Snowlands

by H. O. Charles

  “Slow!” Dan stated.

  Already her muscles were complaining at the things she knew they ought to be capable of, but they only knew running these days. Not fighting. Another sonorous whack sounded as her friend pushed her back in the courtyard. She was beginning to feel some considerable embarrassment. If only she could channel that angry rabbit ! This will only take you to unhappiness, Neri. Daemar’s words again. Neri gritted her teeth and surged forward with a rally of attacks, one straight after the other: slash, swipe, slash!

  “Whoops!” Her opponent jumped back and out of the way. “I hate it when you do that.”

  Neri did the same again, but at a trickier-to-defend angle this time. Slice, cut, whack! Something hurt in her shoulder. She’d pulled a muscle beyond its capacity, but the effect of her attack was just as she had hoped. Dan jumped back again.

  “Four years?” he asked in a high-pitched voice.

  It doesn’t have to end now, Daemar whispered to her, I want you to stay. Be my wife, Neri.

  No.

  Dan’s blade whisked past her nose, and she leaned back only slightly to avoid it.

  There’s nothing more you can teach me. Our agreement is fulfilled.

  She took another swipe at the incoming sword.

  It was always more than some stupid business deal! You are icier than the snows you claim to love, but I know there’s a girl in there who needs the sun. Stay with me.

  No. Goodbye, Daemar.

  Neri dropped her sabre to the floor, utterly oblivious to the clatter it made. Her legs felt weak. How could she have done that to him? Tears began to stream down her cheeks, and she felt a pair of hands grip her arms. “I’m sorry.” She let herself sink the floor.

  “Do you remember now?” It was Valyar’s voice. “Do you know what happened?”

  Dan’s worried face loomed amongst the wavering light. “Tell us.”

  She tried to control her breathing, to rein in her emotions, but each time they spun out of her grasp.

  “Too much, too soon,” the emperor whispered. His grip on her arms tightened. “You’re safe here.”

  “I don’t need to be safe!” A shaking hand was enough to wipe some of the tears away. “It’s my fault. It’s my fault he died.”

  There was silence while she shut her eyes against the light.

  “Who?” Dan’s voice.

  She sniffed. “Ihurade. It’s my fault he’s dead.”

  The hands on her arms loosened a touch. “No. That was my father’s doing.” Valyar moved from behind her to sit at her side. “He launched everything he had at that compound. No one in there stood a chance, and the fact that Daemar got you out at all is testament to his skill. And your skill as well, I suppose.”

  She swept another swell of tears away. “He wanted to finish Ihurade off?”

  Valyar frowned. “Among other things. The compound was a very important… storage facility for me.”

  “Why did you side with us?”

  The creases in his forehead melted, and he smiled. “Someone showed me the truth.”

  Clearly he was not going to elaborate on whom this someone was, and Neri felt too exhausted to push her questions further.

  “I think that is enough sword practice for one day, don’t you?” His green eyes switched to Dan.

  “Agreed.”

  “Well, then -” Valyar leaned over to help her from the ground. “- I have some uprisings in the southern wastes to deal with. Do you feel well enough to begin your duties with my daughter? She is very eager to see you again. Dan will be there too.”

  The other man nodded eagerly.

  In truth, Neri did not feel at all like dealing with the demands of an energetic child; she would much rather have curled up in a corner and wept for another four years. But how many times could she say no to an emperor? “Alright then.”

  “Great. Come with me.” He insisted upon leading her by the hand, which was rather peculiar, all the way down to the garden rooms at the foot of the fortress building. They were unexpectedly pleasant, and filled with both arc-lamp and real sunshine. Mia was concentrating hard upon something on the floor in front of her, chin resting upon her elbows. Her legs wavered in the air behind her.

  “Always reminds me of her mother,” Valyar whispered.

  Neri could not suppress her frown at all. Had the woman been his twin sister? There was nothing but Sighter blood evident in the child.

  A wide-shouldered and hipped woman promptly marched toward the party. Her hair was bound in such a strict manner that each strand appeared afraid for its own survival, and her eyes were narrower than the slits of a whistle dagger. “This woman is to be the new governess?!” she exclaimed. “With all those swords and things sticking out of her? What sort of experience does she have?”

