by Eden Wolfe
Her tone of voice softened. “The longer I look, the more obvious it is. I spent two hours looking for another offsetting feature, and there’s none. You and I might miss a contradiction. But Lucius?”
Roman knew she was right. "Lucius wouldn't miss it."
“I’m not happy about finding this, Roman.” She leaned toward him, her voice barely above a whisper. “I don’t want it to be true, and I don’t want to know what Ariane is going to do to him when she finds out. But Roman…”
Dread filled his stomach, but he nodded. "We have to tell the Queen."
He closed his eyes.
She's going to kill him. She'll string him up in front of everyone. The Queen is going to have Lucius' head.
The midday sun beat down on them. Roman's eyes couldn't adjust to it. He was in a constant state of blindness. He forced them to remain fixed.
Lucius, stripped naked, was kneeling in the center of the square.
The flesh fell over the sides of his legs, his form hardly recognizable as a man even from Roman's vantage point. The image on the screens was no better. The screens played out everything from Lucius' heavy breath to sweating back. His black hair fell over his face, but there was no dignity in it.
A guard stood behind him, whip in hand. The Commandante a few paces away. The Queen seated on the balcony above.
Crowds of people filled up the square, but they left a twenty-foot radius around Lucius. Even more were watching it broadcast across the screens. Perhaps all of Geb.
Lucius' back was already red in the sun. The white of the sides of his gut glowed in juxtaposition. His head remained lowered.
It seemed an eternity had passed since they'd reported their findings to the Queen and she'd called in Irene.
Then the screens called people to the square.
And the people came. By the thousands.
There they were now, a lifetime having been lived since the elation he'd felt the night before.
The crowd came to complete stillness. In all Roman’s years, he'd never heard them so quiet. Even at the massive Tuesday Briefing feet had shuffled and breathing had been steady.
Now everything was stopped.
Time had stopped.
There had never been a public flogging in their lifetime. Irene's head turned up to the Queen, seven stories above in the balcony out from her chambers. Roman tried to look at her but the sun backlit her silhouette. She was a black figure against a blinding sky.
But Roman saw her head nod.
And he heard the crack of the whip.
Lucius' head rose for a moment but he didn't cry out.
It cracked over his back again. And again. And again.
Roman lost count.
Twenty? Thirty?
Lucius collapsed onto his hands, breath fast and shallow. The guard looked up to the balcony for instruction.
"Carry on."
They all heard it.
The whip came down, and Lucius's body bounced in reaction, like oil on a hot pan.
The guard started to look distressed, her chest heaving as the red skin broke open across the sides of his ribs, his back, his buttocks.
Irene stepped forward and took the whip from the guard's hands. She looked up to the Queen and then bowed low to her before turning back to Lucius.
Irene cried out, low and long, sounds from another world, a different voice from somewhere far beyond as she brought the whip down harder and faster than Lucius had so far received. Again and again and again.
A whimper came from the broken man's body and Irene stopped, arm in midair.
Lucius fell from his knees to his side, head smacking into asphalt square. Bloody, naked, sweating.
His eyes looked into the sky with the glaze of death across them.
43
Leadon
Leadon and Daphna stayed at a safe distance from the quarantine camp, watching the final preparations before the first caravan would arrive. The location was ideal.
Ideal for the Queen, as it was far from any other town or road where unwanted eyes might happen upon it.
Ideal for the Ganese and the Sisters who were together about to destroy the Queen's plans.
Leadon had known the Ganese couldn't conduct the operation alone. She’d known it from the moment Irene had explained the horrifying plans the Queen had to assassinate the children. While Ganese priestesses could accompany the young to the island and be their caregivers, there was no way a Ganese could steal into the camp and act as Queen’s-Guard-turned-assassins the way Irene had arranged. They'd be spotted and apprehended before they’d even reached the gate.
The Queen’s Guard overseeing the camp expected to see guard-assassins enter in the dead of night to remove children, swiftly and effectively. Each assassin was to be one of their own.
No six-foot ethnic Ganese could shape-shift her body to play the role.
But the Sisters could.
The Sisters had a number of former Guard among them. They had those who despised Geb, who detested what the Queen stood for, who would do anything to prevent something so wrong from happening in their land.
So Leadon went to the Sisters.
Daphna didn't have to be asked twice, and the Sisters themselves - a group of them who would play the role of Queen's assassins - were convinced beyond a doubt.
The relationship between the Ganese and the Sisters was at a crossroads. Leadon felt it and she’d seen it in Daphna's eyes.
But now the night when it was all to begin was upon them.
Leadon and Daphna had a perfect place to observe the operation, a brush forest up a hill, a quarter of a mile away. The camp below had been erected hastily. Tents were haphazard and Leadon doubted they'd last if there was a massive storm, which they were bound to get at least once before the end of their mission. Supplies were being brought in - cans of food, some fresh - and a silo was erected. Still, it was obvious that the Queen didn't intend for it to be a permanent structure, not in the way that she’d told the whole of Lower Earth.
