He also mentioned in passing that the High Priest Iosif would be standing close to the king.Porter learned that a State Dinner had not been scheduled....The king had shown no inclination to call for one even though the spaceman was the first contact with the outside empire in almost 700 years. Porter knew that bosses liked fanfare and the fawning of their serfs. A spaceman was fanfare which meant that something was amiss.Porter caught the hand signal Galtiel gave to the guards that was passed. The words special trust and confidence in your Integrity, Prudence and Ability swam before her eyes as uncharacteristic tears distorted her vision. For the first time the full weight of her new appointment bore heavily on her shoulders.There were one or two other people who were formally inducted into their new rôles, and then everyone rose as Maria left the room. An aide signalled to Sharon to remain behind as the others filed out to the anteroom, where some refreshments were laid out."The. “Preparation for what?” Palila asked, concerned.“The primary goal for this exercise.”“Huh?” they all chimed.“Here, come over here. Look up there.” He pointed towards a mountain top.“Huh? All I see is a mountain.”“Yes.”“NO WAY! We can’t climb THAT.”Lisa cracked up, “WAY! And yes, you can! We will PROVE it to you. This is your biggest goal.”Tiare looked at the mountain top again, “There’s snow on it.”“Yep, I get to teach you some ice climbing. Don’t worry; we have all the gear back at camp.”The. How the hell was she going to look at sixteen cards. Now I felt kind of stupid only having one. I asked the guy for another card and gave him another dollar. Nora smiled.Nora and I found a table to sit at where she would sit across from me. As she spread out all her cards I asked her how she could keep track of all of them?She laughed and said, "I usually play twenty four but I figured we might talk some so I ordered less."The games started and Nora had no trouble what so ever. We had played.