Bitter Wind (Death's Handmaiden Book 2)

by Niall Teasdale

  ‘I’m going to blubber like a baby at the end of this play,’ Melissa said.

  ‘There have been a bunch of more modern video productions that stop after Yuki is defeated,’ Hoshi said. ‘Mostly because it’s a happier ending.’

  ‘If people think that’s a happy ending,’ Nava said, ‘they must be desperate to find the good in the bad.’

  ‘I’m not sure what the moral of the story is,’ Rochester said. ‘You said it was allegorical.’

  ‘That depends upon who you ask,’ Mitsuko said. ‘Supposedly, the original author claimed there was no message other than the one the reader took from it. Some say that Yuki represents the forces of nature which, no matter what, will always win in the end. It’s basically an allegory about old Earth in that version. Others say she’s the ancient magic we largely ignore now that we’ve created a science out of sorcery. Ignore it as we might, it has more power than we can ever overcome.’

  ‘I quite like that one,’ Melissa said.

  ‘One interpretation is that duty comes before love,’ Hoshi said. ‘The knight chooses to put his queen and people before his love for the Ice Queen.’

  ‘Considering the ending,’ Rochester said, ‘I don’t buy that one.’

  ‘Perhaps not. Others say it’s about the power of love, but I’m not sure I buy that one either.’

  ‘Ah,’ Mitsuko said, ‘both of those are one of the reasons for cutting the last part out in some modern vids. It works some for the duty idea, but the love one is actually better served by keeping the original ending. You see, while the princess and the knight fall in love, they also seek to use love to betray the Ice Queen. When the knight falls in love with Yuki and then betrays her, he’s betraying a deeper love than he has for the princess, so his punishment is worse when Yuki returns, hardened by his betrayal. There’s also an interpretation where Yuki represents rationality overcoming emotion. You could make a case for her representing sorcery overcoming older forms of magic, which tend to be more emotional, too.’

  ‘Okay…’ Nava said slowly. ‘I get the general idea, even if I could care less about the allegory. The main issue I can see is… The knight character seduces my character. Am I going to end up in bed with some Drama Club student on stage?’

  ‘The sex is usually implied,’ Mitsuko said quickly. ‘There may be some kissing, but that’s about as far as it goes.’

  ‘Usually,’ Hoshi said. ‘There have been a couple of productions on vid and stage where–’

  ‘Hoshi. Please shut up.’

  ‘Uh, okay.’

  ‘I’m sure Terence Daniau has no intention of going that far in this production,’ Mitsuko said, putting as much confidence as possible into the sentence. The last thing she wanted was Nava getting cold feet about this now. And she should have known better…

  Nava gave a shrug. ‘You’re the one who’s going to be watching me banging some guy in front of the school.’

  ‘Oh… Putting it another way, if he has decided to go that far, he won’t be alive for the performance.’

  235/11/7.

  ‘Having conducted a brief review of the script,’ Nava said, ‘it would appear that Terence Daniau will survive.’

  ‘No bedroom scenes then?’ Melissa asked.

  ‘There’s a kiss.’

  ‘How risqué.’

  ‘There’s still the matter of the costumes,’ Mitsuko said. ‘I may still wound him a little over the costumes.’

  ‘The Ice Queen’s costume could go either way,’ Nava said by way of explanation. ‘Some productions have her wrapped in fur. Some have her barely dressed while everyone else is wrapped up against the cold. Terence Daniau hasn’t even sent concept sketches for the costumes yet. There was a video production a few years ago with Yuki dressed in a largely transparent bodysuit which sparkled like a layer of frost.’

  ‘Oh, you’d look good in something like that,’ Melissa said. It seemed likely that Rochester was thinking the same thing since he tried very hard to choke himself on the rice dish he was eating for lunch.

  ‘She would look amazing,’ Mitsuko agreed, ‘which is why Terence would escape with his life if he’s going for a similar costume.’

  ‘Did anyone see the news this morning?’ Rochester asked, maybe to get the conversation away from a nearly nude Nava.

