by Frank Morin
Mission accomplished.
Feeling completely satisfied, Hamish threw wide the release rate of his thrusters and accelerated into the air. Time for his part in the morning's assault.
As he flew high over the barren valley, the entire might of the Obrioner army began advancing north to battle. He thought about Ingrid, and the pain and terror in her voice as she'd faced death alone, but with remarkable bravery. She was no bash fighter, but she'd saved countless lives. He vowed again to do whatever it took to get those sculpted stones and prevent another elfonnel from rising.
Both armies were advancing, and in the distance he spotted a tiny speck dive out of the concealing clouds a couple miles above the Obrioner command center.
He angled to intercept Verena, hoping they'd find General Carbrey when they struck. If the mega-stench didn't render him useless, Hamish had another vial of milked skunk extract with Carbrey's name on it.
Chapter Fifty-Nine
“But 'Rena, your heart's fickle as the weather.
You broke poor Mattias' heart like a feather.
You just had to fly, not even a good-bye.
Now he pines for the days you spent together.”
~Saskia
"I'll consider your offer," Connor told Shona, and she grinned like she'd already won his promise to return to Merkland with her.
She looked so relieved, so happy, it seemed she honestly believed her crazy proposal. That was so messed up on so many levels.
"You love your father?" he asked.
"Of course I do."
"But you're willing to help me kill him?"
"For the greater good, it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make," she told him, assuming a tragic but determined expression.
"You love me?"
She gave him such a tender look, he felt the stirrings of emotion that he'd thought long dead. "Oh, Connor, of course I do."
"So how long before you decide it's time to kill me for the greater good too?"
"That's not fair. Connor, I want to spend my life with you, share everything with you!" She squeezed his hands and actual tears threatened to spill from her eyes. She might be crazy, but she was passionate about it.
"Since you agree your father is evil, I think it's time I share with my troops some of the truths I've learned."
Shona blinked a couple of times as she shifted from vowing eternal adoration to defending the family name. "Connor, spreading lies about my father won't help, and it could end up damaging our position."
Meaning her position.
"What I have to say is important. They need to know the truth."
Would she really agree and accept the potential damage to her own high position? Was she ready to sacrifice a fraction of what she was asking from him?
"All right. I owe you something to prove I'm being forthright."
"Really?" he blurted out. That might be the first real concession she'd ever made.
"But I need something in return."
That was the Shona he knew. He got a mental image of a pedra promising a kiss only to fling open its disgusting, double-jawed mouth to rip his head off. "You're already asking me to give you a lot."
"But you haven't promised yet. I know you'll see reason eventually, but I need a token gesture today."
"What token?"
She gave him a slow, inviting smile. "In the eyes of our nation, we're still betrothed. I need everyone to recognize that you and I are still connected, despite your current mission." She leaned closer and said softly, "Go, speak with them, Connor. But afterward you have to kiss me in front of the entire company."
"Shona--" he began, but she raised a hand to cut him off.
"Kiss me like you mean it. That is my price for allowing you to defame the name of my father. When you recognize that my proposal is the best possible solution and return to me, it must seem inevitable to everyone."
Connor hesitated, and he decided maybe he did hate her. She still didn't seem to realize there were other ways to try swaying him to her side. On the other hand, he had survived many kisses with Shona. Could he really walk away from this chance to address all of these noble-born Petralists and begin to share the truth with them?
"I need your answer, Connor," Shona said. "We don't have much time.
She was right. The exchange was about to begin and the valley would erupt into battle shortly thereafter.
"All right, Shona," Connor said, although every word felt like lead in his mouth. He couldn't believe he was agreeing, but he didn't see any other way.
She gave him a warm smile that seemed to hold true affection. "I love how smart you are, dear Connor. I can always count on you to make wise choices."
As Connor led her back to the waiting company, he wracked his brain for a way to escape his promise. Maybe if he angered Shona enough, she might attack him and force him to beat her senseless. Then he could tell her that he kissed her while she was sleeping.
Shona was an incredibly talented kisser, but she wasn't Verena.
As the students all gathered close, Connor considered his words. "After speaking with Shona, we've agreed that you all deserve to understand some of what's really behind this war effort."
Catriona said, "We understand the need to bring Granadure back under our rule and stamp out their abominable Builders."
"That's not what this is all about. High Lord Dougal has orchestrated this war for personal vengeance against Kilian."
"The man who murdered his wife?" Ivor asked.
"His wife was tampering with elfonnel powers," Connor explained. "She would have lost control and killed hundreds."
"You can't know that," Shona said.
"Actually, I can. There are risks that they were purposefully ignoring that guaranteed she would have died, and would have killed many along with her, including him."
"How can you know that?" Fearghas asked.
They were listening, and that encouraged him. Soon they would understand the truth.
"That's what I've been studying. Dougal knows the risks now, but he's summoning elfonnel anyway. He killed Redmund."
Fearghas frowned. "Connor, we were there. Redmund somehow raised an elfonnel and smashed through the pass. The Grandurians killed him with some kind of Builder devilry. High Lord Dougal was in his tent the entire time."
