Chapter 24 #2
“Oh, I’m sorry—but of course you cannot see me.”
The owner of the voice moved to stand directly above her. He was a very thin white-haired man in a doctor’s uniform. His beard was trimmed meticulously to a sharp point ending two inches below his chin. His dark eyes glittered with a bright intelligence.
“Is this better?” He smiled benignly, as if greeting an old friend. “I am Eyimchi Shiro, chief medical officer of this camp. You may call me Dr. Shiro.”
He spoke Nikara, not Mugini. He had a very prim Sinegardian accent, as if he’d learned the language fifty years ago. His tone was stilted, artificially cheerful.
When Rin did not respond, the doctor shrugged and turned to the other table.
“Oh, Altan,” he said. “I had no idea you’d be coming back. This is a wonderful surprise! I couldn’t believe it when they told me. They said, ‘Dr. Shiro, we’ve found a Speerly!’ And I said, ‘You’ve got to be joking! There are no more Speerlies!’” Shiro chuckled mildly.
Rin strained to see Altan’s face. He was awake; his eyes were open, but he glared at the ceiling without looking at Shiro.
“They have been so scared of you, you know,” Shiro continued cheerfully. “What do they call you? The monster of Nikan? The Phoenix incarnate? My countrymen love exaggerations, and they love you Nikara shamans even more. You are a myth, a legend! You are so special! Why do you act so sullen?”
Altan said nothing.
Shiro seemed to deflate slightly, but then he grinned and patted Altan on the cheek. “Of course. You must be tired. Do not worry. We will fix you up in just a moment. I have just the thing . . .”
He hummed happily as he bustled over to the corner of the operating room.
He perused his shelves, plucking out various vials and instruments.
Rin heard a popping noise, and then the sound of a candle being lit.
She could not see what Shiro was doing with his hands until he returned to stand above Altan.
“Did you miss me?” he inquired.
Altan said nothing.
“Hm.” Shiro lifted a syringe over Altan’s face, tapping the glass so that both of them could see the liquid inside. “Did you miss this?”
Altan’s eyes bulged.
Shiro held Altan’s wrist down with a gentle touch, almost as a mother would caress her child. His skilled fingers prodded for a vein. With his other hand he brought the needle to Altan’s arm and pushed.
Only then did Altan scream.
“Stop!” Rin shrieked. Spittle flew out the sides of her mouth. “Stop it!”
“My dear!” Shiro set the empty syringe down and rushed to her side. “Calm! Calm down! He will be fine.”
“You’re killing him!” She thrashed wildly against her bonds, but they held firm.
Tears leaked from her eyes. Shiro wiped them meticulously away, keeping his fingers out of reach of her gnashing teeth.
“Killing? Don’t be dramatic. I just gave him some of his favorite medicine.” Shiro tapped his temple and winked at her. “You know he enjoys it. You traveled with him, didn’t you? This drug is not anything new to him. He will be fine in a few minutes.”
They both looked to Altan. Altan’s breathing had stabilized, but he certainly did not look fine.
“Why are you doing this?” Rin choked. She’d thought she understood Federation cruelty by now.
She had seen Golyn Niis. She’d seen the evidence of Mugenese scientists’ handiwork.
But to look this evil in the eye, to watch Shiro inflict such pain on Altan and smile about it .
. . Rin could not comprehend it. “What do you want from us?”
Shiro sighed. “Is it not obvious?” He patted her cheek.
“I want knowledge. Our work here will advance medical technology by decades. When else do you get such a good chance to do research? An endless supply of cadavers! Boundless opportunities for experimentation! I can answer every question I’ve ever had about the human body! I can devise ways to prevent death!”
Rin gaped at him in disbelief. “You are cutting my people open.”
“Your people?” Shiro snorted. “Don’t degrade yourself.
You’re nothing like those pathetic Nikara.
You Speerlies are so fascinating. Composed of such lovely material.
” Shiro fondly brushed the hair from Altan’s sweaty forehead.
“Such beautiful skin. Such fascinating eyes. The Empress doesn’t know what she has. ”
He pressed two fingers against Rin’s neck to take her pulse. She swallowed down the bile that rose up at his touch.
“I wonder if you might oblige me,” he said gently. “Show me the fire. I know you can.”
“What?”
“You Speerlies are so special,” Shiro confided. His voice had taken on a low, husky tone. He spoke as if to an infant, or a lover. “So strong. So unique. They say you are a god’s chosen people. What makes you this way?”
Hatred, Rin thought. Hatred, and a history of suffering inflicted by people like you.