  ‘Anything specific?’ Mitsuko asked.

  ‘That storm over the Bravis Peninsula. Three deaths, a dozen injured.’

  ‘I noticed it,’ Nava said. ‘They had predicted bad weather in the region, but it hit with a lot more force than expected.’

  Rochester nodded. ‘They were expecting nothing worse than a seven on the Adjusted Beaufort Scale. They got a nine with significantly more rain than predicted.’

  ‘The weather predictions this year are turning out to be strangely inaccurate.’

  ‘Even the ones which use divination,’ Melissa put in. ‘I was reading something about it yesterday. A couple of services using sorcery for their predictions were trying to push the idea that they were inherently more accurate than those using straight meteorology. But they haven’t been predicting these weird storms either. Or any of the other random weather events.’

  ‘Hm…’ Rochester looked out toward one of the windows, a thoughtful expression on his face. ‘Theoretically, sorcery should be able to predict unusual weather conditions more effectively than traditional meteorology.’

  ‘Because divination relies on the subconscious awareness of information gathered from the entire Q-field. Theoretically.’ Melissa gave a shrug. ‘I mean, even the best magicians in the universe can’t really see the entire Q-field when they cast a divination, but a whole planet…’

  Rochester nodded. ‘The accuracy of meteorology-based prediction relies on the weather model, obviously, but also on the volume of data available. The more data points you have, the more accurate your prediction will be. Divination takes a more holistic approach, so aberrant data actually tends to be more obvious. The accuracy of both methods is about the same, assuming nothing outside the normal run of events is in play.’

  ‘If the weather is going to do what you’d expect,’ Nava said, ‘then standard science will give good results. If some freak storm is going to blow up, divination is more likely to spot it. Correct?’

  ‘Yes. And, as usual, more concise than I managed.’

  ‘But, if divination is more likely to pick up freak events, why is it not picking up these ones?’

  Rochester gave a slight shrug. ‘This is a relatively uninformed guess, but–’

  ‘Someone’s deliberately messing with the weather,’ Melissa said. ‘That’s not uninformed, Chess, you’re just hedging because it seems so unlikely. Divination in general suffers from the Knowledge Paradox. If someone intervenes in what you’re trying to predict, your prediction’s accuracy changes in entirely unpredictable ways.’

  ‘Yes… Yes, you’re quite right, Mel. About the metaphysics and about my reason for wanting to be vague. There’s a meeting of the Metaphysics Club this afternoon. I’ll bring up this weather problem there and see if anyone has any ideas.’

  ‘The ASF are looking into it,’ Mitsuko said. ‘Father told me that the administration requested an investigation after the deaths in the Ishikawa Archipelago. They hadn’t turned anything up by the time I was talking to him.’

  ‘I’ll ask First Lieutenant Fawn Tyrell,’ Nava said. ‘When I get the chance. I have the first production meeting with the Drama Club this afternoon.’

  ‘If there’s any indication of what your costume is going to be, let me know.’

  ‘Obviously. If you decide to kill Terence Daniau, I probably won’t have to do it and my hands will be entirely clean.’

  Mitsuko raised an eyebrow. ‘You’re not allowed to exaggerate to get me to hurt him.’

