Emily, Crystal shrine of Tiki

I was amazed when all the Cosm left my room and left me alone for a time. Aylem told me later that Lisaykos was behind that, realizing my stomach was sour. It also explained why she didn't nag me about skipping lunch. Aylem and Imstay waited for me at the shrine to wake back up while almost everyone else left for their homes or shrines.

When I later woke up and exited my room, I could tell by the light coming through the clerestory windows along the corridors that it was mid-afternoon. I was surprised when I entered the domed chamber to see Usruldes talking with Imstay and High Priestess Moxsef of Vassu. Moxsef's presence was unexpected. Imstay looked rather grim and spoke so softly that I could not hear him. Moxsef wasn't wearing her usual sour expression as if something always smelled bad somewhere nearby. She looked just as grim as Imstay.

Aylem was standing with her hand on the Great Crystal. Foyuna had pushed the recorder’s table next to Aylem and acted as her note taker. I wasn't sure because I couldn't see the top of the table, but it looked like there was an unrolled map on it. Foyuna spotted me hanging up the latch hook on its rack and walked over to me.

“Feeling better, Emily?” she leaned down to talk to me and braced her hands on her knees.

“Yes, thank you, Foyuna." I realized that I like Foyuna a great deal. She was the friendliest of all the high priestesses with her bright and cheerful personality.

“I have bread and stuff to put on it, in case you're hungry," she volunteered. "It's on the table." She tried walking with me and became frustrated with the pace. "I'm sorry, Emily, but I'm going to be rude and move you a bit faster than you can walk." She picked me up, carried me across the vast space under the huge dome, and planted me on the edge of the table. Then she pulled my ankle boots off and placed them under the table, "there, now you can make yourself comfortable if you want. Do you want some cushions to recline on?"

“No, I’m good for now,” I turned and studied the map that took up half the table surface. I had never seen a map quite like it. It showed all the mountain ranges of the Blue Mountains east of the Salt River and extended into the flatlands beyond. What was notable were the highest mountains. If you drew a line from Truvos in the south through Pinisla and then Weirgos, the mountains to the east were drawn on the map as if they were the highest. The Rig River upstream of Weirgos continued that line northward to where it had its headwaters in Naver Lake, in a high valley just to the southwest of the Yuxviayeth holding. Yuxviayeth was the grain-rich valley east of Yant and Surdos, which Imstay added to Foskos last year.

South of Naver Lake, Foskans considered the line to be the eastern border of the kingdom. The map had the area east of the Truvos-Pinisla-Weirgos line and the Rig River upstream of Weirgos shaded light red. The region had just one label: Eagle Territory. The very highest mountains were on its southern end.

The Ahkeseld River rose in the hills to the east of Pink Lake. The Pink Lake was a brine lake that ended the salt pans on the southern border of Foskos at Black Falls. There was a low pass between the west draining lake that fed the enclosed basin of the Pink Lake and the Headwaters of the Ahkeseld River. Pink Lake's waters were a dark rosy pink, which I guessed was due to salt-loving algae and halophilic bacteria, both of which made extremely salty water turn that color.

The great east-west trade route that started at the Inkalim trade post of Tuleen at the sinks of the Salt River, and passed through Uldlip and Black Falls, traveled over that pass and followed the Ahkeseld into the vast breadbasket lands of the Empire of Impotu.

The Ahkeseld was one of the longest rivers known on the west side of the continent, draining the southern Blue Mountains and traveling more than 50 wagon-days to feed the greatest river in the world, simply called the Stem. South of Eagle Territory, The Ahleseld had six major mountain tributaries, four to the north and two to the south. The tributaries to the south didn’t matter at the moment since they didn’t border Foskos. The four north tributaries were what Aylem was currently studying.

As Aylem described what she saw in the crystal, Foyuna would make notes on pieces of paper and would attach the paper to the map with a thin bronze needle, passing through the vellum of the map and into the wood board that backed the map.

