by Kaye Jeffreys
The wind
blows grit and sand and it stings exposed skin on Kellie's arm. But she can
feel it. That's what matters. To feel anything and to think about it is better
than to dwell on the void that gnaws her insides like a boring beetle.
Her unit
is no more. All that remains are herself, her sister's children, and her own
infant that sleeps in her arms, bundled against the wind. Her sister's children
are away from this place, retrieved by Dionys Unit, their father's people.
Apollo
Unit is here for her. She feels the approach of their multi-rider. She is not
ready to go. She can not leave the site where she last saw her own alive before
Black Widow took them. An explosion and a collapse and all evidence of Hermes
Unit is gone... burned and buried.
Kellie
will never see them again.
Black Rim
can be merciless and greedy. She rarely releases her dead.
#
"You made
good time," Athena Marie's ancient voice creaked through her scarf as she
greeted Logan and Brett.
"Dionys
got here before we did?" Logan tightened his face mask against the smell
of smoke and sulfer.
"And
they are gone already. Black Widow is still murmuring. She may speak
again." Athena turned from Logan to his son and focused her one good eye
on him. "Brett, you are ready to take Kellie as lifemate for as long or
short as this wretched life may be?"
"Does
she want me?"
"She
chose you. And you accept?"
"Yes,
ma'am."
"Get
her and get out. Widow may open her mouth and swallow us as well."
#
Kellie sat
in the ash looking more like a Nomad cradling her child than a transient miner.
She faced Black Widow, head turned up toward the newly collapsed rim that now
jetted acrid smoke into the sky through sharp whistling cracks.
"We
have come." Brett said.
Kellie
didn't move, not even to look up at him.
Brett sat
next to her in the ash. There was nothing more to say. Never had so many been
lost so quickly in one incident. The weight of the loss hadn't fully impacted
him yet. So many faces that he is used to seeing at gatherings, he will not see
them any more. Though there will be memorial stones set up for them, no graves
will be dug. Black Widow has already devoured them into the bowels of Eclectia.
Brett could not imagine what those men, women, and children faced as they went
under. It must have been a gaping hell of brimstone and flames.
Black
Widow murmered again beneath them. Brett shot up to standing at his first sense
of the vibrations.
Kellie
remained seated.
Brett bent
over and spoke as gently into her ear as the wind and whistling would permit.
"We must go on."
Kellie
nodded once but made no attempt to get up.
The Widow
doesn't always give warnings. It is foolishness to ignore her when she does.
But it is
wrong to disturb the grieving of a new widow and to invade the place of her
sorrow. Brett wound never do it if there was no danger. But another tremor
rumbles under his feet, another warning, from an ancient Widow to a new one. If
Kellie won't heed it for herself, she must do so for the sake of her child.
Brett
leaned over again, "We must go now." He put his hands on her arms and
gently lifted.
To his
relief, Kellie didn't resist but cooperated by pushing up with her legs, though
her arms never let loose of her infant.
Brett
guided her to the multi-rider where his father and sister waited, the staredown
between Black Widow and her most recent victim has been broken.
#
Kellie
looks up into the sky as she walks with Brett to the multi-rider. The words of
the song they will sing at the time of remembering and raising of the stones
flows slowly through her mind.
Ashes to
ashes, dust to dust
Here a
little, there a little
He gives
to us, He takes things away
Blessed is
the One who brought us safely here
Blessed is
the One who will lead us on
And we
must go on
Kaye
Jeffreys dedicates this story and the song below to the memory of Walt Staples.
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