Usruldes, Foskan Army Camp outside of the Crystal Shrine of Tiki

"May I?" I bent over and offered her an arm to sit upon. Emily caught my collar and I picked her up. I strode out of the tent. When I was sure no one could hear, I warned her, "bite your lip so you won't make a noise in surprise." Then I cast the charms of shadow and circular light on the two of us. What most people don't know is that even the mage who casts the charm can't see what's inside the charm, including one's own self. I'm glad I warned Emily because I heard her gasp of indrawn breath as we vanished.

I walked us out to the edge of the camp nearest the river and then walked along the river bank. "It's safe to talk now but I will not drop the charm. It's safer this way.

"Well, my partner in various crimes,” Emily began, “I have an idea but I have not the means to carry it out, but y...you just might. You see, Aylem can make phenolphthalein.”

I was confused. She was talking as if I knew what this stuff was. "Emily, what is pheno-whatever it is?"

"Oh bother. You know, the stuff in the Revelation of Tiki to Emily."

"And this is germane how?" I wasn't following the twists of her strange mind this evening, especially having just returned from the company of my grumpy mother who was busy with accepting war injuries too serious to heal in the field.

"Phenolphthalein is a laxative," she explained as if whatever she wanted to say was obvious.

"Little one, you're making no sense. I'm still baffled at what you want from me."

"It's an extremely effective tasteless, w...white laxative, which will blend in with most drinks. I mean it when I say extremely effective. Image hundreds if not thousands having to run to the latrines all at the same time. There would be lines just to have the runs without soiling one's underclothes. You could mix it in with the salt supply or the officers' wine or beer supply, or in the stew for the regular soldiers. For a Coyn, all it takes to kill someone with this stuff is less than a pinch. It may be the same for Cosm.

"With your skill at infiltration, I was thinking it would make a nice gift for the folks on the other side of the river. Imstay's army can't attack the invaders until that barrier goes down, right? This could take their mages offline."

The implications sank in and I had to work hard at not laughing out loud. "Young lady, that is evil."

"Well, I w...would prefer a virulent strain of E. coli, but I don't have the means at the moment to isolate some and culture it up; so phenolphthalein it is."

"I have no idea what you just said, oh cryptic one." What was Eeee-colye?”

"Sorry." She sighed. "So, do you think this is possible?"

"You forget to whom you speak! Am I not the infamous Usruldes the Wraith?"

"Yep, figured as much. Any...w...way I could watch?"

"No, no, no, and no! Oh, did I mention no?" Emily could do well to develop some better self-preservation instincts.

"Maybe. I'll have to see if I remember your mentioning no."

"Emily," I warned her. "This isn't a school or workplace prank. These Impotuan soldiers are professional killers and this is a war. I will need to scout their camp to find how their supplies are moved. They have a barrier up which is effective against even my clairvoyance so I will need to go in person. This will take time just to scout the layout and logistics."

"Good enough." She sighed.

"I will devote some time investigating inside the Impotuan barrier this evening. If it looks feasible, I will visit before dawn or tomorrow evening."

Now that our business conversation was done, I dropped the charm. As we walked back, I filled Emily in on what had happened in Pinisla and what was going on at the Shrine. That was a mistake because it made Emily angry. Emily is the sort of person who doesn't lose her temper. She's the sort who calmly plots and plans revenge. I had never seen this calm cold killing intent in her eyes before and it frightened me. She was perfectly calm as she logically considered how she might ruin the lives of those responsible for Bobbo's and Kayseo's injuries.

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Emily, the Foskan Army Camp

Usruldes took me back to the King's pavilion. He had dropped the charm so we were visible. I have no idea if all those obeisances were because of me or because it was Usruldes carrying me. Either way, it was very freaky watching all these tough-looking soldiers and garrison guards bowing as we passed. I will never get used to this.

"This disturbs you still? Usruldes asked softly so others couldn't overhear.

"Yes, it does. I don't like the attention."

He chuckled. "I can see that. You dislike being in the public eye."

"That's not t...too far off the mark," I said. "So has there been any action between the two armies since the King got the Impotuans caged behind that palisade?"

"Just skirmishes ever since the king got the other army trapped between us and the hill the shrine is on. They were marauding on the flat, past Queenstown and almost all the way to the Queen's villa. We missed most of the fun. The king made this army by pulling volunteers as he came south from Is'syal and turning them into a fighting force, then driving the Impotuans off the flats and forcing them south to the Shrine of Tiki. I'm impressed he pulled it off by himself. It's the first time he's done all the work of leading the army without Bobbo's help or the help of his now-late uncles."

