The Winter Boy

by Sally Wiener Grotta

  Devra began to respond, but instead shook her head and lowered herself into the chair.

  “But who were the Allemen?” Meika protested.

  Acknowledging Meika’s question, Ayne turned to Devra for her answer. When Devra started to get up once more, Ayne waved her down. “No, dear, please don’t discomfort yourself any further. I’m sure you can project your voice from where you sit.”

  “Kiv and Elnor Allemen,” Devra said. “Gerard, Tevan, Bran, Frank, Kal, Stave and Nacam.”

  “That’s only seven. You said there were ten,” Meika prodded.

  Devra shifted her weight in the chair. “I couldn’t see the faces of the other three. They were farther uphill, in the shadows behind the horses.”

  “You didn’t ask?” Dara demanded.

  Devra stared at Dara for several tense breaths. “You weren’t there. You can’t know what it was like. No, I didn’t think to ask the names of the other three. I was too busy just trying to—”

  “Yes, of course,” Ayne interrupted Devra. “Again, thank you for your report.”

  “But she hasn’t answered,” Dara began to protest, then stopped herself, retreating once more as far into the background as possible.

  Neither ignoring nor acknowledging Dara, Ayne asked, “Does anyone have additional information to contribute?” When no one spoke up, Ayne prompted, “Rishana, I believe you made the initial connection between the missing guns and Caith’s death. Please tell us what you know.”

  Standing, Rishana poured a glass of water from the pitcher on a nearby table, as much to give herself time to compose her thoughts as to slake her suddenly dry mouth. “Caith had told me that Kiv wanted to arm her Allemen and others to go against the Mwertik.”

  “So? That’s nothing new. Kiv’s been arguing that we should fight back for a long time now,” Veryl interrupted. “And she isn’t the only one.”

  “There was something about the way Caith was talking that made me think Kiv was being aggressive about it, demanding Caith release the guns to her immediately.”

  “But what caused you to link Caith’s death with the guns?” Ayne asked. “Why would you make such a leap about one of our sisters?”

  “Don’t forget who her mentor is,” Devra mumbled, though loudly enough for everyone to hear.

  Rishana glared at Devra. “Dara may be my mentor, but I am my own woman.”

  “Then why?” Yalaene asked so softly that it cut through to Rishana as Devra’s challenge never would.

  “I don’t really know how to answer. It wasn’t a thing of logic. Now that I think about it, I’m almost ashamed I should come to such a conclusion so quickly. What bothers me most is that I was right — about the guns, that is.”

  “And the murder?” Veryl asked.

  “No! I never accused Kiv.”

  “Maybe not directly,” Beatrice reminded her.

  “Not indirectly either,” Rishana insisted, her voice trembling with emotion. “It was about the guns, and only the guns.”

  “Which happened to vanish just when Caith was killed and Kiv fled,” Dara interjected, effectively deflecting the focus from Rishana and her motives.

  “Kiv and Elnor.”

  “With their Allemen!”

  “That’s what we should be discussing. We’re wasting time while they’re getting farther away,” Michale argued. “Ten fully trained Allemen with guns that could make each man more powerful than ten traditionally armed opponents.”

  “With those guns, not ten. More like fifty… or even a hundred.” What had frightened Rishana most, when she’d fired one during her apprenticeship, was that she’d imagined a person — a Mwertik — standing in place of the shredded wooden target. If only she’d been with Jared, in the Red Mountains, with such a gun to defend him.

  “We could be talking about a return to the Great Chaos.”

  “Why? Just because our Allemen have decided to defend us and our ways?”

  Ayne asked, “Rishana, do you have anything else to say?”

  “Nothing that hasn’t been said more fully by others.” She sat down.

  “Does anyone else have something to add before we deliberate?” Ayne asked.

  Meika stood. “The Southeast Battai reported he heard no disturbances in the night, but confirmed finding fresh tracks on one of the auxiliary paths. The Northwest Battai sent word that two other Allemen have just arrived. Our first melt runners from the outside. Hester’s Tedrac and my Eli.”

