It took longer to make the southern port than he'd figured it would, ten days instead of seven. When he asked Petra about it she grinned.
“On the way back we can make it a lot faster, a few days probably. I went slow to kill time and get people used to being on board. Plus, how often do I get to play sea Captain on a real ship? I had to pull rank just to get people to leave you alone so you could study with Ambassador Mutta though. The girls kept talking about sneaking you off and having their way with you. Not just the ones you know either. A couple of Royal Guards actually had a plan in place to nab you after dinner a week ago. I'd have been in on it myself, but I actually have to steer this thing between meals. If you help pilot at night we can make it back way faster. I've been going dead while I sleep. Short shift on it, but still…”
He kissed her, and told her that they'd make time for sex if he had to come and do her while she drove back. Petra told him it sounded fun and made him promise.
They laughed, because they both knew they weren't doing anything of note in Afrak. Mutta had flat out told him that people would freak out if anyone suggested that anyone ever had sex outside of marriage. Tor passed the word to the commanders of their separate groups. If they weren't careful half the crew would end up married. Fine if that's what they wanted, but awkward if some guy or gal thought they were just getting a little friendly and exotic sex only to find they were expected to set up house permanently. It would look bad if they lost a big chunk of the crew after all and Tor wasn't going to let them escape the duty if it came up.
It could cause an incident if they did that after all.
It didn't matter, they were there to work and Tor had a plan of sorts. Mainly he was dumping the duty of getting food on Mutta, who seemed half panicked about it, which Tor took as a good sign. A ten person flying team, led by Wensa, being a woman and naturally bossy, was to set up all the rivers while everyone else followed the mapped out lines for the water outlets. The Afraks would get to set up the irrigation and all the plants. It seemed fair to him, in fact it was the deal they'd made. He'd get the water in and out for them and they'd do the rest of the work. Then they'd run by the Capital, or where ever the leaders lived and head home. Simple.
The first snag happened when they tried to dock at the large Afrak southern port. They were willing enough to have them it seemed, based on the happy way people waved at them and called out, but the dock was dwarfed by the ship. Not wanting to unpack everything yet, since it would take several days to off load it all and then do it again in a week or two, they backed the ship off a couple of miles, so it wouldn't be in the way, and set up to fly to shore. It was about five-thirty in the afternoon when they stepped out of the magical carriage, Mutta going first, to run interference, she said quickly in Afrak. After all, the Princess didn't speak the language and the Court Jester was the Ambassador. If she didn't speak up pretty quickly women would start making offers on Tor and the Prince for marriage.
It was a joke, he thought, since she smiled when she said it, happily enough, but the very first woman to approach them looked at him and Rolph and offered ten genetically modified silk goats for the tall one and twenty for the pretty one, which, blushing, he assumed was him. Mutta cringed.
“Are you trying to start a problem? The tall one is the Prince of Noram, who will lead it one day, and the pretty one is the Ambassador to our land! Plus, look at them, they must be worth fifty times that even if they weren't. The correctly sized one there? He learned our tongue in just over a week, and is grasping genetics faster than I've ever seen any do. No, I must spurn your offer. Perhaps if you collect a group of friends you could afford to buy them together and share? A very large group of wealthy friends.”
The she turned to everyone else and bowed.
“She welcomes you and hopes your stay in our fair land is a peaceful and educational one, and expresses her admiration for you all.”
Tor tried to fight a smile from his face, which made Mutta wave at him, addressing the dock woman again.
“I told you he'd already learned the language…”
The woman, the head of the dock proper, seemed more intrigued with him after that rather than less. She kept making a point of standing close to him and touching his arm and shoulder, pretending it was casual the whole time. She wasn't bad looking, about forty he guessed and wearing tough looking clothes that might have been some kind of canvas, but didn't seem exactly like it. The colors were muted brown and green, so probably work clothes. As they talked, the woman kept moving just a little closer to him, until their shoulders touched. She did have a bright and friendly smile on her slightly round face. It wasn't fat, he could see a hint of lean muscle in it even, just the shape of it.
Mutta got them permission to keep the ship where it was, and to visit the town that evening to look around, but cautioned that the men and women on the ship, while nice people, were all giants, save a few, and that they wouldn't understand an offer to buy marriage.
Tor shrugged.
“Well, they're royals and nobles mainly, really an offer like that wouldn't be misunderstood either, but the crew will be needed to go back with us, so if any women are truly interested, they would need to be willing to relocate, men too, but from what you said the fellows won't be making a lot of offers? And if Mutta here could act as the first proxy for their mothers? Then she can get with Princess Karina, since she can act in that capacity officially, if needed.” It made sense to him anyway, the Queen could do it legally, just like the King could act as a person’s father at need. Anyone’s, regardless of their age. So here, for their people, those duties would fall to Rolph and Karina.
Mutta smiled and winked at him, something he didn't even know she knew how to do. She asked where the other flying craft could land, and found a field to the east of the… expanse. That it wasn't a city, which she'd tried to explain earlier, was absolutely correct. He had to look hard to see how the low hills were actually houses that had plants growing all over them. There was a dense spread of trees and bushes, making it look more like a sparse forest rather than a place humans lived.
It was beautiful. Maybe the most lovely thing Tor had ever seen.
The food, he saw, was right there, grown next to the houses, and in between them. Large distances had been established between each place, at least an eighth of a mile, unless there were more hidden places around that his uneducated eyes just couldn't find. Once he got used to the idea Tor could see that it was a good plan over all. Everything was there. No need for far off farms, so no transport, except for moving people to one place or another to chat. It wasted a lot less than a similar size town in Noram by far. It had the land space of a city, but the population must have been about ten thousand or less. He asked the dock boss, forgetting for a moment that men were second or third class citizens here.
That didn't stop her from answering, she even seemed please that he'd thought to ask. Tor wondered if she was flirting with him, being humoring or something, to keep his attention? That or the dock workers were just cool that way. Or maybe she just didn't think men had to be stupid and useless?
“About seven thousand. We can feed twice that without harm, but the population board has kept us stable for the last few hundred years. We don't get a lot of visitors here, not that come ashore. The Tellerand men come to trade, that and tell us of their god, but they always seem insulted when women try to buy them, instead of taking it as a compliment. Men are rare here, so we have to jump if we don't want to miss out. How is it done there, in Noram?” She seemed curious so Tor answered without thinking too hard about it. He had to be diplomatic, but she'd asked.