Foundling (47 page)

Those of a higher situation have the power to influence the lives of those below them.
Lahzars
occupy a strange place in society, and no one is at all sure where to put them. Highborn
lahzars
rely on their inherited situation, yet those of lower status at birth seem to be accorded a grudging respect similar to their noble fellows. It is all very perplexing and forms a common topic of many a parlor-room gathering.

Sooning Street
street in
Boschenberg
that leads out of the suburb
Poéme
and down to the canal-side suburbs and the
Padderbeck
.

soporific
any
potive
or
draft
designed to make people become woozy or sleepy, or put them to sleep.

sou(s)
said “soo”; the highest-value coin of the
Soutlands
, made of a gold alloy; worth 16
sequins
or 320
guise
or two thirds of an
oscadril
—the
Emperor’s Billion
. It is represented by the letter
S
. See
money
.

Sough, the ~
said “sow”; the hills and more particularly the fenlands right at the southwestern tip of
Sulk End
and forming the eastern flank of the mouth of the river
Humour
. The fenlands of the Sough are untamed, despite the presence of the Arxis Sublicum or Pollburg in its midst, a fortress established by the
Empire
under the pretext of providing protection, but there really to watch over trade coming in and out of the
Humour
.

Soutlands, the ~
also the Soutland
City-states,
said “sowt-lands” or “sutt-lands,” depending on what part of the
Empire
you are from; all the southern conquests of the
Empire
situated south of the great
threwdish
plains of the Grassmeer. They were systematically subdued by the Imperial armies over one thousand years ago and are now home to the racially mixed descendants of the old combatants, many of whom still claim racial distinction from their neighbors.

spasm, spasming
wretched condition where a
lahzar’s
body rebels for a moment against the foreign organs squeezed within it and the organs fight back. This happens when the mimetic (introduced) organs are being used and is usually as a result of not taking one’s
Cathar’s Treacle
and the rest. It is, however, a risk (very slight) that
lahzars
run all the time, whether they have taken their concoctions or not. The results of spasming can be various, from a slight strain within that goes away after a few hours to severe internal hemorrhaging and serious organ damage. After spasming, a
lahzar
often needs to return to his or her transmogrifier (
lahzar
-making
surgeon
) for observation and even further operations. See
lahzar
and
Cathar’s Treacle
.

Spindle, the ~
rivergate
built by the
city-state
of
Brandenbrass
as a rival to the
Axles
. Sanctioned by the
Emperor
, its presence has added another half to the cost of doing trade on the
Humour,
making life difficult for all those cities further upriver, including (and most importantly)
Boschenberg
. Petitioning and debate rage among the two cities’ Imperial ministers and their regents, and for a student of history it all sounds like the rumblings of yet another war.

spoors
marks worn by
teratologists
and other folk of violence as signs of their trade, made using a milky liquid known as rue-of-asper, or just rue (not to be confused with the repellent “Salt-of-Asper” ), carefully painted onto the skin in whatever shape is desired. Apparently, it stings like lemon juice in a paper cut. Left for about an hour, and stinging the whole time, the rue-of-asper is then washed off with a solution of vinegar and cloves, leaving a deep blue mark. Alternatively, the rue can be washed off with a solution of dilute aqua regia, causing it to leave a white mark.
sprig(s)
type of
monster,
small and nasty and often plaguing homes and homemakers, and so its use as an insult is obvious.

Spring Caravan of the Gightland Queen, the ~
seasonal peregrinations of the
Gightland Queen
, forced to move from one of her six palaces to another as the stench of the piles of rotting food scraps and backed-up excrement from overused sewers becomes too much to bear or mask. She and all her possessions, family, servants, retainers, ministers, clerks, house guards and spurns (bodyguards) take to the road in a long, gorgeous procession, making their way to the next palace and leaving behind an army of servants to clean the previous one. The comfort and opulence of these caravans are seen as the epitome of all things comfortable and luxurious, as is everything the
Gightland Queen
is supposed to do. See
Gightland Queen
.

stage
shorter of the two
fulgaris
at three feet to four feet long and used by
fulgars
to help in directing a lightning bolt in the right direction once it has been
“thermistored”
from the clouds. It is also a convenient baton to extend a
fulgar’s
reach and parry blows from opponents’ weapons. It is not considered politic to “come to hand strokes” (enter into a hand-to-hand fight) with
fulgars
, for any metal weapon that touches them will carry a deadly charge back to the wielder, and although wooden weapons do not conduct an arc so easily, they can be burst to bits instead. A better way to fight
fulgars
is to hit them with the long reach of a
flintlock musket
or pistol. Indeed, the best way, it is said, to fight a
fulgar
—or a
wit
for that matter—is to be on the other side of the
Empire
and have someone else do it for you.

