Page 19 of Arch Conspirator
“I don’t, Uncle.”
“So you just happened to be in the square, violating my edict, at the exact moment that someone set off an explosive in the Electran District.”
I tilted my head. Smiled.
But before I could make my reply, Haemon opened the door to the study. His eyes went straight to his father, and then he gave me a cold look, as if he had never been my co-conspirator.
“I apologize, I didn’t know this meeting was already underway,” he said, level as a balanced scale. “I had hoped to speak with you beforehand.”
I swallowed down the burning in my throat. Haemon must have been worried that I would become an informant to save my skin. He was here to defend himself, to call me a liar before I got the chance to talk about who set the explosion. I sat up straighter. It was a good thing I wasn’t going to marry a man who had no respect for me at all.
“I suppose,” Kreon replied, equally cool, “you are here to castigate me for ruining your betrothal?”
Just as Kreon had grown up with Oedipus, Haemon had been brought up under his father’s watchful eyes, raised to be a worthy successor. Mimicry of Kreon was in his posture and his manner and his expressions.
“A loyal son doesn’t berate his father,” Haemon said.
“Indeed,” Kreon said. “And so?”
“I came to ask you what you intend to do.”
“You don’t already know?” Kreon looked at me again. “A traitor attempted to kill me. He came close to succeeding. And so I made an example of him. I made an edict, and I made it publicly. In it, I outlined particular consequences for aligning yourself with traitors. Sparing her those consequences would make me a liar.”
“And it’s better to be an honest man than a merciful one?”
Kreon’s voice was like flint when he replied.
“Let me explain something to you, because you are too young to know it yet.” He folded his hands on the desk and leaned toward me, toward his son. “This city is my household. I am the head of it. It is a house of people constantly on the edge of starvation, who begin to deteriorate from the moment they are born. If I intend to protect them, I do not have the luxury of indulging defiance. Defiance leads to instability, and instability leads to extinction. I have built a strong wall around this house. It is not made of stone, it is made of rules that mitigate damage, and it has been the great work of my life. What do you think would happen, if I allowed a crack in my wall?” He looked at me. “Let me tell you what would happen, because it has happened before, again and again, reaching back through history: the crack will widen and the wall will crumble. And when it does, people will die.”
“I see.” Haemon sat down in the chair next to mine, where my friend the guard had sat just a few minutes before. He folded his hands—he had long fingers, I noticed—over one of his knees. “As you said, I am too young to know all that you know. But I have been in the city, and I know how our people think. They will see this as a senseless killing—the waste of a precious resource, all for the crime of loving a brother—”
“For the crime of conspiring with rebels,” Kreon interrupted. “Do you think that explosion was a coincidence? It’s a wonder no one was killed.”
Haemon went on as if his father had not spoken: “You don’t want to allow a crack in your wall—but the crack is already there, and I fear this will widen it.”
Kreon smirked.
“I see,” he said. “You pretend to reason with me, but reasonis the furthest thing from your mind. You’ve developed a hunger for this woman.”
“I assure you, my concern is foryou.”
“If your concern was for me, you would be outraged at the attempt on my life by a member of my own household!” Kreon spat. “Instead you are a child, with a child’s sense of justice.”
“I’m telling you it doesn’t matter if I am a child or not, it doesn’t matter if I want her or not, it doesn’t matter if sheconspired with rebelsor not!” Haemon said. “If the rest of this city agrees with me, you’ll bring about the chaos you are trying to avoid.”
“I’m not going to capitulate to anyone’s tantrums, least of all yours.”
Haemon spat, “You’re a fool.”
“And you’re a simpering milksop who is mastered by a woman,” Kreon replied. “I do not tolerate murderers and traitors. I will not be persuaded to do so.”
The men glared at each other, finally falling into silence. I sat forward and cleared my throat, drawing their attention.
“High Commander,” I said. “In the presence of this witness, I’d like to formally call upon the rights of the accused. I want to request a public hearing.”
“What?” Haemon said.
Kreon frowned at me.
