“We have arrived!” said Hsrandtuss loudly, as he waved at the land ahead.
From the small hillock upon which he stood, he could see a long, flat plain, and beyond that a large hill with a rocky outcropping on one side and upon the other a gentle slope down toward the shores of the briskly flowing river. In the distance was the vast forest of pine trees and maples, as well as sussata, for which the humans had no name. A great herd of sauroposeidon roamed along the forest edge, while closer were huge numbers of iguanodons and triceratops.
“We can all see that we are here,” he heard someone mutter behind him. He thought it was Szakhandu.
“Shut up,” ordered Sszaxxanna, cuffing whoever it was with a clawed hand. “This is a great moment.”
They had left the dragon fortress a full thirty days earlier with a mission to found a new city to the east, not far from the ruins of Suusthek. Suusthek had been a great city, but its ruler Ssithtsutsu had overstepped himself when he had tried to wipe out the soft-skins. Even without the aid of the young god, the humans had wiped out his warriors, and their witch-woman had left nothing where Suusthek had been but a very large smoking crater.
It had taken Hsrandtuss a few days to recover from his ordeal beneath the ancient stones of the fortress. Afterwards he spent several more days in celebratory feasting and drinking, and it took a few days to recover from that too. Then Yessonar had met with him alone. He could still remember the heat radiating from the dragon as he stood beside the great head, which lay upon a huge pillow of tyrannosaurus skin.
“That was quite a show of bravery, and totally unnecessary, I might add.”
“It was nothing,” said the king, but he couldn’t help but flush his dewlap.
“There is no other of your race that I trust more than you. Did you know that, Hsrandtuss?”
“I don’t know what to say, Great Yessonar.”
“It is twice as important to listen as it is to speak. That is why you have two ears and only one mouth. I have seen something in the future, and I need your help to turn the events the direction I desire. I am sending you east on a great mission. It will be difficult, but you can succeed.”
“I will succeed,” Hsrandtuss had proclaimed.
“Is this where we are going to build Zis Suusthek?” asked Ssu, stepping close to her husband, and forcing his mind to return to the present.
“This is where we will build our city. But it will not be called Zis Suusthek. Ssithtsutsu ruined that name forever, may a curse be upon the eggs of all his females. We shall call our city Yessonarah after the young god, to show that we are favored by him above all others.” He turned to Sszaxxanna. “Have the captains bring their people to that hill. We will make our camp tonight on the site of our city.”
When they had left, they had taken almost every lizzie at the fortress, though Yessonar would not have to go without worshippers for long. The line of supplicants was just as long on their way out as it had been on their way in. Looking at the great dragon curled up at the base of the large outdoor amphitheater, Hsrandtuss thought that he looked pleased to be left alone if only for a few minutes. Of course even as they were leaving, Khastla the envoy was making his way down the steps to task the god with something else. Five thousand lizardmen had been divided mostly along clan lines into ten groups, each led by a captain who reported directly to the king. Yes, Hsrandtuss was used to hearing “great king” from his wives. Now he would hear it from everybody.
It was growing dark before the last of the great pilgrimage arrived on the hill. Huge bonfires had already been set up by the first arrivals to help deter any predators, though even the family of gorgosaurs spotted late in the afternoon would have thought twice before approaching such a large group of Hsrandtuss’s people. The king lay down near the largest fire and pointed his nose toward the flame. Soon Kendra and Ssu were on either side of him and he could see the other wives taking their places nearby. Except for Sszaxxanna. She was somewhere, bringing some plot or other into fruition, or starting a new one. Hsrandtuss didn’t give her a lot of thought. He just closed his eyes and went to sleep.
Then next morning, the king met with all of the captains. He assigned each of them a job to oversee. Some were responsible for locating the appropriate stone for wall construction and to start quarrying it. Others were responsible for felling trees and cutting them into logs, which would be even more vital. Still others organized workers to dam the river and to cut irrigation canals. A particularly large individual named Straatin was placed in charge of the hunters who would supply the meat necessary to fill so many bellies. Finally, an old and grizzled veteran named Hunssuss was held back to consult with the king on the layout of the new city. They discussed what buildings needed to be constructed where, while a group of warriors used shovels and spears to gouge out the outlines of the buildings in the earth.
By the end of their first full day on the site of Yessonarah, there were already huge piles of cut logs and hundreds of fires around the hill illuminating thousands of lizzies feasting on raw meat as they were warmed by the flames. Hsrandtuss was pleased.
