By the bottom of the stairs, she was taking them three at a time. The yard doors didn’t slow her much, and she slammed them closed before running for the front of the estate.
As she rounded the side of the house, she collided with an estate page boy running the opposite direction. The page flung his hands up to protect his head from the impact. They rebounded off each other, and both managed to keep their feet on the salted icy path.
The page was Briath, her youngest brother. He looked ridiculous in the blue kilt uniform, thick black wool jacket and white frill high collar.
“I’m in a hurry, Briath. You’ll have to wait,” she said as reasonably as she could, stepping around him and continuing her course for the front yards. She didn’t have time to play with her favorite brother or deal with his ridiculous outfit.
Briath ran to keep up.
“Lady Janali, I have a message about...” he started breathlessly.
She waved a hand at him cutting him off. “I said not right now. I’m late for an important appointment.”
Briath was as stubborn as she was, which is why she liked him so much. He ran next to her, keeping pace.
She had not much more than seventy minutes to get to the docks. It was at minimum a thirty-minute ride there in the steam coach, but she needed twenty minutes to get the steam coach heated up. That left only enough time to run to the barns to pull the coach out and no time for her sibling’s games.
If he could talk and run, she could too. She glanced at his outfit again, trying not to laugh. “What on Terra are you doing dressed like that?” He was ten years old and had six more years before he was required to serve the house.
“I’m to tell you that Lady Cybele is leaving for the palace,” he said ignoring her question.
Janali rolled her eyes. The reason for Briath’s formal language and costume were made completely clear by that statement—Cybele’s continued effort to be more royal.
“Why should I care about that? Cybele can do whatever she wants. Surely she doesn’t want me to see her off?”
Briath gave her a wry smile, but it disappeared before he answered. “Cybele ordered you to stay in this evening. With Mom on the empress’s business in the south, a proper representative must be present.”
She smirked at his use of the word ‘mom’. Cybele could stuff Briath into a uniform, but she couldn’t stop a ten year old from being ten. This was an old problem with no solution, and it certainly wasn’t stopping her from getting to the docks. It’d be a problem if...
A fresh tingle of adrenaline pumped through her. There was only one steam coach present, and if Cybele was going to the imperial palace for an afternoon sitting with the princess, she would be taking it. She’d already lost too much time getting dressed well enough to be in public. If she didn’t have a coach to take her, it was over an hour’s walk, without snow.
“Oh, urd!” she said dropping all forms of dignity and turning her pace into a long stride run for the estate’s coach house.
“Jana!” Briath stammered, his voice shocked at her cursing as he fell behind.
The family coach was out, and a group of garage boys were topping off the water, oiling, and polishing it so that its boiler and brass fittings sparkled in the morning sun. Clean light gray smoke rose smoothly from the small boiler furnace as the coach driver carefully checked the pressure gages.
Her sister paraded out at the head of three nearly identical young men in immaculate page kilts. Silver buttons on their vests sparkled as they strolled with pumped up pride. Cybele wore a shimmering outfit of blue silks embroidered with silver thread. A blue silk top hat with a silver flower pin finished the costume and added six inches to Cybele’s height.
Cybele’s boots had thick souls, giving Cybele a slight height advantage over Janali. The overall effect made Janali feel like a small child compared to her sister. An effect Cybele had engineered with her keen eye for such things.
Her sister stopped a step above Janali, forcing Janali to look even higher to address Cybele.
Cybele took in Janali’s appearance with a disgusted face. The longer she looked, the deeper her frown became.
Janali ignored Cybele’s scrutiny, her thoughts entirely on getting to the docks discreetly. She glanced at the coach, trying to decide how best to get a ride with Cybele without revealing her destination. She had to bite her tongue against any remarks on the incredible waste of family resources for Cybele’s latest boisterous fashions.
She stepped up to be on the same level with her sister and put on her best business neutral negotiation face. It was the face she’d carefully crafted over months of negotiations with other castatans. She’d practiced it and a few variations of the polite smile, running dozens of experiments until she’d landed on ones that worked well for her. After that, the house’s expensive full-length dim mirrors had become part of her daily routine as she practiced the looks until she could call on them at will.
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“Sister, how fortuitous we both have business in town. I know your appointment is important, so I won’t ask to be taken all the way to our warehouses. I’ll trouble you only as far as the merchant district. From there, I can hire a private coach, and you will not be delayed.”
“Janali, did the messenger not tell you? I need you to remain here in case we have any callers.”
“I promise I’ll return home as soon as possible. I have business at the warehouse. Surely Ponstil can deal with any guests until my return.”
For a brief second, Janali actually thought she’d managed just the right tactic. But, Cybele’s brows narrowed, and she shook her head.
“Janali, you expressly said at dinner yesterday that all shipments and manufacturing would tend to itself today. You were adamant we were to leave you to your rooms. You should be glad of an order to stay here.”
