Knight

by Ella Young

  “Situations change,” Knight explained, to which Taz only looked skyward in exasperation. Xe realized it was no use badgering Knight any further.

  In the end, no one was able to sway her from her goal. Knight was going to Arryna, one way or another.

  After what felt like ages, everything finally fell into place. Knight stood beside the ship that would take her back to Valiant, captained by the equina pilot who had worked with her on Sixth Star. Taz, Weinan, and Ferrao gathered to send her off.

  Taz's mouth was set in an angry line. Weinan's brows were pulled together with worry. Ferrao was the only one among them who appeared calm.

  "I'll be fine," Knight started.

  Taz balked. "You're going to Arryna. No one is fine on Arryna."

  "I won't be long."

  "You'll get a life sentence," Weinan cut in bluntly. "If there's one person Lhiyrra hates more than Edaui, it's Knight."

  "I'll be fine, and I'll see you soon. You'll see."

  "And so we will. You'd better get going. We have a time frame to keep," Ferrao stated. The equina pilot appeared behind them.

  "The ship is preflighted. I'm ready when you are."

  There were no more words to be said. Nothing Taz or Weinan could say would change Knight's mind. Besides, the plan had already been set in motion. There was no backing out now. With one last look at her friends, Knight boarded the ship…and they were off.

  -~-~-~-

  Valiant was as arid and dusty as ever when the ship set down in the Roirse airfield. The sun was high in the sky, and there wasn't a cloud to be seen. Knight stepped out into the dry air and inhaled deeply. It smelled like home. She hesitated on the gangplank, surveying her city. It hadn't changed in the months since she had been gone. Everything was just as she'd left it.

  After a moment, Knight turned and saluted her pilot. Xe smiled grimly back at her. Knight could only assume xe believed this was a suicide mission. And perhaps it was, but Toshi was worth it. Knight turned and took off down the gangplank, in the direction of the hawk station where Weinan had taken her once before. She could easily have taken a pneumobus there, but she chose instead to walk. It would be her last taste of freedom for a while. She wanted to make the most of it. Knight knew she couldn't be too long, but she still found time to stride through the market, and to sample the czeraza hawked by the food vendors along the walkways.

  The sun was setting when she arrived at the hawk station. Despite herself, her heart was pounding. She had no idea what to expect. How would they take her into custody? Where would she be held for the night? What would Arryna even be like? It occurred to her that she didn't have to go through with this. She could simply turn around and leave the hawk station behind. The Remnant would suffer the immediate image-damaging consequences, but they would likely recover if this plan fell through. Knight could still walk away a free girl.

  But Toshi hadn't had that option. And Knight was no coward. This was her fight, and she wasn’t about to desert it. Without further hesitation she entered the air-conditioned station. A bored looking levian officer staffed the front desk.

  He looked up as she entered, and his eyes widened with recognition. He remembered her. "How can we help you tonight, ma'am?" he asked, voice cautious.

  Knight walked to the front desk, until she was face to face with the officer. "I'd like to turn myself in."

  The officer blinked. "I'm sorry?"

  "You heard me," Knight said. "I am taking responsibility for the deaths of Arlei Maron, Vire Ultik, L’Horish’nu uk’Reyvin, Leshel Garen, and Niranye Onri."

  There was a pause, in which the stunned officer was trying to gauge if she was serious. Then he was suddenly behind her, forcing her over the desk and cuffing her hands. He was saying things into his comm, but Knight wasn't listening. This was her worst nightmare coming true, and she'd walked right into it. She closed her eyes and focused on her breathing. She would get out of this.

  She would get out of this, and she'd get Toshi out, too.

  -~-~-~-

  Arryna was a massive, wretched place. Dust-covered buildings hunkered behind a tall, flickering fence of energy; rubble littered the bases of the fence posts and blast marks scored the ground. Something had put them there recently. Scarred guards in dented armor held the prisoners at gun point at all times, and any break out of line was dealt with harshly. Knight watched as an equina was stunned and dragged away for tripping down the gangplank. She swallowed hard.

