could. They’d think Dathros had just chickened out. I’d have to send the kill signal to Thraxa right away. She’d probably agree to get Cat and me off the hab, but we’d be on our own from there.
No. It’s wrong to give up. It’s wrong to be weak. Catherine is making me weak, and this is my chance to be a true Cygnian. A pure Cygnian of the swarm.
“I will fight,” I say. “If you don’t want me for who I am, then I don’t want you, either. Now sit down and play your role if you want to get off this habitat alive.”
Her face is pure agony, and I can see right away that she wasn’t bluffing. She meets my eyes with a cold, distant, and broken expression. “When we get off this habitat, I never want to see you again.”
I nod to her, mostly as a show for everyone watching. I’m feeling something else inside. A mix of rage and regret, but I push it down. I’m doing the right thing. Those feelings of regret are withdrawal from the pheromones. From her scent. She’s already walking away from me. I’ve made the right choice, and now I need to see this duel through.
I walk toward the table, toward their attempt to poison me. Those fuckers. Catherine isn’t there to hold me back now. They are about to feel the full fury of a swarm pirate.
Gethros Mi Kiorus smiles solemnly at both Mi Treton and me. Mi Treton doesn’t look at me. Maya Mi Kiorus is at Gethros’ side, smiling serenely, as if she hadn’t played her part perfectly as well. She turned Catherine into a wedge against me. She was the good cop, and Catherine was too sweet and innocent to not know that millennia-old trick.
“Now,” Gethros says. “If there are no further interruptions.” He glares at me. “As is the tradition of our kind, we drink together. Only one of you will walk away from this, but you’ll still meet each other here as equals, with respect and dignity.”
I want to vomit at his snake’s tongue. Equal. Respect. Dignity. It’s all a load of shit.
There’s a big glass decanter full of wine and two empty glasses. So the poison is already in my glass then. Some kind of nano pill. When the wine hits it, it will activate.
Will they call the duel off if I refuse the drink? No, probably not.
Both glasses are full, and just as Mi Treton reaches for his glass, I snatch it.
I hear murmurs from the crowd, and Gethros’ eyes widen, but Mi Treton just picks up my poisoned glass. He’ll find a reason not to drink at the last second.
No one can really say anything. Sure, I took the “wrong” glass, and probably I insulted them by showing that I don’t trust them, but I’m right not to trust them.
We clink our glasses together, and I drink first, showing no fear.
I swallow my sip, and then meet Mi Treton’s eyes. I expect to see fear, and then for him to contrive some reason not to drink. Instead, he smiles wildly at me, and drinks his whole glass down in one sip.
Shit. That can’t be good, can it?
We’re given our spears. The lines are already drawn in the center of the town square.
I don’t feel anything from the drink. Was THESIUS wrong? Lying? Or did the Mi Kioras change their minds at the last moment? Decide to let me win?
I give Catherine one last look before I step into the ring. She’s not even looking at me, just staring off into the distance. There’s an aching of longing pain in my chest already from how hurt she looked at me, but maybe my mind hasn’t fully processed yet that we just broke up. That I just ended things with her. I’ve been too focused on the job.
The job, not the duel. Once THESIUS told me their ploy, I thought the duel was as good as over. But now, after seeing that look at Mi Treton’s face, and after seeing him drink the wine, I no longer am certain of anything. I feel like I’m back in that forest on Glacius, except this time I’m the tribesman. I’m about to attack through the perimeter of booby traps, and I’m too stupid or blind to see any of them.
Worse still, I’m alone now. Sure, there’s Thraxa, and now THESIUS. There’s the whole fucking swarm...but that’s not the same thing as Catherine.
I realize that if I