Imstay King, Manse Truvos, 7th rot., 7th day, immediately after the trial
Aylem rose up from the chair next to me, lifted Emily out of the Lord Holder’s chair, and vanished with her upstairs. I wasn’t surprised. Emily looked like someone had stepped on her by the time she finished. She could barely hold her head up. Aylem’s snatch-and-grab wasn’t unexpected either, at least not by me. Those two had been in their own shared space for most of the trial, a space that the rest of us couldn’t see into and didn’t understand.
The guards took the miserable criminal away to wherever she was kept. Emily’s punishment was unique and disturbing. What a terrible slow death, dying of starvation alone in the cold and the dark. The three rotations of water was a calculated cruelty since without water death would come much quicker. With water, a person could survive without food for about three rotations. Few people would be able to stop themselves from drinking to shorten the agony of their death.
I caught Kamagishi’s eye and she strolled over.
“Seven-tenths of the law is to protect the rest of society from the power of the silverhairs?” I raised an eyebrow in question at my High Justicar.
“I didn’t know the numbers worked out that way,” Kamagishi plopped down into the chair vacated by Aylem, “but it sounds about right. Emily stayed up late last night researching my brother’s copy of the law so I suspect that number is real.”
“We need to suspend all hearings, trials, and tax penalties involving slaves immediately, even if they were committed last season or last year,” I said. “How fast can you do that?”
“You can still treat those matters under the old law, Imstay King,” Kamagishi looked vexed. “You will have trouble with owners if you don’t.”
“We will have slave riots if we do,” I opined. “The unrest from south Impotu is spreading here. We’ve already had some incidents in Surdos and Weirgos among Coyn slaves and in Kas among mounts.”
“Then I advise we hear slave property cases on a case-by-case basis in Is’syal with either you or me presiding. That will create a desirable backlog. We can draw the proceedings out and treat each case with maximum care. We can then control, delay, and dilute the effect of those hearings on public order. We may need to buy some slaves in cases of proven cruelty and grant pensions to families if we find and need to execute another Oyseray. Gods, what a horrible woman. We will also need to examine all cases immediately in case we need to separate slaves from potentially-dangerous owners before trial.
“I never realized nine or fewer acts of cruelty, which includes killing, went unpunished other than the kill tax,” I felt a headache growing between my temples. “How fast do you think we can rewrite the law?”
“It depends on who does the rewriting,” she grinned. I got a bad feeling looking at the grin.
“What does that mean, Holy One?” The headache was getting worse.
“If Emily did it, one to two days” she chuckled. “If I did it, four to five days. If Aylem did it, five to seven days, but only because she would go back and double-check her work. If you did it, one rotation, and then two more days because Aylem would double check your work.”
I broke up laughing, “oh, gods, you really do understand her, don’t you? Yes, she would, wouldn’t she? But, Holy One, do you know how much money we have kept in the treasury because how those annoying habits of hers?” I grinned at Kamagishi.
She smiled back and continued: “If the Convocation got involved with anything other than approval or veto of the law rewrite, a season.”
“And if the Lord Holders stick our noses in, at least a year,” Lord Katsa said as she and Lord Sopno walked up.
I groaned. Katsa was right about that. That was how the Mounts’ Treaty got derailed and almost unraveled.
“You look like you have indigestion, Mighty One,” Katsa remarked sympathetically.
“I expect a case any moment now,” I grimaced. “To be truthful, what I have is a headache that’s getting worse by the breath.”
Katsa gave me a funny look, held up a crystal mounted on a ring, and cast a charm. My headache went away.
“Oh!” I blinked. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” she pulled two chairs over and she and Sopno sat facing us while the crowd broke up and milled about murmuring. “Given how thrilled Emily is about Foskan courts and law, I doubt you could convince her to revamp the kingdom’s law. If you tried, she’d be off with the Blessed Asgotl to spend the next year fishing somewhere in the Fenlands.
“I suggest you and the Holy Kamagishi sit down together and do the task. That way, you can claim the interests of the courts, the land holders, and the shrines were all represented, and the rewrite was overseen by the most experienced legal expert available, namely the High Justicar.
