“We can scarcely take all the people we will need with us, can we?” grumbled the Marshal.
“I suggest very seriously that we do exactly that,” Aufors replied. “Everyone including service personnel. Not only must we refuse their malghaste servants, we’ll also have to pretend the people of Mahahm are unclean to us to precisely the same degree we are unclean to them. That starts us off on an equal footing of mutual disdain.”
“You’re remarkably well informed,” said Delganor, one nostril lifted slightly. “Where did you pick all this up?”
“I sent for various documents from the Lord Paramount’s archives, as well as the reports of provincial trade representatives who have lived there from time to time. It seemed best to know something about the habits of the people before we meet them.”
“I would have been able to tell you all you needed to know,” said Delganor, with unmistakable annoyance.
“I didn’t wish to trouble Your Highness.” Aufors bowed his head and let the matter drop.
Despite his obvious annoyance, the Prince took Aufors’s advice, for the final list of people going on the mission was inclusive: the airship crew and officers, who would not leave the ship, Rongor, the Invigilator of the Tribunal, added to the list at the last minute for some unexplained reason, household help, including a very good cook, a communications man, three guards who would double as stewards for the Prince, the Marshal, and for Aufors and Genevieve, a physician, who would attend to the needs of both the household and the crew, and an assistant, a nursemaid. All of them male.
Aufors reported that he had met the physician and the man who was to look after the baby. “I can’t call him a maid, though he comes close. Your friend Veswees told me about him. He’s a commoner from Bliggen who just happens to be very womanly and to love babies . . .”
“Veswees gave you the name? Before we left Havenor?”
He stopped, puzzled. “He did, yes.”
“How did he know we would need a male helper? Are Mahahmbi customs common knowledge at the court?”
He stared at his boots for a moment. “I don’t know, Jenny. I never thought to ask. Maybe he knows more about this than we do.” He threw up his hands. “Which wouldn’t have to be much! From the looks of it, there’ll be no contact between us and the Mahahmbi except across a conference table, if we’re lucky enough to get them to confer. We’ll see nothing of the place at all, except the inside of our dwelling.”
“We won’t get to see Galul? It’s supposed to be a paradise, isn’t it?”
“We don’t even know if there is a Galul. It may be mythical.”
On the day scheduled for departure, they went down to the mooring field where the airship had been loading for the past several days. Though the gas bag was as large as Genevieve had expected, the nacelle containing the bridge and the cabins seemed tiny. The individual cabins were mere closets, only big enough for the berth to fold down with a person standing next to it. With the berth up, there was room for one comfortable chair and a kind of desk table, both of which had to be folded away before the berth came down again. Sanitary arrangements were shared. Most belongings had to be packed away in the nacelle of the tethered cargo balloon which would float along behind them.
The small dining room was also the lounge, the recreation room, the gym, the library. The galley was only the galley, but as all the food was prepackaged, it was only a closet in size.
“How long will we be aboard?” Genevieve asked, viewing her quarters with some distaste. “It seems very small.”
“It is very small,” said the officer who was helping her stow her belongings. “But it’s built well. The gas envelope and the engines are very well engineered, as they should be if we are to return when our mission is complete.”
“Why does it have cannon?”
“All six of the Lord Paramount’s airships have cannon. For our protection, if we should be attacked.”