Aveline (6 page)

Initially an act meant to conceal Tiana, the
wearing of the veil had become an instant symbol of power among the
women of the city, and teenage girls everywhere began copying the
fashionable trend.

Once she had finished positioning the thin
layer of silk, Matilda clipped strings of gems and gold to Tiana’s
hair around the edges of the veil and stepped back to examine her
critically from head to toe.

“You look like a Hanover,” Matilda
pronounced.

The way she said it left Tiana convinced
that Matilda was worried about her position in the family. Free to
look around without anyone seeing her deformed eyes, Tiana looked
Matilda’s clothing over.

“May I straighten your gown?” she asked
quietly.

“Drink your tea first.”

Tiana did not grimace the way she wanted to.
Every day, Matilda brought her an herbal tea meant to bolster her
health. Tiana drank the warm tea down fast, hating the pungent
flavor and the strange smell.

“Good. Now, with haste.” Matilda went still,
waiting.

Tiana smoothed out a layer of silk bunched
up near Matilda’s right hip and then very carefully realigned the
strings of gemstone beads that had shifted out of position in her
stepmother’s hair.

Lowering her hands, she moved away before
Matilda could shove her. Despite the rough treatment this morning,
she felt a spark of excitement at the prospect of seeing the world
outside the room where she was confined.

A rap at the door was followed by her
brother’s entrance sans permission. Dressed in the official scarlet
Shield uniform, he also wore the same green sash and honorary
medals and ranks as Tiana. His hair was damp from bathing, and the
green-gray eyes he had inherited from their father flickered over
both of them with similar coolness. The wealthy families had always
cooed over how much Arthur Hanover resembled his father, from the
strawberry blond hair to his near identical build to the natural
leadership ability.

The only significant difference between
father and son was one that made Tiana adore her brother. Whenever
he saw her, he smiled, and the skin around his eyes softened with
genuine warmth. No one else was ever happy to see her.

Lightheaded from being on her feet too long,
Tiana forbade her shaky knees from buckling beneath her. She leaned
against the wall to support her weak body.

“Arthur. You must wait after you knock. What
if we had been in a state of disarray?” Matilda’s reprimand was
spoken with maternal affection and a smile. Her ability to switch
from resentful loathing to dulcet sweetness in a fraction of a
second never failed to impress Tiana.

“Father awaits us,” Arthur replied without
acknowledging his stepmother.

“Of course.” Matilda’s tone cooled.

Tiana did not need to glimpse her
stepmother’s face to understand the tension between stepmother and
stepson remained. She was unable to pinpoint the day it began, but
it had become much more apparent the past six months until the two
barely spoke when in each other’s presence.

Arthur stepped aside for Matilda to exit.
She did so gracefully, a cloud of silk, tinkling and jasmine
perfume. She began belting orders to the slaves awaiting her in the
foyer, calling for her cloak and reprimanding one of them for the
bunched skirt Tiana had straightened.

Arthur strode to Tiana’s wardrobe and
removed her heavy cloak, consisting of a silk shell lined by the
warm fur of animals he had trapped for her fifteenth birthday. He
placed the cloak over her shoulders, and Tiana reached up to button
it around her neck.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

“Like my body will collapse, if I let it,”
she replied candidly.

He held out his arm, and she eagerly slid
her hand around it, relieved to have his support.

“One day, Tiana, I will take you to a proper
physician,” he vowed.

“Matilda would never allow anyone else to
see me. I am well enough, Arthur.” Tiana spoke the words with what
strength she could muster, already aware her brother would not be
fooled.

“Our stepmother is fickle, but she can fold
a veil like no other,” he said dryly. Once Matilda was out of
sight, his smile became wide.

“You should be nicer to her,” Tiana said.
“You have seen what happens to our father’s wives.”

“You should be less forgiving of her. She
deserves our father’s wrath for how she treats you.”

“Father would not fault her for trying to
fix what I am.”

