Wintermoon Ice (2010) (26 page)

Chapter Eighteen

Suvi

As members of the same Soli, many teachers struggle to remain impartial with their Cloud students.

Know Your Students -- a Junior Educator's Handbook to the Soli
, Severnessan Ministry of Stations

* * * *

The sewer ceiling caved in. Suvi screamed as the man who had been about to attack her disappeared under a pile of bricks and the substantial form of Ludde Armstrong. The others in Calaan's patrol scattered in terror, running back up the sewer or through the portal.

Chasing them didn't seem worth the bother, so he let them go. "All right?"

She nodded as he knelt to cut her bonds. "Ludde... Thank the saints. I am so happy to see you."

He stood and backed away from her. "Are you?"

His bitterness was obvious, like a wall between them. Suvi got to her feet, rubbing her wrists to help the circulation return. "I'm sorry I ran away. But..."

"Don't say anything," he interrupted. "It doesn't matter." They stared at each other for a long moment, neither aware of the stealthy movement from beneath the pile of bricks. Calaan's croaked warning caused Ludde to turn, but not soon enough. Braxy smashed Ludde's cheek with the brass knuckles and then plunged the knife into his abdomen; he gave a strangled scream and collapsed.

Suvi hadn't been idle. At Calaan's urging she dug frantically through the bricks for his sidearm. She came up with it, just as Braxy raised the knife again, intending to finish off Ludde. The recoil almost flattened her as she fired. Braxy flew backwards almost as gracefully as a dancer, and landed in the water. His body was sucked beneath the greasy muck and did not reappear.

Frozen in place, she tried to decide what to do. Would the others be back? Could she help both Ludde and Calaan before then, and if not -- how could she choose between them? Suvi decided, in the end, that whatever she did would probably be wrong.

She went to Calaan first. Blood loss had given his lips a suggestion of blue. But when he felt the coolness of her hand upon his face he opened his eyes. "Pretty Suvi. Won't be able to build that house for you now." He took a deep breath, trying to push the words out. "But I wanted to, even though I failed you. You must believe me..."

Suvi saw that he was shivering, so she removed her cardigan and tucked it around his shoulders. "I do... believe you. And I might have lived there, who knows? But now the Lemma birds on
Lake
Copaheg
must call for others. I will never look upon its beauty again."

"W... Why?"

Gently she wiped away the blood and spittle leaking from his mouth. "Because it would only bring me sadness, Calaan."

"Not... my name, not really." Somehow he smiled, and the sight of his broken and bloody teeth turned Suvi's stomach. "My friends call me Yasha. You... can say that, can't you?"

It seemed terribly important to him, so Suvi carefully repeated, "Yash-a."

He clutched at her arm. "My treasure..."

She blushed, wondering if it was an endearment. "What? Ca... I mean, Yasha, what are you...?"

"Gelder, much gelder. I hid it, had to keep it safe. The others would have..." He took a deep, agonized breath. "Papa Kewil's house. Hellenstrasse, in Arkanjela."

Suvi sat back on her heels, thoroughly confused. "You hid some money at your father's house in Arkanjela?"

His voice got softer and softer, fading into nothingness. "Did you know that the Lemmas carry the souls of dead soldiers to their rest? When you hear their piping you could think of me, sometimes. Think of..." Yasha twitched once, and then lay still. Suvi stared at his body, too numbed to cry.

"Suvi?" Ludde's voice, low and agonized, dragged her from Yasha's side. He had bunched his shirts over the gaping wound in his belly, but the blood continued to run in narrow rivulets across the floor before joining other less vital bodily fluids in the sewer.

She kept her eyes firmly on his face. "Ludde, I am here. I will stay with you now."

He shook his head in frustration. "Tom is upstairs, waiting for Jack. Find him, but go carefully. There will be more of those Berengarthers. You heard what they said -- the Imperial Commander is coming." His eyes closed briefly as he gathered strength. "Ach, go on girl. What's the use of sitting with another dying man?"

The tears that she had thought were ice-locked now burst forth. "No! You can't die. I am going to take care of you. We will live together by the sea, just as you wanted. I'll be happy -- I swear it. Please..."

His voice was harsh. "Forget about me. You can't go on doing for others your whole life."

Inside her, like a perfect snowflake, lay the bleak awareness he was right. She got up and left his side. "I will find Tom and come back as soon as I can."

