"Perhaps there's a fault," our original Cardinal suggested, looking uneasy at the malfunctioning Shiloh. "Please retest Honourable Carstairs," he instructed Trent's Cardinal at the neighbouring desk.
I let a little laugh out, it sounded rather loud in the strained silence. All eyes turned slowly towards me, as though dreading my next words.
"No need, Cardinal," I said softly. "I'll fail that one too."
Stunned silence followed... and then Wang Chao stepped through the ranks. Gleaming gold in his buttons, pristine and intricately pressed cream suit. Flowing red cloak which appeared even more impressive than those of the Cardinals around him. A hard look on his classically handsome face.
He glanced between me and Trent, then flicked an eye to the Shiloh unit that was doggedly repeating my failure.
"Shut that thing off," he declared and the Cardinal controlling it jumped at the command, pushing keypad buttons on the side that took two efforts to get right.
Wang Chao finally returned his cold stare to my face. I lifted my chin and offered a slight smile.
"Selena," he said eventually, when I'd started to think staring down the Chief Overseer's son was not wise. "What tricks are you playing now, toétèi?"
I blinked, unsure what he was meaning.
"It seems," he announced to those Cardinals waiting for something disastrous to happen, "that Honourable Carstairs likes games. I had suspected she'd try to slip something entertaining into the night."
Why was he doing this? Defending me? Shouldn't he be dragging me before his father?
"What are your instructions, Cardinal Chew-wen?" the original Cardinal asked.
Wang Chao just kept looking at me, as though calculating the right path to take.
"Would you like us to escort your sister to the Chief Overseer now?" the Cardinal pressed, clearly thinking following the rules was the best plan.
The fist that wrapped around his throat in the next instant was not at all model-like.
"She is not my sister," Wang Chao whispered in a deadly voice.
The Cardinal attempted to nod his head rapidly, but was restricted in movement by Wang Chao's tight grip.
Wang Chao didn't release him but turned heated brown eyes to my face.
Oh, fuck. Of course. I should have seen this.
"She is my fiancée," he declared, just as my eyes found Trent's.
He looked stunned. More so than the Cardinals, and they were speechless right now. But not just shocked. Devastated.
And then just as quickly chagrined. He shook his head, a hardness filling his eyes, his distrust of me settling over him like a well worn coat.
Then he simply melted into the crowd of onlookers and disappeared from sight.
Leaving me with a smug Wang Chao, and the murmured congratulations of the Cardinals all around.
Leaving me with a giant hole inside my chest.
Chapter 37
We See
Lena
I couldn't believe he'd just left me here to deal with this alone. Did he honestly think I was OK with Wang Chao's announcement? Did he really believe I'd be as duplicitous as that?
Clearly he did, because there was no sign of Trent as Wang Chao directed me to a private sitting room behind the grand staircase. Hidden out of sight. Finely upholstered antique furniture, delicate pastel fabrics, a very colonial looking parlour that no one in the Palace ever used. Having it was status enough.
"What am I to do with you, toétèi?" Wang Chao muttered, closing the door with a too loud click. The silence that followed only amplified the weight of emptiness in the cluttered room. Dust motes hung in the soft illumination from a pair of Tiffany lamps, reinforcing the notion that this space wasn't often used.
I wondered if anyone were to come looking for me, whether they'd remember this salon existed or not.
Like I'd felt for so long now, I was on my own.
"What on earth do you mean, Wang Chao?" I attempted to alleviate the strain I was under with a light tone of voice. I was sure he saw through it.
"Twice now, I have covered for you," he declared as he paced to a spot on the far side of the room. It felt purposeful; his placement. Far enough away to afford me relief, close enough to pounce at any moment.
"Twice?" I asked, taking a seat on a Georgian style chair. I spread my dress out beside me before lifting my eyes to his face. A predator stared back, one so similar to the Chief Overseer.
It didn't matter whether Wang Chao was genuine in his attempts to defend or protect me, he was his father's son and always would be.
