Sondranos: The Narrative of Leon Bishop (32 page)

Annalise scowled, rotated the
fork, and held it out like a knife. Annalise threw herself at
Velric. Velric opened his arms. He welcomed her attack. She stabbed
the fork in between his chest plates, hitting the grey area.

As I’d expected, dust crumbled
to the ground – or was it flakes of Velric’s skin? The fork busted,
and the prongs bent in all directions. Annalise pulled back,
expecting something else. Velric backhanded her, and she flew
across the stage. Her body thumped, and crumbled as it hit a pillar
just after tumbling down the edge of the stage. She still breathed,
but her eyes were rolled back in her head.

The two servants who’d come and
moved the table burst in as if they’d expected this to happen. They
both picked Annalise up, slinging her between their shoulders.

“
Take her to
the questions chamber and fasten her into the cell-room. She can
only cause harm to herself. I will see to her execution when the
attack is underway,” Velric said to the servants. Then he turned to
us and continued, “In the meantime, I have no urge to continue
Father Corin’s games. Leave. I won’t take part in his urge to
convince you.”

I didn’t realize that the
comment was more for us than them, when one of the servants looked
up and waited. Velric shooed them away with his hand, and the
servant nodded. I wanted to go after Annalise, but Velric stood
watch. Kayt and Melanie watched in horror. The moment was quiet and
tense.

“
Leave now,”
he said. “I do not like repeating myself.”

I stood, and Melanie whispered
for Kayt to hurry. We walked through the aisle that Father Corin
had insisted we go down. It was as if we’d never been there.
Melanie pushed open the door, Kayt went out first, and I let it
shut behind me.

“
What’s wrong
with her?”

“
She’s ready
to die,” I said. “She thought Velric would have killed her like the
people back on Covenant. I bet when she wakes up, she’s going to be
very disappointed.”

“
Do you ever
get the feeling like you’re just being used?” Kayt asked. “Or
completely useless?”

“
We’ll get
her,” I responded. My words caught in my throat, even though I
hadn’t had time to conceal them. “In the meantime, if Velric thinks
he can just go through the motions, we have to prove him
wrong.”

The morning wind was cold, and
the lights streaming down the pathway was sudden and intense. The
warmth of the night had fled, leaving a sudden sting of
discomforting cold in its wake. Father Corin and Davion waited
outside for us.

“
We trust
that Velric explained to you what we are attempting to do - that we
must preserve this land from those who would wish to see the
Belovores extinct?” Father Corin asked.

“
No,” I said.
I wanted to tell them what Velric had said, and that it had been
nothing more than his way of telling us we would all
die.

This time, Melanie stopped me.
She said: “We will serve the people the way we know how. As Davion
has taught us.”

This took Davion off guard. His
entire demeanour had been previously slumped, and when he heard
Melanie, he smiled. He stuck his chest out and flattened his robes
down like he had so many hours ago, back when the Abbey was just in
our sights. Father Corin looked happy.

“
We must be
off,” Father Corin said. “There is much to do before the assailants
arrive.”

“
What about
the city?” I asked.

“
My son. Have
faith,” Father Corin interrupted. I was being stonewalled. “Once
the troops see that we are serious about preserving the Belovores,
they dare not advance. There will be so little bloodshed that you
will doubt this event ever happened. The ones that change history
rarely do.”

Father Corin
and Davion left, Davion keeping beside the Father instead of
following. With Annalise taken prisoner, hundreds of Forgiven
starting to fortify the walls, and just as many Belovores hunkered
inside the commune, we waited. We’d lost track of time, but we were
all certain the
Cooper
would arrive very soon.

“
I don’t
understand,” Kayt started
. We’d walked to
a spot fairly avoided by the Forgiven, on a patch of unkempt grass
out of the way of anything. “Davion and Father Corin made it sound
like Velric was supposed to indoctrinate, or sell us on the
commune. All he told us was how badly he wanted us
dead.”

“
When the
troops from the
Cooper
come in,” I started, “They’re going to start shooting at any
Belovore they see – especially if they’ve been getting reports from
the surface. However, when the troops land close enough, the
commune’s going to open fire to protect themselves. They won’t try
and hit the troopers. But the troopers won’t know that. They’ll
fire indiscriminately. No matter who wins or who dies, nobody will
ever look at this place as home again. Scorched earth. I can only
imagine that when the troops arrive, the Belovores will slaughter
them as well, since the troopers will expect easy targets – or at
least be using stun weapons.”

“
What do we
do?” Kayt asked.

“
We can’t
take this many Belovores on directly. Annalise proved that. But
Davion might be a good place to start. I’m willing to bet he doubts
what’s best anymore,” I said.

The Cooper
broke orbit and
streaked into the morning
sky like a comet. Dozens of smaller ships converged on a point in
the west and led the
Cooper
like a runway. On board, I imagined the same ship
I’d come from – only, this one was capable of emergency landings,
since it wasn’t built strictly for transport.

Inside,
thousands of soldiers were gearing up. They strapped on their
weapons and looked out on giant screens for where they’d be
landing. Some vomited when they saw what remained of the city. They
wanted nothing more than to be inside the
Cooper
, safe, without the fear of
what would come after they left. Or they wanted to destroy whoever
was responsible.

I could
understand that. I mentioned the first hours on the Korsikov, and
how regular they’d seemed. Stepping into military action was
regular for the soldiers. Did any of them know if their life would
change, as mine had? In that moment, I would have given anything to
slip back into the
Korsikov
. I wanted to feel the thrust
of everything taking off, and leave Sondranos behind. Just like
the
Korsikov
,
the
Cooper
must
have been warm and inviting. I felt completely helpless –
the
Cooper
had
sent a message of hope and rescue to us hours ago. Now that they
were nearly here, nobody could warn them that their rescue would
become a bloodbath.

