Emily, Valley of the Vanishing River/Aybhas

The only good thing about the trip to my valley was retrieving some magnetite. Several of the pieces of shaped slabs of magnetite had been struck by lightning and magnetized. We took two of the slabs back with us. We also stopped at what little was left of my home. Most of the rubble had been taken out of the collapsed cave and piled up in heaps. From the many Cosm-sized footsteps on the ground of the fire scar surrounding my former home, it was obvious someone had bothered to go through the wreckage. If there had been anything to salvage, they had already taken it.

Given that the King had sent agents to my valley, it was likely anything worth saving was in the possession of the King of Foskos. So old kingy-poo was once a distant figure who tolerates horrible injustices to Coyn. Now he advanced to the person who destroyed my home and stole my stuff.

The only exception was my spool of silk thread. Did the King's men miss it because it was dark-colored and hard to spot? I didn't see it on the rubble pile. The Queen saw it, picked it up, and handed it to me. There was soot on it but there was also one of my two precious steel needles. It was still stuck in the spool behind the thread. The other needle had been in my pouch but my pouch was now gone. It was either destroyed in the explosion or taken by kingy-poo's men.

The thought crossed my mind that it would be nice to try out my design for gun cotton grenades on old kingy-poo. I think I was just a bit ticked off. That was before we saw the hot springs.

The hot springs looked like someone had a frat party and didn't clean up afterward. There was litter and poultry bones and partly eaten meals all over, so the scavenging animals had come down the mountain to eat the free leftovers after the partiers had left. So there was now animal excrement everywhere. The partiers had also cut down several trees, some of which they allowed to fall into the pools. The pathway and the stair into the lower pool were smashed and the soaking bench I so lovingly made was knocked down and in pieces.

After seeing the hot springs, I resolved to build traps to prevent future intrusion---that is, if I still wanted to try living there again. Now known as a place where I had once made a home, it was no longer protected by being hidden from others. The secrecy of the place, which was part of its protection for me, was now gone.

So much was lost in such a short time: it left me feeling adrift and anchorless. I was floating, at the mercy of whatever current had caught me up and I hated feeling that way. All I had left were two tools I had made, my knife, my little belt blade hidden in the billet guard of my belt, and the knowledge in my head. If it had not been for the Cosm of the healing shrine, I would not even have clothes or shoes. It's not that I wasn't grateful, but I loathed the feeling of being in their debt; to make it worse, I felt guilty for not wanting to be in their debt, since I had concluded the Cosm at the shrine were decent people. Or maybe I should reverse that and say they were decent people who just happened to be Cosm.

It didn't feel comfortable, but I had to acknowledge that my black-and-white view of Cosm wasn't going to work for me anymore.

What I yearned for, though, was to get away and have some time alone. I wanted to walk the river bottoms where the yews grow, to cut a new bow stave; and I wanted to meander through the balmbrush and cedar forest that grew between the lava flows of the rift valley and sinks of the Vanishing River, to cut new arrow shafts. I had already started collecting griffin feathers to use as fletching.

As it was, the planting season was over and the growing season was already halfway done. The wheat planted last harvest season was already cut on the south end of the kingdom near Black Falls. Maize and barley were already tall in the fields. Time was getting away from me. If I was going to leave this place, I had to do it soon or it would be too late to find a new home and prepare for the cold season.

It might already be too late since I didn't know if I could find a new place to live in time. Another cave would be great but I had been lucky in finding the old one and didn't feel optimistic I could find another. I had explored every inch of my valley and I was sure there were no more caves to find there. Building a house would take too long. I doubted I could make a habitable structure to withstand the winter storms before those storms arrived.

Living on the fringes of the Coyn slums was doable for the cold season, as they called winter here. The problem was that I wasn't a child anymore, which would make it harder to go undetected. Besides, that wasn't what I called living. I had gotten too used to walking with my head up under the trees of my forested valley. It would be a move of desperation to go back to how I used to live, with my head down on the edges, hoping not to be noticed by either Cosm or adult Coyn. I would never want to go back to that. Those days still haunt my nightmares.

Those were the thoughts running through my head as the Queen and I returned to the shrine on Asgotl's broad back. I had shown him my route across the volcanic rift zone, where the rootless fissures never erupted lava, at least not any time recently. If on foot, my route includes a phreatic explosion crater with a spring of drinkable water at its bottom. It doesn't taste great, but it is drinkable. I stumbled on it years ago while stalking a herd of antelope. They stopped to drink, which is how I found it.