Connor shook his head. "High Lord Dougal gave Redmund that sculpted stone, knowing that he would tap it to exhaustion. By doing so, Redmund placed himself in Dougal's power. He has a way of seizing the mind of a Petralist in that state, and he was the one who raised an elfonnel through Redmund's sacrifice."
He paused to let the truth sink in, and was astonished to see many of the students glance at each other and shrug, as if it didn't matter.
Shona was frowning. "Even if what you're saying is true, Redmund had agreed to lead the charge. The way he did it saved a lot of lives."
Many of the students nodded in agreement, although Ivor looked troubled. Connor tried again. "Dougal lied. He set Redmund up to sacrifice his life. Redmund never had a choice."
"You were a Guardian," Fearghas said. "So you should understand that the lives of soldiers under a high lord's command are his to use as he sees fit. Through Redmund he won a great victory. How he did it doesn't really matter to the houses. He won, and fewer people died as a result."
Fearghas did not look happy explaining that, but Connor could see that the other students, sons and daughters of the high lords and high ladies of the realm, believed it. That was so frustrating!
Shona gave him an apologetic smile. "I understand what you're trying to do, Connor. Trying to make my father look evil justifies what you've felt you need to do. However, you're just wrong. He is not evil."
"Was it not evil that he sent Spitnail Camonica to die, to raise an elfonnel farther north in Granadure to lay waste to the Builder compound?"
"The Builder compound is destroyed?" Lorcc exclaimed, and Connor was surprised to see him smiling.
Many of the students cheered.
They actually considered it a great victory. They had been taught all their lives that Builders were living incarnations of the Tallan's own evil. Eradicating Builders was one of the duties they were strictly commanded to enforce.
Connor felt sick. He struggled to reconcile the reality of the world as he saw it with the reality that they lived. These were his friends, people he cared about and would fight and sacrifice for.
So were Verena and Hamish and Kilian and other friends he was making in Granadure. To know that some of his friends were content with the destruction of other friends seemed illogical and deeply wrong.
Before he could figure out how to formulate a new argument to help them see, Shona spoke loudly, "Thank you all for helping me remind Connor of the truth. Grandurians have a way of twisting reality until even the best of us can begin to believe our cause is not just."
"We believe in you, General," Catriona encouraged him, and many of his friends nodded agreement.
Their happy blindness sickened him and enraged him, and he blurted out, "None of you know the truth! Your own parents are lying to you. Patronage is a lie, and unclaimed are created by a secret power stone that Dougal has kept concealed from everyone!"
Stunned silence greeted his words.
None of them had known. Even Shona looked shocked, although her expression quickly changed to one of thoughtful consideration. She was clever enough to put the pieces together. Ivor looked nervous as he watched the other students' reactions.
Connor insisted, "It's true. That's how I turned unclaimed at the Carraig during the battle with the elfonnel, and how I changed back. You all saw it."
"We saw something," Fearghas admitted.
"And none of you had ever seen the unclaimed before," Connor said, pressing the point. "It's because they don't exist without that secret affinity. Our entire society is built upon that giant lie."
"You have to be wrong," Catriona said. She was white-faced and trembling.
Shona leaned close to Connor and said softly, "Connor, you are such a good-intentioned fool. You don't even realize that you've just turned all of these potential allies into enemies."
"Stop twisting the truth, Shona," Connor snapped. "I'm trying to fix things."
"That doesn't fix anything!" Catriona shouted, and many other voices began clamoring in agreement, shouting that he was lying.
Shona gave him a pitying look and spoke so only he could hear. "Oh, Connor. If what you say is true, you're threatening to destroy Obrion. Without patronage and Guardians under our control, our society will be ripped apart by rebellion, and maybe civil war.
"Our houses, our power, our very lives are threatened. Once everyone has time to think through the ramifications of what you're saying, what conclusion do you think they'll reach? It can only be that you cannot be allowed to live and spread such a vicious, dangerous claim."
Already some of the students were glaring, and Connor realized she was right. He wanted to beat himself with a stick for a month. He needed to share that truth with the Guardians enslaved to the high houses, not with the heirs of the very corrupt system he needed to change.
He had forgotten who they were for a moment, but they never could.
Shona touched his cheek, her expression pitying. "Connor, don't delay. Come to me soon, and we'll figure out how to undo the damage you did today."
She was cracked and scrambled.
But she turned and raised her arms, shouting, "Calm down. I'm sure Connor is confused. Forget about it, and wait until I get to the bottom of the lies these Grandurians have been using to twist his mind."
Connor started to protest, but Ivor caught his shoulder and forcibly pulled him away from the angry crowd. "Sometimes you're brilliant Connor, but today you're naive bordering on suicidal. Shut up and let Shona talk. You can't do any good now, and you'll only make it worse."
"You believe me, don't you?" Connor asked as he let Ivor pull him a couple dozen paces away from the crowd of students. He still considered them friends, but would they really try to kill him if he dared spread the truth to the Guardians who served them?
"I do, but you can't start a revolution with the ruling class, Connor."
