The Strength of the Few (Hierarchy, #2)

by James Islington

“Veridius didn’t tell you about the Concurrence? Who we’re fighting? Why you’re here?”

Worm?

“They didn’t just win the war here, Vis. I think they won it everywhere.”

HUHHHHH

“Tell me, Principalis,” I call after him. “Did you go to Belli’s funeral, too?” Veridius stiffens, almost imperceptibly. “I went to all of them, Vis.” Doesn’t look back. “I wept at all of them.” He walks away.

GOT HIS ASS

“Never let them change you, Eidhin. Never. You are more honourable, more of a friend, than any man could hope for,” I whisper fiercely in his ear. “And Callidus would tell you the same.”

The power of friendship WAHHHHHHHH

“Lanistia?” I frown at her. “What’s wrong?” She bares her teeth at me. It’s not anger. It’s confusion. Desperation. “Complete the journey, warrior,” she says sorrowfully. She has a dagger in her hand.

SHE'S FUCKING INFECTED

Lanistia’s glasses have fallen off. Her eyeless stare bores into me. “Complete the journey, warrior,” she gasps, so softly that only I can hear it. She weeps it, this time. As if it is an apology. Her body goes limp as the squeezing chains finally rob the last of her breath, and she passes into unconsciousness.

Oh my god :'(

Onchú hesitates, then steps forward himself and puts a hand on my shoulder. Locks his gaze with mine. “Always room for you. Family do not owe.”

Aaaaaaaand I'm crying

“I always thought I would be the one left in Res, you know.” He says it abruptly. “I knew that going through the Gate would copy me to Obiteum and Luceum. Or I thought I knew that. But in my head, I was going to be the one who stayed. It never really occurred to me that I would be the copy. Be here.” There’s rawness to the admission. Pain, even now.

Oh Caeror :(

“So this is all for the Anguis again?” “I suppose. But for much bigger things than that too, Catenicus. For the world. Have you seen the way the Aurora Columnae glow so brightly? Time is running out.” He glances toward the door. “But if it helps to sweeten the deal—once you have done what I ask, I will give you every single senator who agreed to our little adventure on Solivagus. The names of every man and woman in Caten who knew your friends would die.”

Holy fuck

“Gods’ graves, Aequa.” I cough in a vain attempt not to choke out my eventual, firm response. “You have nothing to be sorry for. Nothing. Hear me?” “I know. I’m sorry anyway.” She smiles across at me, and I can see the release in her teary eyes too. “I’d hug you, but we’re both kind of sweaty.” I sling my good arm forcefully around her shoulders, squeezing her close against my drenched tunic. She laughs as she feigns struggling before embracing me back. “Disgusting.”

MY BABIES

Unsurprising, albeit annoying; in typical Catenan fashion, they’re more interested in the flair of natural ability than seeing someone succeed through trial and error. There’s some logic to it, I suppose—they’re assessing aptitude and thus potential, as opposed to work ethic or common sense—but that entire approach is unbalanced. Shortsighted. Talent, as my father used to remind me constantly, matters only when it’s married to effort.

My desperation mounts. Iro’s Will pulses. Beneath my feet. Under my hand as I grip the frame desperately. I lock a mental picture of the chariot in my mind. Connection. Just like with the boulder earlier: one moment I can merely sense the Will and the next it’s mine, an extension of me, as surely as if I’d imbued it myself. My chariot creaks and settles back onto both wheels. Across from me, Iro is almost comically confused as he looks across in shock. No telling whether he can no longer sense the Will, or whether he simply can’t control it anymore.

FUCK YEAH VIS

Tertius Decimus, somehow, turns a deeper shade of red. “My apologies. Congratulations, Catenicus.” He says the word as if it’s poison. Perhaps it is, for him. The name I got for my role in the event in which his only daughter died. It doesn’t make it reasonable, but part of me understands, I think. Even sympathises. I’m an intrusive, offensive reminder of what he’s lost. In some ways, I suppose I am his Hierarchy.

Damn.......

“Are you suffering?” I ask Antonius quietly. He nods. Tears in his eyes. “Yes.” Barely audible. Rasping. Rattling. “Vis,” warns Emissa. I ignore her. Walk up to him. He trembles at my approach. I lean in close, my mouth at his ear, so that only he can hear. “Good.” His plaintive, weeping moans follow us into the darkness.

