by Eden Wolfe
Rose kept her eyes straight ahead as the sun set.
The Ganese should be moving into position now. If everything has gone to plan, they'll be waiting for us when we arrive.
A Sister came up beside Rose, "What do we do if they aren't there yet?"
"We wait."
The Sister shrugged, "That's logical, I suppose. I just can’t say I like the idea of waiting like sitting ducks."
"They'll be there." Rose nodded her head into the distance. "They'll be there."
Day passed into night and this time the moon was on their side. Bright and clear, they navigated the lava plains without difficulty in the dark. They still had the cliffs to descend, but Rose knew the places they could use. Natural cutaways served as switchbacks to climb down. Hopefully there would be some Ganese to help with the youngest.
Hopefully? Not hopefully - that is our plan.
The edge of the cliff came into sight and just off in the distance, in the water, a boat bobbed in the gentle waves.
Rose closed her eyes for a moment, feeling the wash of relief.
Four Ganese were already ashore, waiting for them. On seeing Rose at the top of the cliff, they trekked up, taking a child in each arm and one on the back, navigating down the cliff with ease.
They were built for this.
Rose sighed with gratitude that these would be her accompanying carers. Her partners. Her friends.
A few knees were scuffed and little hands scraped raw, but no great falls down the cliff and no broken bones. All children, ten Sisters, four Ganese, and Rose waited as the sailboat rowed in, not yet daring to lift the sails.
With the children all aboard, the Ganese rotated out, those on the boat staying behind to meet the next group and ride with them towards the island off the Forgotten Islands, farther than most had ever dared to travel. There they would begin anew. Some Ganese had already gone before them to prepare.
Rose paused to take it all in. The children lined the sailboat's edges, watching. The Ganese aboard stood tall in the moonlight, their skin blending into the black silk of the sky. The four Ganese on land stood with the Sisters, their eyes set.
This was the first night of a hundred. They would continue until they had taken all they could.
Rose saw the uncertainty across all the children's faces, though they did not speak a word. She raised her eyes to the sky.
They have suffered so much already and don’t know what this future holds. Neither do I.
But I have to believe it will be better than whatever awaited them here.
She waded into the water and climbed into the boat where Zev was waiting for her. He took her hand and the boat pushed out. Lower Earth became smaller in the distance, but Rose could still see the women on shore, waiting for the boat to disappear into the horizon.
She led to the bow of the boat. The water cut smooth on the still surface as the moonlight made clear their direction. She stood behind Zev, her hands on his shoulders. The wind blew whispers of promise on the waves before them. No more looking back at Lower Earth.
Instead, they looked ahead, off into the silken night, off to the world they would create.
THE END
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Lower Earth Direction, Year 408
FIFTEENTH GENERATION
SINCE THE DUST
UNDER THE REIGN OF QUEEN ARIANE I
GEB COUNTY DIRECTION
Commandante - Irene (Irilena), warrior priestess of Gana
Great Geneticist - Uma of the nineteenth line
Primary Overseer - Carole of the fifth line
Senior Overseer - Roman of the first line
GANA PROTECTORATE
Chief Priestess - Leadon, warrior priestess
Acting Keeper of the Chief - Priyantha, warrior priestess
OUTER COUNTIES GENERAL MANAGEMENT
Prefect on Three-Year Cycle
DARK COUNTIES PROTECTORATE
Prefect on One-Year Cycle
CENTRAL MASS PROTECTORATE
Under Command of the Queen’s Guard
STRANGELANDS SECT
Head Sister - Daphna, former researcher in Central Tower
YEAR 408
ONE YEAR SINCE
THE CULLING OF THE INCUBATES
1
Ariane
“Do you love me?”
Queen Ariane asked with her eyes turned to the sky, but the question was directed to the woman lounging beside her under the tree.
Gale.
Gale turned her head, squinting into the midday sun.
“Love you?” She turned her head away, “I am obligated to love you, aren’t I?”
Ariane lifted her eyebrows, “I am your Queen.”
Gale rolled on her stomach, away from Ariane, and then onto her back. She pursed her lips, crossed her legs, and put her hands under her head. “Then why ask if you already know the answer.”
“You know what I mean.” Ariane leaned back against the trunk of the tree, the bark snagging at the lace of her bodice.
“I know what you mean, but I don’t know how to answer.” Gale turned back to Ariane, “I can say that I love you, as you’ve heard me declare before. But do I even know the difference between love and dedication? There’s something you still don’t understand, Ariane. From the time we have any language abilities, the housemothers make it very clear that love is reserved for the Queen. All of us love you from the instant we know the word love. And then we learn that there is a different love we have for all of Lower Earth, and for each person within it. And after that, we might be allowed some kinships, so long as they fall within the normal parameters which are expected of such relationships.” She lifted her finger, “But never anything that could be… misconstrued.”
