Arissa's Fate (Redemption Trilogy) (9 page)

Chapter Seventeen

             
“You know I’m the last person to get all mushy and stuff, but I knew that when we met I had a purpose and that somehow, cosmically, we were meant to be together.”

             
Cayl didn’t bother to attempt to hide the tears of sadness that had swelled from his eyes. “I remember when they brought you in. You were this amazingly beautiful, depressed woman whose eyes were empty and your face just rang in despair.”

             
“The cell was the closest thing I had to a home since I had left Landon’s. I didn’t know that my true love was sitting on other side of that wall from me.” Arissa reached up to touch the side of his face, brushing the last tear away with her thumb.

             
“How did you get from incarcerated prisoner to working beside the General?” Cayl asked, curving his arm around her waist to pull her closer to him.

“
It was not my first choice, believe me,” Arissa let herself rest gently on his knee, careful of his bandaged wound. “At first I had no intentions of trying to escape. Honestly, I was just tired of my life. But then...this really cute guy next to me who had gotten himself arrested for assaulting an official soldier started talking to me.”

“
It's not my fault this pretty girl with dark hair and gorgeous eyes had nothing better to do than talk.”

Arissa gazed at him, not being able to control the sly smile that curled up on her lips
. One look in his eyes and she could again feel everything they had been through and could feel the intense weight of guilt and shame rising from her shoulders.

“
You were trying to defend your sister when that soldier invaded your house. You had every right to protect your family and your home. It made me so mad when you told me about that. I think that's what made me realize that I did have an actual, useful purpose in life.”

“
By seducing your cell mate?” Cayl dared to joke, nudging Arissa slightly.

She shot him
a hard look, almost playfully. “Do you want to tell the rest of the story?”

He didn't reply, only arched an eyebrow, challenging her dare. Arissa continued
. “Suddenly I wanted to live, and because you wouldn't leave me alone and that resulted in me growing to actually care about you, I had a plan. The guards had told me that I was to be publicly executed the next day, but I demanded that I had something important that the General would want to hear.”

“
You always were a great liar.”

“
Again, would you like to tell the story?” Arissa exclaimed, grinning, but then remembered that even though they were underground, that she should still take the precautions of staying quiet. “And my lying got your ass out of jail, so I wouldn't be complaining! I think that the General knew what I was capable of and honestly, I think he was afraid of me, that's why he never questioned an execution, he wanted me gone. When the soldiers came to bring me to him that last day, do you remember what I told you before I left?”

Cayl watched her, but acted as if he had no intention of speaking. Arissa rolled her eyes and tossed her head slightly back. Her voic
e grew husky as she whispered, “You can talk now.” Her hand was hooked around the back of his neck, where her fingers played with his tresses of brown hair, which was longer than she remembered.

As if on cue, he recited,
“You told me not to forget about you, because pretty soon I would be stuck with you.”

Pondering the moment in her memory for a moment, Arissa was surprised that she was smiling. Even when she had been minutes from possible death, her attraction to Cayl had never been
more clear to her. “I was right, the General had been convinced that I knew something that he wanted. At first, he made the guards stay in the room with us while I was there. I told him that I had a deal to make with him. Of course, he acted all high and mighty, saying that he wouldn't associate with the likes of me, the very scum of the Earth, you know. But I could see in his eyes that he wanted to know. That's when he ordered the guards to leave, saying he didn't need protection from a mere criminal. He wasted no time in asking what I had to offer.

“
My deal that I offered him was simple. He and every other man in the army knew how elusive I could be when it came to tracking and hiding. His army was, and still is, made up of a bunch of juvenile idiots who could barely figure out how to ride their trained ponies. I told him I would be a valuable tool for him to have in his ranks. His new idea had been collecting criminals who had 'wronged his society' and none of his soldiers were well trained enough to start handling thieves and highwaymen. Really, I was perfect for the job.”

“
You were a bounty hunter?” Cayl nearly shouted, surprised. Arissa barely had to glance at him and he quickly added, “I didn’t say anything. Continue on.”

“
Yes, I offered to trade my freedom in exchange for working as his bounty hunter indefinitely. He would have readily accepted if I had not felt the need to tack on my last requirement. I made him promise and to sign an official pardon for you, because what is his word worth, really. He was willing to let go of your charges, but he felt the trade had become uneven and I would have to agree to fill a second position in his command.

“
Not that it’s public knowledge, but you know how the General has been supplying his armies and trying to repopulate his cities in the territory. He promises a better life to people from the lands and countries far away from here, who are struggling even more than we are. Lying to, sorting and murdering hundreds of people in cold blood would not look good on him to the public eye. The General believes that when the Earth was heavily populated, before the wars destroyed everything, it was poisoned. He wants the public to think he’s searching for equality, when really all he wants is the control of deciding what happens to the world now as it’s built back up again.

“
Everything I’ve just told you about the General are dark secrets that could cripple our nation if they were ever exposed. Have you ever wondered why all the guards and soldiers literally all look the same? Have you ever met one with coloured skin? Have you ever heard one speak with a foreign accent from a country that no longer exists or even another language? All the soldiers have dark brown or black hair. There’s never been a blonde or a man with red hair to ever step foot into these cities. There are none here, because when a person who is different tries to improve their life by coming here to serve the General, he had them killed so they don’t taint his image of a perfect world.”

