Emily, Growing Season, 7th rot. to Harvest Season, 1st rot.
I suspect the gods were favoring us. Our fleet of transports, escorting ketches, and Cosm fishing boats somehow made the trip from Shinakosettkut to Sils’chk ten days faster than we expected despite sailing into the wind. The sun shined on us the whole way, even though the monsoon dumped a never-ending deluge inland. Around the sixth bell, a brief rainstorm would blow through every afternoon, filling the fishing boats' water barrels.
About halfway back to Sussbesschem, we decided to beach the fleet for a day and take some time to rest. We found a lovely stretch of barrier islands with a deep inland waterway between them and the mainland. I explored the dunes and beyond them while the Cosm were cooking dinner. Uncohegan insisted I eat with her crew because she couldn't stomach my eating raw fish like a Chem.
Raw timerhime tasted like hamachi sashimi to me, and I liked hamachi. Regardless, Uncohegan was unhappy if I ate my fish raw, so I humored her and her crew. I was too small to handle any of the cooking gear the Cosm used, so I was forced to watch and felt like a mooch while they made all my meals for me.
I was about five hundred hands down the beach and just into the tropical growth when I spotted it. I couldn't believe what I saw initially. Then, I managed to fight my way into the brush to get close to the plant I was looking at.
It was small and tinted pink, about half the size you would have seen at an American grocery store, but it was a real pineapple. I got scratched from stomping through the vegetation but found more pineapple plants. I broke the center stem bearing the fruit on one of the plants and brought it back to Uncohegan's boat.
Uncohegan wandered over when I dug into my seabag for my hatchet.
“What are you doing with that yellowbird fruit?” Uncohegan asked, sitting down cross-legged on the deck.
“I was going to see how it tasted,” I whacked the top off and then cut it in half. “I know this fruit as a pineapple, and I’ve been looking to find one ever since we left Sussbesschem.”
“They're not good for much other than pig feed," Uncohegan frowned as I trimmed away the prickly outside of the fruit and tossed it overboard. "You're going to eat that?"
I sliced a cube out of the mass of fruit and bit into it.
“Oooo! That’s tart!” I chewed and swallowed. “Sweet, too! Pina colada land, here I come! Yes!”
“You can eat that?” Uncohegan asked, making a fish face at me.
"Here, try some," I cut a bigger cube for Uncohegan. "I'll warn you now that it's tart, so be prepared for the taste."
Uncohegan took the cube of pineapple and gingerly chewed it. "May the gods preserve us; that is tart!" She swallowed. "If you could cut the intensity of the tartness, that would be worth cultivating."
“Tiki, the god of time, makes a drink using the juice from the pineapple, plus coconut milk and rum.”
“The god Tiki makes drinks? What are rum and coconut milk?”
“Coconuts have a hard dark brown shell, a chewy white lining, and a white juice inside,” I explained. “You can steam and press the white lining to make a thick fluid called coconut milk.”
“Oh,” Uncohegan blinked, “you’re describing hairnuts, which grow on hairy palms. They don’t grow this far north. What’s rum?”
“It’s a distilled liquor made from sugar cane juice,” I said. “The Chem make it. They serve it as part of a fruit punch they make for ceremonial occasions. I suspect you’ll have some when we get to Sils’chk. The Chem in Sussbesschem will likely throw a banquet for their returning kin, and we'll be invited."
“Cut me another piece of the yellowbird fruit,” Uncohegan asked. “I expected this to be inedible. Damn, that’s tart.”
“I suspect that pineapple has more than one variety,” I cut another piece for myself. “Finding a less tart variety may be a matter of searching for it. It’s also possible that I picked my pineapple too early or too late, so it’s not at peak ripeness. The important bit is that I found it, regardless of how tart it is. The Queen of Foskos and I have discussed finding the ingredients of Tiki’s drink.”
