The front door banged and Lixand stamped the mud off before opening the inside door. Papa must have come through the park; there was thick mud on his boots. Megan ran to help with his packages because that was one of her jobs. The parcels were bulging string bags full of 'maranth tubers and potatoes, rye bread, milk in a clay jug. There was even a wrapped sausage for the barley soup Ness was making out of beef bones, but there was no butter to be had at the market unless you could pay in silver. He'd been lucky to get almost everything because there were many things you couldn't get in spring. Megan had never liked the feel of the damp bag of tubers and the burlap smelled musty, but she helped carry one corner anyway.
Ness hugged him, though he was wet through. Once he had his coat and boots off he came to help her get dinner ready.
4 is a chain that we shw as a token.
That was the broken chain on the altar in Koru's Temple. She couldn't remember the first time she'd seen it because it was always there, but she knew her papa had showed it to her. It was important because the Goddess freed everybody from chains.
"Ness, how could it have happened?" Papa was pacing. "You set the tension yourself. I convinced the acting Guildmaster that you'd be the best weaver for the commission, because you are. What could have happened?"
Mama slammed a cupboard door. "I couldn't say this there. It would have done more harm than good, Lixand. The teeth and pegs were worn, set in a new frame, so they slipped. Even with Koru's hands on the frame, it couldn't have held the tension. And you know who has jurisdiction over equipment."
"Vyaroslaf." Papa sounded tired. He tasted the soup, sprinkled in a bit of salt, and put the lid back on.
Five are the Silverwings, silver that flies.
They were in the Ladyshrine, too—the Veysneya. They sipped the nectar from the Blutrosh around the fountain.
"Ness, all we can do is for both of us to go in tonight."
"And replace an iron-cycle's work?" Mama looked partly angry and partly as if she wanted to cry. "I was half done. Zingas Xvan's wedding is less than fifteen days away. It's impossible."
Papa sighed so deeply that Megan looked up from her waxboard. "Both of us working together can do it. It's your design, and that was what took the time."
She stopped and looked at him. "You mean secretly?"
"I have to salvage something out of this mess. I've lost zight in this fiasco." He walked away, put his hands on the edges of the wallbed. "Vyaroslaf and I were about equal before. I have to do something!" he said voice rising. Megan ducked. Mama went over and put her arms around his shoulders, leaned her head into his back.
"I'm sorry Ness," he said quietly. "It's just so close. The vote for the Guildmastership is this summer and I don't have room for mistakes, but I won't sink to his level. Vyaroslaf drives me mad. The man is so corrupt he—"
He'd turned around and Mama put her fingers over his mouth and nodded at Megan. He looked at her for a minute, then relaxed, smiled, and pretended to bite her finger. Mushy stuff, Megan thought and went back to writing.
Six is the Dragon that holds up the skis.
"No, no, Megan," Mama said, looking over her shoulder. "You've forgotten the 'e' in skies.' Megan looked but couldn't see where the "e" should go. Ness pointed and she squeezed it between the "i" and the "s." She put her tongue between her teeth and dug the stylus into the wax for the next line.
Seven is the Goddess of loving and living.
Koru. All-Mother. The Lady. She saved the Zak when the world burned, everyone—even Thanes and Arkans— though Megan couldn't understand why the Goddess would want to do that. Her statues were always white or red stone.
"Well eat first. Then we have to take Megan along to my sis—"
"Lixand, I don't like leaving her with that woman, even for an evening. Leaving her own daughter in her care is bad enough!" Megan looked up again. She didn't want to go to Aunt Marte's even if she did get to see Rilla.
"She's kin. Megan will be safer with her than leaving her alone."
Ness thought for a bit and sighed. "I know, love. It's just that she enjoys hurting people so much, especially me."
"She's reliable, even if sharp-tongued. She's just like that. What would she do? She's my sister."
"Well, she can look in later rather than us taking her over there. Megan, are you done?"
"No, Mama."
"Well, hurry, bylashka. Dinner's almost ready."
Eight, Elder Brther, his heart always giving.
