by Eden Wolfe
Poor child, she’s come this far. She’d better make it all the way. Her message won’t carry the same weight if it comes from my lips.
Gillian lifted her head and saw Leadon looking at her. She gave a small, hesitant smile and Leadon nodded her head in acknowledgment. Then she set her sights back on the city.
Irene will be shocked to see us. At least for the rest of the city, it is most appropriate that we would come for Settlement Day. Many others will be coming from the Outer Counties. We may not blend, but we will stand out less than on any other day.
The horse’s steps were sure and strong. He did not question their direction.
“I shall take my cue from you,” she spoke into the horse’s ear and giving him a confident slap on the neck. “At least one of us isn’t afraid of the destination.”
They tied up the animals at the entry stable, giving a coin that Leadon had saved from her previous visit in the capital. They had never used currency in Gana but it was unavoidable in Geb.
“I know that you are not one to speak out of turn,” she said to Gillian as they secured the animals in place. “But on Settlement Day it will be even more important that we are quiet and reverent.”
“Of course, I know that. I have participated in every Settlement Day of my life in Longor city. I cherish the moments to be in communion with the settlers,” Gillian opened her hands in front of her as though she were going to receive something from the sky.
Leadon found the gesture very peculiar.
Gillian seemed to notice that Leadon was giving her an odd look. She dropped her arms and then awkwardly kicked at the hay on the stable floor. “Haven’t you been to a Settlement Day?”
“Never.”
“Never?” Gillian leaned forward, her mouth hanging open, “But it’s the day that we feel the greatest connection with those who came when the world was dying, connection with our genetic forbearers. Those who watch over us to make sure our world is now moving in the right direction. You don’t worship them?”
Leadon gave a tight smile.
“My people are different,” was all she said.
Gillian blinked, as though waiting for a longer explanation. But Leadon wasn’t interested in discussing the ancestors of Gana, the true people of Lower Earth. They who had lived there long before the settlers had scrambled up the cliffs of Rainfields.
They had to focus on the problems of the present day, not those from four hundred years earlier.
“You’ve left your satchel on the horse’s back. Get it and pay closer attention. The settlers are not our reason for coming. You need to stay focused, do you understand me?”
Gillian blinked, and then nodded fiercely, her long brown hair bouncing into her face.
Leadon looked toward the entry of the city and inhaled deeply.
“Stay close to me. There will be hundreds of thousands gathering today, if not more. You lose me, and your whole reason for coming will be a failure.”
“I understand. I’m ready. Let’s go.”
Leadon nodded, satisfied by the determination on the young woman’s face.
Almost as soon as they entered they were in a flood of bodies. Women and children emerged from every building, down every alleyway, along every street. Everyone heading towards the center.
“Stay very close,” Leadon put her arm around the girl and brought her in front of her. Leadon was nearly a head taller than everyone else, but Gillian could get absorbed into the crowd. Other than her dress, she was as much like the women as any other. Leadon put her hand on Gillian’s shoulder, guiding her forward. Voices spoke in hushed tones around them, no one seeming to dare a conversation. Leadon knew the Settlement Days were important to the Queen, they had always been important among the other counties of Lower Earth, but now that she was in it, Leadon didn’t know what to expect. While she knew there would be people everywhere, the near silence but for moving feet and heavy breath sat strangely on her. She felt like an intruder. Everyone moved orderly, but there was a palpable undercurrent among all those she passed. There was no levity, no joyousness. She had always thought the Settlement Day was a celebration. This was solemn.
Above them, a woman’s face lit on the screen. Her hair fell in a perfect wave over her shoulders, as though it had been drawn that way. The wall behind her was white, though Leadon had never seen white walls in the city. Then again, she knew so little of Geb.
“Soon, people of Lower Earth, soon she shall appear. Find a place, wherever you are, have access to a screen. If you have not yet arrived in the main square, remain in place. The time has come.”
“We’ve got to get there quickly,” Leadon leaned forward into Gillian’s ear. “If we don’t move then we will be forced to watch on a screen from an alleyway. We didn’t come this far for that. Turn right.”
Mary’s voice on the screen continued as Leadon tried to guide Gillian through the crowd, not drawing more attention to themselves than necessary, but working their way ever closer to the main square.
“Our Queen, descendent of the settlers, descended from all those of natural design, the perfected version of all the settlers wanted us to be, Queen Ariane! And soon she shall be with us, today of all days, be one with those who came before.”
“Oh, settlers, be with us,” Leadon heard Gillian speak quietly.
This girl truly believes all of this. Who knows what they teach the children in the Dark Counties…
“Seek, seek and find in the Queen’s words all that was intended for us.”
Mary’s voice was quickly wearing on Leadon’s nerves. Something in the arrogance of it. Something so self-assured.
Pride. That’s what it is. Arrogant pride.
“Now hush, people of Lower Earth. Hush until she appears on the balcony. She will come when the time is right. And you must show your respect through your silence.”
“Cut north,” Leadon pushed Gillian in another direction. “We can squeeze along the side of the barracks building.”