I used the last of my paper supply to write Aylem about pineapples. By the time we reached Sussbesschem, I had letters written for everyone: Aylem, Lisaykos, Hessakos, Oyyuth, Kayseo, Thuorfosi, Twessera, Kamagishi, Raoleer, Huhoti, and Asgotl. Because Asgotl couldn't read, I wrote his letter intending that Aylem would read it to him. I had fun with that.
We arrived at the main east channel of the Stem River Delta at the start of Harvest Season. The Chem, by now, knew the fleet was heading to Sils'chk. When we turned from the barrier islands along the coast into the river channel, Chem lined the banks from the coast to Sils'chk island. The Chem ksh'g'lsht and kl'drt clicked, hissed, and beat the ground with their tails in approval as the fleet rowed up the east channel. Many Chem threw themselves into the water and started to push the boats to Sils'chk, which allowed us to reach Sils'chk in less than a day. The noise the Chem made using the water language unnerved the Cosm in the fishing boats but Uncohegan and I managed to calm everyone down.
Sils’chk was different than when the attack fleet left it at the start of Growing Season. Thousands of Chem took up the space on the surrounding islands. The crews of eight Sea Coyn trading vessels and a delegation of thirty healers from the Healing Shrine in Aybhas occupied the visitor’s island across the slough. The Chem had idled the iron works for now and used the large field in front of the first blast furnace as the place for the repatriated ex-slaves to sleep. A small horde of kl'drt patrolled the rows of rescued Chem to keep them hydrated now that the monsoon was over in Sussbesschem for the year.
The Chem offloaded their repatriated kin onto the ironworks islands. They provided each ex-slave with a nest of kalowa reeds. Kl'drt provided each new arrival with a bowl of fish, a small basket of chopped sugar cane, a gourd of rum, and a jug of fresh water. They also noted each ex-slave's name, age, and home village.
The Cosm fishing boat crews disembarked at the visitor’s island. The weather was so lovely that we didn't need tents or any form of shelter. The visiting Sea Coyn had taken the reed huts for visitors. The Cosm wouldn't fit into any of the huts anyway.
After I greeted the healers and introduced them to Uncohegan and her fisher folk, the healers wouldn't tolerate my wanting to stay in one of the visitor huts. I would have been more comfortable in a hut with the other Coyn visiting from Inkalem. Unfortunately, the healers thought sleeping in a reed hut wasn't good enough for the prophet.
The Revered Kaothayern, who I had never met before, physically carried me to a room in the old Cosm residence that Usruldes, Moxsef, Kamagishi, and Sutsusum used back during their stay in Planting Season. Before Lisaykos delegated the mission to Sussbesschem to sixty-something Kaotheyern, the healer ran the healers’ three chapel shrines in Surdos: one for Cosm, one for Coyn, and one for mounts.
Kaothayern suffered from the usual protect-the-prophet disease common to silverhairs. She had the same bad habit most other healers had after meeting me for the first time: talking to me like a child. On the other hand, I was happy that Kaotheyern spent time with Uncohegan, talking about how healers worked in Mattamesscontess and how worship of Vassu worked in Foskos.
Kaothayern did me two favors while I was in Sils’chk. She took my letters from me and promised to have them delivered. She also gave me a fresh stack of letter paper plus a bound notebook for my notes. I spent the three days at Sils'chk making an oil cloth pouch and a dry sack to keep the notebook dry. It would have been a little notepad for a Cosm, but it was bigger than my two palms put side-by-side. Still, I could put the dry bag strap over my shoulder and wear the bag inside my tunic when the weather got wet at sea.
On the second day in Sils'chk, the Five Caretakers invited representatives from each village and town to the well of Vassu. Once there, they had the list of 6,578 repatriated Chem read aloud, along with the name of their original home and the location of their bed on the ironworks islands.
