I barely made it down to the maintenance entrance in time, with my precious cargo in tow. Rust had just opened the door and slipped out, and I got through just as it closed.
“What are you doing here?” He demanded quietly, as Torgan guards closed in all around us. “If Sterling sees your eyes, he’ll know what you can do!”
“Trust me,” I responded. I couldn’t see Jack anywhere, but given how quiet he could be, and how many people were out here, that didn’t mean anything.
In truth, I didn’t care if the Governor saw me or not. He was planning on killing all of us anyway, whether we fought or not. Maybe if he knew that Rust had a sighted ally, it would put him off a bit. Besides. I just wanted to look this monster in the eye and let him know that we wouldn’t be easy prey for him.
Growling, Rust shook his head. “I claim the Rite of Vindication against Governor Sterling!” He called out into the crowd. “He had my parents killed, and by my right as a Torgan citizen, I can challenge him!”
There was immediate consternation in the troops in front of us. They’d probably been given orders to kill anyone trying to leave the mesa, but I had a faint idea how deeply ingrained Torgan tradition was to them. This challenge was important enough to stall their orders, I hoped.
“There are no Torgan citizens out here who can make such a claim,” a tall man carrying a metal Lieutenant's staff said, scornfully. “Unless you can prove otherwise. Soldiers, kill him.”
“I’m not surprised you don’t recognize my voice, Turnbull,” Rust said quickly. “It’s been twenty years after all, and we’ve both done a bit of growing up, but it is me! I am Timothy, son of Reginald, the commander of Darwin’s northern garrison. Most of you wanted to serve under him back then, remember?”
Turnbull seemed taken aback by that, but Sterling stepped forward, pushing past him. “Reginald and his entire family died a long time ago. There’s no way to prove you are who you claim to be.”
“There is,” another voice said off to the side, and I looked that way. It was Lieutenant Marsden, the man I’d nearly killed back in Munga territory. “Timothy is alive- I encountered him just a few days ago. I recognized his scent from when we were children, and parts of his voice. It is him.”
Sterling shot a hateful glance at him, but Marsden was unmoved. It was true, now that I could see him clearly. Sterling was sighted, and given how confidently he moved, he’d been used to it for a long time. He was like me.
I shook my head. No, Sterling was a monster, who used his sight to control and dominate others. He was willing to kill all of us just to maintain his own power. We were nothing alike.
It seemed he wasn’t about to just accept the fight, though. “Reginald was a traitor. He forfeited all his rights as a Torgan citizen when he lied to his Commander-in-Chief and hid his son away. By law, no one can claim Vindication against me because of him.”
“What about my mother?” Rust went on. “She knew nothing of Father’s plans. He stole me away from her as well, and faked my death to keep me safe. Yet you killed her anyway! You had her burned to death!”
Flushed with anger, Rust turned to the rest of the crowd. “I know many of you remember that day. My mother screaming out in grief and rage as the fire burned through her husband and child. I wasn’t there- my father hid me away, and killed another child in my place- but I know what happened. I know your Governor blamed her as well, and punished her as well! Father didn’t anticipate that, or he would have faked her death, too!
“Do you remember the sound that flesh makes as it burns? Do you remember the screaming and sizzling of human skin? Do you remember how it felt to know that yes, the Governor gave the order, but that it was you who tied her up on that post, and you who lit the flames?” Rust let out a hateful yell into the crowd. “I deserve this. I have every right claim Vindication, and you all know it!”
His recitation was horrible enough to hear, much less live through, and I could see the effects it had on some of the older soldiers. Marsden especially, had the decency to at least appear ashamed. He’d just been a kid when the burning happened, but now he took orders from the man who’d done it.
“There’s more,” Rust added, satisfaction joining the hatred and pain in his voice. “I’m Timothy, but I’m also the Rustle. I’m the ghost who’s been haunting your officers for the last ten years or so. I’m the noise in the silence, that so many of you heard last, and then nothing after. If that’s not enough of a reason for you to want to kill me yourself, I don’t know what is!”
Sterling visibly trembled with rage at that, but he quickly controlled himself. His eyes shifted to me. “And you are?”
“My name is Esme,” I tried to project into the crowd, taking a step forward. “I’m a caretaker here at the Sanctuary, and I’m Second to the Rite. I’ll stand at Ru- at Timothy’s side.” His gaze went up and down on me, in a very uncomfortable way. As if he wanted me to know what was in store for me when this was all over.
Sarah had spoken briefly of how the ancestors had behaved, with sight. How men would often use their sight to send a message to women, of power and dominance. I couldn’t remember the word itself. Ogre, or something like that. I contented myself with knowing that even if Rust lost, I could still shoot Sterling in the head with an arrow. He was the most well-known leader in the Torgans. I seriously doubted he even knew what a bow was, much less had the time to practice using one in secret.
