Emmy

  Sweet perfume floated on a gentle breeze. Freezing air licked every inch of her skin, and yet she wasn’t cold. Emmy opened her eyes, squinting against the streams of light that poured through thick treetops. Blue sky peered through the white canopy, the bare branches shifting like blinking eyes.

  She sat up, her hands sinking into the soft bower of snow and curling roots that cradled her. Snowflakes coated her and her long black fronds swept down her sides, pooling in gentle waves.

  The air was silver with euphoria. The sides of the tall grey trees blurred and sharpened in a beating pulse. Soft voices whispered on the wind. Emmy strained to hear their secrets.

  She stood, fronds falling around her like a robe. Her feet, now bare, her boots gone, curled into the soft snow underfoot. She tried to run but her limbs would not obey. She waded through the thick snow, through the trees, still listening to the words on the breeze.

  Where are the voices coming from?

  Everywhere at once and yet nowhere at all, growing louder with every forward step.

  ‘Rel?’ Emmy called. ‘Where are you?’

  She got no response except the voices.

  As she walked a single voice rang louder than the rest. It was different. It was singing. The melody was painful, so mournful Emmy felt her heart would shatter.

  ‘Rel? Where are you?’

  Echoes of her words were her only response.

  ‘Who are you?’

  Still nothing.

  As the snow thinned she reached a clearing. The sun’s rays skated and bounced off sheer ice cliffs, blinding her. Emmy tried to wrench her head away, but her neck wouldn’t obey. She wanted to shield her eyes with her hands, but they wouldn’t rise. As she adjusted to the light, the source of the singing became clear.

  A female sat among high snow drifts. Her skin was blue, her armor purple. Uloni! Emmy thought. She’s one of my kind!

  The Uloni’s mouth remained closed yet she poured forth beautiful music, harmonious and discordant all at once. The words were strange. Emmy shouldn’t have understood them and yet she could comprehend. What was this place? Who was she?

  She tried to look away, to close her eyes and ears and run, but her senses were sharpened and her feet were rooted in the snow. Against her bidding she walked forward. Her footsteps made no sound on the crisp snow. Mid-note, the female opened her eyes. The music fell silent.

  ‘You have arrived.’

  As when she sang, when the female spoke her mouth didn’t open. Her voice echoed deep in Emmy’s mind. She stood and walked, her sparkling robe sweeping behind her. Though she was imposing, when she walked, she left no impression on the snow.

  Emmy couldn’t look away. Her body trembled, and she drank in every detail of the stranger. Her skin was smooth as if she were still a youngling but her grey eyes flickered with ancient knowledge, echoes of the past. She was perfection—all except for her first horn, which was cracked.

  The great female reached for her, placing her palm on Emmy’s face. Her touch was cold, colder than any snow. Emmy tried to speak but her throat was frozen. Ice travelled through her, stilling her entire body.

  ‘Emena,’ the Uloni said, locking Emmy’s eyes in her gaze. ‘Emmy.'

  Emmy tried to pull away but could not.

  ‘I have sought you for many cycles,’ the Uloni went on. ‘I am glad I have finally found you.’

  She let go of Emmy’s face and Emmy found her body within her control again. She stumbled backwards, clutching her head.

  ‘What’s going on?’ she asked. The words echoed against the smooth ice walls that surrounded them. ‘This isn’t possible.’

  ‘I assure you, it is,’ said the Uloni. ‘Many things are possible with faith. Emmy, you are here to help rid the world of a terrible mistake.’

  Emmy shook her head, fear consuming her. No. She wasn’t special. She wasn’t any good to anyone, just like Krodge had always said.

  ‘I don’t understand,’ she cried. ‘None of this is real! Rel said… Rel said she would let me see her friend, the one she’s been talking about. But this… This can’t be real!’

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  The female chuckled. The sound was deep and warmed Emmy to her core.

  ‘Oh, this is real,’ she said. ‘I know Rel and have known her for countless cycles. Rel is my friend and I am hers. I am Bomsoi. And now, Emmy, you are my friend, too.’

  In her terror, Emmy shook her head so hard she saw stars.

  ‘Rel!’ she screeched. ‘What have you done to me?’

  Rel wasn’t there to respond. Instead, the Uloni—Bomsoi—reached for her.

  ‘What is made cannot be unmade,’ she said, ‘but what is made can be destroyed. You are my youngling. You are my blood. And you will help me do what is right.’

  ‘How…’ Emmy drew her brows low. ‘None of this makes sense.’

  Krodge’s image flashed across Emmy’s mind. She winced, guilt cutting her. She never intended to save her. It was Emmy’s fault she had burned.

  Another image: Bellim, consumed by flames. Leeve and Kain, truly dead. Another: the attack on the Masvam slave ship. Zecha, stabbed…

  ‘What is this?’ Emmy asked, pressing her claws to her temples. ‘Why are these thoughts coming back to me?’

  ‘These are all evils,’ Bomsoi said. This time, remorse tainted her words. ‘You have done nothing wrong, but you must help to put right the wrongs of others.’

  Emmy went to speak, but words failed her. Without warning, the female placed her hands upon Emmy’s chest, her eyes shining like blue diamonds.

  ‘You will come to me and you will be the Heart of Nunako. Live now so that you may live in me.’

  With those words, Emmy felt a jolt of air slice through her lungs. Her blood froze, cold surging through her body. Her heart exploded with a beat. She stumbled back.

