The peace forged over the next day or so was tentative, but Sarah seemed optimistic that it would hold. The fact that Sterling had run, and had apparently been trying to kill all witnesses to his cowardice, did more to undermine his authority than anything else. Marsden took command of the Torgans, after a brief argument with Turnbull, and then requested that the Sanctuary provide them with water from the aquifer, in exchange for official recognition from the Torgan military.
That was when things got tense again. After sealing the deal, Marsden came face to face with Rust. He didn’t recognize his childhood friend at first, but then he caught the scent, and his eyes widened. “Are we going to have a problem?”
“I’m not sure,” Rust admitted. “A lot of the men in your army were responsible for carrying out Sterling’s orders. Whether I come after them, or you, depends heavily on what happens to him.”
Sterling was under guard on the periphery of the group, while the rest of the army was being gathered from their previous enclosure around the mesa. Aru’s aim had been very good, it seemed. Fewer than one in ten soldiers had been missed by the cloud of medicine, and that show of strength had apparently been enough to shock them out of their literally blind obedience.
“I don’t know either,” Marsden responded. “As you said, this isn’t the first time we’ve had a Governor who was stained by criminal matters. Still, attempted mass murder, lying to the Senate his entire life, and starting a war solely to maintain his own power… these things add up. I suspect they’ll have him executed, or at least indefinitely imprisoned, to prove to the people that they had no idea about him.”
“Did they?” Rust asked, scornfully. “Have no idea, I mean. I found out when I was six, and he killed my parents because of it. I can’t believe that no one else found out, over all this time.”
“That’s for the courts to discover,” Marsden said confidently, though there was an inkling of doubt in his voice now. “Either way, there won’t be any shortage of testimony about these events. One way or another, today’s events have changed the Republic forever.”
“Do you think your Senate will agree to the Sanctuary’s offer?” I put in, before Rust could say anything even more provocative. “Do you think they’ll start learning how to plant and refine this medicine, so that everyone can see whenever they want?”
“It’s entirely possible,” Marsden said, looking in my direction. He still seemed a bit disconcerted, which wasn’t surprising, but his eyes lingered on the bow on my back. “You could see before all of this, couldn’t you? That weapon you’re carrying- it was used to kill some of my men.”
“They were trying to kill my friend,” I maintained stubbornly. “This is just one of the most primitive weapons that sighted people can use, by the way. The ancestors had far more powerful ways of killing each other.”
“Ways that we can now discover for ourselves.”
“Don’t count on it,” I assured him. “Your sight will fade within a few days, and without the Sanctuary’s help, you can’t learn to get it back.”
“We could just take the mesa,” Turnbull put in, stepping up to Marsden’s side. “We still have the men.”
Marsden put out a hand to him, but Rust spoke first. “Good luck with that. The caretakers would destroy every scrap of knowledge in there first, and seal off the aquifer permanently. You’d die of thirst long before you could get even one drop of water from it!”
I wasn’t as sure they would, but that didn’t really matter. Gripping Rust’s arm, I went on for him. “I think what he’s trying to say is, your only ways forward are to either leave the Sanctuary alone, or work with them. Fighting them will only cause trouble for everyone. Imagine what would happen if that gas they dropped on your men hadn’t been medicine?” That was a troubling thought, even as I said it.
“Your point is well taken,” Marsden responded evenly. “It’s fortunate for you, that the Sanctuary has gained official recognition as an independent state. Now I can classify your actions, Timothy, as those of a soldier fighting for his people, rather than a criminal murdering on a whim. You have been working for the Sanctuary for all this time, right? All ten years or so?”
I felt Rust’s muscles tense under my fingers, and carefully kept my smile from showing. “Oh, yeah. We go way back. Esme too, you know.”
“Of course,” he answered, as if our voices showed him far more than our faces could. “However, if the killing should start up again-”
“Like I said,” Rust cut him off. “That depends on you, and what you do with Sterling.”
“Naturally.” Marsden tilted his head slightly, and then went back to his people. Turnbull followed, having apparently mastered the disapproving scowl first, of all the facial expressions that newly-sighted people could have.
I wanted to slap all three of them. How many times did they have to tread over the same ground, again and again? Sure, both sides had weapons, and the ability to use them. Why threaten each other repeatedly? It was like they were toddlers, poking each other with sticks.
We also returned to our own, and could hear Jack offering to help moving the pipes to get water out to the wagons. Rust was limping a bit, but it seemed he would be all right. Sarah had seen to him after the battle. Rust took Jack aside, lecturing him on some principle called ‘too many cooks’, and I took the opportunity chat with Sarah. “There’s still a lot of mistrust out there, but you left a big impression on the whole group. Marsden seems reasonable, but there's no way to know if the Senate will follow his lead.”
Sarah nodded. “We never expected it to be easy. Change is often met with suspicion and resistance, just as it was with the ancestors. But at least it’s a dialogue. We’re a bit ahead of schedule, though. We’d planned on gassing entire cities, with at least ten planes like that one up there, in a few years. We wanted to restore sight to a huge population before even revealing our existence. Sterling forced our hand, but so far at least, it seems to be working out.”
I had to ask. “What would you have done, if Hugh and his people hadn’t been able to complete the medicine in time?”
Sarah cast a haunted look in my direction. “Be grateful we never had to make that choice. There was a weapon used by the ancestors, for situations like this. A gas called chlorine. It was a terrible thing that killed many people in a world-wide conflict once. But… we have some of it in storage in the Sanctuary. It… burns the skin and throat, and blisters a man with no heat at all. Terrible thing.”
I tried to envision burning someone without heat, and couldn’t really do it. “Would you really have done it? To save yourselves, and the future of the land?”
Sarah shook her head. “I don’t know. I’d like to think not. Peace is who we’re supposed to be, and it’s who Ivy was, when she started this group so long ago. I don’t know if the others would have if I’d faltered, though.” She took a deep breath, as if cleansing herself. “It worked out- that’s what matters. No one died this time, and I choose to focus on that.”
