The sea on Uolia was master. It was cold and sharp and blue like lapis lazuli and the waves were like crystal. Land was rare and came in sheer, stark mountain isles with snow shores and ice harbors. The Uolians fished the sea for ste’el. They ate the meat and burned the fat for fire. Their huts were made of seal skin stretched over whala-bone. They slept outside in fur sacks and lay together as a single family-tribe for warmth. They slept always on their backs and fell asleep watching the stars.
The Uolians knew many gods in the sky. There was Thael-Gaels, the ould father, who rested on his throne in the zenith. His daughters Riasi and Liriasi sat on either side, arms outstretched, arms folded, judging and weighing each man. Lefeya was the goddess of constant north, a spear that always pointed true. Low above the horizon was Paet the trickster god who changed shape. And of course there was Rahampts, god of hunger, who arced across the sky each year and turned the cryoplankton blue.
The Uolians had no words for night or cold or winter. Their flesh memories knew of ancient life on Earth. The bite of cold on bare cheek still held the fear of death and thrill of promise. This feeling never left and it shaped the people, who knew death like an old friend. The darkness also made them. They had no fear of the unknown and their eyes saw hidden things. When the imperial censor arrived on Uolia he took note of this feature and recorded it as useful.
They were not a savage or an ignorant people. They had the technology of the first landing. Each mountain village had its own factotum from which the children learned and that the men used to calculate and store data. They had gliders that in the months of hael could ride soft winds from place to place. They had goruruns that trapped the sun’s light and let grow things not used to cold.
The first imperial levy was enough to destroy the planet. Not with the quick violence of war but the slow violence of progress. The Good King Solto was just and when he took their children he gave them things in return. Then there was no need to hunt the ste’el. They had gleaming bronze ships that flew like hail-gulls over the seas and brought back corpses by the millions. The bodies were dumped into brass factories and out came all the necessities of life in neat packaging.
Smoke from the factories filled the skies and covered the dimmest of stars. The hail-ydactlys were wiped out with guns that shot burning light instead of pellets and there was no need to scan the skies for danger. The people slept indoors in their comfortable new terems and no longer fell asleep watching the stars. Their eyes grew small and dim. Their skin lost its icy opalescence and became simply white. The levies continued each year and each year the recruits were more fearful and myopic.
Laylis was taken before even the first levy. Her skin was opalescent glass and her eyes were wide as the sky and as glittering black. Her name Laylis meant “drowned one,” for she was born during a great flood. She was the first to see the gleaming brass ships burn through the sky like gods and hover above the sea like golden icebergs. The sight was terrific and she knew immediately that the world was changed. The heat from the ships warmed the air and she had to unbuttoned her parka to breathe. The snow at her feet melted and she saw naked earth for the first time.
She stood next to her father, the chief, as the imperial procession approached. A great brass beast like a crab with horns floated above the ground, burning a road through the ice and snow and rock. Her father had called it a tyanqu. Up the road marched hundreds of golden men in rows. They moved precisely like pieces of a watch. They sang a strange song and their drums and trumpets were too loud.
The procession halted in front of her father and the golden men turned to face each other and form a wall. Up the avenue walked a man in a cape with a shining feather helmet. He was flanked by two other men holding imperial standards. They were gold as well with blue jewels and a lion devouring the sun. The Lion-Sun Kingdom. The law of the galaxy.
Laylis had learned much of the wider universe from her village ‘totum. She knew the histories of the old Earth empires, the new Earth empires, the solar empires, the galactic empires and the arrival of the Gaiaspora and the colonization of the vacant universe. She could point to the Heliocul sun-school system in the sky and knew it was the imperial throne-system. She knew her people were vassals and owed their peace to the king’s grace. But she did not believe her knowledge until now.
The man approached her father and made a greeting. Her father made the obeisance slowly. His motions told Laylis of a man to whom the inevitable had occurred. She had never seen her father on bended knee and it made her angry. Her father rose and invited the imperial agent into his hut. They entered with some men from the tribe and two gold bodyguards. The rest of the tribe milled about, uncertain. The golden wall of men stood like stone. Laylis tried to sneak her way to the hut and was captured by her mother and sent to gather gull spore.
When she returned, the strange men were gone except for one. He sat in her father’s tent, taking tea with her mother and father and sitting with tucked knee on his fur mat in proper fashion. He wore the golden suit of his fellows with its strange patterns and designs, and a long fur cape which Laylis saw was gift from her parents. He had a kind, grandfather look. His eyes were blue and he smiled when Laylis entered.
“So, this is little Laylis,” he said.
Laylis looked to her father. His face was tense and she felt a helplessness inside him that scared her. Her mother’s face was impassive. Like all good Uolian women she kept her emotions in ice. She spooned more fat on the fire and made two bowls of sacra: ground fish meat and nuts with porridge. Her father took his bowl wordlessly and set it aside. The man took his with a thanks and ate enthusiastically.
“How old are you, girl?” He asked between spoonfuls. She looked again to her father.
“You will answer all of our guest questions and treat him with respect,” he said.
Laylis made the obeisance she had been taught by the ‘totum, still not believing it was real. It took her a few seconds to convert her age in Rahampts passings to standard and she wasn’t sure she had gotten it right.
“I am 10 standard, liege-estar. Soon to be eleven.”
He nodded cheerfully to himself. He pointed up at the hut roof.
“Do you like the stars, young Laylis?”
She thought it was a strange question. She did not know what he meant. Liking was a thing for foods and games and boys. The stars were part of her. They were every wake and fall, every zenith and horizon, and everything in between.
“...yes,” she said, and then, “Yes, estar.”
“Very good, very good.” He nodded again to himself. He scraped the bowl for the last morsels of sacra and licked his lips. She noted they were very moist.
“Would you like to go there? To the stars?” he asked.
She stared. She did not know. Go to the stars, what did he mean? Out of the corner of her eye she saw her father nod.
“...yes,” she said.
“Excellent,” the man said. He handed the empty bowl to Laylis’ mother and addressed the father.
“I consider the matter settled. We will leave now with your daughter as a guest of fealty and return in the spring for the first levy. Worry not, the Merry Swords are a great family of excellent breeding. They shall treat your daughter as their own.”
He stood and swept out of the tent. Her family followed and she watched the man stride away. He turned and smiled.
“Come along little one,” he held out his hand. Laylis looked up to her father. Tear-flakes were frozen on his cheeks.
“Go,” he rasped. “Go with your leige-estar.”
She stared at him. He grabbed her shoulder as though he’d never let go and then gave her a push that nearly knocked her into the snow. She ran after the man. He held out his hand but she didn’t take it. They walked down the road that had been carved earlier. The man whistled. The members of her family-tribe stood and watched. For the first time it seemed their bright black eyes were dull.
Great lines of fire roared up across the sky and the man walked towards them. He veered off the road that curved down the mountain to the snowy shores and walked to a cliff edge. There was a rumbling and then a great brass wall rose up before them. A door opened in the side and shone light so bright it nearly blinded her. A golden staircase with steps that moved by themselves unfolded and the man guided her onto the bottom step. They were drawn up into the beast and swallowed.
