by Eden Wolfe
But she knew that this too was simply the aftereffects. She exhaled every bit of air from her lungs, feeling the back of her body press into the mattress.
If only she could change some of those lived memories, just a few. If only.
If only.
15
Irene
Irene squeezed her legs tighter against the steed. She leaned forward into the wind as it rushed past her ears. She couldn’t hear anything but the sound of summer’s warming air and the horse’s feet pounding against the dry ground in the corridor that used to be the Free Route to Geb.
She had to ride back to the capital as quickly as possible.
“Hi-yah!” she shouted at the horse, kicking its side. It was barely tall enough for Irene to ride but to get a taller horse would have required pulling one of the Queen’s stallions, and she wasn’t going to do that. No, there hadn’t been time for the paperwork. The Queen kept close watch on the use of her horses, lest they be necessary one day for war.
Always war. It’s all she ever thinks about. Well, now she’s going to face a very different kind of war.
She had been of two minds all the while preparing to travel. The command of the Queen put Irene in an awkward position with Leadon. By the time Irene had arrived in Gana, her stomach was in knots.
And yet the moment she saw Daphna, somehow it all disappeared. The anxiety was replaced with something else. Surprise.
While the news about the Sisters was alarming, Irene was sure they could navigate this. They had overcome more difficult times together, but that was before the Sisters had been steadily going to the grave day on day.
Irene had stayed on in Gana, gathering sufficient intel to satisfy the Queen about the Sisters, the Dark Counties, and other movements in the country.
That’s when the messenger had arrived, telling of the Sisters’ movements toward Geb. Irene didn’t wait a second longer. She was on her horse within the hour.
“Hi-yah! Move animal, move!”
Now she had to get back to Geb, as fast as possible, before the news of the Sisters’ march to the capital was more widely known.
Curse the thought that anyone else should reach the Queen before me. They won’t know how to tell her this news in a way that she won’t panic. Do I even know how to do that? At least I can do better than any common messenger who might try to speak of the Sisters.
She leaned further forward against the horse’s neck, small sounds of a voice behind her reaching her ears.
“Irene! You have to slow down, the horse can’t take it!”
Irene lifted her spine straight and the animal slowed to a brisk walk.
“The beast has to get me back to the capital, that is its only task. I never expected Daphna would resolve Elgin that fast.” Irene’s head was still reeling. For years, Central Tower had been grappling with the Elgin, and Daphna was able to figure it out within a day of being back in the Strangelands. A day. Irene hadn’t even concluded her mandatory checks of Gana that had been part of the ruse to keep the Queen satisfied with Irene’s return to her homeland. She should have stayed one more day, but the messenger from the Strangelands had changed all of that. Now Irene needed the beast to move faster than it was capable of doing. Otherwise the Queen would hold her somehow responsible. She was to get news from Gana after all. The Queen had wanted her in the Strangelands, but Irene was the one who convinced her otherwise.
“Hi yah!” Irene kicked, “Let the animal fall down dead after we get back to the capital, but things will be much worse for everyone if we don’t get there before the news arrives.”
“And if the animal collapses on the way?” Priya pulled up beside her, her steed broader and taller. One of Gana’s own. The indigenous horses had always been bred stronger to carry the weight of the Ganese. Indeed a Ganese horse could be required to carry double the weight of their Lower Earth counterparts, given the height and muscle of their masters. “I’m telling you, if that horse falls dead before we get there, you’re not getting on the back of mine. She can’t take two of us.”
Irene sighed and pulled her braid forward wrapping it in under her shoulder. An old habit. It calmed her.
The horses strode forward, a consistent gait, even if it did drive Irene mad to have to slow down. Priya was right.
She hadn’t wanted to bring Priyantha along, but Leadon had been wise to suggest it. Priya’s presence added credibility to their story. And Irene needed every bit of credibility she could get.
“Don’t think about it,” Priya pulled forward a little, coming side by side with Irene. “We’ll get there in good time.”
“If the Sisters are already on their way to the capital, then there is no such thing as good time. You don’t know this Queen.”
“Daphna will need more time, she won’t have everything ready yet.”
“You underestimate her.”
And this Queen is going to explode when she hears there are a thousand Sisters on their way. If only we can get there before the first group of them arrive.
“The initial arrivals will be no more than twenty Sisters. There’s nothing to fear from twenty Sisters.” Priyantha tilted her head, “Or is there? Is the Queen that wary?”
“It’s not a question of wary,” Irene had to be careful with her words now. She didn’t know how trustworthy Priyantha was. If Irene said too much, and then it spread in Gana or beyond... Irene shook off the feeling. “She will know. This Queen, like all Queens, she has a sensitivity about that which occurs in Lower Earth. Like radio waves, it emanates from any unexpectedly overturned stone.”
“Radio waves?”
Irene looked at Priyantha, “They don’t teach you about radio waves? How have the teachings become so simple?”