“Then present the results, along with the trial transcript, to all the parties involved and tell them it’s not negotiable. Any details in the rewrite that turn out to be unworkable can be fixed later. It doesn’t have to be perfect right away, so long as it can be amended. That should go a long way to keeping down slave unrest.”
“Not negotiable? Lord Katsa, I’ll have the conservative Lord Holders up in arms, literally.” What was she thinking?
“Imstay King,” she smiled malevolently, “has it not occurred to you that the trial transcript from today is now scripture? Scripture is not negotiable, and that makes certain changes to the law not negotiable.”
“Surd save us.” That had not occurred to me. “She did that on purpose, that little half-horn-sized troublemaker.”
“Yes, Imstay King,” Kamagishi nodded, “with malice aforethought. Everything Emily did today was planned, everything excluding her physical state, which took a beating. I don’t think she planned on her sour stomach or the bad case of nerves. Poor thing. She really would be happier if she could be home in her little valley across the Great Cracks.”
“Please,” I groaned again, “I’ll be doing penance for that for the rest of my days. How did I get to be so lucky to be the king with a prophet underfoot? Why me?”
“Well, Why-Me-King,” Sopno leaned back in his chair, “you probably should also call the commanders of the garrisons together along with the High Priestess of Erhonsay. You need to strategize on how you’re going to deal with both the inevitable slave riots and the inevitable uprising of certain lord holders we all could name.”
“I heard the incident in Surdos did not end well,” Katsa prodded. “Working out a strategy before another incident happens might be a good idea. Those several hundred Coyn did a lot of damage, destroyed a granary with the cold season on our doorstep, and died for their trouble. We can’t afford losses in goods or labor like that in the middle of a war with Impotu.”
“They rebelled and destroyed property,” I countered without thinking.
“I know what the investigation by the White Shrine found, Mighty One,” she frowned at me. “A third of those Coyn were underfed and suffering the physical effects of too much discipline. Where was the right action in killing people that desperate?”
I held up my arms and grimaced, about to reply when someone put a glass mug of dark ale in my hand.
“Mighty One, this is what I could find on short notice for you,” the Revered Garki said. “And for you, Mistress,” he passed Kamagishi another glass mug of dark ale. “Revered One,” he passed Katsa a steaming beaker of tea. “Honored One,” he gave Sopno a bowl of spiced wine.
“Shall I schedule a meeting of the garrison commanders and the Holy Irralray for you, Mighty One?” Garki asked. “You have the afternoon available the day after tomorrow and I know the first-floor small reception room is open.”
I scowled at Garki, who smiled back as if I wasn’t making a face at him. “Yes, take care of it, please.”
“Oh my,” Katsa sat up, “Are you for hire? I’ll double what this king is paying you.”
“Oh no, you don’t,” Kamagishi sat up defensively, “He’s my precious first-male trainee and he’s not moving out of Is’syal.”
“I’m teasing, Holy One,” Katsa smiled with a playful edge. “We all know about the amazing Revered Garki, the Chosen of Galt, who built the first slide rule outside of Omexkel and who smuggled the Princess out of the palace to take her shrine exams. I doubt the cat god would allow him to go anywhere before he reaches his priest’s vows.”
I sighed, “If only my problems were as simple as someone trying to steal my Garki from me.”
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Aylem, Manse Truvos, 7th rot., 7th day, immediately after the trial
I was unhappy and upset with Emily, but as I took her upstairs, she started to fold up into herself. By the time I put her on the bed, there was little intelligence left in her eyes as she collapsed into an attack of anxiety and nerves, radiating misery.
I worried about her mental stability, and not for the first time. The longer I knew her, the more I realized how difficult it was for Emily to live in Cosm society, yet it was we Cosm who had trapped her in our midst. Maybe she could get over her anxiety from being around us if we had protected her as I had promised.
Instead, she had been abducted twice and harmed both times. She suffered death and a painful recovery because of me. She was nearly killed by a malicious Priestess of Sassoo in Black Falls. All this harm at the hands of the Cosm in just a year and a half. Maybe she would be better off far away from us in her valley refuge on the other side of the Great Cracks, far removed from Cosm hands.
