Page 39 of Veiled Fate
Or we’ll die trying.
Chapter Nineteen
It took longer than I expected for us to set up a meeting with Tave, the head of the Lycaon cell, and Gare, his right-hand man. The sun was already low in the eastern sky, preparing to set behind the mountains by the time the four of us were assembled in the basement of a sympathetic merchant house, standing around a table with maps of the nearby terrain.
“You’re crazy,” Tave said bluntly, not holding back. “Kill Arcadus? You’re crazy.”
“No, I’m not,” Kiel said evenly. “If you’ll let me explain the plan, you’ll see it can work.”
“He’s anAlpha, Kiel.”
“But he’s not invincible,” I put in, leaning over the table, splitting my attention between the two Lycaons.
At first glance, Tave was anythingbutthe hard-nosed head of the largest rebellious cell in the empire. The shifter was short for our race, the stray hairs on his thinning palate perhaps tickling the six-foot mark if they stood tall. His face was thick and reddened in the cheeks, a surefire sign of overindulgence with alcohol. It was quite obvious he wasn’t a fighter.
His eyes, however, glittered with emerald intelligence when he spoke, revealing his true nature. The capital city of the empire didn’t need a warlord to lead its rebels. It needed a genius to keep them all out of sight. Tave was that man. His exterior hid a brain that worked on multiple levels at one time. But it wasn’t the time for brains. It was the time for dedication. For heart.
“The Arcadian stone has been destroyed,” I said. “He’s vulnerable. This is a chance we have to take, Tave. The rebellion has been formed with the intent of taking the Alphas down. This is its literal purpose, why we’re all here. People are beginning to wake up and take notice. But we have to keep giving them areasonto do so. If everything suddenly goes back to normal, then it was all for naught.”
“I’m aware,” Tave said, glancing at Kiel but giving me his focus. “I’m still not sure it’s worth the risk.”
“That’s because you’re thinking about it logically. Our numbers against their numbers. You aren’t thinking about thebiggerpicture. Of what happens when we show the world that the Alphas can be removed. Things have been static for solongnow that people can’t even fathom a world of change. The Alphas simplyare, and they don’t even know that questioning that change could be a thing. We have to show them they’re wrong.”
“People will die if we try this. Quite possibly a lot of them,” Gare put in, earning him a nod from Tave.
“I know.” I looked at Kiel. “I know. A lot of people died because of the riots we started to get at the Arcadian Stone. A lot of members of the rebellion have died since I became involved. The Helisson cell was damn near wiped out. Everywhere I turn, everything I do, people have died around me. Going back a long time.”
Lanna’s face appeared in my mind.
“And now, you want to get more of them killed?” Gare accused.
“No,” I snarled, slamming a hand on the table hard enough to send the Lycaon back a step. “I don’twantany of them to die. Their deaths weigh me down, heavier and heavier with each one. I hate it. I wish I could do it alone, so no one would have to suffer. But I can’t.”
“Jada …” Kiel said softly.
“I’m fine,” I said, waving him off, still staring directly at Gare, before slowly swinging my gaze onto Tave. “The truth is, however, that wecan’tdo this without bloodshed. Not if we truly want to effect change. I have resisted that idea, wanting to do it peacefully somehow, for a long time. But we can’t win that way, as much as I hate to admit it.”
My stomach was churning, twisting itself into tighter and tighter knots as I argued in favor of an action that would send numerous men and women to their deaths. I wanted nothing more than to give up, to tell them that we’d find another way, one that didn’t involve any sacrifice.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t see a way to do that. As the hours passed after Kiel announced his bold plan, I argued with myself against it a million times and a million different ways. Each time, my arguments had come up short at the question, “Well, whatshouldwe do instead?”
I had yet to find a better answer. Things were at a tipping point. Either we shoved it over the edge in a big way, or we sat back and continued to be passive observers, doing nothing of real merit.
And I will have nightmares of all the death I cause.
Tave was watching me, and I wondered what he saw. The calm, logical exterior I was trying to project to convince him to help us? Or the terrified little girl on the inside who was trying her best not to throw up?
“Kill Arcadus,” he said softly at last. “It sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it?”
“We won’t force anyone to come,” I said, looking at Kiel for confirmation. He nodded. “Volunteers only. But you can rest assured that Kiel and I will be right there with everyone. We won’t ask anyone to do anything we wouldn’t ourselves.”
“That I believe,” Tave said. “It was never your abilities, your willingness to put yourselves in danger, that I questioned. However, I have spent so long with the mindset that there’s nothing we can do against the Alphas themselves that I’m having a hard time thinking we might actually succeed.”
Gare nodded. “Same. But if we actually have a chance to do this, it would send shockwaves through the populace. Yes, we would get called all sorts of evil things, but nobody would be able to ignore the truth of it. It would be impossible.”
“Then you’re in agreement?” Kiel asked. “You’ll help us?”
Tave and Gare looked at each other, then nodded in unison.
