Usruldes, Shinakosettkut, Harvest Season, 7th rot., 1st day – East Coast time

"I find these terms acceptable," said the Revered Othnay haup Gampff, Governor of Mattamukmuk. Everyone at the table relaxed when she said that. We had just thrashed out the terms of an agreement between the acting Mattamesscontan regent, the Mattamesscontan insurrectionists, the Chem liberation force, and the Foskan governor.

Othnay's agreement was crucial. It was also not a given. The agreement hinged on Mattamukmuk keeping its navy at home until Foskos could eliminate the ties between the navy and the pirates. Until then, Mattamesscontess and Sussbesschem would have jurisdiction over the Strait and the Gulf respectively, including the right to inspect Mattamukan shipping, even inside Mattamukmuk's anchorages.

Mattamesscontess gave away its privilege to prosecute pirates as its part of the deal. Any Mattamukan crew taken into custody by Mattamesscontess or Sussbesschem would be subject to a trial before a Foskan justicar using Foskan standards for evidence and Foskan magic to prevent lying and ommission by witnesses and suspects. Mattamesscontess would provide its own justicars to observe and advise the Foskan justicars.

The trials would be at the citadel in Shinakosettkut if the offending ship was arrested in the Gulf, and at the Provincial Palace in Kwabin if the ship was arrested in the Strait, off the east side of Gungywamp, or along any shoreline on Alkinosuk. Foskans would determine guilt and pass sentences. Mattamesscontans would carry out those sentences.

The final result was that Mattamesscontess and the Chem would patrol the sea lanes while the Foskan rulers of Mattamukmuk would remake its navy. The agreement would last for a year or until the Empress Presumptive returned, whichever came first. The last obstacle was obtaining Imstay King and Aylem Queen's approval.

"I will ask Lord Irhessa to contact the King and Queen for approval immediately," Othnay told the others at the negotiating table, "so we can move on to sealing, today or tomorrow – depending on when Lord Irhessa can make contact. Lord Irhessa, what do you need to do your mindcasting magic?" she looked at me in question.

Poor Othnay – she was visibly wilting in the Shinakosettkut humidity. I wasn't doing much better. The land breeze of the night before had died after the first bell so there was no air movement. The wind wouldn't pick up until after the fifth bell when the sea breeze started. It was just after the second bell so the hottest part of the day was yet to come.

Shinakosettkut existed because of its splendid harbor, not because of its weather, which was humid year round. The yearly deluge of Growing Season rain was over and now the city entered the dry part of the year, where the only rain was the daily sixth-bell thunderstorm.

For the four-hundred-and-third time that morning, I wiped the sweat from my eyes. "Perhaps a small room or a corner for you, me, and your recording scroll."

"I am curious," Uncohegan looked at me. "What sort of amazing magic do you use to mindcast at someone on the other side of the world?"

"I will add my own curiosity," said Marshal Lowawathas. "You contacted your King when we were in Kwabin, but there are no great crystals left on the east coast to boost one's magic that far. So, tell me, how does one mindcast a half a world away without the use of a great crystal? And without exhausting yourself?"

I looked at Othnay and she looked at me.

"It's your method, Lord Irhessa," Othnay stated. "I do not know if that knowledge can be public. This is not my decision to make."

I thought for a moment and decided that I could disclose how I connected with Imstay from here to Foskos. Ud wasn't a state secret or proprietary knowledge. Ud was unique and when I and Aylem were no longer around, our method would vanish from the world until Ud took on more students. Even then, using Ud for the heavy work of long distance mindcasting was really up to Ud. After all, I had only used her once before to contact Imstay.

I felt confident I could impose upon Ud a second time. That's because the purpose of talking to Imstay was to address the piracy problem. Even though she said she was a pacifist, Ud came closest to true retribution when she encountered pirates raiding Inkalem shipping. She wouldn't kill any pirates outright but I know she's sunk a few ships while their crews were sailing them. Whether any pirates could swim to safety afterward wasn't something that concerned Ud.

