A Magic of Dawn

Brie ca’Ostheim

The carriage lurched and jounced and shivered. The ride from Stag Fall to Brezno Palais was nearly as uncomfortable a ride as any Brie had experienced, and the rain and two unhappy children made it no better. Elissa and Kriege were with her; Caelor and Eria were in the following carriage with the nursemaids. A carriage before them carried Paulus and her domestiques de chambre; those following held the rest of the staff. Gardai from the Garde Brezno rode on the horses flanking the train, miserable in the weather.

“Matarh, are we there yet?” Elissa grumbled. She stuck her head out from the nearest window but pulled it back in quickly, water beading her hair and face. Thunder grumbled at the intrusion. “I want to be there.”

“So do I, dear one,” Brie told her wearily. “Why don’t you rest, if you can? Look, your brother’s asleep. See if you can sleep like him; that’s what a good soldier does-you sleep whenever there’s a chance, because you never know how long you’ll need to stay awake.”

Elissa glanced over at the sleeping Kriege, and Brie knew she was tempted-as Elissa always was when she thought she was in competition with her brother. But she scowled. “I’m not sleepy. I just want to be home. When is Vatarh coming back? Why can’t I go with him the way Great-Matarh Allesandra went with Great-Great-Vatarh Jan?”

“Because your vatarh would send you back, and I was here to make certain you didn’t hide in the supply train like your great-matarh did, that’s why. Here, I brought a deck of cards; we can play Landsknecht; I’ll be dealer, and we can play for pins…”

They played for a time, and despite the lurching of the carriage, Brie saw Elissa’s eyelids growing heavier, until finally her cards dropped from her fingers and spilled over her lap. Brie picked them up and stored the deck in its box, setting it under the seat. She leaned her own head back against the cushions and closed her eyes.

She fell asleep faster than she thought possible, but it was a sleep haunted by dreams.

Jan stood in moonlight, arms crossed over his chest. He was in Nessantico, or at least she believed with dream-certainty that the city with its strange architecture was Nessantico. Behind Jan was the facade of a huge palais, stained glass windows cracked and broken, its walls blackened by smoke. The dream shifted, and Brie realized that there was a woman with Jan. For a moment she thought it must be Allesandra, but the hair was dark and when the figure turned slightly she saw Rhianna’s face. The two were close, yet not touching, but Brie still felt a hot surge of jealousy. Both of them stared at the palais. There was a blade in Rhianna’s hand, and she drew it back as if to strike…

… But the dream shifted again and she saw her own children, but there was another one with them. Strangely, Brie felt that all the children were siblings. The new one was a young woman perhaps four or five years older than Elissa, yet Brie couldn’t see her face at all no matter how she looked. Jan came into the room, and he went to her and embraced her, kissing first her, then Elissa. “Vatarh!” the woman said

… and Brie was holding a baby, looking down into the face of an infant. “Dear little girl,” she whispered. “You poor thing…” The baby curled its tiny fingers around one of Brie’s own and she smiled, but there were shadows in the room, and black smoke and fire, and she clutched the baby to her, trying to run. She thought she could see Jan, and she started toward him, but the fire enveloped him and she heard him scream…

“Matarh?”

Brie woke up and realized where she was, the carriage jerking and bouncing over the road. She rubbed at her eyes, dispelling the panic of the nightmare. She realized her heart was racing; she could hear the blood pounding in her temples. Elissa was looking at her; Kriege was still sleeping. “What is it, Elissa?” Brie asked her daughter.

“Why didn’t you go with Vatarh?” the girl said.

“Because he asked me to take care of you and your brothers and sister.”

Elissa frowned. “I would have gone with him,” she said. “I would have helped protect him. I wouldn’t have cared what he said.”

“Having you there, dear, would only have made your vatarh worry more.”

“Did you want to go with him?”

She remembered the argument they’d had. The echo of the nightmare haunted her. “I did,” she answered truthfully. “At least part of me still wishes I had, yes.”

“Then why didn’t you?”

“I would have gone with him… I wouldn’t have cared what he said…” Brie had the nagging sense that Elissa was right. She had made a terrible mistake; she should have insisted. He would need her with Allesandra, if nothing else-the two of them were too much alike, and Brie could nearly see how they would spark against each other. She should be there.

It might be essential that she was there. The premonition seared her, as strongly as if she held her hand in a fire.

Elissa was staring at her.

“Driver, stop!” Brie pounded on the roof of the carriage, waking Kriege, who looked around groggily. The driver pulled up the reins; Brie heard quizzical, worried calls outside, and Paulus came running to the carriage. “Hirzgin, is there a problem?”

“No, and yes,” Brie told him. “I need to have Elissa and Kriege put in one of the other carriages. Take their trunks with them; leave mine on this carriage. I’ll be rejoining the Hirzg and the army. The children and the rest of the staff are to go on to Brezno.”

Paulus was shaking his head by the time she was halfway through, and the children were protesting. “Enough!” Brie said to all of them. She gave Elissa and Krieg hugs and a kiss, and pushed them in the direction of Paulus. “Go now!” she told them. “I’ll come back when I can. But go now!”

Elissa was smiling.

“Hirzgin, are you certain…?” Paulus began, but Brie gave him no chance to voice his protest.

“I’ve already given you my orders,” she told him. “Now, take my children and go, or I’ll appoint a new aide here and now.”

Paulus gulped and bowed his head. “Yes, Hirzgin,” he said. He took Elissa and Kriege’s hands, and began shouting orders. Brie laid her head back on her seat and thought of what she would say to Jan when she arrived.