#52 - You Speak! You Hear!

In Riga-Feren the crowd was considerable as the side of the ship was lowered to the pounding of a large drum, the enormous noise generated by a tiny dark man on the deck of the long-distance ship.

The Feren Doge and her entourage waited at the end of the dock, in raised chairs, gleaming in the best silks imported from Tuin, glittering like a flock of peacocks and secretary birds.  They’d had frantic messages from the other Rigan cities, starting with Dham, and were the best prepared.  The ambassadors from Rummummalo had seemed more amused than affronted by peoples’ reaction to them and the name of their country was the best translation that could be made of the peculiar low rumble.

The Doge leaned over to her closest advisor, who straightened an already immaculate shawl of office, points not daring to be anything but perfect.  “They are herbivores, truly?”

The advisor nodded.  “Leaves, grass, fruit.  So my people tell me.  Though they were tremendously surprised at wine and seem to adore the sweetest.  We are almost certainly assured of  an enormous trade.  They’re willing to trade their ancestor’s teeth, or parts of them, for our goods.”

“Excellent.  See if they like fruit brandy, from Inné, hmmm?  Should we try and discourage them from going on?  Let them trade only through us?”

“The Doge of Dham has already attempted that.  They learned of all of the peoples here and wish to do at least a survey of everyone they can easily reach.”

“Drown it,” the Doge said mildly, smiling and waving her gilded and bejeweled fan.  “And they’re too big to restrain.”

“I wouldn’t want to offend their Queen, my Doge…”

“Of course.  Here they c… oh, my.”

The side of the ship had been dogged down, forming an enormous gang plank, and from the dark of the interior a shape loomed.

The first elephant that Feren saw raised a wave of astonished oooh’s and one or two frightened screeches from children.  He paced out of the hold, holding a staff in his trunk.  It was ivory and as tall as a man, carved and painted and decorated every thumb length from pointed tip to gold band at the other end.  His ears were elaborately painted in gold filigree and his own tusks had gems embedded in them that flashed every step he took.  On his forehead a round mirror shone and he wore a white and gold and grey cloth drape that ended in silver tassels around his… knees?  Yes, his knees.  A net of silver lay over his back, with each junction adorned with enamel plaques.

“Oh my,” the Doge whispered.  “He’s five times the size of the Cylak King Stag.”

The elephant paced deliberately down the dock, then somehow managed to spin in the tight space and bend his front knees as the second elephant emerged and drew a shocked silence from the crowd at its size.  The drummer on the deck of the ship ceased his drumming and the elephant raised its trunk to pick him up, swinging him down to sit upon its neck, in a space on its neck scarf where people were apparently allowed to sit.

Where the first elephant had silver paint, this one had gold and instead of gold, diamond chips glittered.  The tusks this one had emerging from its mouth were carved much more intricately than the first and this one had no net upon its back.  This one had gold bells set in a series of rows all down the gently flapping ears and the glittery chimes flowed out into the silence.

The elephant stepped off the gangway and its eye caught the Doge, whose chair was its own eye level.  It nodded once, raised its trunk and the second elephant joined in the thunderous sound of trumpeting.  It was so loud, and so unexpected that people fell right over here and there, to be caught or picked up.

The Doge stood, and as she did, the elephants trumpeted once more.  “Welcome, heralds of your Queen, Ambassadors of Rummummalos!”  As she did her best to repeat the low-rumbling name, the fellow on the second Ambassador’s neck nearly fell off in shock.

“Grand, Grand Doge!” He said, his voice very low for someone his size.  “That…” and here he made a sound like a deep rumble that carried up through people’s feet.  “Grand One speaks, hears like Earth Movings!”

The advisor hissed into the Doge’s ear.  “Apparently only a few people can hear the elephants true speech.  I’d heard the rumour from Dham…”

“Welcome to our home,” she said, not turning away from the Ambassadors, but clearly taking in her advisor’s words. “Good to know.”