Frozen Prospects (2 page)

If
Va'del's barb struck home there was no sign of it in Jas'per's eyes.
"No, whatever position you get will be because someone felt
sorry for you."

Long
after Jas'per and his friends had left, Va'del sat alone fingering
his knife in the cold darkness near the abandoned mining expansion.
Not even his freakishly dark skin managed to hide the veins running
mockingly close to the surface.

##

Va'del
tried to convince Sara to let him go back to his own sleeping mat,
but the healer wasn't moved by his reasoning that the sooner he was
visibly up and about the more likely he'd be to get an appointment
as an apprentice.

"The
masters aren't as foolish as you think. They know what happened and
why you are here."

Whether
that means I wouldn't get a position regardless, or whether I'll get
one despite my status as an invalid she won't say.

Va'del
was unhappily working his way through the readings that Pa'chi had
brought him a couple of days before, when his friend came running
into the healer's room.

"Actual,
real Guadel just arrived. They're demanding to speak with Headman
Ma'del. Everyone says there's going to be a testing."

Va'del
felt his head spin. "Why would Guadel be coming now? There
hasn't been a visit since before we were born."

Sara
looked at Va'del and shook her head. "Guadel come to the
village more than most of you realize. As for the testing, it's not
the terror of blood and demons you all seem to believe it is."

Pa'chi's
expression was every bit as skeptical as Va'del imagined his must
be. For a second Va'del thought Sara was going to yell at them, but
she took a deep breath and shook her head again. "Think back
to the 'traveling healer' that gives you a checkup at
least once a year youngster. Do you really think that's
something I can't do myself? Va'del at least has the excuse of
never being tested before, but you girls should have figured
something out by now. You likely would have if the adults hadn't
all bought into Ma'del's edict."

Pa'chi
shrugged and turned back to Va'del. "Almost everyone is there
already. They're saying the Headman will deny them guest
right. People are scared of the Guadel, but they're almost as
worried that the Goddess will smite us if we turn them away."

Sara
stood suddenly, and pulled Va'del onto his feet. "We'd better
go now. If Ma'del denies them guest right the Goddess won't have to
smite anyone, the Guadel will do it for her. At least they'll
likely stop after killing that pompous oaf."

Sara was one of only three or four people in the entire village
that would stand up to the Headman. It was unnerving to see her
hurry out of the room, obviously afraid of what was coming.
Sara had once thrown a large man into a wall with nothing more than
the power of her mind. If she was scared of the Guadel then maybe
there was more to the old stories than anyone really believed now.

Pa'chi
looked back into the dark corridors and then turned towards Va'del
with a trembling lip. "What if she's wrong? For every story
where the Guadel save a child from a pack of snow wolves, there are
two more about them carrying people off to the Capital to serve as
sacrifices."

Va'del
faked a reassuring smile. "All of the stories can't be true.
It isn't as if they are really twice the size of a normal man and
have multiple wives after all."

Pa'chi
ventured a tremulous smile in return and then nodded and started
after Healer Sara.

The
pair joined the stream of people presumably headed towards the
Guadel, and shortly found themselves in one of the larger central
caverns typically used as a marketplace. Va'del was just tall
enough to make out the healer at the edge of the cleared space. If
the Guadel snapped and started killing people, standing just behind
Sara was probably the safest place to be. Pa'chi followed along
behind Va'del as he pushed his way through the crowd.

The
first thing Va'del noticed when they made it to Sara was just how
large the male Guadel was. There were three of them, but the man
was so imposing it was hard to notice the two women until some of
the shock had worn off.

The
man slowly surveyed the assembled villagers, and Va'del was struck
by the sense of controlled menace that rolled off him in waves.
He
moves like a snow leopard. Like he's the predator and we're nothing
more than the next meal.

The
multiple light sources placed throughout the large cavern played off
the Guadel's face in a way Va'del hadn't ever seen before, leaving
strange, disturbing shadows that made him look wholly inhuman.

