The Snow Queen (51 page)

“I know.
Thy accent is terrible.” He laughed softly.

“So is
thine!” She felt his head rest on her own shoulder; she rubbed his back with
slow, peaceful motions, heard him sigh. Gradually his arms loosened and fell
away from her; she felt his breathing change again. She lifted her head, saw
his face half smiling, asleep beside her own. She lowered him carefully onto
the cot, lifted his legs up and covered him with blankets. She kissed him gently
on the mouth, and went to her own pad on the floor.

“You fixed
it, huh? Lucky for you, Blue-boy.” Blodwed stooped down as she entered the
chamber, picked up the broken distance finder, which Gundhalinu and Moon had
repaired working together through the new morning. Her voice barely disguised
relief; but Gundhalinu heard only the threat, and frowned. “Hey, what did you
do that for?”

White birds
fluttered up from Moon’s shoulders; the pair of starls slunk under the cot at
the sound of her voice. “To give them a little freedom,” Moon said, more
confidently than she felt.

“They’ll
get out! That’s what I keep them in cages for—they’d run away if I didn’t, the
stupid things.”

“No, they
won’t.” Moon held out her palm, filled with bits of bread. The birds circled
down again onto her arm, jostling for position. She stroked their curling
feathers. “Look. This is all they really want. Keeping them in a cage won’t
make them yours; not if you know you can’t ever open the door.”

Blodwed
came toward her across the room, the birds flew up again. Moon put the crumbs
into Blodwed’s hand; but the hand made a fist and she dropped them onto the
floor. “Screw that. I

don’t want
that. I want a story, Blue.” She moved on across the room to Gundhalinu, sat
down on the cot beside him. “About the Old Empire, some more.”

He moved
away from her pointedly. “I don’t know any more stories. You know them all.”

“I don’t
care. Just do it!” She shook his arm. “Read that book again. Read it to her,
she’s a sibyl too.”

Moon
glanced up from watching the birds peck at crumbs around her feet.

“Sit,
sibyl.” Blodwed gestured imperiously. “You’ll like this. It’s all about the
first sibyl that ever was and the end of the Old Empire. It’s got space
pirates, and whole artificial planets, and aliens, and super weapons zap!” She
disintegrated Moon with her finger, laughing.

“Really?”
Moon said, looking at Gundhalinu. “Do they really know about the first sibyl?”
He shrugged.

“He said it
was all true.” Blodwed’s enthusiasm and her voice rose. “Come on, Blue. Read
the part where she saves her True Lover from the pirates.”

“He saved
her
.” Gundhalinu coughed his
indignation.

“Look, just
read it.” She leaned over, the starls scuttled out with clicking claws as she
groped under the cot. She found the battered book, tossed it at Gundhalinu.
“And in the end, she thinks he’s dying, and he thinks she’s dead; it’s so sad.”
She grinned ghoulishly.

“Blodwed,
I’ll tell you a story,” Moon said suddenly, clutching inspiration’s key. She
sat down cross-legged; the starls came to her, scattering the birds, and laid
their pointy muzzles in her lap. “About me ... and my True Lover, and tech
runners and Carbuncle.”
And you will
listen, and understand
. She felt the strength of the inspiration suddenly
take hold of her, almost as though she were compelled.

She told
the story again; letting down the barriers that kept her emotions back, letting
herself see Sparks’s face laughing in sunlight, hear his music drifting over
the sea, feel the fire-bright nearness of him ... feel his going away as it
wrenched a part of her soul out of her. And she left nothing out, of the things
she had seen and done “You mean you didn’t even know it’d take five years to go
to Kharemough? You really were stupid!”)

(“I’m
learning.”)

—the people
who had tried to help her; the price they had paid for it. “And then on the man
in black, who was killing the mers, I saw the medal, his medal .... It was
Sparks, I f-finally found him.” She looked down, pressing a hand against her
purple cheek; remembering only his caress.

“You mean
... he’s Starbuck?” Blodwed whispered, awed. “Holy shit. Your own True Lover
killed the mers ... And—and you still love him?”

Moon
‘nodded silently; her mouth trembled. Damn everything, I do! She held a long
breath, fighting for control; struggling back into the present to measure
Blodwed’s reaction. Blodwed wiped her eyes surreptitiously, scratched her head,
her cropped-ofF hair standing out like straw. “Oh ... it’s not fair. Now he’s
going to die, and he’ll never even know.”