"My method of mindcasting my king is not a secret," I addressed the table, "but it is also not my own magic. The mindcasting is provided by the strongest mage on Erdos, the giant spider monster Ud. Both the Queen of Foskos and I have studied magic with Ud at her home in the Fenlands, which is north of Inkalem on the west coast. Because we are her students, she will hear us if we call for her. I can reach out to Ud and Ud can reach out to the Queen. The Queen, who is the second strongest mage on Erdos, can bring the King into the mindcasting chain if she can see him with her unaided clairvoyance. So, yes, I can mindcast my King, but I'm not doing the hard work. The method requires the two strongest mages in the world between me and Imstay King to make it work. And it depends on Ud's mood and patience.

"I have only mindcasted my King through Ud and the Queen once, and that was just a few days ago. I must ask my teacher once again if she will permit me to reach the King through her. She may allow it. She may refuse. Ud dislikes meddling with Cosm politics but I believe she will let me mindcast Imstay King because this treaty will help with our piracy problem. Ud shares our dislike of pirates.

"If you all can stay quiet, I can try to raise Ud now. This is a good time since the King and Queen will be between dinner and bedtime in Foskos."

I focused my awareness through my mind's eye and willed myself to call out to Ud. Ud replied immediately. Her voice in my head sounded as strong as when I visit her at her home in the Fenlands.

*Welladay, welladay, welladay!* Ud chortled, happy to chat. *Oh what fun! Tell your friend Lowawathas to keep the flying cavalry on the ground and tell Twee to keep the fleet at anchor and the mortars cold. Spot and I will be in Shinakosettkut before the fourth bell and I'd like to avoid mass panic and mortar shells. You might want to send the city guard out to calm the populace. Any chance I might find a sheep or a buffalo or tropox for a snack?*

Imstay, Pinisla, Harvest Season, 6th rot., night of the 10th day – Foskos time

Otsoymos hat Pinisla haup Truvos, the little imp, ducked under my elbow, hooked my knee with the butt of his warprong, and tripped me. I instinctively cast inversion and levitation as I positioned my shield to smack his gut as I came back up.

The little fiend anticipated that I would do that. He grinned at me as he parried my shield edge. I moved to block the inevitable thrust of the warprong but Otsoymos anticipated that too. He had already sidestepped around my side in a move that looked familiar, but I couldn't place where it was from immediately. I felt edge of the safety sheath on his hand sickle on my neck.

I sighed, "It's your match, Lord Otsoymos. When and how did you study all my favorite moves?"

Laughter erupted from behind me. "You have to ask, king man?" Lord Bobbo smiled. "Son Otty should have gone to Kas for his Shrine training, not Ark'kos. This farmer is a natural with bladed weapons, and a fast study, too."

"And I underestimated him," I admitted, dropping my practice sword and shield.

"Oh, we were counting on that," Bobbo beamed, happy to be talking about his favorite hobby: fighting. When he wasn't leading my armies or rehabilitating the Holding of Pinisla, the man lived for the competition of the weapons arena. Now that he wasn't actively fighting in bouts, he was training others. Somehow, I missed that he was coaching his son-by-marriage.

"Will you believe me now when I warn you that you are becoming predicatable?" Bobbo was suddenly serious. "If I beat you, you will shrug it off, but if Farmer Otty here beats you, you might pay attention for a change. He's good, but he's not yet your opponent."

"You really know how to make a guy feel good about losing," I snarled.

"Kings, too," he remarked casually, and raised one eyebrow ever so slowly. "Let me throw my helm on," he stood up and buckled his gorget, "and I'd like one more round with you before I fall over. I do need to start back tomorrow, so I can't stay up any later than this."

"To my practiced eye," I studied my short, halfhair general, "you should quit fighting for the evening. You're already spent and past the point of building endurance. You have crossed the line into exhaustion. You should stay here tomorrow to rest, and spend time with your family. I think we can trust your deputy, Lord Fusso, with your army for a few days. It will be good for both of you."