  “Eli!” The name burst from Rishana’s lips and Meika looked up to her, nodding with a smile.

  “We thought it best to send Tedrac back out to the others right away, to get information about the guns and what little we knew to the Council of Allemen. Eli awaits our instructions.”

  “Who is we?” Beatrice asked.

  “Those of us who found Caith and discovered the missing guns. Hester, Dara, Peren and me.”

  “Yes, of course, it would be,” Heinda mumbled.

  “Do you object to our quick action?” Meika challenged.

  “Anything else you wish to add?” Ayne asked.

  Meika shook her head and returned to her seat.

  Ayne eased back into her chair, relinquishing the floor to whomever wished to speak next.

  No one stood. Initially, all were lost in their own thoughts, absorbing what had been said — and what hadn’t. Much had yet to be decided, but first, each Allesha had to consider the facts and implications, and weigh the comparative merits of whatever solutions came to mind.

  This phase of a Council meeting never failed to remind Rishana of a stove filled with simmering pots of broth. All she could do was wait and see which ideas came to a boil.

  One by one, various Alleshi turned to nearby companions to whisper asides or discuss fine points, some of which were picked up by an adjoining group, bringing them into the same conversation or causing them to veer in other directions. As the noise in the room grew louder, Rishana could hear certain words and phrases repeated over and over from different clusters.

  “Caith.”

  “Kiv.”

  “Kiv and Elnor.”

  “Murder.”

  “Thieves.”

  “Two hundred guns.”

  “Massacre.”

  “Mwertik.”

  “Kiv’s right.”

  “Without Council.”

  “Allemen.”

  “Renegade.”

  “Chaos.”

  “Must stop them.”

  “Must help them.”

  “We need to act now.”

  Slowly, the voices coalesced into a handful of distinct conversations, then a single conversation taking the form, once more, of a Council meeting.

  “We must find out how Caith died.”

  “Only Kiv knows for certain.”

  “Kiv and Elnor.”

  “How can we now believe anything they say?”

  “If they were, indeed, present at the time of death.”

  “What if Kiv or Elnor did kill Caith? What do we do then?”

  Meika stood. Gradually, each Allesha recognized the signal and settled into a partial silence of hushed words and uneasy rustlings, so they could hear what she had to say. “Eli and Tedrac are only the first of our early melt runners. Let’s send Eli out with instructions to organize a small group of loyal Allemen to find the renegades and try to convince them to give up the guns and turn back. If Kiv’s people won’t listen, our Allemen are to follow them and keep us informed.”

  “Then what?” Heinda asked.

  “That’s something we can debate and decide today, tomorrow — however long it takes until we agree,” Michale suggested.

  “While we debate, the Mwertik kill,” Heinda argued.

  “Then it’s even more critical that we get the guns and the Allemen who carry them within our control,” Hester said. “Let’s send Eli out and prepare our instructions for the next runner. Now that the melt has begun, Allemen will be returning to us with their usual spring eager
ness. Others will be here within the day, two days, at most.”

  “Are we agreed, then… at least on the instructions I should give Eli?” Meika gazed around the room.

  While the volume of whispers increased, and various Alleshi fidgeted and frowned, no one objected. Meika waited a few more moments, then turned to leave the Assembly Room. At the door, she glanced over her shoulder to Rishana, who was already out of her seat and following.

  Chapter 73

  Quickly dismissing any misgivings about intruding on a private meeting between an Allesha and her Alleman, Rishana/Jinet hesitated only briefly before following Meika into the small meeting room where Eli awaited instructions. This was her son, whom she hadn’t seen for months. And this was an Alleman, who might have answers she needed.

  “Mom!” Eli jumped up, tossing the book he had been reading onto the long table and nearly toppling his chair in his rush to hug her.

  The familiar shape, texture and smell of her son was so like his father — taller than Dov, with wide, well-cushioned shoulders at just the right height for her to lean her head. Eli wrapped his thick arms around her, and she remembered what it had once been like to be Jinet, when she’d had a home, husband and children, when she had been safe and protected. An illusion, she now knew, but a comforting one — as long as it had lasted.

