Aylem, the dome of the Healing Shrine, 8th rot., 9th day
What greeted me on the dome was not what I expected. Emily was spread out on the dome of the shrine in her sheepskin flying cloak, eyes closed, hands behind her head. Asgotl was sleeping with his back to the shine’s belfry, some 100 hands away at the top of the dome. Twessera was standing by Emily’s head, arms crossed, looking like she had eaten unripened crab apples.
I landed lightly next to the frustrated and unhappy-looking Twessera. The young priestess was glowering at Emily. The displeased grimace on Emily’s face and the dull orange tinge on her aura were all I needed to know. Emily would be difficult this morning.
Twessera looked relieved to see me, “The bundle of trouble is all yours, Great One.”
“I feel like I’m missing something here,” I made a point of smiling with encouragement, hoping to hear what this was about.
"My mistress sent me to bring her back inside," Twessera frowned. Then she surprised me by mindcasting.
*The Blessed Lisaykos was firm that the Blessed Emily should come off the roof so I came to get her down. I had to incapacitate her and carry her back inside the first time. Then I took her coat away from her and left her on the lounge in my mistress' study. A few moments later, when the Blessed Lisaykos looked up, the Blessed Emily was gone again. That's when we discovered the loose panel in the woodwork in back of the lounge, leading to another passage for the Blessed Emily through the inside of the wall and up to the crawl spaces above the ceiling. Then the wraiths reported she was back on the roof of the dome. This one,* Twessera pointed a finger of accusation at Asgotl, *brought the Blessed Emily her the flying cloak. Before today, we had no idea that the Blessed Asgotl could open the door into her room from the corridor.*
“You’re mindcasting, aren’t you?” Emily accused, eyes still closed.
“Yes, Great Bug, I am,” Twessera grumped. I wasn’t sure what the origin of the name was, but her caretakers called her Great Bug when they were unhappy with her.
“Hmph,” was all Emily said in reply.
“Tell the Blessed Lisaykos that I am now with the Blessed Emily so she can stop worrying, not that she ever will,” I sighed. Lisaykos needed to loosen up around Emily. The little Coyn wasn’t chronically ill anymore. She no longer needed constant attendance.
Twessera made her obeisance and left for the ladder down from the dome on the north balcony. I waited for her to vanish to the other side of the dome before starting to talk. I reminded myself that Emily might be hard to handle this morning. I got ready to listen to everything she said as if I was an observer and not a participant, which was a trick Lyappis taught me to create delays in reacting to what people told me. It was not easy but it worked when I remembered to do it.
I decided to tackle the first thing that bothered me about this situation. “So, what’s your part in this, Asgotl?”
“Sassoo, Lord of the Winds woke me up and told me to take care of my prophet today,” Asgotl replied in a neutral voice, not bothering to open his eyes. Then he sounded annoyed, “The god woke me up from a great dream too.”
“Sassoo? Seriously?” I didn’t have any reason to doubt Asgotl. He was boastful but he wasn't a liar.
“Yes, I am quite certain it was Sassoo. And this time, he told me not to stop to eat beforehand,” Asgotl sounded upset. I had no idea what he meant about stopping to eat. I would have to ask him about it later. If Sassoo woke him up, the current situation wasn’t some whim of Emily’s or something trivial. Gods didn’t meddle with trivial things.
Then I looked at Emily, at her miserable expression and the one slow tear sliding down her temple.
“I would like to talk to you in private,” Emily said in her usual controlled soft soprano, not opening her eyes, “somewhere far from the ears and eyes of my usual eavesdroppers. I suggest one of those mountain tops or maybe somewhere in the Great Cracks.”
“What’s this about?” My curiosity was aroused.
“Wraiths have ears,” Emily said.
“Asgotl doesn’t have his saddle,” I pointed out.
“If it’s you, he doesn’t need a saddle.”
“What about you?”
“If I’m riding with you, he doesn’t need a saddle.”
“I don’t have my riding clothes on, or my cloak.” I was actually dressed in a comfortable fawn-colored gown I had thrown on quickly, not at all appropriate for flying anywhere.
