Rivers Solomon - An Unkindness of Ghosts

To my mother

and her mother

all the way back to Eve

Part I

Thermodynamics

i

Aster removed two scalpels from her med-kit to soak in a solution of disinfectant. Her fingers trembled from the cold, and the tools slipped from her grasp, plopping ungracefully into the sanitizer. In ten minutes time, shed be amputating a childs gangrenous foot. This shaking and carrying on would not do.

Was this winter?

Dim lightchemiluminescent reactions of peroxide, orange dye, and estersuffused the makeshift operating room. Starjars, the T-deckers called their improvised lanterns. Aster wondered where theyd gotten the peroxide to work them, let alone the phenyl oxalate ester.

All you got to do is give one of them a shake and the stuff inside gets all mixed up, said Flick, rotted foot propped atop two stacked trunks. Look! You looking?

Of course Aster was looking. Couldnt Flick see her eyes?

A pile of faded comics lay next to the child on a flipped-over wicker basket, The Reign of Night Empress #19 on top. Its cover depicted a woman named Mariam Santi in a beige trench coat carrying a cylindrical device made of metal and wood. When she pulled its tiny lever with her index finger, a silver ball shot out of the tube, wounding her enemy.

Rifle, Aster whispered, her lips splitting at the corners where the cold had pasted them shut. As a child, shed called them ripples for the way they had of changing everything in a story. And because shed misread the word the first time around, finding that fs and ps looked similar to her untrained eyes.

Issue 19 of Night Empress had been one of Asters favorites when she was a girl, and shed read it along with every other Mariam Santi adventure available aboard Matilda. Old comics circulated wing to wing, deck to deck.

Look how it blows up inside when I jostle it! Boom! Boom! Boom! said Flick as sheheno, theyshook the starjar. Aster regretted the error. She was used to the style of her own deck where all children were referred to with feminine pronouns. Here, it was they. Shed do well to remember. Explode! Explode! Flick continued, tossing the starjar into the air before catching it. Except not really. If it was a explosion thered be fire, and if there was fire itd be hot. They spoke in that matter-of-fact tone native to children who believed they knew everything. My great-grandmeema say there was blackouts before too, but they was just passing through. After one week they stopped, and lowdeckers never even had to have no energy rations to stop them. No cold, said Flick, dark-brown skin lit bronze under the meek glow of the starjars.

If there was a chance hed respondand there wasntAster would radio the Surgeon. Hed write her a pass to transport Flick up to his clinic on G deck or somewhere else warm. Hed sign it in his looping cursive and stamp it with his fancy gold seal. Aster didnt know every guard on Matilda, but the ones she did wouldnt dare deny a pass issued by Heavens Hands Made Flesh.

As it was, the Surgeon hadnt spoken to Aster in three and a half weeks, not since the start of the blackouts. No Surgeon, no access to Matildas upperdecks. No upperdeck access, no heat.

Its like a star, see? Flick said, shaking another lantern, setting off its chemical show.

Aster looked at the lantern, then at Flick, then at the lantern again. Im afraid I dont.

A stars a bunch of little things coming together to make light, yeah? Chemicals and all that. And our little special jars here is a bunch of little things coming together to make light too. Also chemicals. Agree or disagree?

Agree, said Aster, familiar with the basic chemistry from studies in astromatics.

So, they the same. Chemicals plus more chemicals makes magic, Flick said, tongue sticking out.

Aster admired the childs sureness if not their utter wrongness. Your model lacks specificity and is therefore useless, she said, speaking more harshly than intended. This close to the end of the day, she lost the ability to modulate her naturally abrupt manner for the comfort of others. According to such a theory, a suitcase would be no different than a bomb. Sugars and synthase react to make the cotton of the luggage. Oxygen oxidizes gunpowder to make an explosion. Chemicals plus more chemicals makes magic describes both scenarios rather well, but, of course, we know a suitcase is nothing like a bomb.

Flick blinked obstinately, and Aster searched for a child-appropriate explanation.

Youre arguing that a person is identical to a dog because theyve both got bones and blood.

Guards be calling Tarlanders dogs all the time, Flick said, hand on hip.

Aster twitched at the sound of the familiar word; she hadnt heard it in ages, but it still stirred a sense of belonging. Tarlanders were the inhabitants of P, Q, R, S, and T decks, and it was as close to a nation as anything on Matilda.

The guards are hardly a compass by which to measure right and wrong, said Aster.

Flicks eyes flashed open in what was presumably mock shock. You gonna get struck down for saying that, woman. Dont you know that Sovereign Nicolaeus is the Heavens chosen ruler? And that the guards are Nicolaeuss soldiers and, by extension, soldiers of the Heavens? A spurn to them is a spurn to the Heavens direct, Flick said in a high-pitched voice.

Well, lets hope the Heavens exact vengeance after Ive amputated your foot. I wouldnt want yourighteous defender of the moral order that you arenegatively affected by my sacrilege. Without meaning to, Aster smiled.

How about if you promise to do my surgery up good, Ill write a letter to the Guard begging they spare you? I been practicing my vocabulary and I already know what Im gonna say. Want to hear? Mischief drew Flicks face into a sly grin.

Dear Sirs, Flick began before loudly inhaling, On account of there being no heat down here on account of there being no electricity on account of the brand-new energy rations so thoughtfully and nobly and honorably imposed on the steerage decks by Sovereign Nicolaeus on account of the blackoutsAster fell prey to a brief fit of hypothermia-induced delirium and spoke out against you in her maddery. Shes healed up now so you dont have to worry about it happening again. Yours humbly, deferentially, meekly, and respectfully, Flor Flicker Samuels. Flick erupted in laughter and took a bow. Opinions?

Your sarcasm reveals clear disregard for the sanctity of the Sovereigns Guard, which I appreciate, Aster said, blowing into her cupped palms before vigorously rubbing them together. As much as she enjoyed the banter, their conversation proved a distraction against resolving the matter of the cold.

You can have my mittens if you want, said Flick. They set down the starjar theyd been holding and showed off their wrapped hands. Theyll warm you up good so you can cut, cut, cut me up, no problem. Slice into me like a festival ham if you want.

Asters eyes made uncertain contact with Flicks. I cannot discern whether or not your offer is in earnest. It should be obvious I cannot perform an amputation in mittens. Are you joking again?

Aye, Flick said, having the decency to look a little bashful about making fun. But they is warm. Lined with rabbit fur. My great-meema skint it herself back when there was rabbits aboard Matilda. Real rabbits. When was the last time anybody saw one of those?

Aster assumed the question was rhetorical, as she couldnt very well ascertain when the last time in the entirety of the universe someone had seen a rabbit. I didnt think the moments preceding an operation were particularly well-suited to humor, but its characterized a large portion of our interaction, she said. Aster was always memorizing new ways of being with people.