“We meet again.” I spread my arms in a greeting fit for an empress. Let them see me as I am, not as a woman afraid of her life, that of her sisters. Beside me, Elise smiles more luminously than ever, disquietingly ecstatic. Sibilia whispers what may be a prayer. The dog-girls stare at their feet. The girl-dogs sit against their feet.
Captain Ansalov staggers to a halt. He isn’t intoxicated, but broken inside. I look past him at Captain Janlav, Beard, Belly, Tabard, Boots, and Boy. The hardness, determination of the youngest of them is merely a shell for a boy not ready for the deeds that men bearing rifles must do. Whether the guards are ready to admit it or not, for these past seven months, three weeks, and twenty-one hours, they were our family as much as we were theirs. And though they knew that this is how it would eventually end, they must have hoped that something, anything would change along the way, that it wouldn’t come down to this.
But now it has.
“Well?” Captain Ansalov snaps at Captain Janlav, and I can read the consensus they reached from his impatience. He is beyond certain that I will not bend to the gagargi’s will, that my life and that of my sisters will soon be in his hands.
I say the words that pain me more than anything the gagargi ever did to me. “Elise and I are ready.”
* * *
Sibilia and the dog-girls are allowed to follow us to the hall where Captain Ansalov and his soldiers wait, rifles ready. Of the two ghosts, there is no sign. I don’t think anyone of us will see them ever again.
My heart sinks as I notice the door leading to the cellar is ajar, for my sisters and I know what this means. But there is no taking back my words, the decision that in the end wasn’t even mine to make.
“Sibilia . . .” I embrace my sister, the one who is to stay behind, to walk down the stairs into the darkness, never to see light again until she rises to the sky, there to forever bask by our father’s side. Tears throb at the back of my mouth, and though I haven’t wounded my flesh, I taste blood. I wish there was some greater wisdom for me to share as my final words to her, but there is none.
“Oh, Celestia, it’s all right! It’s all right to feel!” My sister places her palms on my shoulders, her gray eyes completely tearless. “I’m not afraid. Truly, I’m not.”
I have never heard such sincerity and honesty in anyone’s voice, and it is only because of that that I can bring myself to part from her. She is so brave, much more so than I am. My little sister, the dreamer who taught herself what I couldn’t learn even when guided by the best of tutors!
As Elise says her good-byes, or perhaps she begs forgiveness from Sibilia, I bend and kiss each of the dog-girls on their foreheads. They peck small kisses on my cheeks. They stamp their feet. If they still had tails, they would wag them. “Farewell, my dears. Farewell!”
Captain Janlav clears his throat. He is anxious to leave this house behind, to gain distance between himself and what will soon happen here. “Celestia, Elise, let us be on our way.”
Despite his words, I kneel to pat the girl-dogs, my sisters Alina and Merile. There isn’t much time left, but I don’t know when—if ever—I will see them again, if someone will eventually find a way to summon their souls back to human bodies.
“Run,” I whisper in Alina’s ear, to Merile, “run as fast as you can and never look back. Run as soon as you see our father’s light.”
Captain Janlav pushes the door open. “Now.”
The girl-dogs dart forth, past his worn boots, into the true night that awaits only some of us. One brown dog, one black one, two Daughters of the Moon, soon become but shadows.
Elise and I follow Captain Janlav to the yard.
* * *
As the troika speeds through the night, I hearken my ears to the sounds I know to expect. Elise leans against my shoulder, eyes closed, unable to hold back tears. Despite what she may have done in the past, I am not cruel enough to deny her comfort at this terrible moment. I cradle her slender palms between mine. Her fingers are colder than mine, her heart, too.
I know now what lies beyond exhaustion, at the end of everything. Numbing vulnerability, but also the frailest flicker of hope, the belief that our father, my beloved, will protect us.
And then, gunshots, followed by faraway barks.
About the Author
Photograph by Writers of the Future
LEENA LIKITALO hails from Finland, the land of endless summer days and long, dark winter nights. She lives with her husband on an island at the outskirts of Helsinki, the capital. But regardless of her remote location, stories find their way to her and demand to be told.
While growing up, Leena struggled to learn foreign languages. At sixteen, she started reading science fiction and fantasy in English. The stories were simply too exciting not to finish, and thus she rather accidentally learned the language.
These days, Leena breaks computer games for a living. When she’s not working, she writes obsessively. And when she’s not writing, she can be found at the stables riding horses.
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Also by Leena Likitalo
The Five Daughters of the Moon
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: Alina
Chapter 2: Merile
Chapter 3: Sibilia
Chapter 4: Elise
Chapter 5: Celestia
Chapter 6: Alina
Chapter 7: Merile
Chapter 8: Sibilia
Chapter 9: Elise
Chapter 10: Celestia
Chapter 11: Alina
Chapter 12: Merile
Chapter 13: Sibilia
Chapter 14: Elise
Chapter 15: Celestia
About the Author
Also by Leena Likitalo
Copyright Page
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
THE SISTERS OF THE CRESCENT EMPRESS
Copyright © 2017 by Leena Likitalo
All rights reserved.
Edited by Claire Eddy
Cover art by Anna and Elena Balbusso
Cover design by Christine Foltzer
A Tor.com Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates
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New York, NY 10010
www.tor.com
Tor® is a registered trademark of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC.
ISBN 978-0-7653-9544-3 (ebook)
ISBN 978-0-7653-9545-0 (trade paperback)
First Edition: November 2017
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