The Dark and Forbidding Land Read online

  “As you say,” said Zurfina, picking up a chip and biting into it.

  The next day when Senta got up though, Zurfina was nowhere to be found. She might have been on the top floor of the tower, but as she had expressed on more than one occasion that the girl was never to enter that level, Senta didn't go to see. It was just as likely that she was not there. Senta had long grown accustomed to Zurfina’s random comings and goings, made most of the time without any notification to her ward.

  Senta indulged in a nice long bath, the water provided by the new plumbing system but magically heated. Then she had the last bit of bread in the house with a spoon of jam for a breakfast. Bessemer was fast asleep next to the stove and didn’t even wake up to ask for something to eat.

  Outside the snow was more than two feet deep in the middle of the yard and in the road, while next to the house and among the trees in the forest, the drifts were taller than a grown man. The flakes had stopped falling for now, but the skies looked as though they could open up and drop much more at any time. Senta threw on her heavy coat over the short black dress with black and white stockings that she had found waiting for her that morning, and slipped on a large pair of oiled boots that Graham had grown out of. Then she headed out the door.

  The clouds hung low, touching the tops of the massive pines. The world seemed very small. Sounds echoed between the trees. Senta walked into the center of the yard and looked around into the surrounding forest for any sign of the tyrannosaurus, but its massive black body and great red face were pleasantly absent. A couple of microraptors chased each other from a huge pine to a maple and back, while a pair of buitreraptors and a lone mahakala dug around in the snow near the edge of the road. Most of the proper birds had flown south for the winter, but these strange Birmisian birds were ever present.

  Senta dropped onto her back in the center of the yard, with her arms outstretched and made a snow angel. Getting back up, she walked across the yard, managing to stay on the path despite the fact that she had to guess at its location. Then she started east down the road, startling the two buitreraptors into the woods, though the mahakala stubbornly refused to leave on account of one small human.

  It was a walk of only about three hundred yards from the new home Zurfina the sorceress and her ward to the large gate in the protective wall that divided the now completely subdued peninsula from the large and still untamed forest. When Senta reached the gate she found a great deal of activity. A Town Square had been built just outside the gate some months before, and it would eventually be the center point of the colony. A new flagpole had been delivered on the last ship and two men, while a small crowd of men and women watched, were erecting it. That was not all that was going on though. No less than three good-sized buildings were under construction around the square despite the frigid and damp weather. The two new buildings on the east side of the square already had walls, doors, and windows and now men walked around upon their roofs hammering down shingles. The building on the southwest corner was still being framed in when Senta had last seen it—little more than a wooden and iron skeleton of a building. Now its walls were done and it too was getting a roof. The three were joining the two buildings that had sat along the east side of the square since its construction—the dress shop and Mr. Parnorsham's Pfennig Store. Senta saw a face she knew and walked over to its owner.

  “Hello Mr. Darwin.”

  “Oh hello, Senta,” said the bespectacled older man, who was only slightly taller than the ten year old girl. “How are you this cold morning?”

  “I’m okay. Which of these buildings is going to be yours?”

  “This one right here,” he replied, pointing to the left most of the two having their roofs put on. “I’m right next to Mr. Parnorsham’s Pfennig Store. I think that’s the best spot in the square. Don’t you?”

  “I kind of thought you would have moved in there when Mrs. Wachtel died,” said Senta, indicating the shop just to the left of the Pfennig Store.

  “Yes, well… to be honest, when Mrs. Wachtel… a… passed away,” Mr. Darwin crossed himself. “I had already signed the paperwork.”

  “So what are they going to do with her place?”

  “It’s my understanding that Mrs. Bratihn is going to take over the business.”

  “I guess that will be good since her husband can’t work on account of being blind.”

  “Mmm,” nodded Mr. Darwin, noncommittally while he took off his glasses to wipe them with a clean handkerchief.

  “I didn’t expect Mrs. Government to let us go too long without a dress shop.”

  Mr. Darwin bit his lower lip. “Senta, you are irrepressible. You are going to have to learn to watch what you say.”

  “I think Senta will always say what she means,” said a voice from behind them.