“
That is completely sick,” Cayl nearly gasped in horror, his eyes looking tortured with realization.

Arissa voice suddenly turned monotone.
“That was my job. To contact people all over the world, convince them life here was good and to agree to basically sign their life over to the General. They would come with friends and family and as many people as they could bring with them, but they never saw the city. They had to go through what we had to call an Identification Transfer, the IT. I wasn’t the only one who worked there. There were lots of other people who were trying to pay off whatever debt they owed the General. He had become so impressed with me after how many criminals I had tracked and delivered, dead or alive, to the Vailwood prisons, that he thought he had won over my loyalty. I could never think right of a man who would do such awful things, and every day I went to work I became more ashamed of what I had gotten myself into.”

“
Arissa, when you came back that day when you spoke to the General, we were both let free. That same day we left for Daer and if I remember correctly, it was only a few weeks after that when we moved into our home.”

Arissa nodded.
“We own our house, but that was another condition from the General that I had made. Call me eager, but somehow I knew that we were going to be with each other after that. I needed to make sure we had a good place to live.”

There was a short pause in the conversation and they both had an expression of thoughtfulness.
“I miss our home,” Cayl murmured, barely audible.

Arissa bowed her head to lean
her forehead against his. “Me too.”

“
After our wedding, I was hoping we would never have to leave. I knew you worked with the Governor somehow, but your job was another one of those things you wouldn’t talk about. I can see why.”

“
How could I? I was in love with you, I couldn’t tell you what I had been blackmailed into doing for the rest of my life. Everything in life now is so complicated, that was one thing that could have been left alone.”

Again, there a silent pause, but the lingering conversation
felt heavy on her tongue and she began talking again.

“
I thought that working in the IT would be a lot easier than hunting criminals in the forests, at least I could go home every day. We had just gotten married, I hated leaving you behind for days or weeks at a time. The General didn’t even tell me what I had to do until I got there. People would come through, tired and starving and so excited to see their new home. If they didn’t meet the General’s standards, I had to send them to a different area where the soldiers would eventually take them away. It was sickening and again, I couldn’t believe what my life had come to. I saw children and old people and pregnant women come and go, being told where to go. They trusted us and didn’t know they were being sorted like cattle for a butcher. This has been my job for eight years. I murdered thousands of people this way, Cayl.”

A sick, roiling feeling was beginning to rise in her stomach and she had to fight to keep it under control. Cayl’s hand rested against her cheek, holding her tighter, completely ignoring
the obvious pain he could feel. “It wasn’t your fault, Arissa. The General is a terrible person and he deserves everything that he’s going to get.”

“
It’s not just him, Cayl! This is what the government has turned into! He owns everybody! If he’s not here, someone else will step into his place and nothing will change,” Arissa could feel tears streaming again, unable to control the haunting, burning images in her mind.

For nearly ten years that she and Cayl had been together, never once had she let him see her cry. It was not
in her nature to show weakness and now it was as if her entire life was crashing down on her and she couldn’t hold the weight up any longer.

“
The reason I think the General wants me dead is because of what I have been doing secretly for the last year.” Cayl’s interest immediately sparked, listening intently as he continued to hold her. “I am so tired of being the one responsible for this sort of horror. Eventually, I couldn’t stand watching it anymore, the faces of those people who didn’t know they only had minutes to live. I had a new plan. I was the head of the IT department and that meant I could move other people around to work in different areas. I had it set up so that the person who would bring the doomed groups out to the execution grounds out of town, would actually bring them back to the border and let them go, informing them of what had happened and returned their money. In the last year that I had this set up, I set nearly three thousand people free again. I was hoping it would somehow act as a counter for all the terrible things I’ve done in my life. My plan was far from bulletproof and I knew it couldn’t last forever, but my main goal was to save as many people as I could. I just never thought they would go to these extremes.”

Hours must have passed since they had been in Landon’s basement. It felt like she hadn’t stopped talking the entire time, not taking the time or initiative to pause or look around at all. She wanted this nightmare over with and the sooner she had everything out for Cayl to see, the better. It had been so long ago though,
that certain parts seemed hazy to her and she had to think several times if she had remembered exactly correct.

“
Before Captain Lovett was promoted, he worked with me in the IT. He would take the people I had to reject and bring them to their last waiting area. I never liked that man, and after a few years, I understood what it was about him that I hated. He was a liar. Yes, he was doing his job, but at the same time, he was going behind everybody’s back to make a wealth for himself.”

Cayl’s expression was still confused until Arissa enlightened him.
“When people came to our cities, they had to sign and agree to serve the General for life. The people who wouldn’t make it that far had to hand over any money they held because they had been told it was no longer necessary for the life they would have. It wasn’t a complete lie. I found out that the Captain had been pocketing a good deal of that money, shifting around files and records to cover his tracks. He even went as far as sending unnecessary people out to their death, just to collect. The General had made it clear that he needed every person available and now he was hundreds of men short because of the Captain’s lies.”

“
But the Captain’s dead, you said. His secret isn’t gone, you still know.”

“
It’s not worth getting involved in. I could bring down a lot of people with the information I know, but all I want to do is disappear. I want to leave and never have to know this world again. I don’t know who set us up, I don’t know who murdered the Governor or the Captain and I really don’t even care anymore. I just want to move on.”