"I'm maybe a little tired," he rebutted, "but I am not exhausted."

Kayseo was sitting on the next bench down, out of the way of the practicing fighters. She gave her adoptive father a dubious look. "Father, dearest," she purred at him and held out her hand, "would you come here, please?"

The look of betrayal on Bobbo's face was worth my losing to Otty.

Lord Katsa busted up laughing at the tableau. Both my queen and my cousin Lisaykos smiled.

Bobbo exhaled a mighty sigh and walked over to Kayseo. He put his hand in hers and waited while she tranced.

"Ah," Kayseo opened her eyes fully, "I'm afraid Imstay King is incorrect that you are currently exhausted, Father; however, if you persist in another bout, you will be exhausted, so you need to stop, now." She nailed him with an accusatory glare, "Don't force me to use the Grace of Mugash on the Lord Holder who is also the General of the Southern Army. The King is right, Father dear, that you should stay at home and rest before heading back to Impotu."

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"Oh my," I chortled. "Did Lord Bobbo hatch a viper in his nest? You won't listen to me, Bobbo, but at least you must listen to your daughter."

"Well, he has to listen to someone," Lady Tyoep, Bobbo's wife, said with some exasperation. "He sure doesn't listen to me!"

Because she was pregnant, Lady Tyoep wasn't currently sparring. She volunteered to put Bobbo to bed and rejoin us later. We were running out of spunk anyway. We started an extended sparring session in Pinisla's new community hall after the funerary dinner. We began before the seventh bell and when Bobbo left, it was almost the first night bell.

Lord Katsa and Heir Sertfos were already out of their practice armour, but they had fought each other to where they could barely stand. It had been a privilege to watch a master of the White Shrine School of the halberd fight a sword master trained in Kas by my aunt herself. Those of us who watched it would be talking about it for years to come.

"Oh, I think I'm will be hurting in the morning," Lord Katsa said, leaning back to stretch. "I need to practice more. I'm not as young and spry as I used to be."

"Could have fooled me," said Sertfos, rotating her shield-side shoulder painfully. "I certainly need to practice more. I'm not back to the level I was before being injured last year in the invasion."

"Could have fooled me," Katsa retorted. "I swear you buckler has corners on it."

I unbuckled the thick, quilted gambeson, stuffed with straw. While rebated blades wouldn't cut, they would bruise. The practice armor was designed to minimize the bruising, though it didn't help at all with preventing sore muscles. I, too, would be feeling sore in the morning.

"Uhg, you're all sweaty," Aylem raised an eyebrow at me. "I need to visit the nursery, and you, sirrah, can take a shower before coming to bed. Remember, we need to head back to Is'syal early tomorrow."

"I was thinking of taking a soak, actually, rather than a shower." I walked over and leaned down to whisper into Aylem's ear, "You could join me."

"Oh, no, you don't," Aylem chided, "I am going to bed as soon as I can. I haven't slept an entire night through since the twins were born and I am looking forward to it."

I made a pouting face at her because I knew she would retreat to an ice queen glower of disapproval. She did not disappoint me. Then she broke eye contact and frowned.

"We are just finishing up here with the other guests who are spending the night in Pinisla," Aylem said to no one at all. "Can we have a few moments to retire to somewhere more private. Imstay was sparring and has yet to get out of his armor."

"Aylem?" I asked, wondering what was happening.

"It's Ud," she looked up at me. "She's in Shinakosettkut with Lord Irhessa, the Blessed Twee, and the Revered Tom. They are all at the negotiations with Mattamescontess and the Governor of Mattamukmuk."

"Why is Ud at the treaty negotiations?" I pondered. I knew they were happening but Ud was an unexpected outlier.

"Did you hear the question, Ud?" Aylem asked the æther. Then she looked back up at me, "Ud says that it is a coincidence. She was in Shinakosettkut to return the Blessed Spot to the Revered Tom."

"And Ud is mindcasting you about that?" I was mystified as to why Ud would do that.

