by Eden Wolfe
There was no shame in her voice, no fear of repercussion.
Leadon stood, ensuring her full height was apparent to the woman, who only reached to Leadon’s chest.
“You call me bottom feeder?”
“Your reputation is worse than that.”
“On what evidence?”
“Your acts are well-known to the Queen.”
“The Queen says such lies?”
“The Queen watches your depravity with resigned concern for Lower Earth’s future. Such grave acts you commit on the rest of our land.”
Leadon sensed a strange tone in Lana's voice. It was as though she was a parrot, repeating words without emotion or belief.
“And you, Lana?”
The woman gave no sign of reaction. “What of me?”
“Do you believe these words?”
“I am amongst the Queen’s enemies now. From great friend to great villain. I'm certain she replaced me swiftly. Such is the Queen with her waiting women.” She turned to Daphna. “May I go now?”
Daphna nodded and waited as Lana left their meeting place. Then she turned back to Leadon. “Now you see how such mistrust has been planted.”
“But what is its purpose if we are innocent to the rumors?” Leadon still couldn’t find a reason for the accusations and lies.
“Do you not have strict limitations on your movements?"
"Strict limitations? No. We must register our travel with Geb in advance, for the purpose of tracking possible virus transmission, just like all the other counties. But we have no limitations."
Daphna stood up from the log and walked around behind it.
"So you cannot move at all without authorization?"
"The Free Route to Geb is of course open, as it has been since the first settlers. But otherwise, the rest is on authorization, a simple registration process. To protect us from accidental transmission, to trace contact in case of new outbreaks. We remain primarily within our county lines, but not because anyone told us - "
"And did you 'register' your trip here?"
"No."
"Why not?"
Leadon paused. They'd come this far, and here was a chance to build the elusive trust that was so needed between them.
"I didn't want Geb to know I was coming here."
Daphna walked to where Leadon was seated and kneeled in front of her.
"Leadon," she paused, tensing her lips, "No one else has such restrictions on movement. I don't need authorization. Nothing is being tracked, not officially anyway. It's only you. Only the Ganese. And when there are attacks, or poison, or vandalism in the fields, we are told it is the Ganese. Rogue Ganese who are terrorizing the counties."
"What?" Leadon couldn't wrap her head around Daphna's words and didn't know if she could trust them. The story seemed far from plausible. "That's not the Ganese way. We do not attack in the night like bandits. And we certainly do nothing like poison - I don't understand what you're trying to say, Daphna. And I think you'd better be clearer in your denunciation."
Daphna put her hands on Leadon's knees, the touch was gentle and warm. Leadon felt no hate in it. "Leadon, I'm telling you that the Ganese have been blamed by Geb for acts across Lower Earth, and amongst the very Sisters with whom you share your space now. Acts that make your skin crawl. And the Queen says it was your people. This is why you are so hated here."
"Hated?"
"Despised. The stories say that you resent the other peoples on Lower Earth who have taken over your land, and hence you use terrorism to make their lives miserable."
Leadon looked again to Priyantha, her heart beating stronger in her chest.
"Daphna, we have been used."
Daphna stood from her kneeling place in front of Leadon. "Yes, Leadon. I believe you have."
Daphna walked again to the other log and sat down. "The Sisters wouldn't have me speak with you, but I knew I must. I lived in Geb. Do you not see my green eyes? I was in the Tower. I saw the current Queen, on several occasions. Beautiful, benevolent, awe-inspiring." Daphna leaned forward, "And I never could shake the feeling that there was something evil in her. Your visit here today confirms what I always knew."
She could be disappeared for that statement alone. No wonder she left Geb.
"Leesa will show you to our guest lodgings. They are very basic."
"We appreciate the welcome. We don't seek anything more than basic."
"I imagine the two of you have things to discuss. Leesa will collect you for dinner. For your own sake, I recommend you stay in your tent. The Sisters are not yet ready to accept you among them. I would hate to see something unexpected take place."
"Understood."
Leadon and Priyantha stood, bowing their heads low as Leesa reemerged with her arms crossed.
"This way. Your tea is in the tent."
Their tent was separated from the rest of the village. Leadon was glad for it. Not only did it give them a little more privacy to speak, but she had grown wary of the Sisters' accusing eyes in the village.
"Leadon, this is crazy. The Ganese blamed for all this? What is happening, can it be true?" Priyantha spoke with her voice hushed.
"It could be true. But I'm not certain yet. I'm not sure why Daphna would be so willing to share such information. Perhaps she means to destabilize us."
It had occurred to Leadon as they'd been walking to the tent that perhaps there was no truth in Daphna's words. That it was a ploy to prevent Leadon and Priyantha from feeling comfortable. Or worse, it was intended to spark tensions between Gana and Geb. The relationship had always been tenuous, but over generations, they'd found ways to live together. Daphna's words could change that entirely. There could be other motivations behind it.
But if Leadon relied on her instinct, which had served her well until now, and which had been the very reason for her selection as Chief - her instinct said it was true.
