Chenda and the Airship Brofman (36 page)

She trailed her spoon through her gray soup, saying a silent prayer to whatever god could hear her. From what she could gather from Chenda, the gods weren't too picky about how they were worshiped, they just seemed to want to be remembered, and thanked for being there. That suited Candice just fine. She found that a prayer of gratitude every now and again helped her to remember how blessed and lucky she was.  But today, she slipped in a tiny request for inspiration. That wasn't too much to ask for, she thought.

In the moment her spoon dropped into her soup, the handle sliding below the surface of the warm puree, she knew her prayers had been answered.

“Look!" Candice shouted, and everyone around her jumped. “Did you see?!?! I dropped my spoon!”

“Good gods, she's cracked,” Fenimore whispered to Verdu, and they both nodded in perfect agreement.

“Candice, I believe you have had a soup epiphany of some kind. How wonderful.” Pranav Erato's limbs started to quiver, just begging for a reason to dance. “We may be a bit slow, but if you lead, I think we will get there with you eventually. Can you please explain?”

Candice fluttered her hands over her soup. “Oh! Well, yes. I think I have the solution to both our current problems! Invisibility!”

Pranav Erato's limbs fell still and his ever constant grin faded slightly.

“Bonkers,” Verdu and Fenimore said at the same time.

Candice looked at the disapproving faces around her and calmly collected her thoughts. “You just listen! I dropped the spoon in the soup after I said a prayer.”

“You pray?” Verdu said, quite surprised.

“Shut it!” Candice snapped. She gave Verdu her best teacher stare and the large man backed down. “Anyway,” she continued, “once the spoon slid in, it disappeared. That's what we need to do with the crops
and
ourselves. I can't believe that I didn't think of this before. If we can get into the sea, perhaps with a small enough vessel, and hoping that Chenda can store up enough power to do it, I think we might just be able to go UNDER the Tugrulian patrols!”

“Gods with a thousand faces! That's brilliant.” Pranav Erato said, his legs already in full bounce. “Now, tell me quickly my child, how we make the crops invisible!”

With great excitement, Candice said, “No clue, but that's what we have to do!”

“Well, whoopie! It's a start,” the mystic replied. “I feel confident that this is the path to our solution. Now, a much more pertinent question,” he said, the sparkle firmly back in his eyes, “How are you going to eat that soup without a spoon?”

When Chenda awoke, Candice could hardly contain herself. “I've got it!”

Chenda grabbed her hand quickly.
Will it keep for two minutes?

“
Oh, sure. Do that thing you do. Sand blasting again?”

I think I want to try something a bit more direct. Stand back.

Chenda put her hand onto the rock face and concentrated. With a soft pop an avalanche of sand fell, revealing another image of a sparking dagger.  She was getting better at that particular image.

“That worked. Great.” She sighed and turned to Candice. “You are excited. Tell me all about it.”

“We go under the Tugrulian patrols!”

“Say, that is different thinking. Why didn't we think of that before? Hmm....” Chenda started running several scenarios though her head. “I'm stuck on bubble, and that is going to take too much power. I don't think I could hold us ALL in a bubble under the water for very long, not more than a few minutes, what did you have in mind?”

“What if we get a vessel that would keep the water out, could you move us along under the water, and refresh the air?” Candice asked.

“Probably. Pushing us along, I could do for a little while. Cleaning the air, I don't know if I could do that at the same time. How fast would I have to move us, and for how long?”

“Good question, I think we should come at this scientifically. Once we get the proper vessel, we will have to experiment to see how much of your power it takes get going, maybe we could chart it, and then we-”

“Forget that.” Fenimore interrupted from where he sat across the cave. “We've only got three days to get out of here, I think.”

“What do you mean?” Chenda asked.

“IF we can get by the patrols in this...
swim under
, and that's a very big IF, what are we going to do? Float our way across the Kohlian? I think not. Remember, our best shot is getting airborne with friends, and that means meeting the
Brofman
. We've missed the first date to meet up with Captain Endicott at Crider Island. He agreed to attempt to meet us a second time ten days later. That's three days from now. I'm not saying we couldn't find another way, but this opportunity is waiting for us. However, wasting time, dickering with charts and experiments, is out of the question.”

He elbowed Verdu. “The question is, how realistic is it? Can we get to the coast, find a boat, or boat-ish type thing, and drift to Crider in three days?”

“If we leave from here in the morning, we might make it. But that just leaves us with about 14 hours to find a way to make fields invisible.” Verdu said.

Candice said, “What's the next best thing to invisible?”

“Translucent?” Fenimore hazarded.

“Obscured.” Verdu said.

“Repulsive!” Pranav Erato said with glee. “Why don't we fix it so nobody will
want
to go looking too closely for these fields?”

“I bet we can do more than one thing to hide a few fields,” Chenda said. “Imagine a plateau, one inconvenient to get to in the first place. If I sink the center of the plateau about four feet, then no one could see it from the ground to begin with. If we laced the area with something really stinky, I think it could be a strong deterrent for moderately curious soldiers. What's the stinkiest compound in nature you can think of, Candice?”

“Oh, there are several that really will knock your socks off. Most of the ones that smell like vomit or skunk or decomposing bodies would be very difficult for us to come up with on short notice. Chenda, you might be able to find the right molecules and mush them together the right way, but I'm not in favor of wildly experimenting with stuff that rank, or if we do it wrong, that deadly. But sulfur, that's simple
and
effective. Chenda could get the earth to cough that up easily enough, don't you think?”

“I think I could,” Chenda said. “Pranav Erato, do you think that we can set this in motion tonight? We have all these people who have visited with me this week. They want to take some action. Can they help us find the right location, and any seeds they have been hiding?”