“I know what a radio wave is, Irene. That wasn’t my question. Ancestors, help me. You really know how to provoke, don’t you? You pick at a spot, scratching it until it’s raw. I’ve seen you do it with Leadon, who endures it because of... well, your history.” Priya sat taller on her horse, coming more than a full head higher than Irene. “But do not try to patronize me, Irene. Commandante or not, we are here as equals. And I won’t have it any other way.”
Irene found herself smiling in spite of herself. “I’m glad there is still some Ganese pride among us.”
“There is much among us, Irene. You may have defected, willingly or not is beside the question. What matters is that you recognize there is much in Gana of which you know nothing.”
“Understood, Keeper of the Chief.”
“I’m not the official Keeper.”
“You will be.”
“I would be most honored but I do not have any expectations. This is for the ancestors to make clear to Leadon, and their wishes are the only ones which count.” She turned her head to face forward, but Irene saw that her shoulders were taller than they had been.
She would be a good Keeper. She is steady, but she doesn’t withstand nonsense. I was the one speaking nonsense. I must be more careful with my words. This chaos with the Sisters has clouded my judgment. The Queen has clouded my judgment.
I am not who I used to be.
Irene startled at the realization, the horse beneath her feeling the change in Irene’s posture. It slowed further. Irene didn’t mind.
I have become less of myself ever since Ariane came into power. She has rattled everything I always stood for. She wasn’t prepared to lead. She wasn’t the one best equipped for the future we are living.
How long have I known that this Ariane was not the one Lower Earth needed most?
It should have been Aria all along.
“You’ve gone pale,” Priyantha slowed her horse to the same pace.
Irene couldn’t speak. The years she’d been in the fortress rolled over her like a boulder on a butterfly.
She’d never considered herself weak, anything but that. But now, how could she account for her own behavior? For her lack of empathy, her lack of foresight? How could she be so empty of intention?
I hav
e lost my way.
She had never felt this when she’d served Maeva, even if Maeva had been mercurial and unpredictable. It had never occurred to Irene in those days that a time would come when she had no confidence in the way they were heading as a Direction of Lower Earth, as a society, as an entire people on the slice of the planet which remained.
We are being punished. Are the ancestors trying to teach us a lesson? Do I even believe in the ancestors anymore? They have been silent in my life for so long. It’s as though even they cannot penetrate the walls of Geb.
Perhaps this illness among the Sisters will be the thing to finally take us all down.
She turned to the young Ganese who strode with her eyes off in the distance. “What do you think of this virus, Priyantha?”
“What do I think of it?”
“Yes, what do you think of this infectious misery, painful death, and targeted attack, if Daphna is right in what she says?”
“I think it is horrifying to watch those you love pass into the afterlife before they are welcome. I think Central Tower must give some attention to their plight, given their lack of engagement on it to date. The Sisters are as much part of their people as the Willing Women and Geb offspring they’ve come to love so deeply.”
“What do you know about Central Tower’s preferences?”
Priyantha shrugged, not taking her eyes off the horizon. Irene hadn’t thought that the Queen’s partiality for the women of the capital had been evident to those living in the outer counties. She thought they’d just see her as more absent than the last Queen. Ariane rarely traveled, unlike Maeva and the Queens before.
Other than to Rainfields, of course.
Rainfields. They pull at every Queen. What is it in their veins that demands such communion with the dead?
Others thought that Rainfields was the place where life was given back to them after the Final War, but Irene knew them differently.
They were the dying place of every Queen since the line of Queens began four hundred years earlier.
There’s nothing natural, no life-giving in that. Will the voices come for Ariane the way they did Maeva?
Maeva, her silent death.
Silent for no one knew anything of it. No one except Ariane.
Killed herself, Ariane had said, like her mother before her. It could be true, but...
While Irene believed the words Ariane spoke, she mistrusted that which lived behind her eyes. Maeva had jumped off the cliffs, she’d said. It was possible, even likely.
But the timing was too perfect, too convenient for Ariane’s reign.
Maeva never had approved of Ariane’s methods. Nor her preference for the designed women of Geb. Nor her disgust for all those who didn’t fit into her definition of genetic perfection.
It was awfully easy for Ariane that Maeva went just when she did.
“The horses are more rested,” Priyantha whispered, but Irene could see that she was skeptical of Irene’s silence. “Let us canter to the city gates.”
“Yes.”
They kicked the horses back into a run as the gleam of Central Tower reflected the sun several miles in the distance.
As they approached, Priyantha slowed, her horse having carried her always a head-length before Irene. Priyantha dismounted. While Irene slowed her horse, she didn’t stop.
“What are you doing?”
“We’re riding into the city.”
“It’s not allowed!”
“We must get to the Queen before word reaches her.”
“We’ll be spotted.”
“I’m the Commandante! If I want to ride to deliver a message of critical importance to the Queen, then I’m riding into the city! You do as you like, Priyantha, but I suggest you stay at my side as I know the way to go so that we avoid as much drama as possible!”
She glanced back to see Priyantha catching up with her. Though Priya’s face was set in a scowl, she didn’t object any further.
But the truth was that Irene wanted to be seen.
