by Robin Roseau
“Hello, Mama,” she said.
“Chaladine!” said Valtine warmly. “When are you coming to see your parents?”
“I’m not sure. It depends upon the governor’s schedule.”
“Well, I imagine this is an official visit. What can the Vendart do for the governor?”
“Actually,” she said. “We want your help with something, Mother,” Chaladine said.
“Governor Grace wishes to purchase additional carriages for the embassy,” I explained. “We wish your advice in making the right choices.” I spoke for a minute or two, making sure she knew Cecilia specifically was not looking to outshine the vendart.
“I have never purchased a carriage,” Valtine said. “Although I’ve bought a few wagons over the years. But now I get to help purchase four. How lovely. Maddalyn, were you pleased with the purchase of yours.”
“Entirely pleased, and unless you wished to go somewhere else, I would like to start there.”
“Then we shall,” she said. “What is your plan?”
I smiled. My plan. “Chaladine and I thought we could pay a visit.”
“No.”
“You don’t have time?” I asked.
“Of course I have time,” she said. “But that is not how it is done. That is how it is done when someone is an employee of someone important. But when someone is acting on behalf of someone very important, and one is purchasing not just one small carriage, but a total of four, and two of them not small, one does not begin by going to the vendor. One invites the vendor here.”
I laughed. “I understand. Will they bring all their carriages with them?”
“Oh, I hope not,” she replied. “After all, we won’t tell them what we want. We make them come here to discover that. Shall we say tomorrow, after the noon meal?”
“That would fit my schedule.”
“And mine,” Chaladine said.
“Do you know how to send messages, Maddalyn?”
“Yes,” I said.
Valtine withdrew notepaper and envelopes from a drawer of her desk. She slipped them to me and asked, “Do you know the proper form?”
“Yes.”
I wrote out the first one to Masalarn, inviting her and Rutessain to a meeting at the vendart’s home. There was a second to Tressain. I showed them both to Valtine, and then I did envelopes with her help.
I suppose all that seems mundane, but to me, it wasn’t, when you consider the people involved. I was working on behalf of the Imperial Governor of Talmon, seated across a desk from one of the most influential women on the planet. Chaladine was at least as influential. And in that moment, that struck me.
We talked for a few more minutes, and then it was time to go.
* * * *
Kalorain met me at the door. She bent down to see to my feet. “I saw you arrive.”
“I had business with Valtine,” I replied. “I hope you weren’t waiting.” She finished with my feet, and then I knelt for hers. Once I was finished, we embraced and kissed.
“I missed you today.”
“I missed you, too.” I smiled. “The governor authorized me to include you on any duties as I see appropriate. We’ll evaluate to see what you’ll be paid later.”
“I’m not doing it to get paid.”
“And you might not be,” I countered.
“Tell me about it as we prepare dinner.”
I told her of my day, and she of hers. “Valtine wants me to shadow her,” she said. “With the goal of my taking responsibility for one or two areas, once we decide what that should be.”
“That’s wonderful,” I replied.
“She says she has no intention of wasting the education Mother gave me, and I should assume I will be leading some of the work parties, once we’re sure I know the Sudden way of doing things. It’s not always the same as how we did them in Beacon Hill.”
“I suppose,” I said. “Kalorain, that’s terrific.” She finished telling me about her day, and then I said, “We’ve been invited somewhere.”
“Oh?”
“Governor Grace hopes we will come to Indartha every month or two, for a few days at a time.”
“Even in winter?” she squeaked.
I laughed. “That was how the conversation started.”
She nodded. “All right. How soon do you need to know when we could go?”
“Sooner is good,” I said.
“I will get the schedule for large projects,” she said.
“Like harvest days.”
“Right. Barn raisings. Anything I’m running. Things like that.” She stepped closer and set my hand on my bottom and began rubbing. “Although tonight you have duties.”
I laughed.
* * * *
I briefly hugged my guests before leading them into one of the conference rooms in the vendart’s home. Valtine was already there, talking to Chaladine via tablet. I provided introductions then added my tablet, propping one so Chaladine had a view of our guests and the other so she could see Valtine and me.
“What can we do for the Vendart’s Wife?” Rutessain asked.
“At this time, nothing,” Valtine replied. “I am here as an advisor.”
“It is the governor’s business we are on today,” I said.
“The governor wishes a carriage,” Rutessain said.
“Rutessain, you may not know, but I have become a Galatzi wife.”
All five of them laughed. “Maddalyn,” Masalarn said. “All of Sudden knows.”
“Oh. Well. I live just two doors away from here. Which means my cabriolet is now kept in the vendart’s stable. And that means it is not readily available to others at the embassy.”
“The governor expects us to see more frequent visitors,” Chaladine added. “And has been wondering about this for a while, but Maddalyn’s carriage prompted things. Rather than everyone buying his own, Governor Grace thought the embassy should have a few vehicles available as needed. She has assigned us to present a proposal for her approval.”
“How many carriages does the governor wish to purchase?”