I took off the hat, the shoes, the sling, and the mantle. I used magic to undo clasps on the scholar's robe and the laces on the kirtle. I put her in her nightgown, housecoat, and sling, and tucked her into the bedding. By this time, she was just staring off into space. She wasn't catatonic even though she looked like it. I could hear some of her thoughts as the dread of the consequences of the trial sunk in and the weight of her burdens threatened to smother her.
"Too bad your shoulder is a mess," I said, sitting on the edge of the bed and lightly placing my hand on her knees, "or I'd ask that goofy griffin we know to take you fishing. You are in serious need of some time away."
"The shoulder is feeling a b...bit better," she said so softly that I could barely hear her. "I'm sorry I ab...bused y...you today but the law needs to be redone before the slave revolt spreads to this side of the mountains. I started the revolt in Salicet. Galt took me to the slave pens. I taught the Coyn there the recipe for calcium phosphide bombs. They will spread here if Foskos doesn't fix the law. Must talk to Kamagishi and Imstay." She held her head between her hands and grimaced. The misery she radiated was almost unbearable.
I kicked off my shoes and climbed onto the bed, sitting crosslegged facing her. "More nasty phosphorus reactions?" I dropped my chin into my hands, arms braced on my knees.
"Calcium phosphide reacts explosively with water to make phosphine gas, so there's explosive force, a fire that water won't put out, and poison all from one little bomb," her volume was still low.
"Usruldes reported that Coyn all over southern Impotu have been biting the gems off their hands," I told her as I looked at the ache in her shoulder, a persistent red ball of pain. "There were slave riots on the large farms and food riots in Salicet in the lower city after the Shrine of Galt and the Library burned down. Can I numb your shoulder for you? I can see the pain from here."
"My pain doesn't matter. It will get w...worse both in Impotu and in Mattamesscontess," she said sadly. "Millions of Coyn slaves in Impotu are s...suffering right now and here I sit in a comfortable bed with no wants unattended. Life is cruel, Jane," she added in English.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
"I know you're miserable, Emily," I said back in English, not feeling at all sympathetic toward the growing eavesdropping crowd on the other side of the door, "but your pain matters. You are not an inconsequential person. Yes, there is great suffering everywhere, but denying your pain here and now is not going to fix the suffering in the east or the suffering here in Foskos. That's your misery talking, and not your boffin brain. I will listen to the boffin brain but I'm not a fan of listening to a teenager having a sniveling snit while feeling sorry for herself."
"Sniveling snit?!" she snapped. I had just found something the usually-composed Emily would react to. I was curious where her anger would take her but she let the flash of anger go. How could she do that so easily? I was mystified.
"You are right, Aylem," her volume dropped again, as she dropped back into Fosk, "I am not being rational. I w...would be grateful if you could numb the pain for a time. It's hard to think straight w...with the constant ache in my shoulder." She laid her arm over her eyes. I stopped the pain. I also robbed her of voluntary motion for the healing arm and shoulder so she wouldn't make the swelling worse.
"You are being difficult again," I sighed. I realized I didn't understand her half as much as I thought I did.
"Am I really that difficult?" she wondered. It was an honest question.
"Anyone would be difficult if miserable and in pain," I remarked.
"Don't dodge the question," she said, arm still over her eyes.
"Yes and no," I had to chuckle. "You are the grumpiest person in the morning I have ever met. Your other difficulties I think are the ones we created for you and the burdens the gods piled on you." I lost my humor immediately. "In reality, you are easy to live with, undemanding, unselfish, and rather timid most of the time, except when you're being grumpy. You do have a rather amazing stubborn streak when something is important to you. You also disregard class distinctions, like the Yank that you are. If you could live where and how you wanted, I doubt you would be difficult. How are you doing under that arm, by the way?"
"I'm deliberately not looking at your huge self if that's what you're wondering," she said with a bit of an edge to her voice. I could be happy with that since it was better than catatonia.