“I know you don’t need them, Aylem. You are impervious to all weather conditions. I will trust you to keep me from freezing to death.”
Emily was right about all those things. I wondered who told her and then I saw the look in Asgotl’s eyes and knew the culprit. That fat lazy traitor.
“Why are you trying not to weep?” I asked Emily. I found it difficult not to notice the misery boiling off her, a yellow-orange miasma of emotional pain so great she stuggled to contain it.
“It’s something unrelated,” she hurriedly wiped her eyes. “Along with what I want to talk with you about, Galt showed me how the slave riot in Surdos happened. He showed me how it started and ended while I slept last night, all from the eyes of the now-dead contract slaves who started the riot. I’m so upset, I can’t stop the tears if I'm reminded of it. I'll will say one thing about it, Aylem: Lord Yutsayyax haup Yuxvos needs to stand trial for thousandfold cruelty if a trial is under the old laws, or for mass murder if under the new laws. Either way, the penalty is execution."
“The investigation was indecisive in determining who had abused the Coyn contract workers,” I forced myself to speak calmly in face of Emily’s controlled rage. My own ire over Lord Yuxvos' treatment of his Coyn was more than two decades in the making. It was my misfortune to be a Queen, which forced me to act with restraint and consideration for politics. I was determined not to repeat the political mistakes I made trying to extend the Mounts' Treaty 14 years ago.
“We can’t question a lord holder under compulsion without certain proof," I explained. "We don’t have any evidence that ties him directly to any crime severe enough to force questioning in the Well of Galt.”
“Screw that nonsense, Aylem,” Emily growled. “Just how long is Foskos going to continue to uphold a broken body of law that the gods want to be done away with? Are you trying to convince me that the courtesy paid to a criminal’s social class is more important than determining the truth about multiple acts of assault and murder? Are you? Is the law for protecting the leeches at the top of society or is it to promote the right things and punish the wrong ones? Well, which is it?
“Do you know how that riot started? It began with one of the farm slaves from Yuxvos that was contracted to Lord Surdos to bring in the fruit harvest. The evening before they were set to return to Yuxvos, this slave expressed the wish to stay in Surdos, where he had enough to eat and wasn’t beaten all the time.
“The slaves had just been turned over to their Yuxvos overseers who didn’t bother to give them any dinner after their last day of work packing up the last of the fruit. They were tired and they were hungry, and now they would not be fed. They doubted the overseers even brought any food for the two day walk home, which was supposed to start the next morning.
“Then the slave who started the riots said he’d rather try biting the charm gem off his hand like the Impotuan slaves than go back to Yuxvos. He said he had nothing to go back to. His one surviving daughter had been selected for the breeding farm. He tolerated it, since he had no other choice, right up to the day that she disappeared. He searched the grave pits that night and found her body. She had been rip-raped by a Cosm, Aylem.
"Don't look away. You know it happens, Queen of Foskos. Every goddamn fucking Cosm in this fucked-over world knows it happens and you all look away. You pretend it doesn't happen. Look at me Aylem. Don't you dare look away.
“You know what the injury looks like after a Coyn female is rip-raped by a Cosm, Aylem? Do you? I've seen it with my own eyes too many times. The wall of the vagina gets ripped and the penetration continues further inside to rip and tear the colon and the womb. Some prefer entering the rectum instead if they are too large for the vagina, with the same results. This is an act no Coyn woman ever survives, Aylem. Every single one dies from bleeding to death in a gush of piss and feces and blood.
“So this Coyn father of a rip-raped Coyn daughter took the charm gem in his teeth and tore it off. Then he died from the convulsions that followed, bleeding from his ears and foaming at the mouth. That’s why there was a riot in Surdos, Aylem. All those Yuxvos slaves decided right there that they would rather resist and be killed than wait to be killed anyway. So that’s why I can’t stop crying, you overgrown idiot. I...I…”
For a softspoken person like Emily, her volume was loud. She was sitting up by now, pounding on the red copper sheathing of the dome, kept from tarnishing by magic. Her fists struck with such force that she made the dome boom. I could tell that she was injuring her hands, but she was so upset she couldn't feel it yet.
