Spear of Light (40 page)

“Yes.”

“We will.”

“Yes.”

Charlie continued. “There are roughly a hundred people in there. That's more than we expected. Roughly half are from here, and half are from the Glittering.”

Silence. People watched him. For a man who said he wasn't a leader and didn't like battle, he seemed to be doing pretty well. Nona felt a deep sense of pride in him fill her, felt like she herself was more ready than she had been when they landed, calmer and more centered.

Charlie called again. “Ready?”

“We're ready.”

“Yes.”

“Let's go.”

“I'm ready.”

He looked pleased with the responses. “Say it together. Ready?”

A resounding yes filled the cabin. The unity of it buoyed Nona, helped her stand and turn and be ready to walk out of the skimmer and into a fight.

As they all rose and moved toward the door, Charlie called out, “Remember, Kyle is our main spokesperson with the strangers.”

Nona frowned. Charlie had told her that Kyle had more credibility as a leader of dissidents and a hater of robots, but Nona still didn't trust him. What if he betrayed Charlie? He had already done that once.

She and Amanda and Charlie were the last ones out, except for Farro, who stayed behind to protect the
Storm
and keep it ready. The wall of heat set off internal warning bells. She'd never been in air so hot and dry. So many little triggers of things that would warn of extreme danger on a station that were normal here. She must have shown her dismay, since Amanda clutched her hand briefly and asked, “Are you okay?”

“Just . . . surprised at the heat.”

“Breathe slowly. That makes it easier.”

“Thanks. I'll be fine.”

Kyle created two long columns of people and they started walking away from the skimmer.

The heat dragged at her, making her feel heavy as they walked at the back of group. Breathing felt like pulling hot knives through her chest. She spoke a silent affirmation in her head
. I can do this. I can do this.

A line of men and women from Desert Bow Station regarded them silently as they walked by. They pulled three people out of the group at random. One was a woman Nona had met briefly at the dinner party, and the other two were men—one young and one old.

Hopefully they'd stand up to whatever questioning came their way.

At one point, Amanda took her hand and whispered, “What if we don't find her? What if she's dead?”

All Nona could offer was a small, overheated smile.

They were lined up and each of them questioned briefly. When it was Nona's turn, a tall woman with silver eyes said, “Your name?”

“Nona Hall.”

The woman's eyes widened ever so slightly, and she glanced around before looking back at Nona. “Have you ever fought?”

“Not much,” Nona said. “But I understand logistics.” Her thoughts raced. She couldn't hide who she was, not now that she'd given her real name. How stupid. “I'm from the Diamond Deep.”

The woman gave her a long measured look, which included her captain's tattoos, and then pointed toward the same open door others were being sent through. “Wait in there.”

“Thank you.”

The door led into an open hangar that held ground vehicles and a few skimmers. There were very few places to sit. Badly uniformed people lined the walls, neatly spaced about three meters apart. They each carried weapons and watched them. It reminded her of being captive in the Deep, and she shivered and tried to dismiss the memory. This wasn't exactly a parallel situation; they had walked into this knowing the risks.

Charlie stood a quarter of the room away from her, lost in conversation with two of the people from the farms that had been here when they arrived. If she couldn't believe that Charlie had come to kill Next, why would these people who had known him longer believe it?

Slowly, all of the others from the
Storm
trickled in.

Amanda pointed out at least two people she knew to be runaways from the farms, as she searched the crowd, watching every face carefully.

Nona didn't need a clue from Amanda when Amy came through a door on the opposite side of the big hangar. Amanda's daughter had her mother's slight build and gliding walk. The black dye Amanda had told her about had been replaced with a red-streaked blond, but the resemblance in their faces was so unmistakable that Nona might have thought she was Amanda from a distance.

Amy didn't notice Amanda but kept her attention on the front of the room, where a man with a bodybuilder's shape and size stood up. “As most of you know, we've been lucky and more people have come from Gyr Island to join us. Let's give them a warm welcome.”

A smattering of claps suggested lukewarm enthusiasm.

The man looked around the room, his gaze settling for a moment on every person in there. He had a predator's eyes, gold with dark triangular pupils. Nona shivered after his gaze passed beyond hers. “I'm Richard, and I'm the leader here. You will follow my orders. We're pleased to have you. We hope you're ready for a fight. We might die today, but it's time to strike a blow against the invaders.”

Amy watched him closely, rapt. Maybe entranced would be a better word. He was charismatic, and many other people besides Amy paid him close attention.

Someone tapped Nona on the shoulder. “Nona Hall?”

A deep voice. “Yes.”

“Come with me.”

Her chest tightened. She half turned, catching a glimpse of a big man with dark eyes and a military bearing. She and Amanda shared a glance. To Nona's surprise, Amanda said, “Take me, too. Wherever you're going.”

“We would like to speak to the ambassador alone, please.”

Rough hands pulled her away, and she managed to catch Amanda's eyes and say, “It will be okay. Tell someone.” She meant Charlie, and Amanda would know that.

Two men marched her into an office. One of them asked, “Would you like a glass of water?”

She remembered that Charlie had described a similar ritual politeness around water. Maybe it had a special significance in the desert. At the thought, she realized how dry her skin and her lips and eyes felt after just the short walk here. “Please,” she said.

When he handed her the water, she drank half of the glass immediately. It tasted good.

The small room had white walls with scars and nicks in them, a round table, a sink, a cupboard, and a few shelves cluttered with what looked like spare parts for metal machinery. Above the doorway, someone had carefully hand painted the Shining Revolution slogan:
Humanity Free and Clear
.