  They turned around to see Egeria Lusk in a beautiful dress that was only slightly less white than the surrounding snow and a bright colored coat that was only slightly more red than her fiery hair, which just now was pulled up into a bun and tucked behind the straw boater she wore. Miss Lusk was a very small woman with very large green eyes, and though strikingly beautiful, she was known more for her keen mind.

  “Good day to you, sir,” she said, curtseying to Mr. Darwin, who bowed at the waist in return. “Where are you off to, Senta?”

  Senta shrugged.

  “I’m going to the Pfennig Store for some lace. Why don’t you come along with me?”

  “Okay. Good day Mr. Darwin.”

  “Good day beautiful ladies,” said Mr. Darwin, once again bowing at the waist.

  Miss Lusk glided across the snowy square and Senta followed, watching the swaying motion of the woman’s fashionably large bustle. It was just about large enough that Senta and another ten year old could have hidden themselves under it. Miss Lusk’s bright red coat was cut wide at the bottom to expand and encompass her very large lower half.

  “That’s a great dress,” remarked Senta. “You must have a huge hip bag under there.”

  Miss Lusk glanced over her shoulder and winked. “All part of the price of fashion. I’m afraid that without the proper foundation I just don’t have the necessary shape.”

  “I don’t think anybody has a bottom that big,” said Senta.

  “No. Nobody does.” Miss Lusk stopped to pull open the door of the Pfennig Store. “And nobody walks around on their toes either, but we wear high-heels to look like we do.”

  Senta stepped inside the door as the bell hanging above it jingled. Miss Lusk followed and the bell jingled again as the door closed. Mr. Parnorsham looked up from behind the counter where he was rearranging costume jewelry in the glass case. He squinted through his bifocals and wiped his hands on his white apron.

  “Good day ladies.”

  “Good day Mr. Parnorsham.” Miss Lusk politely feigned interest in the costume jewelry. “I’m in need of some two inch lace today.”

  “Let me show you what I have.”

  Senta wandered over to look at the toy counter. It was a small twenty-four inch square counter divided into six-inch square compartments, each with a different type of toy. There were rubber bouncing balls, toy guns, tin soldiers, doll-sized teacups with saucers, and wooden ponies with yarn tails. Senta picked one up and made a horse noise by blowing air between her lips.

  “That’s just the one I need,” said Miss Lusk from the other aisle.

  “How much is the toy horse, Mr. Parnorsham?” called Senta.

  “It’s a toy pony and it’s five pfennigs. Oh, by the way Miss Lusk, I just got in some more tins of butter biscuits. I know how much you like them.”

  “Yes I’ll take one of those too.”

  “Just one?”

  “Just one,” she peered around the aisle at Senta and whispered loudly. “I won’t need that bustle if I keep eating these. Aren’t you a bit old for a toy pony?”

  “It’s for Bessemer. He’s been playing with my doll lately and I’m afraid he’s going to bite her head off.”
r />   “Do you have five pfennigs?”

  “Yeah. I just don’t know if I want to spend them. I guess I will though.” She picked up the wooden pony and brought it to the counter.

  “That will be seventy five p, Miss Lusk.”

  “We’ll have two of those as well,” said Miss Lusk, pointing at a large framed picture of a brown bottle emblazoned with the words “Billingbow’s Original Sarsaparilla and Wintergreen Soda Water.” Then she winked again at Senta.

  “Well that will bring you total to ninety seven P.”

  Miss Lusk reached daintily into her bosom and withdrew a small roll of paper banknotes of which she peeled off a single one-mark note and held it out. Mr. Parnorsham looked at it for a long moment as if not sure whether it was appropriate for him to touch something that had just come from within a young woman’s garments. Finally he took it by the very corner and carrying it carefully, as though he thought it might spontaneously combust, he placed it in the cash box, and withdrew three copper pfennigs change, which, now overwhelmed by the idea of more intimate physical contact, he placed on the counter instead of in Miss Lusk’s hand.

  He turned around and pulled two Billingbow’s from the ice box and set them next to the other purchases and then turned his attention to Senta.