One
of the women placed a hand on the man's arm as if to restrain him,
but he shook it off without looking and called out. "Where is
the village Headman? We come to claim hospitality right."

Jas'per's
father arrived, accompanied by Jas'per and four of the other top
weapons students. As the Headman pushed his way to the front of the
crowd, Va'del noticed that all six men were armed.

"You
will of course be granted provisions and a place to stay according
to the code. I will have to ask, though, that you follow more
recent precedent and keep to your rooms. I'm afraid your presence
here disturbs my people."

The
Guadel dropped his heavy over-coat to the hard, gray floor of the
cavern, revealing a frame that seemed nearly as wide as he was tall.
He was more heavily muscled than even the village blacksmith.
"That's unacceptable. The same laws that grant us
hospitality right also demand we move around the village freely. We
must ensure there isn't anything that needs reported back to the
Council."

Jas'per
and the other guards had their hands on the hilts of their weapons,
and were nervously spreading out, but the Guadel seemed unconcerned.

More
than one of the packed crowd reached towards Ma'del as if they
wanted to stop the Headman from forcing the issue with the Guadel,
but nobody stirred from their spots. Instead nearly every person
gathered in the market square was looking at the Guadel as though
they expected them to shed their human skins and begin devouring the
villagers.

The
male Guadel on the other hand seemed impervious to the raging fear
around him. One of the two women at his back crumpled to the
ground, apparently overcome by the stress of the situation. The
younger woman carefully lowered her fellow to the ground, but her
manner was distracted. The sense of tension ratcheted up as Ma'del
started to gesture his men forward.

The
Guadel shook his head, preempting the motion as he drew his weapon.
"Your lack of answer can only be taken as a refusal of our
ancient right."

The
guards all dropped to a ready stance as they drew their own swords,
but if anything, the Guadel was moving with more grace than before.
Suddenly no one present had any doubt but that he could kill them
all in the blink of an eye.

A moment later,
Sara's diminutive form was standing in the middle of it all, glaring
at the Headman. "This is foolishness. Of course the village
will extend the full hospitality demanded by tradition and law."

The
Headman seemed to be calculating the odds that the villagers would
join the fight against the Guadel. He frowned at what he saw, and
then finally nodded. "Of course. I merely wanted to save our
people from any undue alarm."

Gesturing
for Sara to see to it, the Headman turned to walk away, only to pull
up short as the Guadel's cold voice rang out. "I think it
would be best if your men were careful not to bear arms, other than
the two guardsmen needed to cover the entrance. We wouldn't want
any misunderstandings."

Moving
with a sudden rigidity that spoke of towering anger, the Headman
motioned for Jas'per and the others to follow him.

The
Guadel seemed somehow to deflate. By the time he turned to help the
women with their things, the menace radiating off of him was only
barely more than human.

##

Va'del
and Pa'chi would have faded away into the corridors with the rest of
the village, but Sara ordered them to help carry the Guadel's
belongings to the guest rooms. Va'del found himself marveling at
how incredibly large the suite was, but he suspected it was nothing
less than tradition demanded for the Guadel.

Once
everything was settled, Sara hugged the older of the women and then
slumped against a wall. "You can't understand how good it is
to see you, Betreec, even if you all do look like you haven't aged a
day since I last saw you."

The
youngest woman laughed. "And to think just the other day I was
thinking how old the two of them were getting, especially I'rone."

Sara
shook her head. "I swear they must have little dolls hidden
away in a closet somewhere that age in their place. I, on the other
hand, feel like I've been aging at twice the normal rate. It's this
never ending fight with Ma'del."

Mention
of the Headman killed the mirth that'd been bubbling up from the two
Guadel women, but Va'del had been watching their husband, and the
forbidding man hadn't even smiled. Realizing the Guadel was looking
at Va'del and Pa'chi with something bordering on suspicion, Sara
sighed. "The boy is almost as unloved and distrusted by the
rest of the village as I am. The girl has a good heart, and for all
that her father is a self-centered fool, there isn't any love lost
between him and the Headman. You need not worry about either of
them."

