House of Winter

Chapter 18, Part 2

Doctor Hart and Lumi were led through to a dining hall where there was still a meal being served. They found that this village of Sredsibirsk people were a communal lot who ate and drank together. Their fire tongue accents sounded rough to Lumi's ears, but she still delighted in hearing their words. They were shown to a table and served fragrant vegetable stews, and then sweet rice and plum puddings, with hot spiced wine. The warmth and heartiness of the food almost brought Lumi to tears, and the conversations around her felt so comforting.

She listened to the people, who seemed unsure how to react to a princess in their midst and therefore settled on ignoring her, and instead resuming their own conversations. From what they spoke about, she gathered that everyone here spent their days mining for rare metals under the ice, and spent their evenings in this dining hall, drinking and talking. This particular village seemed to be full of fire starrlings, and their role was to melt down the metals and forge weapons, which were shipped and sold to the rest of the Fire Lands.

"The people of Sredsibirsk call you the Daughter of the Fire Twins," Doctor Hart said quietly, in Starg rather than the fire tongue.

Over the last few days of such close company with Doctor Hart, Lumi had got used to the woman's needs. When she was in a new environment, such as this, she would prefer to sit in one place. In the days when Mondli had been away hunting, Lumi had noticed that Doctor Hart would spend hours at a time in one spot.

Now, sitting at the dining table, Doctor Hart reached her hand across the table, and Lumi saw that she was attempting to find her mug of wine. Lumi placed it into the woman's bony hand.

"My mother and my aunt were also fire twins," Lumi said. "You know that."

"Of course," Doctor Hart said. "But to the people of Sredsibirsk, it is interesting that that is more important. They don't see you as the daughter of Taisun Tsukasai. They don't even see you as the granddaughter of Kiyo, Empress of the Fire Lands, although her reign extends to this nation. They see you as the Daughter of the Fire Twins. To them, your mother's line is more important than your father's."

"Because my mother was from Sredsibirsk," Lumi said. She hadn't thought much of it. "Maybe there will be people in Reunsgar who knew my mother. Maybe... my grandparents might still be alive."

"Your aunt never spoke to you about her parents?"

"No," Lumi said. "To my aunt, it seemed her life started when she joined the Fire Army. Before that, she was nothing. She never speaks of her childhood in Reunsgar."

"I find that interesting," Doctor Hart said.

"I don't even know what Reunsgar is like," Lumi admitted. "I imagine it's a small village. It must be smaller than this one."

"Perhaps," Doctor Hart said, but she didn't sound convinced.

"You think it will be different?"

"I have heard rumours of the ancient city of Reunsgar," Doctor Hart said. "It is a forgotten city. A forbidden city. A city that does not welcome strangers, and has few friends. It is almost impossible to reach."

"Then how do we ever expect to find it?" Lumi asked.

"I suspect that you will lead us there," Doctor Hart said.

"I don't know the way," Lumi said flatly. "I wish I did."

"You don't know the way, but you shall feel the way," Doctor Hart said. "As we get closer, we will rely on you to guide us. The city, I think, will call to you, like the surging magic that you know your brother has. Your brother's magic calls to you, and I believe the city will too. I believe that only with you can we find the city."

Tom was suddenly sitting across from them. He was grinning. "Kobuk and I just charged against six young fire starrlings. We won, of course, but I let them think they were winning for quite a while."

Lumi smiled. "I'm glad the locals like you. They seem very wary of me."

"Of course they are," Tom said. "You're a princess."

Lumi felt heat rising in her cheeks. "I'm just a fire starrling. I'm no more than any of these people here."

Tom grinned. "You are that and more, but they think you are above them."

"How do I show that I'm... well, that I like them? That I care about them? That I don't just think I'm superior to them?"

"Jisr," Doctor Hart suggested.

Lumi felt panicked. "I haven't played jisr in years."

"Then you'll lose spectacularly, but graciously, and your subjects will see how very charming and humble you are," Tom said, and then he stood up and waved over two of his new friends.

"Do you have jisr?" he called out to them, in Starg, and they knew immediately he meant the game, and they brought over a board.

The young fire starrling put the board in front of Tom, grinning, and expecting a match between himself and Tom. It was a good game to play with an opponent, even if they didn't speak the same language. But Tom shook his head, and pointed to Lumi.

The young fire starrling was ignoring Lumi, but suddenly he looked a bit shocked and embarrassed, as he looked at the princess.

"Oh, I'm sorry your highness," he said awkwardly. "I couldn't play against you."

"Of course you could," Lumi said, as warmly as possible. "I'm not very good, so you'll have to go easy on me, okay?"

The young man looked nervous, but he sat down next to Lumi and set up the board. Lumi caught Tom's eye across the table and she returned his smile.

"Now, the fire stone plays first, so I believe that's you," Lumi said.

He took his turn.

Lumi took up the stone of spring and played it across the board, and in retaliation, her opponent took up his stone of light and skipped it across the spring stone.

Tom laughed at the move, and Lumi felt a rush of embarrassment, that she hadn't seen her mistake. But she laughed too, putting her face into her hands. "I told you I'm not very good. But I still think I can move my air stone, can't I? Yes, that's not a bad move."

"There you go," Tom said. "In two moves you can take his light stone, although watch out for his fire. He's aiming that to attack."

Lumi was glad to have Tom giving her hints in Starg while she played. When her opponent won, she bowed to him, and he looked amazed. He called over his friends, and suddenly there was more wine and a longer list of opponents who all wanted to play jisr.

Lumi found herself drinking more wine and growing comfortable with these people. Even Tom, who didn't speak the language, and Doctor Hart, who couldn't see the jisr board, seemed to be enjoying the night.

Finally, after too many wines, their hosts led them upstairs to rooms above the hall which had been made up for them. They each had their own room, water to wash up, and a comfortable bed to sleep in.

Lumi thanked the two young women who showed her to her room, and bade goodnight to Doctor Hart, Mondli, Tom and Kobuk, and collapsed into bed, feeling exhausted but somehow happy for the first time in a long time. She knew where she was going, she knew her people loved her, and she knew that she would be able to get to Reunsgar, learn how to quell like the masters, and then take her rightful throne from Taikku.

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