She and her captors exchanged thin pleasantries, through which she learned nothing more interesting than that their names were Dimitri and Dhal.

Dimitri was the clear leader. “We were told you might come here. Can you explain why the ambassador from the Diamond Deep is attending an attack on the very creatures that you promised to help? You yourself.” His voice had gone hard. “We saw your vote.”

She had considered this possibility and the lies she might have to tell. Lies might save lives. She took a long, slow sip of the water and a deep breath. “You might have also seen my friend dismembered on stage. At first, I blamed the Shining Revolution for it. After all, your leader killed her. But it's not Nayli's fault that Chrystal died. The Next had killed her long before. Chrystal was gone from the moment they took the High Sweet Home and destroyed her people.” She watched their faces as she spoke, but they said nothing. She took another long moment, letting it stretch almost to awkwardness. “I'm not here as an ambassador. I'm here as myself.”

“Nayli would kill you on sight.”

“Really? I'm as human as you are.”

Dimitri took a step closer to her. “You betrayed us.”

She stood up herself, unwilling to be intimidated. “I chose to save my people, and I chose what they wanted. The Voice is not a personal one. When I was the Voice I voted the people's wishes, not my own. As ambassador, I've helped the people of Manna Springs. I haven't done a thing to help the Next here. Not one. Check with anyone in there.” She pointed back toward the building.

Dimitri stepped back and crossed his arms. “We are checking on you. In the meantime, you'll wait in here. You may wait in here until after the attack.”

“No!” She slammed the glass down. “I didn't come all the way here to sit in an office. I want to go with you.”

Dhal said, “Do you?”

“Of course I do. We all do. We can't do a thing about Nexity. The Wall's too damned big. But maybe we can make a difference here.”

“It will be dangerous,” Dimitri said. “Why would a rich, settled woman from the Deep even come here?”

An instinct struck her. “You're from the Deep, aren't you?”

“Yes. I grew up on one of the Exchanges. Selling small labor for unloading and sorting, mostly.”

She turned to Dhal. “And you? Are you from the Deep as well?”

“I was born on a cargo ship. But I met Dimitri on the Deep.”

They were a couple. She hadn't realized it at first, but now that she did she could see how they stood in relation to each other and that they seemed to be coming to conclusions without having to talk out loud. “So why are you here?” she asked.

“You didn't vote for us,” Dimitri said.

Dhal spoke up, although he looked away from her. “We didn't want to help. We wanted to fight. So the day the Deep voted to help, we joined the Shining Revolution.”

Nayli and Vadim had flown away by then and gone underground. “Have you met the leaders? Nayli and Vadim, or Brea and Darnal?”

Dhal shook his head. “Of course not.”

“Are they giving you orders? Did they order this attack?”

“They would,” Dhal said. “If they were here, they'd lead the attack.”

Dimitri stepped closer to her. “There's a handful of us from the Deep and a few from other stations that came down here after the vote. We're doing what has to be done. It's obvious, after all.”

“And what exactly has to be done?” she asked.

The two exchanged a glance, and Dhal said, “We'll be back. We need to check on some things. We'll let you know what happens. In the meantime, we're going to lock you in.”

“Why doesn't one of you stay with me, instead?”

They ignored her.

They left and locked the door. She sat quietly, hoping they wouldn't be gone long. She shouldn't have come. Some ambassador, to maybe harm her own people's effort just by being here.

She hadn't yet grown used to being noticed.

Surely they would let her out. She was already likely to miss Amy's first sight of Amanda, and she wouldn't be able to bear it if something happened to Charlie while she was locked up for her own naiveté.

She stared in silence at the Shining Revolution slogan. Humanity Free and Clear.

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

CHARLIE

Richard stood on the wing of a skimmer, using it as a stage to address the somewhat noisy crowd. At least five people that Charlie recognized as off-worlders, including Samil, stood near Richard, looking away from him and toward the fighters, paying most attention to the new arrivals.

This wasn't a great time to interrupt, but far better here than out in the desert.

He caught Jean Paul's eye.

Jean Paul looked grim. Kyle had chosen a good vantage point, sitting on a pile of tarps at the edge of the room. When Charlie looked over, Kyle met his eyes and smiled.

They needed to act soon, but the numbers weren't in their favor. If only there was a way to tell how many of their own people had already changed their minds and wanted to be home.

Where was Nona?

He spotted Amanda trying to make her way toward him, glancing his way repeatedly while working her way around obstacles and through knots of peoples. Nona was nowhere near her. He scanned the hangar, and then stood on tiptoe, scanning again. Fighters stood in small groups, poised. Some had rucksacks at their feet or thrown over their shoulders. The big hanger door remained open, spilling light and dust into the room.

No Nona.

Richard said, “We'll walk the way we've drilled, only this time it's for real. This time we'll act, and this time we'll have help.”

From space? Gunnar? Other revolutionaries? Charlie still hadn't quite put the whole plan together. Something about stopping the new Next while they were out exercising in the desert at the edge of Next's Reach, outside of its wall.

He tried not to look desperate to find Nona. Amanda had gotten halfway to him.

Richard yelled something about being ready, and a cheer started. It grew slowly, bouncing off the walls, echoing, rising.

He'd missed his chance.

Charlie used the chaos of a hundred people preparing to leave the hangar to get near Amanda. “Where's Nona?” he whispered.

“Two men took her.”