  “I was hoping I’d get to see you, Mom. You look good. Tired, but good.” He held her at arms length, and his broad, sparkling smile dimmed, his grey eyes clouding with concern. “And something else. What is it? How are you?”

  “Do you think I wouldn’t do anything to see you, once I knew you were here?”

  “But I knew you were in Season.”

  Jinet drank in the sight of her son and realized how much he had changed. His once-fair face was so sun-darkened that his multitude of freckles had all but disappeared. The lines around his eyes and mouth, that had been accents of his frequent grins, were now permanently stamped into his flesh, along with new deep creases on his forehead. While his dark auburn hair was still thick, with those beautiful waves that had embarrassed him as a child, his hairline was beginning to recede. Jinet realized that, for the past few months, whenever she thought of Eli, it wasn’t as the 25-year-old man he was now, but as a child learning and growing under her care. Hers and Jared’s.

  Behind Eli, Meika flicked her hand, reminding Jinet where they were, and why.

  Eli recognized the message of his mother’s almost imperceptible nod toward his Allesha and squeezed Jinet’s hands before letting go. Then, pulling his chair away from the table so his back wouldn’t be to either woman, he sat down.

  Jinet watched Eli in wonder as he changed from her son to an Alleman. All it took was a squaring of his shoulders, a purposeful positioning of his hands and a slight forward tilt of his body, signaling his relaxed readiness. But in those few moments, she saw Jared in him more fully than ever.

  With a glance at her sister Allesha to assert exactly whose meeting this was, Meika turned her focus on her Alleman. “Eli, the Council has decided that you should organize a group of loyal Allemen to follow and, hopefully, stop the renegades.”

  “That will take too long; I’ll follow them right away before we lose their trail.”

  “No!” The word exploded from Jinet, forcing her to come up with a reasonable explanation for her outburst after the fact. “You must have support; this won’t work as a solo mission.”

  Meika glared her disapproval; Jinet turned away in embarrassment. Picking up the small leather-bound volume Eli had discarded, Jinet recognized the handwriting. Why would Eli have one of Mistral’s journals?

  “Eli, your mother is correct. We’ll need several Allemen on this mission. One to try to talk the renegades back — and that must not be you, because your father was too fully identified with his Allesha and her disagreements with their leaders. Plus you will need several other Allemen to help track them and periodically report back to us.”

  “In other words, you assume we’ll fail when we catch up with them, that they won’t listen or be deterred.”

  While Eli and his Allesha planned a potentially deadly encounter, Jinet tried to distract herself by flipping through random pages of Mistral’s journal, hating that she could do nothing to keep her son from harm’s way.

  “I fear they’ve gone too far to be stopped by words,” Meika replied.

  “But we must try,” Eli insisted.

  The journal was filled with first-hand observations of the Mwertik. How was that possible? How much did Jared and Mistral really know about them? What else hadn’t they told her?

  “Yes, you must try, but very carefully,” Meika warned. “The guns they stole are incredibly powerful.”

  “They’re Allemen! They wouldn’t shoot at us,” Eli protested.

  “We can no longer be sure what they will do. All I know is that they are angry and better armed than anyone, anywhere.”

  With a shock, Jinet realized that Eli wasn’t being fully briefed because Meika knew nothing about the hidden cache of ancient artifacts that Kiv and Elnor had unearthed. Were Dara, Peren and Hester purposely keeping Meika, and therefore Eli, in the dark? Whatever the artifacts were — and she feared the worse — Jinet had to warn Eli.

  “We must restore parity,” Eli reasoned. “Distribute similar guns to the Allemen who will follow.”

  “No, Eli. Arming you with similar guns would increase the likelihood that we’d have Allemen fighting Allemen. We must find another way to resolve this.”

  “It isn’t entirely up to us, is it? If they start shooting at us…”

  Jinet nearly dropped the journal. Staring at her son, she ached to place her hand on his, to be his mother once more and not simply another nameless Allesha.

