“And you know nothing about Analeigh Frank’s research trajectory or how your brother, the rebel Jonah Vespasian, knew to arrive in time to rescue her from her sentence today?” Maude prodded.
I definitely didn’t know the answer to that, though I wished more than anything that I did. How had Jonah known Analeigh was in trouble? Why had he come to save her but left me behind? “No, ma’am.”
“And Oz?” Darya’s feeble voice crackled like old paper.
“I know nothing of Analeigh’s research, Elder Gagarin. Or of any pirate activity.” He said the last part with such disdain there could be no doubt how he felt about my brother.
“You should know that Miss Beckwith has been sanctioned heavily and her certification will be delayed one full year.” Maude raised her eyebrows at me, but no one waited for me to answer.
I didn’t have anything to say. I already hurt so badly for Sarah I couldn’t stand it.
“You have been warned before, Miss Vespasian,” Zeke cut in. “Your multiple sanctions of cleaning duty seem to not have worked as a deterrent.” He sighed and sat back in his chair. “Of course, finding a cuff and not turning it over, then using it to travel without an overseer … that is more serious than carrying on a relationship with someone’s True or digging through unauthorized archives.”
The air in the room thickened and swirled, made it hard to breathe. The eight of them conferred about my sentence through their throat tattoos in whispers too soft to be overheard.
Oz reached out and slid his hand into mine, pulling me against his side. I wanted to push him away, but without him there, I might have fallen down. Instead, I leaned into his side.
“Your parents are hereby exiled to Cryon. You will complete your Historian apprenticeship, delayed one year and without any input into your specialization, and without further infraction, or you will join them.” Zeke pounded his gavel.
“No,” I gasped as my knees gave out.
Oz wrapped an arm around my waist, holding me up before the cold floor rushed up to smack me. My brain and body went numb. The tears that flooded my eyes, washed down my cheeks, and dripped off my chin were silent.
“Mr. Truman. Please see Miss Vespasian to her room and then return for your own sanction. Say your good-byes—the two of you would do well to avoid each other in the future.” Zeke glowered.
Oz nodded at Zeke and started to drag me away. My brain screamed, finally urging my feet into motion, and I broke away, rushing back toward the bench.
“Please, send me away. Please. Not my parents. They didn’t do anything wrong, they’re good people, they’re important. It’s me. I’m the bad one.” The words tumbled out, tripping over one another in a race to get off my tongue first.
The Elders didn’t answer. Not one of them responded to my pleas, their faces cold and stony in their refusal to recant their sentence of exile. Only Booth met my gaze, the tiniest bit of sympathy flickering in his rheumy eyes. Oz’s hands were gentle this time as they grabbed my waist and hoisted me off the floor, then prodded me out of the judgment chamber.
*
We made it almost back to my dorm before my mind snapped out of the fog. I jerked free from Oz’s grip, then whirled and slapped him across the face. “How could you?”
“How could I what? Save your life?” He took the strike without flinching, his stormy eyes roiling with a confusion of anger and hurt. “Or are you referring to my handling your business in Egypt since you obviously weren’t going to be able to do it on your own.”
The pain that spiked at the mention of Caesarion almost broke me in two. “Save me? By letting Analeigh get kidnapped? Breaking Sarah’s heart for the second time? If you would have let me go with Jonah …” I trailed off. There had to be a reason for Oz’s actions. All this time I assumed he’s been acting, been lying, the same way I had but now … what if he hadn’t?
When he kissed me the other night, when he followed me into Egypt … just now, when he’d confessed we had feelings for each other and handled me so gently … no. I shook away the stupid thought. He had a True, the chance at a lifetime with the one person in thousands of years who matched him. No way he could fight that feeling. I knew from experience, now.
“If you had run off with your brother, your parents would have probably been exposed. The penalty for having both of their children turn pirate, leave behind the System wouldn’t have reflected well. Not to mention you would be branded an outlaw, meaning both you and Analeigh would never be able to return.” He swallowed, blinking his eyes hard. “And let me worry about Sarah.”
Shame and guilt burned in my throat, making it hard to hate Oz more than I hated myself.
His face softened. “This way, your parents are alive. Analeigh was technically kidnapped, even though she was in trouble, so should anything change in the future she could still return.”
“What’s going to change, Oz?”
He paused, swallowing a half dozen times as his eyes swept the hallway. “I need you here, Kaia. You’re the only person who knows what’s going on.”
My laugh sounded like someone was trying to strangle me with a tube sock. “I have no idea what’s going on, Oz. And you heard them. If I put one more toe out of line, it’s curtains for me and my family.”
“I was running some trajectories last night on the Projector when everything started to hit the fan with Analeigh and Sarah. Kaia, I think there’s more going on, like you said. I don’t think the Projector is just to enhance our understanding of how things went wrong, and I don’t think the missions they’ve been sending me on are simply to test the validity of the trajectories. If they continue to alter such significant developments, it’s not only death for your family. It’s curtains for all of us.”
Epilogue
Sanchi, Amalgam of Genesis–51 NE (New Era)