Keren and Garia realize that they can delay no longer in discussing the two major issues confronting them - the 'beings' and their obvious love for each other. A small group rides out into the country and many things are spoken of, including free will, predestination, the tests of Kings, transfers between worlds, hostile countries and much else besides.

Disclaimer: The original characters and plot of this story are the property of the author. No infringement of pre-existing copyright is intended. This story is copyright (c) 2011-2013 Penny Lane. All rights reserved.

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"Are you still mad with everyone?"

Garia rubbed her eyes. "No, Merry," she replied tiredly. "I made a spectacle of myself last night, didn't I? Well, it's over this morning. Did I upset you?"

"Me? You did, but then I've seen you do this before, haven't I?"

"I can't blame this one on Kalikan, Merry. I did it all myself. I let something blow up all out of a simple disagreement."

"Tell me. No, let me guess. It was about that dream, wasn't it?"

"Got it in one. I didn't want to tell him but he convinced me to so I told him. Then he understood why I didn't want to tell him and he blamed me for telling him. I was tired and twitchy and I didn't want to be out there at all so I got all grumpy and left."

Merizel looked startled at this blunt retelling of the evening's events but decided not to make too much of it. She tried humor instead.

"Is it finished, then? Shall you ever speak to him again?"

"Oh very funny. No, I let my temper get the better of me and I shouldn't. We have to figure this out, Merry, we have no choice and it's too important for us to keep putting it off. No, I'll have to apologize but then we need to talk about it like rational people."

"As you say. So, milady, what are your commands?"

Garia stuck her tongue out at her friend before replying, "Let's get our maids in first, straighten them out, then get ready for breakfast. I foresee a morning ride in our near future, I think."

There was a knock on the door almost immediately, since Jenet could easily hear them talking from her own chamber and knew they were both awake.

"Come in, Jenet." When the door was opened she added, "Fetch the other two as well, would you please?"

When all three were lined up in their chamber Garia told them, "I must apologize for my attitude last night." Lanilla and Jasinet could hardly believe their ears. "I had a... disagreement with His Highness and allowed my temper to flare up. I should not have taken it out on any of you. Unfortunately since arriving in Palarand my temper seems to be worse than when I was..." ...a boy. "...at home in Kansas and I've not gotten used to the change yet. If it happens again please be assured that it's nothing personal." She smiled. "Right. Today I think we'll do the Tai Chi after breakfast and then I have to go for a ride. Merry and Jenet will be riding out with me. You girls can manage without us?"

The two curtseyed and then Jasinet said, "Milady, there is sufficient for us to do. If we have need can we ask Mistress Sukhana for advice?"

"Yes, of course. She runs the place so she'll know what to do if you have a problem. Let's go and bathe, then."

When the procession came down the Womens' Stair for breakfast Keren and Feteran were waiting at attention at the bottom. Garia curtseyed to Keren, her staff following. He made an elaborate bow in response, his expression carefully neutral.

"Milady," he began, "I must apologize for my behavior last night. I upset you unnecessarily by forcing you to do something that was probably unwise. It shall not happen again."

"Highness," she responded with a similar expression on her face, "whatever the fault and whoever might be to blame I should not have treated you as I did. I must offer my own apology to you."

"Milady, Garia, it seems we are of like mind," he said, a slight smile appearing. "Shall we consider the matter closed?"

"Highness, if you refer to last night's... difficulty, then we had both better forget the incident as quickly as possible." Keren gave her an emphatic nod. She continued, "If you refer to the subject under discussion, I think it is time we both gave it our undivided attention before something else happens. With your agreement, I have a suggestion what to do about it."

"Advise me, Garia."

"Breakfast first, of course, then Tai Chi as normal. After that we take a small party and go for a ride in the country somewhere. We'll aim to be back by lunchtime, I think, unless you think we need longer. We'll stop and sit down and have that talk we've been threatening for months."

He nodded. "Small party?"

"You, me, Merry, Jenet and Feteran with three each of our guardsmen ought to be enough. The five of us are the ones who know all about what's really going on here."

"Excuse me, milady," Feteran interrupted. "I don't know what you are speaking about."

"You should do, commander," Garia said. "You can't have failed to notice how close Keren and myself have gotten, can you? But it goes way deeper than that and I think, as the head of my personal protection force, you need to know everything."

