Emana blinked and lowered her weapon. She didn’t holster it but it was a step up from having it pointed at my face. Staring down the business end of a gun had turned my mouth dry.
“Is the showdown over already?”
The pistol was in Emana’s hands faster than I could blink. She spun around and aimed at the only other person present.
The ragged man who wrestled with Zes in Kal’s room. The scars seemed even more redraw down here. Maybe the dust was making them itchy.
“Hands up, buddy,” Emana said.
The ragged man raised them.
“Do you have any weapons?” Emana said.
“Besides my keen intellect?” the ragged man said.
I didn’t know he could talk. He hadn’t said a word in Kal’s room. He’d looked so despondent, I assumed he couldn’t speak.
But I’d seen him fight, and I didn’t want to take the risk he might snap out and grab one of us. There wasn’t a whole lot of space between us, the bars, and the wall.
I pulled the pistol out from my pants and aimed at the ragged man.
Emana was shocked to see it in my hands.
“You’re full of surprises,” she said.
“Against someone like you, I wouldn’t stand a chance,” I said. “But a man in a cell? That’s my kind of fight.”
We focused on the caged man.
“What happened to Kal?” I said.
“He was taken,” the ragged man said.
“By who?” Emana said.
“The Changeling guards,” the ragged man said. “Who else?”
“When did they go?” Emana said.
“About ten minutes ago. He was shackled, so he wouldn’t have gotten far.”
I shared a look with Emana. Ten minutes. We saw the stage being built earlier. It didn’t take Sherlock to put the pieces together.
“Thanks for your help,” I said as we tucked our pistols away and turned to leave.
“Wait,” the ragged man said. “Don’t you want to know what they’re going to do with him?”
“They’ll take him to the stage,” Emana said.
“For what purpose?” the ragged man said.
“To perform a play,” I said, growing impatient. “Why don’t you just tell us, if you know something?”
“You might have been joking, but you’re not far wrong,” the ragged man said. “He has to perform a role, a role I’m not sure he’s ready for but he’s going to have to play it if he wants to get through this day.”
Emana looked between us.
“Have you guys met before?” she said.
“Just once,” I said. “In Kal’s room earlier. He’s been bringing him letters, written in strange little symbols that my translator strip can’t understand.”
“Letter?” Emana said. “What letters? What for?”
“Why does anyone ever bring anyone letters?” the ragged man said with a toothy grin. They were surprisingly straight and white considering the hard life he’d had.
“If you’re going to keep playing games, we’re leaving,” I said.
“Because there was something you wanted him to read, right?” Emana said.
I gave her a look. Don’t play with this guy. He’s nuts.
Emana gave me a shrug as if to say: How can it hurt?
“He needed to know his loyal followers understand why he did what he did,” the ragged man said. “They’re ready to fight. We’ve been preparing for war ever since the Changelings attacked. The Titans are desperate for battle. They feel it’s owed to them. Give them the chance, and they will attack.”
Emana drifted closer to the prison bars. She let her pistol drop to her side.
“Come closer,” she said.
“It’s not a good idea for someone like me to get too close to the likes of you, little lady,” the ragged man said.
He had a cheerful tone in his voice. Either he was mad or he knew more than he was letting on.
Emana peered closer at him.
“What’s your name?” she said.
“I don’t have a name,” the ragged man said. “Not since I was reborn.”
Reborn. He was cracked after all.
“Let’s go,” I said, turning to leave. I was surprised to find Emana hadn’t turned with me.
“You… remind me of someone,” she said to the ragged man.
He shook his head.
“I remind everyone of someone,” he said. “A man you passed one day in the street, maybe.”
But Emana didn’t look sure. She backed away and resumed her position beside me. Then she tucked her pistol back in its holster.
“You said Kal will have to play a role,” she said. “What sort of role?”
“That will be up to him,” the ragged man said. “But the performance is nothing but a trial. One that has already been decided—on both sides.”
“What will they try him for?” I said.
“For dishonor, for lying to the people, I suspect.”
“But he never did either of those things,” I said.
“No, but they will try to make the people think he did,” the ragged man said.
“They won’t believe it,” I said.
“They will when it comes from Kal’s own mouth,” the ragged man said.
“He would never say that,” I said. “It’s not the truth.”
“Many people have concealed the truth when it suits them,” the ragged man said. “I should think we’re all guilty of that at one point or another.”
Emana peered at the ragged man once more. Why did she keep getting distracted by him?
“An honorable man might lie if he thought he was doing it for the right reason,” the ragged man said. “To save a loved one from infinite torture, maybe. Or a sister from a similar fate. And to prevent the death of his people. That’s a big one. I think there is plenty of motivation for him to say what he thinks he needs to.
“If he does, and the people believe him, he might think he’s protecting them, but in reality, he will be condemning them to a lifetime of servitude. If their faith in House Taw is destroyed, they will have no one else to turn to. And in their desperation, they’ll turn to whatever they’re given.”
“Zes,” I said. “He wants to be the new lord.”
“His claim would never hold,” Emana said. “It’s not strong
