Emily, Valley of the Vanishing River, 8th rot., 3rd day to 8th rot., 5th day

We stopped at my former home first, because Kayseo wanted to see it. We didn't bother dismounting. The unroofed cave was visible from Asgotl's back.

"Your explosive powder took the roof off all of this?" Kayseo sounded a little scared.

"I think it destroyed the central wall between the two main chambers of the cave, and without the wall, the roof fell in. It's less impressive than it looks.

"So this is where you spent five years by yourself in the wilderness," Kayseo shook her head. "What did you eat? Did you garden?"

"I foraged my vegetables but I mostly ate trout and panfish, plus whatever animals I trapped. I went after deer and elk most of the time since I used their skins for clothes."

"Yes, I remember the clothes," her tone was not at all one of approval.

"There was nothing wrong with my old clothes. I kept them clean. That's the virtue of deerskin: it's washable just like cloth."

"They didn't smell nice when you got here," Kayseo was emphatic.

"I had been working all day in front of a furnace," I protested. "Do you have any idea of just how much a person sweats doing furnace work? Of course, they smelled. I smelled. Sorry I omitted a bath after the steam flash accident."

"If you say so," she didn't believe me. No wonder they thought I was a little barbarian when Aylem dropped me off at the shrine.

Asgotl flew over to what I called Geyser Valley, which was a small vale with geysers and hot spring pools with incredible blue and green colors, mud pots, and fumaroles. I had to make Kayseo promise not to set a prosthetic foot down in the thermal area. I had terrible visions of her breaking through the crust and that would be the end of her. Cosm are way too heavy to be walking in geothermal areas. It made me nervous when I did it. Kayseo wouldn't have a chance.

I planned to walk to one particular fumarole which looked to have a lot of minerals. I was sure I saw something that could be sal ammoniac and wanted to look at it, but never had a safety backup person to help me out if the crust broke under me. When I explained what I wanted to do, complete with tying the rope I brought around my waist, Kayseo took one look at me and said, with feeling: "NO!"

"I've crossed many geothermal features, Kayseo. This is just a precaution. I'm so light, I have few worries."

"No, no, and no. You are not going to do such a thing. What's so important about this stuff anyway? Don't make a fish face at me. I don't know anything about rocks."

"Sulfur, that's the yellow stuff. It's good for all sorts of things, like a variant of instant fire and the black powder that blows stuff up," I began. "It can kill foot fungus too, so it's a medicine. Then there's the sal ammoniac. Oh, I really want some sal ammoniac. Sulfur I can get in several different places but this is the only place I've seen sal ammoniac. I'm sure the iridescent stuff is bismuthinite, and I think I can see some bright yellow and red and orange minerals which may be arsenic or limonite minerals, maybe even some cinnabar or minium, and of course, this whole little valley is filled with alunite."

"I do not like the look of manic greed in your eyes, you maniacal mekaner. Is that what you wanted the leather bags for?" Kayseo was giving me a very dubious look.

"Yeah," I tried to look a little less greedy.

"All of that is in that big cone snorting steam?"

"Probably."

She sighed hugely, took out her crystal, and tranced. I almost jumped out of my shoes when the top of the fumarole vent was cleanly detached as if it sawed off horizontally and floated over to where we were sitting on a grassy verge between the geothermal area and the trees.

It stopped a few hands in front of me, still floating. It was somewhat beehive-shaped and just slightly taller than I was.

"Now you don't have to go walking out on such a dangerous patch of ground," Kayseo gave me one of those formidable looks she had hidden in her repertoire of expressions. "Can we stuff the whole thing in one of the larger leather bags and just take it home as it is?"

"It will get jumbled and collapse," I poked at a bit of crumbly sulfur. "Sorting the minerals out will be much harder than if I do it now when I can see the stratification."

Kayseo heaved another mighty sigh, and waved a hand, "there, I just cast stasis on it. It won't fall apart while traveling." She looked frustrated with me and satisfied with herself, both at the same time.