Her commander bowed. "As you command, milady."

"Breakfast first, then. Feteran, you'll select some men?"

"Aye, milady."

Keren, Garia and Jenet followed Feteran into the common room where most of the men were already breakfasting. Garia saw Feteran approach several men as she took her seat at their table.

Sukhana came in to check that everything was all right and looked relieved when she saw Keren and Garia sitting together. It seemed that, late though their meeting had been, word of it had already passed round the company. The rest of those in the common room, almost all of them armsmen of either Keren or Garia, kept their voices low but cast occasional glances at the top table.

Breakfast was eaten quickly but quietly. At the end, as the serving girls were clearing all but the diners' drinking vessels from their tables, Jaxen entered from the street and approached, bowing.

"Highness, Milady, good morning to you. Our wagon leaves for Tranidor at the next bell, unless you have other instructions. Are there any further letters to go today?"

"We have written all that we need to," Keren replied. "Do you travel with the wagon?"

"Aye, Highness, as far as the overnight stop. Master Bezan will be coming with us. We must find out if the workers there require materials to be ordered from Tranidor and make the necessary arrangements. If the other wagon is there, we shall return with it to Blackstone tomorrow."

Garia asked, "What about this shipment of coal you mentioned?"

"Aye, Milady. With the work party are two miners and four laborers who are preparing the ground for the new buildings. Once construction comes above ground they will travel here and mine and bag the coal we require before accompanying the wagons back as far as Tranidor. By using the men thus we avoid contracting a separate work party for each task."

"That's clever, Jaxen."

"Milady, Master Bezan thought of it. He knew that some excavation was required at the site before the buildings could be put up."

"That's good. Keren, any instructions?"

"All appears to be well-organized to me. Fare you well, Wagonmaster."

"Highness, Milady." Jaxen bowed and took his leave.

The yard was full this morning with those doing the Tai Chi. The mornings had definitely started becoming cooler, Garia thought. In a week or three it would be necessary for them to start wearing extra layers or thicker clothes for at least part of the day. For now, even when the occasional showers fell, her current attire was still adequate.

When the men began bringing the frayen out of the stable to be harnessed and saddled Sukhana shot out of her chambers.

"Milady, do you ride? May I accompany you as yesterday?"

"I'm sorry, Sookie, not this time." Sukhana's face fell. "This is a special patrol we're taking out today and I didn't want to get you involved." Garia smiled to lessen the blow. "Now we're getting properly settled in it should be easier for us to find time to take leisure rides but today is different."

"As you say, milady," Sukhana replied, obviously disappointed. She cast looks at Merizel and Jenet who were dressed in their riding clothes, wondering what such a mix of people was planning to do.

"Look! Here comes our smith with his daughter," Garia said, pointing to the carriage arch. "You'll need to sit down with Senidet this morning, I think."

Sukhana smiled. "Indeed, milady. When I saw frayen being brought out I forgot that they were coming here this morning. I wish you all to have a safe ride, milady."

Garia watched as Sukhana conducted Brydas and Senidet into her chambers before hauling herself onto Snep. Once everyone had mounted she nodded to Feteran and her commander led the way out of the yard onto the main street.

"Did you have a particular destination in mind, milady?"

"Not really. Somewhere different, although I know we've been places you haven't. How about the river? Can we get across that, do you think?"

"Which river, milady? The Bray or the Blackstone?"

"Uh, the Bray was what I was thinking of. Let's ride down to the bridge and take a look."

They did not cross the bridge but rode across the cleared area where the executions had occurred and the funeral pyre had been located. To one side, raised on stones to prevent rot, still lay the three poles used to make Trogan's gallows. Beyond, the land sloped gradually down towards the Bray and they took this route in single file. If anything, the river before them seemed smaller than the reduced flow coming from Blackstone Vale.

Feteran offered his opinion. "We may ford here safely, milady."

His face wrinkled with distaste as he looked to his right, behind the lower side of main street. It was on this side that many of the town's artisans had their workshops, the nearest being that of the tanner. The drains from these buildings flowed directly into the river and it showed.

"I would not want to walk further along, milady. I would not wish to let my beast step in those rank marshes."

