Jess Granger - Realms Beyond - 1 by Beyond the Rain

Author:Beyond the Rain [Rain, Beyond the]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-01-16T17:27:12.129000+00:00

“It‟s funny the things you remember,” she mumbled, feeling suddenly connected to him somehow. Her words caught in her chest, words she had never spoken aloud, even to Vicca when they were alone in the dark. She looked down at her hands, the hands he had washed clean. “I fell in the mud, it was all over my hands.” Her voice didn‟t sound like it was coming from her, but from somewhere far away. She pulled her leg back and tucked it close to her body.

“I was so scared,” she continued, “and my head hurt from where the high-hawk hit me. He ripped off the rag I used as a dress then laughed as I struggled to get my feet under me. I didn‟t think—I don‟t really remember anything but the mud on my hands, and the dark mark it made on his chest when I lashed out and landed a heart-strike. I had never done one before. I don‟t think any of the other Elite can do it, kill with a single strike to the chest. How did I kill him? I don‟t ever remember learning how to do it.” She looked at him. “How did I kill him?”

Soren reached out and took her hand in his.

“The bodyguards caught me. I was so shocked I couldn‟t run. They beat me until I was just at the edge of consciousness. They even denied me the escape of passing out. Then they dragged me up to the Halls of Honor to face my execution for murder.”

“Did you have a trial?” Soren asked.

Cyani huffed under her breath. “People from the ground have no rights, least of all to a fair trial. No one cares—they don‟t even think we‟re human. It didn‟t matter that my mother and father were both highborn. On my planet, I am worth less than nothing because I was born on the ground. You should have heard them chanting for my death, like it was a sport or entertainment.

I had no trial, only another vicious beating that left me unconscious for two days and an ultimatum.”

“How old were you?” he asked.

“Thirteen,” she admitted. “I was barely a woman.”

“You were still a child,” Soren argued. “What was the ultimatum?”

“The leader of the Elite saw me. She stopped the execution. I guess a thirteen-year-old landing a clean heart-strike impressed her. She started me on the path to become one of the Elite in spite of the others who wanted me dead. If I survived, if I obeyed every rule, every code, and I didn‟t disappoint her, she said she would find my brother and raise him up to the high cities. If I failed .

. .”

“They‟d finish what they started,” Soren concluded. “I‟m sorry, Cyani.”

“For what?” She shrugged. It was her lot in life. That was all.

“I‟m sorry I didn‟t realize you have been enslaved as much as I have.”

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