I poked at the sulfur and it was like adamant. I scratched at the red mineral layer and it was the same way. She had cast stasis on a pile of crumbly minerals and made them impervious. "Wow. That's so awesome. Dammit, I wish I could do magic."

She stood up, selected a leather bag that could easily swallow me, and floated the fumarole top into it. Then she tied it onto Asgotl's saddle, "is that unbalanced?"

"A little but not enough to make it hard to fly," Asgotl took a few steps to test the weight. "We can take care of rebalancing the load after the hot springs."

I was shocked when we got to the hot springs. Asgotl looked smug. He already knew about what was done to my lovely little spring. Someone had expanded and landscaped. I didn't know whether to be pleased or angry over it.

There were now six, not two, pools. They were all paved and the paving material looked suspiciously like hardened Ud-web. The pools were in two sets of three: a large pool, a smaller pool, and an intermediate-sized pool of cold water for cooling off, like the hot springs I remembered as a kid when we visited my relatives in Austria. There were little paths around the pools and through the trees. The effect was almost like a Japanese garden, with artfully placed boulders that looked like they had been there forever, except I knew they were new.

Then there were the shelters, two of them. They had sloping roofs and were open along the side where the roof was highest. There were wood partitions that protected from the wind inside but still left enough room along the open side to sit under the protection of the roof and gaze across the valley below. Last, there was a lined firepit built into the floor in each shelter, with firewood stacked and ready to use. A Cosm-scale cast iron pot hung from a wrought-iron tripod over the fire pit.

"Something tells me that Aylem and Ud were here, both at the same time," I remarked dryly. The unmanageable size of the cast iron pot left me feeling a bit grumpy since there was no way I could move or use the thing by myself. This was my hot spring, dammit. They could have at least used a pot I could use.

"I know nothing, I see nothing, I hear nothing," the griffin muttered.

"Something tells me the griffin knows more than he's letting on," Kayseo said and she carefully got down off his back and then lifted me down. She started untying the saddle bags since we brought food, drink, towels, and ground covers. We left the emergency supplies on the saddle since we didn't want to use them. They were there because I insisted we be prepared for bad weather, in case it turned on us. I was optimistic when we left since the sky in the west was clear as far as I could see.

I was a little concerned as the leading edge of some clouds started moving in from the northwest and it wasn’t midday yet. We would need to keep an eye on the clouds but that was all. If it looked like weather, we would soak and run for home. Neither Kayseo nor I were going to give up our soak and Asgotl went off hunting.

Whoever did the paving inside the pools was a genius. There were several reclining surfaces at different angles and depths that were delightful, and they came in both Coyn and Cosm sizes. With the cold pool, I could cool off and then go back in. That allowed me to stretch out my soaking time much longer than before.

Then the forest reminded me of just how much of my edge I had lost living the soft life at a shrine. A snowbear decided to come to visit. I felt the footfalls in the water before I ever heard them. I reflexively searched for where I hung my bow and quiver only to realize I didn’t bring a bow. It was a mistake that could be fatal.

What was worse was that Kayseo had no experience with this sort of thing. I might be able to hide from a bear or fool a bear away from me, but Kayseo? She was too big to hide or climb a tree and she had no wilderness skills. She also had no feet and it took time to put on the prosthetic legs. If Asgotl were here, she could escape. Without him, we were stuck on our own to outwit the king of the forest food chain. As it was, she might as well be wearing a sign that said: "Eat me!"

“Kayseo,” I whispered, “don’t make any noise, and get as far down into the water as your can.” As quietly as I could, I got out of the pool and ran for the shelter. I had six throwing spikes in a holder that slipped onto the shoulder strap of my underwear. I also had a leather sling in my pouch and there were abundant stones on the hot springs pathways. If I couldn’t kill the bear outright, I could at least blind it. That would give us a fighting chance to incapacitate it or kill it. I was apprehensive since I was out of practice with all my target skills, arrows, spikes, and sling stones. I chided myself mentally for letting my skills lapse. The soft living for the last two years at a shrine could now be the death of both myself and a friend. I had let myself become lax.

