Rebellion

by Rachel White

  "Yes, your Excellency."

  "Furthermore—"

  But whatever she had been going to say was interrupted again, not by a knock, this time, but a cacophony of voices from the hallway outside. Rallis recognized one of them. The knot of dread in his stomach tightened in on itself.

  The door burst open. Suul Thrun was in the doorway, thunderous with fury and indifferent to the pulses that the empress's guards turned on him. "Your Excellency," he snarled. "Suul Dayne is dead—"

  "I am aware of that, Suul Thrun, and—"

  "I found him. I found him. He was behind the kitchens, bleeding out like an animal. I watched him die!"

  His voice was raw with pain and anger. Briefly, vaguely, Rallis found himself wondering about Suul Thrun and Suul Dayne. He had assumed they were allies simply out of necessity, drawn together only because of a mutual goal, but perhaps they had been friends. Suul Thrun's sorrow seemed real.

  "You have my deepest condolences," Empress Laiaraina told him. "We will do everything in our power to find the culprit and bring them to justice—"

  "No need." Suul Thrun snapped his fingers. Cold and heavy as stone, unable to move a muscle, Rallis watched two legionnaire manhandle Naravi into the room.

  The legionnaires half-marched, half-dragged Naravi forward. He wasn't struggling, but he wasn't walking on his own, either. Since he didn't look injured, Rallis assumed he was going limp to create inconvenience. His face was dark and pinched with fury. Lieutenant Harn brought up the rear, even grimmer and more stoic than before.

  Lieutenant Taarq seized Rallis's arm as though to keep him from starting forward. He didn't realize Rallis was frozen to his spot. "Don't do anything," he hissed. "Just wait."

  "Kes told me what happened before he died," Suul Thrun continued, his eyes on Naravi's hunched form. "With his dying breath, he managed to speak. He said that Citizen Yy approached him—unaccompanied." He threw a nasty look at Lieutenant Harn. "He feigned friendliness for a moment, but when Kes's guard was down, he attacked without warning."

  He jabbed a shaking finger at Naravi. "Your Excellency, he has been nothing but a threat to all of us since his arrival. This filthy, vicious little creature wants nothing more than to kill us all and wear our bones as his jewelry. He murdered Kes and he'll do the same to the rest of us if given the opportunity. We cannot allow him to escape justice."

  "He didn't—" Rallis gasped, shaking free of Lieutenant Taarq's hand. "Nur's heart, I swear, he didn't—"

  Suul Thrun rounded on him. "Be silent. Were you involved in this too? Did the two of you lure Kes out together?"

  "What? No, I didn't—"

  "Liar."

  "This is madness," said Lieutenant Taarq, striding forward to stand protectively at Rallis's side. "Rallis had nothing to do with anything. I've been with him this whole time."

  Suul Thrun's attention went to Lieutenant Harn. "And what about you, lieutenant? Have you been with Citizen Yy today? Can you vouch for his whereabouts this morning? He wasn't at the vote, was he? Do you know where he was?"

  Lieutenant Harn's face darkened, but he said nothing. Suul Thrun gave him a brief, triumphant leer, and turned back to Empress Laiaraina.

  "The answer is obvious, your Excellency. The boy must be executed. Now. He is too vicious and brutal to be allowed to live. And we must prevent his kind from any further uprisings of this sort. This is the kind of creature the dirt creates! This is what breeds down below!"

  "Enough, Suul Thrun." Empress Laiaraina held up her hand. "I understand your anger and sympathize with your grief. But this will be handled—"

  "You don't have authority over criminals—"

  "Nor do you." Her gaze on him was regal and distant. "I will have the Suulsen decide his fate fairly and justly. We will hold the vote as before, and this crime will be included with the others. We will have witnesses and deliberation. We will not execute Citizen Yy without a trial. And when the trial is over, we will all accept the justice that is given—regardless of what form it takes. Is that understood?"

  The question was meant for everyone, and everyone nodded—except for Naravi, of course, and Rallis, who couldn't move his head, and Lieutenant Taarq, who was gazing at Suul Thrun with as clear an expression of hatred as Rallis had ever seen him wear.

