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

The crowds slowly dispersed, going about their daily business. People dressed like Dishonored silently went onto the stage and covered Casia’s lifeless corpse before picking it up to take it away.

My dear sister. I wiped at a tear slowly tracking down my face. She won the bet. What was it even, that people were inherently selfish and cruel?

Dan’s metal fingers gripped my hands in his pulling my awareness back to him. “Are you alright?”

“No. I’m not really sure what I’m doing here. My sister is dead, and I feel like I caused her death. I think this is all my fault.” The blood stained platform. The knowing smile as the hood came down over her head. It happened so fast.

“We should head back to the Revacks estate for now. Do you want me to take control of the chair for you?” He was still kneeling on the road next to me, looking directly at me.

“Not yet. I -“ why did I just want to sit here stewing over my own failure?

Richard Hongew, the man who killed my sister, sauntered over like a man proud of his work. “We’re even now. A sibling for a sibling. That was my demand from your friends the spies, and they provided. I’ll help make your new voted on government a reality now.” He patted my shoulder. “It’s tough, but everyone has to sacrifice for change.”

A boiling rage stirred in my gut. “Sacrifice? You don’t understand sacrifice at all. Your brother died to save lives, and you go around taking lives like a psychotic freak. You just murdered a woman, and now you are smiling about it!”

“I got my revenge. You killed the King for yours. If I’m one, then you are also one. Two murderers working for the spies to create a new government that they can manipulate easier. Aren’t we just prime examples of the best the world has to offer?” He smiled brightly and patted my head, making me feel ever smaller and lower.

The spies. Beware the spies. And the spies and the Wall were somehow connected. Yet, I hadn’t noticed till now. I’d been their unwitting puppet.

“At least I didn’t really know what I was doing. You just purposefully executed Casia who was innocent.”

He glared down at me, “You’re not that stupid are you? Number one, your dearly beloved sister was the one behind all the anti-exile laws and also the one pushing for your execution when you came back. Number two, killing hundreds of people because you are an incompetent fool does not make you less responsible for their deaths.”

Casia wanted me dead? But why? He had to just be saying that. He couldn’t know for sure. Dan dropped my hands.

“Over and over you’ve caused death and mayhem -“

Dan stood, pushing himself between Richard and my chair, “That’s enough. You got your way, and now you should leave Liv to her grief. We will see you after the vote.”

He laughed, and said something to Dan that I couldn’t hear before walking away.

Dan turned, looking back at me, “I’m glad you’ve decided to join the great Exile. I don’t feel comfortable with you in this crazy City.”

He looked up the road toward the inner area of the City before looking back at me, “Are you ready to head back to the Revacks estate now?”

I looked back at the platform of death one last time. A Dishonored was futilely scrubbing the blood in an attempt to clean it. Everything else was gone. “Yes,” I responded. I was done causing death after death.

Dan started walking away, and I fumbled with my remote, dropping it on the ground. A guard reached for it, but Dan beat him to it. How was he so fast to return?

“Should I steer the chair?” He asked, his hand waving the remote just out of my range.

Should he? I looked at the remote. It was my freedom of movement, but I didn’t really feel like going anywhere or doing anything. A fool. That was the term Richard used.

“Sure, I don’t really care,” I told him, my eyes following the remote.

The chair followed him like it was pulled along by a string.

“For my part, I think you were right, Lady Exile. Unintentional loss of life is not on the same caliber as intentional executions’” The guard to might right said while maintaining his uncaring blank stare ahead.

“You brought down a castle that was the symbol of power knowing that lives would be lost, but not purposefully taking the lives yourself,” the guard to my left said.

Little did these two realize how bloody my hands were. I had intended that castle as a tomb for all inside. Dan had walked in, and murdered all those who could resist or run from the destruction of the castle. He’d made sure the plan went off. The King would have escaped if it wasn’t for Dan.

“Eh, I think bringing down the castle is a purposeful loss of life, but it was a battle. Plenty of people were dying on both sides, and bringing it down was part of that fight. The execution we just witnessed was not part of any fight. That woman was clearly powerless at this point. I was shocked by how loud the calls for execution were, and to me it felt like there were plenty of quieter people in the crowd who didn’t agree. It felt just as slimy as the decisions the King made to not allow Exile as a choice.” The man behind me clearly had a lot of opinions. I hadn’t expected my silent guards to be this vocal.

“So what are your plans on what do about this situation?” I asked my guards.

The guard to my right answered, “We were selected for this duty because all four of us have already opted for exile.”

“I’m tired of the politics here. I’ll die one day anyway, and I’d rather die seeing what’s outside the Wall than is some fight over control of the City.” The guard behind me spoke up.

“I just want freedom. I’m tired of my superiors always yelling at me. I’d rather walk out with Dishonored than spend another day shining my boots.” This was the guard to my left.

At the exit of the urban area the guards stopped and the guard in front stepped to the side. He bowed as my chair passed, and his deep voice spoke, like a thunder warning of the future, “We will see you again at the gathering of the great exile, Lady Exile.”

They stayed bowed until I could no longer see them from my rolling chair.