“I’ve completely done with the Wall River, Foyuna. Let's take a short break." Aylem stepped back from the Great Crystal, grabbed the nearest chair, and fell into it. Every river and stream in the mountains west of Truvos or north of Pinisla had a piece of paper pinned to it. Most of the notes had a flat horizontal stroke on them. I assumed that was a negative result. A handful of paper strips had writing, indicating the presence of a new bridge, new road, or new improvements along an older smuggling trail.

“I assume the red lines mark the path of the army that went to Yant and the one that went to Black Falls?" I stood up in my stocking feet to get a better view of the map since it was both longer and wider than I was tall.

“The army that attacked Black Falls took the trade road,” Aylem looked a bit weary as she frowned at the map. “No big surprise there. The army we met at Yant, Emily, took the new road in from Yuxviayeth that Imstay built last summer. The teaser here is finding the route that the middle army took to Pinisla. Usruldes and Imstay have traced the route up Bull Trout River, over a hidden high pass, and down onto the mountain back road two-thirds of the way to Pinisla from Truvos. The mystery is how did they get to Pinisla?"

“Didn’t we talk about this on the night the cat god decided no one was getting any sleep?” I remembered Imstay showing me the sand table magic, which I had to admit was awesome.

"Yes, but also the night before that too," Aylem noted. She suddenly grinned, "I don't know if you remember the cutting of the meat?”

I clasped my hands behind my back and glowered as best I could at Aylem, noting that it was good that she was feeling up to teasing me, because she sometimes lost confidence when talking to me since we came back from the Fens; however, I was not at all thrilled that she was teasing me about the dinner that night when there was no Coyn-scaled cutlery in the army’s camp.

“Ah, yes,” she sat back after studying my expression and smiled, “I see you do remember.”

I shook my head and went back to studying the map. “If I w...was a smuggler, this first valley east of the border looks good to me,” I was looking at the first tributary of the Ahkeseld, “lower mountains, lots of pine to hide in.”

“That’s why it’s called the Nocustoms River,” Foyuna smiled. “The high pass here on the backside of Skads Mountain, the one that avoids going into Truvos first, taking a shortcut to the Truvos to Pinisla back road, it’s called Smuggler’s Notch. No kidding on the name.”

"It's the first place Usruldes looked, and Imstay, and me," Aylem sighed and looked over where Usruldes, Moxsef, and Imstay were still talking with faces that belonged at a funeral.

“You just finished this tributary here?” I pointed my toe at the next valley east. “Yes? Nothing there?

“Not a thing,” Emily,” now Aylem sighed. “I didn’t have much hope for that valley, but checked anyway, just in case.”

“Why is it not a good candidate?”

“The Wall River Valley? It has glaciers clogging up the head and east side of the valley,” she pointed. “There’s a settlement at the confluence of the Wall and the Ahkeseld with about 300 people. There’s a caravansary and a handful of freeholder farms. The Impotuans did not leave a garrison there. They marched their 20,000-man army around it and played nice with the natives. It makes no sense to me.”

“Any glaciers in the third valley?” I wondered.

“Some small ones, if I remember correctly,” she shrugged.

"Bet you find somethings," I ventured. "Nothing in the first two, and the fourth is too far east if those mountains in Eagle Territory are as high as the map indicates."

“I won’t take that bet,” Aylem shook her head. “I think so too. There’s a glacier-covered east-west ridge in back there, between the tributaries and a big lake four to five wagon-days to the east of Pinisla. The ridgeline is so high that not even the eagles fly over it. I think the tallest peak along that ridge might be the Everest of Erdos,” Aylem tapped on the general area on the map. “There may be a way through some of these lower valleys, she indicated southwest of Pinisla.”

Aylem had a beaker of tea and then returned to the Great Crystal. She didn’t find a road in those mountains she indicated. She found something far worse after only a few moments of starting her trance.

“Oh my,” Aylem said after a loud intake of breath. It caught the attention of Usruldes, Moxsef, and Imstay.