I was trying to decide where I wanted to hide that would give me a good shot at the bear’s eyes when it burst into the clearing around the hot springs. I was shocked to see Kayseo looking at the towering behemoth of a snow bear, almost as tall as she was, as it looked back at her in the water. I thought I told her to get her head down. She hadn’t listened to me. Was she trying to get herself killed? I was too far away for a spike so I slowly loaded a stone into the sling, hoping the bear didn’t notice the motion.

“What are you doing, Emily?” Kayseo asked in a conversational voice. I was appalled and besides myself with fear for her.

“I’m getting ready to blind it before it decides you are its dinner. You smell like an easy fat meal to it and we have no good weaponry to take it out. Snowbears aren’t like black or brown bears. They will always go for a kill.” I twirled the sling a few times to get the feel for the stone I put in it and had a second stone ready for the follow-up shot.

“No need to panic, silly,” Kayseo gave me a funny look, “since it’s not like it can hurt us.” The bear started floating off the ground, much to its surprise and mine. It started bellowing in protest when it realized it couldn’t move as it wanted.

“Any advice on where I should send our bear friend so we don’t get bothered again?” Kayseo asked. I fell on my naked butt, breathing hard and lightheaded from the adrenalin surge. Damn Cosm.

“Oh my,” Kayseo suddenly understood, “you forgot that I have magic, didn’t you?”

“Surd save me, woman,” I put my weapons down and walked back to my hot pool, “yes, I forgot all about magic. Put our friend anywhere on the other side of the river. That’s too far for a return trip anytime today.”

Asgotl returned before midday and Kayseo related our snowbear adventure. Well, it was an adventure to her. I kept my opinion on the incident to myself. I was still rattled.

There were still blue patches between clouds when we stuffed our faces for mid repast. Asgotl’s hunting went well while we soaked so even he was well-fed. We chatted and relaxed and all three of us fell asleep within the barrier of warmth that Kayseo cast around the shelter.

That was a mistake because we woke up in the middle of the afternoon with snow falling. Kayseo and I started packing up quickly while Asgotl went aloft to test the weather. He took longer than I thought he would.

When he came back, he was a grumpy griffin, "I think we better spend the night. I can't cross the ridge tops and I checked the winds going out over the sink of the river. The valley here isn't the problem. The wind out over the Great Cracks is the problem. We'll be late for dinner, girls, by a day and a half or more."

"Lisaykos will have our heads when we get back," Kayseo looked distressed. "I better see if I can raise someone to tell them we're stuck by some weather." She took out her crystal and tranced. She came out of her trance after only a moment, grimaced at something in the valley, and pointed.

I followed her finger and spotted what looked like a roc eagle and rider. It flew up the valley floor and then up the slope to the shelter. I recognized Cadrees which meant the bundle inside the flying cloak had to be Usruldes. He jumped down to the ground and pulled down his hood

"I was afraid I wasn't going to make it before the bad snow hit," he pulled off his muffler and shook out his hair. "It will get worse before it gets better. I brought supplies just in case, and some books, and some cards too."

"If you have more food, we need to figure out where to store it so the bears don't come after it," I advised.

"We'll reinforce the barrier around the shelter," Usruldes grinned. "You keep forgetting that we can use magic." He pulled the saddle off Cadrees and carried it in, saddle bags and all.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him.

"The wraiths told my mother. Then my mother told me. I told her to not worry. Then I looked at the weather, which is a clairvoyance trick I know where you look down at the surface of the planet from way high up. I saw the storm. I picked up supplies in Is'syal and flew straight here. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll finish what Kayseo started to do, except it's a bit easier for me to reach my mother."

He did that open-eyed trance that was one of his unique quirks as a mage and came out of it a short time later. "My mother knows not to wait for you for dinner, Emily," he smiled. "So let's have some fun with the late-season camping. I bet it's fun to soak under the stars with the snow falling. Don't look so shocked, Kayseo. Didn't you realize there are two sets of pools, one for guys and one for gals? Didn't you notice the artfully laid out hedge of pine trees blocking the view between them?"

Kayseo's mouth soundlessly said, "oh."

