Daysider

“They could move today,” Alexia said. “Do you have enough daygear for all the Opiri willing to fight?” She glanced around at the others. “If they’re intent on getting inside these walls, you’ll have to kill all of them to stop them. And you have to find them first.”

“We will send our own scouts to meet them before they get close,” said one of the other Opiri, a female with short-cropped hair and unusually light eyes. She glanced from Damon to Alexia. “We have enough daygear for that, and we’re still stronger and faster than either dhampires or Darketans.”

“Some of us humans are very good at fighting, too,” Emma said with a pointed smile.

“And sneaking around, for that matter. We were all convicts, remember?”

“And some of you were no more than petty thieves,” Sergius said, “or less.”

Alexia stiffened. “Sergius is right,” she said in a strained voice. “They aren’t trained for this.”

“That is why we must evacuate them,” Sergius said. “Send them to the caves until this is over.”

Emma shook her head vehemently. “We ex-serfs have something here we never dreamed could exist outside the Enclaves,” she said. “Do you doubt we would defend it with our lives?”

“From your own kind?” Sergius asked mockingly. “Could you kill them, if you had to?”

“The ones who sent us to Erebus in the first place?” said the dark-haired human male named Cullen. “We aren’t Enclave citizens anymore. Whatever they want here, I doubt they’ll be too concerned with our welfare.”

“If that is true, why would there be a law against killing humans in Erebus?” Sergius asked.

“That law is a joke,” Cullen interrupted with open dislike. “Both sides know it. The strike force might not try to hurt us, but if we’re collateral damage...” He glanced at Alexia, who seemed to have some difficulty meeting his eyes.

“I can’t tell you anything,” Alexia said in a low voice. “I wish I could. The strike force isn’t made up of agents like me and Michael. They’re specially trained. As far as Eleutheria is concerned, I think we’re all in agreement. The fate of the colony is our fate.”

“I don’t think—” Sergius began.

“We could simply surrender,” Theron said.

Everyone fell silent. Then they all began to talk at once.

“Out of the question—”

“They’ll only—

“What makes you think—”

“Silence!” Theron said, his voice booming across the table. He swept his gaze over each of the council members in turn. “We built this colony on the precepts of peace, cooperation and freedom. We knew that this great idea might not survive the first time it was put into practice. I appreciate your willingness to die for it, but martyrdom will serve nothing. We must be alive to serve as living proof that this philosophy is viable.”

“You can’t surrender to a strike force,” Alexia said urgently. “It’s not an army. Since we have no idea what their orders are, there is no guarantee a mass surrender will make any difference.”

“Regardless of their reason for entering the Zone in force,” Theron said, “they surely have no intention of killing indiscriminately. If we fight, we cannot negotiate. If we put up no resistance, however, bloodshed, if there is to be any, will be minimized.”

“There will be bloodshed,” Sergius said in a tone just short of contempt. “If any Expansionists or Council agents are in the area, they will fight. Projectiles and bullets are no respecters of persons. If the Aegis operatives don’t attempt to kill us, someone else will.” He stood to face Theron. “As you so wisely said, when we began this colony, we knew the obstacles we would face and that a time would come when we would be compelled to make a difficult decision. Now that time has come.”

Damon watched Sergius out of the corner of his eyes. Nikanor, as he had been in Erebus, had never been particularly passionate about anything except long philosophical discussions, all on a theoretical plane. Like most Opiri, his emotional range had always been limited, particularly compared with Theron.

But he was passionate about this, and Damon found it more than merely strange.

Though it was hardly rational, given the little information Sergius had possessed at the time of Damon and Alexia’s arrival at the colony, Damon hadn’t forgotten the way Sergius/Nikanor had treated him. The fact was, he didn’t trust Sergius, rational or not.

“I propose that we evacuate the humans to the caves, as I suggested before,” Sergius continued. “Those Opiri who wish to leave with them may do so. The rest of us will stay and defend the settlement against any who would destroy it.”

Cullen and Emma immediately protested. The short-haired Opir woman nodded firmly. The remaining Opiri exchanged glances and then sat without speaking, their faces expressionless as they weighed the options.

“Sergius,” Theron said heavily, “I cannot prevent you or the others from fighting. I am a leader, not a tyrant. But I beg you again to think what you are doing.”

“I have thought about it,” Sergius said, holding the old Opir’s gaze like the young wolf who planned to be the next leader of the pack. “You should go with the humans, Theron.

You’ll be needed later.”

Theron shook his head. “I still hope to speak with the Enclave forces. I assure you, I have no personal wish for martyrdom, either, but it is my choice.” He looked around the table again. “Emma, I believe you, Cullen, Beth and Jonathan should help lead the others to the caves. If you will not think of yourselves, think of those who lack both the skill and the will to fight such a battle.”

Dropping her gaze, Emma stared at her folded hands. “Let some of us stay, so we can

—”

“All of you,” Theron said gently. “Please, go into hiding just until this is resolved.”

After a long hesitation, Emma nodded. Cullen and the other two humans pushed back their chairs and rose.

“We will gather the others,” Cullen said, “but we aren’t going to be ready to move until near nightfall.” He looked across the table at Alexia, inclined his head and left the room. Emma, Beth and Jonathan followed.

“One of us must accompany the humans,” Theron said to Damon, Alexia and the remaining Opiri.

“I will do it,” Sergius said. “As soon as they are safe, I will return to help defend the colony.”

“If the strike force and any other combatants are not already in the way,” Theron said.

“Agent Fox, earlier you were willing to remain with the colony at this time of crisis, even though by doing so you may be considered a traitor to your own people. You have no connection to us except through our human citizens. Again, I ask—is this what you want? Do you truly accept that you may face extreme sanctions from the Enclave if you do?”

Damon waited tensely, hoping she would change her mind. He hadn’t even suggested that she leave Eleutheria before the strike force arrived, because he had known what she would say.

Just as he knew what she would say now.

“I know that is possible,” Alexia said. “But it’s because I work for Aegis that I believe I am in a unique position to help There is something here that doesn’t exist anywhere else.” She rose to face Damon. “It’s the only place where Damon and I can be together, as equals, without fear of reprisal. I have to believe Eleutheria will survive this crisis and become stronger because of it. I want to be a part of the change it has begun, and the hope it represents.”

Her words stunned Damon, not because they were out of character, but because they were so much more than he had ever expected. Their relationship had always stood on shaky ground, and they had never questioned their divided loyalties.

Those loyalties, and the hatred their peoples had for one another, would ordinarily have made any thought beyond the present impossible. Until he had seen how Opiri and humans interacted in Eleutheria, he wouldn’t have believed there was any path around those seemingly immutable obstacles. Yet now Alexia spoke as if there might be a future, fragile as it was, and her eyes were asking him if he felt the same.

How could he accept what she offered? She was throwing aside her past, all her connections to her city, all the human parts of her life she had never shared with him. She was willing to accept the necessity that she might always need his blood to survive, and that he would continue to drink hers. And she knew she would be taking a Darketan who could become a savage every bit as subject to his emotions as a serf was to his Bloodlord.