  The events since she had turned herself in had left her cautious. After her initial arrest she was placed in a solitary confinement cell, awaiting trial. The trial had taken place the very next day (where they got a jury on such short notice, Knight had no idea). They still didn't have her fingerscale prints at a crime scene, but they had a confession, and that was all Lhiyrra's brand of authoritarian justice required. Knight was sentenced to life on Arryna. The hawks leered at her the next day as she was herded onto a nearly empty transportation shuttle. She could only imagine her arrest and sentencing were all over the news by now, as Lhiyrra reveled in the sweet taste of his recent victory on Levala and now over her capture. The Remnant smoked out of their home and their shining Knight in chains? Both events were a crushing blow to the rebel cell and could only stoke the fires of the Hegemony’s supporters. She imagined Taz getting word. This was not what xe had had in mind when they signed up.

  Knight was jerked from her reverie when someone bumped into her from behind. The prisoners were funneled from the transports into a large brick building and processed, which consisted mainly of decontamination under immune lamps and issuing of the prison uniform. It was a jumpsuit, grey and orange. The scales on Knight’s chest and legs pulled uncomfortably at the fabric, and she noticed other avians tying them about their waists like ilhuei. She followed suit, also ripping off the sleeves and wrapping them around her head like a circlet. There was no veil to drape across her ears to block out the dust, but at least her head didn’t feel so bare.

  So far, she had not seen head nor tail of her contact, Kanu. He had been described as a levian with a scar on his snout, but most of the guards bore scars. A thought wormed its way into Knight’s mind: what if she was unable to locate her contact? What then?

  Then he finds you, the rational side of her whispered. Knight inhaled sharply. She was only minutes into her second mission. She couldn’t lose her cool now.

  The prisoners were herded into the Arryna commons. A signumaria, wrapped in cautionary signs, stood off to the side. One lone levian, a woman, stood with her hands clasped behind her back, glaring daggers at the prisoners. Knight assumed she must be the warden.

  “Welcome to your last stop, prisoners,” the warden said. “There are no light sentences on Arryna; once you’re here, you’re here for life, however short or long that may be. Recently we had some prisoners take an issue with this sentence. Rest assured, they were dealt with harshly. Any bad behavior will result in…consequences.”

  The warden droned on, and Knight got the distinct feeling she was a person who enjoyed the sound of her own voice. Job assignments were given—avians and humans to molding stations, equina to the smelters, levian to the mines. Aquarins weren't even mentioned. Knight thought back to the few aquarins she'd seen in the Remnant, and wondered if enough had ever been captured to warrant their own dorm. The schedule of each day was laid out—meal, work, meal, work, meal, sleep. The rules of the land were relayed—don't cause trouble and the guards would leave you alone. It would have been disheartening if Knight didn't know she wouldn't be there long. When the warden finished, all the prisoners were marched to the cafeteria for their evening meal.

  As they walked, Knight took stock of those around her. There were levian with torn ears and missing fur, equina with docked tails and avians without wings. Knight knew this was a prison. She knew she wasn’t supposed to feel at home. But something about being surrounded by other stubs was…comforting. No one gave her harsh looks, no one turned their head in disgust. In the str
angest way, she felt comfortable among them.

  She entered the mess hall and immediately noticed a divide. The prisoners weren't all equals. The stubs were not second-class citizens in Arryna, but the humans were. There was a very clear boundary between the avians, the equina, and the levian prisoners (still no aquarins to be seen), and the humans who huddled in a back corner. Knight's stomach tightened.

  Back when she was a child, with a name that no longer belonged to her, she had learned of the controversy surrounding human resettlement. Ivet would often take her aside often and explain the reasoning behind it, but also that that reasoning was flawed.

  “The Divari speak to me, and I do as they have commanded,” xe said sagely. “Soon they will do the same for you. And believe me when I say, the humans are wanted here. They belong here. Don’t let anyone tell you any different.”

