Wintermoon Ice (2010) (21 page)

A clear vision of Ludde's cramped, untidy shack came to her. Suvi thought of the endless winters, the freezing fog off the sea, the wind howling down the chimney
.
It was bad enough that she had to go there.
Why should Chelah have to suffer too?

With sudden determination, Suvi handed the degum back to Riku. "I think perhaps you had better keep her after all."

His eyes shone. "Do you mean it? Truly?"

"If your mother says it is all right."

Marja looked unsure. "Suvi, we can't take your pet from you. It wouldn't be right."

"Don't worry. I'll get another when I am settled." She smiled at Riku as she passed over Chelah's food dish. "Here, you should take this with you. Don't forget to feed her some milk now and again. But not too often, or it will give her an upset stomach." Then she had to turn away.

Riku ran from the room with the degum yowling plaintively in his arms. "Gosh, wait until I tell the others! Bye, Suvi. Thank you so much."

Suvi looked at Marja, and frowned. "Are you really going all the way to Taasendale? That is hundreds of miles from here. How will you get there?"

She seemed a little uncomfortable with the question. "The Harriers are giving us trucks for transport. There are a lot of Sun folk there all ready. It is where we belong, Suvi. But listen, I think there is a Harp settlement close by. You could travel with us; find shelter amongst your own people. Ludde isn't really the sort of man..."

Suvi threw her hands up in despair. "Haven't you learned anything over the last six months? At Carina we all lived and worked together. Why should it change just because the War is at an end?" She grasped Marja's hand. "Why don't we stay here, all of us? We can make a better settlement -- a whole town, in fact. There will be plenty of empty lands just on the other side of the border."

Marja backed away from her. "You've been drinking, haven't you?"

"Yes. So what? That doesn't change what is right."

"You aren't making any sense."

"Why should you Suns have to go so far away, to live with people you hardly know?"

"It isn't just the Suns, Suvi. All the Solis are splitting up and finding their own folk in the South. It is what we
have
to do."

"No! I won't let it happen. I won't!" Suvi pushed past her, and walked out into the main floor of the shelter. She clapped her hands loudly. "Meeting in the dining hall, right now."

The frantic bustle ceased as the residents of Carina recognized her voice. They crowded around Suvi, but she would answer no questions. She pushed Teggr and the others towards the dining hall.

When they had assembled, and stood silently waiting, Suvi climbed on the table. She saw almost at once that the people before her had grouped themselves in little knots by their Soli. She sighed. "Thank you for taking time away from your packing. I will not keep you long. I have heard from Marja that many of you are going down South. Is this true?"

Brini spoke. "Well, we can't stay here, Suvi. Severnessa will soon be on the wrong side of the border with that Berengarthen rubbish."

Several people, all Wheat, spoke up in agreement.

"And where are you Wheat folk going?" Suvi asked.

"To Endeeren."

"And will there be anyone to welcome you, after your three hundred mile journey?"

Brini shrugged. "Wheats have to stick together. We'll find a place when we get there, I expect."

Another group stood a little away from the rest. Billu waited at the fore. Suvi looked to him. "And you Ships? Do you also wish to go south?"

He took his wife's hand. "There is work for us at Port Raaken. We will go there."

She questioned each of the Soli in turn, and in each case their answer was the same.

Suvi paced back and forth along the table, trying to control her anger. "Listen to yourselves! Will you all run away South and hide, like frightened children? Have you forgotten everything we have been through? We learned to work together for the good of everyone. Ship and Bird and Rose and Snake..."

Teggr screeched, "Snake! Like that young lad, Calaan? The Harrier policeman told me that he had been spying on us -- and all his friends too. I
said
we shouldn't have taken them in, but no one..."

Suvi's expression grew desperate. "Goodwife, please... Listen, everyone. Stay close to Severnessa, with your families. Your children were born and raised here. This is their home. We can make a new village -- one where all are welcome -- just like Carina. Wouldn't that be better?"

They all looked down at their feet. No one spoke.

She stared at them. "Will none of you stay?"

One by one the residents of Carina shook their heads and then slipped away.

When the last of them had gone back to their packing, she went to the office, and stuffed her things carelessly into two tattered pikken sacks. A couple of heavy sweaters, two tweed skirts, a motley collection of pictures and books.

She left the yitar propped against the wall, for anyone to take.