"Good enough. Now that the trial is over, the Convocation must meet with me and Imstay. You just destroyed every law that deals with owned sapients and this has to be fixed immediately. Did you know that? You made your divinely-inspired judgment of the law during a court session so it is now part of the court record and can't be ignored. Was that deliberate?"
The black miasma of her misery threatened to completely envelop her, "yes."
"Do you have a proposal on what to do with the laws?" I asked, curious as to how far forward Emily had planned.
"That's the easy part," she whispered.
"It is?" I was gobsmacked. How could it be easy?
"Yep, just use the original version of the mounts war treaty without the concessions given to the lord holders 14 years ago and apply it to all non-Cosm races. It's a good piece of law. Simple, really. The hard part is getting Imstay and the garrisons to make it stick."
"What I failed to do 14 years ago," I dropped my head. "My great failure."
"Not so," Emily snapped again. "That was no failure. Ask any flying mount about that."
"But..."
"Don't let what you didn't achieve overshadow the brilliant success of the mounts treaty," Emily dropped her arm and nailed me with her eyes. "What's with you, Jane? Why do you tear yourself down? Have you no self-esteem?"
"That's what Lyappis thinks," I admitted.
"Huh. How are things going with her, by the way?" she asked with a look of honest curiosity on her face.
"I don't know," I answered her honest question with my honest response. "It's not easy to know if anything has changed inside. I feel like the same me when I wake up every day. Frankly, I'm scared to tears of repeating what I've done in the past. I have no way of knowing if I can control myself."
"I guess that makes sense. Most people can't see the changes in themselves from the inside," she measured me with her strange Galt-golden eyes. "I find myself liking the new Aylem a lot better than the old one."
"What?!?"
"Tomorrow, I expect Kamagishi will follow me to the Healing Shrine with one of her magic recording scrolls," she smiled with an edge of impish glee. "She'll be after everything the gods had me do in Impotu, Mattamesscontess, and Mattamukmuk. I'm not too worried about it. I guess Kayseo didn't tell Kamagishi about the recording crystals that Priest Artificer Nitsuthluk made and Huhoti lent her so she could record everything I told her about my adventures out east."
"What?!?"
"Wow, surprised you twice in a row," Emily looked happy with herself. I started laughing at the absurdity of the prank those three pulled. Huhoti, Kayseo, and Emily knew that the shrines would want the information, and yet they sat on telling anyone for days.
"You're looking a lot better than you were when we first came upstairs, troublemaker," I shook my head. "Will you want any dinner?"
"Maybe later," she grimaced again, "but my stomach is in too many knots right now to eat anything. The murder of those ten Coyn sits badly in my gut but the mundanity with which every person in the reception hall considered those deaths makes me want to retch. It sickens me and angers me, both at the same time. This attitude of Cosm who don't value non-Cosm lives is a cancer, Jane, that needs to be cut out."
"Most Cosm aren't like that, Emily," I said reflexively.
"No? This everyday indifference of the Cosm toward the lives of so many mounts and Chem and Coyn isn't its own evil? I will concede the shrines of Landa, Mugash, Sassoo, and Giltak treat Coyn with humanity, but aren't they the exception and not the rule? Lord Fusso may go out hunting down illegal breeding farms, but where is the organized effort to weed these places out by the Lord Holders and the garrisons under the leadership of the king, especially after the uncovering of crimes toward Coyn by Lords Nirirgi and Kushamar? We all know these places exist and these crimes happen. Why does Cosm society look the other way, Jane? Why?"
"That's like asking why there is evil in the world even though the gods could have made a world without it, Emily," I gave her smoldering anger a calm reply. "Maybe it's just laziness and not wanting to change. Acting rightly and following the will of the gods is work that takes real effort, but it is human nature to be lazy. I don't know if I have any answers for you, Em. After all, I'm not the prophet here. You are. You're the one who's supposed to have the answers."
"Blarg!" She threw a pillow at me in aggravation. I could tell she was getting some strength back because she actually hit me, in the face, no less.
