by Brenda Hiatt
“Mol? What’s up?” Sean says as she reaches us, her expression almost panicked.
“It’s…” She glances at me, then leans over to whisper in Sean’s ear.
Now he looks alarmed. “Right. Let’s get Mum and Dad.” Jumping to his feet, he takes two steps, then turns back to me. “I, uh, sorry, Kira. Change of plans. See you later!”
He and Molly rush off, leaving me sitting there with my mouth half-open. What the efrin? An emergency, obviously. To do with the Sovereign? What else could have galvanized them like that?
“Kira, you joining us?” Pete breaks into my puzzling. “You can ride with me if you want.”
“Uh, sorry, I need to find my sister.” I barely glance at him before turning back to watch Sean and Molly, now speaking earnestly to their parents near the entrance. “You guys have fun.”
If something’s happened to the Sovereign, the Populists could— I break off that thought, a twinge of guilt assailing me. I don’t really want M hurt—or worse. Do I?
Feeling oddly unsettled, I head down the stands to collect Adina and Jana.
When Adina and I get back to our apartment after the game, Mum seems distressed. “Did you see tonight’s MARSTAR bulletin?” she asks the moment we walk through the door.
I hurriedly pull out my phone to punch in the MARSTAR code, sure it must have something to do with why the O’Garas and Rigel rushed off after the game. Instead, it’s just an addendum to last week’s bulletin—something about the Sovereign and Rigel Stuart using their supposed graell bond to help stop the Grentl.
I’m not disappointed it isn’t bad news, but I do feel slightly let down. “The Sovereign probably made the Council send this to legitimize them getting back together—and to keep Rigel out of trouble for the way he played football tonight.”
“Don’t say that, Kira,” Mum admonishes me. “According to this, Rigel is a true hero. We should never have believed all that gossip or listened to those terrible things people said about him.”
She and Dad keep talking about how they’ve misjudged him, so I go to bed before I can say more than I should. Because it’s beyond unfair that Rigel’s being lauded as a hero after openly inviting suspicion tonight while my parents got chastised for nothing more than being hospitable.
* * *
“Hurry, girls, or you’ll be late for your very first class,” Mum says from the door to our bedroom, where Adina and I are both doing homework late the next morning.
I look up, confused. “Class? It’s Saturday. There’s no school today, is there? Don’t they follow the regular five-day Duchas week?”
“She means our first Taekwondo class.” Adina snaps her notebook shut, looking both excited and nervous. “Don’t you remember? Mum told us she signed us up.”
Now I do remember. “Oh, yeah. It’s a martial arts thing, right?”
Mum nods eagerly. “The instructor said it’s wonderful for balance, focus and exercise, as well as for self-defense. And…” Her smile widens. “I understand the Sovereign is one of his students, which will give you another chance to make friends!”
“Lovely,” I mutter under my breath.
Though if something did happen to the Sovereign last night, maybe the Council’s keeping it quiet to avoid panicking people, like they apparently did for months with the whole Grentl thing. If my guess is right, it could be just the opportunity Crevan Erc has been waiting for. Suddenly more interested in going to this class, I close my Calculus book and start getting ready.
The Taekwondo school is close enough that Adina and I walk there. Mum comes too, supposedly in case she needs to sign anything. I suspect she really hopes to see the Sovereign again, even after what happened Thursday night.
There’s no sign of the Sovereign when we arrive. I’m already mentally composing the message I’ll send to Dun Cloch if she doesn’t show, when she walks in. Disappointment hits me, then guilt for feeling disappointed, then anger at myself for feeling guilty.
Haven’t I believed for years that the greater good outweighs that of any one individual—including myself? It’s how I justified the risks I took for the Resistance. Surely the one individual we’d all be better off without is this girl, now coming toward me with a smile.
“Hi, Kira, hi, Adina! Welcome to Jewel Taekwondo Academy. Master Parker said we might have some new students today, but he didn’t say who.”