  She turned her attention to Naravi. "Citizen Yy. Suul Thrun has accused you of the murder of his comrade. You will be tried for this crime along with your existing crimes as soon as the moot is brought back to session. Do you have anything to say in your defense? Can you provide an explanation for where you were these last few hours?"

  In the silence that followed, as Naravi took in the question, a thousand frantic thoughts rose in Rallis's mind. If Naravi could just be calm, perhaps they could get through this. If he could only refrain from causing trouble. The accusation was ludicrous and would be easy to disprove, but they needed time. Time to investigate, to search, to uncover the truth. The empress would certainly grant them more time if they behaved, for it wasn't like they could escape. As long as Naravi kept his mouth shut, they might keep living.

  But it was a stupid, pointless dream. Naravi embraced trouble with vicious pleasure. Rallis had known that since the day he was born.

  He lunged forward. "I hate you!" he screamed in shrill Adesi, to the empress or Suul Thrun or Lieutenant Harn or everyone. "I hate you! You ruined my country! You killed my brother! I hope you all die! I hope everyone in Jev dies!"

  He didn't get any further before legionnaires surrounded him, one wrenching his arms behind his back as the other shot him with a pulse. The noise he made in response, a drunken moan, made Rallis's gorge rise in his throat. He couldn't watch as Naravi was dragged away by Jevite legionnaires, limp and pallid and gasping, but turning away only meant he was facing Lieutenant Taarq instead. Their eyes locked, and an understanding passed between them.

  It was finished. Rallis had failed. Naravi would be executed, of course, and so would Rallis, most likely. And the rest: Ivven Gyl, Faida Tlirr, that rebel woman who had stolen a Jevite's gun. Unshackled from the empress's restrictions, Suul Thrun would be free to subdue Adesa as he saw fit, using the murder of Kes Dayne as the cudgel with which he beat the Adesi down.

  The knowledge brought with it a kind of tranquility, though maybe that was just the peace of drowning. In the khas game that was life, they had been thoroughly outplayed; all that was left now was to collect the unnae and put away the board.

  Davinna. The stronghold had broken. The match was over.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The following morning, as the sun was rising, Lieutenant Taarq shook Rallis awake. "Do you want to see your cousin?"

  Rallis blinked at him, disoriented. Emerging from a miserable half-sleep that settled into the cracks of his mind and clung like spider webs, he didn't understand the question. Of course he wanted to see Naravi.

  Lieutenant Taarq hesitated. "I'll take you to him."

  "Ah," said Rallis, finally comprehending. "Yes. Please."

  They slipped out through a narrow side door of the palace, emerging onto a dark, desolate street. There was a shuttle waiting for them; Lieutenant Taarq and Legionnaire Saura boarded on either side of him, hemming him in. It was as much to protect him as it was to keep up appearances: tensions were higher now than they had ever been, and Rallis's Adesi face marked him as an enemy.

  The shuttle dropped them off just outside the prison, a squat, broad building enclosed on three sides by a wrought-iron fence and guarded on its fourth side by the precipitous drop off the edge of the citadel. The only way in or out of the prison was through a series of heavy doors. The architect had been clever: any enterprising prisoner who tried to tunnel through the floor or break down a wall would find herself escaping into empty air. It was a long way to the ground.

  Though they were let past the fence without trouble, the legionnaires at the prison doors frowned and fidgeted when Lieutenant Taarq requested entrance, only stepping aside when Lieutenant Taarq began to hint at
summoning a superior officer. Inside, the building was as bright and clean as everything else on Jevell, with polished floors and whitewashed walls and identical narrow prison cells at intervals along the long hallway.

  Partway down the corridor, two figures were standing by one of the cells: Lieutenant Harn, accompanied by slender, somber Legionnaire Klin. Lieutenant Harn was just to the right of the cell door, dressed in uniform, standing straight-backed with his eyes on something far away. A few paces away, Legionnaire Klin waited patiently for a command.

  A glance at Lieutenant Taarq showed he wasn't expecting to see Lieutenant Harn either. "Nasir—" he began.

  "He's my responsibility," said Lieutenant Harn curtly. "I'll see this through to the end."

  Rallis's stomach plunged. He hurried forward and looked into Naravi's cell. Naravi was sitting with his back against the wall, his knees drawn to his chest, staring vaguely at the far corner. At least this time it didn't look as though he had been struck, though Rallis could tell by the sallowness of his cheeks and the careful way he held himself that he wasn't yet recovered from the effects of the pulse.