"Oh dear," Aylem remarked, "Foyuna, you'll want to come to look at this. It's a wood palisade, a big one, near the headwaters of the third tributary. Was there a name for the river on the map?”

“There’s a faded name on the map, Aylem,” I got on my hands and knees for a better view. “It looks like it says ‘The Third River.’”

Foyuna laughed, “yes, I noticed that. The fourth one is labeled ‘The Fourth River.’ Someone was very inventive with names.” She got up from her chair and joined Aylem at the Great Crystal. “It looks like they’ve had some kind of damage.”

Usruldes joined them, "it looks like they've had someone dropping logs and large rocks on them from above. I'm guessing the Eagles don't want them there and the work you see around the gate is to convert that portion of the wall to stone before the snow hits."

Imstay and Moxsef joined the other three so all I could see were five giant-sized backs discussing what Aylem had displayed in the crystal. I sat back on my knees and went back to studying the map with half an ear listening to the conversation.

They discussed various features of the fortress. I really didn’t pay much attention until Imstay made a remark that grabbed me.

“This can not circulate,” Imstay cautioned, “at least for now. On the night of the Midsummer Night Market, five of the party that attacked the south balcony were Impotuans. The interrogations which we finished two days ago have uncovered that the Impotuans have already infiltrated advance parties into Esso, Weirgos, Rigdit, Yuxvos, and Kesmat. They infiltrated Yant and Black Falls too but whether those groups are still operating is anyone's best guess. The bad news according to Moxsef is that they may be funneling agents through Weirgos and Lord Opyus haup Weirgos could be helping them.” That explained all the long faces between Moxsef and Imstay. It was her Shrine of Vassu that was in Weirgos.

I flew back to Aybhas on Asgotl with Aylem. Imstay and Moxsef came with us. I would be talking to Raoleer and Moxsef about modern indoor plumbing while Lisaykos took Imstay and Aylem to the cleaners while negotiating on my behalf for my cut as the brains behind plumbing and wastewater treatment.

I really wanted to talk about rubber instead, but Moxsef was going out of her way to be pleasant and I didn’t want to appear unappreciative. It was the first time she had ever tried to be civil so we spent four days as I had my brains picked down to the medulla oblongata. It was just her and Raoleer, but after day two, they were joined by the Revered Huhoti from the Shrine of Giltak and the Revered Priest Watermage Deoykoya from the Shrine of Vassu.

Deoykoya’s arrival loosened up the other three Cosm a great deal because he was Moxsef’s boy Friday for their waste operations throughout Foskos. Moxsef relaxed a lot after he arrived. He was also Raoleer’s older brother and he was just like her, with the same mekaner tendencies, the same goofy sense of humor, and the same love of talking about how to save the world or at least the bits they had control over. On the evening of the third day of consultation, Lisaykos crashed our after-dinner talks, guilted all of them for keeping me up too late, and dragged me off to bed. I was a little grumpy about that since we were deep into talking about pumps.

Yeah, I knew I would regret staying up because I could tell I was getting more and more worn down, but I was having fun talking slurries and how to implement pumping technology, with which Foskans had very little experience. Their gravity-driven systems were works of art, especially now that the Shrine of Vassu was installing air-bleeding valves on all the buried aqueducts, but their reliance on gravity to move water had left them hurting for better pump technology. Oh, I loved the look in Raoleer’s and Moxsef’s eyes when I explained making rubber tubing and then using a peristaltic pump set-up to move constant low volumes without introducing air bubbles. It was mekaner heaven. I was having so much fun before Lisaykos arrived. Damn killjoy.

We had Ud in our discussions on the fourth and last day, as she dropped in from Black Falls telepathically. Then Moxsef headed back to Weirgos and Deoydoya flew down to meet with Ud in person and look over the mains and drains Ud was making. On the fifth day, Raoleer, Huhoti, Lisaykos, Aylem and I discussed rubber, crutches, walkers, and wheelchairs. The discussion left Lisaykos looking most unhappy.