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.My headswam and my breathing felt off.Therebel palmed my skull, forcing me toface him. Where.Is.The.King? Don t know, I gasped, fighting theache in my head. Come on, pretty boy, he teased. Give me the king, and I might let youlive.I couldn t mention the safe room.Even if I hated the things the king did,giving him away meant giving Americaaway, and that was not an option.I could lie.Maybe buy myselfenough time to get out of this.Or I could die. Fourth floor, I lied. Hidden roomin the east wing.Maxon s there, too.He smiled, his disgusting breathcoming out with his short laugh. Now,that wasn t so hard, was it?I stayed silent. Maybe if you d told me the firsttime I asked, I wouldn t have to dothis.He laced his hands gruffly aroundmy throat, squeezing.On top of myalready cloudy head, this was torture.My legs flailed, and I bucked my hips,trying to throw him off.It was pointless.He was simply too big.I felt my limbs stop working, alloxygen escaping my system.Who would tell my mother?Who would take care of my family?.at least I kissed America onelast time.one last time.time.Through the haze, I heard the gungo off and felt the massive rebel golimp and fall to the side.My throatmade bizarre noises as it pulled air intomy body again. Leger? You okay?My eyes were going black, so Icouldn t make out Avery s face.But Iheard him.And that was enough.CHAPTER 11THE DEBRIEFING WAS HELD IN the hospitalwing, since so many officers had endedup there. We feel it s a success that we lostonly two men tonight, our commandersaid. Considering their forces, it s atestament to your training and personalskill that more of you weren t killed.He paused, like maybe we shouldapplaud, but we were too worn downfor that. We have twenty-three rebelscontained for sentencing after beinginterrogated, which is fantastic.However, I m disappointed at the bodycount. He stared us down. Seventeen.Seventeen rebels dead.Avery ducked his head.He dalready confessed that two of thosewere his. You are not to kill unless you oranother officer is being directlythreatened, or if you see a rebelattacking a member of the royal family.We need this scum alive forquestioning.I heard a few quiet huffs throughoutthe wing.This was one order I didn tlike.We could end things so muchfaster if we simply eliminated the rebelsthat came into the palace.But the kingwanted his answers, and rumor had itthere were particular ways he torturedinformation out of rebels.I hoped neverto learn what those ways were. That said, you all did an excellentjob protecting the palace and subduingthe threat against it.Unless you areone of the few with serious injuries,your posts for the day are the same asoriginally scheduled.Get sleep if youcan, and get ready.It s going to be along day with the state the palace isin.The head butler thought it would bebest to have the royal family and theElite do their work outside while thestaff worked to get the palace backinto a presentable shape.The womenof the German Federation and theItalian monarchy were coming in ahandful of days and the maids werealready overwhelmed withpreparations.Between the glaring sun,exhaustion, and my starched uniform, Iwas already uncomfortable.Add thesearing pain from the gash in my head,hidden bruises from being strangled,and some damage I couldn t evenremember getting in my leg, and I wasjust plain miserable.The only good thing about this daywas that the setup allowed me to benear America.I watched as she satwith Kriss, planning their upcomingevent.Besides Celeste, I d never seenAmerica upset at one of the other girls,but everything about her body languagetoday suggested that she was unhappywith Kriss.Kriss, however, lookedcompletely oblivious as she chatted toAmerica and peeked over at Maxontime and again.It bothered me a littlethat America followed Kriss s gaze, butI doubted her feelings were changing.How could she ever look at him and notsee Marlee screaming?The tents and tables around thelawn almost made it look like the royalfamily was hosting a garden party.HadI not seen it myself, I wouldn t haveguessed that the palace had beenransacked.Everyone here tended toforget about the attacks and move on.I couldn t figure out if that wasbecause dwelling on the attacks onlymade them that much more terrifying orif there was simply no time.It occurredto me that if the royal family reallystopped and thought about the attacks,maybe they d find a better way ofpreventing them. Don t know why I even bother, theking said a little too loudly.He handeda paper to someone and gave them aquiet order. Erase Maxon s marks onthis; they re distracting.While the words filled my ears,America s gaze took all of my sight.She watched me carefully.I could tellshe was worried about the bandageson my head, the limp in my steps.Igave her a wink, hoping to calm hernerves.I wasn t sure if I could make itthrough a whole day on rounds andthen switch with someone to guard herdoor tonight, but if that was my onlyway to Rebels! Run!I turned my head toward the palacedoors, sure someone was confused. What? Markson called. Rebels! Inside the palace! Lodgeyelled. They re coming!I watched the queen bolt uprightand run around the side of the palace,heading for a secret entrance under theprotection of her maids.The king snatched up his papers.IfI was him, I d be more worried aboutmy neck than any lost information, nomatter what those documents said.America was still in her chair,paralyzed.I took a step to go get her,but Maxon jumped in front of me,shoving Kriss into my arms. Run! he ordered.I hesitated,thinking of America. Run!I did what I had to and bolted asKriss called out to Maxon over and overagain [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]