Unreadable,
gray eyes considered Va'del for a heartbeat longer, and then turned
back to Sara.

Betreec
placed a gentle hand on I'rone's arm. "I knew Ma'del was
becoming more of a problem. That's part of the reason this
village was left to Ja'dir's people for so long. I half thought
On'li was jumping at shadows when she demanded we be the ones to
stop by. Nobody on the Council seemed to know Ma'del had
nearly the entire settlement cowed into defying the Goddess' laws."

Sara
shrugged. "I honestly don't know how he was elected Headman.
He's definitely gotten worse in the last couple of years though, so
maybe he started out reasonable."

The
man spoke up for the first time since the confrontation out in the
marketplace. "Do we need to worry about being attacked while we are
here?"

Shrugging
hesitantly, Sara looked like she wished she knew one way or another.
"I don't think so. He's always been very careful not to
violate the letter of the law at least. I suspect he was mostly
trying to bluff you into not exercising your full rights like he's
done with every Guadel that's stopped by for the last decade or so."

Va'del
was suddenly overcome by a spate of dizziness, but Sara and Pa'chi
managed to catch him before he hit the ground. The concerned, pale,
ice-blue eyes of the youngest Guadel were the last things that
Va'del remembered seeing before he slipped into unconsciousness.

##

The
calming darkness awaiting Va'del when he awoke signaled he was once
again in the sick bed. Thoughts of Sara, of course, led to
questions about the Guadel. Va'del hadn't ever quite
believed that the Goddess had chained demons to her service. It'd
seemed even more preposterous to think that the bargain allowed the
Guadel to carry people off for unspeakable rituals that were the
only thing keeping them from turning on the People. Seeing I'rone
face down Ma'del had very nearly made him believe, but Sara hadn't
seemed especially scared of them.

A
nervous rustle behind the divider told Va'del that Pa'chi must be
waiting for him to wake up. He wanted nothing more than to stay in
bed for a while, but it wasn't fair to make her sit there. Cradling
his useless arm in tight against his side, he struggled to his feet
and tottered out from behind the privacy divider.

Surprisingly
enough, although Pa'chi was indeed seated cross-legged in one of
Sara's low chairs, the healer wasn't present. Sensing Va'del's
question, his friend hurried to explain. "Sara will be back.
She's with them—she said something about ensuring they had a
complete list of the children and youth so that they could test
everyone."

I
almost forgot about the testing. They'll examine all of the girls
between twelve and eight, and all of the unmarried boys older than
fifteen, using their strange power. Then they'll take some of them
away never to be seen again.

"Are
you nervous about being tested?"

Va'del
shrugged, but his friend had known him for too long to be put off so
easily.

"It's
not that bad, at least not if it's just the annual checkup
like Sara indicated. It only takes a few minutes and then you're
done."

"What
if they find whatever they are looking for inside me?"

Pa'chi
looked uncomfortable. "I don't know. My parents wouldn't tell
me anything about what happens to the people they take away, but it
won't happen to you. All the stories say that almost nobody is
taken away anymore. They can't be as terrible as everyone says."

He
showed absolutely no emotion at the prospect of killing the
guardsmen. I think you might be surprised at what they are capable
of. How many people would you have to kill before it became so
commonplace?

Va'del
was saved from responding by the healer's return. "Good,
you're awake. Let's go."

It
wasn't until the trio turned into the corridor leading to the guest
rooms that Va'del realized what must be happening. He stopped
walking and thought about running, but Sara turned and looked at him
with such terrible majesty and power in her eyes that he knew he
wouldn't get very far. "I don't know what garbage your mind
has been filled with regarding the testing, but none of that
matters; you
will
come with us and be tested."

Sara
told Pa'chi to wait outside the privacy bend to the guest rooms and
then pushed Va'del along ahead of her. The Guadel seemed to be
expecting them, for all that I'rone didn't look up from the gurra
harness he was repairing.