Maker of Fire

Emily at 6 Brewers’ Row/Palace

I didn't know the whole story behind Hessakos and Lisaykos, seeing that I only found out last night that she was his mother. It turns out that they were estranged for many years. I knew he had run away from home because he told me himself. Oyyuth told me that mother and son met on the night that he rescued me. It was their first meeting since he had left home.

That night, after we landed in the hayfield, I had been charmed into a deep sleep and missed their reunion. Oyyuth said it was difficult for both Hessakos and Lisaykos. The reunion was a season and a half before he had intended to meet with her again.

The only reason he had decided to see Lisaykos again was because of his daughter. She had just been accepted as a healer-in-training at the Shrine of Mugash. Parents traditionally escorted their children to the shrine that accepted them for training but Hessakos could not approach the temple without Lisaykos knowing it. That's because they are mother and son and share the same talent for clairvoyance. If those two were close enough, they would passively sense each other's magic. He wasn't willing to skip enrolling his daughter at the shrine just to avoid meeting his mother. I think I approved of that thought, putting his daughter first before his inclination to hide from his birth family.

I could tell at the morning meal that they were feeling each other out, trying to find where the boundaries were. I could also tell that Lisaykos was happy with her newly-found grandchildren, especially Fedso'as. I couldn't tell what she was thinking about her son; however, it feels to me like they still had unfinished business between them.

Cadrees was waiting in the backyard. A groom in the livery of the brewery was just finishing with the saddle straps on a two-seat saddle that I hadn't seen before.

"It's been a while since I've ridden double on an eagle," Lisaykos said, jumping up to take the rear seat. I was left thinking that someone that big shouldn't be able to jump that nimbly. Hessakos did the same thing, leaving me wondering how I was supposed to climb into the saddle. Cadrees did not leave me in suspense: he grabbed the back of my collar with his beak and lifted me, twisting his head to drop me in front of Hessakos, who caught me. It happened so fast that I was seated before I had time to think about it. Damn eagle.

While I was doing my seat straps, Oyyuth came running out with a canvas bag. "Catch this, dear," she tossed the bag up to Hessakos.

He inspected it quickly, nodded, and passed it to Lisaykos. "Can you take this? It's for Emily."

Lisaykos looked inside and chuckled, "yes, certainly."

I hate it when people talk over my head like I'm not even there.

"Peace, little one," Hessakos patted my shoulder, "it's just a couple of sausage rolls and something to keep the Queen from eviscerating us for our sightseeing trip."

Did he just read my mind?

Cadrees landed on the Queen's balcony so we entered the palace through the balcony door. Before he stepped inside, Hessakos peeled out of his tan overtunic to reveal that he was wearing all black underneath, right down to his boots. He produced a tailored black cloth that he tied on his head that covered his face below his eyes. Then he added a black triangular cloth that he tied on to hide his hair and forehead and topped everything off with a hooded mantle. Lisaykos watched the transition with one eyebrow raised.

"Holy One," Usruldes said, "I believe it would be best if you and Emily entered together. I will be taking a different route." He knelt next to me, "Emily, you may be the only Coyn in a room full of Cosm, most of whom will be silverhairs. It might help if you try to imagine what they look like in their underwear. If that doesn't work, just think up ways to dope their food supply with Tiki's constipation cure. Even if you don't see me, I will be there. I'll see you in a bit." With that, he took three leaping steps upward to the roof and vanished from my line of sight.

Lisaykos sighed as she watched him disappear over the roofline then turned to me. "Aylem and Imstay are setting up the small reception room for a meeting. Can I carry you, please? It's on the ground floor and we'll get there faster if I do."

Well, she was right about that. My head, not my gut, made the decision and I nodded. She knelt and leaned so I could reach, "grab my collar with your right hand." She scooped me up so I was sitting on her left arm. "Is your balance alright?" I nodded. "There will be a lot of people looking at you. Most of them will be curious and a few will be hostile. You might want to close your eyes, dear heart, if it gets bad."

It was a strange trip. Everyone who we passed moved out of our way. On the stairs, which was the bulk of the trip, people backed up against the wall and bowed with their hands over their hearts. In the hallways, they did full obeisances. It was disconcerting, to say the least. The room we went to was at the end of a corridor. The guards on either side of the huge double doors took one look at us and opened them, keeping back everyone else who was milling around waiting to enter. I wondered why we got special treatment.