As if deciding I could wait, Sterling gave a predatory grin. “So be it. The challenge is made, and the Rite acknowledged. Let the ancestors decide who wins the day, in the old ways!”
There was an acknowledgement from the crowd, and the soldiers began backing away from an area. It took some time for them to reach an appropriate space, as they were doing it all by feel, but before long there was an empty oval-shape in the middle of the mass of bodies. It was about a hundred arms across, and maybe a hundred fifty long.
It was time, and Aru had told me how it would work. I carefully removed the pin from the edge of the metal cylinder, and pressed it into Rust’s hands. “Hold onto this until the fight begins, and then drop it in the middle.” He gave me a quick kiss, and then grabbed his cane and felt his way out into the circle.
Smoke was already issuing from the cylinder, and I had the pleasure of seeing Sterling’s eyes widen before my sight of him was obscured.
I gripped my hands tightly, hoping it was enough. If Sterling was like me, and had spent years with sight, hopefully he also had my weakness, and his other senses had been blunted. Rust was the other side of that coin, and while he used me to great effect in his mission, he didn’t need sight to survive.
The soldiers were aware that something was happening, but the smoke was odorless as far as I could tell. This… grenade, Aru had called it, had been used in the old days by enforcers of the law. The Sanctuary caretakers were peaceful, but this wasn’t exactly capable of killing anyone. As far as the crowd was concerned, their Governor was holding back for some unknown reason.
“What’s wrong, Sterling? Are you afraid?” Rust’s voice rang out from the smoke. He couldn’t smell it either, but he’d clearly caught on as to what it did. “Need I remind you what happens if you forfeit? It’s as good as admitting guilt, and the Senate would never allow a criminal governor to stay in office. Oh, wait. They do that all the time. They’d never allow an obviously criminal one to stay, though. Come on, coward! Face me!”
I heard a guttural roar from the other end of the smoke, and something big moving. There was a clash, and ringing of metal on metal. Whether it was blades hitting armor or not, I couldn’t tell. Sterling was a big man; easily a head taller than Rust. What had I done? Had it been enough?
Part of me wanted to scream at the crowd that Sterling could see. But now, I understood why Rust had kept it secret for so long. He would just be branded a liar, to propose something so ridiculous, and there was no way to prove it.
Then Sterling’s voice rang out from the ring. “The traitor cheated! He’s using a weapon of the ancestors to gain the upper hand! The Rite is forfeit!”
I could see the edge of the crowd make uncertain moves, but some of the more loyal ones charged into the open space and out of sight, shouting, “cheaters! Traitors! Evildoers!”
“Kill the second,” Turnbull ordered from the other side, turning in my direction. Already half a dozen of them were pulling out swords and moving towards me. At least a hundred more were behind them, and in easy range.
Pulling my bow and nocking it with long habit, I aimed at the closest and loosed an arrow. The shot took him in the thigh and he yelled in pain, falling. Another took one in the foot, but there were too many. After a moment I had to flee. “Rust! Get out of there!” I shouted over my shoulder, trying to get back to the main entrance. It wasn’t far, but there were guards in the way.
Fortunately I’d always been lithe and fast. They could hear me, but couldn’t predict how fast I moved with sight. Slipping between them, or around them, or just plain over them, I got up to the ramp. The battering ram was still there, but at least I had a better line of sight up here.
The chaos down below was short-lived, though. For some reason the soldiers, incensed or surprised a moment ago, were starting to wander around in confusion. The smoke was dissipating now in the desert wind, and I could see no sign of either combatant. Where the hell was Rust? Was he even still alive?
“What is happening?” Marsden called out, and I could see him squinting. He covered his eyes with his hands! All around him, others were doing much the same, Turnbull included. Behind me, the battering ram operators also stared around in confusion, and I could see their eyes! They were clearing, as the men behind those eyes squinted and held their hands up to look at them!
They could see. All of them- the entire army… could see!
The door behind me ground open, more slowly because of the damage the ram had done to it. Sarah squeezed her way out, followed by Aru. She looked first at the rammers, and then out at the crowd. “It worked! This is wonderful!”
So that had been her plan? “How did you do this?” I asked, stupefied. “How could you inject all of them like this?”
“The plane is called a crop duster. It was built to spread this medicine over a wide area. Aru flew it, spreading the medicine through the air. It got into their lungs, and their eyes, and now it’s as if they’ve all had an injection,” Sarah explained happily. “Now hang on. I have to talk to them.”
She pulled out another device, a cone of some shape with a handle that looked a little like the Governor’s bullhorn. She pressed a button on the side of it, and I winced as a high-pitched noise ran through the area. “Torgan soldiers!” She called out into it, and her voice was amplified a hundredfold. “Don’t be afraid. What you’re experiencing right now is sight. You can see things- yourselves, each other, the sun- all for the first time! This is what some people, including your own Governor, have been able to do for their entire lives!”
