Enders In Exile

be found by the same methods.
Then your mother spat on Hyrum Graff and he began to look into her past
and found out that her name wasn't Nichelle Firth, it was Randi. And
when he looked at the DNA records, he found that you had no genes in
common with your supposed mother. You were not in any way her genetic
child."
    "That's a lie," said
Achilles. "You're saying it only to provoke me."
    "I'm saying it because
it's true, in the hope that it will liberate you. The
other children were found and returned to their parents. Five of them
didn't have your genetic disorder, your giantism, and all five of them
are still alive on Earth. Bella, Andrew—named for me, I must
point out—Julian the Third, Petra, and Ramon. Three of your
siblings were giants, and of course they're gone now—Ender,
Cincinnatus, Carlotta. You're the extra one, the missing one that they
gave up looking for. The one they never got to name. But your last name
is Delphiki. I knew your parents and I loved them dearly. You are not
the child of a monster, you're the child of two of the best people who
ever lived."
    "Julian Delphiki is the
monster!" cried Achilles, and he lunged at Ender.
    To his surprise, Ender
made no evasive maneuver. Achilles' blow landed squarely and sent Ender
sprawling onto the ground.
    "No!" cried Valentine.
    Ender picked himself up
calmly and rose to face him again. "You know that I'm telling you the
truth," said Ender. "That's why you're so angry."
    "I'm angry because you
say I'm the son of the killer of my father!"
    "Achilles Flandres
murdered everyone who showed him kindness. A nun who arranged for his
crippled leg to be restored. The surgeon who fixed the leg. A girl who
took him in when he was the least successful street bully in
Rotterdam—he pretended to love her, but then he strangled her
and threw her body in the Rhine. He blew up the house where your father
was living, in the effort to kill him and his whole family. He
kidnapped Petra and tried to seduce her but she despised him. It was
Julian Delphiki that she loved. You are their child, born of their love
and hope."
    Achilles rushed at him
again—but deliberately made it a clumsy move, so that Ender
would have plenty of time to block him, to strike at him.
    But again Ender made no
move to step away. He took the blow, this time a deep punch in the
stomach, and fell to the ground, gasping, retching.
    And then rose up again.
"I know you better than you know yourself," said Ender.
    "You're the father of
lies," said Achilles.
    "Never call yourself by
that vile name again. You're not Achilles. Your father is the hero who
rid the world of that monster."
    Again Achilles struck
at him—this time walking up slowly and bringing his fist
hugely into Ender's nose, breaking it. Blood spurted from his nostrils
and covered the front of his shirt almost instantly.
    Valentine cried out as
Ender staggered and then fell to his knees.
    "Fight me," hissed
Achilles.
    "Don't you get it?"
said Ender. "I will never raise my hand against the son of my friends."
    Achilles kicked him in
the jaw so hard it flung him over backward. This was no staged fight
like in the silly vids, where the hero and the villain delivered
killing blows, yet their opponent got up to fight again. The damage to
Ender's body was deep and real. It made him clumsy and unbalanced. An
easy target.
    He's not going to kill
me, thought Achilles.
    It came to him as such
a relief that he laughed aloud.
    And then he thought:
It's Mother's plan after all. Why did I ever imagine I should let him
kill
me? I'm the son of Achilles Flandres. His true son. I can kill the ones
who need killing. I can end this pernicious life, once and for all,
avenging my father and the hive queens and those two boys that Ender
killed.
    Achilles kicked Ender
in the ribs as he lay on his back in the grass. The ribs broke so
loudly that even Valentine could hear them; she screamed.
    "Hush," said Ender.
"This is how it goes."
    Then Ender rolled
over—wincing, then crying out softly with the pain. Yet he
managed, somehow, to rise to his feet.
    Whereupon he put his
hands in his pockets.
    "You can destroy the
vids you're recording," said Ender. "No one will know that you murdered
me. They won't believe Valentine. So you can claim self-defense.
Everyone will believe it—you've made them hate me and fear
me. Of course you had to kill me to save your own life."
    Ender wanted to die?
Now? At Achilles' hand? "What's your game?" Achilles asked.
    "Your supposed