It snowed for two days but we had enough food, enough warmth, and a lot of fun. Kayseo was a killer with a snowball. Of course, she made Cosm-sized snowballs and then lobbed them at me while I was floating on my back in my hot spring pool. I didn't like the fact that I had no way to extract retribution at an equal scale. My sweet dear Kayseo had turned into a bully. Usruldes, who I swore was no longer my friend, told her about my ticklish feet. The two of them had a great time. I, on the other hand, was simply their helpless victim.

I cut some pine boughs and went snowshoeing, running over the drifts and frustrating Usruldes because he had to plow through the drifts to catch me. The look on his face when I skied down a slope on my pine branches was worth the two days of teasing by my overly-large friends.

Of course, I loved looking at my valley once again. More than any other place on Erdos, this valley was part of my soul. I knew every stream and rock and deer track. It was home, even if I didn't have a new house built for myself yet. I knew that I would be back and that I would find a new spot to make a dwelling, probably within walking distance of the hot springs.

"There's somewhere I want to go," I told Asgotl while Usruldes was doing the packing for everyone. "It will take about an eighth of a bell and you'll have to carry something that weighs about twice as much as I do back in one of the big leather bags."

"Oh, really, Grandma?"

"Yes, really, blubber brain."

"Can I come with?" Kayseo asked.

"Nope, you won't fit. Besides, this is a simple chore of rolling a rock out of a tight place to where Asgotl can pick it up. It will take no time at all. I left it behind the last time I was up at my crystal collecting spot because I couldn't lift it. Now with unwelcome Cosm visiting my valley, I want it before someone else finds it and takes it away." I started climbing up onto the saddle and strapped in.

"Someone should go with you," Kayseo declared, looking vexed with me.

"Someone is going with me: Asgotl," I pointed out. "Let's go and be quick, blubber head." Then, we were aloft.

He complained to me when we landed because there was very little room between the cliff wall and the trees.

I climbed into the crevice and inspected the rock I had left behind. When I found it, I knew I would either need to work on it at the site or get it somewhere more convenient. It was the size of a large beach ball by Earth's standards. It probably weighed around 100 kilos, which was just short of 250 pounds, give or take a few pounds. It was mostly lepidolite with fat quartz crystals and radiating spears of watermelon tourmaline. Both the quartz and the tourmaline were highly valued by Cosm for their ability to help focus magic. I still hadn't figured out how crystals and magic worked together.

Now I was struck by a quandary. I brought a rope, thinking to let the rock slide downhill under its own weight with my weight acting as a brake above it. I realized too late that my right arm was not up to the task. Did I have enough line to jury rig a rope-based pulley-like arrangement? That would half or quarter the weight. Was the leather in my belt thick enough to use in such an arrangement?

I ran the end of the line down to Asgotl, looped it around the rock, and then ran back down to him, as a means of measuring if I had enough length. I did this two and a half times before I ran out of line. I needed to find an anchor for the upper half of the line that I would use as the pulley end. If I could find an anchor, then I could do this using the physics of pulleys.

Then I realized that I could reduce the load on my arms if I put the rock in the leather bag and slid the bag down the hill. It would protect the crystals better too. I made a slide of pine needles to decrease the friction on the crevice floor and used the line to roll the rock into the bag. I looped the end of the line around a boulder and made a loop with a bowline knot.

I had just tied the other end of the line and was running the rest of the line through the loop when Asgotl called uphill to me: "What's taking you so long? I thought you said this would be quick?"

"Sorry, feather head, I forgot my shoulder wasn't happy with me, so I need to rig a little rope to reduce the load of the rock as I deliver it downhill to you."

"How much longer?"

"Not much longer," I shouted, "I just need to finish this knot. Then, can I get you to hold on to one end of the rope while I start the rock on its way downhill?"

I half-ran and half-skipped down the slope to where he was patiently waiting. Well, maybe not too patiently. He took the line end with one talon, "how much does this thing weigh?"

"Oh, maybe about the same as a large big horn sheep, or a touch more."

