Emily, Healing Shrine of Mugash
Asgotl told the Queen and Lisaykos that he would sit with me until one of the gang of three came back on duty. Apparently, Lisaykos gave them the morning off.
I climbed up a chair and used it to get to the window sill. The sill was wide enough so I could sit on it and look out. The shrine was surrounded by landscaped grounds with garden beds, pathways, and neatly trimmed trees. Beyond the stone wall surrounding the grounds was the town of Aybhas. Beautiful mansions abutted the shrine and climbed up the mountainside bordering the community.
I noticed the window panes were small, not bigger than the palm of my hand. It took many panes to fill the large window and I realized they were not glass. Some were slightly colored with pastel tints: pink, lime green, lilac purple. Others had a rainbow spectrum on what looked like an interior cleavage plane. I tapped on one and then scratched at it with my fingernail. I was surprised to see that it left a gouge.
Calcite! The panes were transparent calcite! I was astounded. What a show of ostentation. If anyone had walked in on me just then, I'm sure my face would have been a sight. It was unbelievable, to see this much transparent calcite all in one place, used as window panes.
"That's quite a reaction," the griffin said from the doorway. He startled me and I fell off the sill. I was lucky I had pushed the chair up to the window because I only fell a short distance to the padded seat. I landed awkwardly but escaped with only my pride bruised and little else.
I sat up and the griffin was relieved. "I was afraid you might have hurt yourself. You are alright, yes? That's good. My mistress would never let me hear the end of it if you got hurt while I was on watch. So, what is with the window?"
I rolled my eyes and gave the griffin a look. Then I started to flap my mouth as if I was mouthing words, standing on the chair seat and gesturing at the window as if I was giving a lecture. The griffin started making that funny laughing sound so I kept it up until he begged me to stop.
"Oh, that was precious," he said as he caught his breath. "I am happy to discover that you have a sense of humor. I was beginning to think you were nothing but gloom and doom. Hey, don't give me that look. You can't say that you've been a bubbly package of sweetness and joy. Anyway, can you come over here? I want to know if you think you can get into the saddle. Aylem said I couldn't take you to the market or anywhere near other people, but she didn't say I couldn't take you for a ride. And looking at you, I think you're someone who has a deep need to get a break from this place. You don't have a flying coat or leggings so I can't take you very far or very high, but we can certainly take a jaunt through the foothills or down the river."
I climbed off the chair and walked up to Asgotl. He was lying down just outside the door. Standing up, he was a head taller than the Queen. Lying down, he was still much taller than I was. Looking up at him, I realized that his beak could easily snap my head off from my neck; however, it occurred to me that I wasn't the least bit scared of him. Not only did I feel safe around him; I felt protected. I walked around his side and couldn't figure out how to get on his back.
"If I put my head on the floor, you can climb up my foreleg to my neck. Then you can walk up my neck to reach the saddle. But before you do so, we should agree on some signals since you can't speak." We worked out a set of different thumps on the right and left and then he had me climb up and run through them so he could be sure he could feel my pounding on his shoulders to get his attention. Last, he made me come up with a way to strap into the saddle so I wouldn't fall off, even if I passed out, especially since my feet couldn't reach the stirrups that the Queen used.
When we finished planning, we both walked sedately to the end of the hallway opposite the atrium and out onto the large half-circular balcony I didn't know was there.
"This is where I land when Aylem and I come to visit. Now quick, climb up, strap in, and let's go get into some trouble."
---
Lisaykos, Healing Shrine of Mugash
"Great One! Holy One!" Kayseo, the youngest of Emily’s healers, came running into Lisaykos's study without even knocking. "Asgotl and the little Coyn are missing!"
"They are both missing?" Aylem looked up from the shrine's accounts, which she was balancing for me since I struggled with the new numbers and the Queen's math.
"Knowing that griffin, he probably took her for a ride," I groaned. "You can use the shrine's crystal. They can't have gone far so you should be able to find them."
"If he took her to the market, he's grounded for a year!" Aylem growled as she got up and I followed. Kayseo watched us go past. I think she was a bit intimidated by us, both of whom were a head taller than she was, though at fifteen she was still growing. She followed us out of my study and closed the door. Curiosity got the better of her and she ran after us.
She sprinted down the stairs behind us to the ground floor and into the atrium where the crystal chamber took up half the floor space. Aylem sat on the throne known as the Seat of Healing.
"Close and lock the door, Kayseo," I told her. Kayseo was excited to watch the crystal be used. She had never been allowed in the chamber before today. The Queen's eyes were half-lidded as she dropped into her trance. Within the insides of the shrine's modest crystal, just under seven hands high and three wide, an image began to form. There was no sound to go with the motion of the image.
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The image showed the griffin standing in a mountain stream up to his knees. He was trailing a wing in the water and then using it to scoop up fish and throw them, along with some water, toward a gravel bar where they would land. The little Coyn would pick the fish up and then slam them on the ground to immobilize them. The griffin would then open his beak and the Coyn would toss a few fish in.
