Honored (Book 2 of the In Search of Honor series)

I stepped forward, through the door Daniel was holding open and into the brightly lit room filled with people. More people than I could have hoped for. How many of these people were setting explosives? How many were joining me in my deadly theatre?

“Liv?” A vile voice I had hoped to never hear again spoke my name, and I had to hold back a shudder. I refused to look at the owner of that voice. I would use them, but I did not have to interact with them.

“As Daniel said, I am the Exile, and I am here to create a path for others to be able to leave this tottering city, or to stay and live a better life than what is currently offered. The cost of this might be our lives. For those who are here because they work in the castle, my plan allows you to live if everything goes correctly, but if it doesn’t you might die. For those joining me, the cost is our lives. I have no plan that will allow us to escape. We will be giving our lives for the castle staff to survive and for the city to change. If you have loved ones waiting for you at home, please leave. Please go back to them, hold them tightly, and support the rebuilding of this city after what we are about to do is complete.” I forced myself to look at the detestable man that my mother stayed with for some reason. She needed him, as did their children, my siblings.

A tired face filled with deep hollows and lines stared back at me. He looked tired. He looked so much different from the despicable man I had known. His gaze met mine, and his eyes dropped away, but he didn’t budge an inch.

I looked at the others in this room. Eyes that stared into the distance. Gray hair and wrinkles. Dark eyes that met mine with dark circles beneath them. Eyes that were bitter, anger lined their faces. This room felt like my own tattered existence. These people were broken like I was.

“If you are here because there is nothing left for you in this City and you want your life to mean something more than just being another dead body for the Wall to take at the end of the day, then you are at the right place.” A twisted smile graced the lips of the person my eyes were meeting.

“I’m here for a grand ending! Something that will make my dead wife proud!” One man shouted, and a couple people chuckled at it.

“Then you are at the right place.” In front of me was a table, similar to the table in the safe house, but it showed a tunnel map with an overlay of city sections on it. Looking around the room, my eyes met Jordans’ again. Why did he look so despondent? Why did he break out of the Dishonored prison if he cared for my mother? This was all probably an act. He couldn’t know the full plan. Of course, any of the castle workers could also be Spies meant to learn our plans and prevent the damage. The best course of action was to not have the two groups knowing each other’s course of action.

“As a safety measure, I ask that all those who are castle help leave the room until I call you back in for your part.” I could see the people in the room glancing around unsure if they should actually leave. The door opened behind me, and I could Daniel holding it open.

“What do you mean as a safety measure?” One woman in a plain gray dress asked.

“It’s best that you don’t know anything other than your piece of the plan. If you get caught, we don’t want you to know what else is planned.” I smiled at the sandy haired woman who had asked the question. I had to make this all friendly. Couldn’t let them know that I suspect all of them.

“Fair enough,” the woman responded and walked towards the door. Her leaving seemed to signal the others that it was fine to leave, and about half the crowd filed out of the room.

When no one else moved toward the door, Daniel closed it.

“Everyone else is here to join me in the suicde attack?” I asked, double checking that no one else needed to leave the room.

For a moment no one spoke up, and then one man nodded, “Yes Ma’am. All of us here are fighters.”

“Good.” I looked down at the map. They didn’t need to know where we would show. All they needed to do was understand that they were following me, and some of the basics of what would be happening. “We will surface in the city and make it known that I am looking to negotiate peace with the King. This will be done in such a way that all citizens of the city will know what we have surfaced for, and if the King denies us it will hopefully bring more people to our cause.”

“Where and how are you going to do this?” An older dark brown haired man interrupted me.

“You don’t need to know that. All you need to know is that this will be happening and you will be following me to the location.” I would need to have Daniel make sure to keep that man under watch until the operation.

“The expectation is for the city guards to come and surround us. I will not be carrying any weapons as a show of peace, but you all will be in case they start firing. If they fire at us, fire back. Fight for your life if they fire. If no one fires at us, follow their orders even if they tell you to lay down your weapons.”

“You would have us give up our weapons? The Wall provided weapons are superior to theirs.” Another man that I could quite see properly interrupted me. There he was. He also had dark brown hair, but he looked much younger. Probably only a teenager from his build, but his face was marred by anger and raggedly stitched wounds.

“Yes, we have to comply if it seems like they will listen to us. How else will we be able to negotiate?”

No one answered, and I could see the young man looking down at the ground and his cheeks were bright red. He seemed to just be an angry teenager speaking out. Should I let someone so young participate in this? As much as it hurt to think of this youngster dying, it was not my place to decide who participated. This young man had volunteered.

“My plan is that my demand to see the King will be met. Our demands for peace are two-fold. The first is the easy part. Anyone who wants must be allowed to leave the city for exile. I have no idea why the King is being so stupidly stubborn about not letting people leave this city, but this is a must. The world outside is large and can support us. We shouldn’t have to stay trapped in this city if we don’t want to be here.” I saw lots of nodding heads. The being trapped part must resonate with a number of the people here.

“The second part is to demand that Undesirables are treated the same as normal citizens of the City. The Undesirable caste should be removed,” this wasn’t quite the second demand, but in case of spies I didn’t want the real extent of the second demand known. I would reveal the full demand to the City when I was before the King. Did the people of the Wall have a device that could make me heard even from within the castle? I could see smiles and nods from the Undesirable fighters in the room. This demand spoke to the soldiers that were following me.

“If the King acquiesces, then we will have won the war. The winning scenario is that he agrees and we go free. Of course, we won’t trust him till he makes changes, but that is the goal of our operation.” I hated giving them false hope for life, but if there was a spy they had to think that there was a chance this could be done without bloodshed, and if the king did agree to my real demand quickly maybe we could all walk out. But that wouldn’t happen. Not with my real demand. Not with what I had seen of the King’s personality through his actions.

“If all goes wrong and he doesn’t agree to our demands, we will refuse to leave the throne room. Even without weapons, we will fight to stay in there till they kill us. This is why I call it a suicide mission. The people of the City will know our demands. They will hear us dying to free them. The hope is that if the King does not give in to our demands and kills us, our deaths will bring the rest of the denizens of the City to rise up against the King.” If the spies relayed this bit of information it might even make the King afraid to kill us.

“And what of the castle workers? What is their mission?” It was the older brown haired man again. He was most definitely suspicious at this point.

“Just as they don’t get to know your mission, you don’t get to know theirs.” The man shrugged at my response, but his tight grimace belied his true feelings toward my separation of information.

“Any other questions?” I waited a moment, giving them a chance to speak up.

“When do we head out?” It was an older heavily muscled bald man this time.

“Daniel will get you when it is time for the operation to start. Be ready to leave as soon as you are called.”

“Yes Ma’am,” the man responded.

“Anyone else?” I asked. I waited, but no one else spoke up.

“Then you are dismissed.” As they moved toward the door I moved toward Jordan.

I grabbed his shoulder, forcing down my disgust on touching him. “Why are you here? Where is my mother and my siblings? Why did you leave them?”

He looked up at me with a tormented face. “She’s dead. I promised I would protect her. I did everything they asked and more to protect them all, but she died.”