Relic

XLI: Maius 20 Year 242, A.H.

Without a single word, Lukas takes me by the hand, and we start running. It is pitch black except for Lukas’s naneq and the jerky light and shadows we cast. I should be scared, but I’m not. Finally, I feel free.

The way is long and twisted; we follow a sinuous and interminable path through the Ring instead of over it. I should tire, but I don’t. I feel like I could run forever—until, quite suddenly, the path ends.

This strange tunnel, bored into the Ring at what price I cannot guess, stops mid-air. Lukas and I stand on the edge of a precipice. If it weren’t for Lukas’s steadying hand, I would have tumbled straight down the face of the cliff. Like my brother.

Down we must climb. I reach for my Testor pack, but gear isn’t necessary. Lukas motions toward the handholds and footholds that have been dug into the frozen wall. Following his lead, I scramble downward and into the Boundary lands.

It looks nothing like I’d been told. Nestled in an outcrop of the Ring, it appears almost cozy. Snug little homes of ice and stone and wood tuck into the Ring wall and into each other, for maximum protection from the biting winds. Little roads connect the numerous structures, and a small town square—not unlike that of the Aerie, except in size—sits at the center.

I realize I never passed the Boundary lands in the Testing, except for the few small huts near the Gate. Those tiny hovels—unkempt, almost tumble-down in appearance—don’t resemble this tidy little town at all. They bear the desperate, uncivilized look of the Boundary lands depicted in School-books, created by a people incapable of ruling themselves. A very basic people in need of the Aerie protection and help. I can’t help but wonder if maybe those poor huts had been intentionally built near the Gate to foster that exact view. I wonder if anyone lives in them at all.

Lukas makes no effort to hide our approach. His naneq swings at his side, casting light in wide arcs. “Aren’t you worried someone will see me?” I whisper.

“No, not now that we’ve made it. Guards never come to this side of the Ring. And no Boundary person would ever tell the Guards or anyone in the Aerie that you’re here.”

“Even though I’m breaking The Lex?”

“Eva, we don’t follow The Lex in the Boundary lands.”

I stop walking and stare at him. “You don’t?”

He flashes a smile that almost seems pitying. “The Aerie people have to let us live this way, Eva. Free to do as we please. Don’t forget—our Hunters and Fishermen supply all the food for the Aerie outside what you grow in the Ark.”

Suddenly, I feel defensive of the Aerie. “We help the Boundary lands, too. We give you Ark food and clothes.”

“We take your handouts. But we really don’t need them. My people have lived on this or land just like it for millennia. We know how to survive without the Ark or the Clothes Keeps, believe me.”

“Then why don’t you live in the Aerie? With us?”

“Why would we want to? You’re not free in there. You live by The Lex, with all those crazy rules.” He pauses before we reach the village square and touches my hand for a tick. “I know this is hard for you to understand.”

I have so many questions. “If you don’t want any part of the Aerie, then why do your people compete for the honor of serving as Boundary Companions and Attendants?”

He laughs. “Is that what they tell you? That we think it’s an honor? It’s a duty and an obligation that someone from each Boundary family must fulfill. We do it only to keep the peace, not because we want to serve. We might have weapons, but the Aerie people are the only ones with guns. Although I often wonder whether they’d really stand a chance against our bolas and spears and bows.”

“Guns? Like the Relics Aleksandr and Neils found?”

“Real guns, Eva. Not Relics. The Ring-Guards have working guns.” He pauses, as if he’s weighing how much more to tell me. How much more I can take. “Eva, we think of the Ring as a prison that locks the Aerie people inside. Not the other way around.”

I am stunned into silence. The Boundary lands and people are nothing like I’d been told. Nor is the Aerie. At the same time I know exactly what he means. He used the same word that dominated my thoughts since I saw him last: prison.