After a few minutes, the griffin and Coyn started to pile up driftwood and dry grasses. Then the Coyn picked up a rock and took off her belt. She started to hit the gray metal belt buckle with the rock. Kayseo and I were both amazed to see sparks fly off and into the dry grass, where smoke and then flame appeared. After a few minutes, a nice fire was going.
The Coyn then fiddled with the metal guard on the billet end of the belt and pulled out what looked like a short fat gray knife the same size as the billet guard. She picked up the last two fish and using the little blade, gutted them and washed out their insides, sending the fish guts down the river. Then she stuffed a stick up each fish's mouth and handed them to the griffin, who held them over the fire with one talon.
The vision flickered out as the Queen dropped her trance. She took a deep breath in and stretched her neck.
"That's the canyon of the Black River, about a half a wagon-day by road from here," I informed Aylem, hiding that I was amused. Asgotl took that little Coyn fishing.
"I am going to ground that griffin," the Queen grumbled.
"They did not go to the market like he wanted to do," I pointed out.
"He did not ask if he could take her anywhere, even to the river.”
"Would you have given permission even if he asked to take her fishing?" I asked.
"No, not without me."
"I think maybe that was the point. I can't say I approve. It's not safe for her to leave the building right now without protection, but she was smiling and having fun with Asgotl. That's the most relaxed I think I have ever seen her so far. A break away from all of us may be what she needed. He is rather astute about the people around him."
"The two of them," Aylem looked quite vexed. "They both could use a talking to."
"What was that you said this morning about trying not to frighten Emily?" I motioned Kayseo to unlock the door. Kayseo's eyebrows shot up when she realized the Coyn had a name, even though it sounded quite strange.
"Quit being reasonable," the Queen snapped. "I'm in the mood for a bit of temper and I intend to enjoy every minute of eviscerating my griffin."
"You could borrow my eagle and fetch them yourself," I offered.
"No, they will back soon enough," the Queen predicted. She was wrong by several bells.
---
Lisaykos, Healing Shrine of Mugash
The sound of the griffin's talons clicking on the floor tiles echoed down the hallway and across the atrium. Aylem and I heard Asgotl's claws through the study door, which was deliberately left open. It was after the sixth bell. Dinner would be served after the seventh daylight bell when the sun went down. We had expected the griffin and Emily back by the fifth bell at the latest since the canyon of the Black River was nearby.
Aylem had distracted herself from worrying for most of the afternoon by showing me Latin letters and their Fosk equivalents. That was because I decided to teach the little Coyn her letters, to hide her knowledge of another world's alphabet.
Aylem leapt up at the sound and strode out the door toward the griffin. I could tell she would let the griffin know just how unhappy she was with him. She stopped on the atrium walkway when she saw him and Emily.
Twessera and Thuorfosi were undoing the leather straps holding the Coyn on the saddle. The little Coyn looked both cold and sagging with misery. Her lips were blue.
Asgotl was speaking to Twessera in a subdued voice: "Get her in a hot bath right away and then put her to bed. Make her sleep if you must."
"What's this?" Twessera pulled a tiny hatchet and a small grey metal mallet from the Coyn's belt. The Coyn followed the tools with her eyes, looking a little panicked.
"Those are more valuable than crystal," the griffin said to Twessera. "Please put them on the window sill in her room. She will want those near her."
The scene was unusual since Cosm gave orders to their mounts and not the other way around; however, the two young healers followed Asgotl's instructions without pause. Then again, everything about the last rotation had been extraordinary for everyone around the little Coyn. Aylem and I had caught up with the griffin as he watched Twessera and Thuorfosi carry the Coyn down the hallway to the bathing chamber.
"You've been to the Valley of the Vanishing River," Aylem said in a very neutral voice. "I was worried when you didn't return from fishing earlier. Why do you smell like smoke?"
Asgotl looked at his mistress, then his head sagged. He laid down, suddenly shaking with fatigue. "You are entitled to be vexed with me for taking Emily fishing. I will not apologize for crossing the lava plains." His head dropped to between his paws and his ears drooped.
He closed his eyes but continued to speak. "The east side of the valley is on fire," he said. "The wind has blown the fire eastward over the ridge into the Valley of the Aspen River. The fire started at her home. It looks like it has been burning for several days. We did not even imagine going there today. When we started back, without trees to block our view, we saw the fire from across the Great Cracks. When we got to her home, we found part of the cavern roof blown off and the walls inside collapsed outwards from whatever exploded. Most everything was destroyed, with the remains of her things strewn in all directions. She wept when she found those two steel tools intact. That's all she could salvage. She has lost everything: her home and all her possessions."
Aylem knelt next to his head and scratched behind his ears. He cracked open an eye and looked at her. "I found the bodies of two of the king's soldiers in the rubble, what was left of them. There were signs that her home had been visited by others since the explosion." He closed his eyes and let a breath out. "Can we please stay here for the night? I think I'm too tired to fly anywhere."
"Of course we can," she patted him on the head.