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YOURS,
PRONOUN¶
IN THE SNOWS OF HAZ
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Maxine Janerka
¶
PRONOUN
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Copyright © 2016 by Maxine Janerka
Interior design by Pronoun
Distribution by Pronoun
ISBN: 9781508096252
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
CHAPTER ONE
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IT WAS BARELY SEVEN IN the morning, it was bitterly cold, the heater was broken again, and Linna’s students were talking about murder and disembowelment. More correctly, one in particular was expounding upon the most efficient way to remove a human heart while his classmates, all bundled up to their ears, vocalized their disgust in increasingly plaintive and creative ways. Linna fought the impulse to join them and took a deep, steadying breath.
“Esmine, that’s quite enough,” she announced, loudly enough to be heard over his impromptu lecture. She hoped that the combination of her presence, her volume, and her proper Imperial diction would bring the class to order. Esmine frowned slightly, but ducked his head.
“If you say so, Professor Nyx.” His Imperial was impeccable, despite the fact that he had just been monologuing in the local dialect. The dialect was Linna’s native tongue as well, but the school was Imperial and the students would learn to speak properly within its walls.
She looked the class over as she took roll. Even here, in the snowy mountains of Haz where Imperial landships couldn’t run and travelers rarely wandered, the children’s faces reflected the immense size of the Empire. The majority, like her, were Hazi to a greater or lesser extent, with skin as pale as snow and a lilac tint to their round eyes and fluffy hair. Interspersed among them were boys and girls like Esmine with caramel-colored hair, olive skin and dark, angled eyes, descendants of the traders from the coast of the Yebel river, southeast of Haz’s mountainous borders. A smaller number of students had the darker complexions that indicated a lineage which originated south of the Fallim Mountains, in the area of the Imperial capital.
And that was just the ones that had made it to Haz in the last few decades. The Empire spanned a continent and had colonies on a dozen different landmasses, and the capital, where Linna had studied, was home to immigrants from all of them: men, women, and children who had boarded Imperial ships to travel over land and sea to find a better life.
“I’ll be returning your spelling tests today,” said Linna. Half the class groaned aloud, and she laughed softly. “I promise, none of you did that badly.” Her gaze passed over Esmine and fell on the southern-looking boy to his left. “Riccio, please pass this stack back to your classmates.”
“Yes ma’am,” the boy replied, glancing through the papers quickly. He was one of the few who didn’t struggle with or squint at the flowing script citizens of the Empire were supposed to write and read. After a moment’s consideration she handed the other half of the stack to a dainty Hazi boy.
“Bel, you hand these back, alright?” Esmine made a noise of derisive amusement that was hastily disguised as a coughing fit when Linna glared at him, and Bel nodded so hard his glasses almost fell off.
In the back of the room, someone cursed loudly in Hazi, and Linna turned her glare that way.
“We do not use such language in a schoolroom!”
“The dialect or the swearing, Professor?” asked Esmine, hiding a smirk behind his perfect paper. Riccio laughed aloud. A few others giggled. Bel looked utterly confused.
“You know full well which,” she snapped, then flicked the still-smirking boy on the forehead. “And don’t talk back, either.” An unhappy Hazi girl crumpled her test up and lobbed it across the room, and it bounced off of Bel’s head, making him yelp. It took Linna another five minutes to get her class settled, off of the topic of projectile weapons, off of the topic of weapons, off of the topic of murder, again, off of the topic of freezing to death, and onto the topic of their reading assignment. A few were missing books. A few books were missing pages. She rather missed the capital sometimes.
“Now, can I have a volunteer to read starting at the top of page thirty-seven?” The room was dead silent. Riccio peeled off his gloves and put on mittens. “Esmine, read. Everyone else, follow along quietly.” The boy obliged, and read aloud in his usual blank monotone. At least he was in class, compliant, and reading the assigned reading. It was certainly an improvement over last year.
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A tall man with the complexion of a southerner rubbed his hands together and exhaled slowly. Haz was the ideal place for keeping secrets, but the capital was much superior for trading them. Still, his contact would be arriving on the landship that was due in soon. Technically it was due in an hour before, but there had been a storm, and the southerner had been in Haz for long enough to account for those things. The lights of the landship came into view through the still whirling mountain snow and the southerner moved with the small crowd towards the platform that marked the northern end of the great Yebel-Haz Trainline.
His contact was wrapped in a half dozen coats, a pale blue scarf drawn against his bronze-skinned face. The southerner approached him and picked up the larger of his two bags.
“Welcome to Haz Gate, cousin. I hope you have had a pleasant journey.” The other man’s deep blue eyes were wary.
“It could have been worse. But, let us hurry away from this accursed weather. I fear anything I say shall be carried away on the wind.” A legitimate fear, when all was said and done. The southerner smiled.
