High Priestess Kamagishi, Impotuan Army Camp
I was surprised that Usruldes arrived at the queen's side before I did. He nodded at me as Asgotl and I landed. I jumped off and Asgotl ran over to Aylem before my own feet hit the ground.
"I'm afraid if I try to touch you, you'll fall over," Asgotl said with concern. "I can't feel you in my mind right now, which is scary, girlfriend, just like it was five days ago in Yant." He laid down next to her, put his head on the ground, and looked up at her, "I worry about you, you know."
Aylem managed a tiny smile for him that was full of love for this goofy, exuberant griffin. I had done my own checking and I knew he was a free agent. She had smashed his charm gem during the Mounts War. He was probably her only real friend who loved her for her own sake until very recently. I found myself wishing I had a relationship like that with my eagle Pibl.
"Why are you here?" I asked Usruldes who had flown over on his eagle.
"To protect her while she can not protect herself," he stated as if I should have known that.
I looked at him with disbelief, "but she just saved the shrine." I shook my head, "who would dare?"
"Yes, there are many who are grateful right now, but all it takes is one lunatic, Holy One; and right now, our Queen is at her most helpless. It would be the perfect moment for an Impotuan to attack or someone who felt injured by any of the Queen's regrettable past actions. The moment you assume you are safe is the best moment for an assassin's attack. I should know. Assassinations are part of my job," he said with deep sincerity. "I also have my agents surrounding the general area. The only ones who can approach right now are your sister high priestesses and the king. The queen's safety is our only task for now."
"I never thought of all that," I said with consternation.
"It's my job to think this way, not yours, Holy One," the crow's feet next to his gray eyes crinkled, telling me he was smiling. "Here comes the first," he looked up at someone in blue and yellow landing on a griffin. It was Foyuna, who leaped off and ran up to us.
Foyuna did a full kneeling obeisance to Aylem, "may the blessing of the eleven gods be upon you, Great One." She put her hands together, leaned her forehead into them, and bowed to the ground. "It will be impossible to express the gratitude of the Crystal Shrine of Tiki. We are forever in your debt, hero of Foskos."
Aylem looked a little shocked but she was too far gone at the moment to even speak.
Foyuna leaned back at beamed at the queen, "I know you can't even speak right now, Great One. I have a litter coming to carry you to your room in the shrine."
Foyuna looked up at Usruldes, "Friend Usruldes, may I ask that your agents escort the queen into the shrine. We intend to carry her on foot."
"Of course, Holy One," he said in that wonderful bass voice of his. "Those of us who live in the shadows are honored by your request. We have so few opportunities to serve under the eyes of so many. Thank you." He made a bowing obeisance to her with a profoundly deep bow.
"I should be thanking you," Foyuna protested.
"Thus we could spend the entire day insisting on the primacy of each other's gratitude," there was humor in his voice.
"In just the last few days, you have done so much for us at your own peril, Lord Usruldes," Foyuna reposted. "The Shrine of Tiki will forever be your friend, especially for the delivery of the bread and the fresh eggs and garden greens."
"I was happy to be of service."
I could tell he meant every word.
A knot of priestesses and priests from the shrine came at a run with a makeshift litter. It was made of blankets and the handles of two long brooms. Asgotl humphed, "I wish your shrine could accommodate griffins better, Holy One."
"So do I, old friend," Foyuna replied. "I know you know you can stay under the dome in the Well of Tiki, but there is no way for you to pass any of the doors to the rooms. The shrine is just too old for big doors."
"I bet Emily could design you some," Asgotl hinted.
"You are incorrigible," she gave him an amused look.
"I'll come back when she's ready to leave," he rubbed his beak against Aylem's knee. "I'll just goof off and get into trouble with Emily instead." He turned his head to see how Aylem reacted and made that funny snorkeling laugh that griffins make when she managed to glare at him. It was rather cute and touching to watch him tease her, especially since I knew he had been so angry with her before he, Emily, and Usruldes brought her home.
The king arrived next on his griffin. I was surprised to see that he had put on a surcoat of deep blue velvet and he wore a cloth-of-gold diadem. He knelt at her side opposite Asgotl and pulling out a matching diadem, he put it on her. Then he lifted her limp hand and kissed it reverently.
"I'm sorry, Great One, Hero of Foskos, but I must impose one last duty upon you before you can rest." He looked around for Usruldes: "I need your help. Walk with me and I will explain; but first, don't let her head droop or drop."
He startled everyone by picking her up, which was only possible because he was so tall. Usruldes had her head in his hands and once Imstay was completely on his feet, Usruldes gently leaned her head against Imstay's shoulder. Imstay looked at him and you could tell they were having their own mindcasted conversation. Then Usruldes vanished and I suspect he kept the queen's head steady and supported as the king made his way through the Impotuan tents to the riverside.