  ‘Would I do such a thing…’

  ~~~

  The Drama Club was meeting on the stage in the theatre. Well, those who would be on stage were on the stage along with vario
us others who were involved in organising the production. The Drama Club subcontracted to the Art Club for sets, though they did their own special effects. The Music Club did a lot of the sound work. Representatives from both were present. Francis Goretti, chairman of the Extracurricular Activities Committee, was also there, primarily to check that everything was kicking off well.

  As far as Nava could see, things were not going especially well. She might have been a little sensitive to the tension since a lot of it was directed her way. Francis was all smiles, as usual; he was too old for Nava to become involved with, and he knew she was in a relationship with Mitsuko now, but he refused to give up on flirting. Terence was, obviously, thoroughly enamoured with his new star, so he was all smiles too. That was part of the problem.

  Terence had, it seemed, consulted no one regarding his casting of an outsider in one of the three lead roles. If you looked at actual time on stage, Yuki was one of the two leading roles since the princess was not really seen for much of the play. There was actually a minimalist version of the script which cut out everyone aside from Yuki and the knight to focus on their relationship. The Drama Club had plenty of members and, sure, there were plenty of them who were there for the support roles like lighting and special effects, but plenty of them wanted to act and Terence had brought in Nava to play the Ice Queen. That had gone down like a lead balloon.

  The chairwoman of the club, Rexanne Girard Sonkei, did not seem hostile. That was despite the fact that Nava had executed one of the members of her family at the start of the year. Maybe it was because of that; Rexanne was on the support stream and intending to move into video production after school which seemed a little tame for the ambitious Girard family. Perhaps Rexanne had taken some heat from her murderous family member and Nava had removed that issue. Whatever, Rexanne seemed to be almost as enthusiastic about Terence’s choice for the Yuki role as he was.

  The technicians could not have cared less. Those in charge of wardrobe wanted Nava’s measurements for the costumes and were muttering over which of a couple of costume designs would work best with her body type. There was no need for a wig or hair dye, so makeup was happy.

  It was the actors who were displeased. Primarily, it was the more senior actors in the club, the ones Nava had taken the place of. Except that her prince was not especially happy and there was no way he could have been up for the part. There was some internal politics going on here that Nava was, as yet, unaware of.

  The most obvious source of negativity was Nava’s understudy, Brigitta Seward Voll. She was a tall, slim, blonde woman, a year ahead of Nava but in the combat stream. She looked like someone who could play Yuki, if only because she was pale-skinned and had the kind of flaxen hair you expected to see on a Viking. From what Nava could tell, she already knew the part flawlessly, but she was being relegated to the role of an unnamed maid since Nava was there.

  The man playing the knight – who was named Constant, presumably as a joke – was Yoshirō Yamasaki Sonkei. Handsome and possessed of short, jet-black hair and near-black eyes with a smouldering quality. He was not too tall, but tall enough that he was not going to look odd as Nava’s love interest, and his body suggested that he worked out. With his musculature, Nava suspected he was a member of one of the martial arts clubs as well as the Drama Club. There was no way that he could have played Yuki, so there had to be another reason for his general hostility.

  Twyla Fitzroy Orlando was playing Princess Rosamund and was not exactly the type to play an ice queen either. She was the right gender, but she was all warm colours. Shoulder-length hair which was on the redder end of the auburn scale, brown eyes with warm, red undertones, and skin the colour of autumn leaves. She was summer to Nava’s and Brigitta’s winter. She was pretty more than she was beautiful. Her face tended to the round and she had a small, perky nose. Even without the colouring, it would have required supreme suspension of disbelief to see her as a heartless, frozen demi-goddess of ice and snow. Well, it would have been easier if you could have seen the way she looked at Nava: malice sat behind a warm smile like a snake ready to strike.

  There was not a long cast list. There were various extras, but a large chunk was a two-person deal with Nava and Yoshirō. Maybe thirty percent of the additional cast looked like they did not care who was playing Yuki. The others definitely had an opinion, and Nava was not their first choice. It was enough to make someone think twice about being part of the production. Nava had already had second, and third, thoughts and was busy coming up with some choice words for Mitsuko who had been the one insisting that she do it.

  ‘Everyone knows their part,’ Terence said. ‘On Saturday, we’ll be having a script meeting. I need everyone to go over their lines by then and come to the meeting with any questions on the direction I wish to go in, or suggestions on how the role can be played. Remember, a stage play is a dynamic thing. The lines on the page can be adapted. The way those lines are portrayed is as important to the performance as what is said.’

  ‘This is the first time The Ice Queen has been performed here in over a decade,’ Rexanne said. ‘It’s a classic. It’s a firm favourite all across Shinden and beyond, especially during the winter months. Frankly, it’s a real shame that it hasn’t been done here in so long.’

  ‘Uh, well, it has,’ Francis said.

  ‘Six years ago?’ Rexanne waved the comment away. ‘That performance was cancelled. I’ve created a discussion group on the school info-net for you to throw ideas around or ask questions. I’ll be sending invitations to it in the morning. Uh, there are going to be groups for costume and makeup, scenery, lighting, special effects and all that. Does anyone need to bring anything up now?’

  ‘Uh, I do.’ The speaker was Farrell Tate Orlando and he was the special effects guy for the production. As might be expected, he was a support student and on the short side. He tended to the studious, though he did not wear fake glasses like Rochester. Typical mid-brown hair and brown eyes left him in the attractive-but-not-memorable range, but he did look like an intelligent man. ‘I’ve checked with everyone else. Nava Greyling, are you able to create illusions at all?’

  Nava looked across at the man. His eyes dipped away from hers; he was not an especially confident man. ‘I can cast a rank one Visual Illusion, if that’s useful. Don’t expect anything amazingly artistic.’

  Farrell frowned. ‘Rank one… Could be useful. If we need it, we’ll be sure to give you precise instructions as well as the imagery needed. There are a couple of scenes where you’re required to appear or disappear “as if by magic.”’

  ‘I’m afraid I’d need to improvise teleportation effects. I couldn’t be as fluid with that.’

  ‘Maybe you could just turn invisible,’ Brigitta said, the grin she was wearing suggesting she was aiming to be disparaging and make it sound like a joke.

  Nava turned to look at the blonde. ‘Yes. Invisibility is an option if that would work better.’

  ‘Really?’ Farrell brightened up a lot at that suggestion. ‘Anything else you know that could be useful? From an effects perspective, I mean.’

  Nava’s gaze returned to the effects supervisor. ‘I don’t think anything in this role calls for flying or combat. I can move a couple of kilos with telekinesis, but I can’t think of anywhere that would be required either.’

  ‘Illusion and invisibility are good. I can work with those.’

  ‘Excellent!’ Terence said. ‘We’re off to a good start. We have a fabulous cast. We’re going to give this school a performance like no other they’ve ever seen!’

  Looking around at the fabulous cast, Nava was not so sure. But it was nice to know the director had lofty goals, she supposed.

