"What kind of an idiot are you?" Melchak bellowed. He stomped around the conference room, muttering angrily.
We were in a smaller room, one that was almost shabby. The plush one upstairs had been given to her Highness Sonja. She'd fainted at my accusation. She had to be helped from the room, looking young and innocent and very tragic. No one had cared how I felt as I was bodily dragged out of the room by the Patrol before the rioting got out of control. The only reason they let Melchak in with me was because he was scarier than they were.
I propped my feet on a chair and pretended I was in control. I wasn't, not by a long shot. I was starting to shake. I needed another dose of my medicine.
"You just destroyed any chance you may have had," Melchak fumed. "Stupid grandstanding trick."
"It was the truth."
"You said yourself you were too far gone on dreamdust to know for certain what happened."
I sighed and shifted my feet. He wasn't going to believe me. I wasn't sure I believed me.
Melchak paced around me for a while, muttering under his breath. He slammed out of the room, leaving me by myself.
Nothing happened for a long time, at least to me. I sat and wondered how bad I had to get before I could get someone to fetch my medicine. My hands were twitching worse. I was hungry. I watched the sunlight outside the conference room stretch slowly into afternoon.
I sat in the chair and tried to piece together what I knew for sure. I went over my memories again and again. Sonja's face was there, in all of them, menacing and cold and laughing at me. I remembered her silver nails with their drugged tips. I remembered almost too much. I stopped before I got to Luke. It was Sonja. I had no doubts. Even dosed up on dreamdust, why would I imagine her? There were too many other villains in my life for my subconscious to base hallucinations on. Why pick someone I'd barely met once? It had to be the truth.
Sonja's reaction confused me. It was her face. And yet it wasn't.
I was giving myself a headache. I got up and paced for a while, ignoring the twitching in my muscles. If it got bad enough someone would drag me off and stick me full of more drugs. They weren't going to let me die until they had answers. Or a scapegoat.
The door opened. It was the guards in dark blue. They checked to make sure my cuffs were still secure. Then they marched me back out and across the plaza.
It wasn't quiet this time. It was full of reporters and newsvids. There were clumps of people everywhere, talking and gesturing. They fell silent while I walked past. The talk exploded behind me. If nothing else, I'd shaken everyone up. Including my lawyer. I wondered if Izin Melchak had quit. I wouldn't blame him.
They took me to my cell and locked me back in after taking off my cuffs.
I helped myself to more pink powder. There were no windows, no way to tell what was happening outside. I lay on my bunk and stared at the ceiling.
The guards finally showed up with lunch. I picked at it for a while.
"What's happening?" I asked the guard when he showed up.
He collected the tray without a word. I resigned myself to knowing nothing. He came back a few minutes later. He tossed a yellow prison suit on the bed.
"You've got five minutes to change," he said. He walked out of the cell.
I sighed but I changed. If I didn't, they were likely to do a strip search and leave me in my underwear. I gave the green suit and the boots to him when he came back. I hated doing it. I'd almost felt like myself again. I was back to being a prisoner on the fast track to death row.
I sank onto the bunk and felt sorry for myself for a while. I wiggled my bare feet, staring at my toes. I didn't get any inspiration, or any answers. I knew what I knew, whether it was the truth or not was still under debate.
I got dinner, prison food again. I ate it, mostly out of boredom. I wanted something to happen. Almost anything. I couldn't be this close to finally resolving everything and not have something happen.
The guard took my tray without a word. I lay down on the bunk and stared at the ceiling for a while longer.
The door opened. I glanced over at it. Then sat up hurriedly.
Izin Melchak stepped into my cell. He gave me a long, unreadable look. I felt like I had at the Academy when I got dragged into the Commander's office for fighting. I fought the urge to stand at attention. Melchak finally looked around the small cell.
"Guard," he said, pounding on the door. "I can't hold a conference in here."
The guard made sure to cuff me before leading us both out and down the hall. We were back in the room with the metal table and battered chairs. Melchak waited until the guard was gone and the door was securely shut before he said anything.
"Don't say anything," he warned. He pulled out a small box from one pocket. He flipped a switch. Lights flickered across the box, red and green and yellow.
"Why don't they ever use blue?" I asked, watching the box.
"What?" Melchak looked up at me.
"That," I pointed with my hands. "Why aren't the lights ever blue?"
"Did you take too much dust?" he asked bluntly.
I shut up and dropped into a chair. He wasn't going to help me. He thought I was hyped up on dreamdust. Still.
He touched a dial on the box and waited for the flickering lights to steady. He leaned across the table, and fixed me with a hard stare. The table creaked under his hands.
"Just act like I'm still upset with you," he said quietly. "I'm sure this room is bugged. The box should take care of audio, but I can't do anything about the visual signal."
This was serious. Maybe there was truth in my accusation after all.
Melchak sat down in his chair. "Tell me you didn't shoot the Emperor and make me believe it."
"If you didn't believe me, why are you my lawyer?" I pulled my knees up and draped my cuffed hands over them. "Where was the Emperor shot?"
"In the courtyard, as you know."
"No, where on his body was he shot? If it wasn't through the left eye socket, I didn't do it."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"I don't miss. If you can get to Lowell, ask him about Xqtl. Ask him about the people I shot there."
"Proving you shot other people won't help, Dace."
I twisted my wrists in the cuffs.
Melchak sighed. "Sonja Medallis has been in seclusion at her family estate for the past two years. She has witnesses to verify her story."
"I sense a but in there," I said.
"Yours, if we aren't very careful." Melchak folded his arms, glaring at me. I tried to remind myself he was just acting, he wasn't really mad at me. Only he probably was.
"I've been over it in my head all afternoon," I said. "Sonja was there. It was her. But it wasn't. She was different somehow."
"That's what I can't figure out," Melchak said. He leaned forward again. "How well do you know a man by the name of Fya Desarus?"
I had to think that one through. There was only one person named Fya that I knew. I'd never heard his last name.
"Why?" I asked.
"Do you know him or not?"
"I knew a man named Fya on Vallius. He was on Linas-Drias in the palace guard. I trust him with my life."
"Good. Because you're going to have to. He came to me this afternoon. He's part of the Patrol escort for the Empress. He is willing to risk his life to back up your accusations. He says he saw some of what happened in the courtyard that day. He won't swear it was Sonja who was shooting things up, but he will swear it wasn't you."
"Where is he?"
"Safe." The answer was final. No amount of badgering was going to get Melchak to tell me.
"They'll try to kill him if they find out."
"Don't teach me how to play that game," Melchak snapped. "I've been playing it longer than you. Maybe not as spectacularly—"
I started to laugh. It was funny. Melchak fought a grin and finally gave in.
"So maybe you play it better," he admitted. "But I'm not an amateur. He's in safe hands. I smuggled him into the presidential suite. Your friend Roland is keeping him safe for me."
"So what's the plan?"
"We've got another couple of days. Her Highness collapsed this afternoon."
"An act," I said derisively.
"Doesn't matter. She claims to be utterly prostrate. She's in seclusion in the most exclusive suite in the most exclusive hotel available. The trial is on hold until she's feeling better."
"What if I collapse? Will they whisk me away to a hotel suite and pamper me for a few days?"
"Is that what you want?"
"Anything's better than that mattress and more lukewarm prison food." I paused. "No, there are a lot worse places I could be. A soft bed and a decent meal would be nice, though."
"I'll see what I can do," Melchak smiled as he stood. "Meanwhile, no more sudden outbursts. Warn me before you say anything like that again."
I nodded meekly. He shook his head over me, tucking his tiny box back into his pocket before he left.
The guards put me back into my cell.