Maker of Fire

Tom, Miskwoomsettkut, Growing Season, 5th rot., 6th day

We returned from Nagasettkut with six Cosm-sized fishing boats. Five we sent back to Sussbesschem with the first of the enslaved who were freed. Uncohegan’s fishing boat stayed behind because Emily wanted someone to warn the faithful left in Toyatastagka to flee. She also wanted to get the captive Chem out of the city but Twee stopped her.

“Emily, we can see that our kin are safe,” he told her. “We can speak to them through the waters and they can hide.”

“And how are you going to do that sitting out in our ships far away from the shore?” Emily gave him quite a disbelieving look.

“Someone will need to go into Toyatastagka,” Twee replied as if it was the simplest thing in the world. Maybe he thought it was simple. Frankly, my reaction was much the same as Emily’s.

Then Twee introduced a Chem named Twistltulz. “He will go on Uncohegan’s boat and speak to the waters,” Twee explained, as if it was plain as day what that meant.

“How does that work, Twee? Twistltulz?” I asked around our strategy campfire on the beach. “Do you need to get into the city to do that? Where do you find these waters that can speak? I don’t understand.”

“We give to the waters and the waters give back,” Twee said. “It is easy. Any drain or pipe will do.”

“Whatever it is you do, one Chem can reach every other Chem in the city?” Emily frowned, shaking her head.

“Yes, little Emily.” Twee flicked his tongue twice for emphasis. “It is not too different from my making a path out of the fort we escaped together with Arma, only easier. It is what you call ssswater magic.” The two words were in Fosk, and not the water speech of the Chem.

Emily gave him a look.

“Emily, beloved,” Twee pushed his nose into the sand, “trust me that this will work.”

The look persisted but Emily caved. “I will take your word for it, Twee.”

“Good!” Twee’s head popped up. “Good! Good! Can we talk about the ambush now? Can I see your fuse thing? It might make the ambush better.”

Emily dug into a waxed leather bag and pulled out a black-coated piece of twine. “I found some asphalt seeps while you two were with Uncohegan in Nagasettkut. My attempts at making an underwater fuse are now a success. There’s only one problem.”

“Yes?” I prodded.

“I can’t light it underwater. We’ve used up all our mercury fulminate for contact detonators for the mortar shells. I have none left to use for lighting underwater fuses while underwater.” Emily looked frustrated. She always got pouty when she didn’t get her way as a mad scientist.

For once, I got to get one over on her. “Emily, Sweety,” I purred, “how many matches did you bring?”

“What do matches have to do with anything, Tom?”

“How many, love?” I wasn’t going to let myself be diverted.

“At least twenty thousand,” she scowled. “Maybe more. They don’t take up much room.”

“How many navy ships are there in the harbor?” I asked.

“About two hundred.”

“Give me two thousand matches, some potassium nitrate… Don’t give me that look, Mouse. I know you have some. And give me some asphalt, too, and I can make you a working underwater contact fuse. We can use it to light your underwater fuse. Problem solved.”

“Problem solved?” Emily was now making faces at me.

“Watertight container with matches and a striking surface,” I beamed. “you mash the contact fuse to push the matches and the striking surface together. The matches light, the fuse gets lit, and the bomb goes off, all immune to water. It’s straight out of the old U.S. Army Manual 31-210, Improvised Munitions.”

“Make me a prototype and we’ll see if it will work with my waterproof fuse.”

“Of course it will,” I promised.

Toyatastagka, Growing Season, 6th rot., 1st day

With over thirty years at sea, Admiral Keewantin commanded the much-feared Mattamesscontan navy. After she learned the details of the defeat at Shinakosettkut, she added three layers of heavy canvas awnings on every trireme, for protection from overhead fire globes and exploding bombs. The larger polyremes were equipped with low roofs of thin slate. The polyremes did not use sails but the triremes did. The Admiral had the sails removed and outfitted the masts with three large skybaskets for archers and mages.

Admiral Keekeewantin concluded that it would be impractical to employ the usual tactics of ramming and boarding. Her opponent was a fleet of hundreds of small boats manned by diminutive creatures who would prefer to dodge and retreat rather than fight a Cosm face-to-face. She envisioned the difference between her navy and the Chem fleet as analagous to several wolves being attacked by a swarm of gnats.

The Admiral concluded the key to defeating this invasion would be the destruction of the many gnat-like boats. To do that, she armed her crews with fire arrows and trebuchets throwing flaming projectiles. She put mages with the ability to throw fireballs in the skybaskets. Along the gunwales of her galleys, she mounted ballistae with heavy bronze spears large enough to hole the thin clinker hulls of the Chem ketches.

