The Tattered Lands

by Barbara Ann Wright

  As quickly as she could, Vandra assembled all her ingredients in a crucible and took a deep breath. “Gods large and small,” she whispered, “please, heed my prayer and restore my love to me.” She lit the flame.

  * * *

  Lilani was tired of drifting in this in-between place, aware of all she was leaving behind one moment and tempted to flow with the syndrium the next. All she got from Awith, from all of the elders, was only a vague sense of existence. It must be so relaxing, like turning into a leaf on the summer breeze.

  At the edge of her senses, Lilani heard voices, felt someone touch her old body. Her memory fed her tantalizing glimpses of the physical world.

  “Lilani?”

  Vandra’s voice. Lilani wanted to get to know her in all possible ways. Love and desire beat strongly inside her, but she wanted the chance to test those feelings, to love Vandra and speak with her and lie under the stars with her.

  The light that had once been Awith drifted like a firefly, radiating approval. Even if nothing else remained of Awith, she seemed to remember the love she’d once shared with a human.

  “I’ll need your strength,” Lilani thought. “To fight our people’s expectations and my mother’s disapproval.”

  Awith’s light pulsed and floated away to join the cloud of drifting elders before they all withdrew.

  “Wait!” Lilani called. “Where are you going?” She willed herself to follow, but the veins of syndrium rushed past her as quickly as if she’d fallen into a river.

  “Lilani!”

  Vandra’s voice again, insistent, louder. Not a memory. Could Vandra be here with her?

  “No, Vandra, tell me you didn’t sacrifice yourself!” Lilani was torn between the desire to yell or welcome Vandra. Together forever, they could explore this existence at their leisure, and if anyone could figure out how to communicate with Awith or the elders, it was Vandra.

  “Lilani, open your eyes.”

  The river of magic pushed Lilani faster, yet a sense of heaviness settled around her at the same time. Leave it to Vandra to figure out how to bring the sensations of having a body along with her. She could do anything.

  Lilani smiled, feeling the movement of her cheeks along with the amusement. The heaviness increased, and with it came the pain. The network of syndrium faded, the feeling of floating dissipating until she wondered if it had been a dream.

  And if she could dream, she could wake up.

  Lilani forced her eyes open. Vandra smiled down at her, the planes of her beautiful face lit by the flicker of lamplight. Her hair was muddy and disheveled, and by the way her forehead creased when she moved, Lilani knew she was in pain, too.

  But all the pain in the world didn’t matter at the moment. “Hello.” Lilani covered Vandra’s hand with her own. Her magic flowed weakly, but it was there, as tired and wounded as she was but still alive.

  “Hi.” Vandra ducked her head, and her lips ghosted over Lilani’s forehead. “How are you feeling?”

  “Confused.” She ignored the pain beating in her skull and tried to look around. Her mother lay beside her, torso swathed in bandages, but her eyes were open, and she took Lilani’s other hand, giving it a squeeze. “Mother?”

  “She’ll be all right,” Vandra said.

  “The twins? Lucian and Faelyn?”

  “They will be safe with our people,” her mother said weakly. “They are probably waiting for us at the forest.”

  Vandra smiled, nodding. “We’ll see them soon. Rest.”

  Lilani didn’t want to rest. She wanted to kiss Vandra, wanted to go to the forest and check on Faelyn and Lucian and the twins. She wanted to go home, but she could barely move. “Help me sit up?”

  Vandra pursed her lips, but she helped, leaning against Lilani’s back to keep her upright. Lilani noted her hiss of pain and tried to lean forward, but Vandra held her in place.

  “Before you ask,” Vandra said. “Yes, I’m hurt, but all of me would hurt more if it wasn’t touching you.” She frowned. “I mean, I’d rather be touching you than…not touching you.” Now she swallowed, looking down as if embarrassed. “I mean, my injuries are inconsequential—”

  Lilani rested her head against Vandra’s shoulder. “I know what you mean. I’d rather be touching you than not touching you, too. I think that idea is what kept me from drifting away among the syndrium.”

  There was a long pause before Vandra said, “I want to hear all about it once we’re better.”

  Lilani kissed her gently. “There’ll be time enough for all our stories.”