"Wáikěiton," he offered. "Elliott Street."
It took everything in me not to blanch. I raised an imperious eyebrow and said, "Excuse me?"
My father had taught me well. Being an Elite, he had said, does have advantages. Like Wánměi, we are above all else. Even doubt.
I was full of doubt right now, but I pulled on every Elite mannerism I'd been taught to not show it.
"Come now, Selena," Wang Chao chastised. "It's just you and me here, toétèi."
"So I see," I replied, not relaxing one little bit.
"Where did you get it?" he asked. I didn't reply. Holding his gaze was difficult, but the only defence I had right then. "A Citizen identity," he added. "It must have proven helpful in the past. Is that where you went when you slipped out of the Palace?"
He knew everything. Did General Chew-wen? Why was I even still alive?
"What do you want, Wang Chao?" I demanded, deciding a direct approach was best. The night was turning treacherous, and it had been dangerous enough already. I still had to locate Aiko and Tan, then get them out of Ohrikee. But now I had to walk a minefield with Wang Chao and probably General Chew-wen.
And God alone knew where Trent had gotten to.
"I thought that obvious," Wang Chao replied. "You were promised to me."
I blinked. "That was never a promise. Merely our fathers wishing for something that did not occur."
"It occurred for me," he snapped. His hands were fisted at his sides, his jaw fixed. Hard, dark eyes bore into mine. "Everything I have done is for you. For us. I have hidden your secret identity from my father. I never told a soul that you frequently escaped the Palace walls when young. But consorting with a Citizen was too much, Selena. It is time to call in your debts."
My mind reeled, trying to determine just which Citizen he referred to. Aiko? Tan? Trent? Without giving myself away I couldn't ask. But I could lead him there.
"Where are they?"
"Who?"
"My Citizen friends."
His smile was sinister, not an Elite expression at all.
"With my father."
My heart beat faster. If they were together, it improved the odds of getting them both out. But if they were right next to Chew-wen, where security would be tightest, then chances of success were slim.
"And where is he?"
Wang Chao glanced at his watch. "He'll be overlooking the ballroom," he announced. "Would you like to confront him there, toétèi? Or would you prefer a more private audience?"
It was a trick question, I knew it. But I had to take a chance.
"Perhaps private is best."
Wang Chao smiled, it looked a little hungry. He walked the short distance towards where I still sat and clicked his heels once he'd arrived before me. Then reached out a gloved hand for me to take. The movement more symbolic than I liked to admit.
"Private will cost you," he whispered.
I stared at his long fingers, the cream fabric of his gloves looked soft and supple, counterpoint to the strength in this man. I'd never been overly scared of Wang Chao before. There were other more nefarious villains to be wary of than him. But I wondered if I had underestimated Chew-wen's son.
My hand slipped into his and I rose from the seat.
"We could do great things together, Selena," he murmured, pulling me slowly closer.
"I do not desire for great things, Wang Chao."
"Too bad," he murm
ured and then led the way from the room. There was too much unsaid in his reply. Too much threat implied without even voicing the words.
Fear made it difficult to breathe. Wang Chao's gloved grip made it impossible to think.
The hallway was busy when we emerged, but flowed freely. Guests directed by drones every few feet, keeping the traffic moving, ensuring no bottlenecks occurred. It was hard to be sure, but I estimated more than five hundred Elite were in attendance tonight. Add in the Citizen staff; pouring drinks; preparing the feast; keeping areas pristine. Then throw in the Cardinals and drones, and you had over a thousand bodies densely, but efficiently, packed into the Palace.
Security wasn't just tight, it had a stranglehold on the proceedings. Everything set to a preordained rhythm. The guests arrived. Were iRec'd and tested. Then led into the ballroom to dance and sip drinks. The Chief Overseer appeared, but was not approachable, watching over the last of the guests to enter the room. And all of it was captured on television cameras, the crews dotted around the periphery of the grand space.
As we entered, several of those camera lenses swung towards us, and then the doorman announced who we were.