A few dark-haired, dark-eyed men with bolas and blades slung over their shoulders pass us in the opposite direction—obviously out for a hunt. I brace myself for stares or some sort of unusual reaction; it’s not every day that and Aerie Maiden walks through the Boundary lands. But they only nod respectfully.

Lukas he raises an eyebrow at me. “Told you.” He points to a small thatched roof house. With a plume of smoke rising from a stone chimney, it makes me feel cold. I wonder what it would be like to be inside at its hearth. “That’s my house. What do you think?”

“It’s nice,” I answer honestly.

“You sound surprised.”

“It’s not exactly as the Teachers described, is it?”

“No,” he says, “it wouldn’t be.”

Lukas pushes open a bright blue door, the color of the crevasse wall. Where did they get the paint to decorate the door so vividly? He calls out: “Aanak! We are here.”

A shriveled old woman hobbles out of the solar to greet us. Her hair is almost entirely white, and she’s wrapped it into a complicated fishtail knot on the top of her head—not unlike the style I wore during the Testing—and fastened it with an elaborately carved whalebone comb. I’ve never seen someone with such an abundance of wrinkles before; the Aerie people tend not to live long enough to get so many. But when she smiles at me, her whole face lights up, and she is suddenly beautiful. She reminds me of my Nurse Aga. I wonder if Aga is here, too, in this attractive little Boundary town. I’d love to see her again.

“Eva, I am so glad to meet you. I am Lukas’s grandmother, his father’s mother,” she says.

“Oh.” Where are my Maiden manners? I curtsy and say, “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“The pleasure is mine. Your family took good care of Lukas when he served as your brother’s Companion, and that means the world to me. You see, I’ve raised Lukas since he was a little boy when he lost his parents in a hunting accident.”

I nod, swallowing. I didn’t know that his parents were dead, although I don’t think I ever asked about his family before. I guess it’s only one of many things I didn’t know.

Lukas’s aanak reaches for my hands and wraps her gnarled fingers around mine. She seems to sense that I’m overwhelmed, and tries to change the course of the conversation. “I have heard many lovely things about you from Lukas. And of course, I am honored to welcome the Angakkuq into our family home.”

“The Angakkuq?”

“Yes, the Angakkuq. You know, the shaman.” She says, as way of explanation. As if I know.

Yet, the word “shaman” means as little to me as the word Angakkuq, and my face must show it. Lukas’s aanak leans forward and says slowly and clearly, “The Angakkuq is the mediator between this world and the spirit world. The seeker of truth. And we’ve been waiting for a new one for a whole generation.”

Lukas’s aanak must be confused; I’ve heard that happens to people when they age.

I smile indulgently, and say, “The Angakkuq? Oh no, you’ve mistaken me for someone else. I’m just here to find out more about the pre-Healing person whose Relics I found during the Testing. I’m the new Archon.”

She smiles back at me, as if she expected me to demur. “I know you’re the new Archon, Eva. I was in the town square. I didn’t mistake you for some Maiden climbing the Ring in search of her Boundary Suitor.” She laughs at the surprise that must be registering on my face. “You didn’t know that occasionally an Aerie Maiden leaves her home for a Boundary future?”

When I shake my head no, she says, “I’m not surprised. Such departures are usually kept quiet in the Aerie. My mother was just such an Aerie Maiden before she left and became the Angakkuq.”

So Lukas is part Founder? I reclaim my composure, and say, “Well, I’m just an Archon, not the Angakkuq.”

“So it might seem. But often, we don’t realize our true anirniq—our spirit—until our calling is upon us. Learning the truth about Elizabet Laine and her life as part of your work as Archon is just the first step in uncovering the truth about many other mysteries in your work as Angakkuq.”

She smiles enigmatically. What in the Gods is she talking about? I glance over at Lukas, but he shrugs his shoulders. Maybe I’m right. Maybe old age has taken her wits. It’s what my parents told me happened to my Nurse Aga when she disappeared one day.

“I will leave you two alone to learn more about Elizabet Laine,” she says as she leaves the room.