The Other Side of Truth (The Marked Ones Trilogy Book 3) (7 page)

Viliyata

Saturday, November 3rd

NUALLA

I
ran the tips of my
fingers over the names etched into the cold black granite. Unable to keep my hand steady because of the pain in my chest. But also unable to stop myself from touching their names.

Arius Andraya Galathea . Emily Galathea

They were gone—
really
gone—and they were never coming back. The girl who had been my older sister, and the one I had idolized as if she was.

As I traced the letters, my vision became blurry, and the names on the black wall all blended together like dirty snow falling on a dark night.

The statue was beautiful despite what it represented. A fifteen-foot replica of the Daenarian fountain sculpture in the main entrance lobby of The Embassy. The water flowing from her hands into a small pool below like falling stars—or tears. But unlike the original,
this
one was in black granite stone with a wall behind it cut into the shape of a lotus. Black, because black was the color of death.

“Arius Nualla?” someone said in a hesitant voice from behind me.

I turned, blinking back the tears that were stinging my eyes. It was Brienne, my dad’s secondary aide-in-training. Her dark, coffee-colored skin seeming even darker against her simple matte charcoal-gray kimono. She was standing at the base of the steps that lead up to the memorial, clutching a tablet in one arm.

“It’s time,” she stated simply.

I nodded as I turned back for one last look at the names. Letters etched into stone, the only lasting proof of their existence.

TRAVIS

I
leaned against the large floor-to-ceiling
windows that made up one wall of my living room, and looked down at the courtyard below. A girl was down there, standing in front of the large lotus petal walls. And I knew who it was, even from here. I’d have known her anywhere as sure as I knew my own soul.

“I can remember all of it now, you know. I couldn’t before, but I can now.”

Those words should have made me the happiest person alive.
Those
and the ones she had said in the hospital when I woke up—that she
loved
me. But they only made me feel anxious, confused, and guilty as fuck.

I had been in love with Nualla nearly my whole life. But it was like the moment we had made that pact—that moment she had offered me her life in return for my own—that I had felt things start to change. Almost as if in that moment her hold on my heart had started to loosen. And it was sickeningly frightening to realize that she was no longer the one that wandered into my dreams.

But it wasn’t just the memories of her naked form pressed up next to mine that left me feeling guilty. It was the fact that I had failed her. Her, and Emmy, and Draya, and every other person who had died that day. And there was no way to tell her how very sorry I was. That if I had worked harder—
faster
—I might have finished KARA before— Before they died. Before
she
died.

“Can we get coffee before we head over?” Patrick asked with a yawn from behind me.

I turned away from the window to look at him. He looked terrible, with dark bruise-like marks under his eyes like an ink stain.

“Coffee’s on the counter,” I pointed out as I gestured toward it with my chin. “I went and got some while you were in the shower. Should be the temp you like it by now.”

Patrick shuffled over to the counter, and picked up the coffee. Well, “shuffled” probably wasn’t the right word, since the movement was unbelievably graceful. Even groggy, sleep-deprived, and before morning coffee, every movement he made was like the flowing, perfectly-controlled beauty of a samurai warrior.

He took a large swig of the coffee, and then looked at me. “What were you looking at?”

I froze. I needed to tell him, but there just never seemed to be a good time to say,
I slept with your wife
.

“Nothing really,” I lied as I avoided his eyes and took a swig of my own coffee.

“You know you don’t have to wait here with me, you can go grab a spot outside,” I offered as I leaned against the wall in one of the hallways that lead out to the courtyard, and slipped my hands into the pockets of my
haori
. I had insisted that Patrick stand with me as I waited for the ceremony procession because some part of me had secretly hoped that Nualla would show up, and they’d make up, and everything would be fine again. But as the minutes slipped by, that hope seemed more and more delusional. And now I felt guilty, because he looked unbelievably miserable.

“It’s okay, I really don’t want to be alone out—” he stopped abruptly, his breath catching.

I jerked my head quickly to where he was looking, and froze. Nualla was standing about fifteen feet in front of him, looking equally caught off guard. And they just stood there frozen, staring at each other for what seemed like a lifetime, and no one else seemed to notice. No one but me. And I was holding my breath. One, because I knew it was the first time they had seen each other since the day of the funeral. And two, because of what Nualla was wearing.

She was dressed in her normal style of formal kimono, and silver
arius
crown with its four bars curving outward like a silvery stag’s horns. But unlike every other time I had seen her in formal dress over the years, this time she was also wearing a deep, midnight-blue ceremonial
uchikake
kimono covered in embroidered silver eight-pointed stars. That, and the
obi
sash that hung from her waist, decorated with the symbol of our region—the silver lotus in blue water—were usually only worn by a female
chancellarius
. That, coupled with the fact that Alex was nowhere to be seen, just made me wonder just what the
hell
was going on.

I’m not sure how long the three of us just stood there not moving—not even breathing—but it was Nualla that broke away first, turning to answer something Loraly had just asked her. The blue and silver beads hanging from her crown, swaying and clattering against each other from the movement.

“That was harder than I thought it would be,” Patrick said in a whisper of breath.

I looked at him in confusion, and then I noticed the tension in his shoulders. I followed it down his arms to his hands that were clenched into fists at his side. A second later, a single drop of blood rolled across the edge of one of his hands, and dropped to the floor.

“I think I’m going to head outside,” he stated in a low voice so only I would hear.