Inside, there was an empty dais. The thrones which I assumed usually sat on the dais were at the head of four rectangular tables pushed together. Cosm in palace livery were carrying in chairs and placing them around the tables. Others were putting out pitchers of water and mugs.

There were only a few others in the room: the King and Queen, General Bobbo, and a tall middle-aged silverhaired woman in a white kirtle and a red and white robe who I recognized as one of the high priestesses. She had her hair down like the queen instead of up like Lisaykos. The King noticed us first.

"Crap," he frowned, "we don't have any seating arranged for the Blessed Emily. This is embarrassing." He walked up and made a bowing obeisance to me, "May the blessings of the eleven gods be upon you, Great One." I nodded at him for lack of being able to say anything.

Bobbo stepped up beside the king. Sitting on Lisaykos' arm, I was at eye level with him. "May the blessings of the eleven gods be upon you, Great One," he did a full kneeling obeisance and then looked up at me with a grin. "Still not used to this, are you?" I shook my head no. "You need to give me permission to rise," the grin got deeper. I rolled my eyes and waved my free hand. I was getting used to the General, enough to realize he likes to tease.

"You don't look like the Queen's attendants dressed you today, which suggests you've been out and about. You too, Holy One," Bobbo bowed his head in respect to Lisaykos.

"Emily was with me yesterday when I visited my grandchildren, General. These are work clothes I borrowed from the Queen for working with flood victims."

"So that's where you went," the other high priestess said. "I was wondering where you disappeared last night." She paused and did a bowing obeisance to me. "May the blessings of the eleven gods be upon you, Great One. I am Kamagishi of Galt and you are the Blessed Emily who can't speak...yet." She smiled. I noticed that she had golden yellow eyes, which was kinda freakish.

"Ahem," it was the Queen looking down on all of us. She was wearing a stunning burgundy gown with silver trim and those silly poofy sleeves which didn't look at all silly on her. She was looking right at me with the sort of look mothers give their children who have crossed the line of what's acceptable. That look did nothing to calm that horrible feeling in my stomach. She looked about ready to start ripping me a new one when Lisaykos preempted her.

"Emily, sit here," she put me on the edge of the table. Then she dug into the shoulder bag that Oyyuth packed and pulled out one of the nicer bismuthinite samples with shiny well-formed radiating needles. She handed it to the Queen who frowned at it, frustrated at being preempted and not sure what Lisaykos was up to.

"That, Great One, is the ore for the metal bismuth," Lisaykos remarked as she next pulled out a piece of thin transparent mica, "and this is book mica, which would have prevented Emily's eye injury in the middle of the last planting season."

The Queen opened her mouth to say something and then closed it, frowning. She put the mica and the bismuthinite on the table next to me, clasped my head between her two huge hands, and drilled down on me with those purple eyes of hers, "you know, I worry about you." I didn't know how to respond to that.

She exhaled and dropped her hands, "what should we do about seating for Emily?"

"Does she need to be here?" Bobbo posed. "She doesn't have a formal position of responsibility in the government, after all." Frankly, I was thinking down the same lines myself.

"No, she needs to be here," Kamagishi said as if it were an irrefutable fact.

"Oh dear," the Queen said.

"Is that an opinion, sister," Lisaykos asked, "or a pronouncement?"

Kamagishi smiled apologetically, "it's a pronouncement and I can almost see the shape of it because we're right on top of it happening." I guess I was looking worried over what she just said because she smiled at me with concern. "I'm strongly precognitive, Great One. What this likely means is that you will have a role to play in the upcoming meeting."

I think I suffered an adrenalin tsunami when she said that. She noticed and pulled out a crystal. "May I? It will help you feel better."

Before I could react, the Queen said, "unfortunately, charms of peace don't work on Emily."

"Seriously? Kamagishi was surprised.

"Her will is too strong," Lisaykos said ruefully. "This one defended herself against one of her kidnappers immediately after having a charm of discipline cast on her. That's how strong her will is."

"Gods," Kamagishi's eyes were quite round.

Just then, the double doors opened and admitted a short Cosm man with hair greyed by age carrying a large roll of linen wider than he was tall. "Finally," the king said and walked to greet the newcomer. "So you managed to get it down," Imstay said.

"It wasn't easy, Mighty One," he bowed a quick obeisance. "The fabric is old and getting brittle in places. I think we should make a fresh copy and retire this one."

"Are these tables big enough to roll it out?"

