As we look on, Constantine steps forward with Caitoman at one side and me at the other, until we appear over the edge of the rampart so that the crowds can see us.
A roar goes up from below. People wave small scarlet flags furiously, so that it looks like an undulating sea. On cue, engineers stationed along the main thoroughfare light the series of round sconces lining the street. Sparks come from each one. I step closer to the Premier as if the sconces are weapons, but Constantine’s voice comes almost immediately through our link.
Don’t worry, Talin. They’re fireworks.
Fireworks, like what I’d seen during our mission here all those months ago. I stay back and watch, awed, as lights shoot up in trails from thesconces and explode high in the sky, illuminating the evening and the crowds with a rainbow of colors. The sound of the bursts shakes the ground.
I look on in stunned silence at the scene. People down below dance in front of the palace while lines of soldiers watch. The Chief Architect glances at me again with a look that I cannot read. She must have all sorts of ideas about how to fine-tune my transformation. Then she’s facing front again, her hands folded primly before her.
The Premier holds his hands out wide to either side. As the crowd quiets for a moment, General Caitoman clears his throat and speaks, his voice ringing out loud and reverent as he acts as Constantine’s mouthpiece.
“Your Premier has returned to a new Karensa Federation, united from sea to sea!”
The crowd bursts into cheers again.
Constantine smiles slightly and bows his head to his people. I know Caitoman speaks for him because the Premier lacks the strength to shout to such a crowd, but to the audience, it must appear as if Constantine has full authority over his brother.
“With the annexation of Mara into our territory,” Caitoman continues, “this new regional state can at last help us build up our energy source into something that will power us into a new age. Your Premier looks forward to continuing his work on expanding and improving our nation.”
At the same time, I hear Constantine’s command through our link.Show them.
I expand my steel wings so that they stretch behind the Premier, our combined silhouette so wide that the massive shadow it casts nearly reaches from one end of the palace to the other. The people below gasp at the sight of me.
General Caitoman goes on, a confident smile on his face. I keep my wings expanded like the circus show I am. I let his words wash over me in a numb wave, more about the glory of their enormous nation and their plans for the future, their pride in their people, and their commitment to always, always, always improving themselves. How did I become indifferent to this talk?
It takes me a moment to realize what the crowd below is chanting.
“Skyhunter! Skyhunter! Skyhunter!”
They’re delighted by the sight of me. To my surprise, I feel a current of unease coming from Constantine through our link. I glance at him to see his slight frown down at the people and the furrow of his brows. It’s the expression he gets when he’s uncertain or concerned.
With a start, I realize that he dislikes the way the crowd is enthusiastically shouting for me. Karensans love a show of strength, and I’m making the Premier look weaker by comparison.
Enough, he tells me through our link.
I instinctively pull my wings back. The people let out a chorus of disappointed shouts.
The words of Constantine’s advisor come back to me as I stand here, looking out at the people.They’ve declared independence.I keep scanning the crowds for the smallest sign of dissent, watching for whispers, people with their heads turned away from the scene before them and toward one another. Watching for more signs of the Federation’s weak spots.
At first, it looks like nothing but a sea of cheering people. But then, my keen vision catches a detail here and there. Murmurs. The occasional pair of eyes that dart away the instant the Premier looks in their direction. The odd citizen who does not raise their hands in applause at something the General just said.
I watch each of them as they move away, their frowns of discontent pointing at the Premier when he’s not looking and then away at the rest of the city when he is. I make a mental note of who they are.
Soon the speeches are over, and we are ushered down from the wall and back into a carriage that takes us down another thoroughfare. In the carriage behind us come the Chief Architect and General Caitoman, along with a third one of Constantine’s advisors.
It doesn’t take long to see where we’re headed next. Some distance ahead of us, past the thoroughfare’s row of installations, there is a gap between the displayed artifacts.
Sickness returns to my stomach. Already, the workers that had moved Mara’s pieces off the train are here, followed by giant rolling platforms pulled by teams of horses. The Maran sculptures have arrived, the pieces of the Waterfall each laid neatly out along the ground. Engineers had sent the measurements of the objects well ahead of our train, and I can see that workers have set up proper slots in the earth for the bones of the Waterfall to stand. For the lintel, they’ve set up two beautiful steel pillars at least ten feet high.
The crowds hush, jostling quietly in a wide circle around the garden, as the Premier steps off his carriage and takes his place in front of the installation area. As I look on, his engineers hoist each steel bone of the Waterfall with a series of ropes and pulleys, moving them carefully into place until they slide neatly into their respective slots. Other workers rush to weld each newly installed piece securely in place while the engineers move on to the next. One after another, the Waterfall comes back into existence, until it looks exactly as it did in Mara—only instead of being a sacred place, it is now the art of a conquered land made for the enjoyment of Karensans.
Beside the sculpture, they’ve already placed into the ground an engraved plaque written in both Karensan and Maran.
THE WATERFALL
ORIGINALLY FROM THE INNER CITY OF NEWAGE, MARA
A STRUCTURE FROM THE EARLY ONES,
