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“It doesn’t matter,” I say. “Nothing matters.”
Rath seems less confident, but he says nothing. I am sure he has some devious and thoroughly deviant plan to entertain the king.
“Thank you, Tyvian,” Rath says. “We will not keep the king waiting, nor will we disappoint him.”
We walk to the court in silence. There is too much between us now. I used to feel so incredibly close to Rath without knowing anything as to why. Now I feel distant with all the knowledge of the horrendous past.
The court doors open and Rath ushers me naked before those who would judge me and find me guilty, quite correctly.
I’m not playing this little charade again. Remembering alI I have lost, and realizing the ultimate futility of trying to escape the consequences of it, I am not going to put myself through another session. It might seem as though I have no choice, but there’s always a choice, even if you don’t see it.
King Krush is waiting for us. He is closer to the dais than ever before, and I am finally able to observe him in the way everybody should be able to confront the one who will bring their death. I hid my gaze from him before. I did not want to take his horrible royal visage in. But I will not hide anymore.
He is an incredible creature. All korabi have different colorations, but the royal line is burnished gold. I do not know if it is natural, or an augmented affectation. I know that his golden hair flows down over metallic shoulders, and his eyes are silver, narrowed with rage. He is handsome, in a way all very dangerous things are handsome.
I see death in his eyes, and I embrace it. There is but one way out of this cycle of tragedy and destruction. By ceasing to exist, I will have absolved myself of my sins against all the many I have hurt.
“You’ve killed a lot of humans in your life, Rath,” I murmur. “Time to kill the last one.”
“Don’t do anything stupid,” he growls in my ear. But it is too late. I thoroughly intend to do something stupid. And brave. And right.
I extend my arms and address the court. “I killed your king. I shot the rocket that hit his vehicle and I watched him melt into the tarmac, nothing more than meat.”
“She remembers! Execute her!” King Krush practically foams at his pointy-toothed mouth. “Rath K’zar! Redeem yourself and coat the dais with the blood of this human!”
Rath stares at me. He cannot refuse his king. He has to kill me, or face being slain himself. I have pushed him into this mad place as a sick form of vengeance against the both of us. Neither one of us deserve to be happy. When we indulge our petty lusts, we betray our own kinds. We should both meet our ends here and now. Death is the only romance we truly deserve. I cannot stop thinking of all those who have been lost, and all those who will be hurt if this unnatural connection between us is not brought to an end.
“Do it,” I tell him. “It’s the only way this can end. It is the only way it should end.”
He sold me out once before. He sacrificed dozens of lives to save his own sorry hide. I know that at his core that same cowardice is still lurking. He will kill me, and I will be relieved of the burden which has been with me unseen all this time.
But he does not kill me.
Instead he grabs me around the waist and he runs back through the doorway which leads to the cells. What a futile dash. What a complete waste of time. What a…
The side of the hall passage opens up, the wall itself becoming a door. He dashes inside it, covering my mouth with his massive hand to stop me from screaming out as a dozen soldiers erupt out of the royal chamber in hot pursuit.
“What are you doing?” I ask the question as he bundles me down what appears to be a secret tunnel. I’ve been in a lot of secret tunnels in my time, I recognize this instantly. The cloak of darkness, the roughness of ill-prepared walls, the perpetual chance of the unstable roof above us caving in and finishing the job…
“Saving your life,” he growls. “I am not going to kill you. Even if you want me to.”
“Why not? You captured me. You brought me to the king. You did everything they wanted you to do…”
“My plan was to punish you to the satisfaction of the court, then have a body produced which looked like yours and claim you had perished in custody. My plan was not for you to tell the king you melted his father like a plastic toy.”
