“Tell me, where is she? I want to help her. If she does not surrender herself now, she will be marked as a traitor. She’ll be hounded wherever she goes in Vision. Do you really want to put her in that position?”
Kutz and Captain Ronmel. Lovers forever, but always a step apart. Wataru felt a stab of pain in his chest, though his breathing had finally become more regular.
Trone sighed softly. “I’m pretty sure Kutz doesn’t want your help, not anymore.”
Wataru heard the clatter of Captain Ronmel’s armor.
“I don’t know how it was in the past, but you and Kutz see different things from different places now. Your hopes, your ideals—everything you hold important, you hold alone. Kutz knows this. It looks like you don’t.”
Trone muttered something about men being like that, before continuing, “Looks like the cowards down at the Senate are clucking and fretting about these powered boat designs reaching the North. They want to form some sort of peace treaty before the North can attack, is that it? You know the Senate is filled with sympathizers, even I can see what it is they’d do. So, what exactly are they planning to offer the North in exchange for peace? You can’t say you don’t know what the emperor is doing up there. It’s bloodshed—worse, genocide. Beastkin are made to work like slaves, ripped away from their homes in the light of day. And you’re happy with all this?”
“We are trying…” Captain Ronmel began, but Trone cut him off. “Then again, I suppose you wouldn’t care so much. No matter what the beastkin in the south have to face, it won’t affect the Knights of Stengel, will it? You’re not here to protect the south. You’re here to protect yourselves, the ankha.”
“You are wrong!”
“Am I? Look at Lyris! Your buddy Captain Zaidek is rolling out his own brand of empire in that town under the auspices of keeping the peace—all in your precious government’s name.”
There was a brief pause, and Captain Ronmel said, surprisingly calm, “I am not Zaidek.”
“Oh? A lapdog is a lapdog from where I sit.”
“No. I’m no sympathizer with the causes of the Northern Empire. Nor would I care to raise my sword in defense of their ideals. If our Senate truly intends to allow the ideologies of the North to creep into our lands in exchange for peace, I would not accept it. I would resist it with every fiber of my being. Sometimes, even dogs turn against their masters. We do have a will of our own, you see.”
Trone was silent. It appeared that Captain Ronmel was waiting for his answer. The tension in the air was palpable, even under the desk where Wataru was hiding.
When Trone spoke next his voice was hoarse. “Even if we got our peace from the North and had to give nothing in exchange, I wouldn’t fancy being their allies. They have enslaved my people and tossed their corpses away like garbage. If peace means friendship with their sort, I choose war. I choose to fight, and fight until there is no one left. That’s something more important to me than my own life. Something more important to all us Highlanders. I wonder if you Knights have it?”
“So you mean to say that, for this thing which you hold dearer than life, you planned to assassinate the emperor? Was that your true objective? To me, it looks like you are engaged in nothing more than base revenge.”
Trone growled but did not reply.
“Arrest this man,” Captain Ronmel ordered his men. “Throw him in the cell here. We’ll let him cool off a little bit.”
“What about Kutz?” one of the men asked.
“We’ll split into three and search the town. If any of the residents get in our way, arrest them for hampering a public official. Our reinforcements should be arriving soon. We’ll use this branch office as our temporary headquarters. We must find Kutz by nightfall and take her to the capital.”
His man shouted a reply and dragged Trone out of the office. Now Wataru knew everything there was to know, except for where Kutz was hiding. Still, even though he was no longer keeping up the barrier around him, everything he had heard left him depleted. Northern sympathizers in the government…the strife between the dominant ankha and the minority beastkin. The Knights of Stengel, defenders of the United Southern Nations, and most of them ankha, at odds with the homegrown Highlanders organization.
Wataru began to have doubts, until his mind was racing, and he shivered. I can’t let them arrest Kutz. We have to go north together. Wataru didn’t know who was right anymore, Kutz or Captain Ronmel. It seemed like deciding between the two of them had such great consequences it was too much to bear. That was why he needed to see the truth for himself. He had to go north.
Knights were busily entering and leaving the office. Wataru drew the barrier of invisibility around himself once again, crept out from beneath the desk, and walking sideways along the wall, headed for the main entrance.
Captain Ronmel stood directly to the side of the desk. He had spread out a map of the town and was giving directions to a man. His eyes were on the map alone. Wataru could see deep lines etched in the side of his face.
Only a few more steps to the door. No one can see me. Wataru nearly stepped into a Knight who came running in through the door. He missed me. I’m okay.
“Captain! Word from the reinforcements!”
The Knight handed a communication to the captain. Captain Ronmel took it and looked up.
His blue eyes fixed on Wataru. Their eyes met. How? How can he see me?
The next instant, the captain had moved across the room in a few steps and held the tip of his sword pointed against Wataru’s throat. The way he moved was like magic. Only a soft breeze blew against Wataru’s face—he didn’t even hear the captain’s armor clink.
“I thought I sensed something strange before. Now I see what it was.” He wasn’t smiling.
Wataru looked down at his own body. In his surprise, the barrier had come undone.
“C-Captain…”
“When did you learn enveiling magic? Is this another of the Traveler’s powers?”
“This is called enveiling magic? I had no idea.” Wataru tried a timid smile. “Could you see me? Or could you somehow sense me, even though you couldn’t see me? That’s amazing.”
The captain did not smile. The tip of the sword was still held at Wataru’s throat. “You work for Kutz. Where is she?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t even know all this was going on.”
“Then you’re an idiot.”
“I know.”
Captain Ronmel called over his shoulder to one of his men. “This boy is a Highlander. He needs to be interrogated. Throw him in with the other one.”
“Yes, sir,” one of the Knights said, his steel boots clanging on the floor as he approached. Now I’m under arrest. So much for my plans.
Then, Wataru thought he heard a voice calling from somewhere—it’s coming from inside my head.
—Wataru.
—You have three gemstones. You have a new power.
—Say the words. Azlo, lom, lom. Spirit of the wind, blow through time, carry me faster than light itself.
“Than light itself…” Wataru echoed.
“What?” The Knight stopped.
“Carry me faster than light itself!”
Captain Ronmel, a short distance away, turned to look.
—Get ready!
“Fly!” At the moment he said the word, Wataru felt his body disappear. Suddenly, the world around him filled with light.
He was flying. Dancing up into the air. He left the surprised shouts of the Knights far below and rose up through the light. He gripped the sword hilt tightly in his hands. Climbing, climbing, up to the sky.