“Do you think I am not aware of this?” the Bloodmaster asked. He leaned back in his chair, gazing up at the ceiling. “I am not totally cut off from Erebus, Damon. I know how fortunate we are to have been left alone as long as we have.”
“Left alone?” Damon asked. “Or is it that you have deceived those who supported you, and they are no longer accepting your claims of cooperation?”
“They,” Theron said. He looked at Damon again. “You mean the Expansionists, of course. Naturally the Council believes we are in league with them.”
“I was not told what they believe. But the origins of this settlement are an open question, and since by its very existence it is attempting to expand Opir territory, it seems logical to assume a connection with the Expansionists.”
Theron’s gaze hardened. “Look at me, Damon. You know what I believe. When have I ever agreed with the Expansionists or supported their positions? You have seen how we have created our little town as a place where Opiri live in peace as equals, without challenge or vassalage. Can you tell me to my face that I have conspired with the enemy?”
“I can tell you that they plan to attack you, wipe you out if possible, no matter the consequences to the Armistice or the political balance in Erebus.”
“Is it possible you haven’t noticed our defenses?”
“The wall? Do you think that will keep out Opiri bent on killing?”
Theron waved his hand in dismissal. “What of you, Damon? Have you come out of your personal loyalty to me?”
Damon took his seat. “I won’t lie to you, Theron. Once I learned you were here, my primary purpose was to discover why the Expansionists are so eager to destroy you, and why an Opir working as a double agent for the Council would say that the colony was not what they believed.”
“Out of curiosity? Or to gain status in Erebus by dealing in useful information?”
Damon countered with a question of his own. “Did you intend your idea of a free society to include Darketans?”
Theron sighed. “When I began this experiment,” he said, “I knew it was little more than a dream. I knew it would provoke strong, even dangerous reactions from all factions in Erebus and from the Enclave, as well. I understood the risks. But I had hoped Eleutheria might somehow set an example....” He shook his head. “Yes, that was my intention, Damon. I had many of what humans call ‘good intentions.’”
“You no longer stand by them?”
Theron’s hand twitched to the stack of papers. “Where do we begin, my boy? You have questions, and so do I. It seems—”
“I have only one question now. The dhampir I brought with me, Alexia Fox—”
“Ah, yes.” Theron smiled again, but sadly, and spread his palm flat over the papers as if he feared they might blow away. “The young agent. You said you had taken her by challenge from another Opir, and that you claimed her as your property.”
The words sounded almost obscene as Theron spoke them, and they felt that way to Damon. “Yes,” he said. “But your people took her, and I want—”
“You want, ” Theron repeated, his eyes gone cold. “I would not have believed that you, of all Darketans, would be so foolish and greedy as to claim an Enclave agent as a serf.”
His chair scraped back, and he rose to walk to the single window. “Is it because you have freed yourself of the Council that you make so bold a move?”
Damon rose, as well. “I have determined to make my own choices, Theron.”
“You will find your choices here are limited.” The Bloodmaster turned to face him, no trace of warmth left in his face. “Whatever you had intended for the young lady, you will find you have no power over her in Eleutheria. You see—” The door burst open behind Damon, and Alexia’s fresh scent filled the room. She was almost on top of Damon when he turned around. He had a few seconds to note that she was wearing a tunic and pants in place of her badly torn uniform, and that she was smiling.
Sergius strode in after her with a lantern in his hand, a barely concealed scowl on his face. “I found her on her way here as I was returning,” he said. “Shall I—”
“It’s all right, Sergius,” Theron said just as Damon put himself between Alexia and the younger Opir. Theron nodded gravely to Alexia, who took Damon’s arm and turned him around to face her again.
“Didn’t he tell you?” she asked, her eyes very bright in the lantern light.
“Are you all right?” he asked. “Have they hurt you?”
She laughed with an ease Damon had never seen before. He tried to make sense of the joy in her eyes and failed.
“What is this?” he asked Theron, who returned his stare without softening.
“She is not yours,” he said. “She is not anyone’s now. There is a reason we call this place Eleutheria, and it is not only because here we regard all Opiri as equals.”
And then Damon understood. The humans he had seen gathering when he and Alexia had arrived hadn’t been afraid of chastisement from their owners, because they were not possessions to be berated and punished for the smallest disobedience. The young man outside the lavatory had seen no need to genuflect because he had nothing to fear from Sergius or any other Opiri in the settlement.
Eleutheria. Freedom.
Damon’s head and wrist began to throb again. “It seems we didn’t have to be quite so cautious,” he said to Alexia.
“I can hardly believe it myself,” she said. “Emma told me what had happened to you. I asked her to get you out of the holding cell, but she wanted to give the colony leaders time to discuss it.” She grinned wickedly. “Serves you right for playing your part a little too well.”
Theron cleared his throat. “Apparently I was mistaken in my suspicions, Damon,” he said. “I had to be sure that Ms. Fox was not under duress when she told us of your purpose here.”
“I did not enjoy the deception,” Damon said stiffly, “but we couldn’t be sure of the reception we would receive, and we had no reason to believe Agent Fox would be treated as a free woman. She is an extraordinary person, and I had no pleasure in treating her—” He broke off before his emotions could become too apparent. “We had no way of knowing you had taken your philosophy to such extremes.”
“Now you see why the Expansionists want to see us destroyed,” Sergius said.
Damon glanced at Sergius and then did a double take. Now that his vision had returned to normal, he saw the Opir’s features clearly for the first time.
“Nikanor!” he said.
“I no longer go by that name,” Sergius said, meeting Damon’s gaze with a little more friendliness than he’d shown earlier.
“Many of us have changed our names since we took up our new life here,” Theron said. “We wish to forget the way of life we once took for granted. No one has been more devoted to our goals than Sergius.”
Nikanor inclined his head in acknowledgment of Theron’s praise. “I was not the first to see the wisdom in Theron’s philosophy, but when I did I knew it must be put into practice as thoroughly as possible.”
“He has been invaluable to the colony,” Theron said, fondness in his voice. “He has risked much.”
Damon wasn’t surprised that Nikanor was involved with Theron’s experiment. He had been one of the Bloodmaster’s most devoted disciples. Once Theron had freed him from vassalage, he could have struck out on his own and worked to move up the ranks, but instead he had chosen to remain with Theron and reap the benefits of the Bloodmaster’s considerable wisdom. For a time, he and Damon had shared Theron’s tutelage, and Nikanor had treated Damon as a fellow student rather than an inferior.
“You knew I wasn’t able to see the details of your face,” Damon said, meeting Sergius’s gaze. “Why didn’t you tell me who you were? Why didn’t you acknowledge me earlier?”