Sugar Read online

  All through that day, the golems labor boiling sugar. Jeanette brings her lemonade and the new girl, Madeleine, has made biscuits. She drinks the sweet liquid and looks at the dusty wallpaper. The thought of changing it stuns her with the energy it would require. She will sit here, she thinks, until she dies, and dust will collect on her and the wallpaper alike.

  Still, when dinner-time comes she goes downstairs and under Tante Isabelle's watchful eye, she pushes some food around on her plate.

  Daniel cannot help but be a little thankful that Britomart is dead, she thinks. He was the one who emptied her chamber pot and endured her abuse when she set him to fetching and carrying. The thought makes her speak sharply to him as he serves the chowder the new girl has made. He looks bewildered by her tone and slinks away. She regrets the moment as soon as it is passed but has no reason for calling him back.

  Upstairs the ranks of the pigeons have swollen by two or three more. She lies on her bed, fully clothed, and stares at the ceiling.

  The next morning she takes two golems from their labors to carry Britomart's body for her. They dig the grave on a high slope of the mountain, overlooking the bay. It is a fine view, she thinks. One Britomart would have liked.

  When they have finished, she stands with her palms turned upwards to the sky, calling clouds to come seething on the wind. They collect, darkening like burning sugar. When they are at the perfect, furious boil, she brings lightning down from them to smash the stone that stands over the grave. She does it over and over again, carving Britomart's name in deep and angry, blackened letters.

  At home she goes to lie in bed again.

  ***

  One by one, the golems grind to a stop at their labors, and the sap boils over in thick black smoke. They stand wherever their energy gave out, but all manage in their last moments to bring their limbs in towards their torsos, standing like stalks of stillness.

  It may be the smoke that draws Christina. She arrives, knocks on the door, and comes inside, brushing past the servants. Without knowing the house, she manages to come upstairs and to Laurana's bedroom.

  Laurana does not move, does not look over at the door.

  Christina comes to the bed and lies down beside the sorceress. She looks around at the bedroom, at the string of shells hanging on the wall, but says nothing. She strokes Laurana's ivory hair with a soft hand until the tears begin.

  Outside the golems grind to life again as the rain starts. They collect the burned vats and trundle them away. They cask the most recent rum and set the casks on wooden racks to ferment. They put the plantation into order, and finish the last of their labors. Then as the light of day fades, muffled by the steady rain, they arrange themselves again, closing themselves away, readying for tomorrow.

  About the Author

  Cat Rambo lives, writes, and teaches in the Pacific Northwest, with occasional excursions elsewhere. Her 200+ fiction publications include over 150 original stories, as well as audio and foreign reprints in over a dozen languages. She has been nominated for the Nebula and World Fantasy Award, and has served as the editor of award-winning Fantasy Magazine. She is the current Vice President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and once won a hula contest judged by Neil Gaiman. Find out more about Cat, her work, and her online classes at http://www.kittywumpus.net

  Other books & stories by this author

  Please visit your favorite ebook retailer to discover other books and stories by Cat Rambo:

  Books:

  Near + Far (SF collection)

  Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight (fantasy collection)

  A Seed on the Wind (SF novella)

  A Halloween Quartet (fantasy collection)

  Creating An Online Presence for Writers (nonfiction)

  Short Story Series:

  Altered America (steampunk)

  Her Windowed Eyes, Her Chambered Heart

  Rappacini’s Crow

  Clockwork Fairies

  Rare Pears and Greengages

  The Towering Monarch of His Mighty Race

  Snakes on A Train

  Closer Than You Think (near future SF)

  Peaches of Immortality

  English Muffin, Devotion on the Side

  Zeppelin Follies

  Therapy Buddha

  Flicka

  All the Pretty Little Mermaids

  Memories of Moments, Bright As Falling Stars

  On the Bigfisted Circuit

  A Man and His Parasite

  Boys and Grlz Come Out To Play

  Tortoiseshell Cats Are Not Refundable

  Legends of the Gone

  Mother’s World

  Not Waving, Drowning

  RealFur

  The Mermaids Singing, Each to Each

  Farther Than Tomorrow (slipstream & space opera)

  Bus Ride to Mars

  Grandmother

  Elsewhen, Within, Elsewhen

  Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain

  Angry Rose’s Lament

  Seeking Nothing

  Surrogates

  Fire on the Water’s Heart

  A Querulous Flute of Bone

  Superlives (superheroes)

  Ms. Liberty Gets a Haircut

  Superhero Art

  Acquainted with the Night/TickTock Girl

  Tales of Tabat (secondary world fantasy)

  Narrative of a Beast’s Life

  How Dogs Came to the New Continent

  Events at Fort Plentitude

  Sugar

  Love, Resurrected

  A Frame of Mother-Of-Pearl

  In the Lesser Southern Isles

  A Brooch of Bone, a Hint of Tooth

  I’ll Gnaw Your Bones, the Manticore Said

  Pippa’s Smiles

  A Twine of Flame

  The Bumblety’s Marble

  The Silent Familiar

  Twicefar Station (far future SF)

  Kallakak’s Cousins

  Amid the Words of War

  I Come From the Dark Universe

  Timesnip

  On TwiceFar Station, As the Ships Come and Go

  Bots d’Amor

  Villa Encantada (urban fantasy/horror)

  Eagle-haunted Lake Sammammish

  Villa Encantada

  2611 (forthcoming)

  Women of Zalanthas (secondary world fantasy)

  Aquila’s Ring

  Mirabai the Twice-lived

  Karaluvian Fale

  The World Beside Us (dak fantasy/ horror)

  Jaco Tours

  Can You Hear the Moon?

  So Glad We Had This Time Together

  Of Selkies, Disco Balls, and Anna Plane

  Small Demons

  Heart in a Box

  Magnificent Pigs

  The Dew Drop Coffee Lounge

  Centzon Totochin

  Fisherman’s Child

  Whose Face This Is I Do Not Know

  Close Your Eyes

  A Connection to Beyond

  Eggs Of Stone

  Swamp Gas

  Connect with Cat Rambo

  I really appreciate you reading my book! Here are my social media coordinates:

  Find out what I’m bookmarking on Delicious: https://delicious.com/catrambo

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  See pictures of my world on Instagram: http://instagram.com/specfic/

  Support me on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/catrambo

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  Visit my website: http://www.kittywumpus.net

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