"Well, that's not much. You really can't lift that small a weight?"

"It weighs two to three times what I weigh, thick head. Do the math!" I turned to see Usruldes and Kayseo looking into the crevice.

"You knew they were there and didn't say a thing," I accused that worthless griffin.

"Yep." He had that snarky look on his face. Damn blubber brain.

"Now that's clever," Usruldes said as he started untying my rope. "So that's how you managed to move all the heavy stuff around that you made. I've seen other Coyn do similar things when loading wagons. I would never have thought to substitute a rope for a pulley."

"It will wear out the rope fast if you do it all the time, and just what are you two doing here? I was almost done."

"Emily, you've been gone for half a bell already," Kayseo said, floating so she could look into the crevice.

Usruldes untied the top of the leather bag and took out the rock as if it were nothing. He whistled, "of all the treasures of Tiki, will you look at that? Emily, you could buy an entire cattle holding with this, and still have room for sheep besides.”

"There are some projects I need to finance," I admitted. What I wanted were some roads. I wanted to buy enough livestock to hire Ud to build them. I lusted after spider tech for roads, some bridges, and maybe towpaths and canals too. I wanted to settle Coyn in Cosm-free farmland on my side of the volcanic rift. Then I wanted some chapel shrines for healers, which meant contracting with the Healing Shrine.

I hadn't figured out schools yet or any social safety net stuff. I was more concerned with roads, shelter, and food for the refugees from Impotu and newly-freed Coyn from Foskos. I had to wonder if it was possible to set up a representative government at the local level for Coyn who had never known any freedom. That one bothered me. There were so many things to worry about.

"Emily?" Kayseo broke into my thoughts. "You're thinking again and haven't heard anything we've said for the last few breaths." She was looking amused.

"Yes, that was certainly one of Emily's thinking trances," Usruldes was also amused. He took two steps downhill, wrapped my flying cloak around me, and dropped me on the saddle. He put the rock into one of his saddle bags. Kayseo got on behind me and soon we were in the air. The world was covered in white all the way down the valley. The snow vanished on the flats by the time we crossed the Great Cracks but was halfway down the mountains on the east side of the rift. The storm ended the harvest for the year. Some root crops didn't make it out of the ground in time but most of the farm production was already safely in storage.

We landed on the south balcony. Cadrees lamented that he was too big to go inside like Asgotl. The rest of us made our way to Lisaykos' study.

"Thank you for leaving a note, you two," Lisaykos raised one eyebrow dubiously. "My son tells me you were well prepared to camp out for several days even without his help."

"Well, this is Emily we're talking about," Aylem's voice said from the hallway in back of me. "Someone without magic would not survive in a place like the other side of the Great Cracks without being prepared for what the wilderness can throw at a person."

"Yes, that's right," Kayseo turned to look at the Queen and bowed an obeisance. "I didn't think we needed all that stuff but Emily gave me a list and insisted that I bring what she told me to get. Now I know why."

'We had a very good time while we were snowed in," said Usruldes, or maybe I should say, Hessakos since he wasn't in his wraith suit. "The hot springs were lovely. The scenery was sublime, and Emily fetched one of her finds from where she collects crystals." He put the leather bag on Lisaykos' table and unwrapped the rock.

The looks on Lisaykos' and Aylem's faces were amazing, considering that they both managed to keep their jaws attached after dropping them.

"You had this waiting in a safe spot all this time, just waiting to retrieve it?" Aylem asked as I climbed into my spot on my lounge.

"Yep," I settled in, enjoying the look of the gobsmacked Cosm.

"So why now?" Aylem asked, perplexed. "We could have gotten this when we got the magnetite."

"I figured out how to build a road across the Great Cracks good enough for freight wagons," I explained. "I need to finance it."

"And?" Aylem prodded for more.

"It's easy to build a road anywhere you want if you can hire Ud. She's got to be tired of mutton by now. I thought I would try to hire her. Given that she suffers from boredom, I thought I would tempt her with the challenge of making a road where all the Cosm in Foskos have failed.

(continued in Part 2, Installment 17)