  "Naravi."

  "What?"

  "Are you all right?"

  "No," said Naravi. "I'm not. Do you think I'm all right?"

  "No, I just…What happened with Kes Dayne? Did you see him yesterday? Do you know why they're accusing you of this?"

  "No."

  "Naravi—"

  "If you believe I killed him, just leave," said Naravi coolly.

  "Don't be ridiculous. I know it wasn't you, but that doesn't matter. You understand that, yes? They think you killed him. Suul Thrun thinks you killed him, and he's going to—"

  "Suul Thrun knows perfectly well who killed Suul Dayne."

  That made everyone react. All four Jevites gazed at Naravi with ferocious intensity. The tension in the air was thick enough to cut. "What do you mean?" Rallis asked. Once again, he felt as though he were standing on the edge of a great chasm, looking out over vast, roaring nothingness. "Do you know something?"

  Naravi rolled his eyes. "They set it up. It's just like I told you before. They're the ones doing this. They planted the bombs on Adesa and now they've killed one of their own to make me look dangerous. Probably he wasn't useful enough to them otherwise." He shrugged one shoulder languidly. "There's no point in trying to protest my innocence. They don't care. They want to blame Adesa, so they've put everything in place to blame Adesa."

  Out of the corner of his eye, Rallis could see Lieutenant Harn and Lieutenant Taarq exchange a look. They didn't believe Naravi. He hadn't either, last time Naravi had raised the theory, but now…

  "What's going to happen to him?" he asked Lieutenant Taarq.

  "The Suul will convene as intended. Things will probably progress much the same way. There will be witnesses to support both sides. I expect that Suul Thrun will push to expedite Citizen Yy's execution as much as he can."

  Naravi didn't so much as flinch at the words. He was sitting in the darkest corner of the cell, still as a stone, indifferent to the discussion around him. Nur's heart, Rallis wanted to go in and shake him. Perhaps if he had been a little friendlier—a little more forthcoming—

  Or perhaps this would have happened regardless. If he had befriended Renn Corranis and Lieutenant Falaq and Suul Oymis, would that have spared him this fate? Would they have come to his defense when Suul Thrun dragged him before the Empress? Would they have freed him from this prison?

  He doubted it. Really, what he wanted to do was find a way to get Naravi onto a shuttle and down into the relative safety of Adesa. Even if the Jevites pursued him, he could disappear easily. Not like here, where his face and stature and mothertongue marked him an outsider.

  "I won't let it happen," he told Naravi. "I'll find a way to keep you safe."

  "What exactly do you intend to do?" Though the question dripped with venom, even through the murky shadows filling the cell, Rallis could see the way his hands were trembling.

  "I don't know," Rallis admitted. "Something. Whatever I have to."

  Naravi made a contemptuous noise in the back of his throat and shifted until he was facing the wall. He was almost swallowed by the darkness. Gods, he was only eighteen.

  "No one can do anything," he muttered. "So it doesn't matter. If you want to help me, go away. I don't feel like talking to anyone right now."

  "Naravi—"

  "I said leave me alone."

  Lieutenant Taarq and Lieutenant Harn waited expectantly. "Fine," said Rallis. "Just…be careful."

  Silence. Pushing the subject would only drive him further into himself. Rallis left him there with Lieutenant Harn as his silent guardian and tried to ignore the sick dread in his stomach and the thought—sharp and pure as a sliver of glass—that this was probably the last time he would ever speak to Naravi.

  *~*~*

  Afterward, he and Lieutenant Taarq went walking in the public rose garden bordering the outer wings of the palace. It was as far from the palace proper as Lieutenant Taarq felt comfortable bringing him—with the vote lurking on the horizon and the flaring tension from Suul Dayne's death, he didn't want to take Rallis too deep into Jevell and risk someone thinking they were trying to escape.

  Though the rose garden wasn't as luxurious as the empress's elaborate greenhouse, Rallis preferred it anyway. The time of year meant the roses had mostly finished their blooming season, but the lingering sweetness of the flowers mingled with the fresh breeze on his face and the healthy greenery all around to make the world feel fresh and alive. There, among the flowers, the thought of death wasn't quite so horrifying as before. Or maybe he was simply too exhausted for horror.