“Then come along. Dear Riccio shall be happy to see his uncle again, shan’t he?” They walked together through the town center, past the schoolhouse and the few scattered stores and the bank, along the snow-covered road to the mansion where the southerner and his charge had resided for a little over a year now. The stranger glanced nervously over his shoulder one more time, but saw nothing among the people on the street that caught his eye. Perhaps, then, he was just being paranoid. Haz kept its secrets well.
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Riccio Fenin was the sort of child who never went anywhere alone. He was charming, friendly, and fond of a challenge, and the gossips of Haz Gate were already joking about his future exploits and guessing about which of the town’s girls would be the first to properly capture his affection. At the moment, though, he was a little young for such matters.
He walked down the schoolhouse path with o
ne arm slung around Esmine Besari’s narrow shoulders, a bright smile on his face as he chatted about this and that. Esmine’s younger sister, called Selette, clung to her brother’s coat with one hand. Bel tagged along a few feet behind them. They always walked partway home together, ever since Riccio had arrived in Haz Gate. It was probably good for all of them.
She watched them until the siblings Besari turned and vanished down the side road home and Bel slipped down another, and Riccio continued his cheerful ambling, picking up another few of his classmates and a dog for the remainder of his trek to that mansion.
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It was no secret to anyone in town that Esmine Besari haunted the streets at night. People had seen him, skulking around like a monster in the shadows, for years, ever since the birth of his sister. He’d appear among the snowdrifts as soon as the sun set, and he would sometimes be seen walking resolutely home, spattered with what many would swear was blood. He always kept to himself on those excursions, and they, combined with his cold manner, had earned him the nickname “The Demon of Haz Gate.”
Thus, Linna Nyx was more than a little surprised to open her door and see him standing on her doorstep, blank-faced and unreadable as ever and missing his gloves.
“Esmine? What are you doing here?”
“... There are strangers about, Professor Nyx.”
“What sort of strangers?” She had to suppress a shiver, though she couldn’t tell if it was due to the wind, the demon-child on her doorstep, or the fact that he was warning her.
“... They smell foreign. I followed them for a while, but...” The boy paused, biting his lip. The gesture made him look almost human, even in the dark. A moment later, Linna realized he had picked it up from Bel.
“But...?”
“They got away. There were a few of them.” He turned away, then glanced back. “Professor Nyx?”
“Yes?”
“... Be careful. Please.” The words didn’t match the tone or the facial expression, but it was progress. Ridiculous progress.
“I will. Promise.” With a nod, the Demon of Haz Gate vanished back into the night. It was progress in either emotions, or faking them. She really hoped it was the former. And come morning, she would find out a thing or two about those mysterious foreigners as well.
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One who was in the business of dealing in secrets never divulged his true purpose. Silently, the blue-eyed man slipped out of his bedroom and down the hall, careful to wake neither his host nor the child. He hesitated at the top of the staircase, holding his breath, but no sound came from the servants quarters below so he continued on his way. At the door, he slipped on boots that weren’t his and pulled his pale blue scarf over his face before slipping out into the night. He didn’t have to go far.
“Who goes there?” asked a shadowed figure sharply, leveling a blade against his neck.
“Matteo Dimali. Glory be to our just Lord!”
“And may he triumph over the Tyrant,” finished the shadowy figure, lowering his weapon. “You are late, brother. We have worried that you have forgotten your duties.”
“Hardly so, brother Tenri. I simply waited for an opportune time to leave. That brat wanted me to tell him stories,” Matteo Dimali’s voice turned scornful for a moment, and his associate stifled a guffaw.
“I see. I hope that otherwise our plans have gone off without a hitch?”
“Quite. My host is certain of my loyalty and has accepted the false plans without question. As for the real ones...” Matteo gave his bag a significant shake. “I merely await my dues.”
“Understandable, in this day and age,” said Tenri with a chuckle that left a puff of condensation in the air. “I have brought all you deserve.” He lifted his own bag and held it out to Matteo. “Glory be, brother.”
“Glory and triumph,” replied Matteo confidently, extending his hand.
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Linna Nyx woke up at the crack of dawn, went through her usual morning routine, and unlocked the front door seconds before someone banged on it. She opened the door half expecting Esmine again, and was rather relieved to see it was one of her neighbors instead. Then she processed the look of panic on the older woman’s face.
“Mrs. Meln? Please come inside. Whatever happened?”
“Professor Nyx, you have to do something! He’s gone and done it!”
“Who has gone and done what? Please, just tell me what happened...”
“I’ll tell you what happened! Your demon brat has gone and killed a man!” The pronouncement left Linna speechless for a second.
“... Esmine? Killed someone?”
