Maker of Fire

Tom, Truvos, Planting Season, 6th rot., 1st to 2nd day

The Princess High Priestess sent our clothes chest ahead of our leaving for Truvos. We left after the fifth bell because Emily wanted to talk with the Queen about something. She told me that depending on what the Queen said, she might be able to replace guncotton as an explosive to blow up that bridge she keeps talking about.

It's true that I didn't want her to be playing with making high explosives, especially after she blew up her lab down in Sussbesschem and injured herself. She takes too many risks. She always has. One of these days, she's going to hurt herself badly with all the crazy things she does and makes. She came back from talking with the Queen saying her usual egghead stuff, this time about salt crystals, gold chloride, and the need to make red-tinted glass.

She wondered if she should return and have the Queen send another message to the Building Shrine. I teased her, saying we should move up to Omexkel, to that lovely little house at the Building Shrine, and take out the middle man for sending messages. I got punched in the gut for that quip before I could tighten my abdominal muscles to take the blow. She didn't punch as hard as she once did, which was one of the nice upsides of the new size difference between us, but she still could land a decent hit if I was unprepared — which was most of the time. Good thing she still had ticklish feet, or I would be at a disadvantage in this relationship.

Then, just to vex me, Emily ran back to the Queen's suite of rooms to ask that monster to send the message to her mekaner buddies at the Building Shrine of Giltak. She was gone longer this time. Noting that her younger friends had already left for Truvos, I finally managed to collect Emily. After knocking on the Queen's door, I pointing out to the three monsters and my mouse inside that the trip to Truvos was short, but the day was getting shorter.

I did add that they could continue chatting in Truvos. I didn't mention that I hoped to take Emily down to the Truvos Surd Hall in the evening. When we finally did leave, I found it strange to be able to travel so quickly. But Spot was fast and outflew all the griffins and eagles that left when we did, including that goof, Asgotl, who I had come to like a great deal.

The preparations for the two weddings were beyond astounding. Lord Sopno haup Truvos, the groom's uncle, had an entirely new guest house built for the attendees at the wedding. He moved everyone in his family into the older guest house on the manse grounds. The new guest house was for lords, high priestesses, and other important guests; however, we were not allowed to stay there. We were placed next door to the master bedroom in the manse. The master bedroom was reserved for the Honored Kayseo and Sopno's nephew, Otty, for their wedding night. Sopno and his wife had moved across the hall from us. Lord Sopno did go out of his way to install Coyn-scaled furniture and bathroom fixtures for us, including a flushing necessary.

It hurt my brain to think about it, but the King and Queen were next door to us, in a bedroom denoting lower precedence than Emily. Lord Bobbo haup Pinisla was across from them since he was the caretaker Lord of Pinisla, the adoptive father of one of the brides, and the other groom. The parents of Tyoep haup Kesmet, the other bride, were next door to Lord Bobbo. The Holy Sutsusum had the last of the bedrooms on the main hall of the manse's second floor since she was the high priestess with the second highest precedence in the Convocation. The high priestess with the highest precedence, the Blessed Lisaykos, was staying at the lakeside "cottage" of the Revered Lyappis, along with the two brides.

Emily and I snuck down the back stair, out the door used by the Coyn domestic staff, and down to the Surd Hall for whatever was being served for dinner there. We dressed down and wore our old mantles. Mine was rather worn, but hers was in good shape and sported the gold embroidery with the crossed-hand sigil of Mugash. Em suggested she swipe one of the Truvos household mantles instead, but I pointed out that everyone here would know all the household slaves. She would never pass herself off as one. Besides, she spoke with the accent of an aristocratic Cosm. She would never be able to disguise the way she spoke.

It was early when we arrived. Only a few folks were sitting in the common area, mostly slaves unfit for the big push to collect rose hips. They recognized and greeted me immediately. After I said my hellos, I turned to introduce Em, but she had vanished. I found her in the kitchen, in an apron, already helping to dress out coneys for the evening stew. Her mantle was hanging on the peg row with the embroidery hidden.

