Maker of Fire

Emily, the Battle of Shinakosettcut, Growing Season, 5th rot., 2nd day

Tom decided we would skip the smaller communities along the Mattamesscontan coast and start with the destruction of the navy ships at Shinakosettcut first. Then, we would move on to Toyataskagka.

"I don't want a naval force behind me while we're bombarding the capital," Tom said in our strategy meeting one day before the fleet reached Shinakosettcut. "We will decapitate the government at Toyataskagka. Once centralized control falls apart, intimidating the Cosm to free their slaves should be easier. We may need to face the legions outside of the capital, which is why I'm not splitting the fleet right away. Let's not pull that tow rope until it's time."

We took the Mattamesscontan navy by surprise at Shinakosettcut. While we arranged a line of one hundred ketches to bombard the triremes and the naval shipyard, Tom met up with Spot, who was following us along the coast. Spot had Aylem's magic baskets of white phosphorus bombs. Those had a simpler design than the clay bombs. They were just phosphorus in argon gas inside glass globes small enough for my hands. To distract the Mattamesscontan triremes, Tom and Spot flew over them and dropped the white phosphorus bombs on their quarterdecks, where their wind mages were stationed.

The effect was devastating. Charms of extinguishment will put a phosphorus fire out for only a breath or two before it starts back up. Tom and Spot set eleven triremes on fire before cavalry mages on flying mounts began their pursuit. Spot outflew them, of course, but it took two days before we saw them again. They chased Tom and Spot several tens of wagon-days down the coast before giving up. Spot can outfly any mount. I think that's one of the reasons that Gertzpul picked him as his revelator.

While Tom and Spot were being chased, other mounted cavalry came to attack us. That was when I learned roc eagles can't swim—they sink. The Chem had a brutal defense against flying cavalry: they used their water magic to hit each mage and mount with a dinghy-sized ball of water. The eagle sank and drowned. If the mage could swim, he or she would die from being shot full of Chem arrows.

Let me describe how the Chem reinvented archery. While Chem can walk and function upright, they prefer to spend life with all four legs on the ground or on their backs soaking up the sun. Their ability to function upside down on their backs explains their archery method.

Chem bows are fourteen hands long, twice as tall as I am. Their arrows are more like spears. They lie on their back, hold the bow with their hind legs, and position the arrow on the bow with the hand on their tail. They pull the string with their forelegs. The leverage they can achieve this way is phenomena. The effect is more like a ballista than a bow. I felt sorry for the mages pin-cushioned to death. Twee had to order several crews to stop shooting once the mages were dead. Otherwise, the Chem kept firing until the bodies sank. Twee didn't want to lose too many arrows to Chem exuberance.

There were a few close calls at Shinakosettcut. One trireme almost got close enough to board one of the ketches. It was stopped at the last moment by a cannon shooting grapeshot. The trireme was then sunk with exploding shells from the surrounding ketches. As Twee remarked afterward, it was good target practice. The trireme was hit with over twenty explosive shells before it went completely under.

One trireme tried to get away and actually broke through the line of bombarding ketches. It survived the cannon fire of the eighty flanking ketches. The ketches not blockading the harbor were sailing back and forth in back of the fighting lines, including the one I was on. As I watched, at least twenty of our ketches piled on sail and chased it. Because of the ram on that ship, we couldn't box it in. As the ketches caught up and paced the speed of the trireme, Chem crew members ran up the stays and perched on the tops of the masts. Because of their tails, the Chem could hold on to the masts and still have two of their five hands free. These they used for their slings and threw clay bombs at the Cosm ship. I could hear the screams of the Mattamesscontan rowers as the ship both burned and sank. One mage tried to levitate and fly away. She got pin-cushioned.

We didn't come out of this battle unscathed. Two enterprising mounted cavalry mages fled to shore and returned with large rocks. They would then propel these dead weights with incredible force using their minds' hands into our ketches. They holed twenty-two of our ships before I managed to signal the ships with cannons. Using our signal flags, I ordered the ketches to drop their lug and spritsails and use their cannons to shoot chain shot and grape shot at these two. I also signaled the ketches without cannons to shoot fireworks at the eagles with their mortars for distraction. The tactic worked but it took a lot of effort to take out just two smart mages. Fighting against mages is no joke. I was thankful that the fireball magic of the Impotuan mages was rare here.

We lost three of the ketches to those two mages. The rest of the crews managed to save their boats with canvas patches and pitch on the outside of the hulls. Chem have an advantage over other races at sea because they are amphibious. Emergency hull patching is easy for them.

We lost twelve ketches and around two hundred Chem in that battle. Most of the Chem died from arrows and catapult rocks shot from the triremes. We had nineteen ketches that needed repairs. We took the mortars and cannons off those, beached the boats in Miskwoomsettkut Cove north of Shinakosettcut, and directed their crews to patch the damaged hulls.

We destroyed all forty triremes belonging to the Mattamesscontan navy. The Chem gave no quarter to any Cosm sailors or mages. The loss was approximately 8,000 Cosm sailors, around 150 wind mages, and about 20 flying cavalry and their eagles.

This battle taught me that fireworks are effective at scaring and befuddling eagles. The downside was that we used a full quarter of our fireworks supply. We needed to seriously consider how to defeat flying cavalry before more of them discovered the dropped rock tactic of sinking our ships.

