On Thin Ice (Prequel to Guild)

Chapter Forty-Four: A City of Ghosts

                         Such weight rested upon Oddyntsetseg Ueno's shoulders. It bore down on her head too, but that was secondary. She would take three-stone Shirub silver headdresses studded with amber and coloured enamel over that look without hesitation. She preferred the title 'the future Lady Soun' to that look. In fact, she liked the stout old man who would become her husband more than she liked that look- and she never wanted to see him again.

"Oddyii, don't pout. You bloat your stomach when you do that."

"That doesn't make any sense, maj," answered the girl, waving the seamstress and her pins and her scissors away. Her constant compliments couldn't fend off her mother's complaints. Only the Baba's special pan-fried celebration cakes could do that.

Shame there weren't many of them left.

Shame she couldn't have more.

A swat. Her mother captured her wrist like her ancestors had conquered their country. "Oddyii," she hissed, white teeth gritted and grey eyes wide. "Don't you dare."

"It's just one-"

"One more inch on your hips and you'll explode out of that dress on your wedding day."

"Shira, don't be cruel," warned her aav, claiming the last of the cakes for himself. He looked to her with a shrug as if to say 'your mother is right' as he chewed.

But Oddyii wouldn't get angry. She wouldn't pout and snap a couple threads to take revenge. She would smile, and she would shrug her shoulders back at them. "If only old Soun had the virility to appreciate such a spectacle."

Niirzhnaya gasped. Shira practically tossed the child from her lap and rose to her feet, her face flushed. "You vulgar girl!"

"Niik would have laughed," she cackled, stepping out of the path of her mother's slashing hands and looking to her other elder brother for support. Yisun looked away from the window only to frown at her.

"Niikhaan," he sighed, staring out at the roiling sea. Today, it was dark as their parkas. If she looked closely, Oddyii swore she could see Sünsnii toli glowing faintly in the crests of its waves.

"Niikhaan," Yisun repeated, "has no sense..."

"Niikhaan understands that I don't want to spend the next decade waiting for my bore of a husband to die. He would agree that I deserve to fall madly in love. And so would Sarnai."

That won a less satisfying response.

Blood left her mother's face and flooded her father's. His jaw tightened like Yisun's shoulders. Niira cast a pleading gaze her way. Oddyii deflected it.

"Do NOT speak the name of that ungrateful, traitorous wretch in this household!"

She whirled on her mother. "You helped her get out of this!"

"You are not Sarnai."

"ENOUGH!" Khurtsjad bellowed, fanning the cold flames that sparked within her mother's eyes. The steely woman reclaimed her seat, took Niira back and resumed stroking her sister's glossy, perfect curls.

Oddyii took a breath. "What must I do?" she whimpered, smoothing the strands of glistening gems that hung around her waist. The fine turquoise deel beneath it fit comfortably and would for the foreseeable future. Shira just got mean some times. "Find an imperial lord or even a soldier?" she frowned. "Then you'd help me like you did her?"

"Oddyntetseg Enya Tsering Dechen Naran, not another word!" Her father's hand itched for his rod, but her tongue itched within its mouth. She spun on her heel, that stupid crown falling forward on her head.