God..........

She grins at Diago as we draw near, looking like she’s going to give him a pat on the head. “Good boy.” Diago bares his teeth at her. Her smile vanishes and confident stride falters to a stop as she snatches her hand back. Diago snorts, then turns and pads toward the domed building. We both stand there and watch the alupi for a second. “I like him,” I say eventually. Aequa gives me a light backhanded slap on my right shoulder, and we head for the main building.

SKDJSMXSFK I LOVE THEM

I make to leave. Stop. Look over at Callidus’s space. A lump forms in my throat, despite my determination. As sterile as the rest of its surrounds, yet suddenly I can see him hunched over his desk. Scribbling on his wax tablet. Awake later and up earlier than anyone else. Flicking through books too advanced for me, let alone a Seventh. In my head, he turns to me and grins.

KILLING MYSELF

When I am done, I feel naked. Not vulnerable, exactly. But exposed. It has been almost five years since I have been honest about who I am. Five years since I wasn’t hiding something. I am almost lost without the need to lie. When I finish, Conor shifts. Comes to sit beside me and puts an arm around my shoulder. “You are here now,” he says softly. “We are all with you, brother.” Seanna smiles. Tara and Fearghus nod. And I know I am home.

WAHHHHHHHHHH

“Vis.” Aequa is in a sleek blue stola that emphasises her form. Her raven hair is meticulously arranged, curled artfully at the front and plaited into an elaborate bun at the back. I take a moment to say anything. I don’t think I’ve seen her dressed up since we travelled to the naumachia together. “Hail. You look nice.” “One of us has to. Come on. The others are here.” She tugs my arm impatiently.

I ship them harddddd idc

A glint in his eye as he examines me. “How much control do you have?” I raise my gloved metal hand, and slowly unfurl the middle finger in his direction.

VIS LMAOOOO ILY

“Obiteum or Luceum?” “The second one,” says Ostius, a little dryly, though I don’t know why. His gaze is focused on the walls down the hill. “So there’s another version of me here.” “I doubt he’s here. But yes. Somewhere.” He chuckles. “If we happen to come across him, I promise I’ll allow time to stop and chat.”

WE UPPPPPPPPPP

“Breach,” whispers the second iunctus, her brown eyes still staring glassily upward. The other children’s eyes snap open. The golden light around us fades to a throbbing, virulent red. And then every eye rolls and focuses on me. Just me. As if Netiqret and Kiya did not exist. “Breach,” they whisper together, eyes lifeless and glinting crimson.

THIS IS TERRIFYING

“No,” she says loudly. My heart drops and I almost open my mouth to protest, but this is her decision. She is our leader and if I have still not convinced her, then I must accept it now. I keep holding her gaze. “No,” she repeats. “But I will take Deaglán.” She puts the iron torc around my neck to cheers.

YEAHHHHHH

The best buildings were made to speak to their occupants. The best rooms, you understood what they were the moment you entered, no matter their furnishings. This is a room where decisions are made, and men die, and empires fall.

Bars

“Three Princeps,” finishes Ostius quietly, face inches from his uncle’s, gazing into his eyes as if nothing had happened. “All ceding to the man who is planning to kill us.”

HELLO?????

Ostius frowns. Nonplussed. Then he turns to the senators. “Gentlemen, I’ve been rude. Please allow me to introduce the man you know as Sextus Vis Telimus, or Catenicus if you’re feeling nostalgic. Though his birth name is Diago, son of Cristoval. Prince of Suus. I believe some of you hanged his parents and sister?”

HE DID NOT-

The room is a crimson painting of splayed limbs and glassy stares. I half expect Diago to turn on Ostius or myself, but as soon as he’s done he simply stops. Lies down on a clean patch of floor. Red coats his muzzle.

GOOD BOY DIAGO <3

I push forward. Shake my head. “No.” The word’s a breath, directed with the force of a prayer at Ahmose. He doesn’t see it. “Remember. Ka is not a god!” His gaze flickers over me, and then is gone again. “But who knows? Perhaps there will still be a Field of Reeds, after all.” He smiles. Lets himself fall backward.