  “A word, please, Redmane,” the emperor said softly. He gave Neri another of his overly warm smiles before leading the woman, presumably Mia’s minder, away. The child, who had hitherto been too absorbed in her reading to notice much else, suddenly looked around at them. A grin split her face in two, and she ran towards Neri.

  “Raia!” she squeaked as she hurtled at full speed into one leg and clung to it tightly.

  What was to be done? Neri looked to Dan for advice, but he simply shrugged and grinned. Slowly, tentatively, she placed the tips of her fingers on Mia’s hair. It felt soft and silken. “You’ll have to start calling me Neri from now on.”

  Mia raised her big, strange eyes to look at her. “But you said your name is Raia.”

  “It was, but now it’s Neri.”

  “Can I change my name?”

  That prompted a laugh. “If you want.”

  “Ooh!” Mia released her leg and looked as if she was thinking very hard. “I want to be… Gevvin.”

  “That is a boy’s name.”

  “How about… Sam-antha?”

  “I think you made that name up.”

  Mia giggled cheekily. “No… but what is his name?” She looked shyly at the unshaven man.

  “That’s Dan. He is a good friend of mine. Dan, this is Mia – or Samantha, as she is to be known.”

  “Pleased to meet you, Archduchess Samantha.” He bowed quite graciously.

  The girl tilted her head at him. “He’s probably good. Let’s go into the garden.” Mia practically dragged Neri by the hand out and into the sunny air beyond. Brilliant, lush and long grasses carpeted most of the area, while red and white blossoms dangled heavily upon their overburdened stems. Each light gust of breeze carried waves of petals with it, spreading them about the place in intermittent storms of pink. “I’m going to collect all of the petals!” Mia announced, and skipped off towards a large pile of them.

  “Why has he made me do this, Dan?” she whispered.

  Dan raised his wild eyebrows only briefly. “Maybe you’ll be good at it. He likes you, you know.”

  She glanced over to the emperor; he was still talking in low tones with Redmane, his black cloak touching the floor and his hard arms folded. “Is it true he can… move between places?”

  “Of course. How do you think he got me here so fast? Last night I was in The Drifts of Kymer, minding my own business with the lads, and he pops out of nowhere. It’s quite an odd experience, though. Like stepping into a big, black hole of nothingness.”

  Damn. Last night could have been a genuine memory, after all.

  “Neri, do you remember what you were at all? What you did in The Snowlands when we weren’t at battles?”

  She shook her head. “Just running. Lots of running.”

  “That is certainly a big part of the job,” Dan chuckled. “I did the same thing; we ran together sometimes.”

  She tried to think a hard on it, but nothing came. Instead she watched as a floating horto-bot fussed over each of its plants, trying to assess which ones required watering. Given the soaking they had received on the previous evening, it was likely the bot would find little to occupy itself with. Mia had spotted this, however, and proc
eeded to place herself between two shrubs. She stood as still as she could, and waited.

  The horto-bot beeped shrilly as it detected her, and passed onto the next bit of greenery. It sounded almost angry at the intended deception. The emperor’s daughter huffed loudly in resignation, and returned to her petal collecting.

  “Excuse me, my lady.” It was Redmane. Valyar stood some distance behind her, his hands on hips. “I… ah, forgive me for speaking as I did earlier. Well, I’ve been Mia’s watcher for some time and… you were not quite what I expected.” She leaned forward to whisper. “And watch out when you’re not looking. She may be all smiles and sweetness around her father, but she has a wicked streak. I just thought you should know.” With that she gave a small curtsey and departed.

  Valyar offered her a quick smile from his distant position before he turned and followed the woman from the rooms.

  “I suppose it is just you and I then.”

  Dan guffawed. “Don’t sound so unhappy about it, Neri.”

  They wandered the gardens with Mia for some time, and later she demanded that they read with her. After that came more teaching and questions and games that involved much running about. By the time evening came and Mia was put to bed, Neri was exhausted. She gathered just enough energy together to make a call to Harlo and Mag, explaining exactly what had happened, and then she flopped onto her bed. But there was to be no rest for her yet.