An amazing sight greeted us. The thousands of soldiers and garrison guards that formed the king's impromptu army were lined up on the opposite shore. As soon as the king and queen were noticed and recognized, a spontaneous chant started in the Foskan army.
"Queen! Queen! Queen! Queen! Queen! Queen! Queen! Queen! Queen! Queen!"
The sound grew and swelled and still, the army kept chanting it. Then the queen's arm slowly and painfully lifted for a small wave. The army erupted into unrestrained cheering in reaction to it. I suspect the unseen Usruldes was behind that maneuver since Aylem was incapable of even holding up her own head.
Foyuna had the priestesses and priests with their blankets and broom handles follow the king. Imstay laid her down on the makeshift litter contraption and the party departed for the main doors into the shrine. I hoped that spontaneous acclaim would help a bit with Aylem's well-disguised depression and lack of confidence.
I stopped when I got to Asgotl, "well, pal, can I get a ride back to the royal pavilion?"
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Emily, Crystal Shrine of Tiki
I woke up in a soft brushed linen nightgown in a Cosm-sized bed, but someone had kindly left a stair so I could get up and down on my own. I recognized the layout of the room as those in the Crystal Shrine of Tiki, so I assumed that's where I was. I got down and visited the room's attached bathroom, which had both Cosm and Coyn necessaries. High priestess Foyuna was doing her homework since I was a revelator of Tiki and therefore entitled to digs at the shrine as a perk.
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Too bad it still required a mage to get hot water for the tub. I did note there were faucets that I could reach and a stair ladder in and out of the oversized bathtub. I was fond of Japanese-style tubs so I did not consider the size of the tub a problem. There was even a bench to sit on.
Having taken care of the necessary chores, I noted that I was both thirsty and hungry. I found my leather backpack of clothes at the foot of the bed and put something clean on. I was ready to go forth and hunt down some food or at least a kitchen where I might get a plate of something to eat when I noticed there was no convenient foot latch for Coyn on the door. Stuck inside the room for now, I decided I'd kill time looking at the notes I made about magic and time manipulation.
I saw that Kamagishi had put the piece of parchment from her magic manuscript thing into my bag so I dug it out. I was just getting settled down on the bed to look the manuscript over since I failed to climb onto the chair to use the table when the door opened.
"Lisaykos!" To say I was happy to see her was an understatement. She forgot herself and smiled back. She was unfortunate to have been born with a rake to her eyebrows that made every smile look evil.
"Tortured many children lately?" I teased gently. In reply, she walked up to the bed, stood me up, and gave me a hug, firm but I could still breathe. Lisaykos was a class act.
"They are all out of small children in Aybhas. I ate too many of them, I'm afraid. I'm out of kittens too so I've moved onto ponies and puppies." Her deadpan was perfect.
"Well," I chuckled, "that might last two or three rotations before y...you have to move to a new town to replenish your supply."
She put me back down next to the headboard, kicked off her shoes, and sat on the foot of the bed. "You are talking better."
"Yes, w...when I'm not tired and not trying to get around those terrible w and oo sounds," I conceded, "but it does seem a bit easier than before I left to fetch Aylem home and it's a lot better than it w...was a season ago."
"I'm hoping the oo and w and y problems get better with more practice," Lisaykos sighed. "You should be aware that some of that stutter may stick around permanently. Little imperfections may never go away. Any improvement on the fatigue problem?"
"Very little," I grimaced. "Ud said it w...will take another half year before I will be completely recovered. She said that not even she could fix it without creating an entirely new body, but that body would be like an infant's in having to learn about moving all over again, so why bother?"
Lisaykos laughed, "I would love to meet her someday. She sounds really interesting from what I've heard from you and Aylem and Irhessa."
"You've been able to talk to Aylem? I thought she would still be flat on her back from exhaustion."
Lisaykos just shook her head, "Emily, you've been asleep for three days."
"I what?" I knew I should have passed-up that opportunity to go to the opera with Giltak. While my body was asleep in the Foskan Army Camp, Galt had taken me to dinner, and afterward, we went drinking with Tiki, Giltak, and Gertzpul. Then Giltak, that no-good fashion plate of a god, tempted me with the Volksoper Wien followed up by the Staatsoper. It's only something a god could arrange. The bad thing about hanging out with gods is that neither gods nor souls on that plane of existence get tired. Time had gotten away from me. Three days? Oy vey!
Oh well, the Sachertorte was good and that was after we went to Gasthaus Schmidt on Neubaugasse for beer, schnitzel, and singing. I never realized before I died how much I liked Vienna. Sometimes it seems that life is just one regret after another over something we should have done when we had the chance but didn't. I regret not spending more time in Vienna.
"Hold on a moment," Lisaykos looked worried and put her hand on the side of my head. I never noticed before now, but I realized she always reached past me so that I didn't see her hand when she touched my head. Had she picked up on how large hands spooked me?