“What?”
Moon stiffened.

“The
Change,” Gundhalinu said. “The last Festival, the end of Winter. The end of the
Snow Queen—and Starbuck. They drown together.” He looked back at her with
unspoken understanding. “It’s the end of everything.”

Moon rose up
on her knees, pushed the starls away, breaking the spell that had held her
holding Blodwed. “Mother of Us All-there’s hardly any time left! Blodwed, you
have to let us go! I have to find him, I have to get to Carbuncle before the
Change.”

Blodwed
stood up, her face turning hard. “I don’t have to do anything! You just made
all that up, so I’d let you go. Well, I won’t!”

“It’s not a
lie! Starbuck is Sparks, and he’ll die ... I can’t have come all this way just
for that!” She struggled to keep panic from taking the rest of her voice. “If I
can get to Carbuncle, BZ can help me find Sparks in time. And if he doesn’t get
back there in time, his own people will go off world and leave him behind.
There’s not even a fortnight left—”

“Then in a
fortnight it’ll all be over, and you won’t even care about it any more, either
of you. So you can stay here with me, forever.” Blodwed folded her arms, her
eyes fierce with betrayal.

“In a
fortnight my life will be meaningless ...” Moon got up, feeling the walls of
stone close in on her. “Please, please, Blodwed! Help us!”

“I don’t
care if it’s all true! You don’t care about me; why should I care about you?”
Blodwed caught the sleeve of Moon’s tunic and jerked at it, ripping the fragile
cloth halfway up her arm. She went out, slamming the gate behind her.

“I don’t
understand it,” BZ murmured, between irony and despair. “The stories I read
always have happy endings.”

Lying
sleepless far into the night, she felt the starls wake suddenly beside her,
listening. Listening with them she heard the covert sound of footsteps coming
back from the silent camp beyond. She sat up, blinking in the heater’s glow. BZ
sat up on his cot; she realized that he must have lain awake with her in silent
misery half the night. Oh, Lady, she’s changed her mind ...

But the
gate swung open, and the figure that took form in the light was not Blodwed.
Moon heard Gundhalinu’s indrawn breath. She sat as still as death, paralyzed.

“Wake up,
little sibyl. I’ve come for a few of your tricks ... and to teach you a few of
mine.” Taryd Roh came on across the chamber, shrugging off his parka.

Moon
struggled to her feet, moving in slow motion. He doesn’t believe ... Mother,
please Mother, let me wake up! She stumbled back as the dream did not dissolve
and her prayers flew up unheeded. She felt Gundhalinu’s hands grip her
shoulders and pull her to him.

“Leave her
alone, you son of a bitch, unless you want to lose what mind you have.”

Taryd Roh
laughed. “You don’t believe that, any more than I do! Keep out of it, Blue, or this
time I’ll show you what real pain is.”

BZ’s grip
lost all strength on her shoulders. His arms dropped, he backed away. Moon
clenched her teeth on a cry. But as Taryd Roh lunged across the gap between
them, Gundhalinu moved forward, struck at Taryd Roh’s throat with a
well-trained blow.

But there
was no strength behind it, and Taryd Roh blocked his arm, twisted it, threw him
aside into the cages. Gundhalinu pushed away from the wall, but before he could
recover his balance Taryd Roh’s heavy fist clubbed him to his knees, and a boot
knocked him sprawling. And then Taryd Roh had reached her again, his arms were
around her. His mouth covered hers; Moon twisted her face frantically until she
found his lip. She sank her teeth into it, tasted his blood mingling with her
saliva.

He knocked
her away with a shout of pain. She half fell, staggering up again as she tried
to keep beyond Ms reach. “You’re cursed, Taryd Roh! You have the sibyl-madness
now, Motherless, and there’s no hope for you!” Her voice shrilled like the
screech of the white birds beating above her head. But he still came after her,
blood shining on his face and another kind of madness in his eyes. Moon clung
to the wire of the locked gate, screaming, “Blodwed! Blodwed!” His hand closed
on her neck, she gasped and lost her voice as pain leaped out along her arms,
paralyzing her. He jerked her away.