  “Five P.”

  Senta slapped down a two-tone five-pfennig piece, with its copper center and nickle outer ring. She watched unhappily as Mr. Parnorsham picked it up and added it to his till. She had been saving that coin for quite a while, not because of any sentimental attachment, but because she thought that the coin was much prettier than even more valuable coins. Unlike most every other Brech coin, it didn’t feature the face of one of the royal family on the obverse, just a big number five surrounded by some kind of leaves. On the reverse side, it had the image of an owl.

  “So what is your feeling about Mr. Darwin opening his store next to yours?” Miss Lusk asked the proprietor.

  “I’m actually looking forward to it. Now I’ll have someone to visit with during the afternoon lull.”

  “Do you know what’s going to go in the other two new buildings?”

  “On the other side of Darwin will be Mr. Vever’s jewelry shop.”

  “Oh indeed,” said Miss Lusk, holding up her left hand. “He made my engagement ring you know.”

  Mr. Parnorsham dutifully squinted at the ring and nodded in appreciation.

  “What about the building across the way?”

  “That’s going to be the new bakery. A Zaeri woman named Mrs. Finkler will be running it.”

  “Yes. Ada Finkler. She’s very nice.”

  “She seems nice,” said Mr. Parnorsham. “Not that I’ve known many Zaeri.”

  “Good day Mr. Parnorsham,” said Miss Lusk, handing one bottle of Billingbow’s to Senta, and picking up the rest of her purchases. Senta took the soda bottle in one hand and picked up the toy horse with the other, and the two of them stepped outside, the bell above the door ringing once again.

  “You know Mr. Parnorsham, Mr. Darwin, and Mr. Vever are all going to be in a row,” said Senta.

  “Yes… Is there some significance to that?”

  “Only that they’re all little old bald men.”

  Miss Lusk covered her mouth with her hand, trying to be discreet as she giggled. “Mr. Vever isn’t that old…. And Mr. Parnorsham isn’t… completely bald.”

  “Sure he is,” said Senta. “I wouldn’t say it in front of him, because he’s pretty nice.”

  “I appreciate your discretion.” Tears were forming in Miss Lusk’s eyes. “Excuse me just a moment.”

  She turned and went back into the store. Senta took a swig of her Billingbow’s and looked across at the construction of the bakery. A boy only a few years older than her was directing several grown men working on the project.

  “Do you know that boy?” asked Miss Lusk, coming back outside.

  “That’s Aalwijn Finkler. I guess he wants to make sure that his mom’s bakery is put together right.”

  Miss Lusk had apparently gone back in the store for a straw, which she now stuck into the top of her soda bottle and daintily sipped from. Noticing the girl looking at her, she said, “I never learned to swig.”

  They both heard a commotion across the square at the same time and turned back to the bakery. Aalwijn Finkler and the men working with, or for him had stopped what they were doing and were speaking loudly, though Senta could only catch a few of their words. The subject of their discussions soon became apparent though as a line of some forty lizzies came walking into the square from the south. A sole militiaman, armed with a rifle slung haphazardly over his shoulder accompanied them.

  The workmen went back to their hammering, but Aalwijn Finkler hopped down from the construction site and stepped across the square just in front of the line of lizardmen, who were moving so slowly in the cold weather that it looked to Senta as though they were suffering the effects of a slow spell. The young man walked up to the woman and the girl.

  “Hey Senta,” he said.

  “Hey.” Senta took another swig of soda.

  “Um… Hello Miss Lusk.”

  “I’m flattered that you know me, Mr. Finkler,” said Miss Lusk smiling.

  “Oh, everyone knows you, Miss Lusk,” Aalwijn said, not registering the fact that she knew his name. “I suppose you’ll be heading over to the base after this lot.”

  “Why would you suppose that?” wondered Senta.

  “These are the lizzies that are going to be the household servants,” explained Aalwijn. “I expect you’ll need quite a few for that fine house of yours.”

  “My home won’t be ready for a few weeks yet,” said Miss Lusk.