She positioned her two hundred ships in four lines of fifty between the two breakwaters of the harbor of Toyatastagka and waited. When the line of hundreds of sails appeared, she requested the Legions send the flying cavalry with fire magic to help sink the Chem fleet.

Camp of the Legions, Growing Season, 6th rot., 1st day

“Marshal Lowawathas,” the Captain bowed her head and clasped her hands to salute, “the Admiral requests the cavalry to attack the approaching Chem fleet.”

“How far out are they?” The General looked out from the balcony of her headquarters across the rain soaked camp of four legions, each 50,000 strong. She frowned at the heavy rain and prayed to Cragi that it would let up soon. The early barley and wheat harvest wasn’t complete and too much rain would degrade the quality and quantity of the grains. Wet fields would also delay the sowing of the maize and monsoon small grains. It was unusual to get heavy rains like this before the arrival of the monsoon. It made her feel uneasy. She worried that she was receiving a warning from her better-than-average precognition.

“What is the weather like in Toyatastagka?” she asked Captain Sakabean.

Her aide shuffled the thin wood tablets on the dispatch table and held one up to read it. “Overcast, fog overnight, no rain, light to moderate winds from the south.”

“Is that the weather for the entire coast of the bay?” the Marshal asked.

Captain Sakabean pulled out two more tablets. “No, Senior. The weather is rainy with high winds outside of the city.”

“So, same as here. Have the cavalry leave as soon as they are able. The flying will be bad until they get to the city. We will take weather losses I’m afraid but that fleet must be stopped. If a flier can’t cast a fireball, then add a mage as a passenger who can. See to the orders, Captain. Also, send the quartermaster to me. We need to make sure our supplies stay dry in this downpour.”

Twee, Toyatastagka Harbour, Growing Season, 6th rot., 1st day

We waited for Shaman Twistltulz, Aspirant Uncohegan, and her crew to return on Sassoo’s winds. After five days, they had yet to return, so Leader Tom sent us over the last waves of the waters to begin our holy task of destroying the city of the ruler of our oppressors.

While our ships anchored and set up our firing line, I and five thousand other kl’drt swam below the waves until we were under the Mattamesscontan galleys. We waited without speaking for the sun to go down, not knowing if the Cosm were wise enough to listen for the water tongue under they keels.

When it was dark and the Cosm crews were eating, we attacked. Twenty-four kl’drt climbed each galley, peeked over the gunwales, tossed our clay bombs with our tails, and then fled back under the waves. The twenty-fifth kl’dr attached the modified and waterproofed mortar shell with its fuse to the galley hull next to the rudder post. If the shell didn’t hole the ship, it would at least destroy the rudder.

We lost two kl’drt who did not flee the exploding shells in time. The Matamesscontan navy lost one hundred sixty-two galleys to Vassu’s embrace. The rest were damaged, with some adrift and burning. Several thousand Cosm sailors drowned. Many were attacked by sharks which by Vassu’s grace, did not attack any kl’drt.

Without their rudders, some of the burning galleys drifted with the northerly breeze into the docks of the Toyatastagka waterfront, and set it on fire. Many small ships that were docked fled the harbor. One of those was Uncohegan’s fishing boat. As she told later told Little Emily, the Beloved, the harbor master forbade any shipping from leaving port because of the our fleet. Once our ambush began, the boats inside the harbor fled anyway.

It was an excellent night, with a lovely view of a burning navy and waterfront. Shaman Twistltulz had done his task well. Our kin heard his message in the waters. They made their water tunnels before our attack and fled to them after we set our oppressors’ navy on fire. They also stopped the water flow in the city aqueduct to encourage the incineration of Toyatastagka.

The Crystal Shrine of Tiki, Growing Season, 6th rot., night of the 1st day / Toyatastagka Harbour, Growing Season, 6th rot., morning of the 2nd day

“Priestess Byahi,” the Queen directed, “get your mistress. She will want to see this. In fact, get anyone who wants to watch this. I think today will be a big day for the Chem.” Aylem leaned forward to see better and focused the Great Crystal on Emily, who was trying to light something inside a large ceramic pot on fire and not having much luck.

The dawn of the next day was just breaking in Toyatastagka though it was after dinner on the previous day and already dark at the Crystal Shrine. Aylem guessed she might not get much sleep tonight.

“What is it?” Foyuna came at a run, followed by her grandmother-by-marriage, Lyappis. “Has something changed from this morning?”