  “Do we know which Allemen remain loyal and which have turned renegade?” he asked.

  “Ten were involved in the theft of the guns. We’ve identified seven Kiv and Elnor Allemen: Gerard, Tevan, Bran, Frank, Kal, Stave and Nacam. Others are definitely involved. Don’t trust any from their circles of influence.”

  “Then whom can I trust?”

  “Your own Triats and your father’s. For your spokesman to the renegades, choose from among my Allemen. Dram is the closest. The rest of your cohort should remain unseen. If the renegades refuse to turn back, don’t let them know they’re being followed.”

  “Wouldn’t they assume they are?”

  “What they guess and what they know are different things. That element of uncertainty may help protect you.” Meika stood. “Unless you have other questions, you should leave right away. I’ll give you one of my ponies.”

  “I have a horse at the Battai’s. You know my legs bunch up on your ponies.”

  Realizing the meeting was ending, Jinet left the room and closed the door, giving Eli and Meika privacy for a proper farewell.

  Chapter 74

  Jinet fell into step with Eli as soon as he left the meeting room. Slipping on their coats, they headed for the Northwest Battai’s inn. How easy it was to match his pace — a steady, distance-covering rhythm that came naturally to her from years of being his father’s companion. Yes, he was Jared’s son, but hers, too. She saw her influences in his coloring and his broad, all-encompassing smile. However, the way he carried his strong lean body, gliding through life with no apparent doubts — that was Jared’s influence.

  Without breaking stride, Eli turned to his mother. “Can you tell me what’s bothering you?”

  “You mean other than the obvious?” Jinet heard the bitterness in her voice, but did nothing to counter it. “That we’re careening out of control toward a war that could destroy everything I’ve ever believed in?”

  “Yes, beyond the obvious. Why are you acting so strangely, like you’re not yourself?”

  “But I am not myself, Eli. I’m an Allesha.”

  “Please don’t play word games with me, Mom.”

  Jinet studied her son, seeking to understand the man behind the familiar form and manneris
ms. “The Allesha who was killed was my friend.” She smothered the words, not wanting to acknowledge the full truth of them.

  “But there’s more, isn’t there?”

  Jinet was uncertain how much to tell. “How are Brithine and the children?” she asked, anxious to know about her grandchildren, but also needing to find a path back to being with Eli as family rather than as an Allesha and Alleman.

  “They’re great.” The furrows around Eli’s eyes became crinkles of delight. “Little Jared is a handful of mischief, reading everything he can get his hands on, whether it’s meant for him or not. His baby sister shows every indication she’ll be just as difficult to control, if not more so. Ever since she learned to walk, she’s been running. They’re good kids, Mom, but they never let us forget that they’ve got minds of their own.”

  Jinet had spent so little time with her grandchildren. Even now, as she tried to picture them, she found herself filling in the gaps with memories of her own young family, of Eli and his sister Svana, romping together. “When this Season is over, I’m coming for a visit.” Then home, she thought. It’s time for me to go home. “What have you heard from your sister?”

  “I got word just before I came here. Svana’s had her baby, Mom. A boy, with bright red hair. They’ve named him Janar, for Kael’s grandfather. They’re both fine.”

  “You had bright red hair when you were born. Svana had the finest, whitest blonde.” Jinet stared into the distance, back to a time of wonder and certainty when everything rested on the beauty of a newborn, the caress of a beloved.

  “Look at us now.” Eli raked his gloved hand through his dark auburn hair.

  Suddenly, all the joy of her memories drained out of her, and she felt torn between a mother’s pride and a woman’s doubts. “Tell me, Eli, what do you know of Mistral of the Birani?”

  “He’s Dad’s Triat.”

  “Yes, but what do you know about him, about his family?”

  “He’s the son of their headman, what they call their Chancellor, which means he’ll likely inherit his father’s position. His wife’s a quiet sort, but she married outward, from one of our older villages. That could explain a lot.”