"What are you doing, mouse?" I walked up to her as she expertly dismembered a disemboweled mountain coney.

"You were taking too long chatting with your buddies, so I came to see if these folks might need an extra hand making food," she replied as if kitchen work was an everyday task for her. "Beats listening to you bruise your tongue talking all day."

"I was about to introduce you, but you disappeared," I protested.

"Right, sure, whatever you say," she raised an eyebrow at me as she whacked through a hip joint with a large and nasty iron knife.

Aidsa, a tall and sturdy woman of my acquaintance, walked up. "Hey, Em, when you said the guy you came with was talking with his friends, you never mentioned it was Py'oask." She looked up, "Well, hello there, stranger," Aidsa sidled up and snagged my arm, "is Em your daughter?"

Emily put the knife down and then started laughing.

"It's not funny, Em!" I was so embarrassed.

"It's," she gasped for air, "hysterical." She was laughing so hard that her eyes started to tear.

"No, Aidsa," I knew I would regret this, "Em is not my daughter. We're a couple."

"Aren't you a bit old for her, Py'oask?" Aidsa looked a tad on the disapproving side.

"Actually, I'm younger than she is," I pointed at Emily. Emily had started to calm down but went off into a renewed round of hysterics when I said that.

"How old are you now, Em?" I asked, deadpan in place.

Emily recovered from laughing but couldn't wipe the smile off her face, "eighty-seven or eighty-eight, I think." Her grin was incandescent.

The faces of the kitchen crew were priceless.

Aidsa recovered first. "I suppose the next thing you'll try to tell me is that you're married."

"Why, Aisda," I blinked. "How did you guess?" I worked up the most innocent smile I could manage.

"Hand me that bowl, dear," Em pointed with her elbow with her hands full of meat.

"Whatever you say, love," I held the bowl, and she dumped the meat in it. Then she picked up the next coney and deftly started to skin it.

"You're good at this, and really fast, too," Aidsa observed Emily's surgical technique. "I guess you would need to be this good to work for the Queen or at the Palace at your young age. You did come as part of the Queen's retinue, yes?"

"Why do you think I work for the Queen?" Em frowned and studied Aidsa. "How old do you think I am?"

Aidsa picked up a cloth and wiped her hands. Then she folded her arms and smiled knowingly. "First, you came with this joker; he works for the Queen," she inclined her head at me. "Next, your skill level is very high despite your youth. I'm guessing you're twelve or thirteen. You talk like someone who works in the Palace in Is'syal. And your mantle..." Aidsa looked at the peg rack and frowned when she realized the one out-of-place mantle was Mugash grey, not the Villa's purple and yellow check or the Palace's dark blue with yellow piping.

"Are you—" Aidsa started to say.

"Don't," I grabbed Aidsa by the arms and leaned in close so only she could hear. "She doesn't get out at all and never gets to mix with us, Aidsa. Let her have an evening of being a normal girl. She never gets to have any fun anymore."

"Tom?" Emily looked up from her skinning the coney. The others of the kitchen crew were also wondering what we were whispering about.

"Tom?" Aidsa questioned me. "The rumors about you are true?"

"Hush, the name's Py'oask," I said.

"She just called you Tom, Revered One," Aidsa pointed at Emily and then made a mocking bowing obeisance to me. The rest of the kitchen crew followed, laughing at me.

"Go take your divine, oh high and haughty one, and entertain those layabouts out in the common room, or I'll put you to work," Aidsa gave me a push toward the door.

"It's her divine, not mine," I said, allowing myself to be pushed.

"You can borrow it, sluggard," Em said, neatly cleaning out the insides of the coney before dismembering it. "Try not to get conceit all over the strings. That stuff never comes off."

Aidsa laughed. "What happened to your divine, Revered One?"

"No, no, no, no! Just stop, girlfriend. I refuse to be revered to death. Just don't. I'm just me and not some Cosm stomp-up."

