up and she said, “The Times.”
“Yes, miss.”
Arlayna wasn’t paying attention until the cab missed a turn. Then she noticed that the meter had been turned off. She said, “Just what is going on here?”
“I’m Wyrran and we’re making a bit of a detour. Lady Fallingwater wants to see what you have.”
“So we are stopping at Vilia’s?”
“Yes. I hope that you do not mind the diversion.”
Arlayna laughed. “Not at all. I wish that I had a chance for a bath.”
“That bad?”
“Slime covered in fancy wrapping is still slime. Even if they were accepted, any kids of mine are not going to attend Elimoira Academy.”
Wyrran laughed. “That sounds a bit like a place in the Empire. Here we are, go ahead. I will wait.”
Arlayna went inside and Filia was waiting. “Was the interview that bad?”
“Charming that piece of crap was harder than any Dance that I have undertaken.”
“I haven’t had any encounters with the man. Did you get what the paper wanted?”
“I think that some people will be pleased with what I have. Especially Mr. Holder and the other Cutflames.”
“You spoke with another.”
“I was going to have my notes duplicated at the paper and handed to Alais Ironhead. Her husband mentioned the Jastirians.”
“Who?”
“I am not sure of the details, but they apparently follow the morals of the ancient Imperial princess by marriage, Jastira. She was boxed up with the rest of them.”
“I see where you are coming from. How did you discover these Jastirians?”
“Borug Ironhead mentioned them yesterday. Itham Daefina is definitely a member.”
“Ok, let’s go over what you have and then get you on your way.”
Denny grinned as his brother was waiting with a row of cars. “You came to pick me up, Mike.”
“I thought that it would be easier if I did it. I see that you brought down Onia, Gertald and Gertag.”
“Richard wanted them here, discreetly. Gertag doesn’t want to be lugging a squad of marines around.”
Mike laughed. “I can understand that.”
“He’s also spent a big chunk of the last six moons in the wilderness and the Aerie, so a mere city will feel rather tame.”
“I suspect so. Let’s go.”
Kentog grinned as the duc and duchess landdragons led the parade through the gangway. “Welcome again, Duc. You have brought quite a crowd this time.”
“I think that some parents and relatives wanted some people out of the house, since every time I looked somebody else was added to the trip. Most have been to the Republic before.”
“I see Jimmy and Tallissa there, as well as Prince Vindica. Welcome all.”
Winston turned to Itham as they walked through the Crystal Hall, watching exhibits being set up and said, “How did the interview go this morning?”
“Very well. The lady was quite charming and did not ask any questions that were difficult to answer. I think we had good press for our little project.”
“It’s a nuisance that we need to deal with the press at all,” Forgediron growled.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” Hillrunner said.
“That is press that is out of control.”
“The Times has always been friendly,” Itham said. “I am not too concerned.”
Alais grinned as Arlayna came up to her desk. “Arlayna, I haven’t seen you for some time. Are you doing well?”
“I am. Your husband asked me for something and I have it. Somebody owes me a trip to a spa.”
Alais laughed. “That bad?”
“Your husband warned me. I just didn’t realize how bad the man was.”
“Do you think that he caught on?”
“Not really. I said the right things. But I would rather kidnap Alinis again rather than take another interview from that man.”
“We’re hoping to keep some kids away from Itham and his friends.”
“Borug said that you would have some details about these Jastirians.”
“I will give you Borug’s file and what Bob Harper has on them. Borug said that you would want it.”
“Not for me. You can guess how a lady will react. I just had a chat with her. Do you think that there could be Silverin in amongst the kids?”
“That is hard to say. Silverin here in the Republic are not concentrated and many families are rather private. I doubt that any from the Ironaxes or Umevan would be in amongst the groups here, since they do not attend the elite boarding schools that are involved here.”
“Could you and Borug meet with Filia at Vilia’s this evening? Filia was caught unawares by the economics club and wants to know more.”
“We’ll do that. So far this has been a project of common interest by some parties and the Silverin have not been involved.”
“Ok, I will see you then.”
Jorge looked at Tim and Gotrid and said, “The general must not like you.”
“Lieutenant Wavechaser and platoon reporting, Sir!”
