Page 82 of The Surviving Sky
“They were true,” Iravan rasped. “I can’t lie anymore.”
“You’re being too hard on yourself,” Kiana muttered.
“You need to rest,” Chaiyya added. “You’ll feel differently in the coming days.”
Iravan shook his head again. Bharavi put a hand under his arm, and he staggered to his feet. His tears were drying, but a crushing weight settled on his shoulders. The others gave way. Kiana stumbled away to a corner, no doubt to turn off the forcefield of the deathchamber.
“We’re done here,” Bharavi said, holding Iravan, her arm around his waist.
Underneath her translucent robe, her arms turned blue-green. She trajected and some of the black veristem in the chamber disappeared to be replaced by green grass. A white healbranch bush pushed through the floor, and a gnarled rosewood tree began to take shape from stem.
Airav, Chaiyya, and Laksiya froze.
Bharavi started to lead Iravan away, but Airav said, “How did you do that?” and she stopped.
“You—youbypassed the deathchamber,” Chaiyya blurted out.“That—thatshouldn’t have been possible.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Bharavi snapped. “There’s noforce—”
She cut herself off as her eyes flickered around them. Iravan followed her gaze. The golden forcefield still shimmered. Bharavi’s grip around Iravan slackened. He frowned, his mind slow. It was impossible to bypass the deathchamber’s forcefield. If Bharavi had done it, she was breaking the limits of trajection. If she was breaking the limits of trajection, shewas…
His eyes widened. His muscles drained of what little strength they had remaining. He threw her a startled sidelong glance.No.
Bharavi was staring at the plants around them as though unable to speak. Then she looked up at Airav, the corners of her lips lifting ruefully.
“Well,” she said. “I guess there’s no point in denying it now. Would you like me to bring back the veristem, or will my word suffice toward any truth?”
Airav, Chaiyya, and Laksiya seemed unable to move. Laksiya opened her mouth, but Iravan spoke over her before she could say anything.
“This is ridiculous,” he wheezed out, his chest hurting.“You—allofyou—you’retargeting the both of us.”
“Don’t you dare be that much of an idiot,” Kiana said, and he saw that she had not even made it to the deathchamber’s controls in the grass. “You saw what she just did. Deathchambers are supposed to be impenetrable.”
“Then your technology is flawed,” Iravan rasped. “Bharavi is not an Ecstatic. You’re not, are you?” he added, turning to her.
Bharavi shrugged, still smiling.
“No,” Iravan said, stumbling back from her. “No.”
Laksiya cleared her throat. “I vote we put Senior Architect Bharavi through the Examinationof—”
“NO,” Iravan shouted, his voice cracking, as the others began to nod. “No one should be put through the Examination without adequate evidence.”
“She broke a blatant limit of trajection,” Chaiyya said, her face drained of color. “There’s no getting around that.”
“You made an exception for me when I returned from the jungle. Make it for her. Give her time to defend herself.”
“We made an exception for you because you had been through an ordeal,” Airav said, in his deep slow rumble. “You needed time to recover. Bharavi is healthy. The Examination can happen right away.”
“I’m afraid,” Bharavi interrupted, “you can vote all you like, but there won’t be an Examination.”
Airav and Chaiyya glanced at each other, naked fear on their faces.
Iravan’s eyes widened. “Bharavi. What are you saying?”
“I don’t intend to undergo the humiliation you just did, Iravan,” she said, her voice calm. “You were supposed to convince the council of the true nature of Ecstasy, but the truth is, this council isn’t fit to decide my guilt. None of you are.”
Out of the corner of his eyes, Iravan saw Kiana move slowly, her fingers twitching, reaching almost casually toward the deathchamber’s controls.