"Yes," she said without thinking. Then she got a panicked look on her face. She had never let on before that she had read any of my thoughts passively.
I flinched. "I c...can't say that I like it but I've gotten used to it," I remarked with resignation. "I'm not g..going to go running d...down the hallw..w...ways to escape y...you, or anything like that." Why was I clenching my fists?
She pinched her nose and grimaced, "I am so sorry, Emily."
"I'm n...not w...worried about it. You shouldn't be either." I leaned my head back against the headboard of the bed. "What w...were you concerned about th...that you w...wanted to check?"
"The gods visited you again, didn't they?" she wanted to know. "Aylem said Galt put you to sleep three days ago and checking just now, your brain patterns felt different to me. Activity is still racing around in your brain. I noticed it the first time when you got the dream command from Mueb about the rocks. I also noticed it after the dream command from Vassu about the seaweed. I noticed it again when you came back from being dead, when Mugash and Mueb visited you, and then after both your dream command and your revelation from Giltak. I'm not sure what to call it. The texture, the feel of your thoughts is different after the gods visit you. You don't have magic so there's no way to describe the feeling to you. If the gods weren't involved, I would say you were strung out on stimulants by the way my body clairvoyance measures things.
Yet here you are, aware and lucid, functioning like you do every day. So it's different but you're still the same. It's similar to what Galt did to your eyes. You can't feel that there's anything different about your eyes but anyone who knew you before Galt changed them can see the difference."
"But the f...feeling you can detect in my brain goes away?" I asked.
"In the past, the feeling dissipated in a day or two," Liaykos said, "but here we are on day three. I should have been measuring this. I will measure this from here on out."
"Well, that's one more weird thing about life on Erdos, I guess," I tried not to let it spook me. "Galt told me that he wanted to reward me for solving the problem he posed about magic in record time. What I did not know beforehand was that he had a bet with Tiki over it. Tiki lost. So Galt took me to a favorite restaurant of mine in California and then Tiki took us drinking. Giltak showed up and took me to the opera. There were no dream commands or strange revelations. The gods just wanted me to have a good time. This would freak me out if I thought about it too much, so let's not for now.
I looked over the side of the bed at the floor and then at the door. "Frankly, my biggest problem right n...now is that I can't open the door of this r...room on my own and I'm starving and really thirsty."
"But there's a pitcher of water and a beaker on the table," Lisaykos pointed out, and then it sunk in for her that the table and chair were too high, the pitcher too heavy, and the beaker too big. These were things that Wolkayrs took care of for Lisaykos. She didn't need to think about them because he did it for her.
"Oh dear, and Foyuna tried so hard to make the room more comfortable for you. Didn't you see the latch pole?" Lisaykos pointed to a pole on a rack next to the door. It had a bronze hook on the end and was as long as the table was high. It looked like a boat hook to me, the kind you use on sailboats to snag lines.
"One: no, I didn't see it," I replied. "Two: what's a latch pole? I've never seen one before. Is it for the door?"
Lisaykos grimaced and pinched her nose for a second time, "Surd save us." She gave me one of her long-suffering patience looks. "You've not been anywhere that uses latch poles? No, obviously not, or you would not have asked that question. There will be a latch pole in a rack on either side of the door. And I will have a talk with Foyuna about the table, chair, pitcher, and beaker. I hope they have appropriate eating ware for you down at the dining room."
"The king had the same problem when we showed up from Yant," I recalled. "There was great hilarity during dinner on the first evening because the table knife was a veritable short sword for me and the eating prong was longer than my forearm. Aylem ended up cutting my meat for me. I wanted to sink into the ground from embarrassment. It was not a good time."
"Yes, I can see how that would have been unpleasant for you," Liaykos said, getting off the bed and pulling on her shoes. "What happened to your travel set of table implements I had made for you?"
"I'm not sure. I haven't seen them since we were in Yant. They might have gotten left there."
"I'll mention that to Fassex. She's left already for Yant, now that she and I and Aylem had some time to speak together. I like your idea of Aylem spending time in Aybhas to get straightened out upstairs. The hard part will be finding the right healer, but we can discuss this later. For now, let's take a trip to the kitchen because you need to eat."
"I'm hungry so I won't argue with that," I said, looking for where I put my boots. "Lisaykos," I saw a troubled expression on her face, "what's wrong?"
"You won't want to hear this, but if I must, I will cast the Grace of Mugash on you," she said in a voice that warned me not to argue with her.
"W...why?"
"My son told me what Ud said about your need for a deep rest so you can get better. So I've decided that you are not walking anywhere while we are here at the Crystal Shrine and when we get home to Aybhas. Now, get up and grab my collar, and we'll find some food for you."
I inhaled and sighed. It would get me nowhere to try to talk her out of it because I knew I would exhaust myself if I walked any distance right now. This would last only a half year more. I might as well resign myself.
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