“Lieutenant Billings and platoon reporting, Sir!”
“I’m glad that you are here. The economics conference is a bigger headache than I expected and I can use some people used to moving in the background.”
“We’ve been training our people,” Gotrid said. “They’ll like some nice easy duty.”
“It could be. Tim is probably more attuned to the potential issues than you are, Gotrid. There could be some stickies involved even if the new gods don’t play and I think they will. You were there at the wedding. You can guess why I want eyeballs.”
“You think that somebody will send more suicide bombers.”
“We don’t know where the kids at the wedding came from, nor if there are any more communities out there. If the Justiciars hadn’t been on the ball, things could have been a bloody mess with you and me in the middle. That’s just one problem. Another is that the economics club may be filled with members of a secret society called the Jasterians, who like toys. They are bringing some kids in from boarding schools, so watching the kids will be another task. The good news is that they picked the wrong place for their get together, Waterland.”
“Gertag isn’t here,” Tim said.
“I have been told that he will be. Why did you bring that up?”
“Gertag has a reputation for being unpleasant to people who misbehaved in Waterland. All of us who went there knew that.”
“That explains some things. You both were here in the city for the last of these things. Why don’t you tell me what you know?”
Filia grinned as Borug and Alais came into the room. “Arlayna must have told you that I wanted to know more about these Jastirians. No one had mentioned them to me before.”
“I have my file on the four conferences that I have had to deal with and Bob Harper’s Jastirian file.”
“Who are they?”
“The short answer is that they are a secret society of people that like to play with other people. The long answer is more complicated and involves people with wealth, power and influence with some rather nasty habits.”
“Senator Steelslash.”
“Yes,” Borug said. “That is another habit of the Jastirians. They are willing to die to keep their secrets.”
“That sounds like a compulsion.”
“We hadn’t gotten that far, but yes.”
“This is very interesting. What is going on with them bringing in the students?”
“I think that that the Jastirians have lost a lot of the resources that they depended on and are switching their approach. They are probably grooming the next generation of Jastirians as well.”
“Gordy the Collector was one of those resources.”
“Yes. He and the others were out of the picture and some folk did not want to do without their favorite amusements.”
“Are there Silverin families involved?”
“We don’t know,” Alais said. “As you know, we don’t even know who the Silverin families are and they have different histories.”
Filia sighed. “Thank you for informing me about this. I have another concern that I need to focus on that also relates to Jastira, so I cannot be deeply involved in this. On the other hand, I have all confidence in you and your friends.”
“We are not doing so badly,” Borug said.
Sthisse grinned as her parents came into the office. “I was wondering when you would show up.”
“I need to talk to Klara soon in any case,” Onia said. “We have plans to finalize.”
“Why are you really here?”
“Have you heard the rumors about Waterland?” Gertald said.
“What rumors?”
“That the Global Economics Club has rented it for the last two days of the GEF and is planning to bring a bunch of kids to the park?”
“I hadn’t heard about that. On the other hand, I haven’t talked to Swifty or Uncle Baltrag. Just what is going on?”
“Some rather nasty people have rented the park for the last two days of the GEF,” Onia said. “I am going to make a statement about certain things and shed some light on some people who will not like it at all.”
“Can I do anything to help?”
“Do you have any parties planned at the park?”
“Not until the wedding. I could change that, though. I take it that you want at least one Transformer. I have three that I was going to set up.”
Onia had a rather terrible grin as she said, “That will do nicely.”
Nyla grinned as Thaciona came into her office. “Run out of grandchildren to marry in the Empire?”
Thaciona laughed. “For the time being. The Empire has had a lot of the stuffing pulled out.”
“I am having a dinner for some ladies to go over a proposal this evening. It came from your daughter and an entertainer from the Empire.”
“Let me guess, Fauna and Gunag are involved in Bene’s little project.”
“Yes. Apparently they were sent down to assist with some things and Shelara had some ideas about dealing with a common problem. I thought that they were interesting, but it may be difficult convincing the girls to wear collars.”
Thaciona held up a pendant she was wearing. “Once you get into the habit, you have it with you. Tony and Carl insisted when I arrived in the Empire. Having the Darkmage come after the family made their case very well. So what are they proposing?”