He was the Goddess's boy, who fought the Dark One and was almost lost in Halya. Megan liked hearing that story from her papa nearly as much as Heart of Coal. The soup bubbled on the shelf of the stove and the lid banged, letting good-smelling steam out. She didn't want Aunt Marte to come to look in on her.
Nine is the Dark One whose laughter is death.
Megan shivered as she wrote that. The Dark One had white hair, iron claws, and wings like an eagle. All his demons were black eagles as well, with white heads and arrows in their claws. She hugged Brunsc to make herself feel better and chewed on her stylus again, almost finished.
Ten is our Power, our Life and our Breath.
Manrauq, that manifested around puberty. Lixand was a red witch, able to cast illusions, just as Ness could move objects with her mind. Megan wanted to have a very strong Gift, but her mother had explained there was a price; the more manrauq a Zak used, the sooner they died.
Ness pulled out the cutting board for the bread. It made a crusty noise, then a crunch and a thump when the knife hit the wood. Papa just wiped off the table. I'd better hurry.
Thes are the numbers we hld in two hands
We think, we creat and we cherish our lands.
She didn't understand all of that, but Sysbat Karlovna said she would when she was older. There. She pushed the stylus into the wax till she heard it tap the wood, to make a finishing mark. Then she put it away through the leather loop and the cover closed with a clap, and she called her mother to help her tie it shut.
Then she pushed the desk over to make room and ran to get everyone's pillows; another one of her jobs. She'd plump them up and put them around the table. The blue one for Papa. The green one for Mama, and the red one for her. The wind whistled against the shutters upstairs.
"Megan, we have to go out so I want you to be a good girl until Aunt Marte comes. I don't know if shell bring Rilla."
"Yes, Papa."
They closed their eyes and raised their hands for Ness and Megan to pray. Lixand hummed the deep bass note while mother and daughter sang:
"We've lived yet another day, been blessed with wholesome food.
Lady grant our children life, air and water good. Shelter us from naZak fires, steel and sword of fear, and as the day draws to its close, Goddess, please draw near."
The next day Megan played skip rope in the children's playhall. Her numbers would go up on the children's board and Rosziviy would bite her tongue because she didn't have anything up.
Megan sang the words to a jump rope song under her breath, hearing other kids jumping to it too, but they were playing with five instead of just one.
"Price for magic paid in size.
Twice a sin in naZak eyes.
Haysa, Hosa 1,2,3
I change you and you change me!
There's a naZak without sense
Make him think that he's a fence.
I don't care he's twice our size
He thinks it's all tricks and lies.
Here comes anger, here comes fear.
Here comes fire on our ear.
You'll get caught here if you stay
Haysa, Hosa run away!"
Last night had been spooky. Before they left, her parents had banked the stove and put the brazier out so it wouldn't tip. It was serious or they wouldn't have gone and left her and Brunsc. Aunt Marte had put Rilla in bed with Megan, and they'd told each other stories under her feather tick until they'd fallen asleep. The wind had been howling at the shutters and Aunt Marte sat
by the lamp with some wine that she brought to drink, because it was chilly outside, she said. She'd fallen asleep, too. Megan thought her papa was angry about that when they came home, but she'd only woken up when they took Rilla.
"Hi, Megan," Ursella said. She was six whole iron-cycles older than Megan, but she was born on the same day the younger girl was, so they were best friends.
"Hi!" She wasn't like Danacia, who showed off her finger rings with the blue ribbons between each finger. Ursella jumped in with Megan, who passed her the rope and jumped out. That was one trick Rosziviy and Danacia couldn't do.
They played jump and change a few more times before Leonid came over to watch and stick his tongue out. They ignored him and he went away for a while, then his ball rolled into the rope under Megan's feet and she fell and skinned her knee. It hurt like a pulled tooth, sudden and sharp, and she sat looking at the hole in her pants where the scrape oozed. Ursella picked up the ball and stared at Leonid, then held it up out of his reach when he grabbed for it.
"Hey!" she said loudly, holding it up over her head. "Look at what I found!" Leonid shouted and jumped, but she just held it higher. Megan stood up. Seeing Leonid jump made her feel better.
"It's mine! You didn't find it. It's my ball!" he sniveled.