A delightful pandemonium ensued as individual Chem ran out of the Well of Vassu, threw themselves into the water to swim across the slough to the ironworks, and then ran down the long rows of nests, calling the names of their kin. Of course, when the Chem found their kin, the walkways filled with rolling, hugging Chem. I enjoyed sitting on the side of the hill of Sils’chk, watching the freed slaves and their kin become reunited.
Each repatriated Chem spoke with a Caretaker and a healer before leaving the temporary nests on the ironworks islands and heading home. Each blind Chem received a tentative date with a healer to restore their eyesight. The earlier healer appointments were given to the Chem, who had been in captivity the longest. Some Chem, the very oldest, were sent directly to the Visitor’s Island for immediate healing.
Kaothayern told me that the healers could currently handle fifty vision restorations a day. The new living quarters were still under construction, but when they were complete, one hundred healers and their mounts would live there until they finished healing the blinded Chem. Each trained healer could perform two restorations daily. No one knew how many Chem would need their eyes healed, but it certainly was in the tens of thousands.
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The living quarters for the healers would be permanent. The Chem agreed to the establishment of a chapel shrine on the Visitor’s Island run by the Healing Shrine of Mugash. The Chem would subsidize the cost with sugar and steel.
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Emily, Sils’chk, Harvest Season, 1st rot., 1st day
"Welladay," I walked up the gangplank of one of the Sea Coyn longships. Half the crew was tying down big oil cloth bags of sugar. The rest were up on the spar for the ship's sole sail. They appeared to be studying the rigging on the ketches and transports.
One of the crew, an older woman approached me. Of course, she was taller than me because everyone older than twelve was taller than me. If my calculations were correct, I was around four feet ten inches or 147 cm short by Earth measures. I missed being five foot nine (176 cm) in my life before.
"Welladay. Have we met? I don't remember seeing you on any of the other ships," the lady said. "I think I would have noticed anyone with fair skin since it's rare." She had the black hair, black eyes, and brown skin common to the Sea Coyn. She was beginning to show some grey at the temples.
"We have not met, and I'm afraid I forgot my water and cups to do a proper greeting," I felt myself blushing. I made the polite bow one uses between strangers on the street in Inkalem, "My name is Emily. I'm a friend of Dan—"
"Great One," the lady knelt faster than I could react. She performed a full obeisance, "May the blessing of the Lady of the Seas be upon you."
"Also upon you and the crew of this boat. Please get up. These formalities are not necessary. The polite behavior police are nowhere near this place, so feel free not to bother. And the name is Emily."
"Of course, Great One," she smiled at me but did not get up from her knees. She ignored my hint to drop the honorifics. "You honor my ship. I am Salamestra of House Brattos, the captain of this trader. We plan to leave for home tomorrow morning, so we are a bit messy while lashing our cargo down. What may I do for you?"
"I wandered over to say hello," I sat on a rowing bench. "I noticed that none of the Coyn crews were at the homecoming and were keeping to themselves. I was curious what was up with that so I came over to be nosy."
"It was a surprise for us," Salamestra said. "We had just concluded our trading when all these ships started arriving with what must be thousands of Chem. No one told us what was happening. The Chem we depend on for translation and trading have vanished and none of us speak the water language. We also stick to the boat landing and the Visitor’s Island because we’re not welcome to visit Sils’chk unless invited. The Chem are wary of visitors wandering around."
"You could have asked the healers just up the hill from you," I pointed out. "They are here to help with the Chem rescued from Mattamesscontess. They could have told you what was happening."
Salamestra looked shocked and maybe even a bit scared, "but those are all giant Cosm mages, and this is not the meeting place to speak with Foskan Cosm."
It was my turn to be shocked. I did not expect Salamestra's reaction. I realized I was now accustomed to being around Cosm, but the Sea Coyn were not. It made sense in hindsight that they would be apprehensive around Cosm, given the uneasy truce the Sea Coyn had with Foskos after they successfully repelled the Foskan invasion six centuries ago.