"Cardinal Chew-wen Wang Chao and the Honourable Selena Carstairs!" he shouted into the vaulted ceiling, even making the string quartet cease playing for a moment.
I could feel his eyes on me. I could sense his anger from the other side of the room. I didn't dare look up at the Chief Overseer on his plinth presiding above the crowd. I needed to forestall that moment as long as I could. I also needed to get my bearings. The room was packed, security fanned out along each wall. The camera crews and waiters filling all the gaps between the beautifully dressed Elite; vibrant colours spinning across the dance floor and restrained laughter adding to the clink of glass on glass.
I needed more time before I faced my guardian. And it wouldn't have been amiss if I had spotted Trent. His absence threw me off balance more than I realised. I'd come to rely on his presence, when it had been a long time since I truly relied on anyone. I was certain that Trent was not someone I should allow that privilege. But I couldn't deny the fact that his desertion had stung, and now I was distracted because of it.
"Would you like to dance?" I rushed to ask Wang Chao and received the first unguarded expression to cross his face this evening.
"Of course," he replied, recovering. He led me into the throng of waltzing people, then turned toward me and bowed.
A sigh ran through the onlookers. The cameras at every corner of the oversized ballroom swung to focus on us. I hadn't realised the draw we held. But when we started dancing and the murmured words of those dancing alongside us met my ears, I realised I'd been well and truly played tonight.
"The General was correct," one man whispered to his wife. "They make a lovely couple."
More low voiced comments were made, some of them timed to perfection, just as we swirled past.
"A striking couple."
"The picture of united Elite."
"A marriage that will solidify our status."
"Wánměi should be proud today."
My eyes came up to Wang Chao's. I'm not sure what he saw on my face, but his hardened.
"Father thought it pertinent to announce our engagement this evening," he advised, already well aware of what had transpired while he'd detained me in that unused parlour. I was thinking it had been for more reasons than one. He was giving his father time to corner me, so when I entered the ballroom I'd have nowhere to run.
"Why are you doing this?" I asked, just before he swung me out to the tip of his fingers and then twirled me back into his hard chest.
"I told you," he replied, Cardinal coolness dripping from him. "You were promised to me."
Perhaps that had been a consideration on his part. But it wouldn't have been the ultimate motivation. Wang Chao, I realised with burgeoning chagrin, was exactly like his father. Power hungry, manipulative, above reproach, and dictatorial. The epitome of Elite.
"Why is your father doing this?" I demanded, as we continued our farcical model dance.
He surprised me by answering, I hadn't thought he would. But he shocked me even more with what he said.
"Because Wánměi needs a new symbol."
"He's using us," I breathed, an idiotic reaction to have. I should not have been astounded.
"We will represent a united cultural front, promoting Elite diversity as one."
"You both have it all worked out," I murmured, as the music wound down and delicate applause followed.
Wang Chao didn't offer an answer, just turned me toward his father and bowed. I followed protocol with a curtsey, my eyes downcast as a model Citizen should, my head spinning trying to think of an out.
I was trapped. In a world my own father helped to create. His offhand remark when I was younger and dining with the Chew-wens, that Wang Chao and I would make a beautiful couple, now coming to haunt my reality after his death. I was not promised. I was not his to have.
But, as my face slowly came up with my body to full height, and my gaze found the hardened and determined eyes of General Chew-wen, I knew with a heavy heart and a prickle of disquiet over my skin, that I wouldn't escape this. That defying him so publicly wouldn't just mean my death, but others.
Including Aiko and Tan who sat at his feet.
I greedily took in their faces, their dulled ration dosed expressions. The sheen of perspiration on their skin, the mar of an old bruise across a jaw, the downcast lashes that hid what I knew would be enlarged pupils. And my stomach roiled, as my heartbeat thundered in my chest, and a scream of defiance halted at my lips. My fists clenched; I hadn't even realised I'd tugged my hand from Wang Chao's gloved grip. I hadn't realised how much anger I held inside until right then.
