by Thomas Locke
Sean slept badly and woke cranky. Dillon didn’t look like he had slept at all. They managed the entire morning routine without a word spoken. It was their day off, and Sean wished he had school to fill the empty space. Another first. He shifted to the balcony so he didn’t have to sit there pretending to ignore Dillon staring down at his empty cereal bowl, his hair falling to veil his face. If he was waiting for Sean to make things better, he had a long day ahead of him.
Sean had time for a couple of breaths of the good pine-scented air when the loft behind him was rocked by a massive, resonating bong.
That was how it seemed. He had no other way to describe the sensation. There was an insistent force to the sound, like the air had been compressed and then sent out in all directions. Not just a sound but a vibratory power intended to cause alarm.
Sean reentered the kitchen and almost timed his words to Dillon’s. “What was that?”
Then it happened again. Not really a chime, not really a bell, not electronic. But something that carried a sense of all three. Deep and resonating. Bong.
Sean was paying careful attention when the bong happened the third time. He felt the pressure on his face and hands, saw it ruffle his T-shirt. Like he had been pressed by a sudden breeze.
Then a stranger transited into their loft. He wore the Messenger uniform, fresh and crisp and proud. He was young enough to be one of their classmates, but Sean did not recognize him. The Assembly pin gleamed from his collar. He addressed them in Serenese. “Greetings, citizens. Professor Josef sends his respects. You are summoned.”
There was a formality to his tone and manner that left Dillon mute. So Sean asked, “When?”
“Now.”
“We’re on our way.”
The Messenger cast a long glance around him, like he was memorizing this glimpse of an outpost world. Then he was gone.
Sean turned to his brother. “I guess we better—”
“Hang on a sec.” Dillon had not moved from his position at the kitchen table. “It’s coming to the point when I need to tell Carey about . . . everything.”
Until that point, Sean would have said there was nothing that could have slowed their departure. “That’s right. You do.”
“It’s time.”
“Right again. Beyond time.”
Dillon lowered his face to the table, showing Sean the scared little kid. “I’m afraid I’ll blow it.”
Sean didn’t reply.
“I don’t want to go on without Carey. I can’t . . .”
“I’ll do it.”
The silence held. Like Dillon could scarcely bring himself to accept the offer. Even though Sean knew this was why they were talking at all.
Then his brother surprised him. “She’s a lot like you. She hears and sees things I don’t. I need to ask her advice. I need her to tell me what . . . how . . .”
“You ever thought maybe she already knows?”
Dillon nodded to the tabletop. “She suspects. She’s asked some questions I’ve danced around. Badly.”
“We need to tell her father too.”
Dillon looked up at that.
“Carey is everything to him. He deserves to know.”
“What will Josef and Carver and the Counselor say?”
“This isn’t about them,” Sean replied. “This is about doing right by two really good people.”
Dillon’s gaze opened. It was remarkable how he could do that. The warrior-in-training showing genuine fear. “What if she says no? Her father . . . Man, I don’t know.”
“She loves you. She needs to hear this and make up her mind. Her father is part of this. I don’t know how I’m so sure, but I am.”
Dillon nodded slowly. “No, no, you’re right.”
“We’re having dinner with them tonight. We’ll just lay it all out—” Sean slapped his forehead. “Oh, man.”
“What is it?”
“I promised Elenya we’d get together.”
Dillon shocked him then. Way beyond surprise. Out there in the realm of blowing Sean into the middle of September. “So invite her.”
“You serious?”
“How are we going to make this real, go do our jig through walls? Let them meet someone from out there. It could help.”
Sean shrugged. “I’ll ask her.” Which meant asking Josef how to get word to her. Which meant admitting to their professor what was happening. He added, “If I can.”
Dillon rose slowly from the table. “I guess we better go find out what’s waiting on the other side of the wall.”
They transited and changed and walked to Josef’s office. But the door was locked, so they stood cooling their heels in the hall. Which was where Elenya found them. She wore another outfit of pink translucence, same sandals, same hair band, same beauty. She did not quite dance down the hall. But close. Her smile was brilliant, like a jewel that didn’t see the light of day very often. She nodded a hello to Dillon, then took Sean’s hand and swung it. “I was hoping I wouldn’t need to wait until tonight.”
She said it in English.
Dillon was pushed from his funk enough to say, “Major wow.”
“I’ve only had three night lessons. Am I speaking correctly?” Her accent was musical, like she had been taught how to sing in English, not speak.
Sean said, “This is absolutely amazing.”
“You like?”
He told her the truth. “English has never, ever sounded this good.”
Her reward was a quick kiss, which brought a flame to both their faces. But it was worth it, because Dillon smiled. Like all the worry and the unknown were just lifted away. “So go ahead, dude. Ask the lady.”
Elenya asked, “What is this ‘dude’?”
“It is slang for ‘friend.’” He watched her taste the word. “We have a problem. Sort of. Dillon needs to tell his girlfriend about what’s happening.”