“Oh yes,” Ariane smiled, “Never anything that could be misconstrued.”
It was a genuine smile. Ariane knew very well that she broke her own rules, and so did Gale. Gale met the Queen’s smile back with a laugh and the two descended into giggles as though they were no more than twelve years old.
As though one were not a waiting-woman and the other the most powerful woman in the world.
They held each other’s eyes in a way that brought a wash of warmth over Ariane. The giggles subsided and Ariane looked up at the sky. In moments like this, she could pretend that she didn’t have ancient blood running through her veins. It was as if she could live like a commoner. She could see it; what normal life might feel like. A life where the weight of the world wasn’t constantly pushing down on her shoulders. A world where she was just Ariane.
Gale sat up, adjusting her gown. Ariane took it in, the cream-colored lace overlay on cotton. A luxury, cotton. It was reserved – all beauty was reserved – for those of the fortress.
We are kind of ridiculous, aren’t we? Ariane thought, Such formality. And for what? The settlers never demanded it. The rest of Lower Earth lives by practical convention in standard-issue fabrics. How have gowns and robes and circumstance become the ways of the fortress?
Ariane had not grown up with such beauty, such luxury, such tradition. As a child, cast away to the edge of the capital city with no one but herself and commands from her Queen mother to find her own way in the world… it was far from the lifestyle her mother had given her on the day she’d crowned Ariane queen.
Ariane adjusted her own gown, a mosaic of velvet and lace as it ever was. She had loosened the bodice when they fir
st sat under the tree. With Gale she could relax, not like when she was in the fortress. There she needed the bodice tight to hold herself together, to remind herself of who she was. Otherwise it was too easy to get lost in wishes for something different.
Ariane passed her hands along her legs, the velvet soft under her touch. Even as the weight of the dress stifled her, there was something calming and comforting in it. Such softness, such warmth.
Ariane was perpetually cold, no matter if she had just run for days to the Rainfields cliffs or if she was in the midst of a fit of rage, which happened more often than she could track within a day. She had become masterful at containing the emotion.
Still always, she was cold.
She had the perfected genetic code of queens, allowing for advanced evaluation of consequences and relational eventualities, but it never took into account any sense of comfort.
Comfort was not the destiny of a Queen.
Ariane took in a deep breath, the smell of the trees in the lingering days of summer alive around her. Not so far in the distance, voices from the city began to reach her ears from below the hills where they escaped for privacy. She tried to shut them away a little longer.
Gale straightened out her dress. While hers was more practical than Ariane’s, it was still highly decorative. Gale didn’t like the wardrobe of the fortress at first, back when she had been brought out from the home where she was caring for the middle-grade children. She had been accustomed to the standard-issue slacks and long-sleeved button-up shirts that were more practical for childcare.
But when Ariane had seen her those couple of years ago, and the way she related to the children though she was barely eighteen years old then, she had immediately known that Gale was destined to join her entourage in the fortress. She was not only beautiful, she had both a softness and an edge. A heart for every child, but an eye to the future. A woman full of necessary contradictions. Indeed, a woman like Gale could not be wasted on simple childcare; let the women of the common code do that.
Gale had to be with Ariane, for Gale was the woman all of Lower Earth would become.
Ariane had the perfected genetic code of the Queens who had reigned since Lower Earth had been founded from the ashes of the Final War.
But Gale was the future. Gale had the perfected common code, soon to be normalized across all their sequences.
Ariane could tell just by looking.
Her memory of those early days with Gale were vivid. Gale entering the fortress for the first time a year ago. The look of awe across her face. The way her cheeks glowed rose at the sight of the beating heart of Lower Earth, the walls in which their future was decided.
Ariane had demanded that her own seamstress design the dresses for Gale. At first, Gale had objected, but Ariane had explained with unexpected patience how important it was for the Queen’s closest confidante to be visibly apart from the rest of the waiting women, and from the rest of Lower Earth.
It was not sufficient that Gale be seen with the Queen, Gale had to be seen as queenly herself, the pinnacle of womanhood, worthy of the Queen’s close company.
Never before had Ariane had someone she could turn to the way she could with Gale. Certainly, there had been others before her, Ariane had tried to build trust and loyalty in those women who had come before, but none of them had been fitting. Not even close.
Gale was a world apart from every other waiting-woman before. They had come far in that past year. Affinity. Respect. Friendship.
But for Ariane, it was almost religious.
“Such perfection,” the Queen gently shook her head, running the back of her hand along Gale’s cheek. Her skin was warm and smooth. Barely a woman. Gale joked that the Queen herself was hardly older than her, but Gale didn’t know what ran through Ariane. Not really, even though Gale tried. There had been vulnerable moments when Ariane had said more than she should have. Gale knew something about the voices. Ariane couldn’t really keep it a secret. With all the time they spent together, Gale had witnessed their effects.