"As you say. Here will do. How deep do you think it is?"

"Barely a foot, milady. You will not get wet."

Feteran sent Frando across to test the bed of the river and the rest followed once he had proved the route. They set out southward at an easy pace alongside the west bank of the Bray. The group rode comfortably along on the short grass beside the river, the frayen preferring the soft ground to the cobbles of street or road. Groups of pakh stood watching them suspiciously as they went past while above them unseen avians made strange cries.

After a while Garia turned to Keren. "Is this far enough for you?"

"Aye, Garia. Let us find a suitable spot and sit ourselves down."

A clear area was located not far from the river. There were no trees nearby to impede the view and no shrubs or prickly undergrowth to make sitting uncomfortable. The frayen were picketed and the armsmen set out in pairs to keep watch while the five principals seated themselves in a circle.

"If I had known we were going to do this," Merizel said with a smile, "I would have asked Sookie to furnish us with food and drink. This is a fine spot for an outdoor snack."

"You're right," Garia said. "Unfortunately, I didn't think of that and so we only have our water bottles with us."

"Garia," Keren prompted, "perhaps you'd better begin."

"As you say." Everybody turned their attention on her. "Now, you each know something of what I'm going to tell you but I don't think you all know everything. Jenet has been with me almost from the beginning but I'm not sure even she knows it all. Some of it is what I know and some is what I think I know. For some of it I've had to use my Earth knowledge and experiences to try and figure it out so it may involve ideas you might find difficult to understand. Heck, it involves ideas I find difficult to understand! Yes, Feteran?"

"Milady, I am still not sure why you have asked me to share this knowledge."

Garia thought. "Because what we are going to talk about is going to be very, very important for the future of Palarand. It will affect your future, my future, His Highness's future and also my safety. As our military expert your opinion may be valuable."

"As you say, milady."

"There are two things at stake here," she continued, "and just recently those two things have collided with each other. The first thing I shall call 'What am I doing here' and the second is my relationship with Prince Keren. You all know the story about where and how I was found and how I was brought to the palace and eventually adopted by the King and Queen. I come from another world a long way away with very little chance of ever returning. That being so I have decided to show my gratitude for my new country by sharing what little knowledge I have with them. That's why we've had the introduction of paper, steam engines, printing and all the rest.

"The second thing is my relationship with His Highness." Garia colored. Talking about personal matters like this was difficult but perhaps that was part of the problem. She continued, "He was almost the first person I met when I was brought to the palace and he has been present in my life every day since.You all know I was a boy before I came to Anmar, you also know I have a love of martial arts and that has led to me teaching what I know to His Majesty's men. Adapting to the life of a girl has not been as easy but Keren has supported me all the way. Since we now live on the same corridor, do most of the same activities each day and accompany each other almost everywhere it was inevitable we would fall in love."

"But, milady," Feteran said, "you must know of the customs -"

"- which govern marriage between those who will become rulers in the Valley? Yes. We had only really discovered what had happened between us a short time before the Queen realised what was going on and confronted us. We gave oaths to the King and Queen that we would take it no further and, to the best of our abilities, that is what we have done."

"That's not quite true," Merizel put in, "When Jaxen's caravan joined His Highness's caravan, you two met in such a fashion that we thought you would rip each other's clothes off there and then."

"Ah, yes," Garia said, reddening.

"As you say, Merry," Keren added, looking uncomfortable. "We had been apart some days and that was when we discovered that keeping such oaths as we had given would not be an easy thing to do. After that meeting we decided, if you recall, to take the time spent before we returned to the palace to determine what decision we must both make." He gave a wry smile. "I fear that as each day passes, such a decision becomes more difficult. But let Garia continue."

"So we both began trying to think the situation out," Garia said. "Keren had an interesting thought a day or two after that meeting which had us both wondering. You see, the Queen was still suspicious of our relationship, as you'd naturally expect. So why did the King and Queen allow both of us to go away and be in each other's company for at least a month? Keren thought that it might be a test, the problem was, he couldn't work out what the test was for and neither can I."

Feteran asked, "A test, milady?"