After eating a pomegranate and a bit of iguanodon for breakfast, the king climbed to his feet and looked around. The only one of his wives nearby was Szakhandu.
“Come and walk with me,” he ordered her.
She fell into step behind him as he walked down the hill and toward the river. The trees on either side of the game trail had already been cut and it was easy to see the best spot for the dam, right where the two banks came closest to one another, just after the river had made a lazy turn to the left. Workers were already creating a roadway that would lead to the site.
“So what do you think, Szakhandu?” asked Hsrandtuss, breaking the silence.
“Think about what, Great King?”
“About the site of our new city.”
“It is not for me to say, Great King.”
“Stop dipping my tail in the lake with this ‘great king’. I know what you think of me. I’m just a half wild brute that took you away from your comfortable home in Tsahloose. I know you say as much when you are among the other females.”
He glanced at her. She opened her mouth, ready to plead her innocence, but then closed it and dropped her chin.
“I am sorry, Great… husband.”
“What are you sorry about exactly, Szakhandu? Are you sorry that you said unkind things about your king and husband, or are you sorry that you are the wife of a wild brute?”
“I am not sorry about that. I said those things, but I didn’t really mean them. When I am angry or frustrated my mouth becomes a feathered runner. I am sorry if I upset you, but I do not wish to return to Tsahloose. I never have. I have more status as your wife, and once this city is built, I will have even more.”
“It is good to hear,” said Hsrandtuss. “And it is good that you were honest with me. If you had lied to me, I would have bitten you on your pretty snout. Now though, I have use for you. You will take Tusskiqu and fifty warriors and you will make contact with all of the local villages. I need to know about all of them, their chiefs, and their allegiances.”
“You would trust me to do this?”
“I will.”
“I will bring them all to heel, Great King.”
“Don’t let this go to your tail. You are a female, not a war chief. All you are to do is make contact and gather information.”
“I will not fail,” she said, rubbing her chin on his shoulder.
“See that you don’t.”
They arrived back at the city hill in time to see a caravan arriving from the west. It consisted of some two hundred males and females on foot and another thirty, pulling a large wooden two-wheeled wagon. The wagon carried a big square load, covered with animal skins, and behind it trailed thirty or so immature lizzies attached to it by leashes around their necks. Kendra joined Hsranduss and Szakhandu as they walked over to examine the youngsters, who ranged in height from three to four feet.
“Some of these don’t even look old enough to tame,” said the king, pointing at one particularly short individual. It snapped at his hand and he slapped it roughly across the snout. “This one doesn’t look to have seen five summers yet.”
“We brought all the offspring from Hiissierra as instructed, Great King,” said one of the newly arrived males, whom Hsrandtuss recognized from his home village.
“Instructed by whom?”
“By me,” said Kendra. “We will need all ages if our city is to flourish.”
The male who had spoken climbed up on the wagon and pulled back the animal skins to reveal a square cage. It was packed full of tiny lizzie offspring, some two or three summers old and others walking on all fours, no more than thirty inches from snout to tail tip, that had obviously hatched only that spring.
“And I suppose you ordered these pests brought too?” hissed Hsrandtuss to Kendra in exasperation.
“Great King, there will be deaths in our city, and houses will want to catch youngsters to fill their empty sleeping mats. They won’t want to wait six or seven summers for the eggs we lay here next spring.”
“She is right, my husband,” said Szakhandu. “Besides, they will help keep down the insect population.”
“Then you will be in charge of this operation, Kendra,” he said, throwing up his hands. “And you had better see that it doesn’t come back to claw you on the cloaca.”
Three days later Hsrandtuss stepped out the door of his house. It was one of several dozen that had been constructed around the base of the hill. It would be an adequate home until the first stage of his palace was constructed. He stretched out his arms wide and took a deep breath, savoring the scent of pine blowing on the warm summer breeze. Then he started as a tiny lizzie yearling ran across his foot.
“Damn vermin!” he shouted. “Kendra!”
His sixth wife poked her head out of the doorway.
“Get out here.”
She stepped quickly to him, taking his arm in her hand.
“One of them nearly tripped me.”
“You are letting yourself get upset over nothing again, Great King.”
“What do you mean nothing,” he growled, and started off toward the site of his future palace.
