Imstay King, Crystal Shrine of Tiki

People think that being a king must be one of the best things ever. Fools. How I wish I could give this job away. Maybe if Heldfirk were older, I might give it to him, but right now, there is no one else qualified. Fusso haup Ark'kos would make a good king if the royal line were defunct, but a haup Foskos has sat on the throne since the kingdom began. We're the longest continuous dynasty in the whole world. No one else can say that, so the first requirement must be Foskan royal blood. Fusso probably has some hiding in his pedigree, but he doesn’t have the name or a mother with the name.

Come to think of it, Lord Gunndit could be a good king. She’s got the right bloodline, a royal mother, the experience of ruling, and the magic. I’ve seen her wield a halberd too and she’s scary. She might be able to beat me with one since it’s her preferred weapon. Halberd training is one of the things they teach at the White Shrine. Scary bunch of old birds, those adepts of Landa.

She could be the figurehead or even the real leader of the army with her prowess. Yes, Katsa haup Gunndit would make a good king. One of those young kids my cousin Foyuna had with that young haup Truvos kid would be qualified too if they had the right education and training. Too bad none of them are old enough. It’s not hopeless, but I doubt I could give this job away to any of them.

If I offered it to Katsa haup Gunndit, she would laugh at me. Then she would tell that mother of hers, which would be worse. My kinswoman Lisaykos would look down that long beak of a nose of hers, and leave me feeling like a little boy caught doing something naughty in the schoolroom again, though she's become kinder to me since that little Coyn troublemaker showed up. Funny how that has worked out. Tiki said Aylem, Emily, and Asgotl were a threesome and now all three are revelators. Things are moving so fast that I can barely keep up with the changes.

Ever since Galt changed her eyes, we have been sure that the Blessed Emily named Courage, Revelator of Tiki, Mugash, Giltak, and Galt is the foretold prophet of the Great Breaking. That bundle of trouble will herald the third age of miracles and divine intervention. Last year, I dreaded the prospect, and now it is a certainty. Emily told Aylem and Lisaykos that millions of lives would be spared, and the number of wars would be lessened, by waiting for one to two years before she receives the foretold revelation of Landa. It makes my head hurt to think about these things, and what they may mean for the people of Foskos, whose well-being is my responsibility.

Lisaykos told me the tiny terrible troublemaker would do anything possible not to be the prophet. She upset Lisaykos when she mentioned suicide as a potential way to escape this honor the gods have given her. What must go on inside the mind of Emily? I would think a person would be grateful and humbled to be chosen as a prophet, the pinnacle of what the gods permit a mortal to be. But Emily thought of killing herself as a way to escape her fate. I just don't understand how anyone could think that, especially someone born as a lowly Coyn. Wouldn't everyone want to go from the lowest to the highest?

Granted, Emily isn’t your average Coyn, even compared to the ones who have been trained at the Shrines of Mueb, Giltak, and Sassoo. Having seen her in action several times, there is no denying the brilliance of her mind. She says it's just the knowledge from her former life plus some additions from the gods, but she is not accounting for one thing: what she has done with that knowledge.

She must have been eight or nine years old when she found the cave in the Vanishing River Valley and started to live there with nothing more than the rags on her back. What she accomplished while alone in the wilderness defies reason. No child, even with Emily's knowledge, should have been able to create all the things she made there: iron, two kinds of instant fire, potions that explode and blow hillsides apart, and a machine to harness the destructive force of lightning.

Last year, I thought of Emily as someone I wanted to own. Then I thought of her as someone to charm and befriend for the benefit I could gain. Now I think of Emily as someone I must both fear and protect because she is weak and vulnerable and a prophet who talks to gods. I have seen five manifestations of gods in the last year and every time I’ve been overjoyed not to lose the contents of my bladder.

Emily has no fear of the gods. Mugash’s gift of the name Courage is not misplaced. Emily’s steady demeanor facing the gods made me notice something I had missed for over twenty years: Aylem is also unafraid of the gods. She reveres them, in ways that Emily does not, but she is not terrified in the presence of a deity the way other Cosm are. I haven’t asked Asgotl if he is also unaffected by the gods but since they are a threesome, I expect he is the same way.

I was looking over the disposition of troops around the Crystal Shrine when someone told me Aylem had arrived and was in the domed chamber using the Great Crystal. I meant to ask Asgotl how he felt about the gods while Aylem was using the crystal because I expected her to be in her trance when I entered the dome. Instead, two Asgotls were sitting near Aylem, who was sitting on the Shrine's Throne, looking depressed.

I pulled up a chair and took her hand in mine, “you look unhappy, Aylem.”

"I tried something Ud taught me, to unravel time while using clairvoyance to see events in the past," she kept shaking her head as if she had seen something unbelievable. "The ones who took Emily, I expected them to fly to the fort in the third tributary valley of the Ahkeseld. That’s the fort we plan to attack and destroy in a few days, as soon as the rest of our forces are in place. I assumed that Emily was there, but that’s not correct.

“They didn’t stop there, Imstay. They kept flying. They flew through a charm of misdirection or obscuration and I can't pick them back up." She looked me in the eyes, "Imstay, there has to be another fort somewhere in the mountains or in the desert just to the south. Emily is not in the fort we plan to take."

