With everybody busy with the various tasks I had assigned them, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to travel to Allendale and bring Anbu, Lucy and the chicks back to the palace. I took the mayor with me. He was nervous about flying with Myra but he needed to return to Allendale to set things in order and traveling with me and Myra was the fastest way to get there. I had decided to offer the mayor the post of Hand Of The Queen because he was exceptionally well read and his political instincts were deeply astute. I hadn't offered him the post yet, I thought I'd wait until we were in Allendale where he'd feel more comfortable about refusing it if in fact that's what he wanted.
Cyrus had been taking care of Anbu, Lucy and the chicks while we were away. Anbu was ecstatic to be see me again and wouldn't stop wagging his tail and jumping up on me trying to lick my face. The chicks ran straight to Myra, who carried out a thorough inspection of each of them individually.
"You'll ride Lucy back to the capital, Myra and I will transport the rest," I said to Cyrus.
The chicks had grown slightly in the time since I had asked Cyrus to arrange for a basket to be made for carrying them, and with Anbu needing to travel in the basket with them it proved a tight but manageable squeeze.
I went to the administration building after inspecting the basket with Cyrus to talk to the mayor about returning to Glendale with me and becoming my Hand.
"I'm flattered by the offer, but I can't help but think that given the enormous scale of the challenges that you're facing that you wouldn't be better served by someone who has more experience in dealing with those sorts of challenges."
"That's what Boris, Alfred and Uther are for; I need you to be my second pair of eyes and provide me with a perspective of things that I might be missing."
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"I still don't see why you want me."
"All of the advice that you've given me thus far has proven insightful, I'd like you to keep providing me with insightful advice."
"But I was just..."
"You wouldn't have come with us to the capital city unless you had your eye on a position in my court, and you wouldn't be giving me the run around right now unless you wanted to be able to say later on that I begged you to take the job if ever you should disappoint me and found yourself on the end of a scolding. Tie up whatever loose ends you need to tie up here and return to the palace," I said peremptorily.
"Yes my lady."
Cyrus helped me to get Anbu and the chicks into the basket and then it was time to leave. I closed up the lid of the basket, mounted Myra and had her grab the big metal basket handle with her talons before we took off on our return trip to the palace. So as not to create too much turbulence for our passengers I had Myra fly a lot slower than we usually flew.
I was gone for less than a day; it was not yet sundown by the time I returned to the palace. I had Myra put us down in the garden behind the palace where the chicks would be staying. Uraia came out to help me get them all out of the basket. Uraia had been holding down the fort while I'd been gone and informed me when I returned that in my absence one of the foreign diplomats stationed in Glendale had come seeking an audience. The diplomat in question was the Erst ambassador, and, according to Uraia, he was extremely keen to meet with me. This would be my first official audience as queen and the prospect of it was making me nervous.
"I should probably wait until Uther has come back with Boris to meet with him," I said.
"Alegra, you are the queen, you were specifically chosen by the Overseer to rule this kingdom, he wouldn't have chosen you if he thought you couldn't handle one simple meeting with a diplomat," Uraia said to me.
Her words had the desired effect of reassuring me and I told her to send a messenger to the Erst embassy and inform them that the queen was ready to meet with their ambassador.