The healers on Visitor's Island were intimidating physically, but I knew they had taken a holy oath before the Crystal of Mugash to heal any of the six sapient races who requested it. They made me nervous but I knew they had no malice toward others. I knew some silverhairs did have an attitude of superiority and looked down on the other races. No doubt, some still felt that the Cosm were the only blessed race that rightfully should rule over all the others. I could understand Salamestra's reluctance to greet a Cosm, even one as benign as a healer mage.
“I’ll mention the lack of a liaison for Coyn to the Chem Caretakers,” I said. “I don’t have any authority over them but they do listen to me. I suspect they are so distracted by the return of the enslaved Chem that they forgot about you folks.”
“So what is happening?” Salamestra asked as members of the crew wandered over to listen.
“This is the first of many trips to bring home the Chem captured in slave raids. They were blinded and sold for their water magic. To date, the Chem have destroyed the entire navy of Mattamesscontess and the capital of Toyatastagka. A fighting force of 50,000 Chem are currently pushing inland of Toyatastagka toward the city of No'ank to find their enslaved kin and free them."
“So it’s true that the Chem have gone to war on the east coast?” It was a rhetorical question.
“Yes. Vassu directed the Chem to wage war to free those taken in slave raids. The endeavor is doing well, in part because the populace along the southeast coast rebelled against the nobles and clergy of Cragi. As soon as the Chem destroyed the naval fleet in Shinakosettkut harbor, those who followed Vassu jumped on the chance to overthrow the worship of the false god Cragi. Those five Cosm fishing boats docked upstream from you belong to those in revolt. They have been helping to gather and transport the enslaved Chem. Fishing boats like the ones docked here brought the first load of returned Chem around 15 days ago. It is encouraging that the Chem and the Mattamesscontan Cosm who follow Vassu are working together on this.
“And the Cosm mages?” Salamestra pointed up the hill at the Cosm residence plus the new buildings under construction.
“The spider monster Ud found a way to restore the eyesight to all the Chem blinded by the slave raiders," I replied. "She taught the method to the Queen of Foskos, who taught it to the healers at the Healing Shrine in Aybhas. Those silverhairs on the top of the hill number thirty now. In a few more rotations, one hundred healers will work here to bring sight back to the blind. This, too, is something that Vassu commanded."
“Unbelievable," Salamestra frowned as if the news were too big to take in. "What about the Chem slaves in Jutu and Impotu?"
“They will be next after they finish scouring Mattamesscontess for Chem captives," I replied. "Mattamesscontess has the bulk of the Chem slaves because it has a larger population and a warmer, wetter climate. In Jutu and Impotu, it's more expensive to keep Chem water slaves because of the colder weather. Because of the cost, only the military, the Shrines, and larger towns and cities have Chem slaves."
“What's going on there?" Salamestra pointed at a coracle with an older Chem coming ashore at a landing spot upstream of the loading docks. Then, the three Chem who pushed the coracle through the water helped the old Chem out of the little round boat and guided him up the hill. A healer keeping watch at one of the outside eating tables for Cosm saw the party and blew a whistle. Another healer came running from the other side of the residence and down the hill to accost the Chem. She led them to a large tent and disappeared inside.
“The very oldest Chem are being healed of their blindness immediately,” I explained. “The Caretakers felt that because they have fewer days left to spend in this life, the oldest would get their sight back first.”
“And here, all this was happening around us, and we had no idea," Salamestra sighed. "Let me ask another question, Great One. What's with the sails on the Chem boats? How do they work, and are they really better than one big sail to catch the wind?"
“You can sail closer into the wind with the fore-and-aft rigging. You can tack faster. You can also add a lot more sail to travel faster. Vassu gave the design of the Chem ketches to the Blessed Twee, Revelator of Vassu," I got up and stretched. "We built them according to Vassu's design. Some of the fishing boats from around Shinakosettkut have already adopted the design. My own ketch is moored at the east landing on Sils’chk. Would you like a tour?”