“Th-thanks,” is all Adina can manage, so I take over.
Stifling my disappointment, I force an answering smile. “Yeah, thanks. Our mum thought it would be good for us—teach us new skills.”
Not that I expect to get much out of it. Back in my Resistance days, I studied every self-defense move I could, in case Hollydoon was overrun by Faxon’s goons again. I expect this class to be pretty simplistic in comparison.
The instructor calls us to order, has us line up by rank, then introduces the new students to the rest of the class. In addition to Adina and me, Grady is here, as well as two middle-school Echtrans, Sarah and Jeremy.
“Because we have so many newcomers today, we’ll warm up with some basic kicks. Everyone, move to the north end of the do jang and make four rows of three each.”
He asks an older black-belt girl to demonstrate front kicks and roundhouse kicks for us, then has us all kick up and down the floor for a while. We then do a stepping drill that reminds me of a warmup we used to do for caidpel, moving forward and backward on command. I’m starting to get bored when he announces we’ll move on to simple sparring.
“Those of you with pads, put them on. You new students don’t have sparring gear yet, so I’ll pair you with someone experienced enough not to hurt you.”
The existing students lace each other into thick red-and-blue body protectors, then add shields for forearms and shins and padded helmets. At this reminder of how breakable Duchas are, I whisper a quick caution to the younger Echtrans not to kick too hard.
Master Parker pairs us all up. To my secret delight, I find myself opposite the Sovereign, the one person here I don’t have to worry—much—about hurting. “Kyun yet!” he calls out and we all bow to our opponents.
“Don’t worry, I’ll go easy on you.” The Sovereign—M—grins at me. “You can kick me as hard as you want, though, since I’m wearing pads.”
You know you want to! her expression says so clearly, I almost hear the words in my head. Like she knows exactly what I think of her and is daring me to do my worst.
“Ready, shijak!” Master Parker calls.
As everyone springs into action, my opponent bounces lightly on her feet, watching me. Without warning, her right foot flashes out and grazes the front of my uniform, then she’s bouncing again. Startled by the speed of that kick, I involuntarily skip back a few inches, then aim a kick of my own at her chest guard.
Not quick enough. She easily dances out of the way before I make contact. Though I immediately follow up, I’m still too slow—almost like I have a mental block against hurting this particular girl. Which is ridiculous.
She grins again, then spins around backward, her heel brushing my ponytail with a kick so fast I barely see it. “C’mon,” she murmurs so no non-Echtran can hear. “You can do better than that, can’t you?”
Narrowing my eyes, I give a quick nod. Dabhal right, I can—and I’ll prove it. Forcing myself to forget who she is, I pretend she’s a caidpel opponent who’s out of line and needs taking down a peg—or one of Faxon’s enforcers. I skip sideways, then lunge in with another kick, much faster this time. But just before the ball of my foot makes contact with her chest guard, she blocks it with her padded forearm, then instantly counters with another kick of her own.
It’s obvious she’s holding back—otherwise that kick would have landed me on my backside, because I’m still not dodging quickly enough. What’s the matter with me? I’m the trained athlete, here! Her belt is blue, not black. She can’t be that good, Echtran or not.
I redouble my efforts to connect with a kick, using every caidp
el and self-defense move I can adapt to the situation, but when the instructor blows his whistle, I still haven’t touched her.
Master Parker gives us all a minute to catch our breath, then comes over to the two of us. “That looked like quite a match you had going there. Have you practiced Taekwondo before, Kira?”
“Not Taekwondo, sir, but some other martial arts, though it’s been a while.”
“It shows. I’m going to loan you a set of pads. Then we’ll see what you can really do.”
No way I’ll admit I was already giving it my all. “Thank you, sir.”
I spend the next round getting geared up, though I’m sure all this clumsy padding will just slow me down. Then I’m facing the Sovereign again.
“You still want me to hold back? It is your very first class, after all.” She looks amused, which ticks me off.
“Don’t you dare.”