“Four,” I said. I outlined the basics. Rutessain smiled and didn’t interrupt. But it was Valtine and Rutessain who then discussed styles, with Masalarn offering her input. Chaladine and I sat still, letting the experts come to conclusions.
Finally Masalarn turned to me and said, “And so you will buy the cabriolet you were afraid of scratching?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “All the reasons I didn’t buy it the first time still apply.”
“The governor does not wish to appear as a lord over us all,” Chaladine added.
And that was when Rutessain said, “And that is the reason you are involved, Vendart’s Wife?”
“Yes,” Valtine said. “Chaladine, I believe before we come to final decisions, you should appear in person.”
“I agree, Mother,” said my friend. “But we can do much this way.”
“We can,” Valtine agreed. She looked up at our guests. “Rutessain, you are a good business woman, and your family builds find carriages.”
“But?” the woman said.
“You consistently try to sell grander carriages than people want.”
“Are you saying I am greedy?”
“I am saying you are very proud of the work you do, and you want to share it widely.”
The women nodded. “That is fair,” she said. “You’re right.”
“That’s not all of it,” Masalarn said. “All of us love building custom carriages. We love the creative process and the chance to do special touches.” She looked at me. “Incorporating your lights served as a good distraction. Will you light these new carriages in a similar fashion?”
“Yes,” I said. “Well, I can’t speak to the artistry, but yes. We will provide lights in the quantity you specify.”
Rutessain put on a thoughtful expression and then said, “I might suggest not four carriages, but five.”
“Why five?” Valtine asked.
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sp; “One should be for those who are not yet fully comfortable driving them, one that might get scratched, as Maddalyn puts it. We have two trade ins that will do. One is similar to your cabriolet, Maddalyn, and one is larger, with four wheels and two rows of seats instead of one, but smaller than our landaus. We can come to agreeable pricing.”
I didn’t want to discuss that in front of them, so I said simply, “We can present our suggestions to the governor.”
We talked another few minutes, finally agreeing that Valtine and I would visit their shop in the morning.
Ultimately, we bought only four, as the governor had originally indicated. One was my dream cabriolet; two were new, modified landaus, with comfortable seating for six, including the driver; and the fourth was the larger used vehicle Rutessain had suggested, but revitalized and updated with electric lights. Everyone was pleased.
* * * *
For the next year that defined my life. Kalorain and I grew even more deeply in love, and my marriage was absolutely perfect. She did, indeed, begin to lead work crews. My only regret was that I wasn’t able to serve on every crew she led, but I served with her often enough.
She frequently gave me the worst jobs, but that was at my urging in private.
The others living at the embassy also began helping, although not as steadily as I did.
I did designs for the new structures. Cecilia said they were fine. Aston and Blaine made changes. And then they let me help build them. I learned a lot, but I didn’t really do any of the real work, not after they were planned and marked.
My first exposure to winter in Indartha was brutal, but it was worse for Kalorain. But Cecilia used our time together to pull Kalorain more deeply into everything that was going on, and my wife didn’t complain.
Darkstar paid Talmon a visit. Two days later, Colonel Blue sauntered into the embassy and walked straight to me. I recognized her, but if I hadn’t, her uniform was a dead giveaway. She came to a stop opposite my desk and looked at me with an intense, penetrating gaze.
“I am sorry, Colonel, but the governor is at Indartha.”
“I know. I just came from there. I’m here to see you. I am to make sure you are qualified to fly in and out of Indartha.”
“Oh,” I said. “Oh. Of course, Colonel.”
“What are your duties?”
“Everything I am doing is flexible,” I said.
“Good. We’ll begin now. Come along.”
She led the way outside. Cecilia’s ground vehicle was waiting. She gestured, and so I drove out to the airfield, finding Cecilia’s jumper and the embassy’s five-seater waiting. “Where is Darkstar?”
“Oh, here and there,” replied the Colonel. “I flew down with the governor’s craft. We’ll spend today reviewing what you are able to do around here, and then if I am impressed, we’ll head to Indartha tomorrow.”
“I’m not sure I’m that impressive,” I said. “I learned to fly on Tarriton before coming here.”
“Well, I don’t expect military maneuvers,” she replied. “I expect safe, competent flying.”
“That I think I do.”
“Let’s find out. Start with the embassy vehicle.”
We climbed in. I checked the systems then asked her what she wanted.
“Let me ask you that,” she said. “Other than ensuring you can safely fly in and out of Indartha, are there things you’d like to cover now that you have the opportunity? Are you confident in your navigation?”
“We don’t have the sort of systems they have on Tarriton,” I said. “Mostly I like to use the coast. It’s hard to get lost.”
“All right. If it weren’t for the navigational beacon we put in, finding Indartha would be nearly impossible. I’m going to put you through some of those paces tomorrow.”
“Then I guess… I know that I’m going to have to fly into strange places. I guess I’d like to be safe. I have a few in mind, and I guess letting you see what I do would be good.”