The room looked empty and disheveled, without life. She wandered about, feeling lonely and sad, missing Chelah terribly. But she could not take back her gift to Riku, and anyway, she knew the degum would be better off without her.

Suvi left the office and headed for the south wing, ignoring the guarded stares of the former residents of Carina. Soon it would be time to ride to Ayedeen, but she would not leave without one last look through her window.

The sewer was silently frigid -- too cold to stand still -- far too cold to sit. Suvi inched her way across the slick stones, towards the cacophony of pastel lights and sounds that leaked from the gateway. For the first time in a long while she saw a different scene, shacks of weathered pinks and blues, potted geraniums hard against a white-capped bay. The sun shone in a cloudless sky, filling the sewer tunnel with inaccessible light and warmth.

It drew her, with an attraction stronger than any she had ever felt before. Suvi edged forward, closer and closer. Why should she stay in Severnessa? Across the divide was warmth and sunlight and freedom from the tyranny of Solis. The creature inside her woke, with a worried shiver.

A picture flowered inside her mind, of Ludde waiting for her, in his lonely shack by the ocean. She thought of Tom, of how much it had hurt when he left her behind without a farewell.

With a sigh, Suvi turned away, and climbed the rusty metal ladder. She crept out the side door, without saying goodbye to anyone, and slung her bags onto the back of the pede. Then she set off for Ayedeen -- and Ludde.

* * * *

Lut peered into the snowy forest, searching for Jack. His skis made a quiet shushing sound as he continued on beneath the trees, following the bombed out bunker line. He reached the edge of the trees, and glided onto a solidly frozen lake.

Copaheg had seen some of the worst fighting of the war. Lut skied now between piles of grey-uniformed bodies, frozen in whatever grotesque position death had found them. The Harriers had been through and buried their own dead, but they left the men of the Grond unhallowed, amongst the burned shells of their armored vehicles.

In the middle of this wasteland of ice and carnage Lut could see a tall figure, standing alone. He skied level with him. "Jack. Come away from here."

Jack's moustache was solidly frozen, and his lips looked blue. He leaned on his ski poles drunkenly. It took Lut a few seconds to realize he had fallen asleep, standing up. He shook his shoulder gently. "Come, my friend. There is kaffa waiting at the field kitchen for you."

Slowly, his eyes opened and blinked once, and again. "She is gone. Why in the gods' names did I let her come here?" Lut took his arm and led him back across the ice. Jack skied stiffly, as though his body really only wanted to lie down and join the dead people surrounding them.

He stopped before the mangled carcass of a galeet, its horn crusted with frozen blood. "She would have hated to see this. Katy always felt pity for the animals caught up in a conflict, because they could not choose whether or not to fight." He bent and brushed the snow away from the face of a fallen soldier who lay close by. "How old do you think he was, Lut? Eighteen? Nineteen?"

Lut shrugged, wishing they could hurry back to the warmth of the tents.

"Just like the galeet, he didn't have a choice. The Grond called this lad up and told him to fight for his fatherland, or face a firing squad. Look, they didn't even give him any gloves." He pointed to the boy's blue hands, frozen solidly around his rifle stock, and then turned away in bitter disgust. "The sad thing is, I don't believe any of them even knew what they were fighting for."

Lut growled. "But you and I know, don't we? And the government gave it to the Grond on a silver platter, after all we did to prevent it."

Jack stared at him bleakly. "I can't make myself care anymore. They can have the portal and welcome to it."

"No! Will you give them the ticket they need to leave here -- to spread their death like a poison, through all the worlds? Listen to me, Jack. I know you are grieving. I am too. But we have to stop the Grond from using that discontinuity. Otherwise what will all this death mean?"

"How? We can't close it. You said that Tom already tried. It is too big." Jack shook his head hopelessly.

"We must demolish the warehouse that sits over top. Blow it sky high, and bury the gateway under tons of earth and rock. That way they will not be able to find it, even if they bring in heavy machinery."

They had reached the tent. Lut slipped his boots from the bindings and stood his skis upright in the snow. Jack did the same and then they passed within. An old woman, unsmilingly ladling out kaffa and soup, handed them each a cup.

"All right." Jack sighed as he sipped the steaming kaffa, and felt his moustache thaw. "Give me twenty-four more hours up here, and then I will come with you, I promise. But I am no munitions expert."

Lut shrugged. "Nor I. But how hard can it be to destroy something?"