Let the city see us coming. It’s time the city awoke to the workings of the world around them.
Let the Queen know that I’m coming as fast as I can.
They ran the horses through back alleys, crossing only a few women who gasped at the sight of them.
And they were a sight.
Two Ganese women, braids bouncing against their backs, a layer of sweat in the midday sun, the rhythm of the horse’s hooves announcing their arrival around every corner.
“The Commandante?” she heard someone cry out as she passed.
Soup sellers lifted their eyes from pots to watch them go by, mouths open. Children pointed and gasped. Women huddled together, the wind cascading off the horses back as they hurtled by.
“Slow,” Irene coaxed the horse back to a walk. They were nearing the square.
She had to make a stop first.
The entry to the barracks was just off the main entry to Geb’s main square. She rode to the door where two guards were on watch. On seeing Irene, they stood taller, spears in hand, though that was primarily ceremonial. No one had died on the end of a spear in many years. But the sight of spears was powerful. Irene saw the question on the guards’ faces as she rode towards them, but they knew better than to ask questions.
“Assemble the primary units. I don’t know how long I’ll be but I want everyone ready when I arrive. Understood?”
“All the primary units, Commandante?”
“Was I ambiguous?”
“No, Commandante.”
“Then do as I say or find yourself in insubordination.”
“Yes, Commandante!” They clicked their feet together in salute. “Understood, Commandante.”
Irene turned to Priyantha who watched, frowning.
“You’ll understand soon enough. Now we go to the fortress.”
“The Queen will be there?”
“She likely already knows we are coming.”
They rode, gently now, through the square towards the fortress. Irene saw Ariane in the window of her chambers. Her stomach hardened at the sight of the young Queen.
I cannot lose myself now. I must prepare for any possible reaction she might have. Perhaps she will be rational about this. I have seen her be rational in the management of the food supplies and prioritization of community improvements. Perhaps...
But she knew better.
The Sisters. A thousand of them. Marching on Geb.
This was what the Queen’s nightmares were made of. It wouldn’t matter that they were coming peacefully. With an offering, so the messenger had told them in Gana.
Irene couldn’t imagine any offering from the Sisters that the Queen would welcome, Elgin or not.
Not a single one.
If the Sisters could have just vanished from the planet, the Queen would be perfectly happy. It didn’t matter that they were her subjects; ever since Sahna had left Maeva’s service to establish the Sisters, an inherent distrust flowed through Geb against anyone who joined the Strangelands sect.
Though Irene had witnessed another side of them.
Now it will be my responsibility to represent them as loyal subjects, even as they fulfill Ariane’s most fundamental fears.
I’m not ready.
She left the horse at the entry of the fortress in the hands of a guard without speaking a word. The guard cocked her head as she led the horse away, but she didn’t dare to ask.
Irene felt Priyantha behind her but didn’t turn around. If she turned around now, she wouldn’t take a step further.
She focused forward. Into the main corridor of the fortress. Up the central staircase to the third floor where the Queen’s quarters had been since the royalty first took up residence there, all those hundreds of years earlier.
Her feet strode down the hallway in spite of herself, until a waiting-woman stepped in her path.
“Get out of my way!” Irene shouted.
“You can’t go in,” the woman whispered.
> “Shut up and move.”
The woman trembled, but held her hands wide in a feeble gesture to try to stop the Commandante.
“I cannot let you,” she spoke even quieter.
“What are you talking about? You know who I am.”
“She told me not to let you in. She said she’d have me killed if you entered.”
This is worse than I thought.
Irene felt a calm settle inside her. The rock in her stomach dissipated. All emotion drained.
She had to operate on strategy now. She turned away from her fear and leaned into her instincts.
The woman in the hall had lowered her head, her breathing heavy. Irene heard a whimper escape her lips.
“You’re alright. Don’t worry. You’re doing as you’re told.” Irene touched the woman’s shoulder and she recoiled, the woman’s ceremonial waiting dress tearing as she stepped to the side. She leaned against the wall.
“I cannot let you pass. She’ll kill me. She already had the last one disappeared. Magda. Of the sixth line. She was my friend.”
“Hush, now. The Queen hears all your words. You’ve done well. She hears you.” Irene leaned forward, trying to get the woman to shut up before she said something that she’d regret. Something that just might get her killed.
Irene looked back at Priyantha, whose eyes were wide, absorbing the scene. Irene couldn’t tell what she was thinking. Irene took a deep breath and briefly closed her eyes. When she opened them, she used all the air in her lungs to call out.
“Ariane!”
“No!” The Queen’s voice replied from the closed door further down the hallway.
“Ariane, I must see you.”
“I don’t want to hear what you have to say.”
“That may be true,” Irene looked back again at Priya.
If only Priya knew what it takes to get through to Ariane. She’ll witness it now, anyway.
Irene waited a moment.
“I have a plan, Ariane,” she spoke quieter, knowing Ariane could hear her. “We can manage this. But you must be informed. You must prepare yourself. Let me approach.”
There was a long pause. Irene felt her blood pumping in her temples.