He sprang to his feet. “We're going to try! Ahy-Me! You stay here and see if we need anything else. I'll be listening for you. We've got work to do.” Pranav Erato danced toward the mouth of cave, and called over his shoulder, “I'll get this started and will be right back!” A second later, the willowy man was gone.

Chenda and Candice clutched each other’s hands and danced around. “This really could work!” Chenda said.

“It's only a start.” Candice said. “But if we can prove the land is fertile, that's all we need. One really successful crop growing hidden within the Empire. When word gets out, there will be no stopping the people. Once they know they can feed their children, the Law of the Emperor will mean nothing. This will show them the way.”

Candice looked thoughtful for a moment. “Verdu! I think I need to write some instructions for the people who will be tending these fields. I'm going to need you to translate for me. I'd hate to grow a bunch of plants, and then not have anyone know what to do with the beans once they are grown, assuming that's what we are growing.”

Verdu and Candice huddled together in a corner and started to translate instructions for basic gardening. Fenimore looked around the room, unsure what to do while the others were busily making plans, and said to no one in particular, “If I didn't know us, I'd think we had all gone mad. But this may just be crazy enough to work.”

As the sun set over the dry Tugrulian landscape, Chenda and her companions followed a guide upwards to a small plateau several miles outside of Lhil-Bhan. Chenda had been storing her power for several hours, and was ready to let it go to work. She probed ahead and felt the presence of 15 vertical water bags - people - waiting for them above. She also sensed pockets of water flowing below her. She was sure there was sufficient water she could draw to the surface for irrigation. Chenda had faith in her plan.

She reached backwards to Candice.
This place is going to work. This place has everything we could want.

“Oh, good,” she replied. “I don't think that we've got time to select another.”

Tell Verdu that there are 15 men ahead. I'm sure one of them is Pranav Erato, the skinniest waterbag of a person ever.

Candice dropped Chenda's hand and trotted ahead to pass her message to Verdu.

Chenda turned her thoughts from water to earth. The plateau was fairly rocky and very uneven with many dips and bumps. She let her mind feel its way through all of the textures: pockets of sand and clay, layers of soil and dust. As she thought about the surface of the plateau and how she was going to go about rearranging it, her pace slowed slightly. Fenimore, who had been bringing up the rear of the little party, suddenly stood beside Chenda. He put a hand on her shoulder.

“Something wrong?” he asked.

Oh, nothing, I'm just thinking about what I need to do up there. I guess I got a little distracted. Thanks for asking, though.

“
You think you can do this?”

Yes. I really think I can, and it costs me nothing to try, I'm just estimating how much power I need to hold back so I can stinkify the bottom of this plateau. But if I have to, I can just wait an hour or so and try again.

“
That's my little human battery,” Fenimore said, grinning. “Can I tell you something?”

Sure, always.

“
I'm not crazy about you being able to put your voice in my head.”

Then stop touching me, and my voice won't make it that far.
Chenda found she could not keep the hurt tone out of her thoughts any more than she could keep it out of her voice.

“OH! I'm such a cad. I didn't mean it to come out that way. What I want to say is that I really like the sound of your voice, in my ears, that's all. I know you aren't speaking the old fashioned way because something, um, bad, might happen if you do. At best, this power is an inconvenience to you, and at worst, I imagine it causes you some pain.” Fenimore grimaced. “I'm just sorry, that's all.”

Aww, Fen. That's sweet, really. But don't worry about it. Give me a minute to work, and I'll be just plain old chatty me again. AND there will be something really great here to show for it. Have a little patience.

“
OK, I will.” Fenimore gave a very meaningful look to Chenda.

What?

“
I was just testing you,” he said. “I just wanted to see if you could hear me talk to you without me moving my lips.”

Chenda laughed inside.
No, Fen. Your thoughts are a mystery to me until you voice them. Sorry.

“
It's just as well. I was thinking about the punchline to the dirtiest joke I've ever heard, so I am kind of glad you didn't hear it.”

Come on! Now I really want to hear it! Tell me the joke.

Fenimore and Chenda were still giggling about the dirtiest joke ever, when they caught up with the others at the top of the plateau.

I'm going to try to go do something divine now, which may be impossible with that ribaldry amongst my thoughts.
She smiled and pulled away from his hand. She placed one finger on Pranav Erato's elbow.

Seeds?

Pranav Erato danced with excitement.
Oh, yes! I'm shocked at the variety! I've got them sorted by type atop that rock over there if you would like to take a look.

I will. Have everyone stand well back behind the seeds. I'm itching to get this started.

Chenda looked at the assortment of vegetable and fruit seeds laid out into 25 little piles on the rock. Candice stepped up beside her.

“Once you get the ground ready, I'll help you with the spacing for the seeds. I recognize most of them, and it will be no problem.”

Perfect
. The women grasped each other’s hands for a moment more.

Let's do this!

“Yes!” Candice said as she stepped back.

The top of the plateau was perhaps five acres. Chenda walked to the center of it and spread her hands, palms down, over the rocky area. She started feeling for fissure lines about ten yards in from the edge of the shear face. It was tedious, but after several minutes she had marked her boundaries. She pulled most of her pent up power to the front of her mind and slowly let it wash over the rocky earth. It was like a billion miniature earthquakes being released one after the next in a wave across the mesa, each stone grinding the clod next to it to sandy pieces. The vibration shimmied through the loosened earth, shifting the soil back and forth across the plateau, mixing it. After several minutes of scooting the fresh dirt around, Chenda was satisfied.