  “Hello Raia, or should I say Neri?” Zanda had let himself into her room. The men here seemed to be making a habit of it.

  She sat up. “What do you want?”

  “I just came to see how you were.” He smiled and placed himself on the arm of a chair. “Have you slept with the emperor yet?”

  “What?! No! And why do you say ‘yet’? And how is that any of your business?”

  He shrugged. “No reason.” He tapped the side of his chin, and frowned at the carpet. At last his eyes returned to her. “You know Šona women frequently take multiple husbands…”

  “No, I did not know that.” Snows of blood, where was this going? She was too tired to deal with any of it!

  He stood and moved to sit on the end of her bed. “I just… well, thought I should put myself forward for consideration.”

  “I’ve only just met you.”

  “Hmm.” He nodded with a smile. “I suppose that is true.”

  “Are there no other women in this damned fortress?”

  “Of course there are.” He looked at her with curiosity. “Anyway, would you like to sleep with me tonight?”

  Neri’s eyes felt as if they were about to pop out of her head. Perhaps Holbash and the Western Mounts were incredibly conservative, or perhaps this fortress did strange things to the minds of men, but something was definitely out of kilter somewhere. “Thank you for the offer, but I am too tired.”

  “Oh.” He looked at the floor again. “I could just stay here and-”

  “No, that won’t be necessary.” She smiled weakly.

  “Alright then. I’ll just… ah… I’ll see you tomorrow then?”

  She nodded.

  Zanda cleared his throat and stood. He looked as if a herd of lurchcaws had trampled over his favourite toy. “Not if I was the last Šona man alive, eh? Well then. Goodbye.” He left the room at an unbearably slow pace, leaving Neri pressed beneath a snowdrift of her own guilt. But what else was she to do? She could not lie with a man out of remorse, surely? Then again, the Neri she was coming to remember may well have been such a woman. If, indeed, she felt any guilt at all.

  Sleep soon swamped her self-reproach, however, and she found herself drifting amongst the sands of a deep-red desert.

  “Come in, now! There’s food for you!” It was her mother’s voice.

  Neri leapt from the sand bowl she’d dug and sprinted towards the house entrance. It was an odd-shaped thing, with leaning walls and an angular, red roof. Every surface merged perfectly with the desert around it until it was very nearly invisible. With the uneven lie of the land and the frequent dust storms, it was very hard to spot from as close as fifty yards away. She hurtled into the cool interior of the building, and met one of her fathers’ legs with a thunk.

  “Not so fast, trouble,” he said with an air of amusement. “I swear you must have Sindah’s blood rather than mine.” Sindah was her other father, or Daddy Fast, as she called him. Daddy Slow had objected to his name when she’d come up with it at an early age, and was now Daddy Muscles. True to his name, he picked her up with a single arm and dropped her into one of the chairs. “Your mother has a surprise for you.” He grinned and winked. “Raia! She’s ready!”

  Her two older sisters bustled in with similar grins across their faces, followed by Daddy Fast, and finally her mother. In her hands was the most enormous cake that Neri had ever seen. It was vast. White, snowy icing coated the curved surface and purple sprays of wilder-flowers sprang out from every side. A large kindler flame sparkled atop it.

  Her mother placed the spectacle on the table and kissed her on the forehead. “Happy birthday, sweetheart.”

  Neri gazed down at it in wonder. A number had been written gold sweets at the centre: Ten. She leaned forward and snuffed the kindler out with wet fingers. Ten.

  “And we have a gift for you, but it’s not like the gifts you’ve had before.” Her faster father said, coming to sit at the table.

  “The clue is the cake.” Her mother’s eyes flicked towards it. “Can you guess?”

  “Cake instead of dinner every day?” It was a request she had frequently made.

  Daddy Muscles laughed. “Better than that.”

  What could possibly be better than that?

  “We’re going to take a trip north…”

  Neri could barely breathe. “To see the snows? We’ll really see real snow?!”