By now, I was on my knees in front of her in concern, swallowing both my own rage and my own sense of failure. In all the introspection I had done since returning home from the Fenlands, I knew I allowed my war with Imstay to surplant my resolve to abolish slavery over the years. My botched attempt with the Mounts' Treaty had deterred me from what I should have been doing about the inhumane abuse of the Coyn. I was as guilty as Emily said I was. I had become a creature of political expediency and I hated myself just then because of it.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaah!" she screamed her anger and frustration into the morning air, covered her head with her hands, and collapsed sideways into a sobbing ball of misery. I had no idea how to deal with an Emily who had gone and lost the plot. Uncontrollable and irrational were not adjectives that one usually applied to Emily. For lack of anything better, I reached out and put her to sleep. I had no idea how to deal with her like this.
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I picked her up and carried her up to where Asgotl was watching. “Any suggestions, old friend?” I asked.
“That was worse than one of her flashbacks,” he said. “She told me she was visited by gods last night but I had no idea Galt showed her the riots. Aylem, what she described: that’s beyond horrible. I had heard the rumors, but to hear it told this way, I might not sleep tonight. You can not ignore this, Queen of Foskos. This can not be tolerated. Something must be done.”
"I know, I know, but what can we do? The rules for questioning a lord holder…," I couldn't complete my sentence. I knew that Emily was right and Foskan law was wrong.
Asgotl shook his head at me, stood up, and rubbed his beak gently against her side, "Poor Emily, the gods are not kind to their prophets. It was a mistake, Aylem, to put her to sleep. She needs to work through this and sleeping will only delay the resolution of her distress. Sassoo told me that this is a horrible but important day for both of you, so let's find a place where we can wake her up and talk. I suggest we borrow Lisaykos' study since it's the closest place where I can fit through the doors."
"Alright, let's do that," I bonked his beak with my forehead. Then I looked at the belfry, "you're lousy at concealing your presence, Kamagishi."
"It works on everyone else, Aylem," she appeared at the belfry door. "With your ridiculous clairvoyance, I'm not sure anyone can hide from you. You might be worse than Fassex in that regard."
"Fassex can detect Usruldes if he's close by," I pointed out. "So can Lisaykos, though that may be because she and Usruldes are related. I usually can't detect him if he has charms of circular light, shadows and misdirection going at the same time, though that might have changed since I came home from the Fenlands."
"No, you still can't detect me," Usruldes' bass said from above me, "which is gratifying." He appeared sitting on Cadrees, who was perched on the roof of the belfry.
“How long have you both been here?” I asked Kamagishi and Usruldes.
“I heard Emily blow up just now,” Kamagishi frowned. “I had this feeling, you see, that I needed to be at the belfry, so here I am. Damn precognition. It disturbed me while I was enjoying a cup of tea and chatting with Senlyosart and Losnana."
"Usruldes?" I prodded.
"I confess that I was observing the Blessed Emily," he admitted. "She upset her guards this morning by climbing through the walls again, despite her promise to me that she would refrain from doing so." He sounded a bit vexed.
Usruldes dismounted and leapt down to the roof of the dome, landing next to me and Asgotl, "I do not regret watching her this morning. While I am concerned that she is so distraught, she provided me with a new avenue to investigate Lord Yuxvox. I never thought to search his legal breeding camp. We’ve been trying to find an illegal one. What an oversight on my part! I’ll have an observation crew at the grave pits as soon as I can set one up. If I can find just one death by rip-rape, we’ll finally have grounds to put him in the Well of Galt for the crime of falsifying his records. Once we have him in the Well, then all of his other crimes will come out under the charm of compulsion.”
"You've been investigating Yuxvos' slave operations?" This was news to me.
“Imstay and I have been investigating Lord Yuxvos and Lord Kas for over five rotations,” Usruldes shrugged. “The Holy Irralray already has cordons of her priestesses set up around their main estates. We can move instantly if we need to. We hoped we would get sufficient evidence out of the riot in Surdos. The odd thing is that every single Yuxvos slave that night was dead by morning yet we know some of them were alive after order was restored. They died by blunt trauma, but we don't know how or who did it.”