"So, how are you feeling, besides angry, stressed, tired, worn down, depressed and upset to your stomach? There's already a line on the other side of that door of people wanting to talk to you," I pointed out.
She groaned and pulled the covers over her head.
"Tell me, thou of the closed mouth," I tugged the covers down, "you knew about what would happen in Black Falls a half year beforehand? I have the suspicion that the gods have been talking to you a lot more than you've told us."
"I claim the right not to incriminate myself," she inched the covers back up to just under her eyes. "Well, Erhonsay only told me to keep you from leaving. She didn't tell me why. I didn't find out about the Gods' plan to off you if we didn't keep you in Black Falls until the evening before when Galt woke me up. Then Galt and Mugash argued with Tiki over how much to tell me, which is ironic as hell when you consider that Mugash never told me about slowing my recovery. Anyway, Tiki just wanted to..."
"Stop!" I barked. "What do you mean, Mugash slowed your recovery?"
"Oh crap! You don't know, do you? Lisaykos didn't tell you because she put a lid on it at my request," Emily was appalled, I think at herself. "Crap, crap, and more crap." She sighed. "Mugash wanted me to spend as much time as possible in your company between your time with Ud and the upcoming revelation from Landa," she shot me an apologetic look. "With Tiki's approval, she arranged that my recuperation would take longer than it should have if she had not meddled. I haven't spoken to Mugash since I found out what she did to me. I'm not happy with her."
I was speechless. I had no idea Mugash would do something like that to Emily. It was beyond unreasonable. How could a god do that to the chosen prophet?
"Regardless," Emily kept going, "Tiki wanted to order me to keep you in Black Falls with no explanation, but Galt and Mugash disagreed. They argued that I would be better motivated if I knew the reason. They were serious about putting you down if you had run away and become incurable. I can't find much fault with that. The thought of someone as powerful as you going insane is the stuff of nightmares."
"That is so frightening," I shivered involuntarily. I switched to English because of our eavesdroppers. "The gods made me into a monster and because of it, they might kill me if I can't control myself. I hate it, Em. I hate being too big and I hate being overpowered. I hate that everyone is scared of me, especially you and Opa. And I hate always feeling alone and unloved just because of the way I was born. Why I am even telling you this?"
Emily switched to English too, eyeing the tiny crack in the door. "I have no idea why you just unloaded all that, but you probably needed to. Have you ever told anyone else you feel this way? I can understand the feeling alone bit. I'm kinda stuck there myself. I've given up mentioning how much I hate being stuck as a prophet. I didn't even know there were real gods in this place two years ago. Now I'm their prophet? It puts a whole new spin on why Jonah was suicidal.
“I get the bit about feeling alone, Jane. It's hard being unique because no one understands what it's like to be that way. People think it must be so great to be as powerful as you are, or to be a prophet and talk to gods like me. They have no idea how difficult it is to live this way. All they see is the status and their own envy."
That gobsmacked me. Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised given how smart Emily was. I felt like crying. She understood.
"That's an interesting face, Jane," she made a strange expression that I couldn't interpret, but her thoughts felt sympathetic. "Too bad you can't get Tiki to take you bar hopping. It's a lot of fun, and you don't get a hangover. You look like you could use some fun."
"But he did," I confessed. "He showed up with Landa and Gertzpul about six rotations ago, in my dreams, but it felt too real to be just a dream. We went to a place called Trader Vic's in the basement of the Plaza Hotel in New York."
"I hope he made you his signature pina colada," Emily said with a hint of envy.
"It was amazing," I admitted.
"The night before Black Falls," Emily fell into her story-telling voice, "I fell back asleep before Asgotl arrived at the Crystal Shrine with Galt sleeping on top of me. It's amazing how a god can be such a cat. When I woke up, Foyuna was bravely waiting in the room with me, in case I needed help getting ready. That's because Galt was still there. Well, he took off and poor Foyuna finally relaxed. We talked a little about why the gods scare Cosm so badly. I mentioned that I had been out bar hopping with the gods twice already and praised Tiki's pina coladas. She asked me what one was like so I tried to describe that a cocktail made by a god was simply divine. She regretted that she would never be able to try one, and POOF, a Cosm-sized pina colada appeared right in front of her. Oh, Jane, you should have seen that poor girl's face. She actually screamed. I’m sure that joker Tiki was having a good laugh at her expense. What a twisted personality that god has."
