Usruldes, reconnaisance in the mountains

Cadrees and I spent the night at Truvos in one of the houses my network maintains. In the morning, we left to scout the route from the Truvos-Pinisla road to the Impotuan fortified camp at the head of the third tributary to the Ahkeseld. Because of the short notice, I intended to catch up with Imstay and Aylem in Aybhas this evening or tomorrow. Imstay would still be in Aybhas that long because he and Aylem would be facing the dragon of financial negotiations, my darling mother in extortion mode.

Her uncle, King Imhoyep, who was Imstay’s grandfather, used to take Lisaykos to meetings of the chancellor of the exchequer when she was a little girl. He would use her as a foil as he negotiated contracts and examined the tax books to spot nobles trying to hide income, and he taught her all sorts of intimidation tricks. I’m told by oldtimers that she was every bit as good as her uncle the king by the time she left for the shrine training.

Poor Imstay, he hates dealing with Lisaykos when it came to money. Since she runs one of the largest shrines, which provides healing to all five races living in the kingdom, my mother deals with the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the treasurer’s office under Aylem all the time. Aylem, on the other hand, really enjoys sharpening her money wits by facing down Lisaykos. I’ve advised Imstay for years just to leave it to the Queen, but before this year, he didn’t trust her. Foolish man. Aylem is rigidly honest about money. She would never have cheated the kingdom.

I had another reason I wanted to get back to Imstay before he left for Is’syal. Two days from now, Imstay would attend the execution of his first cousin as well as the other three survivors of the Midsummer Night Market attack in Aybhas plus Priestess Voice Druyudros haup Angsum. I wanted to go with Imstay because he would need a friend to go drinking with afterward.

Because a lord and a priestess were both being punished, Fassex herself would come down from Yant to supervise the execution. Emily was disturbed over sentencing her attackers. Because of this, Lisaykos, Imstay, and Aylem decided not to mention the day of execution to her. Aylem would stay in Aybhas instead of attending the execution to camouflage the day of the event. Personally, I don’t think Emily is all that fragile. Yes, she would be unhappy to be reminded of the execution, but I believe she had already made her peace with it on the day she made her decision. Granted, no one consults me on these matters and I am wary of talking with my mother about her over-protective handling of Emily.

These and other topics were what Cadrees and I discussed as we flew into the mountains east of Truvos and scouted the area between there and Pinisla to find the route to the fortified camp. There is an easy route to the Ahkeseld from Truvos. That pass leads to the first amusingly-named Nocustoms River. It is well fortified and manned with 200 from the Trudos garrison. The next tributary to the east has no easy pass into Foskos, excluding some suicidal smugglers' trails that are only passable in the summer over the glaciers at the north end of the valley.

The headwaters of the third tributary were the location of the fortified camp. I estimated four wagon-days between that camp and the Truvos-Pinisla backcountry road. Cadrees and his sharp eyes found a one-lane road that was fiendishly well hidden behind the Impotuan fortification. The route was narrow and had roadcuts to lower two high-elevation passes just below the treeline to keep the entire road in the trees. The Impotuans built three timber bridges along the route and then painted them so they would look like running water if seen from the air. The intersection of the hidden road with the Truvos-Pinisla trail was just one wagon-day from Pinisla. I could tell that this was work that had started one or two years earlier. This was no hasty project constructed this year. The Impotuans had been planning this invasion for a while. It wasn’t thrown together at the last minute because Aylem went missing. They probably took advantage of that she went missing but it was clear to me that they were already prepared to attack. That thought disturbed me.

The camp itself had an earth and timber fortification. Parts of the palisade wall were already converted to stone. It looked like the camp had been attacked at least once from the air based on the damage to the wooden palisade and the number of boulders and uprooted trees on the ground. The edge of roc eagle territory was just a wagon-day to the northeast.

I had to wonder if the Impotuans were unaware of how close they were to what the eagles considered their territory, or if they knew about but disregarded the eagles’ territorial claims. The latter was plausible since the Impotuans did not live right next door to the Eagles as we did. They probably had no idea how touchy the eagles were before the Impotuans moved into their new fortification. It was a good location for the invaders because we avoided the area to keep up our uneasy peace with the flying mounts and their touchy relatives.

Cadrees and I flew under a charm of circular light once we passed Truvos. It was the afternoon by the time we reached the Impotuan fortified camp. Cadrees spotted two eagles keeping watch over it. I guessed that the Impotuans had done something to raise the ire of the eagles if they were under an active watch. Cadrees and I talked it over and decided to approach the eagles.

The nearest eagle was perched on the mountain top immediately north of the camp. Cadrees landed about 500 hands away and I dropped the charm so we were visible. The eagle stared at us for quite some time before deciding to fly over and talk.

"I should be offended that you have come here with an enslaved eagle, Foskan," she began.

