Leena Likitalo: The Five Daughters of the Moon

My seed clasps his arms around me. I bury my head against his shoulder, the snow-dusted wolf fur that smells of smoke and gunpowder. He has come to set us free. With his help, I will reclaim my empire. With…

“Celestia,” he whispers. And there it is again, the wrongness.

I don’t want to break the embrace. But my own needs or wishes bear secondary priority to those of my empire. Even if the train guards believe my seed to be on the same side, the sooner we are on our way, the higher the likelihood that at least a part of the plan will work.

I steel myself and say what needs to be said. “Untie the horses. Take Elise and the girls. I will remain behind and delay the pursuit, no matter the cost.”

He steps away from me then, and this single act of rejection hurts my heart, my body, as if I were a creature of glass fracturing against granite. “No.”

His gaze is very gray, pale as icicles. I meet his eyes, dreading what I might see. What is the reason behind his refusal? Has the gagargi tampered with his soul as he once did with mine? I know now what to look for, the absence of emotion, of memory. But my seed’s gaze is bright, his own. He isn’t under the gagargi’s power.

“Why?” I ask, unsure of how much time we have left. Elise still lingers at the street with the girls. Sibilia paces back and forth on the platform, the magpie skimming beside her. Belly and Tabard have joined Beard. My sister will soon grow afraid of them and dart to me. Of that I am sure.

“The Crescent Empress is dead. General Kravakiv has been defeated. Every noble close to you or your mother has been either converted or executed.” My seed’s voice is level, that of a man who has delivered bad news to his empress too many times to count. “Gagargi Prataslav learned of our plan. I don’t know how. It doesn’t matter now. My men and I were ambushed yesterday, just a mile away from this village. I was captured. My company was rounded up and shot before my eyes. One after another.”

I can see the blood staining the snow, the smoke parting after gunfire, even without closing my eyes. And closing my eyes would benefit no one. I can only consider the facts and try and craft a new plan. “The soldiers by the stable?”

My seed glances at the red-gloved soldiers. He shrugs as if they didn’t matter. Perhaps they don’t. “They have their orders. They are beyond reasoning with. It is as you said. Their minds are not their own.”

My stomach clenches, a pain trivial compared to that which I had to suffer to rid myself of Gagargi Prataslav’s seed. He has grown powerful indeed. How many men and women does he have fully in his control, with parts of their souls captured into glass beads?

“What are their orders?” I ask, refusing to give up. For fear can only cloud one’s mind, and that is something I will never again let happen to myself.

My seed pats the neck of the closest horse, a thick-furred brown mare tacked on the troika’s left lead. He has always loved horses; the ones he owned, the ones that gave their lives in the battles, the ones he met just in passing. The mare swishes its tail and continues munching hay. My seed smiles faintly, but then his expression turns somber. “Once the train leaves, they will shoot me dead.”

My heart sinks, for it is as if the ground were drawing me toward it, as if it were just a matter of seconds before it will swallow me altogether. My seed has calculated the odds and come to a grim conclusion. He has accepted his fate.

I will not resign myself to mine. Not before I have explored every possibility, no matter how unlikely they are to succeed.

“We do have one troika.” I must hear his reasoning. I can’t just welcome defeat, return with my sisters to the train, and leave him here to die.

“The gelding in the middle is lame. The troika’s right runner is broken.”

I shake my head despite myself. No wonder the soldiers by the stable are snickering. They know any attempt my seed were to make would be doomed to fail. They want to see him try, I realize. And worse, the gagargi wants me to attempt to defy him.

If I were to try today, he would win. If I don’t try, he will win. My prospects are bleak indeed.

“The gagargi wants me to tell you that you belong to him.” My seed spits on the ground, the snow trampled ugly brown by hooves. He is disgusted by the words that he must part with. “The next time you try to flee, he will have one of your sisters shot.”

My enemy knows me too well. I can see my life unfolding before me. He will blackmail me into appearing by his side and bearing his seed. Once he thought he could have me marry the Moon while spellbound to him. Now I doubt he will let any gagargi perform the ceremony, lest my father learn of his foul ways. I can live with my own pain, but not with the knowledge that further actions on my part will hurt my innocent sisters.

Elise has halted at the end of the street. She is waiting for my signal. But she has stared at me for too long, and this has intrigued Captain Janlav. He studies me, suspicious. Even Merile and Alina have noticed that the plan isn’t progressing as it should. They no longer play with the dogs.

I wave at my sisters to return to the train. This plan is foiled beyond recovery. We must salvage what we can.

“I am proud of you, Celestia,” General Monzanov says. Mother thought him the best strategist to have walked under the Moon for centuries. He knows when a defeat is inevitable. He doesn’t waste time dwelling on it. “You have found yourself a formidable foe. Though the situation might seem bleak now, that it is not. You are a daughter of my seed. You are the empress-to-be. You will defeat the gagargi one day, and your victory shall be great.”

My breathing comes in short gasps. I swallow back tears, the lump in my throat. He believes in me, the one who failed the empire. How can he be so sure of my victory, when even I doubt myself?

He places his palms on my shoulders and presses a kiss on my forehead. His gray beard tickles my skin. His frostbitten lips feel warm. This is how I must remember him. All this will be gone in mere moments.

“Go now, with your head held high. Take your place as the Moon’s wife. You will come up with another plan. You will triumph. You will succeed.”

I kiss his cheeks, twice on each side. Then I turn around and march back, following my own footprints. The icy wind chafes my face, my forehead, as if trying to erase his kiss. Tears burn in my eyes, but I will not cry them. Not now, not ever, for my sisters must not see me despair. I can’t allow the guards see me waver either. There is a chance they don’t know of what came and will come to pass, no matter how small that chance might be.

My sisters await me on the train platform with the guards in a crescent behind them. Elise’s smile falters as she takes in my grim expression. Sibilia closes her eyes and sighs. Merile takes hold of Alina’s hand. The dogs are curled at their feet.

“What news did your seed bring us?” Captain Janlav asks. “He said it was only for your ears, as ordered by Gagargi Prataslav himself.”

How devious is this man that has become my enemy! How cruel he is, too, to let a man travel across half the empire to help the daughter of his seed, only to ambush him a day before, only to toy with him until the very end!

But I must be smarter than the gagargi is. For some reason, he doesn’t want the train guards to learn of the rescue attempt. It will benefit my sisters and me to keep it a secret as well—for if the guards were to learn that we tried to flee, they would search our cabins, even our personages, and no doubt confiscate the pearls and sequins, perhaps even the book of scriptures that Sibilia has filled with her thoughts.

But what news could have warranted sending my seed to us? From the corner of my eye, I glimpse the magpie again. It brings to my mind the story Elise relayed to me, and I know it then, the answer that will buy me more time to think. “The Crescent Empress is dead.”