Chapter 16

The Eastern Emperor was often bored. He enjoyed adventure stories, but wasn't allowed to have any of his own. He was seventeen, and while he was allowed to learn the arts of war, he was never allowed to actually enter into battle. Besides, the Empire was mostly at peace. He had his personal spies out looking for adventure stories and exciting happenings far and wide, and they knew what he liked. One lucky spy who was richly rewarded brought him a carving of a strange sea creature, obviously not in the water but on land. It would look silly if it were not for the formidable fangs protruding from its pendulous upper lip. It looked so whimsical and fantastic, but the strangest part was that it had been carved by a man who lived in the middle of the desert!

The Emperor sent a spy to learn more. The spy sent back reports of a man named John, who made strange carvings and won a contest among a gathering of nomadics by throwing knives. He had left before the spy had arrived, but the spy would try to learn more, and to follow him. The Emperor had a knife maker make him some knives for throwing, and practiced fiercely and obsessively, until the next report came in.

It was a strange pair of gloves, of an orange color The Emperor had never seen before except in flowers in the Imperial flower garden. The gloves were warm, and kept the hands dry, even when immersed in cold water. He had some snow fetched from a mountain top, and the gloves kept the hands dry and warm, even when snow was piled on top and packed around for hours.

The Emperor went back to throwing his knives, and took the wonder gloves out of their safe storage once a week or so, and wore them, or just held them in his lap and gazed at them.

The spy sent every scrap of rumor and information he could find, and a strange story it seemed, just the sort to stimulate The Emperor's imagination. The Man had been found as a stone statue in the desert, and a nomad girl had woken the statue up with the warmth of her nude body. He had learned how to speak her barbarian tongue, and had become a son to the Headman.

He had agreed to serve the Headman for a year, and had carved the carvings. More carvings were included, of fish, whales, and strange bears. One carving clearly showed a bear swimming in the ocean like it belonged there, such fantastic unbelievable ideas! This Man must be very interesting, thought The Emperor.

One day as The Emperor was meditatively throwing his knives, not really noticing that he was actually hitting his mark, a messenger brought a note from the spy, saying that the man John had served his year and had joined a caravan as its hunter. He named the Caravan master, and suggested he be contacted when he arrived in WhooWhee, and questioned about John. The Emperor made the arrangements.

The spy sent information indicating that John had somehow become a very proficient archer, and that he had joined the caravan by demonstrating his bow skill and by wrestling a man twice his size using trickery and unknown moves.

The Emperor switched from knife throwing to archery, and spent long hours trying to improve his already sufficient skill. He showed much improvement through fierce concentration and a calm mind. Not as easy to do as it sounds, by the way.

He had wrestlers come from all over, using all different styles from grecco-roman to sumo to the boxing wrestling of the Turkish clans, and asked them to demonstrate their trickiest surprise moves. He was actually not bored for awhile. Also, when he was daydreaming and throwing his knife, he was not bored, nor when he was trying so hard to improve his archery.

The one thing about being in civilization again, thought John, was the fact that there were establishments which cooked food and served it for a price.

That was the other thing, there was money, here, and everyone used it, rather than barter. It somehow seemed wrong to sell his carvings for mere money, rather than exchanging them for goods, either needed or valued.

So they sold three more tents, instead. They hadn't spent all their time weaving, at least not tent panels. Zithrusa had an exquisite wardrobe of very fine robes suitable for wear to the most important events. Too good to wear for everyday, so they had made clothing to travel in as well.

They sold the tents for a fortune in taels, and Wong made sure the conversion between silver and gold taels was proper. The coins had a hole in the center, and John made bars of wood to count and stack the coins on, locking them in easy to count- easy to handle units, which, could be better controlled than bags and piles.

One would easily be able to see if any pilfering was going on. They had to change one of the silver taels for about a thousand, it seemed, little coins made of junk metal, but John guessed it was no worse than junk paper bills.

The small denomination coins were so cheap they were only stamped on one face. The metal was so worthless they didn't bother to include methods to prevent debasing, like serrated edges or raised rims. At least they had holes in them to put a string through, and it only took a few to buy a meal or a room.