"It looks like he raided a lot of garrisons," I noted. "There are many w...women here in guard uniforms. I don't recognize half of the facings. W...where are the gals with the teal and pink facings from?"

"They're from Weirgos on the Rig River, where the Shrine of Vassu is located."

"And the ones w...with dark blue and w...white?"

"Two Ferry Island, a wagon day from here, where the Shrine of Gertzpul is. Ah, I think I can smell dinner."

Usruldes was right. There was the drool-inducing smell of meat over a fire. My stomach even rumbled, which changed my mind about wanting to skip dinner. Now I wanted some. It smelled so good.

"Two Ferry Island is where the flood w...washed away a bunch of the town below the shrine, isn't it?"

"That's right. Around three thousand people were lost in the floodwaters. The shrine and the upper town are built on rock while the lower part of town was built out on what was once a gravel bar."

"No levies?"

"The levees were breached." Usruldes nodded at the guards at the entrance to the king's compound and headed straight for the king's tent.

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"I supposed there w...weren't any piles or rip rap lining or other engineered structures that could have prevented the levies from failing?" I was still posing the question as Usruldes carried me into the inner chamber where Imstay, Aylem, and Fassex were already eating.

"What sort of engineered structures can prevent levies from failing?" the King looked up, keenly interested.

Aylem just shook her head and laughed, "Emily, dear heart, I believe you just did it again."

"We have a chair ready for you, Emily," Fassex pointed to one next to her piled with cushions.

"Wait, where's my stuff?" I asked.

"Through there," Imstay pointed at the flap sealing off where he usually slept. "I put you three in there for the night and I'll sleep out here." The King demonstrated he was quite the gentleman when interrupted by unexpected guests at his army camp. It looked like he would be sleeping on the floor. I say floor because every inch of the ground was covered by carpets on top of a ground cloth.

"W...we should ask Aylem to make some tonight if you might need it before dawn. You shouldn't get it w...wet before you use it." I explained to Usruldes as he put me onto the chair. "That's the one thing you need to be careful of."

Aylem was looking back and forth between me and Usruldes with a pensive face and then her eyes widened, "that's why you wanted the phenolphthalein." Then she started laughing and shook her head. "Oh Emily, that's just evil."

"I don't know if it w...will achieve a measurable effect," I noted with a straight face, "but it's w...worth a try."

Fassex frowned, "why am I picking up random images of people running to the necessary?"

I managed not even to smile, "ever hear of Tiki's revelation to Emily?"

"Surd save us," an epiphany crossed her face. "Need a diversion? We have balls of instant fire."

"Maybe tomorrow," Usruldes nodded. "Tonight is just to map out how they manage their supplies."

"Isn't their barrier in the way?" Aylem pointed out.

"Not from above. Their barrier is vertical but not capped, as you discovered earlier. Their overhead defence is the charm of detection, and to me, such a feeble charm is laughable. I would immolate the mage who left that hole in my defense if I were the Impotuan commander. After I take a nap, I will vanish from sight and float high above their tents and study them, assuming they have their fires out by then. The only person I have ever met who has better clairvoyance than myself is you, Great One," he said to Aylem. "My path into their food supply is now only a matter of time."

"I should have never allowed the two of you to meet," Imstay pointed his forefingers at me and Usruldes and grinned. "See if you can figure out if there's a schedule on their sneaking supplies in from Bull Trout River."

"That's on the agenda," Usruldes nodded. "I will leave you now. I must get some sleep before I do this night's reconnaissance. Make sure Emily eats enough." He waved as he disappeared out the door before I could liberate a throwing spike to skewer him.

"I thought you did not care about strict proper address, Great One," Fassex studied me.

"I don't understand," what she said confused me.

"Were you not angry at him just now for calling you Emily?" she asked.

I laughed, "not at all. Usruldes is my friend. He can call me what he wants. I was annoyed because he was nagging me to eat more."

"The mutton's good tonight," Aylem said helpfully with an innocent smile.

"I was looking at that piece of bison with all that lovely crisped-up fat and the black crunchy bits, and maybe some of the wood grouse," I confessed. "I thought I smelled sourdough earlier. Is there any? Any chance there's sweet butter?"

"Garki?" the king bellowed.

"Coming!" A faint boyish shout replied. A red-haired boy ran in. He was showing some white in his hair.

"Garki? Aylem asked. "You've grown a bit and you seem to have sprouted some white on your head." She smiled at him kindly.

The boy blushed deeply, "yes, Great One."

"Somebody lied about his age," Imstay remarked to Aylem.

"Oh? He did?" Aylem smiled and shook her head.

