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then it wasn't for him, either.
"Well, you ock tohave a brass band," Dunedin said. "If not for you, all these
warriors would still be out in the jungle, ficking and dying."
"The International Court will know that," Park said, "which is what counts to
me. To these folk, I'm just some funny-looking outlander. That's all rick. I
did what I did, whether they care or not."
Someone here would care, though, Park thought as the train, brakes chuffing,
glided to a halt. He looked forward to explaining to Kuurikwiljor just exactly
how exciting his adventures had been, and how important his role in making the
peace. He wouldn't really have to exaggerate, he told himself, only emphasize
what needed emphasizing. Of course she would be fascinated.
And then, Park thought, and then . . . He'd been imagining "and then" in odd
moments ever since
Ankowaljuu started banging on his door. Soon, with a little luck and he'd only
need a little he wouldn't have to imagine any more.
The train stopped. Park leaped to his feet. "Come on, Eric," he said when his
thane was slower to rise.
"Let's head for our house. I want to use the wirecaller."
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"What of seeing to our trunk?" Dunedin said.
"Hell with it. The Tawantiinsuujans will make sure it catches up with us
sooner or later. They're good at that sort of thing: hardly a thiefly wick
among 'em. We didn't pack everything, you know there's still enough stuff to
wear back at the place."
Monkey-face looked dubious, but followed Park to the front of the car. As they
went down the steps, the thane's wrinkled face split in a big, delighted
smile. He pointed. "Look, Judge Scoglund! Someone came to meet us after all.
There's the Vinlandish spokesman to Tawantiinsuuju."
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Osfric Lundqvist spotted Park and Dunedin at about the same time Dunedin saw
him. He waved and used his beefy frame to push his way through the crowd
toward his two countrymen.
"Haw, Judge Scoglund!" The ambassador pumped Park's hand as if he were jacking
up a wain. "Well done! I say again, well done! Without your tireless swinking
on behalf of peace, the Son of the Sun and the Emir would still be bemixed in
uproarious war."
"The very thing I told him," Eric Dunedin chirped. "The very thing."
"You're most kind, bestness," Park murmured. He sent Monkey-face a glance that
meant shut up.
He had no interest whatever in standing in the railway station chattering with
this political hack. What he wanted was to get to a wirecaller.
Dunedin, unfortunately, didn't catch the glance. He said, "Singlehanded, the
judge talked Maita Kapak and Hussein into ontaking peace."
"Wonderful!" Lundqvist boomed. "Though as you said, Judge Scoglund, you came
here as a forstander of the International Court and not of Vinland, still what
you did here brings pride to all Vinlandish hearts."
"It wasn't as big a dealing as all that," Park said. Where he'd intended to
magnify his accomplishments for Kuurikwiljor, now he downplayed them in an
effort to make Lundqvist give up and go away.
That, however, the ambassador refused to do. Park had picked off Amazon
leeches with less cling than he displayed. Finally he said, "Isn't that
Tjiimpuu waving for you, Thane Lundqvist?"
Lundqvist looked around. "Where?"
"He's behind those two tall wicks now."
"Reckon I ock to learn what he wants of me. I'll see you later, Judge
Scoglund; I have much mair to talk about with you." Lundqvist plunged back
into the crowd, moving quickly in the direction Park had given him.
"I didn't see the warden for outlandish dealings back there," Eric Dunedin
said.
"Neither did I," Park told him. "Let's get out of here before Lundqvist finds
out and comes back."
He and his thane hurried off, going the opposite way from Lundqvist. Soon they
were standing outside the station. Park had hoped to flag a cab, but saw none.
For one thing, they weren't as common here as in Vinland. For another, as he
realized after a moment, cabbies didn't come swarming to meet a troop
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train, not in Tawantiinsuuju, where anything pertaining to military
transportation was a state monopoly. As he watched, soldiers started filing
onto government folkwains by now, Park seldom thought of them as buses.
The station was a couple of miles from the house he'd been assigned. He was
about to give up and start walking though his lungs, newly returned to two
miles above sea level, dreaded the prospect when a familiar-looking wain
pulled up nearby. Ankowaljuu stuck his head out. "Need a ride, Judge
Scoglund?"
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