There was a tense moment during which Toller was acutely aware that his entire future was trembling in the balance, and then—unexpectedly—Vantara gave a delighted laugh.
“Just look at him, Jerene!” she said, nudging her companion. “I do believe he’s taking all this seriously.” The lieutenant seemed startled for an instant, then she mustered a weak smile.
“It is a very serious—”
“Where’s your sense of humor, Toller Maraquine?” Vantara cut in. “Of course, now that I think of it, you always did take yourself too seriously.”
Toller was taken aback. “Are you claiming that we have met before?”
Vantara laughed again. “Don’t you remember your father taking you to the Migration Day reception at the palace when you were little? Even then you went around wearing a sword… trying to look like your famous grandfather…”
Toller was certain he was being mocked, but if this was the countess’s way of backing down without too much loss of face he was prepared to be compliant. Anything was better than continuing the needless confrontation.
“I confess to not remembering you,” he said, “but I suspect it is because your appearance has changed to a greater degree than mine.”
Vantara shook her head, rejecting the implied compliment. “No. It’s simply that you have a poor memory—what about this skyman for whose custody you were, only minutes ago, prepared to risk the safety of two ships?”
Toller turned to Steenameert, who had been listening to the exchange with interest. “Go aboard my ship and have the cook prepare you a meal. We will continue our conversation in comfort.” Steenameert saluted, took hold of his parachute and dragged it away.
“I presume you asked him why the expedition lasted so much longer than expected,” Vantara said casually, as though the clash of wills had never taken place.
“Yes.” Toller was unsure of how to deal with the countess, but he decided to try making their relationship as informal and friendly as possible. “He said that Land was empty. He spoke of empty cities.”
“Empty! But what has become of the so-called New Men?”
“The explanation, if there is one, should be in the dispatches.”
“In that case I must visit her Majesty, my grandmother, as soon as possible,” Vantara said. The reference to her royal family connection had been unnecessary, and Toller took it as an indication that he was expected to keep his distance.
“I, too, must return to Prad with all possible speed,” he said, making his tone brisk. “Are you sure you don’t want any help with repairs?”
“Positive! The seams will be sewn before littlenight, then I’ll be on my way.”
“There’s just one more thing,” Toller said as Vantara was turning away. “Strictly speaking, our ships were in collision and we are supposed to file incident reports. How do you feel about that?”
She met his gaze directly. “I find all that paperwork rather tiresome, don’t you?”
“Very tiresome.” Toller smiled and saluted. “Goodbye, captain.”
He watched the countess and her junior officer walk off in the direction of their ship, then he turned and retraced his steps to his own vessel. The great disk of the sister planet was filling the sky overhead, and the shrinkage of its sunlit crescent told him there was not much more than an hour until the daily eclipse which was known as littlenight. He was acutely aware, now that they had parted company, of the extent to which he had allowed himself to be manipulated by Vantara. Had a man been guilty of such appalling behavior in the air and arrogance on the ground, Toller would have given him a verbal blistering so fierce that it could easily have provoked a duel, and most certainly would have indicted him in an official report. As it was, he had been unmanned and bemused by the countess’s incredible physical perfection, and had conducted himself like an impressionable youth. It was true that he had conclusively defeated Vantara on the main issue, but in retrospect he could almost believe that he had been as much concerned with impressing her as with carrying out his duty.
By the time he reached his ship a crewman was standing beside each of the four anchors and making ready for departure. He went up the rungs on the side of the gondola and swung himself over the rail, then paused and stared at Vantara’s grounded craft. Its crew were busy detaching the gasbag and laying it out on the grass under Vantara’s supervision.
Lieutenant Feer came to his side. “Continuous thrust to Prad, sir?”
If I ever get married, Toller thought, it has to be to that woman.
“Sir, I asked you if—”
“Of course I want continuous thrust to Prad,” Toller said. “And bring Steenameert to my cabin—I want to talk to him in private.”
He went to his cabin at the rear of the main deck and waited for the skyman to be shown in. The ship felt alive again, its timbers and rigging emitting occasional creaks as the structure as a whole adjusted to the tensions of flying into the wind. Toller sat at his desk and toyed abstractedly with navigation instruments, unable to put the Countess Vantara out of his thoughts. How had he managed to forget meeting her as a child? He could recall being dragged against his will to the Migration Day ceremonies, at an age when he scorned the company of girls, but surely even then he would have noticed her among the giggling, gauzy creatures at play in the palace gardens…
His musings were interrupted when Steenameert tapped at the door and came into the small room, still brushing food particles from his chin. “You sent for me, sir?”
“Yes. We were interrupted at an interesting point in our conversation. Tell me more about these empty cities. Did you see no living people whatsoever?”
Steenameert shook his head. “Not one, sir! Lots of skeletons—thousands of them—but, as far as I could tell, the New Men no longer exist. Their own pestilence seems to have turned against them and wiped them out.”
“How far abroad did you travel?”
“Not far—two hundred miles at the most. As you know, we only had the three skyships… nothing with lateral thrusters… and had to rely on the winds to get us about. But that was enough for me, sir. After a while I had an uncanny feeling about the place—I knew there was nobody there.
“I mean, we first dropped down only a couple of miles out of Ro-Atabri, the old capital. We were in the heart of ancient Kolcorron itself. If there were any people living on Land, that’s where they would be found. It stands to reason that’s where they would be found.” Steenameert spoke fervently, as though he had a personal stake in convincing Toller that his ideas were valid.
“You’re probably correct,” Toller said. “Unless, of course, it is something to do with the ptertha. From what I’ve been taught, the worst of them infested Kolcorron, while the other side of the globe was comparatively free of them.”
Steenameert became even more intense. “The second great discovery we made is that the ptertha on Land are colorless—just like those on Overland. It appears that they have already reverted to their neutral state, sir. I suppose it was because the poison they developed for use against humans had done what was required of it; and now they are in a state of readiness to war against any other type of creature which threatens brakka trees.”
“That’s very interesting,” Toller said, but—belying his words—his attention wandered as the image of Countess Vantara’s face began to swim before his mind’s eye. I wonder how I can arrange to see her again. And how long will it take?