I spent the rest of the afternoon escorting the eight Coyn crews on tours of my ketch. I also chatted with the Caretakers about the liaisons for the Sea Coyn who had left the traders about the events happening at Sils'chk. Last, I invited the Revered Kaothayern to meet the Sea Coyn ship captains and their crews.
Kaothayern was a smart lady. When she came down the slope to the landing, she sat crosslegged on the grass just before the shoreline. Choosing to sit before meeting the Coyn put her head much closer to the ground. She folded her hands in her lap and kept them there. I could tell from these actions that she was familiar with handling Coyn who were nervous around Cosm. The Healing Shrine of Mugash taught all its healers how to approach Coyn but some were much better at it than others. Kaothayern looked like she had a lot of practice with Coyn to my experienced eyes.
The eight captains were uncomfortable speaking with Kaothayern. Then, the captain with a load of just isinglass asked if she could hire a healer to look at an injured crew member with a broken leg.
“No, you can’t,” Kaothayern replied. “We are forbidden by scripture to accept payment for healing. If you need a healer, I’m here right now. I can move down to your boat if your sailor can’t walk.”
“What? You would come to my boat now?” the captain was surprised.
“Why not?” Kaotheyern asked. “My one concern would be upsetting your ship. You boats are small compared to how much I weigh. If you can carry your crew member ashore, I can meet you at the end of the gangplank to take care of the injury. If I must reset the break, the leg must stay in a split for one to two rotations. If the break is set well, I can speed up the healing and the splint can come off in a few days. It just depends on how bad the injury is."
“Let me get my crew on this,” the woman got up and ran back to her boat while all the Sea Coyn watched, lined up along the ships’ gunwales. Some had never seen a Cosm up close. For those who had met Cosm, most had likely never seen a Cosm healer before. The Sea Coyn did most of their trading with Cosm at either Uldlip or the market on Kora Kor, so the Cosm they met were usually nohair or halfhair merchants. The Sea Coyn exposure to Cosm was limited.
Kaothayern handled the Sea Coyn admirably. She noted her wary audience, spoke softly, and minimized her movements. She healed the Sea Coyn sailor while explaining what she was doing and how long it would take. Her revered status was well-earned. Lisaykos had sent a real pro to Sils'chk. I wondered if this incident would help the Sea Coyn accept healing chapel shrines in Inkalem.
Watching Kaothayern and the Sea Coyn made me realize how much I had changed. Cosm still made me apprehensive. That quality in me would never change. The person I was from two and a half years ago would have worked hard to escape an approaching silverhair, even one as well-intentioned as Kaotheyern, just like I ran from Aylem when she crashed my hot spring. Now, watching Kaothayern interact with the nervous Sea Coyn, I saw reflections of my former self when I first met the gang of three and Lisaykos, when I was wounded and at the mercy of strangers who were monstrously huge superbeings.
When had I become resigned to life around giant magic monsters? Some of those monsters were now my friends and I wanted to see them again. I even wanted to visit Aylem and maybe explore more music with her. I certainly wanted to get back together with the gang of three. I wondered how our relationship would change when they had kids because most Cosm children and Coyn did not mix.
“Great One,” Kaothayern startled me out of my self-reflection, “can you show these folks how to make the new Kayseo-style crutches? This young man could use a pair for his trip home.” Kaothayern had reset the bone and spent longer than usual healing the fractures. I was amused that axillary crutches were now named after Kayseo, the first person to use them on Erdos.
"I can do that, but I will need a woodworker to make some." A small mob of Coyn sailors volunteered.
The next day, our third in Sils’chk, I said my goodbyes to the Sea Coyn, the Caretakers, and the Foskan healers. Then, our little fleet of transports, ketches, and fishing boats departed to return to Mattamesscontess. I had an appointment in the city of No'ank to blow up a bridge.