The Stars Askew Read Free Page B

as his employer.
    At the rear of the group, the wide-eyed waif edged around the door and looked at the bodies with amazement. For a moment Kata felt as if she were in a play, some surrealist tragedy: enter the leader, enter the assassin, enter the urchin. Each would play his role.
    Ejan turned to Oskar. “This must remain secret. The city is already teetering precariously; if the citizens discover Aceline has died, who knows what vengeance they might take? We’ll take the bodies back to the Opera and bring the embalmers in.”
    â€œWait,” said Kata. “There may be answers here we haven’t yet discovered. They’ll be lost if we move too quickly.”
    No one moved. In the silence, Oskar sized up Dexion. Sensing his gaze, Dexion let out a soft and deep grumble, like the growl of a lion. Oskar’s eyelids twitched once before his impassive and dark stare returned.
    Kata stepped closer to Ejan. “You can’t stage-manage everything. Aceline deserves recognition. Her death is not only a personal matter, it is a matter for the entire movement. For the city. If we suppress it, how can anyone judge the truth of things? Freedom requires knowledge.”
    â€œThe dead don’t have rights,” said Ejan. “You know that people are already carrying out private vendettas. Our guards can barely keep the peace. Once Aceline’s murder becomes known, mobs will wreak vengeance on the city. Is that what you want?”
    There was truth to his words. In these overheated days, who knew what the consequences might be? But the seditionists had to rule in a new way. Kata shook her head. “We can’t continue the secrecies and lies of the Houses.”
    â€œAnd who are you to make this decision, Kata? Who do you represent?”
    Kata froze. She had no authority over Ejan, an acknowledged leader of seditionism. Kata remembered the great demonstration on Aya’s Day, which had led to the overthrow of the Houses. She recalled the way he and his troops had placed themselves at the head of the march, a symbolic position gained as much by audacity and assertiveness as by anything else.
    But Kata was only a foot soldier with a lifetime of crimes to make up for. She hated to think about the biggest betrayal of them all, informing Technis of the location of the seditionists’ hideout just before the overthrow of the old system. How many had been captured or died because of her? Aceline was one of them, Maximilian another. She couldn’t bear to think of it. A foot soldier was all she wanted to be.
    Ejan turned to Rikard. “What do you think?”
    Rikard took a breath. “I suspect these thaumaturgists are House agents. Blocking the grain supply and moving their ships up to the Dyrian coast surely isn’t enough for them, so they’ve begun a campaign of low-intensity warfare. Trying to decapitate the seditionist movement to leave it weak and confused.”
    â€œFind out who these thaumaturgists are and who they represent,” said Ejan. “I want to know what occurred here.”
    Words tumbled from Kata’s mouth. “I’ll work with Rikard.”
    Ejan shook his head. “You’d only be wasting your time.”
    â€œI’ll pursue it on my own, then. Aceline was…” Grief swept over Kata again. She looked at the tile floor, which blurred from the tears swimming in her eyes. She blinked.
    â€œWas?” Even Ejan’s inquiring look was unnerving.
    â€œShe was my friend, and you have no control over me. I’m sick of people telling me what to do, Ejan. I’ll do it whether you like it or not.”
    Ejan tilted his head to one side and eyed her calculatingly. “All right, then. You’ll work together, and report to me.”
    â€œI’ll report to Thom. He is the leader of the moderates now,” said Kata.
    Ejan shrugged and turned from her as more seditionists arrived, wrapping the bodies in blankets and