Sharon Lee: Adventures in the Liaden Universe

At the fore of them all stood his mother, considering him with a sort of distant interest, as one might inspect an insect.

“Check your board!” Cheever directed, and Pat Rin executed the required glide and change, aware of the weight of his limbs. It was hot, and his head ached, and, really he had every reason to be tire. The omnichora shouted, notes streaming like lift beacons, and there was Miri next to his mother, and Priscilla approaching—

“Lay in coords!”

There was no map this time. Pat Rin closed his eyes. Cheever chanted the coordinates—a short set of three. Forward, back, turn left—

“Sign your co-pilot!”

Pat Rin extended a hand—and his eyes snapped open in astonishment as it was caught in a warm grip.

“Well done!” Uncle Daav whispered, under cover of the music, and—

“Clear your board!”

The two of them crossed, separated, and came back together.

“Lock it down!”

Natesa’s fingers wove comfortably with his. Shan, on her other side, extended his hand and caught Daav’s free hand.

“Dim the lights,” Cheever said softly, and the four of them walked sedately widdershins, three times, the ‘chora slowing, slowing, almost down to a proper round... “Open hatch.”

Obediently, they dropped hands.

“Go to town,” Cheever all-but-whispered, and the four of them turned to face the rug and those watching, as the ‘chora finished with a flurry and a flare—and the shouts and whistles began.

Pat Rin shook his lace out and reached for his glass. With Natesa’s connivance, he’d slipped through the crowd to the back room that had been set aside for the band’s use. Finding a bottle of autumn wine before him, he poured and sipped, and sipped once again before making the attempt to make himself seemly.

The dance—the dance had been an odd thing, to be sure; in memory not nearly so harrowing as in actuality. Had it gone on much longer, he had no doubt but that he would have joined Luken, Miri, and Priscilla at his mother’s side.

He paused, frowning, recalling the moment when he had met his mother’s eyes...

“Ah, here he is, keeping the wine to himself!” Clonak ter’Meulen’s voice overfilled the little room. Pat Rin sighed, and turned to face not only the portly Scout, but Luken and Daav, and Shan, Priscilla, Natesa, Andy Mack, Nova, Cheever, Miri—and Val Con, green eyes sparkling, the renegade lock of hair sticking damply to his forehead.

“Well met, cousin,” he murmured, and Pat Rin held out his glass.

“I thought the ‘chora was overextended,” he said. “Drink.”

“My thanks.” Val Con took the glass and sipped; sighed. Pat Rin considered him, doing a different sort of calculation.

“More clarity?” he asked, but it was Miri who answered.

“No complaints, Boss. Sent you a clue, fair and square,” she said.

He eyed her. “Hardly in advance.”

“But in advance, nonetheless,” Val Con said, with a note of finality in his quiet voice. “Come, let us not bicker. There is business to be done—and quickly, so that Clonak is not long kept from the wine.”

“That’s a touching regard for my well-being,” Clonak said, and suddenly pulled himself up straight, looking not so pudgy, nor foolish at all.

“Pat Rin yos’Phelium Clan Korval,” he intoned, the syllables of the High Tongue falling cool and sharp from his lips, “has stated in the hearing of pilots and of master pilots not once but several times that he holds a first class limited license under false pretenses. The pilot’s solo rating flight was conducted in a Korval safe-ship, programmed to fly, should there be no pilot available. Pat Rin yos’Phelium has stated his belief that it was the ship which overcame the challenges of the pilot’s solo, not the pilot.” Clonak gave Pat Rin a level look.

“These are serious concerns and the pilot erred not in laying them before master pilots. Therefore, and after consultation, it was agreed that a retesting should be done. The testing is now completed, and I call upon the master pilots present to render their opinions: is Pat Rin yos’Phelium Clan Korval a pilot or does he hold a license wrongly? Speak, masters!”

Daav stepped forward, black eyes serious.

“Though he is perhaps not as conversant with the basic coord book as might be desirable, it is my estimation as a master pilot that Pat Rin yos’Phelium is worthy of the license he carries.” He fell back a step, cocking an eyebrow at Andy Mack, lounging against the wall. The lanky pilot shook his head, white hair moving softly across his shoulders, and took a sip of his beer.

“Been sayin’ it, ain’t I? Boy’s a pilot. Tell by lookin’ at him.”

Shan stepped forward. “It is my estimation as a master pilot,” he said seriously, “that Pat Rin yos’Phelium is worthy of the license he carries.” He fell back a step, and Priscilla came forward, then Nova, Cheever and at last Natesa, who made her declaration with the cool, emotionless intonation of a Judge, then smiled at him and stepped forward to take his hand.

“You did well, Pat Rin,” she murmured.

“In fact,” said Clonak, “he did. I say this as one who doubted the damn’ dance would work out at all, but young Shadow carried the day. So.” He looked sharply at Pat Rin. “In my estimation as a master pilot, having observed the whole of the testing, Pat Rin yos’Phelium is worthy of the license he carries and I’ll thank you to stop doubting yourself, you young whippersnapper! Between you and your lady mother, you’re a devil’s brew, make no mistake!”

Pat Rin blinked. “My mother?”

“It happens,” Priscilla said surprisingly, “that Lady Kareen is, after all, of the dramliza. She appears to have only one talent, which is rare, but not unknown.”

Pat Rin looked at her, foreknowing... “And that talent is?”

Priscilla smiled at him. “She may impose her will—to a very limited extent—upon the unwary.” Her smiled deepened. “And now that you are warned, you are armed.”

His mother a dramliza? It was only slightly mad, Pat Rin thought, considering the facts of Shan and Anthora in the present generation. But that one talent ...

“I think you are saying that it was my mother’s influence that kept me from qualifying as pilot?”

“At first, boy dear,” Luken said, gently. “By the time you had failed two or three times, you were quite able to fail all on your own.” He smiled, sadly. “It was my sorrow, my boy, that I could never allow you to see anything other than your own unworthiness.”

Pat Rin blinked against tears; Natesa’s finger’s tightened around his. “You did so much else, Father...”

A small pause, and then was Val Con abruptly before him, raising his hand so that Korval’s ring gleamed. Pat Rin lifted an eyebrow. “Korval?”

“You will,” Korval stated, “arrange time to study with Clonak ter’Meulen. You will learn the core coordinates, and such protocols as Scout ter’Meulen finds worthy. You will come to your delm inside of one local year and submit to such verification as may be demanded.”

“Ah. And my streets? My duties as boss?”

Val Con smiled, and put his hand on his lifemate’s shoulder.

“You’ll think of something,” he said.

Pat Rin drew a breath—to say what he hardly knew, or perhaps he meant only to laugh. The opportunity for either, however, was snatched from him by Cheever McFarland.

“Right then,” the big man said. “Time to finish it up.”

The fiddler provided a sprightly, skipping little melody as they filed into the parlor and took up position on a clear space on the rug, Val Con leaving them at the last to tend his ‘chora once more.

Pat Rin stood in the first row of pilots, Natesa on his right, Luken on his left, Daav directly behind. The room was quiet, all eyes on them. Especially Pat Rin saw, were Lady Kareen’s eyes on them, from her position between Audrey and Penn Calhoon. His mother’s face betrayed the faintest hint of boredom, as would perhaps be worthy of an adult who had been teased into attending a gathering of halflings.