  Knight no longer believed in the Divari, but she did believe in the rightness of humanity. She hated this divide that she saw.

  But that was not why she was here, to ponder the plight of humans. She was here for Toshi. Knight followed the line of prisoners to the food dispensaries, eyes peeled for the familiar fins of her friend. In this pit of monochrome color, Toshi’s opalescent skin should stand out. But Knight didn’t see it anywhere. She frowned hard and retrieved her own food, then drifted away to an unoccupied table. Perhaps Toshi simply hadn’t arrived at the mess hall yet?

  Knight surveyed the room as she set her food down. Ferrao had mentioned other Remnant soldiers were already imprisoned on Arryna. Perhaps Knight should attempt to find them. It was possible they knew something about the aquarin. She chewed her lip, wondering just how to go about finding them, when a levian crossed the room to her table.

  He was tall for a levian, his fur a pale golden-brown. A long scar ran from his temple across his lower left eye, down to the corner of his mouth. He stopped before her table, looking her up and down. Knight paused, waiting for him to speak.

  "Word is, you're the Knight who's been causing trouble on Valiant," he started.

  "Yes," Knight said slowly, unsure if that was the right answer. In the Remnant her reputation was a good thing. On a prison asteroid occupied by many who were non-Remnant, who knew what their reactions would be to her work.

  "Arlei Maron was a friend of mine," he said simply. Knight's blood ran cold. Wrong answer.

  "Some friend, if he left you to rot on an asteroid," Knight couldn't stop herself from saying. She regretted it immediately. The levian slammed his hands down on the table, face twisted into an ugly snarl.

  "Arlei and I had a pretty good deal. I protected him, he kept the hawks off my back for my side jobs. You ruined that."

  Good job protecting him, Knight thought, but she held her tongue this time. She glanced frantically around the mess hall, trying to catch someone's eye. Everyone seemed suddenly, intently interested in their own meals.

  "Sorry," was all Knight mumbled back, trying to slide out of her bench.

  "You're going to be," the levian grunted, reaching across the table and grabbing her by the back of her neck. He raised his other fist to strike the first blow. Clearly there was no way this ended peacefully. The man's grip on her neck was tight. There was no ducking out of it. As he swung, she launched herself the only way she could go—forward. She plowed into him, catching him off guard. They tumbled to the floor. Knight, not wanting a fight, turned to run, but was stopped when the levian snagged her ankle with the hand that had held her neck. She hit the dirt hard, knocking the wind from her lungs.

  The man was suddenly on top of her, both hands reaching for her throat. Knight lashed out, kicking him in the groin. He gasped in pain and doubled over. Realizing fleeing was out of the question, she scrambled to her feet and moved to throw a punch. The levian was quicker. He elbowed her arm out of the way, then grabbed her neck with one hand. With very little effort he dragged her towards him, squeezing his fingers around her windpipe. Knight pulled uselessly at his fingers, desperately trying to get him to loosen his grip. Where was a guard when you needed one? Weren't they there to prevent this sort of thing?

  "Hello," a pleasant voice said behind them. Knight was just able to turn her head to see a pale skinned human, tall for her species, with shiny black hair knotted into a bun at the nape of her neck. Beside her stood a shorter, dark-skinned human with braided hair. The pale girl was staring hard at the levian who had her by the neck. "I think you should let her go."

  The levian sneered. "This doesn't concern you."

  "You're strangling my friend. It concerns me."

  "You know this stub?"

  The girl smiled coldly. "Yes. Please let her go."

  There was no way this slight human could pose a threat to the levian holding Knight by the throat. So she was shocked when his grip loosened. He dropped her and turned and on his heel with a disgusted sound. Knight got her feet back under her, gasping for air.

  "Watch your back," he snarled, and returned to the table he'd come from. Knight turned to the humans. She was confused about what had just transpired, but grateful nonetheless.