"She has no reason to lie about the movement restrictions. If they don't need authorization, well, there's no disputing that. We Ganese have stayed within our boundaries for many years now. All because of the fears instilled from Geb, agreements made with Habana and those who came before. I cannot go back in time to know what lay behind those agreements, but why else have these limitations on us? Or is it that the existing limitations made us an easy target for blame?"
"Poison, attacks, vandalism? No warrior priestess would stoop to that level."
"We have to consider it possible. But what isn't possible is the widespread nature of it. There's no way that could happen without someone knowing. But we have been kept in the dark for so long... so insistent on the old ways of insulating ourselves..."
Irene's words came to her. The new threats facing the Ganese. Even back more than twenty years, it was Irene who had suggested the Ganese begin genetic duplication. She'd been the first to offer herself for it. Irene was the one who'd been worried Gana would be left behind while Lower Earth moved on. Leadon was beginning to understand that Irene's fears weren't just about culture, and not just because of the threat from Upper Earth.
There are threats to us on our own doorstep, and we are completely unaware of our enemies.
Leadon and Priyantha passed three days in relative isolation but for meetings with Daphna. The Sisters barely approached them, limiting all interaction only to the most basic of exchanges. But Leadon found an unlikely peer in Daphna.
"We're being attacked. Regularly." Daphna lowered her voice. "I believe it is biological."
"A weapon?"
"A virus."
"From Geb?"
"Who else but the Tower has the ability to create such a thing? My departure, three years ago now, was closely monitored. I wasn't in the higher ranks. But that doesn't mean I didn't know some of the secrets within the Tower's walls. I had always been a troublemaker in their eyes. I asked too many questions. I know others felt the same as me; they had their ways of seeking out answers. I wasn't afraid to voice my concerns, even if it did limit my career. My ca
reer had never been my priority; it had always been the science. And then, it wasn't long after Queen Ariane was crowned, the death of one of our male lab leaders, Jakob of the eighth line. I found something in the autopsy. It was out of my remit; I was supposed to be focused on analyzing tissue breakdown for the purpose of lengthening tissue life among women. But when I saw the results of the autopsy, I couldn’t make sense of it. Though I saw something wasn’t right. And you know what Roman of the first line told me?”
“Roman of the first line?”
“The Great Geneticist.”
“Lucius is the Great Geneticist.”
“Not for four years. They really have been keeping you in the dark out there in the east.”
This is impossible. How can we be so removed? How has so little information reached us?
“Well,” Daphna continued, “When I told him what I found, he said, ‘Not your job.’ Just like that. End of story. My supervisor was right there, so her hands were tied. I was dumbstruck. ‘You heard the man,' she'd said, 'Back to work.' So I took the report and dropped it on Uma’s desk, Uma is the secondary overseer, and I walked out. Just like that.”
“And you came straight to the Sisters?”
“No. I first went to Cork Town. This was just before the real embargoes on Cork Town began. I’d heard some whispers of women meeting there through a couple of allies in the Tower. I hoped I could find them, and I did. They met in a pub, about once a week. Backroom women.”
“There’s backroom women now. I see.”
“They were relatively new, didn’t call themselves that, of course. They were shocked to see me, I’ll tell you. Didn’t trust me at first. Long story short, my stay in Geb was becoming tenuous. I just had a sense of it. Sooner or later I was going to be disappeared. There’d be some story about leaking Tower secrets or some other such propaganda. I wasn’t about to wait and find out. That’s when I decided I needed to come here. And it was just at a time when they needed someone like me. No Sisters had come from the Tower in several years, they needed an infusion of research power. You probably saw the test garden in the front?”
“When we first arrived, yes, we saw it. We wondered why you’d have such small plots.”
Daphna smiled, her green eyes catching a glint of light, “Those are all experiments. Modifications of various common species. Several of them are showing promise. We might be able to self-sustain. Given all the seasonal changes and crop killers hitting the rest of Lower Earth, we’re hoping our species will withstand the test of time. That’s if we can stop Sisters from dropping dead.”
“It’s as serious as that?”
“It is. Attacks women of late middle-age. They should still live a long time, and then all of a sudden, they drop. The thing is that it’s not pervasive. It’s perhaps one a week. But one a week, of an unnatural and unexpected death, is one too many. We can’t get Geb to do any analysis. They claim it’s natural, that other counties have the same, and we’re no more special than anyone else. But I’ve been to the other counties, Leadon. It’s not the same. It’s not the same at all. And I can trace it back, I think I can – a woman who joined us, her stay was fleeting. She fell ill, and then she was gone. Vanished. But there was something in her illness that seems to be of the same root as that which we see now. Accelerated atrophy of internal organs.”
Leadon nodded, feeling fortunate that no such thing had afflicted Gana.
Not yet.
Could it come to Gana? Could someone bring it to Gana? Or is this truly a targeted attack on the Sisters for their transgressions over the years?
Had someone told Leadon before she'd traveled to the Strangelands that the Ganese were receiving harsher, more monitored treatment than other counties, she would have dismissed the claim as not credible. But the rules across Lower Earth seemed to be changing. There was so much she didn't know. So much she needed to know.
Leadon lifted her eyes to Daphna. “I don’t know how to help you.”
