Free Emergence by Adrienne Gordon Page A

under her weight.
    “What have you done?” she whimpered, as she found she was unable to use sussa to warm herself. “I . . . I can’t conjur a firesphere! I can’t warm myself. What are you?”
    One of the figures confidently approached and pulled open his thick, fur-lined white hood, revealing a wrinkled, leathery face with piercing blue eyes. She felt like she was looking into the face of a man like Ruger; one battle hardened and without mercy or pity. She cringed, trying to crawl away, but he snatched up her face in his hands and squeezed, as the others behind him laughed.
    “I am Ocin, and we are the scientists; those who would snatch the world back from heathen like you.”
    They marched her through the snow into a biting, frigid wind. A collar and chain was put around her neck, kept by Ocin. Though she pulled her sweater close around her, it afforded little protection as the soft falling snow had turned into a biting hail.
    “Don’t you have anything warm I could wear?” she meekly begged. They all carried large pacs on their backs, and Melissa knew they must have spare clothes.
    “You should have been prepared,” rebuked one of the men. “It is the arrogance of your kind that will be your downfall. Besides, you have a very pretty sweater,” he said sarcastically, to the laughter of the other men.
    They walked a little more, and Melissa fell into the snow as her head swooned from lack of food.
    “Don’t you have any food? I’m so hungry.”
    Her whimpering was met with raucous laughter.
    “You have enough blubber on you to last days and days, my leviathan princess!” She started to cry at Ocin’s insulting words, but was yanked by the chain around her neck close to his pitiless face. “Your tears do nothing for me, little girl. We can resist the power of sussa and the power of feminine sentiment. You would do well to use your mind rather than your emotion, for it is the only thing that will save you out here.”
    Melissa stopped her tears, and forced herself to move on, knowing that she would need to depend on those people for her life.
    Where are you Asil? Can you ever forgive me? Will I ever see you again?
    They pressed her on in a grueling march through the snow, and Melissa thought she had never exerted so much in her life. Her underarms were drenched with sweat, while her eyebrows were covered with ice. Down through a wide valley with hip-deep snow they travelled, being whipped on with expletives and cruel laughter. A hundred times she swore she would kill them all if she got free, and a thousand times she begged to be released.
    Once through the valley, a tall mountain stood as lone sentinel, surrounded by low, grey homes. On the side of the mountain a patch of snow shimmered. It made Melissa dizzy to look at it, and she swooned at its effect.
    “It did that to me, the first time I looked on it,” said a tall, thin youth that had been walking silently next to her for most of the trip. Whenever she stumbled after her first fall, he steadied her, and something about his presence made her feel less terrified. “It’s best if you look sideways at it, and only then will the entrance be revealed.”
    She did as he said, and was awestruck at what was revealed. A mammoth metal ship, like ones she had seen earlier, was merged with the mountain itself. Though partially covered in snow, both halves of the ship were visible, peeking out from both sides of the mountain. She felt dwarfed by its presence, as never before had she seen a singular structure so massive.
    “It’s something, isn’t it?” remarked the youth.
    “Yeah,” was all Melissa could manage.
    The youth pulled down his white hood, revealing a baby’s face that had adult scars. As young as Melissa, he had warm, dark-grey eyes, and long, unruly black hair that hung about his gaunt face. Though his gaze was precise and clinical, Melissa felt compassion lay slumbering behind it. She noticed for the first time that he wore furs about his