  ~~~

  ‘You don’t know why the performance of The Ice Queen was cancelled six years ago, do you?’ Nava asked.

  Hoshi’s fork paused between plate and mouth. ‘That’d be my first year… Oh! The star killed herself.’

  ‘The woman playing the Ice Queen died, so th
ey cancelled? They didn’t have an understudy?’

  ‘No idea whether they did or didn’t, but everyone said it was because she was in the play that she committed suicide. She was found in the theatre one morning, hanging from one of the lighting rigs. I think they decided that going ahead with the production that year was inappropriate.’

  ‘That’s the Phantom of the Drama Club!’ Melissa exclaimed.

  Hoshi grinned. ‘Yeah. There was a story going around for a couple of years after that her ghost was haunting the theatre.’ The grin faded a little. ‘And I always thought that was a really stupid idea. No such thing as ghosts.’

  ‘But now we know there can be,’ Melissa went on, uncowed. ‘Of course, the Phantom is nothing but an urban legend. I’m no metaphysics genius like some around here, but even I know it’s pretty unlikely that a random student could transition to the Q-field like that.’

  ‘What does this “Phantom” do?’ Nava asked. ‘I assume the story is more than just that her ghost exists.’

  ‘Ghost stuff. Wandering the backstage area of the theatre, mostly. Seeing her is supposed to be unlucky, especially if you’re in one of the club’s winter productions.’ Melissa turned to Hoshi. ‘Didn’t someone have a nervous breakdown after seeing her?’

  ‘Supposedly,’ Hoshi replied. ‘I think it was more likely that he was dumb enough to take a major part in a play when he was worried about his third-year progression tests.’

  ‘Sounds right. It’s just a spooky story. Though, it might be why no one has tried to put on The Ice Queen before now. There’s no one in the club left who would remember the last attempt.’