can contribute something greater to a whole.” He leans forward. “You see, Mara is rumored to hold the ruins of an ancient technology mightier than anything we’ve ever discovered. It is a weapon buried in the ground, deep in their old silos. It is the power, they say, contained inside the hearts of stars and the cells of man, a source of incredible energy that can carry us all into the next millennium. Now, finally, we are all under the same rule. With the new peace that brings us, and with Mara’s help, we can advance together. Stretch our ambitions further than the Early Ones ever did.” His smile now is cold, searing. “After all, there are other lands to conquer across the seas.”
So this was the reason behind the Premier’s determination to conquer Mara. To end war, in his twisted way. Then to claim this myth of an energy source in Mara. I think of the displays of ruins I’d seen in Cardinia, taken from fallen nations. And then, suddenly, I remember the prison under the National Hall. The cylindrical pit winding down into the darkness, originally dug by the Early Ones. How Adena had always complained of the chemical smell down there. A weapon buried deep in the ground.
Horror rises low and nauseating in my chest. My hands clench and unclench against my bonds. I watch the Premier from behind a veil of hate and fear. Was there more to that ruin than we ever knew in Mara? What terrible power buried under Mara’s surface has drawn the Federation here?
The Premier’s eyes dart to my shaking chains, then back to me. “Did you see Mara as a country that loved you?” he asks. “When you first entered, you were grateful for her embrace of you and your mother—but did this nation give you back everything you gave her? You were willing to lay down your life out there on the battlefield.” He leans closer. “And yet, Mara wouldn’t even let your talented, educated mother live within the walls of Newage.”
I don’t know who he talked to or forced information out of, but he must have been paying close attention to me.
“Tell me, Talin,” he says. “Is that the kind of country you want to defend? Was that worth your life?”
Behind him, the soldiers force my mother onto her feet. She struggles up, wincing, and for the first time, I see the lashes along her legs, wounds bleeding on her arms. She shakes her head almost imperceptibly at me.
“You loved Mara, clearly, as much as you loved your own,” the Premier says to me. “But do you see these soldiers behind me?” He motions to the others standing in the chamber. “They are all willing to lay down their lives for me without hesitation—because not only do they believe in defending the Federation, but because they appreciate how they are valued. Because I value them. If you fight for me, I can promise you that all your loyalty and love will be returned to you tenfold. I do not take my soldiers for granted. I can’t unite this world in peace without first waging war, and I can’t wage war without my army at my back. I make sure they have everything they need, that their families are provided for. In return, they are willing to lay down their lives for me. Do you see?”
My eyes stay on my mother. They are going to kill her right before me—or worse, do what they did to Red’s family. I can feel the threat permeating the air, winding through the hollows of my bones.
“I can give you anything and everything you’ve ever wanted. Your old home back? I can gift you ten thousand acres of land and a title in the heart of Basea. Wealth? The Federation overflows with gold—have as much wealth as you can stand.” He watches the way my shoulders tense. “Prestige? I can transform you into a greater fighter, a more formidable assassin, than you’ve ever been. Whatever you were capable of as a Striker for Mara, you can be a hundredfold under the Federation. I’ve seen you fight, watched you make your kills. I can tell you that no soldier I’ve ever worked with has ever started off with half your talent. Not even Redlen.”
Red. His name on the Premier’s tongue sounds hostile and chilling. My gaze shifts from my mother to Constantine. There’s an intensity etched into his face now, as if he were truly