The Dreaming Land I: The Challenge

by E. P. Clark

  I went back through them, hoping for clues about the locations of where they had taken the children or—even better—where they had sold them, but came up with little. Anastasiya Olesyevna had kept note of the villages they passed through in Seumi on her first trip, but after that, the only indication she gave of where she had been were brief headings such as “steppe” and “mountains,” probably because—I flipped through the packet again in order to confirm my suspicions—the steppe children, if that’s what they were, went for the highest price, with the Seumi children after that and the mountain children as the cheapest.

  Well, at least I could take pride that my own people made the most sought-after slaves, as well as horses. Of course, this could all be an undercover horse-trading venture, but I couldn’t see the sense in that. I had only a hazy notion of how much silk and spices and furs and timber and all those other things traded for, but I had a very clear notion of how much horses cost, and the prices Anastasiya Olesyevna had quoted would only have been for the most prized of prize battle-mounts and broodmares. And such horses could only be sold with the express permission of the Stepnaya family, and I was certain that I had never given any such permission to Aleftina Vasilisovna, whoever she was. And if she had been stealing such horses, I would have known about it, and besides, a stolen horse was an unpedigreed horse, and was unlikely to go for the fantastic sums in Anastasiya Olesyevna’s ledgers. And they didn’t have horses like that in Seumi, anyway. No, this was human flesh they were trading, or I very much missed my guess.

  I was sitting there in the midnight twilight contemplating the thought processes that would lead a person to hurt children for money, and how this was yet more proof that people were not very good at thinking things through and often got confused by their own thoughts, when I was distracted by a knock on the door. I let in a young woman who introduced herself as Sasha, Avdotya Raisovna’s daughter.

  “I’m sorry to disturb you so late, noblewoman,” she said, wringing her hands nervously.

  “Nonsense. I specifically asked to be disturbed. I’m sorry to be keeping you up so late, but your mother said you might have information that would help me, and my mission is of such seriousness that I judged it worth the inconvenience. I hope you will forgive me.”

  “Of course, noblewoman,” said Sasha, not quite daring to give me a puzzled look.

  “Come, have a seat,” I invited her, which led to some protestations and denials, but I eventually got her seated and even forced her to accept some tea. She was quite young, no more than twenty, I guessed, and was as nondescript as her mother, but a good deal less stolid in her manner. In fact, she rather reminded me of a high-strung horse who had been handled roughly.

  “Did you mother tell you what I am doing?” I asked her gently.

  She nodded hesitantly.

  “She seemed to think you would be able to help me,” I told her, still speaking as gently as possible. “You may speak to me without fear or reserve, Aleksandra Avdotyevna. I will treat your words with utmost seriousness, and keep them in confidence to the best of my ability.”

  “Of course, noblewoman,” she said faintly, as if she didn’t believe me at all.

  “Did you know Anastasiya Olesyevna well?”

  She nodded tremulously, but volunteered no words.

  “Were you childhood friends?” I thought I already knew the answer to that, but she might be more likely to speak if setting straight my mistakes than responding to guesses that were right.

  “No, noblewoman,” she said, looking surprised. “She was older than me, and the heir as well. I just served her.” She looked as if she was speaking the truth, but she also blushed deeply as she said it.

  “I see,” I said sympathetically. “I do not wish to pain you, Aleksandra Avdotyevna”—she shuddered as I used her proper name, probably unused to being addressed with respect—“but I hope you will forgive me if I ask whether your service was of a very…intimate nature.”

  She nodded, blushing even more deeply and looking even more miserable. “Please don’t tell my mother, noblewoman, although I’m sure she’s guessed.”

  “Of course not, but there is nothing for you to be ashamed of. Many women offer their mistresses such companionship, and rightly take pride in it. I know it is less spoken of here in the black earth district, but I am a Stepnaya, and on the steppe it is acknowledged freely.”

  For a moment Sasha looked less miserable, and, cocking her head curiously, she blurted out, “Have you, noblewoman…” before falling into ashamed silence once again.

  “Yes,” I said softly into the silence. “I once had such a companion too, Aleksandra Avdotyevna. And,” I found myself speaking more strongly, “I will forever be grateful to her, and honor her memory, so you may speak freely to me, with the assurance that I will listen with compassion and respect. Did you love her?”

  She shook her head strongly. “I…I admired her, noblewoman,” she confessed. “As a young girl will admire a woman grown. And she was my mistress’s daughter, too, and it turned my head when she said she wanted me to serve her. At first I didn’t know what she meant, but then she explained it to me, and laughed at my shock. But if it had only been that, it wouldn’t have been so bad.”

  “What else was there?”

  “She said I was too plain and not…ardent, that was the word she used, ardent enough to please her myself, but she liked to watch…she liked to watch…”

  “With men?” I asked gently, much more gently than I felt.

  Sasha covered her face with her hands and nodded.

  “Well she’s dead now, and good riddance.” Sasha jumped at the harshness of my voice, and looked as if she wanted to argue against my words, but she also looked as if part of her had been grateful to hear them.

