Now and then Quelf graciously consented to be interviewed by foreign news-collectors, and took station in the nearby park behind a bank of efficient loudeners. The questions were almost always the same, but the neurophysicist’s answers were delivered with no less enthusiasm each tune. She was positively basking in this welter of publicity, though of course she maintained that her sole ambition was to promote the fame and well-being of Prutaj in general and Fregwil in particular.
Certainly she missed no opportunity of boasting about her city and its skills. For example, to someone making the obvious inquiry about Karg’s physical health, she would describe how frost had ruptured many of his tubules and he might lose his right pad, and then continue: “Luckily, as you know, we now have a loss-free sparkforce lead all the way to Drupit, so when one of our ultramodern snowrithers brought him there, a local physician was able to apply penetrative heating to the affected tissues. Now we’re attempting to regenerate his damaged nerve-pith, too.”
Whereupon someone would invariably ask, “Has he regained full normal consciousness?”
“No, I’m afraid he’s still dreamlost, though there are signs of lucidity. When he does recover, by the way, the first thing we shall want to know is whether he still feels the way he used to about the respective merits of what they do at Slah with their resources, and what we do with ours this side of the ocean. I think his views may well have changed since his unreliable toy fell out of the sky!”
Cue for sycophantic laughter…
As Quelf’s nominee for Jingfired status, Albumarak was bound to dance permanent attendance on her, but the duty was becoming less and less bearable. Today, listening to the latest repetition of her stale gibes, feeling the change in air-pressure which harbingered bad weather, she wished the storm would break at once and put an end to the interview.
If only Presthin had not gone home … The goadster had been persuaded to accompany her and Karg to Fregwil, and spent a couple of grumpy days being introduced to city officials and other notables. Suddenly, however, she announced she’d had her mawful of this, and returned to her usual work with the snowrither, surveying the trade-routes which kept the highland towns supplied in winter and making sure that they were passable.
In the pleasant warmth of Fregwil, Albumarak found it almost impossible to recapture in memory the bitter chill of the valley where Karg had crashed. How could anybody want to be there, rather than here? There was, she realized glumly, an awful lot she didn’t yet understand about people. Worst of all, she had not yet had a chance to fulfill the purpose which had induced her to join Presthin’s rescue mission. All the time she had been in company with Karg, he had been unconscious or dreamlost, and since he had been brought here she had not been allowed to see him. Nobody was, apart from Quelf, a few of her associates, and the regular medical staff.
Wind rustled the nearby trees; the air-pressure shifted again, very rapidly, and people on the fringe of the crowd began to move away in search of shelter. With a few hollow-sounding apologies Quelf brought her public appearance to an end just as the first heavy drops pounded down.
“Do you need me any more right now?” Albumarak ventured.
“Hm? Oh—no, not until first bright tomorrow. Come to think of it, you could do with some time off. You don’t seem to have recovered properly from the strain of bringing Karg back. Actually meeting someone who’s prepared to abandon the rest of us to our fate is a considerable shock, isn’t it?”
Albumarak recognized another of Quelf’s stock insults, which the curtailment of today’s interview had prevented her from using. But she judged it safest to say nothing.
“Yes, get along with you! Go have some fun with young’uns of your own age. Enjoy your dark!”
And the famous neurophysicist was gone, trailing a retinue of colleagues and admirers.
Dully Albumarak turned downslope, making for a branchway that would take her into the lower city, but with no special destination in mind. She had few friends. Some of her fellow students cultivated her acquaintance, but she knew it was because of her association with Quelf, not for her own sake, so she avoided them as much as possible. Now and then, and particularly since her return from the highlands, she found herself wishing for the old days when she could afford to do outrageous things in order to annoy her family. But she had not yet decided to risk trying that again, for Quelf would never be so tolerant … How strange to think of her parents as tolerant, when a year ago she would have sworn they were cruel and repressive!