"This is technically not eagle territory and I am not enslaved, my lady," Cadrees responded. "I am Cadrees. I do not know my aerie for I was kidnapped as an egg. My rider is my bond who rescued me from an illegal mount training camp north of Kas. He is my friend and benefactor and I am his. We are partners."

"Break the charm gems on your beak and I will believe you."

I dismounted, "they are simple charms of location but I will break them for you, my lady." I shattered the gems. They are easily replaced.

"I say again, my lady," Cadrees spoke, "this is my bond friend, Usruldes. As a free eagle, I travel with him for friendship's sake. We are here because we have issues with the Impotuans who built the fort below."

"I apologize, friend Cadrees and bond Usruldes. Pray forgive my doubt. We watch the two-foots below because they have raided our aeries and stolen our eggs. At first, we thought that Foskos had broken the treaty between us. We now know they are not from Foskos and I regret that we doubted you. Trust is not easy, even now, friends Cardrees and Usruldes."

"We have a saying, lady, that the enemy of my enemy is my friend," I ventured. "These Impotuans sent three armies to attack Foskos earlier this year. I suspect you noticed that. Before we defeated them, they destroyed the Singing Shrine of Sassoo."

"We have seen the destroyed shrine," she said. "We honor Sassoo, Lord of the Winds, but your shrine was only for Cosm. We regret the insult to the Lord of the Winds, but we will not be offended over a building closed to all those who fly."

"We are building a new shrine, my lady. Two days ago, the Lord of the Winds in his aspect as the Black Griffin gave a revelation to Asgotl, a griffin of the Naver Aerie, who is a free griffin with a contract with Aylem Queen as her mount. The revelation was a command to open the dome of the new shrine so the flying races may enter and attend events under the dome. I invite you to come to Black Falls and speak with the spider mage Ud. The Lord of the Winds requested her to build the new shrine. Imstay King, Lord Gunndit, and Lord Black have contracted with Ud to also build the foundations, roads, and walls of the new city. My king and queen, and Ud, who is my teacher, would welcome your insight and your requests if you have any, regarding access into the new shrine.

"In exchange for what, bond Usruldes?"

"No exchange," Cadrees interrupted before I could answer. "The shrine already debated opening the dome to mounts. This happened before the Lord of the Winds blessed the new Revelator, the Great One Asgotl, who is a good friend to me. High Priestess Senlyosart considered opening the dome to mounts, but eventually chose not to. The problem was the weather barrier, whose spell was one of the lost magics; however, Sassoo has now restored the knowledge of that spell and gave it to Aylem Queen as part of Asgotl’s revelation. The dome will be open to mounts. Now is the time to speak with Ud, before she finalizes her building plans."

"What Cadrees says is true," I added. "We would not demand any exchange from you to expand the worship of Sassoo to all five races at the shrine in Black Falls. Sassoo has demanded this of us. and we will not bargain over honors due to a god."

"This is startling news,” the eagle tilted her head, "though, as you said, it is only two days old. We have seen the great spider of the Fens though none of us have spoken with her. The presence of this legendary monster in Foskos frightens us, though she has not harmed anyone as far as we can tell. We did not know that the Lord of the Winds requested her help. This is news we must consider. Since we are speaking now, I have a question for you. We have heard that the Queen is not well in her head," she said. “Is this true?”

"It is true; however, Aylem Queen is recovering and has all her wits. She now understands that she is not completely well in her head. She has voluntarily taken quarters at the Shrine of Mugash and will live there for a time in order to heal."

“And did she really injure Emly the Prophet?”

The eagle's word choices surprised me, "Yes, the Queen injured the Blessed Emily. Emily doesn’t call herself a prophet, by the way, and she doesn’t even like being addressed as a great one.”

“Is she not the girl with the golden eyes?”

"She does have golden eyes, given to her by the God of Knowledge. I was there when it happened. Is she the girl in the prophecy? Probably."

"I will pass your words along, friend Cadrees and bond Usruldes. I can not promise that the eagles will listen."

"We thank you, lady."

As she flew away, Cadrees turned to me, "do you know who that was?"

"I have no idea. I have a hard time telling eagles apart. You all look the same to me, excluding you, of course." It was an old joke between us.

"That was Lugasha, the mother of nesters. You humans call her the Queen of Eagles."

Cadrees and I spent what remained of the day scouting the new road the Impotuans built along the Third Tributary down to the Ahkeseld River. Then we flew back to Aybhas after the sun went down. Before I found my bed, which my mother insisted should be at the shrine, I told Imstay, Aylem, and Lisaykos that the free eagles were watching the fortified camp and that the Impotuans had stolen eagle eggs. I also told him about the rest of my conversation with the eagle queen. I hoped they would visit because we could use the occasion to build better relations with them.