Aylem changed the scene in the Great Crystal so Foyuna and Lyappis could see the whole city.

“Oh!” Foyuna stopped short of the Great Crystal and gaped. “What happened to the Mattamesscontan navy? So many sunken galleys, and the fire!” She watched as people fled the city through the west gates, their possessions in carts and on their backs.

“The upper city, which has more stone buildings, isn’t on fire,” Aylem commented. “At least not yet. It’s the waterfront and the neighborhoods downwind to the east and north that are burning. The destruction hasn’t climbed the hill yet towards the palace, the Temple of Cragi, and the mansions of the nobles. Like usual, it’s the poor and the insignificant who suffer the most.”

“Oh, look!” Lyappis pointed, “Their cavalry is moving.” Several hundred armored mages on eagles appeared flying over the city. Some had riders with them.

Aylem moved the scene back to Emily who had ignited whatever was in the pot. When she shifted the scene to see more of the Chem fleet, she saw that every ketch in the front line had a pot. All the pots were now burning, producing blue flames. Without any warning, a thick fog arose at the front of the Chem fleet, turning slightly yellow downwind of the flaming pots.

“What are they burning?” Lyappis peered.

“I think it’s sulfur,” Aylem said, as the crowd around the Great Crystal grew. The Queen reached down and picked up first Zdatel and then Veflia, placing them on her lounge next to her.

“Look at the cavalry,” Foyuna pointed. “The eagles don’t like the fog.”

Some of the mounted mages forced their eagles back into the fog. One eagle flew straight up, out of mist, screaming in pain. The eagle’s mage was also in distress, with her hands over her eyes.

Some eagles faltered and fell into the sea. The ones who made it through the fog were pincushioned with Chem spear arrows. A few flew above the fog. Four had time to throw fireballs, which were countered with water magic by the waiting kl’drt shaman. The rest of the cavalry was attacked with water balls or spear arrows. It was a dreadful display and a major victory for the Chem. Out of nearly five hundred mounted mages and their eagles, Aylem counted only thirty-seven pairs who returned to Toyatastagka. Most of those were wounded in the eyes or had difficulty breathing.

“What was in that fog?” Foyuna gave voice to what everyone was wondering.

“I don’t know,” Aylem said. “It has to be one of Emily’s clever tricks with potions, but I don’t know how burning sulfur could work like that.”

“Mindcast the Revered Huhoti at the Building Shrine,” Lyappis advised. “If anyone knows, she will.”

“Alright, let me pause the crystal briefly,” Aylem said.

The Queen extended her senses outward, ignoring the buzz of many tens of thousands of people leaking their thoughts and feelings. She threw her clairvoyance northward to find the the foundry at the Building Shrine of Giltak. Huhoti and her apprentices were pulling glowing metal through a draw plate to shape it into a pipe. She waited until Huhoti was out of harm’s way from the hot metal.

*Huhoti, this is the Queen. I have an urgent question for you.*

“Eek!” Huhoti jerked, startled by the mindcasting. “Oh my,” she motioned her metal workers that she was uninjured. “I’m being mindcasted. I’m alright. Go back to work. I’ll only be a moment.”

*Great One, how can I help you?*

*We are watching the Chem attack Toyatastagka. Emily placed a big pot of sulfur on the bow of the Chem Ships and set the contents on fire. The Chem then made a fog in front of their pots blew toward the harbor. The enemy cavalry flew into the fog and were made sick by it. It appeared to cause eye injuries and some eagles fell out of the air into the sea to drown. Do you know what happened here?*

*Oh! I wish I could have seen that,* Huhoti mindcasted. She knew her range couldn’t reach the Queen but the Queen’s range was so great that she knew the Queen could hear her. *This is why you should never burn sulfur on a humid or rainy day, Great One. The colorless emissions of the burning sulfur combine with any rain or fog to make what called burning mist. It behaves like oil of vitriol, only it’s in the air instead. It will attack eyes, irritate the insides of mouths and noses, and burn the insides of the lungs. It’s nasty stuff and eagle eyes are many times more sensitive than ours.*

*Merciful Mugash!* Emily’s trick with burning sulfur reminded the Queen of the Great War in back on Earth. Her father told her horrible stories about the gas attack when he was a soldier the trenches in France in 1917. The gas blinded him for two months before his eyesight returned in a military hospital. Emily had created some kind of gas attack with the sulfur and fog. She wondered what the chemistry was.

