The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume III: Volume III

contemplation.
    “Come,” she called. Getting servants to respect her privacy had been a long uphill battle, but at least now they knocked and announced themselves when entering. Getting them to leave her alone again was still a problem.
    “Your Grace.” Kaariin, the queen’s personal maid, bobbed a quick curtsy. “King Kinnsell, your father, requests an audience.” Her eyes shone wide with awe and a bit of terror.
    Kinnsell had that effect on people. Most people. Katie hadn’t allowed him to intimidate her since she was twelve and discovered that she had as much right to be elected emperor upon her grandfather’s death as her father did.
    “What are you doing here, Kinnsell?” she asked the shadowy figure in the hallway. “You left for Terra last autumn, right after the dragon dream.” That had been his announced intention, but she’d seen Sean Michael and Jamie Patrick twice since then and Liam Francis three times. Jamie Patrick, the eldest, had told her Gramps had suffered a third heart attack near the Solstice and they might have to leave for home without notice to attend him.
    Kinnsell nodded toward the servant in a gesture requesting privacy.
    Katie almost asked Kaariin to stay, just to annoy her father. “I will interview King Kinnsell in the solar,” Katie said instead. She caressed her baby one more time and moved toward the inner door that would take her to her private suite.
    “You will receive me here, Katie,” Kinnsell boomed as he pushed his way past the maid into the nursery, slamming the door in Kaariin’s face. He wore a local style of richly brocaded tunic with plain dark trews and boots instead of Varn veils and headdress. He intended to be seen as the King of Terrania.
    Marilell whimpered at the disturbance.
    “Hush!” Katie commanded her father. “You’ve awakened the baby.”
    “Good. About time I had a chance to hold my granddaughter.” He reached into the crib and lifted the baby to his shoulder before Katie could intervene. “You know, if you’d let me bring in a monitor, you wouldn’t have to spend so much time babysitting. You could get out of this frigid palace, take part in the government, have a life.”
    “My child is my life!”
    “Ah, Katie, all your fine education wasted on this primitive world. They don’t even have the wheel, for God’s sake.”
    “Don’t forget that at regular intervals this planet provides enough surplus food to feed a civilized world for five years. And never forget that this primitive world is protected by family covenant. I can have you arrested and imprisoned by Gramps and Uncle Ryan if you violate the pact.”
    “A nice solar heater would make this drafty old barn more comfortable. I don’t like the idea of my granddaughter being exposed to constant chill.”
    Katie sighed. Her father would only hear what he wanted to hear.
    “Natives thrive in their natural climate. The strongest survive and build antibodies against natural ailments. Besides, the family covenant specifically forbids machines on this planet. We’ve had this argument before, Kinnsell. Why are you here?”
    “I came to see my granddaughter.”
    “Why aren’t you on Terra attending Gramps after his heart attack? You should be delivering a load of much needed Tambootie, that will make enough medicine to cure a million or more people of the plague.” She took a deep breath to control her temper. Then she resorted to sarcasm to keep from slapping some sense into him. “You’ll never be elected emperor if you don’t show your face on the homeworld more than once a decade. No one will remember you as savior of humanity unless you take credit for the cure.”
    “Pop recovered from his heart surgery quite nicely without me. He’ll live another decade or more. Liam Francis and Sean Michael are delivering the Tambootie in my name. About time they made themselves useful.”
    “I’m happy to hear that Gramps is doing well.” And she was. Of all of her vast family, Gramps was her favorite, the one whose ideas about protecting Kardia Hodos agreed most closely with her own. As for her brothers, any one of the three of them might ingratiate himself with the legislature by taking credit for finding a cure for the plague—Jamie Patrick most likely, but he hadn’t been sent home. Every one of the family held more moderate views toward expansion and exploitation than Kinnsell. But not as conservative as Katie and Gramps.
    “The joint legislature is certain to