"How are they going to sleep all of them? Fifteen thousand children?" Daphna shook her head.
"Not quite fifteen thousand. And they are counting on several of them dying on the way."
"They really die… spontaneously?"
"These are children who were doomed before they were born."
"It will take incredible effort to undo that."
"The Ganese have raised children through all periods of history, including the worst of it. We have that knowledge in our bones and in our stories. We cannot do miracles, but we are ready to do everything possible."
"Look," Daphna lowered her voice, "The first caravan."
Six horses pulling the caravan crested a hill, no evidence of the cargo it carried. Of course the Queen wouldn’t use precious fuel to transport the children to their death. Even they didn’t stop on the way, if they rotated drivers and deprived children of any opportunity to relieve their most basic needs, the trip would still take days.
Leadon watched as it advanced and then a movement behind it caught her eye. "There's a second one." Depending on how tightly packed the children were, each caravan could easily take a hundred children. Perhaps more if they treated them like cattle.
They watched as it approached the camp and a group of guards stood from the enclosure's entry to receive it. They walked around both vehicles with clipboards before allowing them to enter the main gate of the quarantine camp.
The first vehicle entered, and Leadon caught her breath. Those who emerged were not small children at all, but women. "Who are they? Staff?"
Daphna slid forward a little more on her stomach, squinting into the distance. "Several of them are limping, I can't make out the detail, but those are not young women."
"It's supposed to be children, not women."
They continued watching as the Guard addressed the women, some of whom had paired up to support each other. A guard gestured towards the gate, and the first caravan exited. The second entered. Th
e old women lined up behind the caravan as a guard climbed into it.
One at a time, two children were passed to each woman's arms. Some of the children could walk, others had to be held. The procession continued until all the children were off the second caravan. By the end, the guards were giving three to each woman.
"This is madness," Daphna whispered. "Look at how the women are dressed, how they stand. Some of them are even deformed. They're Cork Town deviants."
Leadon was at a loss; this was outside the scope of everything they’d arranged. "Does this change our plan?"
Daphna let out a large sigh. "We may have to adapt."
"Things must have changed since Irene came. Otherwise she would have told us this was happening."
Daphna narrowed her eyes at Leadon. "You share her blood."
Leadon’s heart beat harder. Was Daphna doubting her now? "We share DNA. Nothing more."
"Still. I know from my days at the Tower that there are some things within that which don't change from person to person. And all the more as you both grew in Gana."
"I'm not following your logic." Leadon wasn't sure what Daphna's tone meant, was she accusing Leadon? Was the trust between them that delicate?
Daphna leaned closer in toward her. "If you were Irene, and you learned there were to be women joining as well as children, what would be your plan? How would you communicate the assassinations to the Guard? What would be your instructions to them?" Daphna gestured to the Guard below.
Leadon sat back. She tried to clear her mind of the logistics they'd spoken through seemingly hundreds of times now. She tried to go back to the root of it.
What would I do if I were Irene?
Leadon knew.
"I'd tell them to kill the children first. They are higher maintenance and there are far more of them. The older women serve a purpose in caring for them. Kill the children first."
Daphna nodded. "That decides our plan."
“We start with the children.”
They looked out together one more time as the women split into different tents with the children. They moved as ants in formation. No woman dared to do anything other than what was told. A child broke away from one woman, a child perhaps four years old, and she ran. A guard grabbed the child by the neck, carried her back to the old woman, and threw her down on the ground at the woman's feet. The child didn't move for what seemed like a long time.
Daphna looked at Leadon. "We start tonight."
Leadon nodded. "There's no time to waste. By the time news reaches her that the children have been taken from the camp, the Queen will be pleased to hear that her plan is already in motion. She’ll be no wiser to their true condition." She spat on the ground in front of her, the taste of hate stuck in her mouth.
They walked in a crouch, out through the brush. They made their way to the hidden enclave where their horses were tied and they galloped back to their own camp. It was set inside a bamboo forest where no one would happen upon them by accident. The first shift of twenty Sisters was already there, having set up the camp over the past couple of days.
Rose and a Sister stepped forward to meet them.
"How does it look out there?" the Sister asked.
"Bad," Daphna said. "We have to move fast."
"We're ready," Rose replied, "We've gone over the possible scenarios together."
"Tonight will be the most difficult," Leadon said, "The Guard won't know what to expect and therefore might react in unexpected ways. If you come across any of them, you'll have to play your role well, while not revealing too much, lest you raise suspicions."
"We can do it," the Sister replied. "Many of us know the Guard from days we spent in Geb. We know how they operate. We can do it."
Leadon nodded. "Without you, none of this could happen. I thank you, truly, on behalf of all the Ganese."
"Our greatest thanks will be knowing that the Ganese will meet us on the coast when we arrive with the children."
