Outlier: Rebellion (65 page)

“IMPIS!” belts the King.

And the laughter dies at once, and Impis looks up, caught by surprise. “My apologies,” he offers, not having meant his Legacy to seep out so powerfully, the unrelenting and playful pet it can be.

And then Impis finds he owes the criminal an explanation for his change of heart. “You taste of bitter grease,” Impis explains to the ugly thing, “and my Metal Hand has touched quite enough heads for the week. Haven’t you?” He turns to his man for this question who, garbed in his heaviest irons, shrugs. “Hmm, and,” Impis wrings his head about once more, facing the sentenced, “I think I find you less boring alive than dead. Tell me one thing, would you? A foresight, please? How do I die?”

The brute thing looks up at Impis, for the first time showing something in his stare that is not stony insolence. What is it in his stare? Is it fear? Is it shame? Is it curiosity? Is it pride? Is it love?

The man says, “By your own sword.”

Impis swallows once, confounded. “But I do not own a sword. I have my—my—my—my
posse
who do the battlements for me. You are a liar.”

“The math never lies,” he responds.

“Out with him,” murmurs Impis, his eyes piercing the room like lasers, his left eye daring to twitch, and it is the ugly brute-thing’s every step that Impis watches, watches, watches, until the man is gone, banished, out of sight forever. “I don’t own a sword,” he calls out, half holler and half scream, and the words fly up the ever-tall glassy world of King Greymyn’s throne room.

Back in his chambers, with all his posse outside the many doors of his little tower room, all of them guarding him, all twenty-two of his personal Guardians, he plucks from a stack a list of boys’ and girls’ names. He scans them, squinting and running a two-inch-long red-and-white-striped nail down the length of the list from top to bottom, a single scratch.

The names inspire a dance, and Impis begins waltzing about his chambers, giggling at the memories of all the Legacies he had the pleasure of witnessing. “That boy with the neck,” he says, agreeing with himself, and he circles the boy’s name. “The one who can speak to animals,” he sings. “Animals, animals, animaaaaals!” He gives that name a circle, too.

Nine names he needs. Nine to submit to the Court for approval. Nine individuals who will be invited to the Lifted City with their extraordinary or curious gift, to be interviewed and danced with and tormented wondrously. Impis giggles, circling another name he’d just found, the name of a girl whose acid tongue stole his interest for that day.

But no Outliers. None.
What bitter disappointments, indeed.
They must hide them. No other answer. They hide them and they store them away and they want them all to themselves, the selfish slumborn.
The King said it best: never make lemonade by the apple trees.

There are eight names circled.
Who is my ninth?

Who is my ninth?

Ninth.

Lesser.
Lesser. Lesser. Lesser. Lesser. Lesser.
Lesser. Lesser. Lesser. Lesser. Lesser.
Lesser. Lesser. Lesser. Lesser. Lesser.
Lesser. Lesser.

Lesser.

He tosses the list he’d been all the last hour carrying and fetches another one.
I haven’t taken from the ninth in over six years of Legacy Exams. What fun!
He tosses the new list and fetches yet another, drawing his wild eyes down it until he at last arrives on the name he’d been looking for. Indeed, the reason for his peculiar obsession today in Court.

Impis finds himself reaching into his pocket. He reaches in to ensure there is still nothing there.
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
“He smells fear,” says the Royal Legacist, tracing the name on his list with his long fingernail, enjoying the sound it makes as it scratches along the paper. “Nothing. Nothing at all is important to me, no, no. Nothing at all, except …”

He circles the name of Anwick Lesser of the ninth.

A giggle dances down his throat. The list has never felt more perfect, never more swelling of harmony, never more complete.

Table of Contents

ACT 1

Prologue

0001 Wick

0002 Forgemon

0003 Rychis

0004 Link

0005 Kid

0006 Wick

0007 Athan

0008 Wick

0009 Halvesand

0010 Ellena

0011 Kid

0012 Wick

0013 Ellena

0014 Wick

0015 Athan

0016 Halvesand

0017 Link

0018 Wick

ACT 2

0019 Forgemon

0020 Athan

0021 Wick

0022 Halvesand

0023 Wick

0024 Forgemon

0025 Link

0026 Wick

0027 Halvesand

0028 Ellena

0029 Wick

0030 Ruena

0031 Link

0032 Halvesand

0033 Athan

0034 Kid

0035 Wick

0036 Link

0037 Forgemon

0038 Ruena

0039 Athan

0040 Halvesand

0041 Ellena

0042 Wick

0043 Cintha

ACT 3

0044 Link

0045 Wick

0046 Ellena

0047 Ruena

0048 Athan

0049 Cintha

0050 Kid

0051 Link

0052 Wick

0053 Halvesand

0054 Kid

0055 Wick

0056 Forgemon

0057 Halvesand

0058 Athan

0059 Link

0060 Ellena

0061 Wick

0062 Ruena

0063 Wick

0064 Kid

0065 Forgemon

0066 Halvesand

0067 Link

0068 Athan

0069 Wick

Epilogue