AHMOSE NOOOOOOOO

The figure stands. “Took you long enough,” he says in Common. Before I can even process the incongruity, the impossibility of hearing that tongue again, he turns. Smiles at me. I stop. Mind blank. Unable to understand what I’m seeing. Unable to trust myself enough to believe. “Hail, Diago,” says my father.

RAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

“If enough of the Hierarchy truly believed that in order to save the world, they had to stop using what let them rule it?” I think. Slowly, reluctantly shake my head. “Some would agree to sacrifice.” I think of Callidus. Emissa and Eidhin and Aequa. “But not most, and not the ones who matter. The Catenan Republic is Will. To take it away from them… to them, that is the Cataclysm.”

Oof

He meets my gaze. “So I don’t know what I would have done. And I don’t know whether it would have been the right choice. Sometimes I’m glad I didn’t have to find out, but most of the time…” He sighs. Leans forward and briefly tousles my hair, the way he used to. “Most of the time I just want you all back.”

My heart hurts

“I wish I could have borne it with you. I wish we could have borne it together.” I say it softly. Not a remonstrance. Just wistful observation. He nods slowly. “Part of me does too, Diago. Part of me would take any moment that would have given us more time together. But I am also glad I did not. I am glad that I was able to allow you three more months of happiness and security and childhood. Even if you deserved more.” He smiles. Grips my shoulder. My heart aches at the familiar, long-forgotten gesture.

Killing myself fr

“I ran, five years ago. Did you know that? Cari died and I made it out and I ran, while you and Mother and Ysa were still prisoners. I made a choice and I survived the ones I loved.” I look up. Ignore the welling in my eyes and put all of my determination into my words. “Never again.”

My poor boy :'(

We embrace again. It still feels impossible, his arms around me. “I love you.” I haven’t said it yet, and the words almost stick in my throat. I’ve needed to tell him that for so, so long. “And I love you, Diago. Always.” He squeezes me tight, then releases me. It’s hard, walking away. Parting so soon, after so long. And yet I can, because I know I can come back. I know my father will keep his word and that when I need him, he will find a way to be there. He always has. He always does.

I can't stop crying

I stare at the water for a while. My thoughts on a different track, now. The acrid stench, the violent green of the water, is nothing like that night at Suus. I still hear my sister’s voice. “I don’t want to.” Barely audible. The protest of a child who knows they don’t have a choice. “I’m scared.” “I wouldn’t ask if I wasn’t sure.” Lie. “We can make it.” Lie. “Do you trust me?” The last things I ever say to her.

WAHHHHHHHH

“Now answer my questions, and answer wholly and truthfully. What is this place?” My voice shakes. “A purification room.” “What does that mean?” Bile in my throat. I know the answer. I still have to hear it. “Contaminated water is drawn in. It is treated, then redirected to the city’s wells.” Oh, vek, no. “Treated?” “Internally. It is the only known way to remove the worst of the toxins.” I say nothing, just looking at the nearest corpse quivering on its table. I’ve been drinking from those wells for the past few months.

DISGUSTING

There’s a thrum as I make contact. Like a release of energy that’s been silently building around me, an invisible wave that explodes outward from the obelisk, racing through stone and away into the rest of Fornax. Then pain in my head, sharp and cold and clear. “SYNCHRONOUS!” The woman’s scream is panicked, a shriek so abrupt that I stumble. The word ricochets through my skull. And then, there are pulses everywhere.

Uh oh

And as I vainly tried to haul his massive and somewhat comically unwilling form out of my bed, I finally registered that I wasn’t afraid of him. Allowed myself to replay the nightmare of the Basilica, and realised just how targeted Diago was in his fury. No hint of threatening me. No hint of even threatening Ostius. Only the men who arranged for the deaths of my friends. Only the men who would have ordered mine, had they been allowed to leave that room.

Exactly king! Give him a treat

“Maybe you are right, Druid,” says Gallchobhar, his lips bared back into a rictus of a smile. “But then, there are some things men like me do not need to know.” He rips the serrated spear from Lir’s flesh, eliciting a gargled scream from the man, before drawing his iron dagger, grabbing the druid by the hair, yanking his head back and slitting his throat.