“I had no idea you were investigating,” I admitted. “I think I am pleasantly surprised to see Imstay acting behind the scenes this way. Regardless, Lord Usruldes, your surveillance scheme has some problems. It won't find any evidence from the past since the law demands that breeding camps burn their bodies in the grave pits at least once a rotation," I protested. "Given the riots, I'm sure his overseers will be avoiding any impropieties right now so new evidence will be a long time in coming."
"My agents are patient. We will get him eventually, as soon as he feels that he is no longer being watched," Usruldes stated. "I would much rather just question him and the law be damned," he let a rare snarl of anger escape.
"Didn't Emily just say that?" Asgotl weighed in.
"Sorry, but she did not," Kamagishi frowned. "She expressed regret that Foskos has not done away with that law. She needs to say explicitly that it is not longer acceptable using her authority as an acknowledged prophet. Speaking as High Justicar, the difference is a crucial one."
"Does she understand that she has the power to do that?" Usruldes pondered.
"She certainly seemed to know it at the trial of that leatherworker in Truvos," Kamagishi retorted. "Even then, she did not make it a command to change the law. She used the word recommend several times, to be clear. She said the law must change only once and it was that utterance that made it imperative for the king to act. It is unfortunate that she's shy when it comes to using her authority."
Kamagishi's extemporaneous analysis hit me in the face. Did Emily really understand her power? "I believe I have some pressing business, good gentles," I said to everyone. "I am going inside to evict Lisaykos from her study. Lord Usruldes, would you please remove all wraith surveillance until I'm done."
His eyebrows creased in a frown. I could tell he didn't want to do it. He was as bad as his mother at times with trying to protect Emily from the world.
"You can consider that to be an order, Lord Usruldes," I tried to keep my tone friendly.
"I don't work for you," he was not happy.
"I will be less than pleased if I am compelled to bother Imstay about this," I cautioned. "I am working to keep this polite and amiable, and both you and I know I don't need to. Besides, it is Emily who wants the privacy to converse, not me. It may be easier for you to consider this the will of the prophet."
He looked at his feet as he thought and then looked up at me, "I will withdraw all wraiths from Lisaykos' study and living quarters until you are done. I will also post a sentry at the door to bar entry, Great One."
"Thank you, Lord Ursuldes," I nodded at him. "Emily will appreciate it when she wakes back up."
- - -
Emily, Lisaykos' study, 8th rot., 9th day
First, I heard voices. It sounded like Aylem, Lisaykos and Kamagishi.
"Isn't she awake yet?" Kamagishi sounded puzzled.
"I'm bringing up her slowly," Aylem said from right next to me. "I dropped her down so suddenly that I want to bring her up gradually. I worry that the transition would be too abrupt otherwise."
"Sister Kamagishi," Lisaykos interjected, "I would do the same thing as Aylem right now. Being dropped and then brought back up just as fast is too much of a shock, given the circumstances."
Sensation returned next as the I felt the weight of blankets on top of me and a warm Cosm-scaled hand cradling the back of my head.
"I know you can hear me now," Aylem said. "You should be able to move again."
I opened my eyes to see Aylem facing me in one of Lisaykos' armchairs, one of the ones with a square back. Asgotl was resting his beak on my lounge next to my knees. Kamagishi and Lisaykos were standing on either side of Aylem's chair.
"When I remove my hand, dear hear," Aylem looked distressed, "you will remember everything, and you are likely to be angry with me."
I frowned at her, "you blocked my memory?" That didn't sound good.
"I did a bit more more than that," she hunched in her chair, as if to make her huge self look smaller. "I'm removing my hand now."
"Ugh!" It was like being punched in the gut. "Shit." The memory of the events of earlier today flooded into my mind, along with all the anger and anguish over the riots plus the urgency I felt to act on my deals with Galt and Erhonsay.
"I apologise for putting you to sleep, Emily," Aylem crashed into my train of thought before I was ready to reengage with the world. "I was startled by how upset you were and not knowing what else I could do, I reacted and put you to sleep."
She caught me off balance and left me speechless. My head was spinning.