  Bomsoi raised her hands to the sky. Emmy wavered. Blood roared in her ears. Her mind darkened as if pitch consumed her. Her consciousness drained away and the last thing she saw were the three moons, stacked on one another.

  And they were talking.

  *

  Emmy woke with a jolt. Rel reached to steady her. The healer’s eyes were round with compassion. She still wore her half-Uloni colors.

  ‘Rel, what was that?’ Emmy asked through shuddering breaths. She clutched at her chest. ‘You did something to me. Your eyes, they were blue—just like the Uloni’s, like your friend’s. And she was there—wherever that was—and I was there, and—what?’

  Her breath still coming in rolling waves, Emmy looked around. She was on Rel’s cot. Jumping upward, her eyes darted to every corner, looking for the Uloni and her light.

  ‘That was my friend,’ Rel said. ‘Bomsoi. I told you she could see things and do things that I cannot understand.’

  Calming, Emmy exhaled, emptying her chest of all air. Flashes of what had happened kept returning.

  ‘It’s all real,’ she said. ‘The vision, Bomsoi. You. It’s all real.’

  As she spoke, her words hit hard. This wasn’t an illusion. Until now, part of her had still clung on to the idea it was all a lie. That Rel was an elaborate trickster. That Bomsoi didn’t exist. But now, how could she believe that?

  ‘It is real, Emmy,’ Rel said. ‘When the village was burned so many cycles ago, we feared there were no Uloni left. We have searched all over these lands, trying to find someone of pure Uloni blood.’ She shook her head. ‘And to think, all it took was a war to find you.’

  Emmy shook her head.

  ‘I’m not at war,’ she said. ‘This isn’t my fight.’

  Rel’s expression sharpened and she shook her head. One hand went to pat Haelo.

  ‘The Metakalans have fallen,’ she said, ‘and the Masvams are coming for the Althemerians. Rest assured, young one. You are at war and this is your fight.’

  Emmy sat back, rolling the new information around in her head She rubbed her palms over the smoothness of her surcoat, right where Bomsoi had pushed her.

  ‘Bomsoi, she said I would live in her. That I would be a heart.’

  ‘Not ‘a’ heart, but the Heart,’ Rel said. ‘The Heart of Nunako.’

  ‘But—’

  Emmy’s protest was stopped by a thundering in the distance. They both stilled.

  ‘Those are drums,’ Rel said. ‘The Masvams have come.’

  ‘Charo and Zecha—’ Emmy began.

  Her words were silenced by a high-pitched horn blast.

  ‘Charo has been trained by Althemerians,’ Rel said. ‘Soldier-slaves may be arrow fodder but that doesn’t mean they haven’t been taught to fight. And Zecha will find his way back here, I am sure. They will survive, as will we.’

  She patted Haelo’s sheath and stood, then held a hand to Emmy. As Emmy accepted the grasp, Rel’s eyes sparkled, blue speckles piercing the grey orbs. Her appearance changed, and she wore her Belfoni mask once more. She held Emmy’s hand tight.

  ‘If the unthinkable happens and I don’t return,’ she said, ‘head to Kubodinnu, the Althemerian capital. Bomsoi is there.’

  There was a lump like a great stone in Emmy’s throat, but she nodded.

  ‘Kubodinnu,’ she repeated.

  Rel finally released her and shifted Haelo on her belt.

  Understanding dawned at what Rel had just said, and Emmy shook her head.

  ‘Wait, you’re leaving?’ she asked, her voice tight. ‘Why aren’t you staying with the rest of the healers?’

  ‘I told you I was Rel Bonebreaker before I was Hurthealer,’ Rel said. ‘I could stay here but I am better suited to battle than waiting.’

  Fear bubbled anew in Emmy’s stomach.

  ‘But…’

  ‘If you need me,’ Rel said, cupping the side of Emmy’s face, ‘call for me. Concentrate hard and I will hear you.’

  Emmy brought up a hand to rest atop Rel’s.

  ‘How?’ she asked.

  Rel gave her a one-sided smile as she withdrew her touch.

  ‘Once we know each other,’ she said, ‘Uloni can talk in each other’s minds.’ Her smile turned into a mischievous grin. ‘Don’t tell me you haven’t heard me.’

  Flashes of words Emmy had thought were imagined returned to her.

  ‘That was you?’ she asked.

  ‘Some of the time, yes,’ Rel replied.

  There was a sharp horn blast in the distance. It broke their companionship. Rel drew back, a hand on Haelo in her sheath. She turned. Her bracelets jangled as she slipped towards the curtain.

  She stopped and half-turned. Her expression grew solemn.

  ‘Today will not bring our deaths, Emmy,’ she said. ‘Remember: call for me.’

  Then she was gone.

  Emmy lowered herself onto the cot again. Despite her absence, she still felt Rel was with her. The feeling was new. It was…comforting.

  Then the memory of her vision returned, of the beautiful Uloni with the cracked first horn.

  Closing her eyes, Emmy let the thoughts wash over her. Her mind then went to memories of Charo and Zecha and their Middlemerish celebration. It was a time, though brief, when life was tolerable.

  And though she was alone, Emmy did not feel lonely.

  Bomsoi’s last words returned, bolstering her courage. Emmy stood as the strange Uloni’s voice sounded clear in her mind.

  Live now, so that you may live in me.