“We’re at a complete loss. See, we just assumed everyone in Quinta was dead. We aren’t in any position to respond to a call for help. We’re lacking food ourselves.”
“And Jarratt?”
“Hmm?”
“The elderly gentleman we sent. Well-built.”
“Oh, that old fogey?” It sounded as though Gabriele might have received Jarratt’s report in person. “I don’t know. Maybe he’s in jail, maybe they killed him.”
“Why?”
“We’ve got a whole load of evacuees from Quinta. It wouldn’t do for anyone to go around spreading unnecessary talk. Like I said, we’re short on food ourselves. I mean, we’re okay for now, but we definitely don’t have enough going forward. If everyone was like, ‘Let’s help the people in Quinta, let’s bring them here,’ it’d be a fiasco.”
“And so…” they killed Jarratt?
Incredible.
The stairs ended, and they reached the third floor. Mathias was pushed down the hallway to be stood outside a large wooden door.
“Anyway, back to my story.” Gabriele nodded at one of the guards then turned back to face Mathias. “We decide that someone needs to come and check on the situation here, see if this old fogey’s stories are true. It falls on me, as I’m one of their best. Smart, athletic, good at making snap decisions.”
The guard knocked and announced their arrival. The door immediately swung into the corridor.
“So I leave Fuerth and am almost here…when my horse gets hurt and collapses on me. Like I said, even I start to fret at that point. I get here anyway, though. I’m good like that. I spend the day inside our cliff and make my way over to the orchard.”
“Where you found Klaus’ group at night.”
“Yup.”
The guard moved to one side. The two soldiers who had pretended to be civilians guided him into the chamber.
There were shelves filled with papers, a writing desk, some chairs and a table for receiving guests. The room was similar to Mathias’ father Jörg’s study.
They crossed it and stepped through the windows.
Mathias squinted at the brightness. The wind was stronger than it had been below. The balcony before them led to the top of the wooden scaffolding. At its center Rita turned around to study Mathias through the line of soldiers.
Amanda’s hands appeared to be tied behind her back. Although her face was blocked from view by her guards, Mathias could readily picture her sour look.
“I told him the story,” Gabriele called out to Rita over Mathias’ shoulder. “Didn’t think you’d mind?”
“Nope.”
Pushed in the back, Mathias advanced. People gazed at him from below.
The commotion had apparently settled. All around the plaza, resistance members had been detained and pulled away from the crowd.
Rita indicated Gabriele with a glance. “We’ve known each other for a couple of weeks. He told me everything, how he’d entered from outside and fallen in with your lot.”
“Our interests coincided, as they say. Fuerth doesn’t want refugees. Yet you and the resistance want to leave Quinta. This young lady, on the other hand, is of the opinion that all residents should stay here.”
And so he informed on the resistance?
“I refrained from taking immediate action,” Rita divulged. “Instead, I asked Gabriele to keep it up. I had him find out the names of your leaders, the location of your hideout, your next move.”
“You know I had a great time?”
“If it was just arresting the leaders, I could do it anytime. But that alone wouldn’t have meant much. I needed to round up every last member to demonstrate to the people of Quinta that it doesn’t pay to be involved in wrongdoing.”
Wrongdoing─the word choice bothered Mathias, but that was a trifle. “So you knew the whole time. That we planned to rescue Bernhardt and to stage an uprising.”
“Of course. That’s why I arrested Amanda.” She glanced at her former colleague standing beside her. “With such material, I knew you’d play into my hands.”
The platform, not entirely stable, swayed a bit each time the wind picked up. Moreover, unlike the balcony, it had no fence or guardrail. Leaning too far over the edge meant tumbling headfirst into the cobblestones below.
Gabriele spoke again. “As for that older guy being kinda tough, the young lady here came up with an easy solution.”
That was when Mathias finally caught up. “You poisoned him…”
Henning, Rita’s father─adoptive father, to be precise─had seen fit to brew a lethal mixture for residents who wished to take their own lives. It was because this had come to light that he’d been fed to the Titan in that very plaza.
Rita must have kept some of the poison. Gabriele had received it from her and mixed it into Bernhardt’s meal.
“How could you…” Bernhardt had died a dog’s death. Literally, dispatched with poisoned food. “Why?”
Mathias tried to accost Rita, but the guards stopped him before he’d moved one meter. Pain sparked from his shoulder through to the top of his head as they twisted his arm even tighter.
He asked Rita regardless: “Why cooperate with them?”
“What do you mean?”
“Fuerth wants to abandon us. Their only goal is to save themselves. Isn’t that exactly the kind of unforgivable behavior you hate?”