All through the crowd, people were staring blankly at each other, murmuring with disquiet and unease. I didn’t wait, though. I jumped off the ramp, and ran back into the group. I had to find Rust, if he was still alive, and get him out!
“Sterling said that this place was a threat to the Torgan people,” Sarah went on behind me, “but he was lying! He came here to destroy us, so that we could never give anyone the gift of sight! We’re a threat to his power, not yours! If we gave every Torgan the ability to see, then his advantage would be gone! He used you to try and maintain his own power!”
I caught sight of Rust’s distinctive jacket, on the ground in what was left of the open clearing. Torgans stared at me, but they still had no way of distinguishing friend from foe based on sight. I stripped off my own outer robes, hoping it would make me look more like a female Torgan soldier. I’d seen a few of them among the ranks.
Snatching up the jacket, I examined it. There was blood staining one sleeve, but not much of it. If he was hurt, he was probably still alive. There was no sign of him or Sterling around.
“How do we know you’re telling the truth?” I heard Marsden call up at her. “If the Governor has been sighted for his entire life, how can you prove it?”
“Let him deny me himself, then!” Sarah responded. “Where is he? Come speak for yourself, Sterling!”
I saw people looking around curiously, but no one spoke up.
“Exactly as I expected,” Sarah went on smugly. “Just like I thought, he ran. The moment you all could see, he lost all power over you. You know that your fate is your own, now. It always has been.”
She was right- Sterling was running. I caught sight of his special robe and bullhorn nearby, and his sunglasses atop them. My breath caught. None of these people knew what he looked like! They couldn’t stop him from leaving, even if they wanted to!
“Esme!” A voice said to my left, and Rust approached me. His left leg was hurt, and still bleeding, but it didn’t look too deep. I hugged him briefly, but he shook his head. “No time for that. Sterling’s running, and I lost track of him in the crowd. Can you see him?”
“No, he took off his Governor's robes, and there are a lot of really big people here. He could be anyone!”
Rust growled, and his eyebrows furrowed like they always did when he was thinking hard. “Running won’t do him any good, not anymore. Not unless he can eliminate everyone who can see, which by now is almost the whole army!”
I thought it through with him for a moment. Killing an army usually took another army, but not all the time. Right now, in the middle of the world’s harshest desert, there was a much easier way to do it. “The supply wagons!” We said together.
“Rust! Esme! Over here!” A faint voice shouted. Jack’s voice. Rust grabbed my arm, and I pushed my way through the crowd. Some were looking out that way, but others were still focused on the conversation between Marsden and Sarah.
Out past the soldiers, I caught sight of Jack’s tiny form running between the supply wagons. A huge man was chasing him. Sterling.
Jack dodged two blows from a massive sword, and then scurried underneath one of the wagons. Huge barrels rested on each one, to carry water from outside the desert, but even now, they were emptying. Sterling must have bashed them open, to kill his own army by thirst!
No time to worry about that. “Dead ahead!” I informed Rust, and he took off in that direction. As he did, I pulled my bow again and aimed it. The first arrow flashed over Sterling’s head as he grabbed Jack by the leg and hauled him out from under the wagon. He raised his sword one final time, but my next arrow took him in the shoulder. He spun from the impact, his sword blow going wide, and then Rust slammed into him. Jack was safe!
I sprinted across the sands, hoping that Rust hadn’t permanently injured his leg after all that. Also hoping that he didn’t just kill Sterling outright. Not that the man didn’t deserve it, but he was more valuable as a living, imprisoned criminal than a dead traitor.
The damage had been done, though. Even as I closed with them, I could see that each of the huge water barrels had been emptied into the sands. Only the dregs remained; a few drops and not enough for an army this big.
With a grunt, Rust yanked the arrow out of Sterling’s shoulder and turned him over. “Don’t move, butcher, or I’ll cut your throat. You’re lucky she didn’t aim for your heart, for what you tried to do!”
Sterling groaned, but didn’t make any objection.
“Nice shot,” Rust said quietly, holding up my bloodied arrow with his free hand, as he held Sterling’s arm firmly twisted behind his back.
I took it reluctantly. “You’re not mad I didn’t kill him?”
He smiled. “No, I think we have the same reasons for wanting to keep him alive. Jack, are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” the kid piped up, but he was still rubbing at his leg where Sterling had grabbed him. “I tried to help by draining all their water. If they were trapped out here, Sarah could give them water in exchange for them leaving, right? I was lucky the guards were so distracted by the big fight. Even with sight, I doubt I could have drained all this water before they noticed.”
I blinked over at him. “This was your idea??”
“I told you he was sharp,” Rust put in, sounding prouder than ever. “Wish I’d thought of it myself.”
Jack looked down, embarrassed. “I’d just got done when that big guy came running out from the army. I scared off the horses so he couldn’t escape, but he came after me instead!”
“Good work, Jack.” I put a hand on his shoulder, and he blushed again.