*Huhoti, perhaps you and Raoleer should come tonight and watch the battle with us. The Chem are attacking Toyatastagka right now. We could profit from your mekaner insights.*

*I will tell my mistress, but first I must be sure my work crew can finish without me.*

Aylem dropped the mindcasting and renewed the vision in the Great Crystal. All the burning sulfur pots were now extinguished, capped with ceramic lids. The Chem had turned their ketches sideways, using anchors at both the bow and stern of each ship to adjust their alignment parallel to the shore line. The new orientation gave the mortars on each ketch a clear line of sight into the city, unobstructed by the masts. A few ketches were now shooting, targeting the surviving galleys.

By the first night bell, all the galleys and the rest of the shipping in the harbor was sunk or burning. It was then that Raoleer and Huhoti arrived.

“May the blessings of the eleven gods be upon this sacred company,” Raoleer and Huhoti both made bowing obeisances.

“And also upon you,” Aylem replied. “Please rise. Why don’t you sit next to me on my lounge? I think all the other seats are taken.” The crowd around the crystal had occupied all the benches and latecomers had to stand.

“Can we fit?” Huhoti asked, eyeballing the pregnant queen and her two Coyn attendants.

“May I suggest that Veflia and I sit on your laps,” Zdatel suggested with a hopeful smile. “We might get squished otherwise, Revered One.”

“That is fine by me,” Raoleer nodded. “If you don’t mind, I don’t mind. After all, you were here well before us.”

As soon as the mekaners were seated, Aylem showed the newcomers that layout of the fleets, the harbor and the city, explaining what had already happened.

“Only thirty-seven flying cavalry survived, out of how many?” Raoleer was gobsmacked.

“About five hundred,” Aylem replied. “The recording priestesses should have a better count than I do. They do all the hard work. I just guide the crystal.” The Queen turned and smiled with encouragement at the two priestesses currently making a record of what the crystal revealed.

Raoleer had the thought that two or three years ago, the Queen would never have even glances at the shrine staff. Giving them a smile would have been unheard of. The Queen indeed had changed. She still had some bad moments but those were becoming scarce, if Raoleer’s sources were accurate.

“I wish I could have seen that burning sulfur and fog event,” Raoleer sighed.

“I might be able to replay it,” Aylem pronounced. “I can make the crystal show past events now to a limited extent.”

“Great One,” Raoleer was shocked, “how is that possible? I’ve never heard of the Great Crystal being used in this way.”

“Yasknapa of Yantes in her notes postulated it was possible,” Aylem explained. “Her notes meshed with the Blessed Emily’s theory of magic as a force that can manipulate time and matter. So, I started to play with the time reversal magic we use in healing charms, adapting them to the clairvoyant scenes in the Great Crystal. I discovered if events are recent, I can replay them in the crystal. I do not know yet how far back in time I can go yet, but one day isn’t that difficult. It is an active area of research for me.”

Raoleer and Huhoti were both gobsmacked, as were most of the crowd who were unaware of the Queen’s experiments with the Great Crystal.

“Maybe tomorrow, I can try to show the burning sulfur and fog. I assume the two of you are staying overnight, yes?”

Before Raoleer and Huhoti could answer, Foyuna pointed at something in the Great Crystal.

“Look at that,” Foyuna exclaimed, pointing as the smoke trail of a mortar shell falling on Toyatastagka. “That one went high, It looks like it will fall on the upper part of the city.”

“I believe we are about to watch the destruction of Toyatastagka,” Aylem pronounced, “according to the will of Vassu. The god of water has decreed that Toyatastagka will perish. The Mattamesscontan court refused to renounce the heretical worship of the kraken Cragi, thus sealing the fate of this sinful city. We are privileged to watch divine justice take place this evening, friends.”

“I am amazed at how easy it was for the Chem to destroy the Mattamesscotan navy, both here and in Shinakosettkut,” Lyappis remarked.

“Well, they do have several gods helping them,” Huhoti stated, “and the Chem have talents unknown to most Cosm. Who knew that water could be used as such a deadly weapon? What I want to know is how the Chem sunk more than half the fleet during the night in Mattamesscontess.”

“I’m not sure,” Aylem said. “It was some kind of night attack. We need to review what happened while it was dark in Toyatastagka.”

“That’s a problem since the charm of night vision doesn’t work for viewing visions in the Great Crystal,” Raoleer sighed.

“I have a workaround for that,” Aylem grinned, looking pleased with herself. Then, her face fell, “My workaround might be uncomfortable for some people, because it involves forced mindcasting. We can discuss this in the morning. Let us return now to the battle before us, before speculating about what tomorrow will bring.”