“In that case,” Nascha spoke carefully, slowly, knowing this was the only chance to hear from a witness that she might get, “please tell us what you saw that day.”
“Happily. I saw a frightened boy cowering with his mother until he was pulled away and tossed to the will of the priests. I saw his brother weeping as they pushed him forward. I saw him nod to the others in a show of support. I saw them all stand firm, together, and refuse to enter the twelfth tunnel. I saw Cosmo of House Viper arrive and start screaming at them about the gods’ will. I heard him ask the priests why the tunnel wasn’t forcing them to enter and the priests stumble over their explanations. Then I heard him say that if the twelfth wouldn’t force them in, he would. I watched him take the sword from his daughter’s belt, raise it high in the air, and bring it down upon the neck of a weeping fifteen-year-old boy.”
He paused and the air seemed to thicken. The crowd held a collective breath as Harrison turned to offer Cosmo a glare I thought might burn straight through him.
“I saw his head roll across the Deck,” he continued, punctuating every word with a snarl ripped straight from his heart. “I saw his mother collapse, his brother disappear, and a family destroyed before my very eyes. I saw the Patriarch of House Viper wipe his daughter’s blade on his pants, hand it to her, and walk away. I saw the members of the other Houses appear and condemn his actions while the blood of an innocent dyed the cobblestones red. I picked up that mother. I helped her to her feet and back up to her home on the Third. I stayed with her all night. I wiped her tears and held her hand and watched as our ring fell apart, once again, because of the actions of a man with too much power.”
Shocked murmurs broke out at that. I watched those nearest me gasp and whisper behind their hands and my gaze narrowed at Harrison. What was he doing? What was he saying?
“It is the will of the gods that the Culled should go to their service,” Cosmo drawled a moment later, seemingly unaffected by Harrison’s impassioned recounting of events. “Should one intend to circumvent the will of the gods, it is our duty to steer them forward in the proper direction.”
“We are not finished with the witness, Sir Viper,” Raghnall bit out.
“Am I not to have a chance to refute the boy’s tale?” Cosmo asked, placing a hand on his chest and feigning offense. “Am I to stand here and allow his lies, allow him to dramatize the events and sully my good name? Is this a trial or a witchhunt?”
More gasps arose and the crowd was muttering so loudly now that Raghnall had to smack his fist on the table to quiet them.
“You will get a chance to mount your defense,” Nascha announced, keeping her emotions on a tight leash as she projected cool confidence, “as soon as we’ve finished hearing from the witnesses.”
“Witness,” Cosmo corrected. “You only seem to have one who brings forward any sort of accusation against me. One whom I’ve verbally sparred with in the past, and publicly. It’s no secret that this boy harbors no affection for me or for any of my peers in the First Ring either. Just listen to the way he speaks of his ring ‘falling apart, yet again’ by someone he deems too powerful. He despises us and everything we have above him. That hatred, or envy as it is, comes out in his speech whether he intends it to or not.”
Muttering turned to outright talking as the crowd debated which side they were on. I saw more than one dubious glance cast toward Harrison and the Tribunal and had to reign myself in to keep from shouting at the top of my lungs how very idiotic they all were.
“We are chosen by the gods to lead,” Cosmo continued, turning on his box so he faced the crowd. “Our families are blessed for their strength in body, mind, and spirit with the opportunity to lead others into the light. Despite our latest successes in the gods' Trials, despite the recent growth of our Cullings, despite all evidence that the gods are back and intervening once more in our lives, this boy and those like him spit in the face of the divine. He challenges the priests, the Houses, and the gods. He speaks of misplaced power with the intent to take that power for himself. He’s nothing but a dangerous heretic waiting for his chance for insurgency.”
“Liar,” Harrison hissed. “I saw you kill that boy. That’s all that matters, Viper. That’s why we’re here.”
“Is it? Take off your shirt.”
I blinked, caught off guard and certain I hadn’t heard him correctly. Beside me, Milo’s brows furrowed in confusion to match my own and Paxon murmured something to him I couldn’t hear. The whispers were back but I turned towardHarrison who’d gone entirely still, jaw locked and muscles frozen.
“What is the meaning of this, Cosmo?” Raghnall barked out impatiently.
“If the witness would comply, I do believe it’s vital for my defense,” Cosmo drawled, glancing lazily over to the Lynx Patriarch.
Raghnall sighed loudly.
“Very well,” he said. “Off with the shirt, boy.”
Harrison didn’t move. He just stood as still as stone, glaring at Cosmo as if he were only seconds away from darting across the Deck and throttling him with his bare hands. Normally, I’d be elated to see it, but something felt off in that moment. Something felt wrong. Why wasn’t he moving? He’d been given a direct order from the Tribunal and a simple one at that, yet he wasn’t complying.
Raghnall’s expression shifted from bored to suspicious along with the rest of the crowd as the Patriarch of Lynx leaned forward in his chair and repeated his request.
“The shirt, boy,” he said. “Take it off.”
Harrison’s jaw worked for a moment before he reached for the hem of his grey cotton tee shirt. In one fluid motion, he pulled it up and over his head.
Time stood still as I stared, along with several hundred other pairs of eyes, at the massive tattoo stretching across his lean muscled back of three interlocking rings with a spiderweb upon them.
That’s when the arch of the twelfth tunnel exploded.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Milo
Smoke and dust coated my lungs so that I couldn’t breathe. I hit the cobblestones with a jarring sensation. Pain shot through my right arm and there was a ringing in my ears so loud I could hear nothing else.
“–have him,” someone was saying close by and a body was on top of mine, stretched out, shielding me. “Get to Nascha.”