steerboard
right-hand side of a vessel if you are facing the bow; corresponds to our “starboard.”

sthenicon
said “s-then-i-kon”; a biologue—a biological machine; device used to seek out tiny or hidden smells and to show things difficult to see—whether hidden or far off—more clearly. Usually a simple, dark wooden box, with leather straps and buckles. The back, which goes against the face, is hollowed out and sealed within with a doeskinlike material. On each side of this protrude stubby brass horns. Air and the attendant odors enter through these hornlets and, by the organics inside, are rendered more odoriferous. If the compactly folded membrane inside that enhances smells so effectively was spread out, it would stretch around 120 squares of feet. At the middle of the top of the box is a modest lens, through which vision is received. Upon the sides of the sthenicon, at the same height as the lens, are three slots, which the user can push in and out in various ways to alter the nature of how he sees. A small hole in one of the lower corners is bored into the front of the box, apparently to render the user more audible when talking, so that the device need not be removed to allow the wearer to speak. Another slot in the bottom of the box allows soups, thin stews and special
drafts
that augment the use of this tool to be slurped with only minor inconvenience. The whole kit is fastened to the head—over nose and mouth—with the straps and buckles mentioned earlier. If a sthenicon is worn for too long, the organ within can begin to grow into the user’s own nasal membrane and even into the face. Used mostly by
leers
.

stock
• or calmus; the straight stick used by beginners in
harundo
and other stick-fighting arts.
•
an elaborately high neckerchief, wrapping about the whole neck and throat.

strake(s)
large cast-iron sheets riveted to the wooden sides of an
ironclad
vessel. One sheet of a uniform length is one strake, so that someone spotting a
ram
at sea could count the number of strakes down one
broadside
and, with a little arithmetic, have a good idea just how big she is.

stramineous
the color of straw.

“stuck between the stone and the sty”
to be faced with two equally unpleasant choices or situations.

Sub-Elements, the ~
all the metals, earths, liquids and gases that make up the
Four Elements
. It is the Sub-Elements that form the cosmos, the earth and all that is in it. Some of the many Sub-Elements include fire-flash (hydrogen), fire-damp (methane), small-air (helium), aeris regia (oxygen) and so on.

Sugar of Nnun
one of the more notorious ingredients, it is in its own right a deadly poison whose constituents only “those wicked men of
Sinster
” know anything about. It is rumored that one of its constituents is corpse liquor, a filthy deep-brown
ichor
that comes from the rotting of bodies and is highly illegal within the
Empire
. Sugar of Nnun is used for many of the more dangerous or powerful
scripts
, particularly those used by
scourges
. It is Sugar of Nnun that makes
Cathar’s Treacle
go oily and black, and its combination with the other ingredients that renders it helpful rather than harmful.

Sulk, the ~
broad flat lands all along eastern banks of the river
Humour
and south of Gightland (Catalain) extensively farmed by a cooperation of many states and also dug with several quarries, providing many building materials and minerals for much of the
Half-Continent
.

Sulk End
southwestern tip of the vast breadbasket of the
Sulk;
probably the least populated part of that region, although the land is well tamed, becoming only middlingly
threwdish
as it nears the Smallish Fells in the east and the
Sough
in the southwest. Sulk End is famous for its lettuces and strawberries and the giant windmills that grind most of the region’s grain and much of its powdered earths as well.

surgeon(s)
sometimes called butchers, because they poke and dig and carve into people, or sectifactors (coming from sectification, “to operate on a living creature”). Surgeons are seen as the dark cousin to the
physicians
. Most surgeons train at the same institutions as
physicians
, but concentrate more on the autopsy and workings of human and
monster
than theories and cures and higher knowledge. A surgeon’s main tasks involve amputation of gangrenous or ruined limbs; simple surgeries like appendectomies; the removal of bullets and splinters or teeth and spines from
monsters
. If anyone in the
Half-Continent
were bothered to view the statistics, they would find that more people survive the ministrations of a surgeon than of a
physician
. Yet despite all the seemingly miraculous work surgeons might do, they are still mistrusted; and this is primarily for their connection with
lahzars,
and with fabercadavery and therospeusia (the making of
monsters
) and all the worst excesses of black
habilistics
. Because of this surgeons are far less common than
physicians
or
dispensurists
. People prefer, if they must deal with a surgeon, to have a
physician
or even a
dispensurist
act as a go-between. Indeed, in many realms it is illegal for a surgeon to practice without the presence of a
physician
. It is rumored that the current
Emperor
will not even let a surgeon touch him. As with many other professions, there are various grades of surgeon:

A strange little twist that goes some small way to salvaging the surgeons’ generally bad reputation is that they are prepared to attend duels and there tend wounds, while any self-respecting
physician
would never be party to such knavery.

