Emily, in the Queen’s Chambers

I woke to the smell of bacon. I opened my eyes to see a Cosm-sized hand dangling one of those wonderful rolls with bacon, onions, and cheese on the inside. Of course, it was just out of reach since I knew there was a Thuorfosi attached to that hand. I turned my head to see her grinning face. She was sitting on the floor next to the Coyn-sized bed I slept in.

She looked like she expected me to leap out of bed after the roll. I would have been happy to sleep some more. I had zero energy. If I had been at home in my valley, I would have spent time at the hot springs. If I had been at the Shrine, I'd have spent the day on the lounge in Lisaykos's study with a book.

"Are you feeling unwell, Emily?" she asked, putting the roll back on the plate which held several more. She handed me a tablet.

"Feel tired, no energy."

"Well, that's not surprising given that you had three rather eventful days," she frowned at me. "If your stomach is not upset, I do want you to try and eat something. You've hardly eaten at all and that might have something to do with why you feel tired."

That was a good point. I hadn't thought of that. If the problem was not enough food, I might feel better if I ate something.

"You are correct. I should try to eat," I wrote. "Can I get some work clothes? I would like to see how the piping is arranged in the bathroom and I can't do that in a dress and still be decent."

"You know, you looked nice yesterday," she said.

"Or I could go ahead and climb up the piping wearing long skirts," I wrote.

"If I let you loose to go climbing around the water pipes, I will never hear the end of it," Thuorfosi folded her arms and tried to look forbidding. It didn't work. I knew her too well at this point.

"Why don't you wash up and eat something first before deciding on anything. Veflia and Zdatel want to do your hair again, by the way."

I capitulated. At least I was given the opportunity to take a bath after Thuorfosi removed the splint and bandages from my hand. Veflia left another pile of clothes for me while I was enjoying the hot water and the big tub. I was not at all surprised to see another kirtle and gown in the pile. After that, the terrible twosome of torturing hair did my hair in the same braid as yesterday. Then I was able to sit down to eat. I was surprised that I ate all four rolls without thinking because I swear I wasn't at all hungry.

To kill time, I started to play klondike solitaire. It attracted the queen's entire Coyn staff inside her suite plus Thuorfosi. I ended up teaching the game for the better part of the morning. Then I was back to being bored after mid repast was over.

I entertained myself by memorizing the layout of the streets below the palace. I had dragged a chair over to the balcony parapet, climbed up it, and was able to see the city below.

"Can you see all you want to see from there?" a beautiful bass voice asked. I gasped because it startled me.

"Sorry, Great One, I didn't mean to scare you." It was my ninja rescuer, in what looked like pajamas and a kimono-cut bathrobe. He knelt which made it a lot easier to see him. "I missed you yesterday," he smiled. He had a nice smile like he was truly happy to see me. "You were awake when I was asleep for most of the day, except for when I was awake but you were asleep in the Queen's bedroom."

He held out his hand, "can I see your left hand?" I was confused by that.

"I'd like to see how well your finger is healing. I feel bad about that since I was too slow to stop your kidnappers. I got to listen to your finger getting cut off through the wall of the house you were in at the time. That was not a good experience for me."

Poor guy. I didn't realize he was right there. I was unconscious at the time so I had no idea what was happening.

I put my hand in his. He turned my hand palm up and palm down, lightly brushing it with the fingers of his other hand. I could feel a slight warmth from his fingertips. "That's a wonderful piece of healing," he said in admiring tones. "The nerve pathways are perfectly aligned, which is always the hardest part on a reattachment, but all the capillaries are too. I'm guessing this is the Queen's work because I can't even tell that the bone was separated. She's the best when it comes to bones. If she wasn't the Queen, she would be in high demand as a healer based on just her healing talent alone."

He looked at me with a lopsided grin, "am I right, it was the Queen?" I nodded yes.

"Tired of playing cards already? I heard them playing from the guest room I'm in." I rolled my eyes and nodded.