“We can send Usruldes to inquire of the eagles, and to gain permission to look for another Impotuan fort. If that fails, we can set up the attack on the fort we do know about in a way that will encourage someone to go for help. Then it’s just a matter of following them,” I squeezed her hand, “and they will take us to their other location. We’ll find her.”

“I can’t help it,” she sighed and drooped, “but I worry about Emily. She’s so...so...”

“She’s only seven hands high and probably weighs 80 stone,” I filled in for the frustrated Aylem. “She’s tiny and she’s weak. A strong wind would likely pick her up and send her sailing through the air like one of her kite toys with a broken string.”

“Oh, be serious, Imstay,” she gave me a look, which admittedly was an improvement on her moping.

“I am being serious,” I protested with just a dash of officiousness. “Now, that’s an idea! We could tie a kite string on Emily and get her airborne in a good breeze and we could keep her out of trouble for whole days that way, so long as the wind cooperated. We could probably arrange some kind of intercession on wind velocities with the Lord of the Winds through the Holy Senlyosart and the Singing Shrine of Sassoo. I wonder what that would take? Any idea, love?” I looked at her with the utmost sincerity.

Her look of incredulity was a wonder and then her face slowly collapsed into a chortle and then dissolved into some deeply-aspirated laughter, as she slapped her knee and grasped her sides. I turned and looked at my cousin Foyuna, who had been taking notes at the recorder's table in the shrine’s journal of doings that involved the Great Crystal. She was frantically writing while biting a finger to keep herself from laughing.

I gestured at the laughing Aylem with a look of befuddlement on my face, “Cousin Foyuna, my wife thinks I jest. What can I do?”

Foyuna put her pen down carefully and capped the inkwell. Then she allowed herself to laugh. "You, sir," she pointed a finger at me, "are as bad at 41 as you were at 17." She referred to the age I was when I discovered my young cousin Foyuna was a delight to both entertain and tease. I confess I've never stopped. Foyuna has always been my favorite royal relative outside my children.

I heard the snickering of a griffin and turned to see one of the Asgotl twins having a good laugh at my antics. Now that I had a good look at the other Asgotl, I could see he was a bit younger and maybe just a tad bigger. So there was Asgotl and a younger brother? I decided to target that lazy griffin a bit to see if I could keep Aylem laughing. She clearly needed some catharsis. The last day must have been brutal for her, especially after I heard she had performed another one of her healing miracles on a woodcrafter who did a lot of work for the Healing Shrine.

I stood up and sauntered over to Asgotl, winking at his twin at the same time. Then I laid on the obsequiousness, as I got down on one knee, put my hand over my heart, and bowed my head: "My humble apologies, Great One, for neglecting your proper greeting while I spoke with my wife. May the blessings of the eleven gods be upon your blessed head, Great One." I kept my head bowed to force that fat frump of feathers to respond properly, which I knew he must hate.

I was a study of respectful stillness. Yes, I did know how to steal the attention while playing a part. It was working too since I heard Foyuna chortling, and Aylem fell into a renewed paroxysm of laughter. Aylem would do well to learn to laugh more.

Asgotl heaved a great beleaguered sigh, "and upon you, Mighty One. Please rise, sir, and be at your ease." I was amazed at the somber and respectful tone in which Asgotl returned my blessing. I could not have received a better response than what Asgotl gave me. I looked up and was reassured by a stare that promised a world of retribution would be mine as soon as he thought some up.

“Is this your younger brother, Asgotl?” I grinned at the goofball. “He looks just like you.”

“Imstay King,” Asgotl went back to being serious, “this is my younger cousin, Rialdiaj, who will be taking a short-term contract as Princess Opo’aba’s mount.”

"Oh!" This was unexpected but welcome news. Opa had finally gotten over the death of her previous mount, a lovely flying filly named Ledjetl. “Have you had a chance to meet my daughter?”

“I met the princess this morning and found her very kind to this uncultured youngster just out of the aerie,” he was well-spoken and respectful, though the self-depreciation needed to go.

He saw the face I made at him. "Imstay King, I am straight out of the aerie," he protested. "Before yesterday, I had never even been to a human town. I know very little about human ways. I am an uneducated youth, all of 17 years of age and just accepted two seasons ago as an adult in my clan."

"My apologies, Rialdiaj," I bowed my head briefly to him. "I thought you were being flowery in speech when you just being truthful. It was my misunderstanding." The poor youngster didn't know what to say in response, so I saved him from his confoundment. I looked at my now-relaxed and no-longer-moping wife, "Well, Aylem, do you want to keep trying with the crystal, or should we call up the scouts and wraiths and see if we can find this second base where the enemy has carried off our Emily?"

“Maybe both, but I believe I should take a break before doing more work with the Great Crystal. Thank you for cheering me up.”

"I saw the foretelling that Kamagishi received," I remarked, sitting back down next to her. "From the contents, I believe that Emily will come back to us on her own time and maybe with blisters on her feet.”

“Now that confuses me,” Aylem looked vexed. “How could it happen that Emily would ever walk far enough in a populated place like Foskos to get blisters before someone came along to take her where she wanted to go? Besides, she knows how to make her own shoes, for Surd’s sake. It’s just not possible!”

I pulled out the crystal pendant whose other half was around Usruldes’ neck and sent him a summons. I disliked using the wraiths this much or this openly, but protecting and retrieving the prophet from the Impotuans required their skills. Yet I felt it in my bones that while we would find some new friends or allies during this expedition, Emily would come home on her own.