Joan Vinge - The Snow Queen

I—?”

Moon felt panic clog her throat as she remembered why she could not go to them either. “Sparks, I’ve been off world And they know that, too.”

He looked up sharply. “They’ll deport you.”

She nodded, pushing back her hair. “But they have to be told.”

“Then we’ll both go. Maybe… they’ll let us stay together.” He let his hand fall along her back.

She felt her skin turn to gooseflesh. “Yes.” She pushed herself up and off the bed, knowing that if she hesitated she would never be able to separate herself from him again. “We’d better go now.” She remembered abruptly that BZ would be waiting; she closed her eyes again, blotting out their reflections.

They dressed in silence and left the mirrored chamber; she glanced back one last time through the closing door, as the mirror light winked out. They moved along the empty corridor quickly and still silently, in their silence discovering that the reception hall below had grown dim and silent, too. She watched Sparks’s face turn tense and furtive. “Sparks — remember that we belong here!” She pulled her hood up, half covering the rum of her disheveled hairdo, and made her movements regal.

He looked at her. He nodded, but his expression was equally troubled. They went on down the stairs, slipping unobtrusively past the reception hall where weary servants circled, clearing away the remains of the banquet. They reached the Hall of the Winds at last, shadowy and moaning as she remembered it, with the ghost ships eternally adrift.

“How did you cross the Pit?” He whispered it, and she could not help whispering her answer.

“With this.” She held up her wrist, letting him see the control box.

He started. “Only Arienrhod—”

“Herne. Herne showed me how to use it.”

“Herne?” Disbelief. “How?”

She shook her head. “I’ll tell you — everything, later.” The memory of the calling spell as she crossed the bridge came back to her vividly. “Just help me cross back now… don’t let me stop, whatever happens.” She took a deep breath.

“I

“All right.” Worry touched his dim face again, without any understanding of why she was afraid.

They started toward the lip of the Pit, toward the bridge. Moon felt the Sea breathe, cold and damp against her flushed face; raised her hand to press the first tone of the calming sequence. But Sparks turned back, for one last look into the dark past. She reached out, her doubt quickening as he turned.

And then the rattling air filled with light, the hall was transformed. They shrank together, blinking, uncomprehending; shielded their eyes.

They were not alone. “Arienrhod!” Sparks gasped. Moon saw a woman standing where they had stood at the entrance to the hall, around her a gathering of richly dressed nobles — and palace guards. Glancing back over her shoulder, she saw more figures waiting across the bridge.

The Queen. The woman Sparks had named Arienrhod came toward them slowly; slowly coming into focus. Moon saw the hair, milk white like her own, twisted into an elaborate sculpture and crowned with a diadem… saw Arienrhod’s face — her own face, as though she were moving into her own reflection. “It’s true…”

Sparks didn’t answer, not looking ahead but only from side to side, searching for an escape.

Arienrhod stopped in front of them, and Moon lost track of everything but the fascination that locked the moss-agate eyes of the Queen with her own. But there was none of her own amazement in the Queen’s gaze. She almost thought that Arienrhod had been waiting for this moment forever. “So you’ve come at last, Moon. I should have known you would survive. I should have known you wouldn’t let anything keep you from your goal.” She smiled, and there was pride in it, but curiously wrapped with envy.

Moon met the gaze steadily, expressionless, not understanding its implications. But at a deeper level she felt their vibration like a sonic field, disorienting her. She expected me… how could she know that I had to come? “Yes, Your Majesty. I’ve come for Sparks.” She made it a challenge, knowing instinctively that it was something this woman would appreciate.

The Queen laughed, a high sharp sound like wind rattling ice coated leaves; but with disconcerting echoes of her own laughter. “You’ve come to take my Starbuck away from me?” Sparks glanced up at her, and past her at the waiting nobles, as she let his secret 1. out; but they were too far away to hear what was said over the sighing of the Pit. “Well, you’re the only one who can.” Again Moon heard the ache of secret envy. “But you wouldn’t keep him long. ; (“ You saw him hesitate. You don’t really believe that he could be con — i * tent in Summer after he’s belonged to Carbuncle, do you? You don’t really believe he’ll be satisfied with you when he’s belonged to me?” almost sadly. “No, child of my mind… you’re still only a child. An incomplete woman; a pitifully inadequate lover.”

“Arienrhod!” Sparks cried out, his voice raw with anguish. “No—”

“Yes, my love. I was moved. You were very tender with her.” She smiled. Moon felt her face flush, felt outrage and humiliation throb like poison in her blood. “You see, I do know everything that happens in my city.” The words glinted. “I’m disappointed in you, Star buck. Although I can’t say that I’m surprised. But I’m willing to forgive you.” She reached out to him with the words, softly, without sarcasm. “You’ll realize this was a mistake when you’ve had time to think it over.” She raised a hand, and the guards came toward them, semi circled them at the Pit’s edge. “Escort Starbuck to his chambers . and see that he stays there.”

Sparks stiffened. “It’s finished, Arienrhod! You know that. I’m free, no matter what you do to keep me here. I’ll never change back. You’ll never touch me again—” He took a long, unsteady breath. “Unless you let Moon go. Let her go away now, and I’ll do anything you want.”

Moon opened her mouth, starting forward; but he froze her with a look. She followed his urgent glance across the bridge — to warn them…

“After we’ve talked together, alone. If she still wants to go then, I promise you I won’t stop her.” Arienrhod held out her hands to them, empty of deceit.

“Whatever she says, don’t listen to it. Promise me, promise me you won’t believe what she’ll tell you.” Guards closed in on Sparks. Moon felt her own hands try to reach him. But Arienrhod stood watching, as she had watched… Sparks reached out, but the same unspoken knowledge stopped him, and his hands dropped to his sides. The guards took him away.

Moon stood alone between the Queen and the abyss. The wind lapped her, her shivering loss intensified; she kept it hidden under her cloak. “I have nothing to say to you.” The words fell from her mouth like stones. She turned her back on the Queen, took a step toward the bridge’s beginning. Don’t think, don’t think about it. You have no choice.

“Moon… my child. Wait!” The Queen’s voice caught her like a fishhook. “Yes, I saw you, but you no more need to feel ashamed of that than you would of seeing your own reflection.”

Moon turned furiously. “We aren’t the same!”

“We are. And how often does a woman have the chance to watch herself make love… ?” Arienrhod held out her hands again, with a kind of longing. “Didn’t he tell you, Moon? Couldn’t he?” Moon stared, uncomprehending, saw Arienrhod begin to smile. “Well, it’s better this way; if I explain to you myself… You’re mine, Moon. You’re of me. I’ve known about you since the day of your conception, watched over you all your life. I wanted to bring you here to me years ago; that’s why I sent you that message about Sparks. Then you disappeared, and I thought I’d lost you forever. But you’ve come at last.”