"We will be there," Leadon assured. "Several have already sailed and await you even now. My former quorum mate is preparing all the boats."
"I will accompany the Sisters tonight to the camp," Rose said. "My skills may be of service as we make the first journey. Then I will sail with the first boat."
Daphna put one hand on Leadon's shoulder and the other on Rose. "I don't have words that are adequate for this moment."
Leadon nodded. "I do. It's an old Ganese pact. Translated, it's 'Where you go, we will meet you there'. And we will. On the coast of Rainfields as you deliver the children from the death that had been promised to them."
Daphna nodded and turned her head to the twenty Sisters. Rose and Leadon did the same. No more words were needed between them. Their mission was clear and agreed: Lower Earth needed saving from itself.
44
Rose
Rose waited. The nighttime was black. They hadn't been lucky with the clouds. Thick white cloud cover had rolled in before the sun had set, blocking any light the moon would have offered.
Perhaps this will be to their advantage. Perhaps they can enter more easily without undue questions.
Or perhaps this complicates their task.
Rose was two miles out from the camp, far enough that no Guard would catch sight of her and close enough that the Sisters could reach her without getting lost, even without the moon's light.
She tried to clear her mind. She tried. And failed.
So long she had put her blood’s calling aside. From the moment she’d seen Ariane take the throne, when Ariane had stood on that balcony as though the world ought to bow to her… since then Rose knew Ariane would be the Queen to defile what Lower Earth’s royalty had stood for.
But how she, Rose, could do anything about it wasn’t clear until now.
She knew there was a new world calling to her, calling to Zev. Horizons unknown and future apart from Lower Earth. She’d seen enough of their land now to know that the depravity, the destruction, and the corruption would continue for as long as Ariane wore those velvet gowns. Rose heard it in her blood. The echoes of the old Queens had long known there would be dark periods in their future.
But the future was now.
And in the now, Rose had to accompany fifteen thousand or more to a new world, far off and more forgotten than the Forgotten Islands. Upper Earth was in that direction, but they would steer away from them. The place they were going to, whatever it would be, it would be uninhabited. They would have to do it all from the start.
Give birth to a new world in exile of the old.
But first, the children had to come. The Sisters had to fulfill their role.
And the dark of night was passing.
They are taking longer than we planned.
Rose's heartbeat accelerated and she wondered for a moment if she should run for the camp, to check in, but she quickly dismissed it. That would only expose the Sisters to greater risk than they already had.
And if someone saw her… their plans could be ruined before they'd even really begun. Rose steeled her nerves.
And waited.
She closed her eyes, letting her ears lead her awareness. Sounds from the camp reached her, but they were muted. No sign of their meaning.
She waited.
Shuffling feet, could be anyone. She didn't allow herself to become excited.
More feet, and breath, shallow, quick inhales, quick exhales. Young breath, young lungs extending and retracted with fear.
They're coming.
She waited.
At last, with the small glow from the sky, she could see them approaching from a mile away. Her face pulled into a smile, a grand and invisible smile in the dark of night, but everything in Rose awoke.
They had barely made it through the first of many trials to come, but Rose was sure, beyond any doubt or fear, that they would succeed.
The Sisters arrived, towering over their charges, small groups of them crowded around, held hands, and marched in silence to the place where R
ose waited.
Seventy or so children stood silently around the ten Sisters. More than Rose had expected.
"Several more caravans have arrived," a Sister whispered to Rose. "We've brought who we could. The guards nodded us in and were nowhere to be seen as we left."
"As we'd hoped," Rose's cheeks burned with excitement. It was happening.
Her elation faded when she saw the faces of the children, some of them infants in the arms of Sisters, frozen in silent fear.
"We must walk now, children," Rose said to them. “We have a long way to go, but when we get there, I will tell you everything about the adventure before us."
Rose put her hand on the head of the girl in front of her, about three years old with wild brown curls. The child's lip quivered in quick shakes. Rose kneeled and took her in her arms.
"You are so brave, child. So brave. You must stay brave for a while longer." She released the girl and took her hand. "Let's go."
Rose led them down the paths she'd come to know so well in the previous years of her wandering in Lower Earth. She knew the ways they could avoid foot traffic, avoid logistics routes. The safest ways to move with seventy children in tow.
Not a word was spoken.
The sun began to rise and they allowed the children to rest in a small canyon hidden by a natural rock wall. Just a few hours. They needed the children to make it all the way to the coast. There was a full day of walking ahead of them, and they only had the food they could carry on their bodies.
Rose watched them sleeping, chests rising and falling, the wash of innocence on their faces after all they had endured since they’d left the capital city.
Her heart broke.
She shook herself. No time for pity nor anger. The voyage before them was long and hard and barely begun.
Rose nodded to the Sister who’d taken the last shift as lookout, and they began gently waking the children.
They walked on.
The ground changed beneath their feet, from green to brown to black as they arrived at the Rainfields lava plains.