“But I do.”

“At least she tries to heal me with her
teas,” Tiana murmured.

“Tea will not cure any malady, ever.”

Tiana pursed her lips. She did not fully
disagree with Arthur, but neither was she one to condemn a woman in
a position like Matilda’s. Their stepmother had seen the two women
who preceded her burnt at the stake. She understood the danger
inherent in her position, as Tiana did hers.

“I do not care to argue with my beloved
sister over someone who means so little to me,” Arthur added.

She hugged his arm and leaned her head
against his shoulder briefly as they walked to the door. “I wish
you would come see me more often,” she whispered, thoughts on how
displeased Matilda was going to be after Arthur’s cold shoulder.
When he was present, Matilda dared not touch her.

“I will, Tiana, after the Winter Hunt.”

But that’s three weeks,
maybe longer.
She almost sighed and shifted
from her own inevitable peril to her brother’s. “What will you do
if you see the Ghouls?” she asked.

They exited her room and fell into line
behind their stepmother, who was flanked by half a dozen slaves.
The party began walking through the family’s gilded, private
quarters to the elevator at the center of the apartment.

“What I always do. Tell them to leave me
alone,” Arthur quipped. “I do not fear creatures that may not
exist, Tiana. The natives pose the greatest threat.”

“We are at peace with them, are we not?”

“Meat is scarce in winter, and any truce we
form with them during a time of plenty is gone when we are both
trying to feed our people,” he explained. “Those to the north,
where the buffalo herds are, have never agreed to our treaties
anyway.”

“I would love to meet the natives in the
villages near the city and see buffalos!”

“You are safe here.”

“Am I?” She allowed the soft question to
escape.

His jaw tightened to the point the muscles
snapped in his cheek. “I know,” he said. “I found someone to guard
you while I am away for these two weeks.”

“Matilda will not approve.”

“Matilda will not know.”

“You can take me with you,” she said
wistfully. “I want to witness snow fall upon the prairies and walk
across the frozen lakes!”

“Someday.”

It was all he ever said when she expressed
an interest in leaving the city. Tiana’s cheeks warmed at the
reminder even her dear brother believed her deformities casted an
egregious shame upon the family, one that had to be kept hidden
from everyone forever. She would never leave her room, aside from
obligatory events, let alone venture from the city to the world
beyond.

“I heard the slaves talking about the Free
Lands to the north,” she continued and then held her breath,
waiting to hear what her brother said on the matter. Slaves often
spoke of nonsense, according to Matilda. Tiana, confined her entire
life, had no real experience or basis to help her determine what
was true and what was not.

“Tiana, if I knew somewhere you could go,
where you would be safe, do you not think I would do everything in
my power to send you there?” Arthur replied.

“You would,” she said. She hid her
disappointment, aware of how much her brother cared yet suspecting
he either did not know about the Free Lands or did not wish to
encourage her in her desire to eventually leave the city.

They fell into comfortable silence as they
joined their stepmother’s party. Trailed by her train of slaves,
Matilda went first down the elevator from the top of the pyramid to
the indoor village contained within its base, where their father
and other members of the privileged awaited them. The massive
structure, guarded by a sphinx and obelisk, had survived the
destruction of the Old World, the period five hundred years before
when Lost Vegas had existed as a city of luxury before it became a
refuge for the few that survived the demise of the Old World. The
wealthiest survivors had gathered here, and since then, only the
most powerful families in the city were permitted to live in the
great pyramid.

From the apartment at the
tip of the pyramid, the word,
Luxor,
could be seen written across the floor far below.
Tiana had often gazed at it and wondered what it meant, why someone
had named the exotic building this.

She and Arthur followed in the second lift,
lowered from the height of two hundred feet by electricity –
existing only in the elite outer city – and by a team of mules at
the bottom when the electricity was not working, which was half the
time.