"I think you're going a bit too fast, Aylem," Lisaykos commented. "Give her a little time to breathe."
"No," I managed to sputter, "no, I'm good. I just needed a moment. There's nothing I can do about the riots or Lord Yuxvos, so I need to move on from that."
"Just as I suspected," Aylem looked at Kamagishi.
"Yes, it appears you are right and I assumed too much," Kamagishi looked like she had just eaten a lemon. "Great One," she addressed me, "you can do something about Lord Yuxvos. You do have the authority, a lot of authority, to act. I assumed, for at least the last two seasons, that you knew this explicitly; however, it appears that I was mistaken."
Now I was confused on top of my upset and misery, "what are you talking about?"
"You have authority as a prophet to give orders which must be obeyed. Because of the godmarks, you have the power to command any silverhair. Right now, only those with no magic can ignore the effect of the godmarks. Has no one explained this to you?"
"Not like this," I was feeling somewhat disconcerted. "Folks have mentioned that the godmarks cause most silverhairs to protect me and to do what I ask of them. To be honest, I have doubts about that. I haven't observed a consistent effect in the people around me so I'm not sure there is any reliable effect at all. Seriously, just look at how Fassex acts around me, as just one example."
"Merciful Mugash," Lisaykos held her head and shook it.
"Em, have you ever given Fassex a direct command?" Aylem asked with a hint of a smile.
"I wouldn't dare," I snapped, wondering why we were going off on this tangent when all I wanted was to talk to Aylem in private.
"Surd save us," Kamagishi shook her head. "Great One, if you gave Fassex a direct command using your authority as a prophet, she would obey. So would I. So would we all. For this to happen, you must state a clearly articulated command and issue it invoking divine authority, with no hedge words or wiggle room for someone like Fassex to dodge your will.
"For example, citing the will of the gods for right justice, you could command the abolishment of the law that prevents the use of the charm of compulsion on the lord holders in the absence of direct evidence of an unlawful action."
I think I was gobsmacked. Kayseo had told me some time ago that I could command Imstay King to march an army into Impotu, but I didn't take her seriously. It was too wild a thing for me to believe, so I discounted what she had said. Was I wrong about what she told me?
"If you said those words to me now," Kamagishi gave me an encouraging smile, "we could have Lord Yuxvox in the Well of Galt in less than a handful of days."
"You're serious," I just stared at her, wondering if this was real.
"Of course I'm serious," she kept smiling, waiting for me to speak.
"Damn," I shook my head to clear it. "Holy Kamagishi, the status of a possible criminal should not shield him or her from the compulsion to tell the truth as cast by the priestess justicars of the kingdom. An innocent person has nothing to fear from questioning under a charm of compulsion regardless of class or rank. No class or rank should convey immunity from questioning. The current law to exclude lord holders from the charm of compulsion in the absence of evidence is displeasing to the gods. This must change. Is that good enough, Kamagishi?"
"Oh, quite good enough," she grinned, looking very much like a cat ready to pounce. I could almost feel sorry for Yuxvos.
"Please tell whoever decides these things that Lord Yuxvos must undergo a charm of compulsion in the Well of Galt to answer questions on his treatment of his Coyn slaves," I added. "Given that Galt visited my dreams on this matter, this demand is the will of the god of justice and wrath. That should be explicit enough."
"Yes, very. If you'll excuse me, Great Ones, I must be off to speak to the king," Kamagishi bowed an obeisance at me and left.
"I will leave you three to talk," Lisaykos looked a little grumpy. "Please ask the sentry at the door to get me when you're finished. I'll be in Senlyosart's quarters."
I watched her leave and close the double doors into the hallway behind her. "You booted Lisaykos out of her own study, Aylem?"
"I suggested it," Asgotl remarked with one eye half-open. "It's warm, dry and private, and I can get through the doors. Otherwise, we'd be stuck outside in that cold stiff breeze, looking for place to talk."
"Damn," I said, a bit overwhelmed. I felt like too much was happening too fast.
"So, dear heart," Aylem sat back and stretched, "what did you want to talk about that's so urgent and private?"
- - -