  Epilogue

  Vandra watched the towering machines stomp forward, streams of fire rushing from the cannons on top. A handler rode on each, sitting in front of the glowing syndrium batteries. They looked to Vandra, and she nodded, consulting her map. They’d had good results burning patches of the tattered lands and then seeding the ground with blocks of syndrium Vandra had created while in Lilani’s or her mother’s presence. As long as no one dug up the syndrium “trees,” chances were good they could keep pushing the tattered lands back.

  Still, it was slow going, and the people of Citran were impatient to expand. Homesteads had already started popping up far closer to the border then they had before, but Vandra thought it was a good thing. They were essentially volunteers to find out if living on previously tattered land was harmful to the inhabitant.

  Everyone gave her a funny look when she said that.

  She glanced to where the flag of the pavilion tent flapped in the breeze. Lilani and her mother were in there as well as Shyn Harra Rhys and two of the other monarchs, Metran Van Hurans and Nimah Pentari, those who hadn’t been part of the tattered seelie’s plan to doom the world. The other monarchs had been so desperate to have their own kingdoms back, they were willing to live inside the tattered lands in communities created for humans.

  Vandra had doubted that such places could exist, but the existence of Maruk, the tattered seelie’s alchemist, proved otherwise. Taken into custody by Shyn Harra Rhys, Maruk recovered from his head injury, and without Camilla to protect him, he answered all their questions.

  The tattered seelie had also convinced some in the Court to go along with their plot. Lucian had made it his mission to root them out, though he walked with a cane now. Some of the seelie had been spying on the humans, and Vandra knew one had been in the room when she’d first performed her experiment. That seelie had warned the tattered seelie about what she could do.

  It made her shudder. Maruk had also told them that the feeling of dread that surrounded him and the tattered seelie was a side effect of living so long in the tattered lands. But living in such a place had also taught the tattered seelie how to merge their magical fields, creating a bubble much like Vandra’s stones. Faelyn was busy experimenting to see if that effect could be re-created without, as he put it, “turning into an evil reprobate.” He suspected that the seelie of the Court had done something similar without knowing it, creating the anti-human field that surrounded the Court.

  Maruk had also made reference to Remus, the leader of the tattered seelie before Camilla. Lilani said that Camilla boasted of killing Remus, and that the traitor Burani had seemed upset at that turn of events. There were no doubt schisms among the tattered seelie just as there were among everyone else.

  That still left one mystery unsolved: who had warned Ariadne about the first pylon going out?

  As Lilani emerged from the tent, Vandra’s thoughts shifted quickly to the memory of their first night camping together inside the Seelie Forest. They’d already had a few days of resting and recovering by that point. Vandra had made certain her siblings were all right. Lilani’s mother had been resting under the care of Shyn Harra Rhys’s medics. They’d bathed, thank the gods. Then they’d met again at Vandra’s camp.

  “Our people seem to be getting along,” Lilani had said.

  “Yeah,” Vandra said, nervous feelings fluttering through her stomach. They hadn’t had many chances to be alone since…e
ver. “There’s still so much to do, though. Make sure there aren’t any misunderstandings, that we’re all on the same side.”

  “While guarding against any more tattered seelie.” The night breeze sent her hair across her face. “Everyone is so tired.”

  After Vandra’s gaze traveled down Lilani’s beautiful face to her graceful neck and her wondrous curves, she looked up to find Lilani’s own gaze roving over her. When Lilani focused on Vandra’s lips, Vandra couldn’t help a step forward. “You’re tired?”

  Lilani matched her. “No. And everyone else can take care of themselves for a night.”

  “My thoughts exactly.” They’d met in a rush of kisses and caresses. Vandra had barely remembered to blow the lantern out before they fell to the forest floor and made love in the soft moss and leaves. Lilani’s magical field rushing across Vandra’s naked skin like a thousand tiny caresses was a feeling she’d never forget.

  In the weeks that followed, Vandra had nearly lost count of all the times they’d made love, and it still felt far too few.

  * * *

  Lilani sighed and stretched. Her mother thought she should be part of every political talk surrounding the humans and the seelie. As Vandra would say, Lilani’s rational mind understood this decision, even agreed with it.

  But every other part of her found it deadly dull.

  And the more suspicious parts of her suspected her mother wanted to keep her occupied and away from Vandra.

