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

Dan gently tapped my shoulder making me aware of the faces turned toward me expectantly.

Richard cleared his throat and glared at me like a ghost of his brother, “You are the tiebreaker on this. With the decision to have your position be voted for by the whole city, the point was brought up: what about other positions that we might add such as the role I am currently filling which is moderator for the discussions taking place. This vote is for whether your role fills other roles, or would the people of the city as a whole have to vote for multiple people to fill other roles.”

This was an easy vote. Putting power in the hands of one person leads to corruption. Or did it? Would the Spies have an easier time controlling things with more rats or with less? More people with different jobs was probably better. It did make more weak links, but it was more points of failure instead of a single point of failure.

“I vote for a different person voted on by the whole city for each new role added to the city government. A single person can never take on more than one role,” I declared, hoping that this would not help the Spies.

Richard nodded, his facial in a neutral state so I couldn’t tell if he was happy with my vote or not.

The discussion moved into other roles that the council felt were needed for the government to function. A person in charge of the city guard. A person in charge of food and making sure enough was grown. The brainstorming continued, but were these types of roles necessary? Wouldn’t it just be someone working in the field who made it to the top?

In the past, from what they said, the top position of a field was chosen by the King, and now they were attempting to figure out all the things the King had controlled in the past. It was impressive to watch them take to the new system of voting for items and making positions that the people voted on. Everyone seemed equally determined to move forward with a new system and while some specifics were debated, no one was demanding to go back to the old way. The new way did give them more power, as long as they could convince their voters to keep giving them power.

I saw people nodding at something that was said by the gray haired lady. Richard smiled as he shifted his weight, “Then we agree that this list is good for now, and can be refined at any point by any member of the council bringing a new role to vote during a council session. All in favor, raise your hand.”

The twelve representatives raised their hands.

“Good,” Richard clapped his hands and a man in black suit moved from the crowd watching the proceedings forward to Richard’s side. “Let us take lunch and reconvene after lunch to discuss district distribution and potential laws. For all those who wish to stay and eat lunch here, my cook has been preparing a scrumptious meal.” Richard pointed to the man whose receding short brown hair was mixed with strands of gray giving him the appearance of a slim middle aged man, “My butler will take the number of people staying back to the kitchen. For those not staying, you can be back in an hour for the continuation of the proceedings.”

This type of proceeding really wasn’t for me. I would have been terrible as a politician, and I was glad that I didn’t have to run discussions and stand in front of this group of people feeling responsible for every decision they made. It didn’t matter anymore to me what laws or roles they concocted, as long as I made it as difficult for the Spies as I could.

The butler bowed in front of me before asking, “Ma’am, are you staying for lunch?”

His words felt like the ants outside the Wall crawling on my skin. I was no Ma’am, but this was what he knew. He would be upset if I voiced discontent with his actions.

“Ma’am?” His voice gently questioned my internal meanderings.

Lunch. I should eat. “Sure, I will eat lunch here. And so will Dan.”

The man’s mouth twitched, and he turned and moved away. I couldn’t tell what the mouth twitch was for. Was he amused by my response, or was that more of dislike for my statement in some way? It was such a small movement, and seemed so inconsequential, but what if it meant more than that? Was it because I did not give a canned Honored response?

If the people that worked the city couldn’t get past the roles they forced the people around them into, would the City ever truly change, or was this just a superficial change that would make people willing to continue trudging along toiling for the sake of the City?

Richard walked toward me, a hand running through his slicked back straight black hair, and a couple pieces of hair falling in front of his face. “Liv, would you mind speaking to me privately while we wait for the food to arrive.”

Did he want to talk more about killing my sister? Did he plan to try to apologize or something ridiculous? I shrugged, “Sure, but Dan will be coming with me.” I didn’t trust him.

He looked at Dan and shrugged, “You drag that poor man around like he’s your personal Dishonored.”

How dare he say that about Dan! Skeletal fingers gripped my shoulder, “Do not say that. I stay by Liv because I want to. Your words for the reasoning as to why I desire to protect her might be loyalty and love. The words to explain do not matter, but the two of us are partners, and I appreciate that Liv choses to allow me to stay by her side.”

Love. Such a sweet word that he was using to explain his need to protect me that he didn’t mean in the way I wished. It was more devotion than love.

Richard glanced between the two of us, and then shrugged again, “If that is what you say, we will go with that explanation. If you would follow me we can talk more privately.”

“Sure,” I said and followed him closer to the ruins and away from the crowd of watchers and the representatives.

The moment he reached the first block of the ruins, he spun around, “The agreement didn’t include you abandoning the City after wrecking the government!” He whispered angrily, his brows narrowed.

“I’m not sure what agreement you are speaking of. I made no agreement with anyone except for the elders of the Wall. That agreement was to get rid of the King. I’ve completed my end of the agreement.” I calmly stated the facts.

“I was told that you would be helping me with the government! I agreed on two conditions to run this damn show. The conditions were my revenge and that you would be seeing the end of this circus that my brother died for!” He ran his hands through his hair again, causing more strands of hair to fall in front of his face making his carefully controlled persona fill with cracks.

“It sounds like your agreement with the Spies, which was not with me, will be fulfilled. You got your revenge on me by killing my sister, and I will be seeing the end of the rebellion by being here to see the new government being made, and leaving at the end with the Exiles.”

He opened and closed his mouth, and his anger seemed to be consumed by his realization that he was getting exactly what he’d asked for.

“Does your revenge feel fulfilling? My own revenge feels like the empty abandoned ruins outside the Wall. It feels like the loss of everything I cared about and as if I’ve been trampled into the ground with my own convictions.” I paused and turned to look out of the city stretching below the ruins. “If my sister had survived, I would have believed in my original belief that people would make the right decision, and I would have stayed to make sure the City government worked as I dreamed, but my sister was killed by the people. My convictions were a sham, and my dream was just a front for the group that corrupts everything in this place. I have no place here.”

I turned back to face him, and to see his face. His eyes were wide and his mouth slightly open with shock. That was right. Feel a touch of my regret. “When you killed my sister, a spy told me I was released from working for them. I hadn’t realized until that moment that I’d even been working for them.”

He closed his mouth and swallowed, “It was only fair.”

“Was it? Did Casia do anything to you personally? She would have still walked out in Exile. She was harmless. Your brother died within feet of me, fighting to save my life.” I turned my chair to head back to the table where I could see lunch being served, and then stopped, turning back to face him, “Your brother fought for an ideal. What do you live and fight for? Why are you trying to create a new government? Do you even believe in what you are doing?”

“I - “ he hesitated, clearly uncertain on how to respond.

I really didn’t care what his answer was, and I directed my chair back to the table leaving him to stew on his own failures.