Day 12 *Late Afternoon, Jeneve's office*

<snip from Ben's post>
"Excuse me..."

"Ah, Galen. Come in, please."

"Thank you. I only have one quick thing to ask. I believe Breezy
mentioned the possibility of a courier to you."

"Yes, she did. She said you'd probably have a candidate for me."

"I do actually. Someone you know, I think. My recommendation is Cyrus.
If you approve, I'll let him know and he can start this afternoon."

<end snip>

"Oh!" said Jeneve. "Cyrus!"

"Yes," Galen replied. "There isn't a problem, is there? S'ron seemed
to think he'd be..."

Jeneve interrupted. "No, no problem at all, it's just that ... well, I
hadn't really thought of Cyrus. But he'd be perfect! I don't think
he'd enjoy being a combat rider at all, and I can certainly put all
that book-learning of his to use. And he's a born diplomat - he won't
have any problems taking messages and representing me to the other
warrens..."

Galen watched, his arms folded, a lazy smile on his face, as the
Warrenlady's enthusiasm bubbled on.

"Oh!" said Jeneve, stopping suddenly. "But you haven't even asked him.
Do you think he'll say yes?"

"I don't think we need worry about that," Galen grinned. "So - shall I
go and tell him he's got a new job?"

"Yes, please do," Jeneve said with a smile. "Tell him he can come
round later this afternoon. And Galen - thank you."

******************

Later that afternoon

"Come in," said Jeneve, in response to the quiet knock on her office
door.

The door opened to Cyrus, who stepped inside, saying: "I just wanted
to say thank you for giving me this opportunity to..."

"So that's a yes?" Jeneve interrupted. "Wonderful! I think you're
perfect for the job! I hope you won't mind giving up being a combat
rider - it'll all seem pretty boring here, just helping me with
things, taking messages to other warrens. Being stuck here with me
when you could be ...." Jen paused, realising that she wasn't entirely
sure what combat riders actually *did* most of the time.

But Cyrus solved her dilemma by interrupting *her* this time.

"Mind?" he said. "Of course I don't mind! Jeneve - don't you worry
about *anything* now I'm around!" he added, a little too emphatically.
He stopped, and intently studied the ground at his feet.

"Oh!" said Jeneve. "Err, thank you."

"Now, why don't you sit down and have some coffee and poppyseed cake."
the warrenlady said, showing Cyrus to a large green velvet-upholstered
chair and producing a flask of steaming coffee and a wedge of cake
seemingly out of nowhere.

Cyrus sat down and obediently began munching the cake, frantically
thinking of something to say.

"Umm, Jeneve, this is delicious cake - did you make it yourself?"

Immediately the words were out of his mouth, he regretted them. As if
the Warrenlady didn't have better things to do than bake cakes...

"Regrettably not," Jeneve sighed. "Unfortunately, I've been so busy
trying to get up to speed on warren business - do you realise that
Naomi had three files of communications with Keldarra warren alone?
And that's not to mention all the towns and guilds we do business
with..."

True enough, but it avoided the warrenlady having to admit the truth -
she'd never baked anything in her life. Baking meant ovens, and ovens
meant fire...

"No, I didn't know," Cyrus admitted.

"You will soon enough," said Jeneve, with a slightly wicked grin. "Now
that I've got you in my power - I've never had a slave before!"

Cyrus almost fell of his chair, and the warrenlady let out a peal of
laughter.

"Oh, sorry Cyrus - you mustn't take me too seriously. That's been one
of *my* mistakes all along!"

"Err, no. I mean yes," said Cyrus, not quite sure what the appropriate
response would be.

"So, if you still needed convincing that I'm the boss from hell, how
about you taking this..." Jeneve said, picking up a large folder of
papers, and dumping them in Cyrus's arms.

"And this..." she continued, placing another on top.

"And this ... and this... and this!  There - just a little light
reading for you!"

Jeneve laughed at Cyrus's downcast expression.

"Don't worry," she said, gently this time. "It's all really basic
stuff. And you can come back for more coffee whenever you like,"

Cyrus gulped. Thanked the warrenlady. And hurriedly left.

***************

Once Cyrus had gone, Jeneve sat down behind her desk and, with a sigh,
poured herself another cup of coffee.

Reaching down to a secret compartment under her desk, she took out a
sheaf of papers in Naomi's neat handwriting. Naomi's confidential
files.

*These* had been taking up more of Jeneve's time and worry than all
the others put together. She'd had no idea how many potential threats
her predecessor had been monitoring.

She remembered her conversation with Cyrus, and how she'd almost come
unstuck when she was unsure of what dragonriders actually *did* in
'peace time'. She desperately needed to get up to speed on that kind
of thing. Knowing nothing about dragons and their riders, then joining
with Malani at Falagand, being whisked off to Norwall, and falling
almost straight into the hot seat, had done her no favours in gaining
the necessary experience for the job.

She needed a quick crash course - something along the lines of 'warren
life 101'. But who could she ask, who would help her, and be discreet
about it?  She was already deeply ashamed of showing how feeble a
warrenlady she was in front of K'Tarr, so she couldn't ask him.
Antwin was an idea... But he wasn't a dragonrider.

Breezy would surely help. But she was even newer to Norwall than Jen
was. Then she thought of the perfect person - if only he would agree.

Landon.

<tag Chris! Will he help?>

************
The note to Landon written, signed and sealed on the desk in front of
her, Jeneve turned to the confidential papers once more. Quite
frankly, what she had read terrified her. But there was no way she
would admit to that. She was going to be the warrenlady Norwall
needed, if it killed her!

Bad choice of words, she thought, with a shudder.

But nevertheless, she needed to talk to someone about this. Someone
who could be trusted with such sensitive information. Someone who
probably knew ten times more than the contents of this file anyhow....

S'ron.

<tag Mike! Jen's a smart cookie, and she knows there's a lot she
doesn't know, if you get my drift!! ;-)  >

Ben - I hope I didn't mangle Cyrus too badly!

Respectfully submitted
Carina Norris
carina@norris25.freeserve.co.uk

Jeneve <& Malani>









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