Kanna-sama: Sometimes dreams are a good source of inspiration.

X

Rating: M for language and mild content

Genre: Drama/Action/Adventure/Romance

Summary: Lirael, a powerful sorceress that endured the corruption of Metropolis, leaves her safe haven in the Snowlands in order to destroy her cousin, who had turned into an evil creature. Her only companion is the bandit king of the Mountainlands, whom she is steadily falling in love with the longer they travel together.

Notes/Warnings: Fantasy; adult content; Part I is incredibly dramatic

X

Prologue

The world was said to be created by Amolphor, the Great King of the Heavens. He created the five landscapes: Waterlands, Forestlands, Mountainlands, Snowlands, and Prairielands. He was the one that kept the balance of all things he had created. He gifted those with the power of the Eye, giving certain persons the ability to perform magic.

The Waterlands is the kingdom where the mermaids and mermen dwell, deep down at the bottom of the ocean where their bright, vivacious city is. The other water creatures move through the water of the Waterlands. It surrounds the rest of the land. It is the largest of the Lands, but is closed off from all others. The merpeople do not correspond with people of the land unless necessary. They are an elusive people that possess magic to keep their kingdom performing.

The Forestlands house villages of non-magic people and large trees that tower over the village houses. Both dangerous and innocent creatures live in the woods of the Land. Survival is all that is on the creatures’ minds, so everyone travels with some type of weapon when they delve deep into the forests. The Prairielands closely border the Forestlands.

The Mountainlands do not have many villages, but instead camps and armies of bandits. There is an expanse of desert that forms at the face of the Mountainlands where the Prairielands and the Mountainlands meet. There are only two camps set up at the base of the mountains of the Land, unlike the camps and villages deep within the Mountainlands. The bands of thieves in the Mountainlands have some villages outside the Mountainlands, usually in the Prairielands. However, the majority of them remain in the Mountainlands, not wishing to be caught and executed.

The Snowlands are the most magical and forbidden of the Lands. They have the second largest land area, blowing in cool winds from their eastern area. The Waterlands that border the Snowlands are the coldest with hardly any inhabitants. Only those with pure, untainted magic in them can cross the Snowlands. No others can enter. Those that come from or live in the Snowlands are referred to as ‘Amolphor’s Children’ since only sorcerers and sorceresses dwell there with their enchanted creatures. The Snowlands curve around the rear of the Mountainlands in a large, vast arc. It touches the Prairielands, but the Forestlands are not anywhere near the Snowlands.

The Prairielands surround Metropolis, that which is in the center of all the Lands. Many people and animals live in the Prairielands since it has the least harmless creatures and it is a comfortable place to live. The Prairielands separate the Forestlands and Mountainlands with the Snowlands barely brushing against it, hidden well behind the Mountainlands.

The Metropolis is centered snugly in the heart of the Prairielands and is the City of the Nobles. The nobility and royalty live in the Metropolis. It is also the place where industries are settled. The king, Hazvut, rules the Prairielands and Forestlands from his place at the Great Palace, where he holds court. The tall, white, stone walls surround his palace, the sinister black gates the only way of entrance to the estate. Hazvut lives to rid the Lands he rules over of the bandits and their families. He would be the ruler of all the Lands, but the Waterlands and Snowlands are considered Amolphor’s Lands by the people – even his own nobility – and the Mountainlands have had a King of Thieves for as long as history has been recorded. And so, he is satisfied with the smaller of the Lands and Metropolis.

And so, in Amolphor’s world, a tiny girl is born. In the Heavens, the Eye shimmers. This girl will be different, it means to say. The Eye and its Beholder can feel it in the newborn and the new star of life that forms in the Heavens. Expectancy settles over them both as a whisper drifts to them, the whisper of the girl’s name

Lirael...

Landscape

Landscape: Part I

Chapter One

The carriage rumbled to a stop and the ten-year-old orphan turned her head from the window, letting the red curtain drop over the cool glass. The dark clothed man stepped out and with her head held up, she stepped out of the carriage, her bright, azure eyes adjusting to the bright light that simmered above her. The bright light came from Amolphor’s Day Guardian, the Klatzchti. When it lowered, Amolphor’s Night Guardian, the Solavschti, would rise in the dark sky and stare down with its mighty, full, blue face. Lirael had always wondered what it was about the Solavschti that seemed to comfort her when it winked down at her when she used to lie in bed. Seeing the round guardian in the sky every night made her sleeping all the more easier.

“Welcome,” a high, girlish voice greeted. Lirael turned her eyes from the Day Guardian to look at the woman that she was presented with. Two girls, both older than her, glared down at her, their faces full of snide resentment. She brought her eyes up the elegant, mustard yellow gown to the wrinkled face of her aunt. She cringed a bit at the woman. Her eyes were too wide for her thin face and the pupils were black. Her mouth was large with a full set of teeth that looked too big for her. Lirael moved closer to the man in black, who glanced at her, almost in sympathy.

