The Last Days Of Mars

Ereshki

Purple clouds hovered beyond the southern sea, the glassy Abyss of Atab. Birds swept the barren horizon of the late afternoon. I watched them from my balcony, the heat of Late Season seething over my skin like smoke. Smoothing away the sweat at my brow, I heaved a sigh into the dry air. The clouds flickered, whipped by a gust high in the burning white sky. Then they were gone.

The rains would come soon. My grandfather assured me as such every day. There was one year, when he was a boy, that they never came. A complete cycle of three seasons without rain.

"Ereshki."

I peeked over my bare shoulder to find the diminutive figure of my nanny. She was pure blood Red Clay, descended from generations of mortal flesh. But I loved her dearly.

"You are late for your lessons at the Kir. Master Sojen will be dissatisfied and tell your mother," she chided, shielding her small eyes from the glare with her linen shawl. The embroidered edge trembled, though there was no wind. Her gnarled hands were not as steady as they used to be.

I nodded and glanced back towards the silvery blue Abyss. There was no sign of clouds. The sight left me unnerved, but I could not explain why.

"Very well. You are right. The last thing I want to endure is an audience with my mother," I grumbled, trudging forward through the fine curtain of gauzy fabric and into the cool interior of my darkened bed chamber.

We were still at our city house. The Great Kir was only a short walk from our grand doorstep. My mother had bullied my grandfather into having us stay longer into the Late Season. We had come for the Blooming after the rains finally ceased, but my mother enjoyed the society of town more than the solitude of our country home.

Truth be told, she wanted to be as close to my father as possible. I didn't know why. He had not paid her any personal attention since he had impregnated her with me. But our riches were due to His generosity, so I did feel a bit grateful for Him. Even if, in the thirty two years of my young life, I had never met Him. I had only seen from a distance when He returned to the Great Kir for His yearly visit from the Seven Stars as one of many in the crowd.

I hated living in the city. There was no escaping from others and their expectations of me. I carried all the traits of my rarefied lineage. Everyone knew that I was a Guardian Child when I walked out the door. I couldn't go barefoot with my hair a tangle or my mother would hear of it.

After changing into a shift of sheer green, golden coins of luminous metal jingling from the high collar, nanny combed the knots from my tangles and bound my hair with a ribbon of gold thread. When I sat at the mirror of my dressing table, she was finally able to look eye to eye with me. I towered above the Red Clay people of the city. How I hated it.

"Would you please let me put some of the paint around your eyes, child?" she asked, picking up a little bronze pot and paint brush.

I grimaced, but recalled my mother's last rant about paying more attention to my appearance. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy looking my best and wearing nice things. It was only that it felt prideful to me. I did not revel in being different from the rest of my people. I wanted to be just like them.

"Very well," I groaned.

Nanny smirked and outlined my eyes with black. "Your mother will be pleased."

"That makes me not want to do this even more."

"I know. It'll only take a moment," she murmured, her dull blue eyes like pin pricks in her ancient face.

I looked away and tried not to consider her age. Pure Bloods only lived through 150 triunes when they were in the best of circumstances, working in homes or as merchants. The miners and slaves at the great building projects only made it to 80. I would be young for many more seasons, long after nanny returned to the dust of our world. It was a nightmare that kept me awake more often recently.