  “Yes,” Daddy Fast said.

  The excitement had been something she could barely contain, and she’d celebrated most of the night by running rings around the house. The following day they’d set out with stomachs full of cake and backpacks full of water and sunblock. Their home in the desert was too remote for coachmen to recharge or for horses to be fed, and so they walked. On and on and into the yellow desert, and thence into the white desert, and finally into the border mountains. “That’s the edge of the homeland,” her mother said, looking back over it through scope goggles. Then she sighed, took the eyepieces off and rapidly erased their setting. Not a single building was visible, but Neri knew there were thousands hidden in the landscape.

  “We need to get Kara a husband on the way back. Then she can move out and I can have my own room,” her sister Leno said.

  “Hey!” Kara elbowed her younger sibling and pulled a face.

  A sound behind them interrupted their conversation, and the entire party turned to its source.

  Six men in black clothing were lined up along the horizon, their cloaks flapping in the wind. Neri had read enough to know that they wore the clothing of the imperial army. She stood fast though her stomach churned. They did not scare her.

  “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,” a tall man said, emerging from the shadows. It was a grizzled face he had, worked with grey stubble and leathery wrinkles. His left eye was missing. “I wondered if you could help me with something…”

  “We have nothing to offer your kind,” one of her fathers said.

  “Now, now. I know that is untrue,” the man cooed. “You see, a little red-headed bird told me all about the spectrum emitters. You know what those are, don’t you? Little things on each Šona house, set to show the way home… and they always emit the same, weak signal… but… where might its frequency be and how might we decode the signal itself?” He turned to his officers. “It’s a mystery, is it not?”

  Her mother spoke this time, “We are no threat to you. None of our people are.”

  The soldier spun on his heels. “Nonsense,” he spat. “Every one of you has arms, and arms can wield weapons regardless of whatever rules you make
up! Frindon!” he called to one of his men, “Demonstrate what I mean. Kill the eldest girl.”

  The strongest of her fathers immediately stepped in front of his daughter. “Don’t even think about it,” he threatened.

  But Frindon paced casually forward, withdrew his sword and swept it at her father. He caught the blade in the air, bloodying his hand, and shoved it towards the ground. But the soldier had other ideas. He pulled a dagger from his waist and thrust it with lightning speed into her father’s heart.

  “Run!” her fast father commanded. “Now!”

  Neri complied in an instant, tearing off down the slope as fast as she could. She could barely feel the stones tearing at her skin and shards cutting through her clothing as she went, and she dared not turn to see her pursuers.

  “Get the little one alive!” the eyeless man shouted behind her. She could hear screaming now. It sounded like one of her sisters. Still she ran until her shoes came off and her feet were bleeding. Sounds of footfalls were growing closer behind her, catching up. Louder and louder they became, until she could feel the vibrations in the ground and the breath on her neck. A hand grabbed her arm, and she screamed. It hauled her onto a shoulder, but his was not a shoulder swathed in black. It was her father’s. As she clung to his shirt she noticed something lodged there. For a while she could not work out what it was, but another metal thing joined it and she came to understand. They were dagger hilts.

  Her father stumbled then. He tried to take another step, but faltered. And then they were hurtling toward the ground. She landed with a crunch on the hard rock, and her father’s shoulder landed on top of her. She tried to push it off, but couldn’t.

  “Sweetheart,” he whispered.

  Neri twisted round to look at his face. A fresh cut oozed blood near his eye, and more was dripping from his mouth.

  “Don’t be scared of them,” he said between ragged breaths, “Don’t mention the colour.” His dark eyes ceased blinking, and his shoulder sank harder onto her body.

  One of the imperial soldiers was there now, looming over them as he watched her try to escape. A snarl of a smile contorted his features while he stretched a hand towards her. “Come with me, sandy,” he rasped. His hard, leathery grip wrenched her from the ground, and as hard as she tried to kick and bite and punch her captor, he would clutch onto her more tightly. It was not long before she was rendered peaceful by the use of three ropes, whereupon the soldier set her down at the base of the border rocks and called his superior.