“This is Lirael,” he informed Mareisa in his drawling accent that came from the northern part of Metropolis. “She is your sister’s daughter, yes? Without a parent, yes?” As soon as the funeral of Mareisa’s sister had ended, Lirael had been ordered to pack two bags and follow the man in black to the carriage. She had been quick and hadn’t said a word to anyone. She hadn’t realized she was without a father until then. She hadn’t seen her father, Nicoleiv, since she was four. Her mother had always told her, “He’ll come to us soon,” whenever Lirael asked about him. Now she could see that wasn’t so.

“Yes, that’s right,” Mareisa replied, glancing at her niece. She was nothing like her dark-skinned, beautiful daughters. She had thick, ebony hair and fair skin. She was a tiny girl with slanted, cerulean orbs. She looked nothing like Mareisa or her sister. She was every bit her father’s child. Mareisa shuddered, thinking, She looks like a sorceress.

The man was getting impatient, rattling out things, his accent sometimes making it difficult for Mareisa to understand what he was saying. She signed the papers that said she was now Lirael’s official guardian and flashed her wide smile at the man, who grimaced and patted Lirael’s head, saying, “Your aunt will take care of you now, child.” Lirael sent him an imploring look, widening her eyes so they almost looked as wide as Mareisa’s and her children’s. He clucked his tongue and patted her head again before getting her bags and setting them beside her and then getting in the carriage. Lirael watched him leave, her shoulders drooping.

She took her bags in her hands and turned back to her aunt. Mareisa’s face was deadpan with a cold look on her facial features. Lirael felt a trickle of fear move through her, but she kept her chin raised and her spine straight. She wouldn’t allow herself to be intimidated. “Come with me,” Mareisa bit out to her. Lirael followed her and the two stuck-up daughters, making a face behind their backs. “These are my daughters, Keshena, and Laria.” Keshena was the twelve-year-old and Laria was the seventeen-year-old. As Lirael eyed them, she almost smiled. Laria looked nearly identical to her mother with her straight, strawberry blonde hair, wide eyes, and large teeth. Keshena had the same facial characteristics, but her nose was upturned and her hair was a russet brown that was full of curls and bounced as she walked. Lirael didn’t find either of them very pretty.

“You get this room,” Keshena sneered as the four halted before a small room.

“Get yourself cleaned up and come downstairs to meet your uncle,” Mareisa ordered. The three flounced away, looking utterly alike in the way they walked, Laria with an extra swagger to her stride. Lirael watched them and then moved in the room, shutting the door behind her and locking it. She glanced to the side and saw beside the dresser a room. She opened the door and saw it was a washing room.

After unpacking her things and putting them in and on top of the dresser in an orderly way, she went to the washing room and stripped off her dirty clothes before washing her face and slipping a black and white dress on. She pulled a brush through her hair and brought it up in a bow. After putting her stockings on, she slipped her feet in her white, shiny shoes and left downstairs, satisfied with her appearance.

Keshena was given the task of waiting for her and Lirael saw the shock flash over her face before anger replaced it. “Who do you think you are?” She demanded furiously. Lirael’s brows drew together in confusion. “Do you think you’re better than us? How dare you dress like that?!” She thrust a finger at Lirael’s shoes. When Lirael looked at Keshena’s, she saw they were the simplest kind of slippers. “You ought to be beaten!” Keshena declared when Lirael had brought her eyes back to hers. She raised her hand to slap Lirael, who shrunk away from her, but a hand took hers before it could land on Lirael.

“Keshena,” a firm, male voice admonished. “You shouldn’t speak thusly towards your cousin.” Lirael lowered the arm she had raised to stop Keshena’s slap and almost smiled in relief at seeing her uncle. She had never met him – or Mareisa, for that matter – but it was apparent by his gentle, gray eyes that he wanted no harm done to her. As she observed him longer, she thought he seemed rather old. His brown hair had white hairs overtaking the original color. Deep wrinkles covered his face, but he seemed more appealing to look at than her aunt and her cousins. “She has just lost her mother,” he reminded his daughter after a pause when he released her hand. “I am Mikhail, Lirael, Mareisa’s husband.” He smiled at her and a tentative smile curved her lips upward in return.

“Hello,” she murmured, dipping a quick curtsy that seemed to infuriate Keshena further.

“You’re not allowed to do that!” She shouted at Lirael, who stared at her in clear bafflement.

“We don’t curtsy or bow to each other in this household,” Mikhail explained to his niece. “Nor do we dress so eloquently...” He glanced at her shoes. Lirael stared down at her shoes. Her mother had wanted to get her nicer ones, but instead she was given these white ones that had seemed so plain to her when she first received them. “You’ll start to get a hold of everything soon enough,” he assured her with a tilt of his lips. “In the meantime, you must be hungry. Dinner is about to be served.” Lirael’s eyes lit up in eagerness. She was famished. “Tomorrow, you will go to school with Keshena. Laria will be in the other wing of the school and leaves earlier.”