This time I put everything I have into the match, determined to give as good as I get, and more. Except…I can’t. And not because I’m holding back. No matter what I do, she’s too quick for me. Now that she’s not pulling her kicks, she repeatedly knocks me back, hard. More than once, it’s all I can do to avoid falling down—as any Duchas, or even non-athlete Echtran, certainly would.
The whistle blows and Master Parker has us all shake hands and bow out before getting out of our pads.
“You really are good,” the Sovereign whispers as she unties the laces on the back of my chest guard. “I considered letting you beat up on me, get whatever it is you have against me out of your system. But you told me not to hold back, so I didn’t.”
My grudging respect for her abruptly turns to irritation at her patronizing tone. “I don’t need any favors from you, okay?”
I expect my rudeness to anger her, but she just looks at me for a second, then smiles. “Okay. It’s pretty obvious you don’t like me much. If you ever want to talk about it, I’m willing to listen.”
She moves away to help one of the younger kids out of his pads and I stare after her. Why is she being so…nice to me? For a moment my resolve to hasten her downfall wavers, but then I stiffen my spine.
So what if she’s nice? Nice is hardly a qualification for an effective leader.
“That was actually kind of fun,” Adina admits as we walk back to Diamond View Terrace a few minutes later. “I saw Master Parker talking to you and the Sov…er, M. What did he say?”
“He asked if I already knew Taekwondo. I couldn’t very well tell him about caidpel or the self-defense I learned in the Resistance, so I just said I’d done some other martial arts.”
“So, is the, um, M any good?”
Grudgingly, I nod. “A lot better than I expected, yeah. Better than me,” I force myself to confess.
“Hey, it was just your first class.” Adina echoes M’s words. “Plus there’s that graell thing she and Rigel have. Last night’s MARSTAR bulletin said it helped them fend off the Grentl. Maybe the graell makes her stronger and faster, too, like in the fairy tales.”
“You don’t really believe that, do you?”
She shrugs. “There was also that report Regent Shim sent out in Nuath last week,” she reminds me. “Those Scientists wouldn’t have lied about those tests they supposedly did, would they?”
I shrug. “Maybe, if the Sovereign told them to. Even if they didn’t, I don’t see how having some kind of mental link with her former Bodyguard will make her a better leader. It’d probably just distract her from what she—” I break off at the sight of Sean O’Gara sitting on the bench in front of our apartment complex.
He spots us at the same time and gets to his feet. “Hey. I was hoping I might catch you, since I don’t have your number. I, um, wanted to apologize for rushing off like that last night, especially after asking you to, er—” He glances at Adina and hesitates.
My sister is staring at him, her mouth half-open. Not until I catch her eye and raise my brows meaningfully does she stop gawking.
“Oh. I, um, I’ll let Mum know we’re back, okay?” With more than one glance over her shoulder, she hurries into the complex courtyard, leaving us alone.
“Will you let me make it up to you?” Sean still sounds apologetic. “Tonight, maybe? They have live music at the Lighthouse Cafe Saturday nights.”
Instead of answering, I ask, “So why did you rush off last night? It looked like there was some kind of emergency.”
“There sort of was, but it all turned out okay. Anyway, would you like to go? A bunch of kids from school will probably be there.” I get the feeling he added that part to make it sound less like he’s asking me on a real date.
Only because I still have nothing of substance to send back to my co-conspirators in Dun Cloch, I reply, “Sure, I guess so. I don’t have any other plans for tonight and my homework’s nearly done already.”
He gives me that grin that lights up his face. “Awesome. Do you want me to swing by around seven-thirty or would you rather meet there?”
“I’ll, ah, meet you there, if that’s okay.” I definitely don’t want to risk Mum going all twittery around him. “Should I, um, call you or something if I can’t go for some reason?” I can’t imagine why I’m feeling so awkward. Back in Nuath, guys asked me out all the time and I never got tongue-tied like this.
