The Mountain Dancer

Chapter 41: Shaynike & WeeSeu

People tried to see her, but she found a way to jam her chair against the broken door so that it wouldn’t open. The tutors and advisors seemed to accept that she wasn’t going to come to lectures. Pupils were slower to accept her silence, but they eventually learned. The biggest challenge was her parents, who had of course seen most of the feast through the public mindtethers. The last thing she needed was them trying to come up here, so she used the whole thing with the Stateguard carrier disaster to convince them that she didn’t want them travelling.

As terrible as it sounded, she was perversely grateful the damn thing had blown up, as it had overshadowed a lot of the news from the Frostcycle Feast. Not all the news, but some of it.

Ellawek had of course removed her from the council as well, using the last meeting she had missed as the official excuse, but Shay knew that it was just a further excuse to humiliate and discredit her.

She missed two major tests, but those fail grades wouldn’t be enough to flunk her out since the rest of her record was so strong. In fact, she was counting on them to revoke her Crown Academic title due to the slip. They had apparently awarded it to her anyway, despite... what had happened.

Every time she thought too hard about it she got shaky and felt like fainting. How many people in Massus… how many people in all of Heirbrosse had been tuned in? It was impossible to even imagine the depth of the horror.

She had at least puzzled out why, or at least she had her theories. Someone had spilled Ella’s plot to Fae, and Ella had blamed Shay. She was almost certain that someone was Rekness, who had not even come to see her once since he chased away Zak and smashed up her door. Rekness, the everlasting moron, who had told her, “not to worry.” Told her he had it all under control. Now he had abandoned her too. She supposed shoving him out of her room hadn’t helped in that respect.

No, no, no, this can’t be real. Just when she thought she couldn’t make any more tears, more came.

Even though the dull stone walls of her room offered safety and no judgment, after three days and nights of looking at nothing but them she started to get restless. Looking out the window at the same hills also got boring.

So she snuck out in the deep night. The first time had been terrifying. She had poked her head out into the hallway, half expecting Faevock or Ellawek or half the academy there, ready to smash something into her face, or hold her down and make her piss herself again or worse. But it had just been the quiet, empty hallway.

No one intercepted her on the short trip to the roof walk, and she had been able to enjoy the company of her only true friends. The stars did not laugh or point. The wind didn’t hesitate to hug her. She made a nightly habit of visiting her old favourite spot, and wondered why she’d ever been foolish enough to try and leave it behind in favour of stuffy council meetings, social outings and people who were only her friends when it suited themselves.

On her third night on the walk, she sensed something funny. The wind was calmer and she thought she heard something further down. It felt nice to stretch her legs, so she walked for a while along the top of the wall. She figured it might be a patrolling Fistshield – and she was feeling like she might be able to work up the nerve to talk to someone, so long as it wasn’t anyone from the academy.

But it turned out to be WeeSeu, who was wedged up in one of the crenels. The girl’s eyes were closed and she was humming very softly to herself. Shay swore under her breath and immediately felt heat rise in her cheeks. The last thing she wanted was to run into someone who had a front row seat to her disgusting little speech.

She turned and made to walk away quietly, when the accursed girl spoke. “Hi Shaynike.”

Shay stopped, and tried to control her impending hyperventilation. The wind helped to calm her. She didn’t hear WeeSeu coming after her or anything. When she had gained her composure, she started to walk away again.

“Ella removed you from the council,” WeeSeu said.

Shay turned, suddenly angry. She expected to see the gangly girl standing there behind her, but WeeSeu hadn’t moved from her seat.

“Screw the council,” she heard herself say. Evil-brain had gotten control of her mouth, it seemed. She found she didn’t much care.

WeeSeu’s round face tilted into view from behind the big merlon. She looked at Shay quizzically for a moment, then up at the sky. “Moon’s nice tonight,” she observed.

“I have to go,” Shay said, not knowing what the girl from the Southern Ranges wanted, but knowing that she did want to leave, and right now.

“Very subtle Distanceska. From the start of the Crown Anchor speeches,” said WeeSeu. She slipped out of the seat and continued to look up at the moon as she did so.

“Huh?”

“I couldn’t tell where it was coming from, or what it was directed at until it was too late. Then Icevein at the very end. From the Rockstand girl. Would have never expected her to be able to learn that. No one would have.”

Shay sucked in the cold air through her nose and let it out again as she began to realize what WeeSeu was describing. I will not cry, I will not.

“I’m sorry I didn’t see it sooner. I was trying.” Now WeeSeu screwed up her face in obvious discomfort. It was so out of character for the gawky girl that Shay nearly forgot her own distress.

“I’m sorry too,” she said, happy for once that evil-brain was doing the talking. The bitterness it put in her voice helped cover up the shakiness.

“I never got to thank you either,” WeeSeu said, “but you’ve been a grain of sand in the midst of a windblown desert of late.”

“Thank me?”

“For arranging that date. With the fellow Southern Ranger. I have to admit, I was at my wits end. I am not skilled in those sorts of arrangements. He... he agreed to take me to the Dance as well. I had been so afraid that...” WeeSeu turned away, and looked back up at the moon.

“Zao? He’s not going with Lauresh?”

“The Crown Guide asked her to go the other day. A much better coupling for recruiting purposes, and Zao will gain exposure against my Decorator status. The moon was in our sails it seemed.”

“Good for you.”

“I­... I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be boasting.”

Now Shay felt bad, and at the same time felt stupid for feeling bad. Then felt bad again for feeling stupid. She grabbed her head and remembered why she hated talking to people. Shay walked away.

WeeSeu called out: “Thank you.”

“Okay,” she said over her shoulder, and kept going until she was back in her room.

She decided her nights visiting the roof walk were over.