  “It started after she went away the first time, noblewoman,” she said. “While she was gone I took to courting one of the guards here—well, not really courting, running after, really, I was still so young and foolish—and when she came back she found out about it, and said she wanted to watch us…and he thought it was a great lark, especially when she offered him money for it, and I…I didn’t want to, I spoke against it, but I was afraid to go against them both, and she liked it so much she started bringing other men back with her whenever she returned, so that they could…” Sasha shuddered all over, not spelling out what depravities had been committed, which was probably for the best, as I was afraid that any more and my head would explode.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “But she’s gone now. Does anyone else trouble you?”

  She shook her head. “No, noblewoman, thank the gods. No one else would…we are a good household, a kind household, but she was always…there was always something a bit…sharp about her, and once she started traveling, she became…she was no longer the high-spirited mistress we remembered. Something was rotten in her after that. You know, she really was…before she left, she was…high-spirited, like I said, a bit…sharp, but not cruel. I was shocked by her, but I could have…I really did admire her, noblewoman, and I could have taken pride in our connection, as you said. She never would have forced me into anything like…what she did later, not before…it was like something had broken in her, and the more she traveled, the worse it got.”

  “Did she talk of what she did on her travels?”

  Sasha nodded. “A bit, especially later. At first she only dropped hints, hints that she was trading in something that…she shouldn’t, but the last time…the last time she came back with two men, both foreigners, and she made me…” Sasha gave a great sob before continuing, “and then she said…she said, ‘they say that there is no demand for grown women, that only children are biddable enough, but that’s because they’ve never seen you, Sashenka. You’d do anything you’re told, wouldn’t you?’ And then…and then the three of them discussed whether it would be worth selling me, and what price I would fetch. Only…only they decided it wasn’t worth it, because I was too plain, and my hands had already grown coars
e from work.”

  “And thank the gods for that!” I burst out. “Aleksandra Avdotyevna—Sasha—did you realize what they were speaking of?”

  “I think…I think they were trading in slaves, noblewoman, and they almost traded me as well,” she whispered.

  “Yes,” I said. “So don’t worry about anything they said of you, do you understand? What is the good of beauty, if it leads you to be sold as a slave to serve the pleasure of some vile mistress? What is the good of cleverness, if it leads you to sell those depending on you into the most degrading servitude? What…” I could have continued for some time, but I stopped myself and asked instead, “those men—you said they were foreigners. Do you know who they were? Or where they were from?”

  She shrugged. “One was from Seumi, noblewoman, and one was from the Hordes. Sometimes they—all three of them—spoke to each other in some foreign tongue. But from what they said in Zemnian, I guessed that they were all working together, gathering up goods—slaves, I think—and selling them beyond the mountains.”

  “Do you know any more of them?” I asked, but Sasha shook her head, and no matter how much I tried to help her unearth more information out of her memory, the only thing she could say was that Anastasiya Olesyevna and the men had met somewhere on her travels, and that they were partners in trade, although Anastasiya Olesyevna seemed to be charge, and that they seemed to be trading in human lives.

  “The man who brought the news of her death,” I asked. “Was he one of them?”

  She shook her head. “He hadn’t been part of…that. And he was Zemnian.”

  “From where?”

  She shrugged again in reply, but this time my questions were more helpful, and I was able to ascertain that, by his dress and his speech, he was more than likely from the black earth district. More than that Sasha could not say, but I thought that perhaps Olesya Annovna might know more, so I thanked Sasha profusely, forced her to accept a handful of coins, told her that the Tsarina would know of her courage and loyalty, and sent her off so that I could rage at what I had learned in private.

  The results of my rage were mainly the worrisome conclusion that by all accounts, Anastasiya Olesyevna and I had a lot in common as far as character was concerned. I lay in bed and worried over that, and over what Mirochka would do, in a similar situation. She had some of my fire, yes, but did she have enough? Or was she too sweet and biddable, too easily convinced to please those around her, even if it meant hurting others…

  Hello, mama!

  For a moment I thought I had gone mad, and then I realized that Mirochka must have found a way to reach me, and, slamming shut all those thoughts I had been having about her and also everything about Sasha’s disturbing revelations, which I most certainly wanted to hide from Mirochka, cowardly as that was, I very carefully thought, Hello, my dove.

  You heard me, mama!

  I did.

  Are you asleep?

  No, I don’t think so. Are you?

  I think I’m in a dream, mama! I’ve been trying and trying to reach you every night, but this is the first time you’ve answered back.

  It’s the first time I’ve heard you. Are you well?

  Oh yes, mama, we’ve been having so much fun! Where are you?

  On the road.

  What, in the middle of the night?!?

  No, I mean, we’re continuing our travels and making good progress. We’ve stopped for the night with Olesya Annovna, a minor noblewoman on the edge of the black earth district.

  It must be late. Is it late?

  Very late, my dove: past midnight for sure.

  So why aren’t you sleeping?!?

  I had things I needed to do, my dove.

  In the middle of the night!?!

  I had to talk to people who could only speak to me after the household had gone to bed.

  But are you done now, mama?