“He did! We saw him again last night, creeping around in the shadows like some sort of beast out of the Pit! And now this poor stranger has been cut up, and right in front of the old manor, too– we should have known he had it in for that boy Fenin from the beginning, it’s too awful!” Any response Linna may have had was cut off by a frantic banging at the door, again, accompanied by the sounds of shouting.
She yanked the door open, to reveal one of the local Peacekeepers dragging Esmine, followed by a small crowd of curious villagers, Bel, who was sobbing hysterically, and Selette, who had point blank refused to let go of her brother’s sleeve. Esmine looked dramatically unimpressed. Linna took a deep breath.
“So I heard a man was murdered?” she asked, trying to sound as respectable and capital-esque as she could.
“Yes, and your precious student was caught defacing the corpse.”
“I wasn’t defacing it, Professor Nyx. I was examining it. I didn’t even cut anything.” The boy frowned. “Besides, going by the angle of the cut, he had to have been killed by someone at least his height. Any idiot can see that I couldn’t cut a grown man’s throat from above.” A moment of silence greeted this pronouncement. Linna thought fast.
“A doctor needs to examine the body and determine exactly how he was killed, correct?” she prompted, eying the Peacekeeper uncertainly. Esmine had gotten on the bad side of more than a few people, after all. The man’s resolve wavered and he dropped Esmine unceremoniously at his teacher’s feet.
“Yeah. We’re doing that. You got to keep a good eye on him, though, Lady-prof. Don’t want that monster getting out again.”
“Certainly. Esmine, Selette, Bel, come inside. Mrs. Meln, you’re welcome to some scones if you want them.” Mrs. Meln was most of the way to the door already and just shot Linna a pitying look over her shoulder. Linna ignored it and set about finding a kerchief for Bel while he and Selette sat safely on her couch. Esmine followed her out of the room.
“I’m not lying, you know, Professor.” Linna wondered whether or not to trust him. She had put two years of her life, her whole career in Haz Gate, into trying to save him from himself. She wasn’t sure if she was making progress, or if he was gaining an immunity.
“I believe you.” The boy stood silent for a moment, then looked away.
“You do not.” Linna tensed. His tone wasn’t accusatory, but that did not mean a thing, not with Esmine. “It’s alright, Professor Nyx. I’ll just have to prove my innocence.”
“How do you plan to do that?” Linna asked, not quite daring to relax and still calculating the distance from Esmine to the kitchen knives and back. The boy’s face shifted into a determined expression.
“Simple. By catching the actual killer.”
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The dead man lay in a pool of blood. His throat had been slit from one ear to the other, and his tea-brown face was frozen in an expression of horror and surprise. The corpse was covered with a thin layer of morning frost, indicating that it had lain there a while. A number of Peacekeepers were pushing the horrified and curious crowds away. Linna, Esmine, and their escort walked right by them, though. The head Peacekeeper looked up, and his Hazi lilac eyes widened when he recognized Linna.
“Professor Nyx! What a surprise. I could not imagine what would bring you to a crime scene as gru
esome as this one.” He spoke Imperial with a distinct Hazi accent. Linna smiled grimly.
“Peacekeeper Lem. I have heard that one of my students is being accused of this crime; why wouldn’t I personally come to make sure he is cleared?” Esmine helpfully chose that moment to materialize from behind her and wander over to the corpse, again. Peacekeeper Lem winced.
“Well, you do know how gossip spreads in a town, and we had not had the chance to examine the body properly at that point...”
“He was assaulted from the front with a sharp knife. His attacker cut his throat like so, with his right hand– you can see where the cut is deeper on the right side...” Esmine explained miming cutting the corpse again. Lem looked bothered, but nodded.
“That is in agreement with our analysis. This man was surprised and overpowered by his attacker–”
“A person he knew,” cut in Esmine decisively. The Peacekeeper shot him a nervous look. Linna gestured at the boy to shut up, not that he ever listened.
“R-regardless, he was overpowered and murdered, and the attacker took advantage of the road to escape without leaving much of a trail. We are still looking for the murder weap–”
“It’s a thin knife and you’ll probably find it buried in the direction of the town square.”
“Esmine, that’s enough!” Esmine glanced up at her blankly.
“But I’m helping him, Professor.”
“Hush.”
“I– well– thank you, anyway. We are still looking for the murder weapon, and quite honestly, we are doing all we can. It would help if we could identify this man, but he looks to be from out of town, so the chances are slim that many people will know him.” The Peacekeeper sighed in exasperation. “A Southerner dressed like that, up here in Haz Gate?”
“Maybe he was visiting someone,” Linna offered uncertainly. “His clothes look expensive, so perhaps Fenin manor?”
In the Snows of Haz Page 1