That one spring makes it possible to make the four-day slog across the broken lava landscape. The trick to the route was to skirt the newer flows and stay on the older flows which have some soil and vegetation on them. It's a longer walk in terms of distance but a shorter one in terms of time. It's very difficult to walk on the broken-up newer flows.

Crossing the rift valley in under one bell on Asgotl was wonderful compared to the four-day slog on foot. Flying also meant I didn't need to resole my shoes after ripping them up walking on basalt, cinder, and scoria.

With my thoughts in a messy jumble, Asgolt made a sudden turn away from the shrine as we approached it from the northwest. He turned north over Aybhas and then circled back to land on the north balcony, not the south balcony closest to Lisaykos's suite.

It had been too warm for wearing sheepskin while flying, but it still got nippy on Asgotl's back when he gained altitude and speed. The Queen had wrapped the front of her woolen flying cape around me to keep me from getting cold. She didn't remove it immediately when we landed.

"I'm not sure you saw, Emily, but there was a winged horse on the south balcony," the queen said. "I think you should stay strapped into the saddle until I can see who has come to visit. If it's not safe for you, Asgotl can take you to his family's aeries in the high peaks to the east. That's one place no Cosm would dare go."

"Mind consulting me about this?" the griffin interrupted.

"Consider yourself consulted," she snapped. "Besides, it's true. It's the safest place I can think of in short term."

"Well, yes, you are right about that," he grumped, tired, thirsty, and hungry for the basket of meat that Wolkayrs probably had ready for him.

The queen dismounted, took off her cloak, and then wrapped it around me---three times. It was a bit on the large side. "There, if Asgotl needs to leave in hurry, you'll stay warm. Asgotl, you know the signal to leave, and if anyone approaches who is not me or Lisaykos, leave anyway."

"I understand," he didn't sound happy.

It was warm, wrapped up in the queen's oversized cloak. With a light breeze blowing a hint of the fragrance of balmbushes from off the lava plains, it was peaceful and quiet. I nodded off strapped into the saddle so I couldn't fall. The queen tapping me on the shoulder woke me up.

"You're not tired, are you?" She looked amused. "It's not even sunset. So, here's what's going on. The King sent one of his more reliable staff to sound you out on whether you would sell or trade some of your creations. It looks like matches are high on the list but so is cast iron and maybe steel if they have figured steel out. I'm not sure they know the difference.

"Emily, you don't have to deal with the emissary if you don't want to. Just say the word and we will send him on his way."

That sounded great to me. I didn't want to meet anyone in kingy-poo's employ, especially after what they did to my home and hot springs.

"That being said," the queen made a rueful face, "you might want to at least meet this particular emissary and see what he has to say. Out of all the people the King could have sent, the one he picked is probably the most reasonable man in his retinue. His name is Bobbo. He's highly-educated by Cosm standards, cultured and smart. He's probably the best person the King could have sent to talk with you."

I thought it out for a minute or so and then nodded yes with some resignation. I might as well get this over with. After all, if I didn't agree to meet an emissary this evening, more would certainly show up unless I decided to bug out from Foskos altogether. And given that I had no safe place to run and hide, I didn't have the option of just walking away and not dealing with the Cosm who wanted to trap me here. For now, it might be a choice between the Cosm I could deal with, like the Queen and the healers, as opposed to those I did not know, like the King and his followers.

I shed the Queen's cloak and unstrapped myself from the saddle.

---

General Bobbo, Healing Shrine of Mugash

I did not know what I expected, but this young thing halfway between a girl and a woman was not it. She was small too. Even by Coyn standards, she was small. Given how thin she was, she may have grown up without enough food to grow properly. Her face was pleasant but plain and her hair a non-descript color of brown.

It was her eyes that were startling. From the moment she stood in the doorway studying me, she nailed me to a wall with her eyes, those angry, burning, intense eyes.

I left my seat on the lounge and got on both knees to give her a proper deep obeisance rather than a military salute. "May the blessings of the gods be upon you, Great One," I bowed my head but looked up after waiting for the expected response. The Coyn was giving me an intense and questioning look, frozen in the doorway.

"General Bobbo," the Queen stood behind the Blessed Emily, "she can't speak, so please, spare your knees and sit down."

"Thank you, Great One," I bowed my head again and then sat back down. I waited for the Queen and the Coyn to sit on the lounge against the south wall, and then I waited for the Queen to begin the conversation, as required by protocol and good manners.

