For Darkness Shows the Stars

beautiful, amazingly strong horses.
    They’d made them.

Thirty-five
     
    “OH LOOK,” SAID THE baroness. “The race is about to start.” Most of the people in the pavilion turned their attention to the track, but Elliot was too distracted. She looked full on at Felicia, unable to hide the expression of shock on her face.
    But of course. Why should she be surprised? They were willing to experiment on human beings. Why not horses? And then, to pass them off as an undiscovered breed, as a product of their totally legal explorations . . .
    She pressed a hand to her cheeks. Her flesh burned, and once again she felt the need to run. Here, surrounded by a large contingent of Luddite society, they were about to witness the triumph of abominations. They were about to cheer them on. Did no one else suspect? Or did they just not care? Like her family, so many of these Luddites had taken Post money and wore Post clothes. They drove Post sun-carts and accepted Post hospitality. Was the hypocrisy of the Luddites so embedded that they didn’t mind who broke the protocols as long as there was money and amusement in it?
    If they knew what the Fleet Posts had done, would the Luddites condemn them, or feel tempted to follow in their footsteps?
    Elliot was a hypocrite, too. She liked Felicia. She liked the admiral. She’d sympathized with their desire to cure their daughter, and no matter what they did, she didn’t want to see them hanged for their actions. She hated to admit it, but she believed in their goals too much.
    She shuddered as new realizations swept through her. If she was a false Luddite, was she not alone? Was there anything keeping their way of life afloat aside from lies and a lust for power?
    Everyone’s eyes were on the race as Elliot stumbled blindly from the pavilion. She forgot her father’s instructions. She just needed to get away. She was two steps past the back of the sun-carts when she broke into a run, and halfway across the nearest wheat field when she collapsed in a heap. The ends of her skirts twisted around her ankles when she tried to stand, so she just pounded the dirt in frustration.
    “Elliot,” said Kai. “Don’t say anything. Please.”
    She spun to see him standing over her. Of course he’d come after her. He’d been staring at her since she entered the tent. Was it his duty to see what deception of the Fleet’s she’d uncover next? Had Felicia given him mind-reading abilities to help him along, or was Elliot simply that easy for him to read?
    “Is any of it true?” she asked as he knelt in the dust at her side. Around them, hay bales still stood. They were shielded from the sights and sounds of the race. “Any of it at all? Are you really a Fleet? Are you really explorers? Did you really go forth at all, Captain Wentforth , or do you all just invent things and then claim you found them? Are you just a roving band of science experiments and liars?”
    He looked at her with his too-bright eyes. “Are you a Luddite, or did you invent a breed of high-yield wheat?”
    “Who told you?” she cried.
    “I can figure things out on my own, too,” he replied. “When you wouldn’t talk to me the other night, I decided to do just that.” He shook his head. “I don’t know whether to be shocked or proud.”
    “I’ll take shock.”
    “You don’t get to choose.” His face was kind, and Elliot wanted to smack it. He hesitated for a second, and when he spoke again, he sounded almost nervous. “Are you proud of me? I have to admit, I wondered when I saw you driving the sun-cart, all those months ago.”
    She felt like a fool. The Fleet had made fools of them all. Naturally, there were no island lots filled with abandoned sun-carts. They were the invention of her oldest friend. The controls looked like the tractor controls because that’s what Kai had been used to. He wasn’t restoring them for buyers; he was building them.
    “Even then, I was glad you liked it. I wondered what you’d think if you knew I’d made it.”
    She gritted her teeth. She’d been proud enough when she’d thought he’d merely found them. But how could she countenance this? “Don’t change the subject.”
    He lifted his shoulder. “Fine. What happened to your wheat?”
    “That wasn’t what I meant.”
    But Kai wouldn’t let up. “What happened?”
    She gestured back at the pavilions. “The racetrack.”
    He nodded. She didn’t need to say anything more. He knew what the baron was like.