"No, Lord Irhessa is wanting our approval on the treaty terms with the Chem and the Mattamesscontans, and asked Ud to set up a mindcasting link through me."

"How long will that take?" I aksed. "Could I get a quick shower first? That will you give you time to visit the nursery. Then you can contact Ud from our end and we can hear the treaty terms before we sleep. Will that work?"

"Ud says yes," Aylem replied. "I will go now, since my chores will take longer than your shower." She got up and everyone stood. As Kayseo struggled to get to her feet, Aylem took one long step to get next to her and put her hand on Kayseo's shoulder, "sit, child."

"Thank you, Great One," Kayseo bowed her head. "Thuorfosi is waiting for you with your bottles and supplies already laid out."

"Oh good," Aylem smiled. "And I'll get to see the lovely Resepex some more."

"I believe I will join you," Lisaykos said. The two strolled out, chatting about babies and the tyranny of milking schedules.

The rest of the evening was less exciting. I had my shower and met with the Queen in our guest bedroom in the newly completed manse. Parts of the interior were still being finished, but the guest rooms were done and had all their furniture installed. The kitchens were still still being fitted out so we were eating all our meals in the old manse, which was really just a great hall and kitchen with two wings of sleeping quarters attached.

I was happy that the new manse was ready for guests because it had modern plumbing while the old manse did not. I had to laugh at calling it the old manse since it was only four years old. Bobbo had it built as a temporary headquarters and residence while he began rebuilding the holding.

The new Manse Pinisla was an unusual structure. Instead of stonework or masonry for a basement and the first floor, the manse was three stories – all of wood. Bobbo built the manse on a small hill overlooking the White River. The hill was floored with pink-speckle rock. Instead of digging a basement and lining it with the traditional stone blocks, Bobbo had the basement hewn out of the pink-speckle rock. He used the stone removed from the excavation for the foundations and basements of the Surd Hall for the Coyn, the Community Hall for Cosm, the Garrison Fort, and the Mounts Residence.

The interior of the manse was framed in butter oak, finished in knotty pine paneling, and floored with maple and birch. Every door jamb, wall post, and ceiling beam was carved – or soon will be. The heart of the manse was the Great Hall, and it was great. It was open to the roof, which was supported by what the Holy Raoleer called hammerbeam trusses. The space hosted wrap-around interior balconies on both the second and third floors that looked down into the open space, similar to the walkways around the atriums at the Healing and Singing Shrines.

The most novel feature of the manse was the rooftop gallery, wide enough for a flying mount to land. The gallery ran the length of the green slate-tile roof that hosted windowed gables along both the second and third floor balconies. From the gallery, you could look west down the river to Rainshroud Falls, north across the river at the mudslide that buried the original Pinisla, or east up the river to White Lake.

Not only had Bobbo maintained the 2,000-hand-wide belt of undisturbed land around the lake – excluding paths and fishing piers – he forbade any buildings east of Pinisla Newtown other than a handful of already-established timber camps. Not only was White Lake the water supply for the holding, the lake fed the White River which supplied the drinking water for the Crystal Shrine and the four villages along the River Road. Protecting the alpine rivers and lakes that supplied Foskos's water was an ancient tradition enforced by the Shrouded Shrine of Vassu.

Lord Bobbo had given us a suite of rooms at the end of the southwest wing. As I dressed after washing, I looked out the second story window at the glow of the memorial crystal that the Holy Sutsusum installed this morning at the Pinisla Parting Grounds. Young Otty built the new ritual space at the toe of the mudslide in just five days. It was a simple yet priceless parting grounds, arranged in a plain half-bowl amphitheater that faced the river and Pinisla Newtown.

The grounds featured tiers of square stone benches for seating, with three sections for Cosm separated by two sections for Coyn. A gallery at the back was for flying mounts, who needed more room. At the base of the bowl was the burning floor. The memorial crystal was at the far side of the burning floor, along the river's edge. Magicked by the High Priestess of Gertzpul, the glow inside the crystal would last as long as the crystal itself.