  “Someday I’m going to have a house like yours. Then my mother and I can take it easy and we’ll have dozens of lizzies to wait on us.”

  “I’m sure you will. I’ll tell you what. When my home is completed, I’ll have both of you over to tea.” She smiled at the two young people. “In the meantime, I’m on my way back to my apartment, so I must say adieu.”

  “Good day, Miss,” said Aalwijn.

  “Bye,” said Senta.

  Miss Lusk started toward the gate, rapidly overtaking the long line of lizzies, who had only now reached the opening in the great wall. The two children stood looking on, though whether either was watching the lizzies or Miss Lusk’s swaying bustle was a matter of interpretation.

  Chapter Two: The Lizzie

  Ssissiatok shuffled down the road and through the gate in the great wooden wall. On either side, groups of soft-skins watched her and the other people. The people walked slowly as they always did in the cold. This was not to say they could only walk slowly in the cold, but Ssterrost had reminded all of them coming from Tserich how they were to act. They were to act slow and they were to act simple and they were not to show the newcomers anything they weren’t expecting. Most of the people in this group were from Tserich, but there were a few others. Ssissiatok recognized the tribal symbol of Tuustutu on the shoulder of one very tall male in the back of the group.

  Ssissiatok herself was slightly less than six feet in height, about average for members of her sex and species. She was young and didn’t have the mottled skin and scars of most of her elders. Her face and the top of her head were a deep forest green, which ran down her back, punctuated with darker stripes just below her shoulders. Beneath her long powerful jaw, on her dewlap, and extending down her front, was a lighter, pale green. Her most attractive feature, her long powerful tail, followed her just a few inches above the ground.

  The line of people filed through the wall and between the large square huts of the soft-skins. Though she had heard elders telling stories of the great cities of Suusthek, Tsotollah, and Tsahloose, this softskin village was the largest community that Ssissiatok had ever seen. More and more of the soft-skins lined the road to gawk and to jabber with their little mouths, as the people reached the bigger buildings that were “the base.” Ssissiatok knew “base” and
many other human words.

  The line stopped and a softskin ahead was shouting. “You lizzies move on up here.”

  Ssissiatok and the other people moved forward into a group.

  “You will step up to the table and give the soldier your name and information. Then you will be given your identification and you will wait on the seats over there until the employers come to select you.”

  Ssissiatok fell in line behind Tissonisuk, an older male she knew from the village. Unlike most of the others, Tissonisuk was not hunkering down to make himself look smaller for the soft-skins. He was standing up at his full six foot seven height. The line moved forward until Tissonisuk reached the table with the softskin seated behind it.

  “Name? Oh, hey. I know you, don’t I? Tisson. Right?”

  Tissonisuk bobbed his head up and down in the way that the soft-skins did.

  “Come to sign on permanent, eh? Good for you. Hold out your hand. Keep this identification bracelet on at all times.”

  Tissonisuk, now just Tisson, stepped away from the table. Ssissiatok stepped forward.

  “Hey now. You’re a short one, aren’t you? Are you a girl?”

  Ssissiatok didn’t know this word.

  “Female?”

  Ssissiatok hissed in the affirmative, but the softskin didn’t understand, and lowered his hand to the weapon on his belt.

  “Fee nail. Fee nail,” said Ssissiatok quickly.

  “That’s better. And you can talk too. A little feisty. Don’t worry. We’ll work that out of you in no time. Hold your hand out.”

  Ssissiatok did as directed and the softskin tied an identification bracelet around her wrist. She looked at the strange symbols on it.

  “Want to know what it says? That’s your number now—295. And it says you can talk, so you can’t fool us. Don’t even try. What’s your name Little Miss Lizzie?”

  “Ssissiatok.”

  “Cissy. Perfect.”

  “Ssissiatok.”

  “You’re Cissy now, got it? And I’ve got just the place for you. Go stand over with that lot there.”

  The softskin pointed to where Tissonisuk sat. Ssissiatok walked over to them. She recognized Hekheesiatu, another female just older than she, but from a house with slightly less status. The third person she didn’t recognize. He was an average looking male with mottled yellow skin and brown stripes on his back.