He had closed his eyes, and didn't speak in return. Suvi, somehow sure he would be dead by the time she returned, fell to her knees and kissed his mouth. "Goodbye, dear Ludde. I am sorry. Sorry for everything." She turned from him and then scrubbed her lips vigorously with the back of her hand, trying to rid herself of the bitter taste of his blood.

Jeri had slid the rusty bolt home on the trapdoor, and Suvi could not budge it. Cursing, she slid back down the ladder and picked up one of the bricks. With this crude hammer she managed to break the door open, and climbed back to the basement level under the factory floor. She crossed towards the stairs, giving the crumbling hole a wide berth. Ludde had used a huge iron I-beam to break through the brick flooring, and then tossed it carelessly aside, as though it had been a crowbar.

Once inside the main room she peered into the shadows. "Tom?" she hissed. "Tom, where are you?" She heard nothing but her own heartbeat. Suvi kept to the perimeter of the room, and made for the kitchens. The departing Carinians had thoroughly ransacked them, as she expected. Nothing remained except the brick ovens, which had been too massive to remove.

Tears welled up again at the memories awoken by the faint smell of wood smoke, bread and cabbage. She stood in the middle of the floor, and tried to blink them away. Ludde came towards her from the dining room.

"Ludde! You are all right?" He raised an eyebrow and shook his head. Suvi backed away fearfully, for she saw by his expression he did not understand her. He had become a ghost, already more than halfway on his journey to the
land
of
Shadow
.

"Lut?" the ghost asked urgently. "Lut?"

She belatedly noticed that his shirt looked different than the one Ludde had been wearing. It was clean, for one thing, and smelled of flowers. Another even more astonishing idea took hold. "Jay-- cob?"

He nodded in surprise, and spoke more words she didn't understand. Suddenly, Suvi remembered that Ludde might not have much time left. She grabbed Jakob's hand and dragged him back across the warehouse to the ladder. They stopped above the trapdoor and Suvi pointed. "Down there," she said, though she knew he couldn't speak her tongue.

A voice, high-pitched, female, drifted upwards. Suvi's eyebrows shot up. "He was alone when I left," she whispered uselessly. "We had better..."

But Jakob pushed past her, plainly unafraid, and quickly negotiated the ladder.

She listened to their conversation long enough to realize that these off-worlders evidently knew one another, and then followed Jakob down. The new woman bent over Ludde, and Suvi could tell by the swift and competent motion of her hands that she must be a doctor. Already she had stanched the bleeding and was busy filling a syringe with some clear solution from an ampoule.

Jakob stood by her, wringing his hands with worry. He spoke anxiously, and the woman's voice sounded soothing as she answered. Suvi understood nothing but the words 'Tom' and 'Katy.'

Of course -- this must be some friend of Tom's. Another physician. Suvi found this inexplicable invasion of strangers in her sanctum distressing. She spoke to the others harshly. "What do you want with my window? Why are you here?"

Jakob looked to her and said a few terse words, but again she understood nothing. With a cry of frustrated anger, she scurried back up the ladder.

It didn't take her long to find Tom and Katy. He had stayed upstairs with the stretcher in a small room close to the office. Suvi could plainly hear the murmur of their conversation as she peeped through the dusty glass panel next to the door frame. Tom's back was to the window. He sat close to Katy, and held her hand. After a moment he raised it to his lips and held it there for a long time, and then said something. Though Suvi could not comprehend the words she could tell they were tender. Katy smiled sadly and nodded.

She had seen enough. Carefully, quietly, she backed away, and then went back to the kitchen. After swinging open the cast iron door, she climbed inside the largest of the brick ovens and shut herself away from it all.

* * * *

"Is he going to make it?" Jakob asked for the hundredth time.

"I hope so," Jane answered. "But we need to get him to a hospital soon."

Lut twitched as Jane applied another pressure dressing to the wound. Jakob hovered like an irresolute vulture. "Is he conscious? Can I speak to him?"

"No, I don't think so. Probably just as well. He'd be in a lot of pain if he was." She sighed and looked up at Jakob. "Where did Suvi run off to? She sounded pretty upset. Wish we could talk her language. She might be able to tell us what happened here."

A deep voice called from above. "We are going to lower Katy down through the hole. Can you steady her?"