Keren answered, "Aye, Feteran. Am I tested against the laws and customs of the Valley, so that I may show I will abide by them against all temptation? Am I being tested to show that I would take Garia as my bride despite what custom may decree? Am I tested to show that I will obey my father and mother in all things? Or that, becoming King, I will make my own decisions whatever the cost? Is there some other question I must answer?" He shook his head. "This is a puzzle I cannot solve. Without knowing what the test might be, I cannot know how to respond." Another wry smile. "Perhaps that is the test, my response to an unsolveable problem."

Garia added, "We intended to talk this out once we reached Blackstone but as you all know we've been a little busy up until now. Today is about the first day we've had a chance to just sit and talk."

"But this must be a decision between the two of you," pointed out Merizel. "What do you desire from us three? Advice?"

"Aye," Keren responded. "You have a different view of our problems since you are not directly part of them. You may notice things we are too blind to see. And there is something else. Tell them, Garia."

"My other problem. I think only Jenet and Merry know about these in detail although Keren knows I have them. Ever since I've lived in the palace I've been having the occasional dream. Now you all know about dreams, your mind gets up to all kinds of crazy random stuff and most of it means nothing at all. But every now and then, not regular as far as I can tell, I get a particular kind of dream which I think is me linking somehow with those who sent me here. Let me describe them for you if I possibly can. I'm in a vast, dark space, floating. There is no ground, it's like I'm out floating between the stars although I don't remember seeing any stars. Around me are a small number of these... beings, is the only word I can use. They are like... um, do you have soap bubbles here? Yes? You have a bit of wire or I suppose a loop of grass stem or something, and you dip it in soapy water and blow... right, it's a bit like that, only these are huge, vast things who exist in a space I really can't describe. These creatures can move through one another and they don't use words to speak to each other. When I'm there I think I might look like one of them but they never seem to notice that I'm there so they just keep doing whatever it is they do."

"And what is it they do, Garia?" Merizel asked.

"That's the hard part. They are so far ahead of us I really don't understand much at all. It's like... can you imagine what's going through the mind of that insect there? What can he understand of us? Palarand? Anmar? Well, this is the same. I just get the occasional flash, that's all. The first time I remember dreaming about them they talked about some kind of mistake in the transfer process. That had to mean me, I reckon. After all, I started out as a boy and here I am as a girl, with all my boy's memories intact."

Feteran frowned. "You suggest, milady, that you were brought here deliberately, and that you should have arrived as a boy?"

"I do! In fact, I arrived wearing all the boy clothes I would have been wearing on Earth. Obviously they didn't fit me any more, because on Earth I'm about Keren's height and build. As time went on I began to discover other things that might have come from Earth. In fact I have knowledge of several that did come from Earth because they have writing in Earth languages on them."

Feteran looked shocked. "You imply, milady that this has been going on some time?"

"Oh, yes! More than years or centuries, I reckon you could go back half a million to a million years at least. The Chivans came from Earth, they probably started out as a small group from an empire that ceased to exist there a thousand years ago. Frayen and dranakh are very similar to Earth animals. Pakh are Earth animals known there as Alpaca so they must have come recently. Equally I have seen animals here that have never come from Earth, although I wonder if a few didn't go the other way occasionally. Commander, there are no six-legged animals on Earth nor have there ever been any."

"But you just said -"

"Yes. There are legends of creatures called dragons on Earth, all over my world, but no remains of such a creature have ever been found. What they describe fits the description of a ptuvil exactly."

"Milady, a ptuvil has but four legs."

"Oh, sorry, I misspoke. What I meant was four limbs. On Earth those can be arms, legs, fins or wings depending on the animal. A ptuvil has four legs and two wings, just like avians here. Anyhow, we're getting off the point a bit. The first point is that on Anmar there are animals from at least two worlds, one of which must be Anmar and another which is Earth. I haven't seen any vegetation yet I recognize but that doesn't prove very much, plants are different all over the world. The second point, and the more important one, is that these beings have a plan and we are all part of it."

Feteran rocked back as he took in this idea.

"It gets worse," Keren added. "Tell them, Garia."

"So. One thing I worked out from my visits to these beings is that they can somehow see into the future." She let out a big breath. "I have no idea how I can explain this to you, but here goes. You know, for example, if you fire an arrow, you can work out more or less where it's going to land?"

"Aye, milady."