  "When I'm executed…" he began after they had walked in silence for a time.

  "You don't know—"

  "When I'm executed," Rallis repeated, "what will happen to my body?"

  A pause. "It will be destroyed. Burned. Afterward the ashes will be thrown over the edge of the citadel."

  "Could you…save the ashes? For Naravi as well?"

  Lieutenant Taarq went still. "If you like," he said after a long silence. His voice was a croak. "What would you like me to do with them?"

  "Return them to Miana. We burn our dead too and keep the remains. She'll want them back."

  "I can do that."

  They walked on. In the distance, occasional figures crossed the path and disappeared among the roses, like phantoms. Rallis wanted to soak in the moment, to stare at the sky until the blue burned against his eyelids. With every second that passed, he felt as though he lost something indescribably valuable.

  "Are you scared?" he asked Lieutenant Taarq.

  Lieutenant Taarq sighed a laugh. "Shouldn't I be asking you that?"

  "Are you?"

  "Yes. I'm terrified."

  "Did you really mean what you said about smuggling me off the citadel?"

  Lieutenant Taarq's hand gripped his arm, pulling him to a halt. "I did. Would you go?"

  "Can you bring Naravi?"

  "Would you go if I said that I couldn't?"

  "No," said Rallis, and Lieutenant Taarq released him.

  "I can't bring your cousin." He started walking again, more briskly than before. Rallis had to hurry to catch up. "He's under constant guard. No one is allowed to remove him from the prison."

  "Not even Lieutenant Harn?" Rallis asked, more curious than anything. Would Lieutenant Harn even agree to help them? He doubted it.

  "Nasir couldn't. The Empress's order was clear. Citizen Yy is only to be removed from his cell when the moot reconvenes. Until then, he's on strict lockdown with two guards at all times." He paused. "Nasir isn't one of them. There were concerns that he has…a conflict of interest."

  That could have implied any number of things, but Rallis understood from his careful tone of voice exactly what he meant. Not that it was a surprise. He still recalled how Lieutenant Harn had looked the night of the party, the shame and self-consciousness on his normally imperturbable fa
ce.

  "Naravi does that to people."

  "It's not like that with Nasir. He would never do anything inappropriate to your cousin. I think he just feels…responsible. Because of what happened to your other cousin."

  It was hard to imagine that Lieutenant Harn would feel such guilt for killing Hesse in the line of duty, but Lieutenant Taarq knew him far better than Rallis. "If you say so."

  At the edge of the garden, they paused among the flowers. Rallis touched a thorn with his fingertips, half-tempted to prick himself just to confirm he was still alive and bleeding. Lieutenant Taarq would probably have a panic attack if he did that. He withdrew his hand.

  "Don't…mourn too much," he said. Was it presumptuous? He wasn't sure. "It's all right. I'm not scared."

  "How can you not be?"

  Rallis shrugged. "It almost feels inevitable," he admitted. "After what happened with my aunt and with Hesse…and Naravi getting more and more involved in the rebellion…I was expecting something like this to happen. Now that it has…"

  Now that it had, it hurt far worse than he could possibly have imagined. Not the threat of death itself, but the threat of…loss. Of missed opportunity. Of all the nights they hadn't yet spent together, the conversations they hadn't had, the khas games they hadn't played.

  He pressed on. Wallowing would only make things worse for Lieutenant Taarq. At least Rallis's suffering would be over soon. Lieutenant Taarq had to live with the pain. "Now that it has, I think I've already accepted it. It's hard to feel any fear."

  "I haven't accepted it," Lieutenant Taarq muttered. His hands clenched. "Exalted, if I were alone in a room with Suul Thrun—"

  "You wouldn't do anything to him. You're better than that."

  Lieutenant Taarq eyed him. "You think more highly of me than I do of myself."

  "If you say so." Rallis touched his shoulder. "I mean it, though. I'd rather you were happy afterwards. Not…mourning."

  "I'll mourn you for the rest of my life," Lieutenant Taarq muttered, and there was nothing Rallis could say to that. All pithy words of comfort died on his tongue. Worse, a part of him clung to the idea. Selfish as it was, he wanted Lieutenant Taarq to mourn him forever.