Dreamsnake

Snake knelt beside Melissa and gently, carefully plucked the wild serpents away. North’s people had taken Melissa’s robe, and cut her pants off at the knees. Her arms were bare, and her boots, like Snake’s, were gone. Rope bound her hands and feet, chafing her wrists raw where she had struggled. Small bloody bites spotted her bare arms and legs. A dreamsnake struck: its fangs sank into Snake’s flesh and the creature jerked back almost too fast to see. Her teeth clenched, Snake remembered the crazy’s words: “It’s best if they strike you all over at once…”

With her own body, Snake blocked the serpents away from Melissa and freed her wrists, fumbling left-handed with the knots. Melissa’s skin was cold and dry. Snake cradled her in her left arm as the wild dreamsnakes crawled over her own bare feet and ankles. Once more she wondered how they lived in the cold. She would never have dared let Grass loose in this temperature. Even the case would have been too cold: she would have brought him out, warmed him in her hands, and let him loop himself around her throat.

Melissa’s hand slid limply against the rocks. Blood smeared in streaks from the puncture wounds where her skin rubbed cloth or stone. Snake managed to get Melissa in her lap, off the freezing ground. Her pulse was heavy and slow, her breathing deep. But each new breath came so long after the last that Snake was afraid she would stop altogether.

The cold pressed down around them, pushing back the ache in Snake’s shoulder and draining her energy again. Stay awake, she thought. Stay awake. Melissa might stop breathing; her heart might stop from so much venom, and then she will need help. Despite herself, Snake’s eyes went out of focus and her eyelids drooped; each time she nodded asleep she jerked herself awake again. A pleasant thought insinuated itself into her mind: No one dies of dreamsnake venom. They live, or they die of their illness, in peace, when their time comes. It’s safe to sleep, she will not die. But Snake knew of no one who had ever been given such a large dose of the venom, and Melissa was only a child.

A tiny dreamsnake slid between her leg and the side of the crevasse. She reached out with her numb right hand and picked it up with wonder. It lay coiled in her palm, staring toward her with its lidless eyes, its trident tongue tasting the air. Something about it was unusual: Snake looked closer.

It was an eggling, just hatched, for it still had the beak of horny tissue common to the hatchlings of many species of serpents. It was final proof of how North obtained his dreamsnakes. He had not found an offworld supply. He did not clone them. He had a breeding population. In this pit were all sizes and all ages, from egglings to mature individuals larger than any dreamsnakes Snake had ever seen.

She turned to lay the hatchling down behind her, but her hand knocked against the wall. Startled, the dreamsnake struck. The sharp stab of its tiny fangs made Snake flinch. The creature slid from her hand to the ground and on into shadows.

“North!” Snake’s voice was hoarse. She cleared her dry throat and tried again. “North!”

In time, his silhouette appeared at the rim of the crevasse. By his easy smile Snake knew he expected her to beg him for her freedom. He looked down at her, noting the way she had positioned herself between Melissa and the serpents.

“She could be free if you’d let her,” he said. “Don’t keep her from my creatures.”

“Your creatures are wasted here, North,” Snake said. “You should take them out into the world. You’d be honored by everyone, particularly the healers.”

“I’m honored here,” North said.

“But this must be a difficult life. You could live in comfort and ease—”

“There’s no comfort for me,” North said. “You of all people should realize that. Sleeping on the ground or wrapped in featherbeds, it’s all the same to me.”

“You’ve made dreamsnakes breed,” Snake said. She glanced down at Melissa. Several of the serpents had insinuated themselves past Snake. She grabbed one just before it reached her daughter’s bare arm. The serpent struck and bit her. She put it and the others behind her with stinging hands, ignoring their fangs. “However you do it, you should take the knowledge out and give it to others.”

“And what’s your place in this plan? Should I bring you up to be my herald? You could dance into each new town and tell them I was coming.”

“I admit I wouldn’t care to die down here.”

North laughed harshly.

“You could help so many people. There was no healer when you needed one because we haven’t got enough dreamsnakes. You could help people like you.”

“I help the people who come to me,” North said. “Those are the people who are like me. They’re the only ones I want.” He turned away.

“North!”

“What?”

“At least give me a blanket for Melissa. She’ll die if I can’t keep her warm.”

“She won’t die,” North said. “Not if you leave her to my creatures.” His shadow and his form disappeared.