"That's actually governed by a strict set of natural laws and calculations which can determine exactly where the arrow will fall, given you know the position of the archer, the angle of the bow, the tension in the string and everything else that might affect it. You can measure all these and calculate the exact location the arrow will hit and how hard it will hit and so on. Do you follow?"

Feteran nodded. "Aye, Milady."

"Now, if you were to divide everything you can see or feel up into bits as fine as you can you'll eventually get down to particles so small they are impossible to see. The whole universe is made up of such particles. Imagine a math that can calculate the future by taking the exact location, speed and energy of every single particle in the world and working out what will happen to it over time, just like that arrow. These beings can do that."

Feteran's mouth opened and closed but he said nothing. Merizel looked confused. Jenet and Keren had both heard all this before and, while they might not have been able to comprehend the magnitude of what Garia was saying, they understood what she was trying to tell them.

Finally Feteran said, "Milady, now I understand your comment about the insect."

"Well, exactly. That's just how I feel when I see them do things like that. But, now comes the clever part. They can redo their calculation to see what the future would be like if something were to be changed. Oh, like, for example, a boy - or girl - suddenly appearing in some nearby mountains."

Feteran nodded. "I see, milady. Just like, if you were planning a battle, you could try the effect of moving some troops to another position."

"You got it, commander. Only thing is, I don't think they can plot the future exactly, it's more a kind of probability thing. I'm not sure how detailed their look into the future can be, or how far. In other words, my arrival here simply means that their plan has a greater probability of success than if I hadn't arrived." She paused and lowered her voice. "Worse, the chances of success are now greater because I'm here as a girl than if I were here as a boy."

"I can see that," Merizel said. "You were taken into the palace almost the moment you arrived. If you'd been a boy you'd probably have been locked up as a crazy person. Oh, I doubt not that you would have eventually prevailed, Garia, even as a boy, but you have been able to accomplish things which you would not have as a boy."

"I kind of agree with you up to a point," Garia said. "The problem for me is that, the way I see it, all that I've given Palarand would eventually have been given either way. There's just one thing I am able to do as a girl I can't do as a boy and that is to marry Keren."

There was silence as the other four digested this information. Keren cleared his throat and spoke.

"Let me see if I can summarize this. Firstly we have the relatively simple," he gave a twisted smile, "problem of the next King of Palarand and who his bride might or might not be. Secondly it seems that this entire situation - perhaps the entire history of humans on Anmar, even - has been arranged by some immense beings for purposes we know nothing about. Is that right, Garia?"

She nodded. "Yes. I might add that not only don't we know what their plan is, we have no idea of our part in it. We don't know if anything we do will result in Anmar existing for thousands of years into the future or whether the planet will get mashed into gravel in a year's time."

"I don't think we need consider the beings' plans at the moment except where they concern us. There will be time in future to look at such matters, assuming the coming Industrial Revolution doesn't take up all our time," he added dryly. "What concerns me more is," he held up a finger, "they have plainly interfered with events on Anmar for a long time and," a second finger, "what happens to Garia is critical to their plans. They had planned on Gary arriving here as a boy and, presumably, he would have provided much the same information that Garia has, only perhaps not so quickly. We have to assume that that was what they had originally intended, and if that is so then they would have considered the outcome more favorable than if he had not come."

"Yes," Garia said, nodding. "That's the way I see it."

"But you arrived here as a girl and set the palace on it's head. There is much that has happened that would never have happened if you had been a boy, correct?"

"Yes, Keren. Women exercising. Women riding frayen. Short haircuts. Women as guild members, women as questors."

"Thus, the outcome becomes more favorable still for our beings. That seems to be because their plans may progress faster than they had desired. Now, you have stated that you think the outcome would be better yet if we were wed, aye? What benefit would our beings gain if you became my Queen?"

Keren had said, finally, what all of them had thought but none had dared speak, that Garia, in marrying Keren, would become Palarand's Queen.

"Merry had an answer for that yesterday when I told her about my latest dream."

"Highness," Merizel explained, "the point is not that Garia would gain more power since she is already a noblewoman and a Guildswoman and I can't imagine the Questors keeping her out again. The point is that the children of such a union would inherit the talents of both their parents, which can only be a good thing for all our futures. If you did not marry Garia then she considered that it might be possible for your children to marry her children and inherit that way."