She kept hold of her brother’s arm as they
left the elevator and were immediately surrounded by throngs of the
wealthiest members of the city. People always stopped to stare at
her, curious about the elusive daughter of their leader. None of
them had ever seen her face, and the slaves often spoke about how
various men and women would try to bribe those working for the
family for information about the mysterious Hanover daughter.

For her part, Tiana did not mind the
excessive attention, as long as she was safe behind her veil and at
her brother’s side. She had eyes only for what lay beyond the
confines of her home.

She and Arthur moved into place behind their
father and stepmother, who led the small parade from the pyramid,
outside into the outer city and onward to the top of the
commemorative wall, where they would watch the Shield depart for
the wilderness.

The procession out of the pyramid housing
the elite families of Lost Vegas was solemn, a reflection of the
importance of the Winter Hunt. It was the first day of the annual
hunt, which began every year on winter solstice. Led by her
brother, half the Shield members left Lost Vegas in search of the
meat the city needed to make it through the rest of the winter. Her
father spent the week before the Hunt honoring the gods of every
major religion in the city and visiting various clergy members,
scientists and clairvoyants to determine the type of weather to
expect and in which direction the great herds of buffalo and deer
would be found.

The men and women he consulted, as well as
his advisors from the lower castes, joined the procession in
positions of honor.

Tiana stepped with her brother outside for
the first time in several months and drew a deep breath of frigid
air.

The street before the procession was lined
by Shield members in scarlet. Citizens from all castes were packed
behind the lines of soldiers as far as Tiana could see, straining
for one glimpse of the elusive, powerful Hanover family. Many
people appeared worried, and she resisted the urge to tell them her
father had never been wrong about where to find food in his thirty
years of leadership. His uncanny knack for analyzing the
information provided from the clergy, scientists and clairvoyants,
and identifying where his men would find food, was one reason why
he was regarded as the greatest leader of Lost Vegas in five
hundred years. The other reason: his dedication to ridding the city
of criminals and those suffering from hereditary deformities. His
solution was simple. He burned anyone who exhibited any sign of
disfigurement or who tried to protect such people.

Tiana looked from the expectant, concerned
crowds to her father then to Arthur, who had led the Winter Hunt
for the past five years in his father’s place. She often wondered
if Arthur would make the same kind of leader as their father, if
his kindness and compassion would disappear once he assumed their
father’s mantle. It did not seem possible her father was born the
way he was, and she had long since drawn the conclusion that her
deformities had caused him so much grief, he simply stopped feeling
and grew impartial to the entire world.

Would something equally terrible happen to
Arthur one day and expel his warmth and smile?

The thought of her brother suffering as much
as she imagined her father had left her chest tight with
anxiety.

Soon, however, the dark thoughts vanished,
and Tiana began to strain to see the world outside the open gates.
Beyond the city’s defensive measures, the world consisted of snow
on snow, with white prairies meeting gray skies in the distance.
The brown path leading away from the gates of the city contrasted
with the frosted surroundings. Beyond the prairie, in the distance,
she spotted the forest. Somewhere beyond it, too far to see, were
mountains tall enough to pierce the sky.

Winter air penetrated her veil and chilled
her face. She shivered, delighted by the sensation of being
outside.

Arthur loosened her grip from his arm. “Can
you walk without me, sister?”

She tested her body. She felt frailer than
usual but also buoyed by the prospect of glimpsing the outside
world. She would not embarrass her father by falling or
collapsing.

“I am well, Arthur,” she replied.

“I will see you soon,” he said for her ears
only before he strode from the procession to the small group of men
and horses waiting by the gate.

Tiana clenched her hands together, wanting
to beg him not to leave her, to take her with him. In the end, she
remained silent and continued along the designated parade route a
short distance to what remained of the great wall that used to
circle the city. As part of the trade agreements and peace truces
with the local natives, the wall had been torn down a generation
before hers, except for this commemorative stretch, where her
father gave speeches several times a year to the city.