"Ursella, give that back," Rosziviy yelled from across the hall. "It's his!" She ran over and tried to push Megan out of the way.
"Yeah?" Megan said, refusing to move. Rosziviy poked a finger into her shoulder. Megan slapped her hand away. "He shouldn'ta lost it."
"Mine! Is mine! Gimme, gimme!"
"Crybaby! You're crying over a stupid ball!" Ursella threw it across the children's hall where it rolled into the corner.
Leonid ran after it with Elixey shouting after him. "Crybaby! Crybaby!"
Ursella and Megan stood next to each other, staring at Rosziviy.
"That was his ball," Rosziviy said, but more uncertainly.
"So? You wanna fight about it?" Ursella laughed at her and Rosziviy went red. She pokes me with her finger one more time I'm gonna hit her.
"Children! Children!" Sysbat Karlovna clapped her hands for them all to come to order.
"What's wrong, here?" She looked around at all of them, particularly at Megan.
"Nothing, Sysbat," Ursella cut in. "Leonid thought he lost his ball and was crying about it."
"All right then. You all play nicely now."
"Yes, Sysbat," they chorused.
Ursella waited for Megan to get her slap rope and they went behind the ramp to sit down in the narrow place underneath.
There they inspected Megan's scraped knee and swore to be best friends forever. Ursella gave Megan her Baba doll and Megan gave her her red Glassy, a glass marble as big as an eye, and second-best stylus.
"Children! Lessons! Children!" Sysbat Karlovna called, and they scrambled out from under the ramp, running to line up.
When they were allowed into the classroom, Megan went to her box to get her counting book with the precious blank page.
But it wasn't white and clean and flat like it was supposed to be. Somebody had dripped ink on it, big splashes and scribble marks and dribbles all over, then crinkled it. But…
"Megan!" Sysbat Karlovna grabbed the page. "What did you do, wicked child! Look at it! Ruined. Wasted!" She waved the piece of paper at Megan. Everyone else in the room looked up at the commotion and went quiet. "Your parents are spending quite a bit of money to send you to school and this is how you show your appreciation? Fighting, ruining expensive paper?"
Megan couldn't see she was crying so hard, then grabbed the paper out of Sysbat's hand and ran, heedless of Karlovna's call behind her.
Sysbat Tenara looked up from her desk as Megan burst in, trying to explain, trying to get in her lap and show the page all at once. The librarian let her cry for a little then sat her up.
"Show me the page. Well, they were pretty thorough about it weren't they? Humph. I'll see to it, Megan. Don't worry. One ruined sheet of paper, even good paper, isn't the Fire that burned the world. I'll speak to Karlovna, even if she's not likely to listen to me, and the K'mizar, who is." She wiped away tears with big naZak fingers. "You look at this book for a while. I'll get this straightened out." She left Megan safe in a nest of cushions with some books and the clock for company.
Chapter Two
Rosziviy didn't talk to her anymore, probably because her papa told her not to. She walked around pretending Megan wasn't there, even if she stepped on her toes. Leonid still teased, but Megan could easily pretend he wasn't there.
A few weeks later, Megan took Brunsc in to school, to show Sysbat Tenara, and she let him sit on her desk. Megan had forgotten to get him back before the holiday and missed having him.
It was going to be a good holiday—sunny. Midsummer. Megan sang the words and swung on their gate, waiting outside, for Mama and Papa to come. It was after the midday meal and she wore her new tunic—yellow with a green and blue edge—and she had green ribbons in her hair.
They'd be going to the Ladyshrine, and then to the Big Market, because today the Year Kievir would be chosen. The priest who won would be the Woyvode's advisor and the tenor of the City would change. The Dark Lord's years were times of decay and death, the Lady's of charity and cleansing.
Teik Vyaroslaf and his wife walked by, with Rosziviy and Leonid behind them. Leonid's tunic was smudged and he already had dirt on his face. Rosziviy wasn't looking at him, trying to be like her mama with her nose in the air, being careful not to get her boots dirty. She looked at Megan out of the corner of her eye when they went by and stopped long enough to whisper, "My papa's better'n your papa."
Megan had promised not to get dirty today. "He is not," she said back.
