by Cat Rambo
All through that day, the golems labor boiling sugar. Jeanette brings her lemonade and the new girl, Madeleine, has made biscuits. She drinks the sweet liquid and looks at the dusty wallpaper. The thought of changing it stuns her with the energy it would require. She will sit here, she thinks, until she dies, and dust will collect on her and the wallpaper alike.
Still, when dinner-time comes she goes downstairs and under Tante Isabelle's watchful eye, she pushes some food around on her plate.
Daniel cannot help but be a little thankful that Britomart is dead, she thinks. He was the one who emptied her chamber pot and endured her abuse when she set him to fetching and carrying. The thought makes her speak sharply to him as he serves the chowder the new girl has made. He looks bewildered by her tone and slinks away. She regrets the moment as soon as it is passed but has no reason for calling him back.
Upstairs the ranks of the pigeons have swollen by two or three more. She lies on her bed, fully clothed, and stares at the ceiling.
The next morning she takes two golems from their labors to carry Britomart's body for her. They dig the grave on a high slope of the mountain, overlooking the bay. It is a fine view, she thinks. One Britomart would have liked.
When they have finished, she stands with her palms turned upwards to the sky, calling clouds to come seething on the wind. They collect, darkening like burning sugar. When they are at the perfect, furious boil, she brings lightning down from them to smash the stone that stands over the grave. She does it over and over again, carving Britomart's name in deep and angry, blackened letters.
At home she goes to lie in bed again.
***
One by one, the golems grind to a stop at their labors, and the sap boils over in thick black smoke. They stand wherever their energy gave out, but all manage in their last moments to bring their limbs in towards their torsos, standing like stalks of stillness.
It may be the smoke that draws Christina. She arrives, knocks on the door, and comes inside, brushing past the servants. Without knowing the house, she manages to come upstairs and to Laurana's bedroom.
Laurana does not move, does not look over at the door.
Christina comes to the bed and lies down beside the sorceress. She looks around at the bedroom, at the string of shells hanging on the wall, but says nothing. She strokes Laurana's ivory hair with a soft hand until the tears begin.
Outside the golems grind to life again as the rain starts. They collect the burned vats and trundle them away. They cask the most recent rum and set the casks on wooden racks to ferment. They put the plantation into order, and finish the last of their labors. Then as the light of day fades, muffled by the steady rain, they arrange themselves again, closing themselves away, readying for tomorrow.
About the Author
Cat Rambo lives, writes, and teaches in the Pacific Northwest, with occasional excursions elsewhere. Her 200+ fiction publications include over 150 original stories, as well as audio and foreign reprints in over a dozen languages. She has been nominated for the Nebula and World Fantasy Award, and has served as the editor of award-winning Fantasy Magazine. She is the current Vice President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and once won a hula contest judged by Neil Gaiman. Find out more about Cat, her work, and her online classes at http://www.kittywumpus.net
Other books & stories by this author
Please visit your favorite ebook retailer to discover other books and stories by Cat Rambo:
Books:
Near + Far (SF collection)
Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight (fantasy collection)
A Seed on the Wind (SF novella)
A Halloween Quartet (fantasy collection)
Creating An Online Presence for Writers (nonfiction)
Short Story Series:
Altered America (steampunk)
Her Windowed Eyes, Her Chambered Heart
Rappacini’s Crow
Clockwork Fairies
Rare Pears and Greengages
The Towering Monarch of His Mighty Race
Snakes on A Train
Closer Than You Think (near future SF)
Peaches of Immortality
English Muffin, Devotion on the Side
Zeppelin Follies
Therapy Buddha
Flicka
All the Pretty Little Mermaids
Memories of Moments, Bright As Falling Stars
On the Bigfisted Circuit
A Man and His Parasite
Boys and Grlz Come Out To Play
Tortoiseshell Cats Are Not Refundable
Legends of the Gone
Mother’s World
Not Waving, Drowning
RealFur
The Mermaids Singing, Each to Each
Farther Than Tomorrow (slipstream & space opera)
Bus Ride to Mars
Grandmother
Elsewhen, Within, Elsewhen
Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain
Angry Rose’s Lament
Seeking Nothing
Surrogates
Fire on the Water’s Heart
A Querulous Flute of Bone
Superlives (superheroes)
Ms. Liberty Gets a Haircut
Superhero Art
Acquainted with the Night/TickTock Girl
Tales of Tabat (secondary world fantasy)
Narrative of a Beast’s Life
How Dogs Came to the New Continent
Events at Fort Plentitude
Sugar
Love, Resurrected
A Frame of Mother-Of-Pearl
In the Lesser Southern Isles
A Brooch of Bone, a Hint of Tooth
I’ll Gnaw Your Bones, the Manticore Said
Pippa’s Smiles
A Twine of Flame
The Bumblety’s Marble
The Silent Familiar
Twicefar Station (far future SF)
Kallakak’s Cousins
Amid the Words of War
I Come From the Dark Universe
Timesnip
On TwiceFar Station, As the Ships Come and Go
Bots d’Amor
Villa Encantada (urban fantasy/horror)
Eagle-haunted Lake Sammammish
Villa Encantada
2611 (forthcoming)
Women of Zalanthas (secondary world fantasy)
Aquila’s Ring
Mirabai the Twice-lived
Karaluvian Fale
The World Beside Us (dak fantasy/ horror)
Jaco Tours
Can You Hear the Moon?
So Glad We Had This Time Together
Of Selkies, Disco Balls, and Anna Plane
Small Demons
Heart in a Box
Magnificent Pigs
The Dew Drop Coffee Lounge
Centzon Totochin
Fisherman’s Child
Whose Face This Is I Do Not Know
Close Your Eyes
A Connection to Beyond
Eggs Of Stone
Swamp Gas
Connect with Cat Rambo
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