December

  *

  “This is going to throw off the plan,” Trell said, his voice tense with anxiety as he paced around the cell.

  “Maybe, but you need to calm down,” Juiya told him. “I’m sure Vandoraa knows and is compensating.”

  “And if he doesn’t?” Trell said. “He said he’ll get Alana, but what about Ted? We can’t leave him behind!”

  “Ted, while not necessarily expendable, isn’t as critical to the mission as we’ve been making him out to be, especially now that we’re in the process of successfully surrounding the Drevi fleet. Once we get back and can tell General Toka what happened, I’m sure he’ll mount a rescue mission.” In spite of the dire circumstances, he laughed. “For a second time.”

  “By then it could be too late!” Trell cried, not finding the joke at all funny. “I know the Drevi! They execute people who stand against them!”

  “Execution is not something they do just because they feel like it,” Juiya said, his feathers ruffling visibly. “It is reserved for times of emergency only. As much as I don’t like defending the Drevi, our own rebellion was probably responsible for spreading such a lie.”

  That took Trell by surprise. “They really don’t?”

  “No. They may imprison dissidents or exile them, but they’ll only be killed if they’re a danger to others and there’s no other alternative.” He glanced away. “I found out the hard way what they were really like during the war.” He unconsciously fingered a healed scar on his left arm.

  Trell’s shoulders slumped, the energy draining from him. “I didn’t know that.” A pause. “What happened, if you don’t mind my asking?”

  Juiya let out a mirthless laugh. “I got this scar because I didn’t trust people,” he admitted. “Why would I? I’d grown up an Uyya-Kolean and heard all sorts of horror stories about the Drevi, and when I was captured by them I panicked and fought beak and claw to escape. This scar happened because a Drevi doctor was coming towards me—I’d already been injured and found out later he was just trying to look at me to make sure it wasn’t serious—and I tried to bolt away from him, slashing myself open in the process.”

  “Did they let you go?”

  “They didn’t think I was going to live, after being injured and bashing around like a trapped animal,” he said. “By the time I was better the war had ended, and they let me go. To this day I don’t know if they were supposed to or not. I don’t know if they were punished... because of me.”

  “You were braver than I was,” Trell admitted. “I stayed with my parents and sent out ship designs to the resistance’s engineers when it was safe.”

  There was an uncomfortable silence as Trell made another lap around the cell and Juiya brushed the dust from his feathers with a speedy hand, leaving them with a nice sheen.

  “I’m sorry about what Alana said to you earlier,” said Trell, looking ashamed as he regarded the wall. “I exploded because I didn’t know what else to do. But if she makes a habit of that...” He left what he might do unsaid.

  “I’m hoping that after getting to know me she sees me as more than just an Uyya Kolean who ended up fighting the Drevi because ‘it’s my basest nature’ or some stupid shit like that,” said Juiya. “But Trell, she’s a smart woman, and she knows she’s wrong. And she certainly doesn’t want to lose the things that matter to her.”

  “I love her more than anything,” Trell said, holding back a sob. “I don’t want it to all be over because of this, even if we do get out of here alive.”

  Juiya nodded. “I have a feeling it won’t be, but you have to make it clear to her that you won’t tolerate her prejudice. ‘The truth can be hard to accept, but nonetheless, it is the truth.’”

  “I’ve always liked that one,” Trell said with a weak smile, recognizing the old Kolean proverb.