She hurriedly caught up with him and fell into step at his side. To do so, she needed to walk almost twice as fast as he did, since her legs were much shorter.
“This is a subject I wanted to speak to you about though,” she said.
“What subject?”
“Our children.”
He stopped and turned to look at her.
“What do you mean ‘our children’? Do you think we need to catch a juvenile? I really don’t think it’s worth the trouble until we get more settled.”
“No, Great King. I mean our children—yours and mine.”
“Now I have no idea what you’re talking about. Remember you’re talking to a male and try to make sense.”
“Have you ever seen a human child?”
“Not a hatchling,” he said, thinking back to the last several times he came into contact with the soft-skins. “I saw Yessonar’s priestess when she was about this tall.” He held his hand up to the top of his stomach. “She must have been six or seven summers.”
“She would have been twice that old,” said Kendra. “They grow much more slowly than we do. Their hatchlings are very short but very fat, and they cannot do anything for themselves.”
“Yes, I have heard that they are like worms,” he said. “I have gotten used to them and I even enjoy meeting with their traders, but the thought of their wiggling little offspring makes my morning meal want to climb back out of me. Why are we talking about them?”
“The humans know their mothers.”
“That is a function of biology,” he said. “After all, they pop out of them already hatched.”
“But they know their fathers too.”
“How can that be? All they could really say is that they suspect who their fathers might be.”
Kendra shrugged. “I want to know my own offspring and I want them to know me.”
Hsrandtuss stared at her for a moment. “And how do you propose to accomplish this?”
“You will make a special garden for me at the palace. I will make my own nest there and my eggs will be the only ones there.”
“You’re not making any sense. The eggs will hatch and the little ones will just run away and get lost among the others anyway.”
“We will build a large enclosure in which to keep them, like the aviaries in Tsahloose. Perhaps with them close to us, the offspring will be easier to tame. The human children learn to behave like the adults very quickly. Who is to say that ours couldn’t do the same?”
“But… but letting them run loose and fend for themselves weeds out the weaker ones.”
Kendra leaned close and pressed her chin to his shoulder. “I cannot imagine that any offspring of yours would need to be weeded out.”
Hsrandtuss let out a long hiss. He knew she was manipulating him, but it did make sense that any eggs from his mating would be superior.
“What do you think the other females will say about this?” he asked.
“I think many of them will want to do the same thing. They will want to build their own nests.”
“How will our egg keeper be able to watch all these different nests?”
“Each female will have to be her own egg keeper.”
“Don’t you think this sounds like a lot of unnecessary work?”
“I think it sounds like a revolution.”
“I need to think about this,” he said. “Don’t tell anyone about this conversation, and I mean anyone, including Tokkenoht. I know you are two tales of the same iguanodon.”
Kendra put her hand over the end of her snout in acknowledgement.
“Great King! Great King!” Hsrandtuss and his wife turned to see a male rushing toward them. “We have found this in the river.”
The male held out his hand, revealing in his palm a pea-sized lump of shining golden metal. Hsrandtuss took it and placed it in his mouth, biting down on it. Spitting it back into his hand, he saw that his tooth had made a dent in it.
“Is there more of this?” he asked.
“We have seen many pieces in the shallow of the river,” replied the other lizzie. “Is it copper or gold?”
“It is gold.”
“Oh. Should we collect it?”
“Pick up those pieces you see, but don’t let it distract you from work on the dam.”
“It shall be as you command, Great King,” said the male, rushing back down the sloping hill.
“He was disappointed,” said Kendra.
“Of course he was. Gold is too soft to make into weapons or tools, so it is only used for jewelry. And of course, kings like Ssithtsutsu and Khassna held a monopoly on gold, so that it was not available to the commoners.”
“But you know that it has greater value than that, my husband.”
“Of course I do. I have seen the shiny coins that the humans make from gold,” he said. “How many copper bits do they trade for one of those gold coins?”
“One thousand.”
“One thousand,” he repeated. “One thousand copper bits.”
“There is more,” said Kendra. “You know that in the faraway land across the sea, where the humans come from, they are as numerous as the stars in the sky.”
“I have heard as much.”
“In this land lives their king—the king over all the humans everywhere.”
He looked at her, waiting for her to continue.
“Do you know how he shows that he is the king of all the soft-skins?”
“No.”
“He has a hat made of gold.”
Hsrandtuss hissed quietly and bobbed his head up and down. “I will have a hat of gold too.”