Gallchobhar when i catch you

“It’s alright, Vis.” Aequa’s shaking. Stopped struggling, I think because it was hurting her as much as getting nowhere. But somehow, she still forces a smile at me. “It’s alright. Whatever happens, neither of us can—” Decimus tightens his grip. Aequa’s head caves in.

NOOOOOOOOOOOO

I glance over at Aequa again, throat clogging anew. It feels wrong to just ignore her. To leave her. “I’m sorry,” I whisper to her broken body.

THIS IS SO SICK AND TWISTED

“Diago.” She’s shaking her head. “Diago, don’t do this. I can help you. You need me.” “I don’t, Relucia,” I say softly. “Thanks to what you’ve done out there, I really don’t.” “Let me free.” She begins to thrash. Her chains scream at the darkness. “LET ME FREE, DIAGO! YOU ROTTING COWARD! YOU—” I kick the winch. The chain unspools. Her screams cease.

MAN.......

“Show me your face, Tara. It has been so long.” Tara shrugs and pulls back her hood. Her blue eyes are fierce. The scar on her face looks angry in the torchlight. He inspects her. “Ugly as the day you left, I see.” She smiles back at him. “And you, as stupid. Though I could have guessed that much.”

GET HIS ASS TARA

It takes me a moment to understand, and when I do, I shake my head madly. No. I do not want him to do this. Not for me. Not again. I scrabble to take it off, to give it back. He smiles at me, and restrains my hand firmly. Dark bruises beginning to blush around his neck. Impossibly, barely visible in the murky water, smiling. Comforting me. Him comforting me. I am a child again, and all I want is for my father to be here. All I want is for him to stay.

I'm fucking inconsolable

He told me that all he wanted was for me to be my own man. But all I ever wanted, all I still want, is to be like him. I want to tell him that I love him. I want to tell him just how much I love him. One last time. I mouth the words. His eyes soften and he mouths it back. His arms slacken. He grits his teeth and makes one final effort, gripping my shoulder. Courage, he adds. Still smiling. Then he lets go, the light gone from his eyes.

Dude. DUDE.

He trails off as he examines me. Expression turning from determined, to puzzled, to sad. “Oh, lad. The sorrows you bear, Deaglán,” he says softly. “I am so very sorry.”

I'm sick. SICKKKKKK

“When do you give up on saving the ones you love?” My gaze goes from her to Kiya, standing obediently off to the side. My heart twists with horror and hope all at once. I open my mouth to tell her that it’s time, that she’s gone, that if Kiya can help then we have to take this chance. But the words don’t come. I think of Cari. Trying to breathe life back into her. Knowing she was dead, knowing they were coming for me, and still I tried. Again, and again, and again. Because leaving her behind felt impossible. Because living with the fear of having given up too soon was worse than death, and it wasn’t even close. “When we can live with the regret,” I eventually say softly.

GODDDDDDDD

Kiya comes to stand obediently in front of her mother. Netiqret crouches, so that her face is level with the girl’s. Smooths back the carefully braided hair that loops in front of her face, and locks eyes with her. “Kiya, I need you to do something.” Her voice shakes. Cracks. “One last thing. But…” She chokes, turns away before gathering herself. “But if you’re in there, if any part of you is in there, I want you to know I wish I’d been better. Braver.” There are tears leaking down her cheeks now, streaking the carefully painted black kohl around her eyes. “I didn’t… I shouldn’t have let them take you. I should never have let them take you.” She embraces the girl in a tight, fierce hug.

KILLING MYSELF FRRRRR I CAN'T FUCKING DO THIS

“Siamun.” I turn. She hasn’t moved, still facing the other way. Daughter cradled in her arms. “Make it matter.” I nod, unseen, at her back.

FAWWWWWKKKKKKK

The spear is already airborne. Eidhin firmly in its path. Then Diago is there, leaping. The spear takes him in the throat.

JAMES ISLINGTON WHY DO YOU HATE MEEEEEEEE WHYYYYYYYYYYY

When my tears clear enough to focus again, I see Eidhin has descended after me. He’s staring. At first I think it’s at Ysa, but then I realise his gaze is fixed behind, over my shoulder. For the first time since the Iudicium, I see him smile. And before I can turn, before I can process it, the familiar voice emerges from the murmurs behind. Wry, and quiet, and utterly perplexed. “Hail, Vis.”

CALLIDUS?!?!?!?!?!