“You know my country has never achieved feats of shamanism,” Shiro said. “Do you have any idea why?”
“Because the gods wouldn’t bother with scum like you,” Rin spat.
Shiro brushed at the air, as if swatting the insult away. He must have heard so many Nikara curses by now that they meant nothing to him.
“We will do it like this,” he said. “I will request you to show me the way to the gods. Each time you refuse, I will give him another injection of the drug. You know how he will feel it.”
Altan made a low, guttural noise from his bed. His entire body tensed and spasmed.
Shiro murmured something into his ear and stroked Altan’s forehead, as tenderly as a mother might comfort an ailing child.
Hours passed. Shiro posed his questions about shamanism to Rin again and again, but she maintained a stony front. She would not reveal the secrets behind the Pantheon. She would not place yet another weapon in Mugen’s hands.
Instead she cursed and spat, called him a monster, called him every vile thing she could think of. Jima hadn’t taught them to curse in Mugini, but Shiro caught the gist.
“Come now,” Shiro said dismissively. “It’s not like you’ve never seen this before.”
She paused, spittle dripping from her mouth. “I don’t know what you mean.”
Shiro touched his fingers to Altan’s neck to feel his pulse, pulled his eyelids back and pursed his lips as if confirming something. “His tolerance is astounding. Inhuman. He’s been smoking opium for years.”
“Because of what you did to him,” she screeched.
“And afterward? After he was liberated?” Shiro sounded like a disappointed teacher.
“They had the last Speerly in their hands, and they never tried to wean him off the drug? It’s obvious—someone’s been feeding it to him for years.
Clever of them. Oh, don’t look at me like that.
The Federation weren’t the first to use opium to control a population. The Nikara originated this technique.”
“What are you talking about?”
“They didn’t teach you?” Shiro looked amused. “But of course. Of course they wouldn’t. Nikan likes to scrub out all that is embarrassing about its past.”
He crossed the room to stand over her, brushing his fingers along the shelves as he walked.
“How do you think the Red Emperor kept the Speerlies on their leash? Use your head, my dear. When Speer lost its independence, the Red Emperor sent crates of opium over to the Speerlies as an offering. A gift, from the colonizing state to the tributary. This was deliberate. Previously the Speerlies had only ever ingested their local bark in their ceremonies. They were used to such mild hallucinogens that to them, smoking opium was like drinking wood alcohol. When they tried it, they immediately became addicted. They did anything they could to get more of it. They were slaves to the opium just as much as they were slaves to the Emperor.”
Rin’s mind reeled. She could not think of any response.
She wanted to call Shiro a liar. She wanted to scream at him to stop. But it made sense.
It made so much sense.
“So you see, our countries are not so different after all,” Shiro said smugly.
“The only difference is that we revere shamans, we desire to learn from them, while your Empire is terrified and paranoid about the power it possesses. Your Empire has culled you and exploited you and made you eliminate each other. I will unleash you. I will grant you freedom to call the god as you have never been allowed to before.”
“If you give me freedom,” she snarled, “the first thing I will do is burn you alive.”
Her connection to the Phoenix was the last advantage she had.
The Federation had raped and burned her country.
The Federation had destroyed her school and killed her friends.
By now they had mostly likely razed her hometown to the ground.
Only the Pantheon remained sacred, the one thing in the universe that Mugen still had no access to.
Rin had been tortured, bound, beaten, and starved, but her mind was her own. Her god was her own. She would die before she betrayed it.
Eventually, Shiro grew bored of her. He summoned the guards to drag the prisoners into a cell. “I will see you both tomorrow,” he said cheerfully. “And we will try this again.”
Rin spat on his coat as the guards marched her out. Another guard followed with Altan’s inert form thrown over his shoulder like an animal carcass.
One guard chained Rin’s leg to the wall and slammed the cell door shut on them. Beside her Altan jerked and moaned, muttering incoherently under his breath. Rin cradled his head in her lap and kept a miserable vigil over her fallen commander.
Altan did not come to his senses for hours. Many times he cried out, spoke words in the Speerly language that she didn’t understand.
Then he moaned her name. “Rin.”
“I’m here,” she said, stroking his forehead.
“Did he hurt you?” he demanded.
She choked back a sob. “No. No—he wanted me to talk, teach him about the Pantheon. I didn’t, but he said he’d just keep hurting you . . .”
“It’s not the drug that hurts,” he said. “It’s when it wears off.”
Then, with a sickening pang in her stomach, she understood.