  Lilani’s mother had embraced humanity in other ways, albeit with cautious suspicion, but she still didn’t want Lilani romantically involved with one. She hadn’t been shy about giving Lilani “advice” meant to turn her from Vandra’s side. She’d tried to steer other members of the seelie delegation into Lilani’s path by talking up their attributes.

  When Vandra found out, she’d grown thoughtful, and Lilani worried that her feelings were hurt, but then she’d gone on and on about cultural factors and generational memory and thinking up experiments until Lilani had grabbed her and kissed her, exclaiming over Vandra’s wonderful mind until she became lost in Vandra’s wonderful body.

  That had silenced both of them. And Lilani’s mother’s protests had grown feebler as the days went by, especially when Lilani reminded her mother that if it weren’t for Vandra, they’d both be dead.

  Now, Lilani grinned as she spotted Vandra in the distance, supervising the burning of the tattered lands. Their eyes met, and they both smiled. Light bloomed all through Lilani, making her tingle from fingers to toes. She couldn’t wait until Vandra’s arm was finally healed and they wouldn’t have to be so careful during their lovemaking. She wanted each of them to be able to truly lose herself.

  Lilani had been one of those who’d questioned Maruk, prying out all of Camilla’s secrets. He hadn’t really started spilling his guts until he’d seen Camilla’s dead body. Whether he feared the same fate or finally felt safe from her, Lilani didn’t know. The only secret they hadn’t uncovered was who had written to Vandra’s friend, Ariadne. None of the seelie had admitted to it. Out of desperation, they’d asked Maruk, but he’d said it might have been a plan of Remus’s to get Vandra out of Citran so they could more easily kill her, but with Remus dead, there was no way to know for certain. If it had been him, Camilla had killed him before the plan could be completed.

  Good for Camilla. She’d done one thing right, at least.

  Lilani crossed to Vandra and took her hand. The land around them seemed blasted right now, all the vegetation dead and the soil burnt, but the tattered lands had no doubt done that first. They’d encountered several hideous creatures, and Fieta and Pietyr had happily been part of the brigades that killed them or drove them farther into the mist. The twins’ injuries were healing nicely, though Lilani thought that even missing limbs wouldn’t have held them back for long.

  “What will happen when we find an abandoned settlement in the tattered lands?” Lilani asked as she threaded her fingers with Vandra’s. “Will we burn the buildings down?”

  Vandra shook her head. “And risk any books inside? No way.”

  Lilani laughed. “I’m glad to know our priorities are aligned.” She kissed Vandra’s cheek. “Does the most famous woman in Citran have time for lunch?”

  Vandra kissed her back. “Only for the most famous woman among the seelie.”

  “That would be my mother.”

  “Only for the most famous woman among the seelie who doesn’t hate me.”

  Lilani groaned. “She doesn’t—”

  “Don’t lie to me.” She still smiled, but Lilani could tell that her mother’s feelings mattered to Vandra. After defeating Camilla together, Vandra clearly thought she had an ally, but she didn’t know how stubborn seelie could be. And at least Lilani’s mother was entertaining the thought of a human lover for her daughter. If they hadn’t defeated Camilla together, Vandra wouldn’t have a ghost of a chance.

  “She’ll come around,” Lilani said. “And if she doesn’t, we’ll have some awkward visits. Either way, I’m not letting you go.”

  Vandra teared up as she smiled, but she wiped them away and kissed Lilani again. Her eyes held a thousand questions: about their families, about the people, about the spans of their lives. Before she could ask any of them, Lilani kissed her forehead, then her lips.

  “Lunch first,” Lilani said. “Then everything else in the world.”

  With a chuckle, Vandra leaned into her. “I can live with that.”

  About the Author

  Barbara Ann Wright writes fantasy and science fiction novels and short stories when not ranting on her blog. The Pyramid Waltz was one of Tor.com’s Reviewer’s Choice books of 2012, was a Foreword Review BOTYA Finalist, a Goldie finalist, and made Book Riot’s 100 Must-Read Sci-Fi Fantasy Novels By Female Authors. It also won the 2013 Rainbow Award for Best Lesbian Fantasy. She’s won four other Rainbow Awards and has been a Lambda Award finalist.

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