She still has so much to learn, but it will come with time. She hadn’t been educated for her station. I will help her each step of the way. She has come so far already. She never could have known the role she had been born to play.
Ariane smiled.
Gale took Ariane’s hand from her cheek and pressed it to her forehead in a gentle bow.
“You are just so…” Ariane found herself at a loss for words, a rarity. But she had moments like this with Gale, like she was looking into their future, a bright one. For Ariane, it was as monumental as that.
Gale rolled her eyes and smiled. She was always uncomfortable when Ariane’s adoration rained down on her.
“I know, and I know what you’re going to say. I am the picture of perfection, aren’t I?” She batted her eyes like a child.
Ariane felt it sneaking in; her early afternoon dream was ending. Gale was the woman all women would become, but she was still human. And at times, irreverent.
Ariane raised her eyebrows. “It seems to be going to your head. Perhaps I have been spoiling you. I will be more careful.”
Gale’s face turned with a wash of doubt. She stood. Despite herself, Ariane admired her from the ground. Gale’s long dark hair, such femininity. Her figure, ideal for any vocation. Hips adapted to childbirth, shoulders adapted to physical labor, strength and endurance evident in the muscle that rippled across her body in subtle curves.
And green eyes.
Eyes the color of spring buds glistening in the sunshine. Eyes that had long ago been selected as humanity’s symbol of the future. New life, abundance, renewal. All of it was in those green eyes.
Ariane rested her chin on her hand.
“You truly are what every woman should be,” Ariane was lost in the vision of the woman before her. It was so easy to let herself be pulled away from duty when moments like this swept over her. One day, Lower Earth would be made up of women like Gale. Women who were dedicated. Women who could do anything. Women who would love her as their Queen. As the descendant of the settlers. As the leader of their future.
A cool breeze rushed past Ariane’s skin, the earthly world interrupting her trance, reminding her of the responsibilities that awaited her. And of the distrust that had been bred in her being.
“Why don’t we go for a walk before returning to the fortress? I’ve been meaning to talk to you about some serious subjects.” Gale asked, hesitant.
Rumblings began deep within Ariane.
The voices. Vengeful voices. Cynical voices.
Ariane wasn’t ready. She wasn’t ready for the cascade of voices that were bubbling up. She wasn’t ready for the city and its people crawling over one another in their everyday endeavors. As soon as she stood, the sounds of their lives bustling through the streets of Geb would invade every one of her senses.
Gale awaited her reply.
“No, not now…”
“Please, Ariane. I’ve been waiting for a long time to discuss this. I want to talk to you about the deviants…”
“I said, not now.”
“…and the incubates. It’s time we brought them back from the quarantine location.”
“You know nothing about it!” The wave of anger was raging towards her. She’d kept the secret of the incubates from Gale all this time.
She couldn’t tell her now she’d had them killed. Every last one of them.
“You keep pushing me away, but Ariane, we cannot continue ignoring their needs. It’s getting worse in the ghetto, I’ve heard that the water is entirely undrinkable now without extensive boiling.”
“They can drink it, they just have to boil it. The expense, the time and focus it would require. It can’t be done now. Central Tower is occupied with critical interests.”
Gale nodded. “I understand. They can’t do anything right now. So the incubates, then.”
Heat rose up Ariane’s neck.
“They have been quarantined for a year now. Certainly
they can be permitted back.”
“You don’t understand.”
“Please, let’s talk about it. I have an idea about how we could reintegrate them…”
“An idea? Did I ask you for any ideas? What do you think you know about any of this? The deviants? Have you ever been amongst them? Have you ever seen the treachery that lives in their hushed corners of Cork Town? Because I have. I’ve tried to endure your pet interest in them, but I cannot keep you in the dark any longer. They resent their birth, Gale. And they blame me for it. They blame all queens. Why do you think my mother had to close them away? It was the most humane thing she could do. It was more than they deserved.”
The corner of Gale’s lips turned downward.
She’s disgusted with me. She’s knows nothing of what I have to live with, and still, she judges me.
I cannot tell her about the incubates.
“Let’s discuss the incubates then.”
“Absolutely not.”
“My Queen, I could oversee the program. I had a dream about it. A vision. I could see them, returning, like a triumphant army. The ways of Lower Earth having saved them from certain death…”
Ariane muttered, her blood tumbling through her veins, her knuckles stiffening. “Nothing, you understand nothing.”
“Then tell me, Ariane! Whatever it is, we can resolve it.” She paused. “You can resolve it. And I will support you. But they are just children, Ariane, they need to be back with us, back in society, or else who knows…”
“Enough!”
She felt it coming, the tempest that lived inside her. The Queens of Before who always snuck into the edge of hearing, especially when Ariane was beginning to find some peace.
“Shut up, Gale. You don’t know anything. You speak as either a traitor or an idiot, and I don’t know which is worse.”