She looked from one twin to the other. “She is from your home world?”
“Yes.”
Elenya turned to Dillon. “She is the one, this lady?”
Dillon swallowed, then answered with a certainty that touched Sean more deeply than anything that crazy morning. “Yes. She is. If she’ll have me.”
“Telling her can be difficult.”
“We need to tell her father also. Carey lost her mother about two years ago.”
Elenya nodded slowly. “Father and daughter have bonded at a special level.”
“They are good people and better friends,” Sean said.
She looked at him with those amazing eyes. “You want me to be there?”
“If you think—”
“No, this is a good idea. I can represent what from you will be just words. When do we do this?”
“Tonight, our time. We’re having dinner at their home.”
“I will make a special request . . .” Elenya stopped as the professor’s door opened. But it was not Josef who appeared. Rather, Carver stood in the doorway. A different Carver. One dressed in formal military attire. With an expression to match.
Carver’s fathomless gaze flickered over the way they still held hands. Sean tried to draw away, but Elenya gripped him tighter still. She lifted her gaze a fraction. The quarter-inch shift was enough to transform her from student to the daughter of a planetary Ambassador.
Sean could not have been prouder if she had grown wings.
Carver showed his laser-fast dimples and said, “It is customary to introduce your friend.”
“Elenya, this is Colonel Carver.” Then the grey-haired lady appeared in the doorway behind Carver. “And this is Counselor Tatyana.”
“Colonel. Counselor.”
Tatyana said, “I know your father. A very fine gentleman.”
“Indeed.” Elenya turned to Sean. “When should I meet you?”
“In . . . I left my watch in the locker room.”
“Six hours by Lothian time,” Dillon said. “Less.”
“I will be in the transit room in five.” She
nodded a farewell to the officials and departed. Regal as a queen.
Carver watched her depart, showed another flicker of that almost-humor, then said, “Inside, the both of you.”
33
We have located Examiner Tirian,” Tatyana announced. “He has been arrested.”
They were seated in a wide circle with Josef’s desk at the center. The professor’s features were creased with pain, his gaze shattered. One look in Josef’s direction was enough for Sean to forget Dillon’s issue, forget his own unease, and just plain burn.
Dillon said, “You’ve gone after the wrong guy.”
“Nothing’s changed,” Sean agreed. “You’re still looking in the wrong direction.”
Tatyana studied them both. Back and forth. “I would say,” she replied, “that a great deal indeed has changed.”
Carver asked, “What is your impression of this school?”
“It all comes down to Josef,” Sean replied.
“He’s the best,” Dillon added.
“Everything about the Examiner and his work is under official review,” Tatyana said. “We have been asked to deliver a verdict on whether the school should be shut down.”
“Different question, same answer,” Sean replied. “Wrong direction.”
“Right,” Dillon said. “The school is not the issue.”
“Tell us why,” Carver said.
“He listens.” Sean glared at the Counselor. “Unlike some people.”
Dillon said, “He didn’t believe the mind-speech thing was possible. But he gave us a chance.”
“I invited you to repeat the experience,” Tatyana protested.
“So you could dismiss us,” Sean shot back. “Tell me I’m wrong.”
Tatyana frowned but did not respond. Which was a very telling reply as far as Sean was concerned.
“The mind connection was real,” Dillon said. “What if the other stuff is real too?”
“We don’t like Tirian any more now than we did before,” Sean said. “But the guy is innocent.”
Tatyana said, “Because your brother claims he saw what escaped a trained Watcher.”
“Tell you what,” Sean snapped. “Why don’t you drop the claim business for a while. See how that fits.”
Josef spoke for the first time since they’d entered. “Your tone is not proper for addressing a Counselor.”
Sean just sat and fumed.
Dillon asked, “What do you figure was the Examiner’s motive for going after us?”
“Fury over being proved wrong,” Tatyana replied. “Your abilities challenge every assumption he made in founding this very school.”
“You’d be nuts to shut this place down,” Dillon said. “Josef and his team do a great job here.”
Carver protested, “You heard what I told the Counselor. Not a single student has ever passed through the Academy.”
“Then don’t let any more apply,” Sean replied. “Make them Messengers. Or bureaucrats. Whatever. Tirian’s concept isn’t bad. He brings them in young, he trains them, he protects them. They’re fine for whatever.”
Tatyana demanded, “What about their loyalty?”
Because it was the Counselor who asked, Sean wanted to dismiss that as well. But he had to admit, “We haven’t been here long enough to know for certain.”
“We’re the new kids on the block,” Dillon agreed. “We’re shut out of a lot.”
“Ask Elenya about the loyalty issue,” Sean said. “She’s been here for years.”
“Excellent point,” Tatyana said. “I will do just that.”
“What about the first attack? You’re pinning that on the Examiner as well?”
It was Tatyana’s turn to hesitate. “If we accept that there was indeed an initial attack—”
“There was,” Sean insisted. “It happened.”