"He's attending classes with our son now," Imstay explained. "Heldfirk has been working a lot harder lately at his schoolwork because Garki is a good student." Imstay looked pleased with himself. "Garki's good with the new numbers; and when he's not in class or working, he's reading."

"Do you have something to read here, Garki?" Aylem asked. The boy nodded. "So what are you reading now?"

Garki blushed even deeper. "Giltak's Revelation to Emily with annotations by Shrine Craftmaster Aduda of Omexkel."

Imstay was astounded. "How did you get a copy? That's only a few rotations old."

"I told the priestess liaison of Giltak at the palace that the king wanted a copy," Garki informed the king with a straight face. "When it showed up, I entered it into the catalog of the king's books and then borrowed it. You'll find all the record-keeping on borrowing it is proper and up to date."

"So now that you ordered and then borrowed my new book, do you understand it?" Imstay was gaping.

"Well, it's not that hard," Garki looked a little put out. "I already made my own logarithmic rule from following the instructions. I did a squares rule too, just to see if the revelation was correct about not resorting to logarithms for everything, and it was."

"You managed w...without a compass?" I had to ask, full of curiosity about this kid.

"I made my own, Great One." He looked a little afraid to be speaking to me, which blew me away.

"How?"

"I took two pieces of beaver reed, one slightly shorter than the other. To the short one, I glued a discarded pencil stub I saved. Then I glued the two reed pieces at right angles at the top and wrapped string around the top for reinforcement. When I need to span a set distance, I bend the reeds together with my fingers so they bow inward. Then while holding the bent reeds in place with one hand, I take another string and wrap it around many times just above where I'm holding the reeds. That sets the opening distance in place when I let go of the reeds and let the string hold the tension."

"How do y...you keep the string from slipping?" I wanted to know.

"I cut little notches on the outside of both reeds. So long as I get the string started in the notches, it won't slip."

"I never thought of tensioning the t...two pieces of reed that way to make a compass. Garki, that's clever." I was impressed with his ingenuity.

"Well," Imstay interrupted, "hate to divert you two from what I'm sure would be a fascinating discussion, but Garki, Emily needs some sourdough and some sweet butter, if you can find some."

"I'll find you some right away, Great One," he told me with an eager smile and ran out.

"W...w...what an interesting kid," I said, watching him run off into the twilight of the ending day. "Where's Bull Trout River?" I asked while watching Fassex spear the piece of bison I wanted and put it on my oversized plate. I didn't know if I could eat all of it.

"It drains a valley in the mountains just south of the shrine before flowing into the Salt River," Imstay explained. "It dead-ends about three wagon days east into the mountains."

"If the Impotuans are using it to bring supplies in, then where is the pass they're using? Can't you block it?" I eyed the Cosm-sized two-tined eating prong with some doubt. How in the world was I going to cut my meat? The eating prong was longer than my forearm. It would be awkward.

"It's a dead end," Imstay frowned at me. "The river has its source in a box canyon with a right-angle turn to the south."

"Imstay King, if there's no pass, then how do the supplies get into the valley of Bull Trout River?" Maybe I should wait for Garki to deliver some bread. Then I could at least make a sandwich to avoid looking like a barbarian when I ate because my only other alternative was picking up the hunk of too much meat with my hands.

"We've been trying to find that out and can't find their hidden supplies."

"Do they have allies that can fly?" I asked. I was sure that a war between Cosm armies and their mages would be different from anything I knew of on Earth.

"It's roc eagle territory back there," Aylem remarked. "They don't ally with anyone. They attack on sight anyone who crosses into their realm. You have to fight and win before they will even talk to you. I think eagle allies are unlikely. It also limits the routes open to the Impotuans." Aylem frowned at my plate. "Is something wrong with your bison? You're not eating."

I could feel the heat off my cheeks as I blushed and pondered if there was a hole deep enough to hide my embarrassment.

"I see," Aylem said and reached across the table for my plate. "How much should I put back?"

"Two-thirds," I muttered, wishing I could disappear. I could see Aylem and Fassex struggle not to laugh.

"I really miss General Bobbo right now," Imstay sighed, gallantly attempting to change the subject. "He was the one who usually picked up on these sorts of things."

"From w...what Usruldes was saying, it sounds like his brain is now w...working again," I remarked. "You could roll up a bunch of maps and fly down and visit him. We're not far from Aybhas."

Aylem put my plate back in front of me with my meat cut neatly into small bite-sized pieces for a Coyn. Fassex bit her finger and turned her head away from me in order not to laugh. My tattered pride was not faring very well at the moment. I could almost like Imstay for gallantly going out of his way not to laugh at me.

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