“Ah, true, however, I was organizing my papers and realized there was one item I needed to tend to.”
“It can wait ‘til tomorrow.”
Panic was beginning to twist her gut. There wasn’t time for this. Before she’d thought it completely through, her mouth betrayed her feelings. “At least I’m working.”
“What are you implying sister?” Cybele taunted.
“Looks like you’ve spent more than a month’s profits on this pompous fluff again.”
Her sister’s brown and yellow speckled eyes, the only feature the two sisters shared in common, locked onto Janali’s eyes. “Don’t take that tone with me. We must look appropriate before the imperial houses.”
“If we end up before the House of Ladies because of debts, I doubt you’ll get many more imperial invitations,” Janali snapped.
Cybele stepped directly in front of Janali and grabbed Janali’s chin pulling her head up nose to nose. “Then you had best make sure you continue your miracle investments, little sister. After all, it was your idiotic ideas that sank us so low in the first place.”
Cybele’s tone was pure acid that burned over Janali’s face. And she didn’t stop there. “What did you say to Mother? Double the profit and twice as fast. It was an insane design, and Mother should have seen that. I warned her. But no, you convinced her with all that talk of scientific methods, mathematics, and modern principles being taught in Crelna. That ship was doomed to sink in the first storm it faced. And it did. You took all our family reserves and threw them in the ocean. Don’t forget the forty-six men you killed with that crazy ship. We paid their death charters to the merchant marine commune. If I was you, I’d burn all those stupid science things in your rooms and lady up.”
Janali fought to keep tears from showing. The Vibrius was back. The hope of turning the incident around was what she held on to.
Steeling her mind and face, she held the tears back. “That wasn’t my fault, and my telescopes have done well.” She defended with the only ammunition she had. Janali’s gift of her first telescope to the imperial house was the direct cause of Cybele’s sudden social success. Cybele, on the other hand, credited her rise to her own cleverness.
Cybele’s hand on her chin tightened painfully. “Yes, little sister, they have. And that is all that has saved you. I have two other sisters who could replace you.”
Janali knocked her sister’s hand away from her face and glared up. “No you don’t. You need my skills and my inventions. Liona is only eight, and Helena is only interested in her military career.”
“Don’t be so sure, Jana.”
Janali sputtered, unable to think of anything to say.
Cybele’s head notched a tad higher at her chiding’s apparent success. She shook her head. “Tsk, tsk, Jana, you look a complete mess.” Cybele pulled at Janali’s collar straightening it.
Janali’s stepped back out of Cybele’s reach. “Our businesses are my duty. Yours is to follow Mother with honor. You’re not matron.”
“No, but I will be the house matron soon enough. Get used to it, little sister. Go change into something more presentable, in case someone comes by. So you can deal with business.”
The thought of the approaching ship was like an overheating boiler tank inside of her. Cybele’s head cocking higher into the air added another shovel of coal.
“Go waste your day at the palace, Cybele. It’s a shame business success doesn’t relate to eating cakes, as that is all you’re good at.”
Cybele’s eyes were like cold steel rods piercing through Janali. Then Cybele’s face softened, and her eyes swept over the small crowd of servants. “You know what the Scrolls of Life command.”
Cybele was right; the church doctrine mandated that the first daughter lead and all other daughters follow. Janali felt her shoulders drop at the reminder of her place in life.
“Be a good second daughter and take care of business while I do my duty to the imperial house.”
“I shall serve House Jedalor,” Janali said, bowing long enough to hide her smirk. She’d learned long ago she could trick Cybele into saying something if she repeated it often enough. Thankfully Cybele hadn’t figured it out yet, and through use of the words manage the business Cybele’s parting command hadn’t been about staying in the house but managing the business. Which Janali would happily obey by meeting the Vibrius.
Janali watched the steam vent from the coach as it pulled out onto the street. “If I was first daughter, I’d treat you better,” she mumbled under her breath. “However, now you can’t fault me later for doing as you ordered.”
Janali waited until the steam coach turned down the road towards the palace. Briath stood close by, and she stepped over and gave him a warm smile as she squeezed his shoulder. “Tell Liona she’s in charge until one of us gets back.”
“Jana, please stay or take me with you. Liona will make me play swords and pirates with her. And she cheats!”
“I don’t have time to deal with that. If it’s any help, she doesn’t guard her right well. Good luck.” With that, Janali jogged out the main gate of the estate, turning towards the docks.
The confrontation with and departure of Cybele had taken nearly fifteen minutes. The timer in her head was loudly ticking down to zero. She just barely had time to get to the docks if she jogged most of the way. She was pretty fit, and it was cold enough she wouldn’t sweat too noticeably. It was her only real option at the moment. All the horses were at their country farms for the winter.
The road was winding, but there were shorter foot paths used by the servants. As long as she was careful to not slip on the icy snow, she could just make it.