"I just. . ." He trailed off, not sure how to explain it.
"I know, but today's not the day. We're about out of time."
The prisoner exchange was already under way. Connor tapped quartzite to his eyes and spotted Ilse, flanked by Anton, speaking with Gregor.
She planned to accuse him in a fittingly roundabout Sentry speak way of colluding with Dougal to raise that elfonnel at the Carraig. There were things about that day that they still didn't understand, and she hoped to get some information out of him.
Connor doubted she'd succeed. Sentry speak was notoriously difficult to interpret, and he secretly suspected that even the Sentries and Sappers who spouted the confusing lines didn't understand themselves more than half the time. That would explain why they didn't talk too much.
Still, Ilse had shared the line she planned to use on him first. "The mightiest ship is turned by a tiny tiller, but a single leak can invite the floodwaters to enter."
That was a good one, and it suggested that she knew some of Gregor's involvement and that his actions were undermining his own cause. Connor hoped it worked, but even if it didn't, the morning was shaping up perfectly for the battle to begin any second.
"Ivor, I heard Dougal gave you a sculpted stone at Harz."
Ivor nodded, a look of wonder on his face. "He certainly did."
"It's too dangerous to use. Give me what's left. I can make sure it's safe."
"I can't do that, Connor," Ivor said with a chuckle.
"Didn't you see what happened at Harz? Using those stones could shatter the ground and destroy us all."
"Only if I use it to raise an elfonnel. I don't think there's enough power left to ascend and do that, even if I wanted to."
Connor started to protest again, but Ivor shook his head. "That naive streak of yours is running a mile wide today, Connor. I understand the danger, and I won't use it unless I have to."
"You can't use it at all," Connor insisted.
"Perhaps. I respect what you're doing, Connor. I really do. And if the time is ever right, I might even help you with the revolution you're trying to start, but today is not the right time. I have my own responsibilities and my own future to worry about."
Connor couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You're going to stay, even though you know your patronage is a lie?"
Ivor shrugged. "Knowing the truth might offer certain advantages at some point, but right now my position is better than most of those born to noble houses. I've got command of a mighty army, I'm engaged to a beautiful, clever woman who wants me to rule her house with her. Turning traitor now wouldn't help anyone, least of all me."
Shona joined them, interrupting Connor's reply. She gave him a hard look. "You made a mess of that, Connor. You'll have to think deeper if we're going to accomplish all that we agreed to."
"I haven't agreed to anything yet," Connor told her angrily.
She sighed. "You're going to be obstinate and foolish again for a while, are you?"
"I think we're just about finished here," he said.
"Not quite yet." Her annoyed look faded to one of determination. "You still owe me that kiss."
"You've got to be kidding," Ivor said, incredulously.
Shona said, "We are still engaged, and Connor agreed to show the world that he still cares."
"Make that naive two miles wide," Ivor muttered, shaking his head. "Carry on. I'll assemble the company to watch."
Connor was tempted to punch him back to Harz. "Thanks for watching my back."
Ivor gave him a serious look. "A good laugh at your expense is exactly what they need to get over that monumental idiocy of yours. Make sure to look terrified, Connor. I know I would."
"Oh, begone," Shona snapped, then stepped in front of Connor, hands on hips, one eyebrow raised, a smile on her full lips
. "No terror today, Connor. Show the world you love me."
Connor's heart began to pound, and he felt his hands turn sweaty. How had the morning turned out so messed up? As Shona drew closer, students began to whistle and call encouragement. Ivor might be right, but the price still seemed too high.
Shona drew his gaze to her. No one else could see her face, and in that brief instant, she allowed him to see how uncertain she felt. She bit her lower lip, a surprisingly vulnerable gesture.
Connor's feelings for Shona were powerful and completely conflicted. He'd been convinced more than once that he was in love with her, and many times had hated her. Usually he settled somewhere in between, but always confused.
She had worked so hard to manipulate him, but she had also chosen to release him from the marriage he could no longer escape. That sacrifice might have actually cost her a great deal. Shona was many things, but in that moment she seemed to be a girl trying to figure out her place in the world just as he was.
No, Shona knew her place. She was just trying to figure out the best way to get there.
"I only ever wanted us to be happy together," Shona said with a sad little smile.
Connor took a deep breath and considered blasting himself away with marble. "I always wanted to be the best Guardian I could for you, Shona. I just wished we both had a choice in the matter."
She took the last step to him, draping her hands over his shoulders, and leaning against him. He placed his hands on her waist to hold her back, and steeled himself for what was to come. He only hoped Verena wasn't watching. She would probably drop a bomb on his head.
"I know," Shona said softly. Her gaze was intense, and he could see real emotion building in her eyes. "You just need to know that I always would've chosen to be with you, no matter what."
She leaned in and brushed his lips with hers, barely making contact before pulling back again. He should tell her no right now, and Tallan take the consequences. It was just a foolish promise after all.
"You gave me your word," she reminded him, as if reading his mind. "Give me just one good kiss, and make sure I know you mean it."