I opened my mouth to say something when Brienne, Alex’s new secondary aide, stepped up next to us.

“Director Centrina, you’re going to follow after your brother in the procession line,” she said to me before turning to Patrick. “And Mr. Galathea, you are going to follow after Cellarius Loraly and Kyria Skye.”

“
Excuse me
?” Patrick said in a choked voice.

Brienne furrowed her brow in confusion. “I’m not sure which part of that was confusing, but—”

“It’s okay, Brienne. Don’t worry about it, I’ll explain it to him,” I said, jumping in quickly.

Brienne gave me a slightly apprehensive look, but with one short nod, she moved off to talk to the rest of the department directors.

I waited until she was out of earshot, and then I leaned in toward Patrick. “Okay, I’m an idiot and—”

“If you’re the one who’s getting a medal why am I ahead of you? Or hell, why am I even in the procession in the fucking
first
place?” Patrick said with clenched teeth, cutting me off.

I just looked at him for a moment. Sometimes it was really startling just how much he didn’t know about our world.

“When Draya…. When Nualla became the future Chancellarius of Karalia, you became the future
chancellar
.” I ran my hand back through my hair, and leaned a little closer to him, whispering the rest. “Which basically means you now outrank me, Roy, and pretty much everyone
else
in all of Karalia who
isn’t
a Galathea.”

“Oh,” Patrick said on a heavy breath. “So what you’re saying is, I have to walk in this procession whether I want to or not?”

“Unless you want everyone digging into your personal life more than they already are, then yeah, you do.”

NUALLA

A
s I walked out of
The Embassy building and into the courtyard, the heavy ceremonial
uchikake
kimono dragging across the ground, it really sunk in that without Alex, I was all alone. Because even though Loraly was the
cellarius
, she actually held no
real
power, and thus walked behind me in the procession. I was now the future ruler of Karalia, and the realization of what that
really
meant was finally starting to settle in.

So many little girls dreamt of being a princess. They’d fantasize about the castles, and the pretty dresses, and the balls. But what it really meant to be a princess—to be the future ruler of a kingdom—was that one day, the fate of thousands of people would be placed in your hands. And failure would mean that people would die.

But I wasn’t quite there yet. Today I only had to make a speech. However, other than yelling at the former Grand Council, I hadn’t actually ever
had
to make a public speech of any kind. Not really. Not unless you counted the Oath. And so naturally, despite the fact that my head was held high, I felt a lot like I might throw up at any moment.

As I reached the steps leading up to the memorial platform, I paused. The formal kimono I was wearing was already down to the floor, but the ceremonial
uchikake
kimono extended back easily a good two feet. Swallowing hard, I lifted my foot up onto the first step, and then felt someone beside me. I looked over at Travis, and he looked back at me for a heartbeat before he offered me his arm. I wasn’t sure if it was protocol or not, but the
uchikake
kimono was unfamiliarly heavy, and I really didn’t want to accidentally step on it and fall flat on my face in front of everyone. So I took his arm, and we walked up the remaining steps together.

As we reached the top of the stone platform I broke away from Travis, and walked to the podium that had been placed in the center of it. I looked down at the tablet resting on the podium and swallowed hard, and then I looked out at the people—
my
people.

Roughly three thousand people had been invited to witness the award ceremony. And really, it didn’t sound like that big of a number until they were all staring at you. Waiting for you to say something profound and moving. Or at the very least not embarrass the frak out of them.

I took a deep breath, and then I looked out over the crowd to a point in the distance just over the farthest person’s head.

“There are those who pledge their lives to protect us. Those valiant few who daily make that bargain with the gods to place their lives on the scales. To offer up their lives in collateral for the lives of others. And sometimes those lives are claimed, and we lose those brave souls, and we honor them for their sacrifice. But they know when they get up each morning that death is the risk that stalks their waking hours. It is the contract—the bargain—they have made.

“But it is those who make this bargain in a heartbeat, who toss their lives onto the scales without prior notice, that we honor with this pendant,” I said as I looked away from the crowd, and gestured to the pendant resting on a small blue velvet pillow on a pedestal next to me.

The Pendant of Valor—a physical embodiment of Karalia’s greatest honor—was a silver, eight-pointed, interlocking star pendant with a brilliant blue sapphire at its center attached to the bottom of a thick, royal-blue grosgrain ribbon. I could only remember it being awarded once in my life, and that had been when I was very little. It was an honor we didn’t just throw around like it was candy. It
meant
something.

I looked down at the pendant a heartbeat longer, and then I looked back up to the crowd. “When I found out who we would be honoring with this pendant today, I asked my father, Chancellarius Galathea, if I could have the very great privilege to recognize this valiant soul. And he graciously stepped down so I could have this honor.”

It was a complete lie, really. But only a select few knew I was performing this award ceremony because Alex was off gods-only-knows where.

“I can attest firsthand that no other is more deserving of this award than Director Travis Centrina. I was beside him when he walked out into those halls knowing that his own death was fairly certain. And I know that without his actions, many more names would be engraved on the stones behind us. And it is for this that we honor him today.”

I stepped over to the pedestal, and lifted the pendant from the pillow it had been resting on. And then I turned toward Travis, looking up into his eyes. “In recognition of the great sacrifice you were prepared to make in protection of the people of Karalia, and the countless lives you saved, we honor you with the Pendant of Valor, and the title of Viliyata.”