Chapter
Twelve:

The Second
Coming

A handful of
Forgiven burst
out of the barracks across
the way, carrying crates to the entrance of the commune. Some wore
smiles while others were stoic – or maybe depressed. I could hardly
believe that they walked to the wall of their compound knowing they
might be firing at fellow humans. Then again, they had protection
on the brain. I’m sure the consequences never crossed their mind.
To those in a world filled with guns, warheads, and knives, the
idea of violence begetting more violence was commonplace. But to
people who studied only peace?

I’m sure Father Corin had no
trouble convincing them that warning shots would be all they
needed. And when the Forgiven started hitting the floor, dissent
would strike, and then so would the Belovores. As such, the
Belovores watched from the spot along the wall. The main doors had
been closed, so we could safely assume no more were coming. Enough
had come and gone for me to lose track of even a guess regarding
how many there were.

“
We have to
get Annalise,” I said. “We have to stop this before it
starts.”

“
It can only
go one of three ways,” Melanie said. “Either the Forgiven are angry
enough when they start dying, or defensive enough to open fire on
the
Cooper’
s
soldiers, or the soldiers will come in and the Belovores will start
the slaughter.”

“
Velric seems
to be banking on the first,” Kayt added.

“
Both will
happen,” I said. “It’s just a matter of how many die in the
interim. Which is why we have to find a way to convince them that
firing would be a bad idea. Even if the shots are warning shots.
The
Cooper
’s
troops don’t know what’s been going on behind these walls. How many
bullets or energy pulses come with a giant neon sign that says
‘don’t come any closer or next time we’ll miss’? One shot could
destabilize everything.”

Melanie looked over Kayt’s
shoulder, back to the barracks. More crates, more Forgiven. Half of
the commune must have shown up; where the other half was, we didn’t
know. We wanted to keep it that way – the less potential to fire,
the better our odds.

“
What do you
think?” Melanie asked.

“
I don’t
know,” I said. “It just all seems so convoluted; how do you
convince people of something when their only belief is in
convincing themselves?”

“
Except for
Davion,” Kayt added.

“
I’m going to
be the one to find him,” I started. The idea came as a sudden jolt
down my back. I could have sworn I’d just been hit square in the
spine. “I’ll go after him, use him to find Annalise before Velric
gets to her.”

“
She wasn’t
fighting back,” Melanie said.

“
She wanted
to die,” Kayt finished the thought.

“
I know. But
we can’t think of that now. We can only stop one thing at a time,
and Annalise isn’t going to hurt herself until she’s face to face
with a Belovore,” I said. “We have time. We can stop
this.”

“
Are you
insane?”

Technically, through lack of
sleep and how I’d come here – running, running, running, and always
expecting to be safe – I could have been declared legally insane.
It may have been the haze over my brain talking, but I felt like I
was capable of rational thought even more than when I was well
rested and in front of the classroom.

“
Maybe that’s
what we have to be, in order to survive,” I said. Then, I spoke
more to Melanie than Kayt, and looked into her eyes. “Back at
Covenant, when Annalise, Kayt and I were being held captive, we met
this woman. Abilene. Annalise wanted to use her to spread a story
that would have helped us overtake the situation, but the story she
spread moved too quickly. By the time Lancaster came out, the word
had spread that many hands could kill a Belovore, even though we’d
been exaggerating. We hoped to come up with a plan, but there just
wasn’t any time left.”

Kayt sighed and looked to the
ground. It was apparent to me that the mention of Lancaster had
hurt, but she did her best to conceal the pain.

“
What if we
start spreading our own stories?” I continued.

“
You mean
find a way to convince the Forgiven not to shoot?”

“
That would
be impossible,” Kayt said.

“
When you’re
faced with something terrible, when you have the sinking suspicion
that what you are about to do is wrong, anything is possible.
Especially when it comes to rash decisions,” I said. “I need you
both to make something up. Tell them the troops are coming to
rescue the Belovores; say that the city was destroyed by an
accident – if they know about the city being destroyed – and imply
that the
Cooper
is
here to quarantine us until they know we aren’t poisoned by the
explosion. Whatever you have to tell them, tell them. Just convince
them that firing is a bad idea, and that the
Cooper
has no intention of firing
first.”

“
We need to
hurry,” Melanie pointed to the far wall, closest to the entryway. A
dozen more Forgiven had arrived, and were opening the crates. One
by one, the rifles were pulled out and handed down into the large
group of people. The Belovores slowly scattered, heading towards
the barracks or the Hall. They eyed the Forgiven with nothing
behind their looks – they watched, but didn’t help.

Above them all, sitting in a
crow’s nest situated near the front of the tower, a man cried out.
“Troops, to the south!”

We watched as rifles moved
faster through the crowd. Everyone – men, women, and teenagers -
grabbed at weapons, holstered them or grabbed ammunition packs, and
started towards rally points along the wall. At each rally point, a
ladder reached to the walkway above. Two men from each point
climbed up and pointed their weapons outward. Adding to the scene,
the sun began to rise far off in the distance. It revealed a clear
sky reaching towards us like it wanted to stifle the violence about
to erupt. Beams of yellow light cascaded down the crater’s edge on
the other end of Sondranos, and even though we couldn’t see
anything past the commune walls, Kayt, Melanie, and I used the
sudden sunburst as inspiration. If it was going to be a new day, we
might as well start it better than the last one ended.