"Poor Foyuna!"
"Well, then she tried the pina colada, and it was like watching a person turn into an alcoholic. She asked me what was in it. I had to concede that it might be impossible to get the ingredients. The base of a pina colada is rum and I have no idea if anyone makes rum on Erdos. Do the Chem drink? They're the ones who grow sugar cane so they'd be the ones to make rum."
"I don't know," I admitted. "I'd love to find out. That drink was amazing and I'd love to have another."
"Well, we need to find pineapple and coconuts too, since they're the other ingredients," Emily was engaged. "I think consulting with Twee might be in order, or with some Sea Coyn traders. Worse comes to worst, we could set up a distillery at the Villa and import the needed molasses to make rum. So why did Tiki take you drinking?"
"He was concerned about me," I confessed. "He thought I was too depressed and needed cheering up."
"Well, were you?"
"Yeah, I think it was probably the worst case of the mubble-fubbles I've ever had. Part of it was because Mugash tried to cheer me up during the rotation before. But seeing her left me so frightened of her that I couldn't get out of bed for an entire day. Lyappis must have thought I was an irredeemable damp squib and Lisaykos was down almost every bell to check on me. The two spent the whole time holding and hugging me as I balled so badly I must have flooded the entire south wing. Mugash is the deity I've been the closest to, and now I can't even look at her without wanting to run away."
Emily gave me the most concerned look I've ever seen cross her face, "Hostia! She really did crap all over your brain, didn't she? She believes she knows how we think, but she doesn't. She's screwed up with you and she's screwed up with me. How can a deity be so stupid?"
"Maybe she needs to walk a wagon-day wearing our feet," I suggested. "She might be stuck in her own perspective. That doesn't leave me feeling less scared of her."
"Damn."
"What am I going to do, Emily?" Emily's so smart that she just might know.
"Mugash traumatized you, Jane," she frowned. "It might take years to return to where you were before she decided to torture you. The fear may never go away. You need to think about that. It will be hard on you either way. But it's not going to kill you and it's not going to prevent you from living your life. You might need to give up on Mugash for now and hang out with Tiki. Besides, he makes those divine pina coladas. I know who I'd be hanging out with. Get him to commit to a regular gig of taking you out to Trader Vic's. You could talk him into taking you to every one of the Trader Vic's bars. There's one on San Francisco Bay and in Hawaii and a couple of other places. It'd be an adventure."
"Oh." She was right. I did need to think through the worst possible scenario. The world wouldn't end even if I stayed afraid of Mugash for the rest of my life. That made sense but it wasn't what I expected to hear. The perspective surprised me.
I looked at Emily and she looked worn. "Are you sure you don't want any dinner? Food might help you feel less tired."
"Every time I think of Oyseray snapping that Coyn's neck, I have to fight not to barf. No dinner please."
"Would you like a charm of deep sleep? No one will bother you until the morning after a good long rest."
"Aylem, that sounds like a brilliant idea."
I put her to sleep and tucked her back under the covers. Then I exited the room, giving the three high priestesses plus Lyappis, Huhoti, and Kayseo an angelic smile for eavesdropping at the bedroom door. "Greetings, good souls. How might I be of help today?"
Kamagishi made a face at me, "Is that sarcasm I smell?"
"Could be," I smiled deeper.
"Kayseo," I smiled as sweetly as I could, "just when were you planning to tell us that Huhoti gave you recording crystals from the Building Shrine that you already used to record what Emily was up to with the gods while she was missing?"
Kayseo smiled sweetly back, and Huhoti grinned. "I would have mentioned it to the Holy Kamagishi before we left for Aybhas," Kayseo batted her eyes. Incorrigible. Emily was rubbing off on her.
"We need to convene the Convocation. What are everyone's plans in the short term, and can someone tell me where my Imstay is hiding?"
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