Gathering Blue

A girl named Kira, her age unspecified, calls for her mother, but no one replies. Kira’s mother, who was named Katrina, has died recently, and now her spirit is leaving her. Katrina was a warm, kind woman, but now she is only a body, about to be eaten by animals. Kira cries—she has never experienced death before, and loved her mother very much.

Kira thinks about the death rituals she has seen other families go through. Families bring the dead and the wounded to die in a place called the Field of the Living. Kira thinks that a woman named Helena is standing in the Field of the Living, watching as her infant daughter’s spirit leaves her body. In Kira’s society, infant deaths do not require the customary four days in which family members watch spirits leave the body.

Kira has no family and no home; her home has been burned, along with everything in it. This is the custom after someone dies of “sickness.” Kira thinks that there is fear everywhere in her community, which is known only as “the village.” Villagers are afraid of the cold, of disease, of hunger, etc. Now, Kira’s fear motivates her to build a new shelter. She thinks that her shelter will be difficult to make, because she has a lame leg. Nevertheless, she will find a way to survive.

Kira thinks about her mother’s brother. Yesterday, while Kira was sitting in the Field of the Living, watching her mother’s spirit leave her body, Katrina's brother was also present, watching the spirit of his dead wife, Solora, who died in childbirth. Although Kira and her mother’s brother acknowledged each other, they didn’t speak. Later, her mother’s brother left the Field to return to his two children, who are so young that their names have only one syllable: Dan and Mar. Kira wonders what her future will be, and thinks for a moment that she might be allowed to care for Dan and Mar. Then, she realizes that this is impossible: healthy infant children, or “tykes,” as they’re known, are highly valuable, and are sold to families that need children.

As she prepares to leave the Field of the Living, Kira thinks of a story her mother used to tell her. Kira was born “fatherless,” with a twisted leg. When Kira was so young that she didn’t even have her one-syllable infant name, “Kir,” people came to Katrina planning to take her daughter to the Field of the Living to die. This is the custom in her society, Kira thinks, and the merciful thing to do. Growing up, Kira would tell Katrina, “they didn’t know it was me,” and Katrina would reply, “It wasn’t you, yet.”

Katrina would tell Kira that her father was taken by beasts; thus, Katrina feared that she wouldn’t be able to have another child. As a baby, Kira had bright eyes, and gripped Katrina’s hands, showing her strength. For these reasons, Katrina refused to let Kira be taken to the Field of the Living. Katrina’s father had a four-syllable name, and was the chief guardian: the leader of the village. Kira’s father, Christopher, was also meant to become a guardian before animals killed him. Thus, Katrina was able to convince the people who came to take Kira away that they must let her keep her daughter. Since that time, Kira has made up for her lame leg with her strong hands and intelligence. She helps the women who work in the weaving shed, and entertains children with her vivid stories. Kira is also a brilliant weaver, whose abilities had already surpassed those of her mother when she died.

Yet, despite what Katrina would tell Kira, Kira sees now that she isn’t useful to her village. She helps in the weaving shed, but in general her labor is minimal because of her leg—she can’t gather food, as most of the women do. Also because of her leg, she will never make a good mate. She can tell entertaining stories and weave, but neither of these skills qualify as work, at least not even to the women in the weaving shed.

As Kira thinks about her mother and her life, she walks back to her village, noticing tykes along the way. Kira recognizes every tyke she sees, and watches as they play-fight and run from each other. When she was a tyke, Kira watched enviously as her peers played similar games.

Kira sees a boy of eight or nine years, named Matt. Matt is Kira’s friend. He lives in the Fen, and is probably the son of a dragger or a digger. Kira calls Matt, and he runs to her, followed by his dog. Matt asks Kira about Katrina’s spirit leaving her body. Matt speaks in the strange Fen dialect that causes most people in the village to look down on people from the Fen. Kira is not one of these people. She likes Matt a lot.

Matt is holding an armful of twigs. He tells Kira that her cott, or house, has been burnt. Whenever someone dies of sickness, Kira thinks, that person’s possessions are burnt. Sometimes, when the sickness spreads, there is a mass burning, after which the villagers bond over building new shelters. In Katrina’s case, though, only she died of sickness, meaning that the village barely noticed her death. Kira asks Matt to help her start building a new shelter, but Matt insists that he has to go collect twigs for the fire, or he’ll be whipped.

Before leaving to collect more fire twigs, Matt tells Kira that the women of the village want to send Kira to the Field “for the beasts.” They want to claim the vacant space where Katrina’s cott used to be, and turn it into a pen to keep birds and tykes. Kira is horrified, but asks Matt who the strongest voice against her was. Matt answers that it was Vandara, and Kira is unsurprised.