Jakob walked over to the pile of bricks on the floor and stared up through the hole in the ceiling. He recognized both Tom and the tall man with the bristling moustache. "Jack! When did you get here?"

"A moment ago. I had a long ride in a slow hay cart. Tom told me about Lut. How is he?"

"Getting better, I hope. Jane is seeing to him."

He raised his arms as the stretcher, attached to a couple of ropes, swung its way down from the shattered roof. Gently, he guided it down to the floor. Jack and Tom appeared at his side a moment later. Jack had a wooden box perched on one shoulder. He lowered it down to the ground with a sigh.

Katy looked up from the stretcher and smiled. "Thank you, Jakob. It still amazes me how alike you and Lut are."

Jakob shrugged, not knowing what to say. "I'm glad you are feeling better, Grandmother."

Jane, hearing this, gave him a disbelieving look, and then focused her attention back to Lut. Jack gazed at her. "Is this little lady the other person I need to thank for saving Katy's life?" He slapped Tom on the back, and Tom winced. "Besides my catcher here, I mean."

Jakob nodded. "I guess so. But we have other things to worry about right now. There has been some kind of trouble down here, and I don't think we should hang around. Lut can't tell us anything, and Suvi seems to have run off..."

Tom's voice was sharp. "Suvi was here?"

"Yeah, but she left a while ago. We couldn't talk to her, but I think she was pretty upset."

Jack and Tom exchanged glances and then looked at the box between them. "I have to find her before I get started," Tom said softly.

Lut's eyes fluttered open momentarily as he muttered, "Suvi... Where is my wife?" Jane gave him another injection and his face suddenly went slack.

Tom stared down at him, obviously disturbed. "What did he just say?"

Jane shrugged. "He is delirious. That's all."

"What's in there?" Jakob asked, pointing to the box.

"Dynamite," Jack answered. "We plan to blow this place up before the Grond can..."

"Not we...
Me
. You need to get Katy back to Litchfield, and into hospital."

"Tom!" Katy protested. "We can't leave you here to mop up everything."

"Yes you can. I didn't just travel halfway across the cosmos and back to see you getting hurt again." He stood before Jack, glaring fiercely. "For the gods' sake -- take her and go, before anything else happens."

Jack growled in mock seriousness. "Are you giving me an order, Captain Finn?"

Tom's eyes flashed. He looked genuinely angry. "Yes. The war's over. You have to listen to me now."

Jack seemed oblivious. He grinned and enveloped Tom in a bear hug. "Of course. But you will come back when you are done here, won't you?"

"Yes, come back," Katy echoed. "Litchfield wouldn't be the same without you, Tom. Who'll be my dancing partner at the next Hunt Club ball?"

Tom stared at the hole in the ceiling thoughtfully. "Maybe. We'll see."

Jane spoke to Jack. "Can you leave me the stretcher? We are going to need it for Lut, I'm afraid."

"Sure, Doc. And may I shake your hand before Katy and I go? Tom told me she wouldn't have made it without your help." Jane stood and stripped off the bloody latex gloves she had been wearing. Jack stuck out his hand, but then pulled her into an embrace. "I can never thank you enough for giving my life back to me," he whispered to her.

Jane, completely flustered, could only murmur, "No problem. Any time."

Jack released her and then gently gathered Katy up in his arms. "I left the detonator and wire upstairs in Suvi's office. Good luck with it." He looked at the portal with undisguised apprehension. "Are you sure this thing will work?"

Katy laughed, and then made a face at the soreness she felt. "We will get there, don't worry! I'll navigate." She looked back towards Tom and met his eyes. "Go and find her. Don't worry about me anymore." She stared up at her husband's face and smiled. "I'll be fine."

He nodded, almost unwillingly. "Farewell, Katy. Don't forget what I told you."

"I won't. Good-bye, Tom. Good-bye, Jakob. Thank you, Dr. Piper. I hope Lut will soon be well."

"Bye, all," said Jack, with an easy smile. "If you are ever in Litchfield, Ohi..."

The portal swallowed his last words. Tom turned away and squatted before the box of dynamite, then fixedly studied the contents. It was a minute or more before he spoke. "You know anything about demolition?" he asked Jakob.

Jakob shook his head. "Less than nothing. But I'll help if you want."