I don’t want to walk with herLirael complained silently, glancing at Keshena. Her cousin wrinkled her nose and glared at her. I hate her.

X

Lirael woke at dawn when the Klatzchti’s bright light hit her in the face. She opened her eyes slowly, her lashes fluttering against her cheeks with feather-like touches. She yawned and turned on her side, stretching. She laid there for a moment longer before getting out of bed and going to the washing room to wash.

After taking a bath, Lirael took the uniform that had been bought for her and frowned down at it. It was black and the shoes were dull and without shine like she preferred. She could just imagine Keshena snapping, “You can’t have shiny shoes!” Dismissing it, she put a matching white ribbon in her hair and then grabbed the black book bag that came with the uniform and went downstairs.

She was quiet in moving down the stairs. She stood at the foot of the stairs when a voice crowed, “Get out of my way, orphan!” right before she was shoved. She let out a slight grunt as her knees slammed against the hard of the floor. She glared angrily after her cousin. Keshena skipped down the corridor to the dining room, sending a smug look over her shoulder at Lirael.

Lirael walked with careful steps to the dining room, taking her seat across from Keshena. The resentful twelve-year-old smirked at her and began to eat her food. Lirael ate hers silently, keeping her eyes to her plate. She could feel someone’s eyes on hers and looked around. Mareisa was fussing over Laria, asking her if she was feeling all right and whether she wanted anything special to eat for dinner that night. Lirael could see who the favorite was. Her eyes passed over the teenager and over Keshena and landed on her uncle, who smiled when her eyes met his. She beamed back at him and with her mood better, she ate her food more happily.

The walk to school would be remembered at the end of the day as one the worst parts of it. When they were out of the sight of Mareisa or Mikhail, Keshena shoved Lirael into a wall of a building and slapped her hard across the face. “If you take father’s attention from me, I’ll kill you,” she hissed at Lirael with the venom of a snake. “Mother is always paying attention more to Laria, so father pays attention to me. He’s my father, not yours. And if he likes you better than me...” Keshena trailed off meaningfully. She pulled away slightly and pointed to a large, well-designed building up ahead. “See that? That’s our school. The big gates up there are the entrance. I don’t like walking with you.” She then drew her fist and thrust it against Lirael’s stomach. Keshena watched with an impassive eye as Lirael sunk to the ground, clutching at her stomach. “Serves you right for ever coming into our lives!” She whipped around and stomped to the school, leaving Lirael to gasp for breath.

Stumbling to her feet, Lirael groaned and jolted towards the school, pressing her bag to her stomach. She thought she was going to lose her breakfast by the taste of bile coming up her throat, but she was fortunate. After she entered the school, the many different students jostled her. She went to the office and got her schedule and directions to each of her classrooms.

Every class she went to she was late because she wasn’t able to find it, earning her slaps on the hands by rulers. At the end of the day, the tops of her hands were red from her punishments. She promised herself to be at class on time the next day. She was surprised to find Keshena waiting for her outside the doors. But then, by the smirk on her lips and her group of friends, Lirael knew that something bad was going to happen.

“This is my orphan cousin,” Keshena announced loudly, grabbing Lirael by the arm and bringing her to her side.

“Let me go,” Lirael said quietly.

“She’s one of those kind of girls that had a perfect little life with perfect dresses and dolls.” Everyone laughed. Some had paused to watch what was happening.

“Let me go, Keshena!” She shoved away from her cousin and a second later, she knew it was the wrong thing to do. She had never seen such a look of rage. Keshena grabbed her by the hair and pulled hard. Lirael let out a cry, clutching at her head where the hairs were pulled from. “Stop it!”

“Stop it,” one of Keshena’s friends mimicked. There was more laughter. Keshena pushed her to the ground and slapped her, just as she had this morning, except this time with the back of her hand. She could feel her nose throb and felt blood trickle down. Keshena snickered and stood up. She slammed her foot into Lirael’s knees and then left.

Lirael watched as her classmates walked past her without another glance. What’s wrong with these people? She cried in her mind. She took out her handkerchief with trembling hands and held it to her nose, tipping her head back. She leaned against the wall, ignoring the pain in her knees where Keshena had kicked her.

After the bleeding stopped and she had cleaned herself well enough, Lirael walked home, hugging herself as she did. When she entered the vast manor of her aunt and uncle’s, she instantly went up to her room. She cleaned herself and changed into one of her dresses and her white shoes, just to antagonize Keshena. She sat on her bed afterward, staring across into the looking glass above her dress. She hated this. The only person who was ever nice to her was her uncle.