“We have theories, but no explanation that satisfies. Tirian is being questioned over his role as well.” The Counselor rose to her feet. At a motion from Carver, Sean and Dillon followed suit. Tatyana stood there, ignoring the four men, frowning at the side wall. Finally she declared, “I accept the twins’ observation, Professor. Your school has a temporary stay.”
The giant released a long breath. “Thank you, Counselor.”
“New Examiners will be assigned to undertake a full assessment of all students. This is necessary.”
“I understand.”
She glanced at the twins. “I was wrong to dismiss your claims. I apologize.”
Sean wasn’t ready to play nice just yet. “You’re wrong about Tirian as well.”
“Perhaps.” Though she clearly did not believe them, at least the dismissal was no longer her standard response. “But the judicial process has now been set in motion. The Judge assigned this case feels Tirian pronounced himself guilty by fleeing.”
“What if he was taken?” Sean looked from one adult to the next. “And what if he’s been released because you’re ready to hang him?”
“We don’t hang anyone. What a barbaric thought.”
Carver halted Sean’s retort with a cautionary squint and said, “The Examiner claims this was precisely what happened. That he was kidnapped.”
Sean asked, “Where does he say he was held?”
“He claims to know nothing. He was found wandering about the Serenese capital city in a confused daze.”
But the Counselor was back to frowning at the wall. Then, “You proved your abilities to Josef. Do the same regarding your means of identifying who was actually behind the attack.”
Sean decided that was as far as Tatyana was going to bend, so all he said was, “Right. Good. Okay.”
“Professor, you have my permission to share with them whatever you deem to be in the best interests of truth. Only take care. If the Examiner is indeed innocent, we do not know who was behind the attack. Or whether they might try again.”
“Very good, Counselor.”
She turned back to the twins, her gaze once again carrying the quality of an executioner’s blade. “I suggest the two of you get to work. Tirian’s trial starts in four days.”
34
After the Counselor and Carver departed, Josef remained seated behind his desk, frowning at the wall. Finally he turned back to them, his gaze shifting back and forth between the twins, as though he had never seen them before. Or was seeing them differently, a change that was not particularly welcome, but one over which he had no control. Finally he rose to his feet, moving with slow, awkward movements, and held out his hands. “There is something you must see.”
Sean took hold of one massive hand, as much as he could grasp, and Dillon took the other. They transited. And the vista squeezed a gasp from them both.
“Behold the Academy of the Praetorian Guard,” Josef said. He released their hands and took a step back.
They stood upon a broad platform carved from the solid rock of a lone mountain peak. The surface was black and cold and lifeless. Behind them rose a curved arena that could have held several thousand on benches of ancient lava. The speakers’ platform where they stood was massive, larger than a tennis court. An empty dais rose like a black thumb at the center.
Beyond the arena stretched a vista of devastation and ruin.
The Academy itself was impressive enough, a silent fortress shaped from the same black lava. The buildings rose like spears behind a tall, dark wall. It shone in grim repose beneath a sky of slate-grey cloud.
Spreading out in every direction was a realm of ancient doom.
Josef said, “This is Hegemony, Tirian’s and my home world. And this before you is what we must never be allowed to forget. The war that led up to Hegemony entering the galactic empire almost destroyed our planet.”
From their vantage point, Sean could see the ruins of five different cities. They were connected by raised road systems whose remnants clung to the earth in a script of desolation and woe. The cities were crumbling tombstones to a time that was no more.
“There was no short
cut through the horror of war for my planet,” Josef said. “No comfort in the time of mayhem. Our world was divided between those who wished to join the Assembly and those who saw it as a threat to their cherished cultures and an end to their grip on power. The war lasted nineteen years. It ended three hundred and seventeen years ago, the last great war our planetary system has experienced. May it be the last we ever know.”
A breath of acrid wind flicked dust into Sean’s eyes. He wiped his eyes, determined to see everything.
“My world was forced to witness what no civilization should ever glimpse, not even for an instant. We endured the descent into the horror and depravity of the worst that man can do to his own kind. We saw the shadow of our own making. And in the end, we turned away.
“The aftermath was worse than the war in some respects. Generations of broken and bitter folk had no one to blame but themselves. Hatred was the watchword. Life was sold for a penny. For a song.” Josef walked forward so he stood within their field of vision. “I am the result of genetic manipulation, when feuding nations sought to build a better warrior. After the war, my kind was hunted and killed like animals. We reminded the survivors of the horrors they had inflicted upon themselves. We represented powers they could never afford to release again. The only reason a remnant survived was because Hegemony voted to join the Assembly of worlds, and the first Counselor and Ambassador ordered that the purge be halted.”
Josef turned and pointed over at the Academy. “All incoming and graduating classes are gathered here. The opening ceremonies of each new year are held here. As is the anniversary of my world’s granting the Academy this entire province for its training. All take place here. So that we will remember. So that the bitter lessons of Hegemony’s tragic past are kept alive for all time.”
