Glory Season

"It's possible to come out ahead, even after food an' lodgings are deducted," Thalia said on the second evening, while helping Maia gingerly dab where hot cinders had scorched her skin. Heavy leather aprons and goggles had spared her body a worse singeing, but wearing all that armor made more exhausting the work of dragging heavy ladles brimming with molten, sunlike heat. It was labor even harder than working on ships, calling for the strength of a man, the patience of a lugar, and the disciplined diligence of a winter-born clone. Yet, only vars were employed in the furnaces. Only vars in need of work would put up with the miniature, artificial hell.

"Isn't it required by law?" Maia asked, dipping her washcloth sparingly in a shallow basin of rationed water. "I thought employers had to pay enough so you could save."

Thalia shrugged. "Sure it's the law, handed down since the time of Lysos …"

Maia half-raised her hand at mention of the First Mother's name, but stopped short of drawing the circle sign. Somehow, she didn't figure Kiel and Thalia were religious.

"It's close to the edge, though," the stocky woman went on. "Buy a few luxuries from the company store. Lose a few credits gambling . . . you see how it goes. Get into debt an' there's no escape till Amnesty Day, in late spring! And then where do you go? Me, I don't plan stayin' here past my seventh birthday. Got things to do, y'know."

Maia refrained from pointing out that despite their dedication, Thalia and Kiel spent money on more than bare necessities. They had a little radio, and paid Lerner Hold for electricity to run it, sometimes late into the night. They bought flower and vegetable seedlings for the garden.

But then, maybe those were necessities. As she fell into the routine of labor at the mill, Maia came to see how such trimmings of civilization, slim as they were, made a key difference between holding your heading and losing your way, drifting into the endless half-life that seemed the fate of other var employees. Oh, the vars worked hard. Off hours, they laughed and sang and threw considerable energy into their games of chance. But they weren't going anywhere. Proof lay in the next vale, upwind and out of sight of the factory, where the creche and playgrounds lay. Children, both winter- and summer-born, were housed and schooled there. Every single one had been born of a Lerner mother. No var's womb had ripened here for as long as anyone recalled.

Maia, too, began counting her credits each night. Some went toward secondhand work clothes, a bar of soap, and other needs. When the weekly electricity bill came, Maia paid one-third. That left very little. Against all expectation, Maia found herself feeling homesick for the sea.

The policewoman promised me a stipend for showing up at Grange Head, she pondered wistfully. Even a modest reward for testifying would match what she cleared through hard labor here. Almost a week has passed. You could find out if it's safe to make a break.

Her housemates quickly guessed that Maia was in flight from serious trouble. Though they did not press, and she withheld details, Maia took a chance and told the two women it was the mothers of Jopland Clan who were after her. That seemed to raise her standing with Kiel and Thalia. Kiel volunteered to check things out next Greers-day, when the supply wagon went to town. If it wasn't too heavily laden, off-duty var employees could hitch a ride, for a small fee. Kiel had shopping to do, anyway. "I'll look around for you, virgie, and see if the coast is clear."

"I wish you'd tell us what you did to those biddies," the dark woman said on her return, dropping her groceries on the rickety table and turning to Maia, wide-eyed. "You've sure gotten those Perkies riled. At train time I saw two Joplanders hanging around the station, about as subtle as a plow, pretending to be waiting for someone while they checked every var who came or went. Saw another pair on horseback, patrolling the road. They're still lookin' for you, vestal girl."

Maia sighed. So much for a quick getaway. Make a note. Next time you take on those more powerful than you, pick a place with more than one back door. Holly Lock was about as far into the middle of nowhere as she could have found, and the railroad was the only fast way out of the valley. Even stealing a horse would do no good. The hue and cry would track her down long before she got near the coastal mountains, let alone Grange Head.

"Guess you made a smart choice after all," Thalia suggested. "Headin' further inland instead of trying for shore. Last place they'll look is stinky Lerner Hold."

Apparently. Or maybe Maia's pursuers didn't feel any need to check every hut and farmstead. All they had to do was watch all exits, and wait.

"Were they asking questions? Putting out my description?" she asked Kiel, who shrugged.

"Now, what var would tattle another var to a Perkinite? They know better than to ask."