They had just reached a spot where they could see both the entry to the fortress and the Queen’s balcony above the square when Queen Ariane took her place upon it to address the crowd.
“Oh, my Queen,” Gillian’s eyes widened in adoration.
Leadon closed hers so that no one could see her disdain.
“My people,” the Queen began, opening her arms wide. “So much to say. So much you must understand. There is something very wrong in our land. Many things. Many things are wrong.”
The voice echoed out the screens behind them. They heard in stereo and repeat, “wrong, wrong, wrong.”
A woman near them gasped, “What have the settlers told her?”
“What could be so wrong? Things finally seemed to have calmed down.”
“Ever since Lucius…”
“Ever since the scouts…”
“Is she going to say more?”
Leadon felt her jaw tightening. The atmosphere was electric, and it was not to be this way. Leadon also felt something was wrong, but it had everything to do with the Queen’s manner, and not with Lower Earth.
Though she, too, was beginning to understand just how much was wrong in their land.
The Queen’s head was bowed against her chest. As it lifted, Leadon could see a gleam on her cheek.
“She’s crying,” the woman spoke nearby.
Queen Ariane’s lips parted, “I wish it weren’t me who had to speak these words to you. So great is my love for you that the idea of bearing this message weighs heavily on my heart. My soul has not rested, not in years. To be your Queen is to be servant to you. Servant to the wishes of the settlers. But now I find myself torn.” She lifted her chin high, “Listen to me. You are a fallen people.”
Ariane then leaned over the balcony, her body threatening almost to tumble over it. She was bent at the waist, her chest pressed as far forward as physically possible. No one in the crowd spoke. No one in the crowd seemed to breathe.
“You know what I am saying,” he
r voice was in a whisper but the screens amplified it so that the hiss reached every year. “You see it in your own heart. The settlers speak of the honor they imagined. And yet you defy the very future that was designed for you.”
“No future was designed for me.”
Leadon turned her head at the sound of a man’s voice. He was right behind her.
“I’m a ghost who walks the streets.”
“I hear your doubts,” the Queen continued. Leadon was sure the Queen was looking in their direction. “Our world is riddled with illness, disease, hardship, and suffering. You don’t need me to tell you about the state of men in our world. Even with all our greatest minds in Central Tower, we have not yet been able to undo the damage caused by the men of before. The men of before who destroyed our planet. They who launched the biological bombs. They who warped the Y chromosome. They are the ones who are responsible for the state of men today. Men of Lower Earth, how our hearts bleed for you. Still, I remain committed to your cause. I will not rest, not until everything in our power has been done to find a way to undo the acts of the men of before. We know it’s possible; we see those of you who live on, and how grateful we are for your presence.”
Ariane scanned the crowd identifying the men within it, nodding to them in something that almost looked like admiration.
Leadon didn’t believe it for a second.
“Even the men of Upper Earth give us some reason to believe it is possible to overcome the effects of those biological bombs. But never shall we succumb to Upper Earth and their desire to colonize. Never!” She threw her arms in the air. “We will never go back to how things were before the Mist. We will not allow them to take the land we have built from the ground up. The society that we have re-created from the ashes. You are the phoenix, people of Lower Earth. You are the result of the settlers’ sweat and blood. And we together must undo the sins that have taken root in our populace. Don’t you see?”
Again, Ariane scanned the crowd slowly, intentionally. She made eye contact with individuals. Her eyes reached Leadon and despite the distance, Leadon was sure the Queen burned her gaze directly into her.
“We have become the cause of our own demise. I never wanted to have to say these words again, but I have been left with no choice. There is the beginning of an epidemic. We see it in the Strangelands. And why? Because we are fallen. What is in your heart?” Ariane’s hands came to rest on her chest. “I am not pure either. But the difference is that the settlers speak to me. I hear their wishes for our world. I hear their command for my reign. And now you, you must also rise. You must rise in spirit, in morality, and in commitment! Oh, my people, there is so much wrong in this world. The settlers are angry with you. Now things will change. They must change!”
With that, Ariane turned and walked back into the fortress leaving the crowd in shocked silence. Thousands, maybe a million, Leadon thought, and all were struck dumb, no words. Nobody dared to move.
A voice cried out from the entry of the fortress and across the crowd. Leadon saw the face she could not mistake. Irene was calling to the guard.
“Resume positions! Egress as allocated! Go!”
The voices of the Guard stationed around them spoke in low tones, but over the silence of the crowd, their voices were crystal.
“Move back. Head home. End of congregation.”
The people turned to leave voices all silent but for one near Leadon.
“Lies.”
Leadon looked up to see the man who’d spoken before was staring her in the eye. “Warrior priestess, you know as well as I do. Nothing but lies drip from that Queen’s lips.”
Leadon grabbed Gillian’s arm while holding the gaze of the man. The crowd was fanning out from the square, but Leadon pulled Gillian further into it, moving against the current of the crowd.
“Come, Gillian. Now is our moment to get to Irene.”
30
Irene
Irene watched the thousands milling, moving outwards from the square where she stood at the main entry to the fortress. It was like a cloud had come to rest over them. They walked as if in a trance.
