The First Star To Fall by Diana Peterfreund

Author:Diana Peterfreund [Peterfreund, Diana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-11-30T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Four

This was so much worse than the images Persis had seen of the queen in her cell. In the reports, she could have been like any other Reduced, like the histories Persis and every other child in New Pacifica had been raised on. In real life, the Reduced prisoners were monstrous, sickening, wrong. This wasn’t Reduction. This couldn’t be. This was torture.

And worst of all, she knew them. Two of the prisoners were the queen’s handmaidens, the very same ones she’d eaten with the last time she’d come to Queen’s Cove. One crouched on the ground, keening and rocking back and forth. Another was eating cinder sand. The third prisoner was a little girl, maybe five or six. She stood, swaying, her vacant eyes wandering until they lighted on Persis, and she cocked her head in something that might have been mistaken for curiosity. Persis tugged lightly on Andrine’s shoulders, preferring the unknown dangers of the crowd to this horror. But it was too late.

The guard watching the prisoners noticed them staring. “Get a good look at this scum! Used to be the queen’s handmaidens.”

Even the youngest? Persis thought, but did not say. She had no memory of the child from her picnic at the Cove. Had the girl been sent to court sometime after Persis’s last visit? Was she, perhaps, the daughter of one of these other women?

“They were supposed to watch the proceedings,” the guard continued, “but dealing with Reduced is like herding cats. No better than babies.”

“Is the queen’s whole court Reduced?” Andrine blurted.

“Wouldn’t that be nice,” the guard replied and spat on the ground. “These were the first to get dosed with the Reduction drug, after the queen. But Citizen Aldred’s got plans now. Aristos better watch their step. They’re not in charge anymore. The Reduction is back, and this time, it’s us regs who will reap the benefits. Us regs who will rule the world.”

Persis swallowed her disgust and forced herself to say, “Long live the revolution.”

“Long live the revolution,” the guard replied cheerfully. “Tell me, did you see the bitch queen get chucked over the cliff? How long did it take her little fishies to eat her?”

“I—I didn’t see. Too crowded,” Persis managed, then grabbed Andrine’s hand and melted back into the throng.

“Persis—please, I—” Andrine said, then retched. People parted on either side of them.

“Too much kiwine,” Persis called with a flirty giggle, and tugged Andrine away before anyone looked at them too closely.

Andrine was wiping at spittle with her injured hand and making incoherent sounds as they pushed through the last surge of the crowd. Random exclamations about the queen and the handmaidens and Isla that didn’t add up to sentences.

“I know,” Persis said in a low voice, and put her arm around her friend’s shoulder. And she did. Persis had been no fan of the old Queen Gala. She’d been no friend to her snobby and bigoted retinue. But she couldn’t ignore the blank horror in the handmaidens’ eyes. This was not Reduction, whatever the Galateans wanted to call it.

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