We probably shocked the residents of Shinakosettcut when we piled on the sails and left, heading for our rendezvous location at Miskwoomsettkut. A rowing barge chased us. I sent one of the ketches back to see what would happen if we met the boat. The chasers were a parley party, complete with the Erdos universal symbol of a truce: a staff with bells on it. Because one of the red-frocked clergy of Cragi was in the boat, the crew of the ketch took the entire boat prisoner.

Reading the signal flags, I decided to meet the ketch, which was now towing the rowing barge. The Cosm were tied up in their boat. All their crystals for focusing magic had been confiscated, so the damage any mages could do was now limited.

My ketch came alongside the ketch I sent to intercept the bowing barge. We dropped our sails and drifted while tied together. I jumped the gunwales into the other ketch, greeted the shipmaster, and then asked to speak with their Cosm representative. It turned out to be the priestess of Cragi. The local Cosm could not have picked a worse choice of spokesperson. The Chem did not like the followers of Cragi. When it came to insults to Vassu, the Chem made the Spanish Inquisition look like nursery school.

The unfortunate priestess was dragged into the ketch in a rude and hostile manner. She was made to kneel in front of me. She glared at me at first. Then she took in a breath, and her eyes widened.

"Your eyes..." the priestess said in her clipped and hard-to-understand accent as she looked down at me.

"Ssspay more respect to the beloved of Vassu," the Chem ship master kicked her in the posterior and then wrenched her head down to the deck planking. "Sssscall her Great One, heretic."

"Great One?" the woman looked up at me from the deck boards.

"My name is Emily," I said. "I don't know if you have heard of me? Vassu and Galt, who are real gods, took me to Toyataskagka last year. While I was there, I informed you folks to cease your heretical ways and return to the worship of Vassu. From your clothes, I see that the Emperor and clergy disobeyed Vassu. As an unrepentant priestess of Cragi, your life is now forfeit." I hated saying things like that, but I had no choice with what Vassu had ordered. Heresy was a real thing on a world with real gods, and the Chem had little forgiveness in them.

"I know nothing of this!" the woman screeched in a panic. "I know of no visit to Toyataskagka. You can't punish me for something I know nothing about."

"Try me," I said, folding my arms.

"Please, tell me about this visit," she begged.

"Sssuse her title, leech," the shipmaster stepped on the woman's big head.

"Great One, please tell me about your visit."

"Beloved of Vassu," the shipmaster addressed me, "she is lying. Her aura indicates dissshonesty."

"You can read auras?" she asked in fright, looking at the shipmaster askance.

"SssssI am a shaman of my town," the Chem replied. "Of course, I can read auras, you lying piece of ssssmelly mammal turd. May I kill her now, beloved of Vassu?"

"Wait," I held up a hand. "Why did you not abandon the false worship of Cragi, priestess, even when you heard of my warning?"

"The higher authorities said they would execute anyone who did, and hunt down their families and kill them too. How could the words of one small Coyn, if she even existed, compare to that immediate threat? I have children, Great One, and I live where the Legions can hunt me and my loved ones down. I could not act on one tall tale out of the capital. Not when I was faced with the reality of the Legions enforcing the ban on apostasy."

"A reasonable answer," I considered. "Why did you chase us when our task was done in Shinakosettcut?"

"To parlay our surrender," the woman said. "We thought you were invading."

"We are invading," I smiled. "But our objective in Shinakosettcut was to destroy the naval fleet. That we have done. If you wish to live a long life, priestess, go home and tell the authorities that we are a force acting under the direct orders of Vassu, the god of water and the creator of the Chem, and Erhonsay, the god of wisdom and war. Cragi was a giant kraken mage who Vassu killed forty-four years ago. She left the carcass of the fake god on the Isle of the Three Pines for all to see and take warning.

"Abandon the worship of Cragi. Free all slaves, regardless of race. Stop the blinding of the Chem. Gather every Chem up within your city and keep them fed and safe. We will return for them to take them home to Sussbesschem. We can now cure them of their blindness. The leader of this fleet was the first to be cured with the new method, which is now taught at the Healing Shrine of Mugash in Foskos. Kill every leader who refuses to act as I have instructed.

"Listen to me, priestess. Last year, I came with a warning. This year, I came with a fleet and an army. I will give you this one chance to mend your ways. If not, the next time I come, I will bring the death of you and everyone you love and everyone in this city who does not follow Vassu."

I looked up at the shipmaster, "Let her go."

"She is afraid of you," he said. "I can see the green in her aura. I do not understand."

"It's because of the godmarks, ship master," I explained. "This is the effect they have upon Cosm, especially when I am angry." At this moment, I realized that the godmarks were not just the prophet identification card that the gods gave me. I realized the godmarks were a gift, a fabulous tool if I wanted to use them. That little epiphany gave me pause long enough that everyone was waiting for me to continue speaking.

"I have changed my mind," I stated. "Priestess, we do have terms. We will let the residents of Shinakosettcut live for now. What I said about abandoning Cragi and freeing slaves remains. You have one season to free slaves, gather the blinded Chem, and abandon Cragi. I now give you an immediate condition. Shinakosettcut will deliver every barrel of sulfur in your warehouses to the docks. We will take it with us. When we return, we will pay you for it, so keep good records of which merchants provide it." That left the poor woman even more gobsmacked.

"Shipmaster, run up the signal flag to pause the fleet. Have one hundred ketches and all the transports turn around and make for the harbor. We have sulfur to pick up at the docks."