“Good idea, let’s exchange numbers. You have your phone with you?”
Nodding, I pull it out of my pocket, glad it looks just like everyone else’s despite its special features.
“What’s your number? I’ll text you, then you’ll have mine.”
I tell him and he immediately punches it into his own phone. A moment later his text pops up and I add it to my contacts. “Cool. I’ll let you know if anything else comes up.”
“Thanks. Well, I, um, guess I’ll see you tonight.” He seems a little tongue-tied himself, which makes me feel better. “Bye till then.” With a grin and a wave, he saunters off.
I stare after him as he walks away, watching his easy stride and the way his shoulders—
Shaking my head, I turn away and head back to our apartment. True, part of my mission is to get Sean to like me enough to want to spend time with me, tell me things he might not tell anyone else. But I absolutely can’t afford to let that liking become mutual.
19
One-on-one
Sean
The Lighthouse Cafe is already filling up when I get there at a quarter past seven, but I still manage to snag a small table in the corner—one with only two chairs and far enough from the other tables for private conversation. Several friends of mine come in over the next ten minutes, but though I return their waves, I don’t invite any of them over. It was tricky enough convincing Dad and Molly I wanted to come here instead of accompanying them to a movie without saying why. Though it’ll all be for nothing if Kira doesn’t show…
For at least the fifth time, I check my phone in case I missed a text or call from her. I’m putting it back in my pocket when she walks in. Framed by the doorway, her dark auburn hair catches the setting sun behind her and glows like red chocolate. It’s weird how she seems to get prettier each time I see her.
Frowning slightly, she gazes around the restaurant until I stand up and wave. Her frown disappears and she moves my way—but is almost immediately intercepted by Matt Mullins and another guy from the football team. They start talking and she nods and replies, looking slightly bored. Then, with a fake-looking smile, she leaves them to continue toward me.
“Hey,” I greet her. “Glad you could make it.”
Her smile is slightly more genuine this time. “Hi. So it’s, um, just you after all? Or are your friends coming later?”
Oops. I forgot I made it sound like it’d be a group, for fear the thought of a one-on-one would scare her off. “Uh, they might show up later.”
I wait till we’re both sitting down to add, “I was kind of hoping we’d have a chance to talk a little about…well, without being overheard.”
“Right.”
Despite the knowing glint in her eye, I’m not here to flirt with her. I just want to get to know her a little better.
This week’s band starts tuning their guitars, providing extra cover for our conversation on top of the general buzz of voices. I’m trying to think of a way to bring up caidpel that won’t sound like I’m gushing when she asks a question of her own.
“So, what was your emergency last night that turned out to be a false alarm?”
Caught off-guard, I blurt out, “Not a false alarm, exactly. It could have been bad if we hadn’t arrived in time. But we, um, did.”
“In time for what?” She leans forward, looking interested—which is distracting.
“To stop a crazy guy from hurting M and her aunt—though it’s possible she’d have managed it on her own. Hard to tell.”
Her eyebrows go up. “So somebody did try to hurt the Sov—er, M—last night? Why?”
“Like I said, he was crazy—though in this case he was sort of right. He apparently overheard something M’s uncle said in a bar and decided there was going to be an alien invasion. Or something. Not sure what the whole story was.”
“Wait, you mean this was a Duchas?” It comes out a little loud, so she lowers her voice. “The—M told her Duchas relatives the truth about us—and now they’re telling everyone in Jewel? After everything they drilled into us about the importance of absolute secrecy?”
She’s clearly pissed, so I hasten to explain. “Not everyone, not even close. And it was my mum and another Council member who told M’s aunt. I guess she was getting suspicious after everything that happened last week. But her uncle was drinking and blabbed to some friends and this wacko guy heard him and things just…got a little out of control. Anyway, it’s all good now. He didn’t actually hurt anybody and shouldn’t remember anything about it after that stuff Dr. Stuart gave him.”
“Dr. Stuart? Is that Rigel Stuart’s dad?”