I stared back at General Chew-wen and I let him see my hatred, just as I let the cameras that filmed me see my disrespect.
Gasps sounded out around the ballroom, as those nearest us saw my reaction upon meeting the Chief Overseer's look. No one ever challenged our leader, the thought wouldn't even cross their numbed brains. But seeing someone openly defy him was a shock they couldn't help reacting to. And as they rose reluctantly up from drugged stupor to actually take in something of what surrounded them, their frightened and distressed eyes took in where I was looking.
Not just at General Chew-wen, but the couple of young Citizens forced to sit degradingly on the floor at his feet. In a way, it shouldn't have surprised me, that the Elite in this ballroom overlooked such an intolerable thing. Just like an iPol drone on the street pulling over a Citizen for arrest and then hauling them off to be wiped, the people here simply avoided looking at the horror on that plinth.
They didn't have vid-screens to turn their attention to, but they'd had a symphony of colour and splendour to occupy their feeble minds. They'd swum in the oblivion of the delightful music and decadent champagne, in the sparkling jewels and dazzling lights, in the fantastical décor and expensive furnishings.
And in the model perfect couple who graced their dance with the wonder of young love and a hopeful Wánměi.
But not now. As the cameras panned off my face, off my tense and rebellious stance, then found the reaction of a tyrant sitting regal on a throne-like plinth, all eyes dipped to the two almost catatonic Citizens staring vacantly into space. The gasps at my reaction turned to murmured words of confusion and dismay.
I hadn't intended to make such a spectacle. I hadn't intended to forget every single thing my father had taught me; throwing away the one defence I had. Being an Elite. A model Citizen. I hadn't intended any of it, but one look at my dearest friends, at the way they had been treated and presented; a slap in my face; a warning to behave or else. And I'd lost it.
All perspective. All carefully honed Elitism armour. I'd lost it all.
And I showed my hand to a nation, not just to the powerful man who controlled it.
Wang Chao's long fingers wrapped around my upper arm and he growled something in Wáitam�
�i in my ear, which I had no hope of translating right then. Because Cardinal drones had stepped forward and were helping Aiko and Tan to their feet, in a way that was meant to look caring and protective, but I knew was engineered by Chew-wen to cover his mistake.
The look he gave me just before he turned and moved off the plinth, following behind the drones and their prey, was one of pure malevolence.
Shock had me frozen in place. Flabbergasted at my behaviour. Stupefied at my unguarded display. How had I ruined everything so quickly? Why had I destroyed any chance of rescuing my friends from being wiped? What was wrong with me?
"Come!" Wang Chao snapped in my ear, thankfully in Anglisc, because I still wasn't thinking clearly. Mortification at the disaster I had created making it impossible to breathe, let alone translate.
I moved numbly after him, his hand still tight on my arm, dragging me along. The crowd parted, silently I noted. But not blind anymore. No one said a word, but their eyes met mine, then skimmed down to Wang Chao's impossibly harsh grip on my arm, and then raised again to hold my stunned gaze. They may not have had vid-screens to hide themselves behind, but the string quartet had been ordered to start playing again, and champagne flutes and petits fours were being delivered on silver trays. Plenty of opportunity to offer distraction.
But they didn't look away. They met my eyes. They held them.
And they silently said, "We see."
Chapter 38
What Is Your Answer?
Lena
Just how bad our situation was became apparent when Wang Chao pulled me into the anteroom Chew-wen had moved to. Private and insulated, and filled with Cardinal drones.
One of which hauled me out of Wang Chao's grip, despite his cries of protest, and threw me on the floor beside Aiko and Tan.
I scrabbled to touch them, my hands running over their bodies to determine how hurt they actually were, my frantic words of reassurance a falsity, but delivered with conviction nonetheless. Tears streamed down my model perfect face, smearing make-up, smudging mascara, loosening glittering crystals from my lashes; ruining the image I had always portrayed. Neither of my friends replied, just continued to stare off into the distance.
Elite (Citizen Saga, Book 1) Page 23