  Yes.

  You must be very tired. Are you traveling tomorrow?

  That’s the plan.

  You need your rest, mama!

  Yes, I’m sure you’re right, my dove, I replied, trying not to laugh at her chiding tone that came through clearly, even though I could neither see her face nor hear her actual voice.

  I’ll watch over you, then. Go to sleep, mama.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  I awoke the next morning lying fully dressed on top of the bedclothes, but feeling rested and refreshed, with no memory of falling asleep.

  “I wonder if this ability could be used as a weapon,” I said to myself, and then wondered if I should be ashamed of having that as my first thought about my daughter’s gift. I swung off the bed, and after straightening my clothes, smoothing my hair, and cleaning my mouth and face as best I could, went to open the door to set off in search of our hostess. However, the door swung open just as I was reaching for it, and I found myself face-to-face with a very surprised serving girl.

  “Oh…you’re up, noblewoman,” she said with a nervous bow. “My mistress wanted to know if you wished to have breakfast brought to you, or wanted to eat with her.”

  “I would be delighted to have breakfast with her, if she is willing. Is she ready, or should I come later?”

  “She’s…she’d ready now, noblewoman,” said the serving girl with another nervous jerky bow.

  “Lead me to her then, if you please.” This courtesy seemed to overwhelm the girl, but I got her to thaw out a bit by asking her if she’d been in Olesya Annovna’s service long, and if she had any friends amongst the other serving girls. This brought me the information that she had been in Olesya Annovna’s service for four years, and that her best friend was Sasha, which I had guessed by their similar ages might be the case.

  “And were you close with your mistress’s daughter?” I asked. “I heard that she and Sasha were close.”

  My guide wrinkled her nose and shook her head, before saying in a half-whisper, “No one was very close with Anastasiya Olesyevna, I’m afraid, noblewoman.”

  “How come?”

  “She wasn’t…she wasn’t the friendly type, noblewoman,” said my guide, but before I could try to extract any more useful information out of her, we came into the room where Olesya Annovna and the breakfast things were waiting for me.

  “I hope you weren’t disturbed, Valeriya Dariyevna,” said Olesya Annovna. “It’s early yet—I don’t think anyone else from your party is up—but I thought you might want to…I thought we might speak together.”

  “A wise thought. I was not disturbed at all, and I’m glad you sent for me, Olesya Annovna.”

  “Well then…” Olesya Annovna indicated the food set out on the table, and, avoiding the sausages, I took some porridge and salad. It was that time of year when vegetables were in their richest abundance, and were served at every meal. One could grow tired of it, but by midwinter we would all be craving fresh food, so we all always reveled in the excess every summer. Olesya Annovna also filled her plate, and for a little while we sat in a silence that was part hunger and part awkwardness, until I said, “I must thank you again for allowing me to read your daughter’s records.”

  “So…so they were of use, then, Valeriya Dariyevna?” she said, sounding both glad and sad.

  I nodded. “Very much so. My good fortune must have led me here, rather than to the waystation. But…if you don’t mind, I have some questions.”

  “I thought you might, Valeriya Dariyevna.”

  “I know she went to Seumi and to Srednerechye,” I said, trying to speak as lightly as possible. “But do you know where else she went on her journeys?”

  Olesya Annovna shook her head, and I thought she was probably telling the truth, inasmuch as she seemed determined to know as little of her daughter’s actions as possible, for which I couldn’t blame her.

  “And her companions…what do you know of them?”

  Olesya Annovna shook her head again, and said, “Only what I told you of the man who brought me the news of her…of her death, Valeriya Dariyevna.”r />
  “Do you know his name? I spoke with…some of the people I spoke with seemed to believe he was of the black earth district.”

  After a moment’s hesitation, Olesya Annovna nodded. “I think so too, Valeriya Dariyevna. He had the look and the speech of a black earth man. But other than that…”

  “What did you call him? You must have called him something.”

  “I…I don’t remember, Valeriya Dariyevna.”

  “Had you ever seen him before?”

  She shook her head.

  “So, he arrived, a complete stranger to you…what happened when he arrived? How did he convince you to speak with him?”

  She frowned. “I…he came riding in at dusk, in haste, saying he must speak with me, with me and no other. It was clear that he was upset.”

  “And then what?”

  “And then…I came running…I knew, I knew as soon as I heard that it was something about Nastya, that something had happened to my Nastya, so I came running down, and then he told me he was a companion of hers, and he told me what had happened, and then…I don’t remember…I was in too much distress…”

  “How long did he stay?”

  “He…he set off the next morning.”

  “On his own horse or one of yours?”

  “On…I think on his own horse. I don’t remember us missing any or any being returned after that, but…”

  “Of course,” I said. “Do you know where he went?”

  She shook her head.

  “Who would have taken care of him while he was here? Someone must have found a bed for him, and brought him food, and cared for his horse.”

  “Yes, of course…I suppose…ask Dunya. Dunya would know.”

  “Thank you,” I told her. “And…one last question, Olesya Annovna. Did you ever meet any of your daughter’s other companions?”