Keren nodded slowly. "But such unions would not be so good, since there would needs be two other grandparents. Aye. But we are pushed into this marriage by beings who do not consider our interests but only their own."

"Highness," Feteran asked, "can these beings be considered... gods?"

Keren looked at Garia who answered, "I can't answer for Anmar as I don't know your definition of a god but on Earth, at one time, they would certainly have been thought of as gods. Their activities are similar to the activities attributed to other gods we have had on Earth in the past. These days we are more enlightened and we would just think of them as aliens, real beings who meddle in various parts of the galaxy without considering the local life-forms."

"They can foretell the future," Feteran added. "If they know what decision we make is this talk of ours a waste of time?"

"That's an old question people have argued about for centuries," Garia said. "On Earth we called it the choice between free will and predestination. In other words, is the future made from instant to instant by the individual decisions of everyone and everything in the world, or is the whole future of the world mapped out at the start of time right up until the end?"

"But, you explained that the beings could calculate the future," Keren objected. "Does that not imply the future is already known?"

"Not quite," Garia replied. "Remember, what they calculate is probabilities. Now the probability of me arriving here as a girl must have been extremely low but it did in fact happen. That makes me think that the future is mostly known, for a short distance ahead, but can be thrown off by certain critical events - like me turning up here as a girl." She shrugged. "There might be some kind of long term smoothing effect but we can't know that. For example, some people imagine time as a river flowing down to the sea. Now, a landslide may alter the course of the river temporarily but the general route still stays the same and eventually the landslide washes out. An earthquake, on the other hand may divert the river and make it come out somewhere else entirely." She thought. "Back to your original question, commander. Whether the future is already mapped out or we make it up as we go along doesn't matter. We still have to make those same decisions to make the future come out the way it is going to."

Merizel rubbed her forehead. "My head is beginning to hurt."

Garia grinned. "I know how you feel. We had a substitute teacher once and he tried all this predestination or free will stuff on us and most of us felt as if our heads had exploded. What do you say we stop for a breather and have a drink?"

"An excellent idea!" Keren agreed.

Jenet stood and walked over to where the frayen were picketed, Merizel joining her shortly afterward. They both returned with water bottles. Merizel smiled an apology at Feteran.

"I'm sorry, Commander, we're not sure which your mount was so we couldn't bring your bottle."

Before anyone could say or do anything there was a nearby blast on a bugle and everyone stood up, looking around for the source.

"It's Jaxen!" Garia said, shading her eyes. "I though the wagon had already left."

On the other side of the river they could all clearly see the wagon with its outriders traveling along the road to Tranidor. Jaxen waved as they saw him and some waved back.

Feteran turned to one of the guardsmen and said, "Send them an 'alls-well', if you would."

"Aye, commander."

The man blew a short sequence of notes and Jaxen waved again in response. They watched as the wagon disappeared into the distance, taking pulls at their water bottles as they did so. Eventually everybody resumed their positions and looked at Keren. He looked intently at Garia.

"Garia, is there anything else you have learned of these beings?"

"Give me a chance! It was months before I finally realized that these weren't normal dreams at all but something else, some kind of interaction. The whole setup is so strange I don't have much clue what's going on and the beings communicate with each other in such a way I don't understand much of what they say at all." She paused, thinking. "Having said that, there are two things I have noticed that might be important. I think that there is more than one group or team of these beings doing similar work. That might imply that Earth and Anmar are not the only two worlds involved. The other thing is, I get the distinct impression that there's a deadline to what they are doing."

"A deadline? That might be important, Garia. Have you any idea when?"

She snorted. "Important for who, exactly? Them, not us. I don't think you need worry yet, Keren. One word I keep hearing is 'centuries', but whose, Earth's, Anmar's or theirs I have no idea. There is one final point you ought to consider. I am almost certain that at or about the time I was 'transferred' to Anmar, however you might want to put it, someone else was brought here and was likely grabbed by Yod. All the evidence points that way."

Keren nodded. "Aye, all their actions imply that they know whence you came and what knowledge you bring with you."

"But the situation is not as the beings intended, remember. If I was supposed to be a boy, and there's another in Yod, that would imply that the opposing forces would be more balanced, wouldn't it?"

