The Fire Queen

Chapter 66

Inevitably, the work that we were doing to construct the rail network attracted attention, mostly unwanted attention. Ambassadors called at the palace curious to know what it was that we were building, none more so than the Erst ambassador, who made several calls to the palace to ask about what the purpose of the rail lines was. I realized that he wasn't going to leave me alone until I had told him what we were busy with, so I asked Ambassador Rutherford if he would join me on a trip to Galand. I had expected from the beginning that Erst would be the kingdom that was the most troubled by the railroad as it represented a direct threat to their shipbuilding and naval logistics industries. I had no interest in challenging those industries, my only objective for the railroad was for it to improve mobility within Aseron. I thought that if I volunteered the information about the steam locomotive it would increase Erst's willingness to trust that I had no designs on direct competition with them. Ambassador Rutherford took me up on my offer and we rode up to Galand together. Once there, Brumli took the ambassador for a brief ride in the prototype locomotive on the test track to demonstrate the technology to him.

The ambassador had the same astonished reaction to traveling in the steam locomotive that I had had. We only spoke about it two days later when he returned to the palace. I assured him that I had no plans to expand the rail network throughout the realm and to further reassure him that I had no such plans I showed him a set of plans that I'd had Brumli draw up for a steamboat.

"This is possible?" Ambassador Rutherford asked me after he had looked over the plans.

"It's very possible, and if you had these steam engines you could build bigger ships that carried more cargo and had faster turnaround times."

"And you would be willing to share this technology with us?"

"I would, if certain conditions are met."

The ambassador left with the promise that he would communicate my conditions to his king and get back to me with his response.

My next diplomatic assignment was to invite the new Kandalarian ambassador to Galand to demonstrate to him the power of the steam engine and how its use could be of benefit to them. The three of us traveled on the prototype steam locomotive out onto the Rhume salt flats, where Brumli had prepared the steam powered drill in anticipation of our arrival.

"This technology is very impressive," Ambassador Asif said to me when we disembarked from the locomotive, "but you should know that Queen Herana has made us a very tempting offer, one which I doubt you can match."

"That's true, Helena can offer you money and vast quantities of grain, but there is one thing that I can give you that you desperately need that she can't give you."

"And what is that?"

"Water."

Brumli got the boiler going with the fire turtle and we waited for the drill to start spinning. Brumli had picked out a spot on the salt flats where he was sure we would find water because the ground there was softer than most of the ground on the ground on the flats; Brumli believed this was an indication of the presence of water underground. When the steam was ready Brumli removed the stopper and the drill got moving, steadily making its way deeper and deeper underground.

"As long as you keep loading in new poles the drill will keep digging deeper," I explained to the ambassador, who was watching the drill with imperturbable fixation.

When Brumli loaded the sixth and penultimate pole into the machine I began to worry that we weren't going to hit water, but after he loaded the seventh pole and it was driven halfway down we began to see seepage.

"There it is," Brumli declared.

He had the fire turtle stop emitting flames and that was that, the demonstration was over. The drill spike and the poles had to remain in the ground, which was of no concern. The demonstration had been a success, water continued to seep from the ground and Ambassador Asif was impressed with what he had seen, impressed enough to request an audience at the palace to discuss the potential for the use of these drills in Kandalar.