A starl
attacked his leg, sinking its thick claws into the cloth of his legging, and on
into his flesh. Tusks locked in his calf; he dragged her around, kicking
viciously until he threw it off into its circling mate. But as his hands closed
around her throat again he suddenly staggered back, losing all his strength.
“You bitch!” thick with fear. He put his hands to his head, swaying; toppled
and fell, sprawled motionless on the floor.

Moon stood
over him, her voice raw. “I’ll teach you some tricks, unbeliever.” She stepped
across his unconscious body, ran back to where Gundhalinu was getting to his
feet uncertainly. She tried to steady him with tingling, heavy hands, saw the
livid bruise swelling on his forehead. “BZ, are you all right?”

He looked
at her incredulously. “Am I all right?” He cupped her face in his hands for a
long moment, before his arms went around her, holding her close to his heart;
she pressed her face against his neck. “Thank the gods ... thank the gods, we
both are.”

“All right,
what do you think you’re—doing?” Blodwed burst in through the gate, stopped
short at the sight of Taryd Roh’s body on the floor. The starls circled it like
hunters over prey, growling threats. She looked up at Moon and Gundhalinu
together across the room; Moon saw the question that came into her eyes, and
the answer she got without asking. “Did—you do that to him?” Half-afraid.

“I did.”
Moon nodded, surprised at the calmness of the words. “I infected him.”

Blodwed’s
mouth fell open. “Is he dead?”

“No. But
when he wakes up tomorrow he’ll—he’ll start to go mad. Madder.” Moon swallowed
suddenly.

Blodwed
looked down into Taryd Roh’s slack face. She glanced up again, her own face
filling with a strange mixture of emotions, anger slowly separating and rising.
She reached inside her parka, took out her stunner and adjusted the dial. She
leaned down and put the muzzle close to his temple. “No he won’t.” She pressed
the stud; his body jerked.

Moon
flinched, felt Gundhalinu stiffen beside her. But she felt no pity, or remorse.

“Good
riddance.” Blodwed stuck the gun away. “I told him he’d be sorry if he tried to
hurt you.” She lifted her head, looked back at them with something deeper than
possessiveness, and stronger than frustration. “Damn you, now you really did
it! When Ma finds out what happened she’ll want you skinned alive; and she gets
what she wants around here, I can’t stop it. Everybody thinks she’s holy, but
really she’s just crazy.” She wiped her nose. “All right! All right, don’t look
at me like that! I’m going to let you go.”

Moon swayed
as reaction caught her, and slid down to her knees.

The
carnivorous predawn cold gnawed Moon, even through the insulated clothing, the
gray-brown woolen mask pulled down over her face. The stars crackled on the
black dome of sky, the snow lay silvered under a gibbous moon beyond the gaping
cavern mouth. “I never saw such a beautiful night.”

“Nor I. Not
on any world.” Gundhalinu shifted beneath the thermal blankets, among the
lashed-on supplies at the front of the loaded snow skimmer “And I never will
again, if I live until the New Millennium.” He took a deep breath, coughed rac
kingly as the frigid air assaulted his healing lungs.

“Shut up,
will you?” Blodwed reappeared beside them for a last time. “You want to wake up
the whole camp? Here.” She thrust something into Gundhalinu’s lap; Moon
recognized three small carrying cages. “Take these back to the star port
They’re sick. I can’t keep them here.” Her voice was as tight as a clenched
fist. Gundhalinu worked the cages in under the blankets beside him.

Blodwed
moved away to the other animal cages she had piled by the cave entrance. She
picked up the first one, unfastening the lock. “And I’m dumping all these damn
wild ones, they don’t even like you,” defiantly. Gray-winged birds fluttered
out, tumbled astonished to the ground. They picked themselves up from the snow
and flew away, crying their freedom. She jerked open a second cage; white
furred conics leaped out in a mass, tumbling over their snowshoe feet, and
bounded into the moonlight making no sound at all.

She opened
the last cage, shook it; the elf fox cub rolled out, spitting its indignation.
She pushed it with her foot out into the snow. “Go on, damn it!” The cub sat
bleating in confusion, its silver-limned fur standing on end; picked itself up
again, shuddering, and struggled back toward warmth and shelter. It found
Blodwed’s foot in its way, crawled up onto the fur-and-leather of her boot,
whimpering.