Such power, Ariane lifts her head and they gasp. She opens her arms and they believe her every word.
Irene’s eyes scanned the crowd. They walked in such dutiful organization. And yet, if they so wanted, they could undo everything this Queen was trying to impose on them.
And yet, they won’t. This theology of the settlers is powerful, indeed.
Irene couldn’t equate the political power of the settlers with the ancestors of the Ganese people. The ancestors were knowledge, memory, meaning, strength.
Or is that what the settlers are to them?
Irene scanned through her memory to see if there was any time the ancestors had also been used to control the Ganese like she’d just witnessed in the name of the settlers.
A disruption towards the north end of the square turned her attention back into the present day.
Someone was walking against the current, and Irene was not ready to believe her eyes. Her own young face marched toward her.
It can’t be. She wouldn’t come here on a day like today.
Except that she was there. Leadon stepped forward as the edge of the crowd passed by her. Leadon’s hand was just about dragging someone behind her, though the young woman seemed to accept being hauled along.
Irene couldn’t begin to guess what would bring Leadon here now, without message or word. She stood in her spot and waited for Leadon to arrive. Irene stood in her ceremonial posture, shoulders back, arms in front of her, hands clasped. And she tried to calm the rush of anger inside her.
“What’s the matter with you?” Irene’s jaw clenched as Leadon approached. “Can’t you see that we are in the middle of a changing tide?”
“I wouldn’t have come unless I absolutely had to.”
“Speak quickly. As it is I regret the time I’m spending here with you.” Irene shook her head, “Did you not hear the Queen’s speech at the congregation?
“Yes - ”
“Then you’re not so naïve nor foolish as to misunderstand the precariousness of our position right now. As Lower Earth. As Ganese.”
“This is precisely why I have come.” Leadon shoved the girl forward so that she was standing in front of her. Irene had never seen Leadon so rough. Perhaps she was not so meek and gentle after all. “Speak, child. This is why you came so far. Don’t crawl into a shell now.”
The girl’s shoulders were pulled forward, wringing her hands. She mumbled something that Irene couldn’t make out.
“Speak up,” both Irene and Leadon spoke at once, their single voice in stereo, even to themselves.
“They’re dying,” the girl lifted her head.
“Who?” Irene rubbed her forehead. “People are dying everywhere.”
“In the Dark Counties. It’s spreading. They have so much pain, sweats and fever, they bleed out of everywhere. They writhe in pain.” Suddenly, as if living in a memory, the girl’s demeanor changed. Her confidence grew before them, “I tended to them. I think I might have even had it myself for a short spell.” She looked at Irene straight on. “I know the woman who brought it to the Dark Counties. She came to my farm. She brought it. And she sent me here. And now you’ve got to do something.”
“Those are strong words for a child from the Dark Counties.”
The girl stood taller, her fear visibly dissipating. “She told me you all might be dismissive. She warned me of your disgust for the Dark Counties. And she told me to tell you this.”
The girl inhaled deeply through her nostrils, her chin high. She spoke clearly and without pause.
“She was the first in the world to have this illness. She was given it as punishment for perceived betrayal. And she is Gale, the waiting-woman of Queen Ariane.”
Irene blinked. Her brain couldn’t process the information fast enough. It rushed to make sense of what she was hearing, but there was no sense in it.
“In
that case, child, you’d better come with me.”
As they approached the Queen’s chambers, Irene raised a hand for Leadon and Gillian to wait while she entered first. No words passed between them. Irene couldn’t yet formulate words to ask the questions swirling in her mind. They would just have to come out with it directly and tell Queen Ariane what was happening. Perhaps Ariane already had a plan in place for such an eventuality. This young Queen had prepared for every grim scenario.
Irene could hear the Queen on the other side of the door, shuffling feet and whispering and a sound she couldn’t identify. She tapped on the doorframe with her fingernails so as not to jolt the Queen out of whatever state she may be in.
“What, who is it? Have you not heard the content of my speech? Do you not know that I am upset and overwhelmed by the state of our world?”
Irene pushed open the door and stepped in slowly. “Indeed, my Queen. You must be suffering.”
Ariane rushed towards Irene and Irene found herself leaning backward in fear. Never had Ariane approached her in such a way.
But Ariane threw her arms around Irene.
It was so unexpected that before Irene could determine the appropriate reaction, Ariane had already loosened her embrace and was holding her by the shoulders.
“You do love me, don’t you, Irene?”
There is only one way for me to answer this question; else she will sniff out my deceit like a hound.
“You have always had my loyalty, Ariane. Since the day you were born. You remember, I was there.”
“You were there to watch a velvet blanket roll back from a glass box.”
“It was the beginning of the first phase of your life. It was a blessing for me to witness.”
“And yet you’ve witnessed so many Queen-like births, haven’t you? You were there for all of us on our days of birth, weren’t you? What greater value could there have been in my birth when it was only one of many?”
“Because, out of all of you, you are the one who emerged as Queen, Ariane. You were chosen. You alone.”
“Yes,” she whispered, stepping closer again to Irene, “and you do love me, don’t you?”