“I’m not forgiving it. But it’s not a problem we can solve by turning up on their doorstep. That would only cost us more lives. I have to put the people of Quinta ahead of my own feelings.”
“And so we reached an agreement,” Gabriele said. “Quinta will be free of royal government interference, a city unto itself. Pretending not to have seen a thing, I return to Fuerth. That’s the promise we made.”
“But that’s…”
Rita was in thrall to the idea of building a utopia where she was. Perhaps she couldn’t maintain her equilibrium any other way.
“That’s impossible, however you think of it. As I said this morning, we can’t subsist within these walls!”
“We’ll use the exterior, too.”
“Things will become unbearable.”
“The exact opposite. They’ll get used to it, soon enough. I’ll make them get used to it.”
“What kind of world─”
“Admit it.”
Rita glanced at the guards, giving them the signal. They took hold of Mathias’ wrists and pushed him forward by his shoulders. The soldiers next to Rita moved out of the way. Mathias was shoved through the opening, to the edge of the platform.
The view opened up before him.
The people of Quinta stood in a ring, a huge big ring. The Titan sat enshrined at the center, below Mathias and slightly off to the side.
It slowly faced up. The chains around its neck emitted a shrill groan.
It looked so melancholic.
“I was right, help is not on the way. No one will aid us.”
“Even then…”
Mathias tried to meet her eyes, but the guards prevented him from doing so. All he could do was face the Titan. Less than three meters separated them.
Nodding at the soldier next to her, Rita said, “Bye.”
Footsteps sounded behind Mathias as one of the soldiers came to stand next to him.
Raising a pale sheet of parchment, he began, “This man, Mathias Kramer…”
The charges against Mathias were read out loud: Breaking and entering with larcenous intent. Murdering a soldier. Partaking in the Night Harvest under a false identity. Disallowing the original participant from fulfilling his duty. Aiding a criminal’s escape. Trespassing on a forbidden area. Assembling with intent to disturb the peace. Amassing weapons…
There were too many to count.
Eyes as large as a baby’s head examined Mathias; to its right and to its left, the plaza Titan had its palms flat against the ground. Its haunches seemed to have risen up a fraction.
It was possible it knew it was going to be fed.
The soldier continued, the list seemingly endless.
The crowd observed. None of them could save Mathias.
He was going to die.
Rita was going to kill him.
He felt a sting of regret. He wanted, there at the end, to be hearing her voice─not the young soldier’s strained tones, but her soft ones.
Then he noticed it.
For some reason the residents were looking away, one after another. Away to Mathias’ left, southward.
Maybe they were getting bored. Hurry up and throw him off, feed him to the Titan! If that was what they were signaling, though, why were they all looking in the same direction? It wasn’t part of the ritual as far as Mathias knew; even he’d have heard of such a thing.
The crowd began to stir.
At first the change was limited to a small part, but it began to spread, like a wave, until virtually all of them had their attention focused southward. Some were pointing up at the sky, interjecting with frozen expressions…
Mathias, too, craned his neck.
Turning to face south as well, the soldiers on the platform had their faces angled up.
In the distance, atop the wall surrounding the district, was a small black lump.
It grew larger until a face, then bare shoulders and a chest, became visible. Walking along the top of the great wall that stretched far to the south was a stark-naked man.
Had a pervert clambered up there without the soldiers realizing? Or had one of the soldiers themselves lost it and stripped bare?
No, that wasn’t it.
“Titan…” the word escaped Mathias’ lips.
Impossible.
A Titan on the small side was approaching Quinta on Wall Maria itself.
Screams exploded throughout the plaza.
The crowd began to stampede to the avenue on the north. Jostled, their clothes pulled, tripping, one after another they fell, to be trampled on by others coming up from behind. The crowd clambered over itself, angry shouts mixing with the screaming.
It was lucky there were no children─no parent wanted their own to see a feeding Titan─but the elderly and weaker women were being thrown aside, knocked down, kicked, and left behind.
Just as Mathias thought it was the only Titan approaching, a second came into view. As they were on a fifty-meter wall, they seemed small, but had to be at least three meters tall. This was clear in comparison to the cannons lined along the way.
Catching its foot on a set of rails there to move the weapons, the first Titan flapped its arms.
“Swords. And the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment,” Amanda’s cold voice rang out.
Everyone on the platform turned to look at her. They were all frozen to the spot, unable to process what was happening. Rita was no different, the color drained from her face, her hands half open and trembling.
“Forget executions and who’s a rebel. Anyone who can use the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment, head out. Everyone else needs to handle the crowd.”