"Are those the only clothes they gave you?" I'm sure I looked grumpy when I nodded a third time.

He looked from side to side, then walked over to the door to the balcony and looked up and down the hall. He came back with a conspiratorial smile. "You have a climber's calluses. How easy would it be for you to climb the wall there to get up to the gable above the door?"

I looked at the stonework for a few moments then jumped off the chair, pulled off the stockings to free up my toes, and scrambled up the wall to the right of the door. When I got level with his head, he laughed and pulled me off the wall. "I was right. You did a lot of climbing up and down there in your valley. Do you know how to climb with lines?" He was holding me up so our eyes were level.

I didn't know what he meant. I guess my expression indicated that because he replied, "you know, climbing with rope set along the climbing route?" I shook my head no.

"Do you know how to rappel?" Again, I shook my head no.

"I assume that you're not afraid of heights?" he asked, still holding me up. I gave him a rather annoyed look in answer. Even with his holding me up like that, I don't know why but I felt as safe around him as I did around Asgotl. Maybe because it was because he rescued me. He placed me gently back on the chair, then retrieved my stockings and handed them to me.

"You better put them back on before your keepers notice that they are off." He politely looked over the parapet at the city below so I could do so without embarrassment. He had rather polished manners for a ninja. I didn't even know his name.

"You look like you have a question," he stated, "and neither of us has anything to write with, so stay right there and I'll be right back." He disappeared through the door. He returned before I had a chance to wonder why he was taking too long. He had a small beaker and a wax tablet.

"This is hot sweet tea for you. I hope the cup isn't too large. And here's a tablet and stylus."

He grabbed another chair and pulled it up next to mine. He sat down. "Well, I still feel a bit fatigued but a lot better than yesterday. Being used as a pin cushion for arrows took a lot out of me." He laughed, "you were down snoozing away under a charm of deep sleep while I had the arrows pulled out of me. I was quite surprised when the Queen brought me back and let me rest in one of her guest rooms. You see, I work for the King, not the Queen. I'm not exactly her favorite person, especially since she caught me once spying on her properties; however, the King and Queen seem to have some kind of truce worked out right now. Most everyone is quietly praying it sticks. I think that's more up to Imstay than it is to the Queen." I gave him a questioning look.

"Oh, that's right," he gave me a knowing look. "You don't know about the King and the Queen, do you? Well, Imstay was raised by an old established and very conservative family on his mother's side. She was queen before Aylem was. Her people are the kind who look down their aristocratic noses at anyone who isn't as pedigreed as they are. And if you're not Cosm, the only purpose of your existence is to serve them or be stomped into subjugation. That applies to Coyn, griffins, winged horses, roc eagles, the lizard people of Chem, or whoever. If the race isn't Cosm, you aren't really people. And if you are Cosm, don't even knock on the door to visit unless you're a silverhair.

"Now the current queen, on the other hand, came from the poorest of the poor. She was abandoned as an infant at one of the slum orphanages run by the Shrine of Surd. Her remarkable talent was recognized at the age of six, which is unheard of; but she had such power even at that age that she was inadvertently reading the mind of everyone around her. She spent three years in isolation with a handful of priestess adepts of Landa in a remote hideaway, learning how not to read everyone's mind and how not to force her will on others passively. When it comes to mind magic, she's a monster.

"It was obvious before she was ten that she would be the next queen. She used the great crystal at the Shrine of Tiki the first time she saw it. I believe she was nine when that happened. Imstay was the prince with the most magic and closest blood claim to the throne, so neither of them ever had a choice about marriage. They were married and that was that. After she was raised by the Shrine of Landa, she was sent to the Shrine of Mugash when she was 12 to study with the High Priestess there. Between Landa and Mugash, the queen was influenced by the two shrines who strongly believe in advancement by merit and humane treatment for any race that is sapient. You see where this is going, yes?"

I nodded my head. I had already heard bits and pieces of this but never heard it before as a linear narrative.