  "Thank you," she said, voice hoarse. The girls immediately surrounded her.

  "Are you okay?" the braided girl asked.

  "I will be." Knight straightened. "Why did he let me go?"

  "He knows better than to tangle with us," the pale girl answered. She stuck out her hand. "I'm Ji. This is my girlfriend, Ayla." The one called Ayla smiled and waved.

  Knight took Ji's hand. "Knight."

  "I thought you might be. We need to talk,” Ji said, voice tense.

  Knight didn't like Ji's tone. "Okay," she said carefully.

  They led her back to their table, where a number of other humans had paused in their eating to watch them. One human in particular, a dark-skinned human who could only be Ayla's brother, frowned at her.

  “Ayla…"

  "Relax, Nero. This is Knight."

  "You're Knight," he said to her. Not a question. He seemed…disappointed. And Knight knew why.

  "You were expecting a human," she said. He nodded slowly. Knight spread her arms.

  "As far as Lhiyrra is concerned I'm no better than one."

  "Not here you're not."

  An unfortunately true statement.

  "What did you need to talk about?" Knight asked. She slid onto the bench by Ayla, across from Ji. The pale human looked somber.

  "It's about Toshi."

  Knight's ears pricked instantly. She leaned forward, staring intensely across the table. "What about her?"

  Ji and Ayla exchanged a look. "You came here to rescue her, yeah?" Ji asked.

  Knight nodded. "The Remnant needs her back. She's our only hope of securing our network from the Hegemony."

  "That might be harder than you think. She went missing a tenday ago."

  Knight tilted her head, confused. "How does one go missing on a prison asteroid?"

  "We can't tell you anymore out here in the open," Ayla said. "Meet us behind the human dorm tonight after curfew and we'll tell you everything."

  "How am I supposed to sneak past the guards?"

  It was Nero who spoke next. Clearly, he'd been listening in. "You're Knight. You'll find a way."

  Before Knight could respond, the last siren of the day wailed through the compound. Almost as one, the prisoners stood. Knight remembered the warden's welcoming spiel. It was time to head to the dorms for the night.

  "Tonight," Ji said as she strode past her towards the human dorm. Knight drifted off to join the rest of the avians shuffling towards their own dorm. The secrecy worried her, but what choice did she have? Nero had been right. Sneaking past the guards would hopefully be no problem for her. She'd find out what happened to Toshi tonight. Hopefully, Knight thought, she wasn't too late.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  "She's late," Nero hissed later that night. Ayla shushed him.

  "She's new here. She doesn't know the guards' schedule yet. She's being cautious."

  "Or she's no
t coming at all."

  "She's here for Toshi," Ji reasoned. "She'll come."

  Nero grunted, unconvinced. They were hunkered behind the human dorm, anxiously awaiting Knight's arrival. Nero looked like he was developing a stress ulcer. They'd been waiting for all of what Ji estimated to be about ten minutes and there was still no sign of the avian.

  "Maybe she got lost," Ayla suggested.

  "How could she get lost? There's only one human dorm we could possibly be meeting behind," Nero said gruffly. "And everything is so nicely labeled."

  "Maybe she couldn't get past the guards," Ji tried. Nero and Ayla both shook their heads.

  "Knight's snuck out of higher security. That's not it."

  Ji frowned. "What does this Knight actually do?"

  “She…goes after Lhiyrra's inner circle," Ayla said.

  "Goes after…?"

  "Axes 'em," Nero said bluntly. Ji stiffened, surprised and more than a little disgusted.

  "So she's a murderer. I see why Nero looks up to her."

  Nero tossed Ji a funny look. "What is that supposed to mean?"

  "It's war," Ayla said quickly. "Not murder. She just fights on a different battlefield."

  Ji was no pacifist. She'd been on Arryna long enough to believe armed uprisings had their place. But Knight felt like a completely different matter. She wasn't fighting armed oppressors, she was killing civilians.