“Okay. Good. Let’s start here. I want to see good take off procedures then we’re going to do a handful or two of landings. We’ll do the first normally, but then we’re going to get creative. Whenever you’re ready, Maddalyn.”
“Yes, Colonel.”
I fired us up, ran all the checks, then brought us to the takeoff end of the runway. “Is there anything in particular you want to see?”
“Fly like you normally might,” she said. “If you have any bad habits, I’d like a chance to correct them.”
I glanced over at her. “How hard is it for you to sit there for someone you’ve never seen fly?”
“I do this all the time, and I can tell within the first few minutes if I trust someone. We’re fine, Maddalyn.”
I nodded, did one last check, and then advanced the controls.
* * * *
We did basic landings. The colonel had little to say. Then she said, “I want you to do something else. Imagine you are directly over your landing point, and you want an efficient landing. What can you do?”
“Spiral.”
“Let’s see it. Be prepared to abort.”
“Right.” I took us over the top of the airfield then put us in a bank and did a wide spiral. When we reached fifty meters, the colonel said, “Let’s go do that again.” I advanced the controls, and we began climbing. Once we were settled, she said, “Tighter. Do you want me to show you?”
“Yes.”
“My aircraft,” she said. She took us up to altitude then said, “I’m going to show you what I want you able to do. I’m not going to show you what is possible.”
“Is there a distinct gap?”
“Yes, but that gets to those military maneuvers we’re not doing today. You were very passive about it, but imagine you’re above a carpet of clouds, and you want to descend through a hole.” Then she dropped power and set the aircraft half onto its side. We did a much tighter spiral all the way down to about fifty meters. We were lined up perfectly. She gave power and said, “Your aircraft.”
We talked about it. She told me you have to judge your circles, especially if there is some sort of emergency.
We did a few of those. My first weren’t great, but I got the hang of it, sort of.
“Good,” she said. “I don’t want you practicing with passengers, and if you practice at all, do it during good weather and level out at one hundred meters.”
“Yes, Colonel.”
We did a few more things, including a drop that simulated what we would do into Indartha. I thought it was deeply frightening, as I envisioned mountains on either side.
Then the colonel told me, “Show me these other places you want to land, then I’ll take you to a few.”
I brought us to a thousand meters and headed out to the coast. Then I found the road between Sudden and the Rejuvenation Center. As soon as I set up for my landing, the colonel said, “Ah, of course. Is this troublesome for you?”
“No, but I wanted you to see.”
“Sure.”
I did a complete landing, all the way to setting down. Then I looked at the Colonel. She was watching me. “There was nothing wrong with that. You’re actually conservative, and there’s nothing wrong with that, either. Could you do the same thing into a smaller area?”
“I don’t know. Yes, but I don’t know if I would want to.”
She nodded. “For all your landings, I want you to focus on precision. I want you to settle down over the same place each time. Don’t do anything foolish to make that happen, but make that your goal. At the airfield, you were settling down anywhere during the first third of the runway. You can do better. Military standards are within thirty meters.”
“Seriously?”
She nodded. “I don’t expect that of a civilian, but it’s a good goal, don’t you think?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know why?”
“Because if I ever have to get in somewhere really tight, I could.”
“That’s right. Imagine a medical emergenc
y. You don’t always get to pick two kilometer runways.”
“Could you show me what you would do here?”
“No, but I’ll show you what you could safely do.”
I smiled. “I suppose those aren’t the same thing.”
“Well, I suppose I’ll show you what I would do with civilian passengers I’m not trying to rattle.”
At that I laughed. “Sure.”
“Show me how you leave, and then I’ll take it.”
I nodded, lifted the craft, rotated it the direction we had come, and advanced the controls. Once we reached a safe airspeed, I nudged the craft left. The ground fell out from under us. That took us out of ground effect, but I anticipated it, and we were climbing.
“That works,” said Colonel Blue. “My aircraft.” She took the controls and set us up for a climb to 500 meters. “Why don’t you just drop it off the cliff to begin with?”
“It’s safer to accelerate while in ground effect,” I said.
“Could you drop it off the cliff?”
“I suppose, if I had to.”
“Yes. It’s a good way to ding it, but you can do it. I would have turned out over the ocean sooner than you did, but not by enough to matter.”
“I understand, Colonel.”
“We have that long, long area, and it is a mistake not to keep it as an option,” she said. “So what I would do is pick a touchdown point two hundred meters from the south end, and I would aim for that point, like this.” She pulled power and entered a gentle curving turn. It wasn’t until we were back over land that I realized we were on a path exactly where she said. Near the end, she flared, and we settled down, as near as I could tell, with the trees exactly two hundred meters behind us. “Was that uncomfortable?”
“Not at all,” I said. “Is that what you want me to practice?”
“Not right away. I want you to be able to work on precision first, then begin working on precision while in a curving descent. Not until you can reliably do this at the airfield, time after time, do I want you to try it places like this.”
“I understand,” I said again.
“Depending upon how much you fly, it can take a few years until you can do it that way, but once it’s second nature, and you barely have to think, you would be surprised what you can do.”