Surprise
, the ~
28
guns-broad frigate
of the
Boschenberg navy
, which has been in service for a century. Formerly part of
Brandenbrass navy,
it was captured by
Boschenberg
shortly after the
Battle of the Mole
. It has a glorious history, taking many prizes of pirates and sea-
monsters
, making successive generations of crews wealthy. At the
Battle of the Mole
, while still serving
Brandenbrass,
it played a significant role in the fighting. For much of the battle the
frigate
had served as all smaller
rams
do, trawling behind the main line of battle in support, picking up survivors, towing larger vessels that had been immobilized, watching exposed flanks. For several hours its captain, a certain Mister Codmoss, had been watching his confederates in the Solemn League’s combined
navy
being ground to a stalemate by the Wretcherman fleet: an immovable line of the 23 main-
rams
centered on the cumbersome
Sucathia
, an enormous
main-sovereign
of 156
guns-broad
. For the Solemn League a stalemate was a loss: Wretch could still dictate the terms of its waterways and hold the Grumid states to ransom. At a critical moment Captain Codmoss spied a break in the Wretcherman line as a rising swell shifted the well-founded positions of the enemy
rams
. Though it was not its role, the courageous Captain Codmoss could see that there were no capital
rams
available to seize this opportunity. Signaling another
frigate
to follow his lead, Codmoss sent the nimble
Surprise
dashing through the fortuitous gap into the waters beyond the enemy line. As it passed the stern of the main-
ram Caldbink
74, it sent a volley of raking fire from its 32-pounder
lombarins,
crashing through the main-
ram
’s vulnerable stern windows. The crew of the
Surprise
who survived would recall the horrid sound of their shots smashing down the length of the
Caldbink
’s gun decks, causing great execution to her startled gun crews. Once clear on the other side, the quick-thinking Codmoss spied the
Sucathia
and came about in a wide arc, avoiding the determined attentions of enemy
frigates
and
gun-drudges
as he did. Putting all
limbers
to the
screw
, the
Surprise
gained all possible speed and rammed the mighty
main-sovereign
just slightly forward of amidships. The clamor of the impact—of rending, tortured metal and splintering beams—was said to be heard over the muffled din of battle by those watching the distant battle through spyglasses from the Foulmouth on the northernmost tip of Wretch. Indeed, the force of the impact was enough to tip the
Sucathia
sharply to its left, listing dangerously to the
ladeboard
side, pointing the guns on that
broadside
uselessly into the water, while the unengaged guns of the
steerboard
poked into the sky. The valiant
Surprise
was even worse off; now taking on water, its ram and bow were staved almost completely in and stuck fast in the shattered side of the
main-sovereign
. With half its crew sustaining serious injury in the collision, worse was yet to come. As the gun crews of the
Sucathia
recovered, they quickly learned their predicament and turned their attention and their guns to the diminutive upstart protruding from the ram’s
steerboard
side.
Cannon
-muzzles were traversed as low as possible and soon enough a murderous fire was pummeled down onto the exposed wooden decks of the
Surprise.
In less than one quarter of an hour the valiant
frigate
was smashed to a useless hulk. But this was all the
Sucathia
could do, for even in such a ruinous condition the
Surprise
could not be pried free, and the
main-sovereign
was unable to contribute any more to the fight. With the
Sucathia
neutralized by a vessel almost one sixteenth its size, the main-
rams
fighting against her were released to bring pressure to other points along the enemy line. After only another hour the
Battle of the Mole
was over, with the Solemn League the winner.With this victory the easy passage of their
cargoes
was secured. As for the heroic, hapless
Surprise
, with three quarters of her crew dead or dying (including Captain Codmoss) and nothing more than a
ironclad
shell of splinters and blood, she was towed back to
Brandenbrass
by the 80-gun main-
ram Director
. There she was left for several years, rusting in the shallows off the Silt Mounds, before a private contractor, in a fit of patriotism, took her into dry dock and remade her anew to be employed as a marquelin (a privateer vessel—see
navy
). It was in this capacity that she was captured by the
Boschenberg navy
, which quickly took her into its service, proud to have won such a noble vessel for its fleet.