Concept
This short story is inspired by a lyric from Janis Ian's song "On the Other Side:"
Oh, but all that I remember
is the children were in danger
on the other side.
Synopsis
Herald Enna must return to her hometown on a mission, years after fleeing her slowly suffocating life there.
Characters
Characters appearing or mentioned in this story
Main characters
- Herald Enna
- Bard Jordie Ambersen
Major character
- Companion Keria
Minor characters
- Maggy Chokan
- Lara
- Gemma
Referenced characters
- Old Man Mullien
- Harl
- Berd
- Lame Tam
- Hadal
Places
- Cheverford, Valdemar
- Black Swan Inn, Cheverford
Terminology
Story details (WARNING! SPOILERS!)
(summary from Amazon) "Herald Enna doesn't want to return to her home village. Her parents are dead, her brothers are either dead or in the Guard, and she doesn't even speak of her friends. But Heralds go where they are sent, so she has no choice; she has to face her past."
The biggest change in town is a new building. Valdemar is swamped with orphans left alive by mercenaries as they destroyed settlements during the Tedrel Wars. Without enough homes to take them all in, orphanages have been built to house them, including one in Cheverford.
Keria is an Empathic Mindhealer, and Herald Enna has the gift of knowing which Gifts others possess. They have been travelling from orphanage to orphanage to help calm the horrors the children are still trapped in, and help any whose Talents may have manifested and are uncontrolled.
Enna is surprised and has mixed feelings when nobody recognizes her in town. She realizes that people just see the Herald Whites uniform.
She assures herself that Bard Jordie Ambersen is not here, because she checked the records at the Collegium, after she was trained, after she was Chosen by Keria, after she was alone on the road away from Cheverford. She left because Jordie was giving up travel to be there with her, sacrificing his purpose as a Bard. But he and everyone else were also stifling her; they expected her to stay at home, and be a mother and wife, and never expect more from life. So she left.
She checks into her room at the Inn, again unrecognized, then goes to the orphanage. She inspects it, finding the food good, the people kind, the premises clean. Then she hears singing, and realizes that her former betrothed Jordie is here with the children. It's not unusual for a Bard to visit orphanages, helping to calm their fears and begin to overcome their trauma. But Enna does not want to see him. She arranges an appointment the next day, specifying that the presence of his Gift might interfere with her finding Gifts in the children.
Returning to the Inn, she sleeps until she hears the fire bells ringing, and immediately knows it's the orphanage. Wetting a blanket and grabbing a rope, she goes to the orphanage and charges in and hears Jordie singing, calling the children to him, compelling them. The children's rooms are on the top floor, and Jordie has collected them in the room furthest from the smoke and fire.
They quickly begin the Collegium's fire protocol. She gives him her belt to cut strips of sheets, while she fixes the rope to a ceiling beam and throws the rest out of the window. People grab the end and pull it away from the side of the building, creating a slope.
One by one, Enna and Jordie loop a strip of cloth over the rope and tie a child's wrists to it, shoving each out the window screaming on the makeshift zipline as they glide to safety. Jordie continues to singing, projecting calm to the increasingly panicking children, as the fire approaches and the room begins to fill with smoke.
Counting, Enna finds the last two children in the hallway, where they fell unconscious in the way up. Jordie thinks they are dead, but Enna sends them down in case they can be revived. Flames have reached the room. Only the two of them are left, and Enna throws her cloth over the zipline, assuming Jordie is ready behind her. As she mounts the rope, she is shoved out by a fireball behind her. She is on fire and gets halfway down the rope before it breaks. She is aware of people putting out the flames as she screams for Jordie before passing out.
She occasionally wakes between doses of pain medication, thinking of her regrets. Then she wakes again, finding herself somewhere else, on a grassy slope next to Jordie. They talk about the other side: being heroes, why she left. He understands his part in it, and even admits that on the other side he would never have understood that he was draining her dry. She says it was more, that their planned life was stifling him, also. He says it's all right, they'll do better next time. All of the children survived, even the last two, and now it is time for her to go. She is surprised - she'd assumed she was dead, too, and heading for the Havens.
She awakes in her hospital bed feeling comforted, both forgiving and forgiven, and starting to heal old regrets. And she knows she will see him again, and they will do better, on the other side.
Publication history
For a more detailed history see the Internet Speculative Fiction Database.
- Stars: Original Stories Based on the Songs of Janis Ian, edited by Janis Ian and Mike Resnick, 2003
- On the Other Side, ebook, 2010
- Stars: The Anthology, edited by Janis Ian and Mike Resnick, 2014
Gallery of cover images