“Shelara is suggesting that we have people with scanners that will alert when a button on a collar is pressed. I suspect that some of the details came from Gunag and Shelara asked him to put the proposal together.”
“Gunag made himself known in the Empire rather quickly. He’s done very well.”
“Then you will be here this evening?”
“I will.”
Gunag looked at Gertag as he came into the office that he had set up for a discreet headquarters and said, “You must have heard.”
“Dad did. He hauled me down here.”
“Discreetly. So you don’t have a squad of Colonel Tolling’s marines following you around.”
“I’m trying to avoid that.”
“I won’t tell the colonel or the President that you are here. So why did you want to talk to me?”
“I figured that you were in the middle of things and could tell me what’s going on.”
“So far, a lot of it is dad’s jitters with some hints that some clowns are planning some fun and games in Waterland. The places and people that the clowns used for some things are out of the picture and the clowns are looking to bring in some kids for fun and games with some nasty things involved.”
“Why Waterland?”
“It’s convenient and dad thinks that the clowns believe that you all wouldn’t care to push when they act up in the park because they think that Dragonkin are all crooks and afraid of the mound.”
“Are they nuts? Mother will chew them up and spread the mess all over the papers. They won’t know what hit them if they play around in the park.”
“I know that, but the economics club doesn’t and dad thinks that there are deep mound issues here, mostly surrounding a secret society called the Jastirians. He had the admiral send me down for new gods reasons, so I’m in the middle.”
“That explains a lot. We were coming down anyway when Lord Qinvaris sent the message. Does your dad have reason to be jittery?”
“He’s been talking to some people that he probably shouldn’t be, your grandfather and Bob Harper, for instance, so it’s legit.”
Dorrin looked at his people and said, “This is going to be different than we are used to. We aren’t looking to bust people for crimes. Our job is to make sure that the conference doesn’t have any problems. So we ignore things that aren’t problems. On the other hand, we don’t want people causing problems for the conference and our bosses. So we deal with those problems. That includes the Committee and the other outfits looking to grab some action.”
“Does that include cops?”
“If they don’t have warrants, yes.”
“How tough do you want us to be?”
“As tough as we need to be.”
Sylva grinned as a very well dressed Shelara more or less dragged a reluctant Gunag. She stepped forward and said, “Gunag, I see that Shelara got you here.”
Shelara turned on Gunag and said, “You never mentioned that you knew the folk here.”
“I did some work for Lady Leafart and some of the other ladies. It was security for a discreet wedding. I needed the job, so I stood around and watched for three twentieths with some buddies I hired.”
“You performed the task well. Shall we go upstairs?”
“Let’s do that,” Shelara said. “I want to hear more about what Gunag did.”
As they entered the elevator, Gunag whined, “We’re here to make a proposal, not for you to hear about me before we met.”
Sylva laughed as Shelara said, “We can do both.”
They emerged from the elevator and Sylva led the pair to several large tables where a group of ladies were seated. Nyla stood up and said, “Welcome, Shelara. I see you brought Gunag. We want to hear all about your adventures and what happened to you, as well as your proposal.”
“The proposal isn’t entirely mine, milady. I worked with some other ladies on potential things that could be done to better protect the girls after my incident with Bennie.”
“Who got off easy,” a voice said. “You don’t know what happened to that girl in Zirgoccol. I’m Thaciona Lion and the fact that Findley skated off did not sit well. Is he still collared?”
“As of when we left, he was,” Gunag said. “A strange thing happened during Lord Umevan’s wedding, but that isn’t what we wanted to discuss today.”
“You know what is going on behind the scenes at the economic forum, don’t you?”
“I was involved on the sidelines during the last one, Mrs. Lion. I was dragged into this one by some concerns being raised by my father and some others. Shelara was prevailed upon to present the proposal by your daughter and Lady Reymyar. They have been working on it with Shelara since the incident with Bennie.”
“Why don’t we sit down and eat and then get the proposal out of the way,”
Nyla said. “I know that we all want Gunag and Shelara’s story, but there are serious matters here as well.”
The Arts Mechanical 