"Oh, these will do nicely, Mighty One," He put the roll at the end of the table and started to unroll it. The king ran to the other side of the roll to help him. I turned to see what it was they were unrolling. It looked like a drawing of a gravity-fed water system, which confirmed what I suspected about the city's water. Unfortunately, I couldn't see the details from where I was sitting.

Something grabbed my foot. I turned to see Bobbo pulling off my hand-me-down ankle boots that were once Troyeepay's. "Walk on the table, there's no other way for you to see this. Need a hand up?" I shook my head and got on my feet. The nice thing about being reborn into a new body is that my knees didn't hurt anymore.

"Hey, what's a filthy Coyn doing in here?" the old man snarled in a loud voice.

"Oh dear," Bobbo said out loud.

I saw Lisaykos put a restraining on the Queen's arm. The Queen was quite red in the face so I knew it was an attempt to keep the Queen's formidable temper in check.

"Watermaster Amoynast," Kamagishi smiled kindly, "might I introduce you to the Blessed Emily, Revelator of Tiki?"

I can't say that it wasn't gratifying to watch the blood drain from his face, but I didn't see any reason to torture the fellow. What was important was what he did from this moment forward. I nodded at him with a polite smile that I'm sure didn't reach my eyes.

"I'm so dead," he said in horror. He made a full obeisance with his head touching the floor, "I beg you, please forgive me, Great One. I'm just a foolish old man who has trouble watching his mouth."

I was rather taken aback by his groveling and had no idea what to do.

"You do not wish to pursue any punishment, Great One?" Kamagishi asked for the old man's benefit. I shook my head. Being rude isn't something to punish someone over, especially with some kind of water problem facing the city. If he was the man who knew the water system, it would be stupid not to let him do his job.

Kamagishi touched him lightly on the shoulder as he cowered on the floor. "Watermaster, the Blessed Emily is not a vindictive soul. Please get up. She would tell you herself but she can not speak."

I went back to studying the drawing on the linen roll. It showed a system similar to the one in Aybhas. An alpine reservoir high in the mountains fed an enclosed aqueduct that descended to where it crossed a river and then climbed again to discharge water into an unpressurized underground tank at the highest point in the city, under a park-like space in front of the palace. From there, four mains descended into the city.

So the water system was two gravity-fed systems: from the reservoir to the holding tank, and then from the holding tank into the city. I had to wonder why they separated the two systems. I would have kept them as one to take advantage of the greater water pressure for the palace-citadel-house of mounts complex. If the higher pressure was too much for the water lines in the city, they could use the excess for water power to drive industrial machinery.

I didn't recognize anything that might be a valve on the schematic. I also didn't see anything that might be elevations. So there was no way to calculate how much head there was on the reservoir side of the system, nor how long it was. If the old man had brought the schematic here, did this mean the system had failed somewhere?

"Does the Great One understand moving water?" the old watermaster asked in a tentative voice. I nodded. I spent most of my life thinking about moving fluids and slurries through heap leach piles and pipelines.

"Watermaster," the Queen said, "the Blessed Emily built her own water system for her home on the north side of the lava plains, including a necessary that used water to remove waste after every use and a properly designed waste field."

The old man looked surprised, "water-fed waste removal?"

"Watermaster," the Queen had gone into full regal mode, "you will find that the Blessed Emily is a talented artificer. Two of her inventions are being prepared right now for formal adoption as entirely new crafts by the Shrine of Giltak. There is a reason why Tiki chose her. Do not judge her by appearance. Her knowledge is vast."

He hung his head, "I am so sorry, little missy. I just never run into a Coyn before who could understand water."

I walked on the table to where he was staring at the floor and flicked a finger at his forehead.

"Hey!" he looked up and then got startled with me standing on the table right in front of him. I gave him what I hoped was a knowing smile and then made the motion for writing on a tablet.

Lisaykos, always on top of everything, produced four blank tablets and a stylus from out of Oyyuth's bag. She walked the length of the table and handed me one. The watermaster gaped, looking up at how tall she was, which was only a hand shorter than the mega-monster queen.

I wrote: "where is the system broken?"

The watermaster read my question, "well, little missy, we have two problems, but they are related. First..."

"Wait," the King walked over. "Maybe we should let everyone else in and start the meeting so people can hear the discussion."

"Imstay King," Kamagishi jumped in, "I believe the discussion between the watermaster and the Blessed Emily is what is supposed to happen here. Stopping this is wrong. Let them talk."

"Oh." Imstay stopped and considered what she said. Obviously, Kamagishi's precog was taken very seriously.

(continued in part 39)