Collapsing on her side, Lirael closed her eyes and felt the tears she had been holding back ever since she had learned of her mother’s death spilling out in rivers. She pushed her face in her pillow and sobbed, beating it angrily. After a while, she simply laid there, crying silently. Having not heard any footsteps, she was surprised when a hand rested on her back. She jumped a bit and turned to see Mikhail sitting beside her on the bed. His eyes narrowed on her tearstained face. Sniffing, she quickly wiped away the tears with the back of her hand.

“Uncle Mikhail,” she said pathetically. His mouth tilted slightly and she crawled into his arms, sniffling.

“There, there,” he soothed, rubbing her back. As she rested her head on his shoulder with her hands folded beneath her cheek, she could feel her eyelids closing at the massaging on her back. The rubbing stopped suddenly and she could feel him lift her dress. She frowned and then could feel the rubbing continue, this time on her bruising knees. It was a tender rubbing, something that her mother would do when she got a bruise. “How did this happen?” He asked her.

“...I took a bad fall,” she lied. She wanted to tell him about his evil, heartless daughter and how she had beaten her up twice that day, but didn’t want Keshena to do anything worse to her when she got in trouble. Lirael had a feeling he knew she was lying, anyway. He wouldn’t try to worm it out of her, though, she guessed, by the way he just smiled at her.

“Then you’ll have to be more careful, won’t you?” He asked lightly. He drew her from his arms and stood up. “Be sure to get all your schoolwork done.” She nodded and watched him leave before opening her bag and sighing at all the work she had to do.

X

The weeks passed slowly for Lirael in her new home. When two months had gone by, she had bruises all over her back and shoulders from Keshena’s bullying. It was usually at home, but when Mikhail wasn’t around, Keshena would take to throwing in a slap or punch then. Lirael had just returned from downstairs, where Keshena was getting whipped.

Keshena had believed Mikhail to be gone, but neither she nor Lirael knew he was in his study only a few feet from the staircase. Lirael had been starting down the stairs when Keshena had snuck up behind her and pushed her down the stairs. She had shouted at Lirael to shut up when she let out a scream as she plunged down the stairs. She was lucky that Mikhail arrived just then, startled by the scream. She went crashing into him, knocking them both to the ground. Lirael would remember the horrified expression on Keshena’s face for the rest of her life.

After Mikhail had checked to make sure she hadn’t broken anything – which she luckily hadn’t – he sent her up to her room and ordered Keshena to the basement. As Lirael was going to her room, she had heard Keshena bawling and swearing it was an accident and begging him not to whip her. And then Mareisa flew out of her room and demanded to know what was going on. Lirael never heard her uncle’s answer because she had shut her door and crawled beneath her bed with her hands on her ears.

She laid there for a long time until there was a knock on the door. She didn’t answer, closing her eyes and praying to Amolphor. There was another knock, this one a bit louder. When she still didn’t answer, the knocking ceased and whoever it was outside her door left. Lirael curled up beneath her bed, only imagining what torments Keshena would inflict on her then.

Lirael never went to dinner that night. It was sent up to her with a maid, who found her under the bed. She coaxed Lirael to come from underneath the bed and had her eat the food. Once she finished it, the maid left her. Lirael, filthy from the dirt on the floor, went to the washing room and quickly bathed and got in her sleepwear. “Goodnight,” she whispered to the Solavschti, climbing into bed and turning down her oil lamps so there were no flames. She rested her head on her pillow and fell into an exhausted sleep, dreaming of Keshena throwing her down staircases.

X

It was on her eleventh birthday that Keshena finally retaliated. She had completely ignored Lirael ever since the incident. Nobody knew it was her birthday since Lirael kept it to herself. The one thing she couldn’t keep to herself was the blood that had begun to spill out of her that morning. Her abdomen twisted and churned and she tried to stop the blood, but didn’t know what she was supposed to do. Her mother had explained sex and a woman’s courses, but she hadn’t expected to start for a while longer.

While she sat crouching, hugging herself, in the tub, she heard someone enter her room. There was a pause before the washing room door was flung open, revealing Keshena with her tan skin and wild curls. She took one look at Lirael’s pained expression and the blood in the tub and gave a laugh. She disappeared and returned with a maid, saying, “Clean that filth up!” Lirael knew it wasn’t the blood she was calling filth, but her.

The maid cheerfully helped Lirael clean the tub and herself up, querying, “Has anyone ever explained this to you?”

“Yes,” Lirael mumbled as the maid handed her thick sanitary clothes that she was supposed to wear to soak up the blood. “Thank you.” The maid flashed a smile her way and then left. Lirael sat on the floor of the washing room, humiliated. It was uncomfortable wearing the cloth, but she doubted there was any other way to deal with the issue. Keshena had done a good job at making her feel like a fool. That was exactly what she felt like: a fool.

End Chapter One