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“As for the army, oh, God. I did what I could to diminish my efforts, but you know what Greaves is. He was very thorough about the training. I wanted to sabotage parts of it, but I couldn’t, not without jeopardizing my mission. Every time I pushed James on this, he pushed back even harder. He was adamant about the necessity of the files. He kept trying to tell me everything would work out, but how? Sixth Earth won’t intervene once the battling starts. They never have in all of Second Earth history and to do so would be to violate their most basic non-interference rule.”
Thorne shook his head. “So, somehow, we’re expected to believe that everything else you’ve done will justify the creation of an army. Not in a millennium is this going to make sense to me.”
Leto met his gaze. “James has been insistent from the first to trust in him, to have faith in the council’s wisdom. But I’m with you: How could building this army be right?” He shaded his face with his hand. “But there’s something else I have to tell you. It doesn’t have anything to do with military power, but I have a sick feeling that it could be worse.”
At that, Thorne could no longer remained seated. What could be worse than a standing army of this magnitude?
Leto, still sitting against the arm of the chair met his gaze then glanced at Marguerite. Thorne got a bad feeling.
Leto looked up at him again. “Greaves built five palaces on Second Earth, one each in Africa, the Andes, Chicago, Siberia, and Hong Kong. He’s already started moving Seers from his favorite Fortresses into these palaces. Of course palace in this case is a euphemism for ‘prison.’ They’re designed to harness, and I do mean harness, Seers together in order to achieve pure vision. No more guesswork with accuracy rates and incomplete visions. Which means, of course, that he’ll know the future.”
* * *
Marguerite rose from her seat only vaguely aware that her feet had left the ground. Something in her mind had gone dark and twisted. She stared down at Leto. “What did you say?” she asked. “He’s harnessing Seers together?”
Thorne stared up at her then for some reason blurred in her direction though she had no idea why except that suddenly she was looking down at him, way down.
She blinked and looked at the floor.
Whatever thought had stunned the levitation power into existence in the first place now fled her, and she plummeted. She would have hit hard but Thorne caught her.
“What the hell was that?” she asked. “What did I just do?”
“You levitated. I take it you’ve never done that before?”
She shook her head then pushed away from him. She headed toward Leto, who still sat on the arm of the couch as calm as you please, hollow-eyed but having stated so many horrible things that her body had started trembling. How could he have spewed so much horror and still be just sitting there? She wanted to hurt Leto, which wasn’t in any way fair to him. But the thought of Seers treated so badly split something within her wide open.
She turned away from him and began to pace. Her heart ached something fierce. She rubbed between her br**sts and made herself take deep breaths. God, it was almost as though she could feel those Seers crying out, wailing, or worse, living in such bleak despair that there were no more tears, no anguish, just a terrible wish for death. And death could not come to the near-immortal.
She walked in a big circle trying to calm down. Somehow this feeling was associated with her obsidian flame power. She stopped pacing and bent over. The ache began to grow until it became almost unbearable. She panted and rocked back and forth. She couldn’t breathe.
Thorne. She needed Thorne.
Help me, she called to him.
He came.
He rubbed her back. “What can I do?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“Endelle, can you help here?”
Marguerite lifted her head but Endelle shrugged. “This isn’t my gift. You need someone like Alison or Mr. Feel-Good over here.” She gestured to Diallo.
Diallo was already on his feet and crossed swiftly to Marguerite. He put his long black fingers beneath Marguerite’s chin and slowly began to lift. “Take a deep breath.”
She tried. She shook her head.
He kept lifting until she was standing upright once more, but her chest ached and she wanted to fall on her face and sob, something she never did. She just didn’t understand the cause of so much terrible grief.
May I speak with you like this, telepathically? he sent.
She nodded.
I sense two elements that have converged, my dear. Be patient and listen. You are sad for those who have been enslaved and you are sad for yourself. Your life has been as unbearable as what these Seers are about to endure, and I don’t just refer to your time of incarceration in the Convent.
She sent, How do you know so much about me?
His smile was soft. Your arrival in the colony has been foreseen for decades—just a hint here and there so I investigated. I know what your life was, Marguerite. I spoke with your parents about thirty years ago. They told me of their religious beliefs and of their method of discipline. You are feeling all that evil right now, that sense of being powerless as a child coupled with knowing what it was to be trapped in the Convent. All this forges the basis for your current suffering.
She had never told anyone about that, except Thorne. To have it acknowledged as evil changed something in her, and part of her lungs began to work again. She’d needed to hear that what had been done to her was pure evil.
Pure evil, he sent, as though understanding her exactly.
“And what Greaves intends to do,” she said aloud, “is also pure evil.”
“Yes.”
She felt weak and sick but Thorne was there, his arms around her, the nubby feel of his loose-knit cotton sweater soothing against her bare arms. She leaned against him, her new fortress against all this evil. And on some deep level she understood something about their fated relationship.
She twisted to look up at him. He stroked her cheek with the backs of his fingers. She was as much his fortress as he was hers. She knew it in the depth of her being. They had been this to each other from the first.
She turned back to face Diallo but kept her back pinned to Thorne’s chest.
“I hate that as Seers we have no rights. We never did.”
Endelle took to her feet since everyone else was standing. She directed her attention to Leto. “What I’d like to know is, why are there five palaces? Do I take it that there is a purpose for them beyond just glorified prison camps?”