The shocking thing was that all the stone in the amphitheater was fire opal, even the steps. The parting grounds were truly priceless. They didn't need fancy architecture or ornamentation; the stones themselves were the statement.

The ceremony was simple, short, and moving, even for a practical politician like myself. All twenty-seven survivors of Pinisla – two were Coyn – threw the rosemary with Heir Kayseo at their center. It was a very soggy event followed by a funerary banquet that started with solemn recollections of the dead but got soggy and cathartic as the afternoon progressed. With the exception of Kayseo and the two Coyn, the rest of the survivors and several other guests were carried off to sleeping quarters to recover.

The Holy Foyuna, Sutsusum, and Kamagishi flew home. The Holy Senlyosart and Raoleer, and the Blessed Lisaykos stayed for the evening, as did Heir Sertfos haup Black, Lord Katsa haup Gunndit, her husband Musshio haup Surdos, Lord Sopno haup Truvos, and his wife Ayulkos haup Ark'kos. Of course, Aylem and I decided to stay overnight before we left Is'syal. We brought along with five attendants, which was really too few in hindsight. This was a ceremonial occasion and Aylem really needed more help than a maid, a porter and those two Coyn women who do her hair and accessories.

Aylem and I had both put on our house coats and were sitting together on a couch in our suite's sitting room. As soon as Patrikos delivered two glass mugs of bedtime stout, Alyem reached out to Ud who connected us to Usruldes.

I wasn't exactly keen on the terms of the treaty but I understood why they were necessary. When we were done and Aylem and I agreed to the terms, I knew I would be adding one hundred warmages and mounts to the one hundred I already requested of Aunt Irralray. I would also request twenty justicars and forty scholar attendants from Kamagishi to supplement the effort to prune the pirates from the merchant fleet and navy in Mattamukmuk.

With the treaty out of the way, I was finally able to ask Ud why she was in Shinakosettkut.

*Imstay King, I am returning the healed Spot to Tom. Then I will go to Toyatastagka, because Vassu requested I build her a Shrine there, followed by visiting Kwabin and No'ank, which is where Galt and Landa want Shrines. I have already scouted the location of a new Shrine for Mugash at Gungywamp Point. On my way home, I will bring three with me to be instructed in the duties of a high priestess.*

"Ud, when did the gods tell you about bringing propective high priestesses to Foskos?" Aylem asked while I was still trying to absorb what the spider monster said.

*This morning, just before I arrived in Shinakosettkut. It would be about half to the first night bell by your time. Oh, yes, before I forget – I have fixed Emily's divine. Spot crushed it when the tree fell on him. Please ask the lovely Lisaykos if she will take it back to the Healing Shrine and put it into Emily's bedroom. I know the little one will want it back.*

"Wait," I interjected. "You found out just a bell ago? Who are these three?"

Usruldes responded through Ud. *We only know the names of two because Galt has yet to reveal the third. Uncohegan is one of the leaders of those who remained faithful to Vassu. She is the captain of a fishing boat. Lady Ishapur is a healer and former priestess of Cragi. She tried to assault Emily in Pocatoe, which is where Emily landed after the monster storm at the end of the third rotation. The gods smited Ishapur, permanently disfiguring her right hand, but they did not kill her. Since that event, Ishapur has rejected the worship of Cragi and has been preaching about the eleven gods everywhere she goes. Ishapur especially needs from more instruction on the gods because Emily was her first teachers.*

Aylem groaned. "Surd save us. This poor lady will be well informed that Vassu as a shark likes to wear pink dresses and lip color, Giltak is a cross-dresser, and Mueb like to wear a zucchini costume.

I felt Usruldes' mental laughter. *That's very close to what happened.*

"How long will it take you to get to Foskos, Ud?" I asked.

*I will need to stop at night because the two-footed ones must eat and sleep. It will be three days once I start traveling, but I must collect the three visitors first," Ud said.

"Avoid the Ahkeseld River route," Aylem advised. "We have a situation in Black Falls with a sickness spreading among the Coyn. Use the Naver River route instead."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.