"But Revered One," she turned and winked at Emily, "you're the second one of us to be blessed by a god. The stomp-ups can't claim they're the only race with the gods' blessing anymore. It's a big deal, boyfriend Revered One." She smiled smugly. "Try not to get conceit all over the strings on this gal's divine, Revered One."

Emily had a fun and blissful night of being just "Em," who came to the Surd Hall with me. She played the divine with me after dinner, and we sang a bunch of songs. Then someone lent me a grumble, so Em and I played dance music for the crowd. It was getting late when an older gal wearing the blue mantle of the Palace in Is'syal worked her way up to the music dias and waited for a dance to end.

Emily noticed her and started talking before the woman could make an obeisance. "Veflia? Hello. Tom, this is Veflia, who works for the Queen at the Palace. Veflia, this is the Revered Tom. I don't think you two have met."

Caught off balance, Veflia bowed an obeisance at me, "May the blessings of the eleven gods be upon you, Revered One."

"And also upon you," I intoned solemnly, knowing now that the gods were active in our everyday lives. They even talked to me sometimes, which scared the crap out of me.

"Let me guess, Veflia," Emily wasn't going to let the poor lady speak and blow her cover, "the Queen must be asking after me." Emily handed me her divine, "Revered One, please put this in its bag. Veflia, I'll get my mantle and we can go back before I get you in trouble." Then Em was off to the kitchen and reappeared with her coat on her arm, draped so it hid her mantle. She winked at Aidsa going out the door.

"What are you trying to do, Great One?" Veflia insisted once we were out the door on the short walk back to the manse. "It's almost a quarter to the second night bell, and the Holy Raoleer and Revered Huhoti have been waiting to talk with you all evening. No one knew where the two of you had disappeared to. The only reason the alarm wasn't raised was because a wraith appeared and said you were safe. That was scary all by itself. The Revered Lyappis sent me to fetch you so you could go to bed at a decent hour instead of cavorting with those bumpkins at the local Surd Hall."

"Now, Veflia," Emily smiled with a gleam in her eye, "I know the Revered Lyappis rather well, and I'm sure she never called the good folks down at the local Surd Hall a bunch of bumpkins."

"Well, they are, you know. They should feel so lucky that you would spend time with their lot," Veflia said, almost snorting in indignation. She was that sort of snooty servant. I guessed she worked directly for the Queen. She had that "better than you, spoot slave" air to her.

"Veflia, dear heart," Emily's tone was still friendly but I could feel the edge to it. "Those bumpkins here in Truvos helped save me when I was injured and very ill last year, and you really should try to be a bit more charitable towards those never lucky enough to be hired as a palace worker. One of those folks dancing at the Surd Hall this evening ran from his place of work all the way to the manse, a distance of almost a half wagon-day, to make sure I arrived at the manse safely when I went off the path and got lost in the woods with a fever. To me, these folks are not bumpkins. They are my benefactors." Emily had stopped and was looking at Veflia with an expectant face.

Veflia slammed into Emily's patient expression, which was visible in the light cast by the charm gem lights on the front portico of the manse. Veflia turned out to be a smart gal. She was on her knees in a breath, begging for forgiveness. Emily said she had already forgotten what Veflia had said and headed to the door the Coyn staff used in the back of the manse, much to Veflia's surprise and consternation. I shook my head at the woman, and stopped her from saying anything. I know my Emily. She doesn't like struggling with Cosm-scaled steps, and there were no Coyn steps up to the portico.

I barely saw Emily the next day. The Revered Lyappis coerced her and me to eat with the haup Truvos family for morn repast. I shouldn't have been surprised that the Holy Roaleer and the Revered Huhoti, aider-and-abettor-in-chief, were there, too. Lyappis had the look of a cat in cream when she seated Em and me next to those two rabid mekaners.

Emily and the mekaner twins disappeared to talk about cameras all day. I would have been bored if not for Lord Bobbo and the King, who came to pick my brains about military strategy on Earth and the war I was about to start in Mattamesscontess.