"I hear the campaign went well and finished early, General," the Queen gave me a cue.

"Yes, Great One," I nodded. "Few chose to fight. Most either opened their gates or chose to flee and abandon their settlements. With the absorption of those two river valleys to the east, we should no longer have any grain shortages, barring failed crops. The hard part now will be building a haulage road through the mountains. For those sorts of tasks, my talents are no longer needed, so the King asked me if I could come and open discussions with the maker of fire, also known as the Blessed Emily, about the secret to making instant fire." I put my best hopeful smile on my face and looked back at the Coyn, whose eyes were still burning a hole through my head.

"Of course, the King would like to inquire what requirements the Blessed Emily would have for us in order to share her knowledge," I added.

The little Coyn reached for a wax tablet from a pile stacked neatly on the side table next to the lounge. Then she wrote at length. At one point the Queen, looking over her shoulder, stopped her. "Emily, they don't use miles here. Use wagon-days. One wagon-day is about 12 miles."

The Coyn flipped the stylus over and rubbed out some words with the blunt end, and then went back to writing. Given the passion with which she wielded the stylus, I suspected she would not favor the King and his desire for the things she might make. Finally, she was done. I was a bit shocked that the Queen got up to bring the tablet to me. When I saw that, I started to get up to stop her but Lisaykos put a warning hand on my knee to keep me seated. Then I remembered the instruction I was given not to get up or make any sudden movements.

What I read on the tablet astounded me.

In a passable hand using very small letters, Emily wrote: "I can do nothing at the moment since agents in the employ of the king trespassed on my home, and in their meddling, destroyed it by touching that which should not have been disturbed. The results were a fire which left a fire scar four wagon-days long and a half wagon-day wide, as well as the destruction of all my tools and ingredients, some of which took two to three years to make. As his employees caused the loss of all I possessed, I will do nothing for the king without the restoration of my home and goods, or an equivalent worth in some mutually acceptable trade good or currency. Those are the conditions which must be met before I will consider any exchange for knowledge regarding any of the things I have created."

I let the words settle in my brain, and took a deep breath, thinking how I might move what could be a small but immovable object seated across the room from me. "That's certainly quite clear," I put my hopeful face back on, "though I think this is not what my sovereign was hoping for. I believe he was hoping that you might negotiate with your King in a more friendly manner than this."

She grabbed another tablet and started gouging out a reply in the wax. Looking at what she was writing, the Queen looked surprised and maybe even a little upset.

The Coyn wrote: "He is not my king. I am not his subject. Foskos is not where I live. I am not like other people. I lived in my valley to be left in peace, unburdened by the demands of others. I am a guest here at this shrine, and not by my own choice. I was brought here without my knowledge or consent by the Queen, who in an act of mercy, rescued me after an accident. I was not conscious at the time I was injured. While I was cared for here, the king's agents destroyed my home, thus robbing me of the ability to shelter in my valley through the upcoming winter and forcing me on the kindness of others whom I have little means to repay. What have I ever done to deserve the destruction of my home at the hands of the king's men? Is this my recompense for the act I now regret of rescuing his children who were lost and wounded near my home two seasons ago? Given how the king has repaid me homelessness for my charity, why should I be interested in anything he has to offer?"

It now made sense why this little feral Coyn wanted to drill two holes through me with her burning glare. What she wrote was upsetting. It also left me sad that her world had been turned upside down through no fault of her own. I would like to know what it was those two scouts had disturbed in Emily's cave that caused the explosion and the fire afterward; however, I was in no position to ask about it. I wondered if she knew that the King's agents scavenged whatever they could find out of the rubble of her home.

"I believe I understand the circumstances behind your request," I sighed. "I have enough to return to my sovereign so he can plan how he wishes to proceed from here. I thank you for your candor, Great One, and for your time." I looked at the Queen, "might I have your leave to depart, Great One?" She nodded, so I got up in an unhurried manner.

Before I bowed my way out, I had a premonition that I needed to share: "Just one thing before I go. Someone tried to follow me when I left Is'syal. I took steps to lose them, but the problem with the best trackers is that you never really know when you're being tracked. I don't know who would want me tailed; or better put, I don't think I want to put a name to the one likeliest to have me tracked. Regardless, I would suggest that you increase the guard around Emily and move her out of reach of those who move in the shadows."

Then I bowed myself out and left. I wondered if there might still be dinner left at the garrison, where I would beg a bed for the night since it was too late to fly back to Is'syal.