Keren looked startled, then his eyes narrowed as he considered Garia's conclusions. Finally he nodded, though his expression showed that his own conclusions were less than satisfactory.

"Very well. We can do nothing about the situation in respect of Yod except what we have done up until now. That is, make sure we have adequate defense against sudden attack - and I'm not just speaking of armed attacks. If the direct approach continues to fail they will try other means. Yod itself and your conclusions must needs be left to my father to deal with."

"Agreed."

"As for the beings, we can do little except discover more about them as the days pass. Garia, I must request that you tell me every new detail you may learn of these aliens and their plans. I know, our argument last night was because you knew that the new knowledge would affect any potential decision between us, but we cannot know what may become important and what may not."

Garia was obviously unhappy with this verdict but she could see the sense of it.

"As you wish, Keren."

"Feteran."

"Highness."

"We must act as though the decisions we take are our own and not already made for us. We cannot escape responsibility for our actions by pretending another directs them. Therefore we shall proceed as if we make our own destinies."

"As you say, Highness."

Keren sighed. "That leaves the question which drove us out on this ride in the first place, and I regret that I cannot give an answer yet. Whether we marry or no, Garia will always be an important part in my life. We were brought together by chance and we have remained together ever since. Once I would have considered that my obedience to the customs of the Valley to be of greater importance than any single person could be but after today's talk I am not so sure. Whatever I decide - and, in the end, it can only be my decision - the future could be difficult for all of us. Feteran, Merizel, Jenet, you are all sworn to Garia and I would not have you betray the loyalty you have all already shown to her. I just would ask you to consider that, by Garia's own words, the stakes we play for are much greater than any of us had suspected. This may lead either or both of us to make decisions in the future you may disagree with. Please treat us gently."

"Highness," Feteran said, "you may have no fear of any conflict in our responsibilities. We understand what is at stake and your particular difficulties. Jenet and myself, after all, have watched you grow from babe to man."

"Well said, commander. Thank you."

"Don't worry about them, Keren," Garia added. "They may be my retainers but they still have brains and plenty of common sense. If the situation demands it I will trust them to do what is right."

Keren nodded. "Aye. Now, the morning has gone, perhaps, and we should think about returning for lunch. I suggest that we have another discussion like this before we leave Blackstone for the palace. By then we may have learned more."

"Agreed."

"And we do not speak of this to any other person," Keren cautioned.

He stood and the others followed. The armsmen noticed and turned inwards.

"Anything to report?" Keren asked.

"No, Highness."

"Then we return at once for the Ptuvil's Claw and our lunch. Our business here is ended."

The group mounted up and they began to ride back up the valley towards Blackstone. The sun was almost directly ahead and Garia was glad of the peak she had asked to be added to her helmet. Both Merizel's and Jenet's bowlers had brims wide enough to shade their eyes from the sun, lower in the sky at this season, but the men either had to look aside or use a hand to see properly. When they reached the spot where they had forded the river the group stopped, because the water now ran yellow with effluent.

"I'm not taking Snep across that."

"Don't blame you," Keren muttered. "That looks like it might come from the tanner's workshops. We'll have to ride further up and get across above the town."

They turned away and continued riding.

"Keren, I'm going to have to try and do something about all the waste the town throws out. I know they re-use a lot of it but this is just pollution. Animals downstream will be drinking this stuff."

"What can you do?"

"Trap it in pools and try and find a way to reprocess or re-use it, I suppose. I'm already thinking about what happens to the output from the town sewers. Imagine what it will be like if we get two thousand miners here as well!"

"Garia, I know absolutely nothing about such matters. I wash or use the toilet and that is the end of it for me. It has always been for others to... dispose of what we produce."

"It probably still will be, Keren. But at the moment, just dumping it all in the river isn't a clever thing to do. There are people, animals and crops downstream that depend on that river. I'll speak with Bezan when he comes back, perhaps he has some ideas."

Most of the buildings on the river side of main street had workshops behind and Garia saw that between the workshops and the river the tradesmen had used some of the ground for dumping waste products. Garia considered this as she rode and thought about how towns were managed in Kansas.

I don't know enough. Something about zoning, I guess. I can't do much until Bezan gets back, until then I'll just have to keep my eyes open.

~o~O~o~