“I don’t think that you can. Not now. We will continue working towards a cure in our own labs, despite their insufficient equipment. In any case, I am confident you are not behind all that the rumors claim. We all fear what we do not know. The Sisters have long had mistrust for the warrior priestesses. It’s not hard to see why, given our collective history. But now I know you. I see who you are. And if I may be honest, as have been from the start, I think you are frightfully ill-equipped to lead Gana through this next phase.” Daphna stood up. “I don’t mean it as an insult. Consider it rather an invitation to educate yourself.”
Leadon also stood. “Had those words come from any other source, I would have dismissed it as something between venom and jealousy. But from you, I accept the invitation. And I thank you for the blindness in me that you have already lifted.”
Daphna walked out of her cabin and led Leadon back to the tent where Priyantha had packed the few items with which they had traveled.
“Go back safely.”
“We have a Ganese blessing that seems appropriate for you. It translates to ‘May you fight and lead well with the blessing of the ancestors upon you’.”
“I accept your blessing.” Daphna looked long and hard into Leadon’s eyes before finally saying, “Goodbye, Leadon.”
23
Maeva
Maeva closed her eyes and steeled herself for what she knew would be one of the hardest conversations she would have in her life. She blocked out the sound of the flute on the screen and rushed through her mind before Mary began her morning diatribe. She needed quiet to think it through.
I must find the right words to reach Ariane. I was the Queen. Certainly, I can find a way to speak to my own daughter so that she will listen. Then again, I raised her to be systematically independent. Wasn't that the whole point? So that when Upper Earth came, she could make the hard decisions that would need to be made and not shy away from them?
But Upper Earth hadn't come, not yet. And management of Lower Earth dominated every aspect of the fortress. Ariane was fixated on population control, both socially and demographically, and even more so on Cork Town. Population control had never been on Maeva's mind when she'd told Lucius how to design this Ariane. The fourth Ariane. And yet that had come to dominate the past few years of management across Lower Earth. There were ways to sustain life across all counties; that had been the Queen's very commitment from the start. It was half of the Tower's reason for being. Fortifying the soup had been an important first step in overcoming the crop failures; there was now more than enough to feed the masses. They could arrange it so that everyone could live. And yet Ariane insisted that Cork Town was a parasite. It didn't make sense. Cork Town was their own doing, the results of their genetic experimentation, lives that still had a reason and way to make themselves in the world. Why fixate on Cork Town any more than the other counties, when with Central Tower they could find ways for everyone to live?
She doesn't want the deviants to live.
It hit Maeva like an earthquake.
If she doesn't want the deviants, and it's not a question of resources, then I need to change my approach entirely.
Maeva dressed in her habitual velvet gown, pulled her long brown hair into a tight bun, and looked at herself in the mirror.
"I still look like a Queen."
A knock on the door and Maeva's stomach jumped. She cursed herself for being too absorbed to hear it coming.
"Madam, the Queen will see you now."
Maeva looked one more time in the mirror and nodded, as much to herself as to the waiting-woman.
"Always slow-moving, Mother," Ariane's voice reached her ears, and for a moment Maeva wished she couldn't hear a voice from halfway across the fortress.
Maeva didn't respond. She would speak to Ariane on her own terms and not before. She wanted to look her daughter in the eye when she gave her reports on the suffering on Lower Earth. She wanted to know if her words would have any effect. She wanted to know if Ariane cared at all about what wa
s happening across their land. They had to adapt some of Central Tower's work to address those critical issues. Not just incubation.
The Queen was lounging across her armchair, velvet cushion against her velvet dress, and Maeva was struck at the image of herself fifty years younger.
"So you've returned, Mother."
"You didn't think I would?"
"I thought it would take you longer."
"I fulfilled what I set out to do."
"Then you must tell me. Come," Ariane stood and stepped away, opening her hand to invite Maeva to take the chair. She walked to her bureau and took the wooden seat, placing it across from Maeva. "Tell me, have you been successful in rebuilding relations with the outer counties?"
"I believe so, but not without trials."
"Oh?"
"They are struggling, Ariane."
"Ah yes, they are."
"It's not just scarcity of food."
"Illness too, I imagine."
"Yes. And terrorism."
"Mmm. I heard murmurings of such."
"The rumors are widespread. Fingers pointing in multiple directions."
"Suffering has that effect on a population."
Maeva paused. Ariane was leaning forward in her chair, her brow furrowed. For all she could tell, Ariane was deeply engaged. Concerned. Absorbed.
Have I been misreading her? Misinterpreting her?
Ariane sat back and looked out the window. "And what of their dedication to Geb?"
"They are reliant on Geb."
"Reliance and dedication are not the same thing."
"True, but with the conditions under which they are living, basic survival is their greatest focus - in some counties. Not all counties."
Ariane sat back in the chair. "I can understand this assessment, even if I find it displeasing. The Tower is working nearly twenty hours a day trying to resolve the crop viruses, modifying grain, adapting them to new conditions. I don't have to tell you that. Do these people not see how much we are dedicated to them?"
"I never saw it as 'us' and 'them'."