Teik Vyaroslaf looked back and frowned. "Rosziviy, come away from that child."
He wasn't any more polite than his daughter. "Greetings of the day, Teik," Megan said.
"Humph. Well. Yes, child. Rosziviy, come!" Leonid's mama had him by the arm and brushed him off, hard, scolding. He squealed just like a baby pig at the market.
Rosziviy said, "Yes, Papa dear." He turned around to speak to Leonid. "My papa's going to get your papa," Rosziviy hissed, and went to stand with her parents while Vyaroslaf scolded his son. Megan spat on Rosziviy's shadow when she turned her back wondering why they had to keep walking up this street instead of Vyetryena.
When they went away Megan leaned against the gate and made it swing again and stood on the bottom until it closed with a bang. Bang. Bang. Then she opened it and did it again. It was almost as much fun as the swing in the park. Someone had taken it down some time ago and given the bellpull back to the Sysbaet. Grownups were no fun.
The birds squeaked in the ivy on the wall outside where the leaves were big enough now to hide them. Brown sparrows and yellow Soltsniy birds chattered and scolded the lawyer's grey cat on his windowsill. They all sounded like Rosziviy's mama to Megan.
"Come along Megan-mi, stop swinging on the gate. You'll be big enough to break it soon," Papa said, and held out his hand.
Megan put one hand in his and her other hand in Mama's. Mama's tunic was like Megan's, but green with yellow and blue, while Papa's was black. Lixand stopped to lock the gate and they went up the street with all the other people, Megan swinging between Mama and Papa's hands. Then Papa lifted Megan up on his shoulders and put an arm around Mama. Mushy stuff.
Megan was almost high enough to bump her head on some of the overhangs on Brewer's Street. The cobbles there were pink and the walls were higher than her head, even on her papa's shoulders. There was room on the street for flower baskets and potted trees, but most of them were bare and the pots full of muck.
The tops of everyone's head looked like a brown and black bobbing sea, and Megan pretended that she rode a ship over those waves.
Some ladies wore bright scarves on their hair, and up ahead she saw a blue hat and a group wearing sailor's wool caps. There were many people wearing bright red, and almost as many
people wearing dark green. "I hope the Woyvode has many years left to him," Papa said. 'The struggle for the regency if he dies soon will tear the city apart; whoever wins gets to try and control young Ranion."
"Surely the Old Dragon is getting better, Lixand. That's what the reports out of the Nest have been saying, and he's making a public appearance today," Ness answered. Megan couldn't reach down far enough to touch her mama's head, though she tried and started to slip. "Megan, don't," Lixand said absently.
"That's true. I suppose he thinks it's important to appear strong. Kievir Mikail's faction has the upper hand, but Kievir Khovorbod has a gained quite a few of the young Prafetatla on our side," Papa said, reaching up to steady Megan. "Notice most of those wearing green are quite young." Megan, looking down over his bangs thought he was smiling because she could feel his face muscles bunching. "Megan, sit still."
It was noisy. People talked to each other and little babies cried and a kidpack ran around people's legs, chasing a dog with a blood-sausage in its mouth.
The whole City was out today: River Quarter, Lake Quarter, even the handlers of the dead from around the Lake. Someone close was wearing too much musk perfume, and one woman's hair was so black and shiny it looked like the Dark Lord's Temple after a rain. Megan twisted around to look at the temple behind them. In the sun the grey cliff stones sparkled, except the black square that was the Dark Lord's Temple.
Today the Year Kievir would be chosen. Megan turned to look ahead but she couldn't see the Ladyshrine because the Gazhtinizia Garden was in front of them. The playhouse was large because Nuov-Kievir Kostonavic was a good patron.
"We should have gone the other way," Papa said. He was looking at Market Street. There were so many people there that you couldn't see the cobbles, and above the noise of the people Megan heard an ox lowing.
On the corner a flower-seller on the corner shouted, "White flowers! White flowers for the Goddess! Buy Koru's roses! Show support for her Son!" The roses were wilting a little.
Megan banged her heels against Papa's chest. "Megan, don't do that." She leaned over his head and looked down at his nose.
Shadow's Daughter Page 3