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“That’s—”

“You still haven’t remembered the first fortune.”

He has me there.

I’m still.

“Try to remember,” he urges. “I need to go and save your boyfriend now. Without assaulting a State Craftsman.”

And then he’s looking away. Stepping around me.

“Drake,” I say, with confusion – at the same time that Drake’s name echoes through the megaphone.

Dezeeves is calling for Drake?

I watch as Drake reaches the stairs. Clears them in seconds.

“Your statement, please,” Dezeeves says, once Drake is by his side.

“Cosmer was an excellent keeper,” Drake states, staring out at the crowd. He doesn’t even need the megaphone. His voice travels. “He did take out a weapon, but it was part of my Integration, for shooting practice – Approved Use.”

I look at Cosmer. Why isn’t he responding to these lies from Drake’s mouth – Drake, who he hates?

His eyes are closed. He’s swaying on the spot. I’ve never seen him like this. How much osimidite did they give him?

It takes everything in me not to run to him. Throw my arms around him.

Instead, I force myself to listen to Drake as he continues. “As for the skirmish in The Bridge, I wasn’t there, but can only think that Cosmer panicked when he saw the tank of osimidite and perhaps thought that he himself would be subjected to it. He confided in me about an addiction to it in his past.”

The last of the light is dripping out of the sky. Drake’s black eyes find me in the crowd, and I know he’s talking directly to me when he speaks again.

“Nor could he possibly be in an Inappropriate Relationship with Ara. She is engaged to me, and has been since before we arrived on the ship. Hence why we danced together at the morale booster.”

“Perfect,” Dezeeves says. “Thank you, Drake.”

Drake steps down off the platform. Dezeeves unfurls a piece of paper.

“I also have a statement here from Meglyn Sands, one of my first officers. While Cosmer acted irrationally in a high-pressured situation, and deserved his time spent in the brig, I would not consider his actions to have directly endangered anyone in The Bridge and warrant Execution By Airlock. He was disarmed quickly by Ephraine and arrested.”

Dezeeves folds the piece of paper. “Cosmer. Do you deny the charges?”

Cosmer mumbles something.

“Please note,” Dezeeves says, loudly, “for the record that Cosmer denies the charges against him. We now call forwards Cosmer’s State Craftsman, Vikemy Pire of Vikemy Village, to deliver the verdict.”

The sun dips. The sky is night.

Vikemy, who looks like a shadow now, doesn’t even step forwards. In a bored tone, he states, “Not guilty.”

“Excellent,” Dezeeves says. “Excellent.” He lowers the megaphone before chiming, “Time for dinner, I think.”

He takes Cosmer by the elbow, and leads him away.

“I-I don’t understand,” Riss stammers as we trudge down to the Mess Hall with the other pilots and soldiers. “Dezeeves clearly got Cosmer out of that, and it makes sense, since he’s his father. But why did Drake testify for him?”

I have no idea. The only time Drake ever did anything remotely helpful was when –

“Dezeeves must have made a deal with him,” I say.