"The King and Queen lasted about six years before the major arguments started. The Queen succeeded in gaining great improvements in treatment for the sapient mounts but ran into a wall over Coyn. The King's family, which is to say his mother's family, is deeply invested in businesses that exploit Coyn. They aren't the only ones; there are seven other old families with similar portfolios in living property. They form a major faction in the kingdom. Even with the destruction of Kushamar and Nirirgi, it won't significantly change the other old families who trade in Coyn as dispensible slaves.

"What seems to be giving the King pause right now is you, Emily," he looked right at me with a worried expression. "By simply being you, you are contradicting everything he thought about the Coyn. I honestly don't know which way he is going to fall when he finally makes up his mind. I think it could go either way. He is a torn and confused man. The fact that the Queen is treating him better than she has in over a decade is helping. If she can keep a cover on that fiery temper of hers, they have a chance of mending their broken marriage. What did he say to you yesterday, by the way?"

"Not a thing," I wrote. "Didn't even introduce himself at dinner."

"Arg! That aggravating man!" My ninja slapped his knee hard. "He has a bad habit of not confronting his problems directly. He prefers for people to notice his problems and hopes someone will solve them for him. He can be so frustrating that way. He is a smart man, good with manipulating the ruling nobles, with some real skill in waging war, but he wastes all that talent on favoring his relatives instead of ruling for the benefit of all his subjects, no matter what race. I guess I'm like General Bobbo in wishing he would just grow up."

He stopped and thought for a moment. "Why am I telling you all of this?"

I wrote: "You are tired, you've just survived a mission that almost killed you, you don't have anyone you can talk to about this and I'm not exactly in a position where I can talk." He read the tablet and laughed. I swiped it back and wrote: "by the way, what's your name, lord secret spy for the King?"

He read that and laughed some more. It sounded like catharsis to me.

"Hehe, those who know and fear my shadowy presence that acts silently from behind the throne call me Usruldes the Wraith," he tried waggling his eyebrows up and down in a sinister fashion and failed. I worked hard not to laugh.

"I saw that, Emily. Yes, I admit it, I have a rather friendly face. That's why I wear a mask and hood. I look too nice to be a spy. I go by Hessakos when I'm off duty and spend time with my family, who live just about 14 cross streets to the west from here, six houses in on Brewers' Row off the West Way. My wife and brother-in-law run the biggest brewing operation in the city. We've got the Queen's license to make her top-fermenting beers and ales and sell them. My cover with my family is that I work for the king as a diplomatic courier. One of the things I intend to do today is to go home and see my wife and children.

"I think the other reason I'm telling you this, little Emily, is that I know I can trust you. Don't give me that look, my fearsome little wolverine. I don't think you've been around Cosm enough to know this, but when a silverhair such as myself shares an intense experience with someone else in close quarters like you and I did the night before last, it's inevitable that my mind magic will passively read your character. I've gotten a good enough read on you to know you are worthy of trust."

"Now I have a bit of a confession to make, Emily," he looked a little embarrassed. "I have really good clairvoyance, as good as the Queen within my range. My range isn't as wide as hers but better than anyone else. For example, there's probably nothing in the palace I can't read by just standing here and snooping about with my head. It's why I'm such a good spy. For the record, I don't peek on women changing ever since I got married." He had the good form to blush right then.

"I saw what you wrote last night about an ore mineral to the west of the Vanishing River. You look to me like your keepers have cleverly trapped you here while they conduct their business. The King, Queen, and high priestesses will all leave this afternoon before the sixth bell for the Shrine of Landa. It's the northernmost shrine and it takes little over a bell to travel there on a winged mount. I expect them to show up a quarter to the the sixth bell and be out the door immediately. If they don't do the right thing and have Healer Priestess Thuorfosi take you home to Aybhas today, I would like to propose a little field trip tomorrow, you and I and my eagle Cadrees, to go up to Tourmaline Mountain."

I liked the sound of that since I did want to escape the palace, and I probably couldn't ask for a more competent protector than the king's own spy for the trip.

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