Within the Walls [NEW VERSION]

Chapter 11

I welcome the rest of the liquor burning down my throat. Ruben tenses, but his composure remains granite. He presses his lips together. "We have them imprisoned. The King will determine their execution date shortly. We will notify you."

My grip tightens around the glass at his lie, and I am grateful for the bartender when he tops me up. The pregnant woman weeps, fresh tears spilling. "How can someone be so hateful?" she says, pulling a cloth from her pocket and holding it to her leaking nose. "How can they rob a child of their father?"

Ruben heaves a sigh. "They were thoughtless and selfish."

I resist the urge to crash the glass on his stupid head and resort to kicking him under the bench. He ignores me, placing his hand gently over the lady's trembling one. "We will find you and your child justice, Lily."

She clutches the handkerchief and squeezes her eyes shut. Another tear escapes. The room sways and my muscles grow heavy. A merciful relief despite the acid burning my throat and beneath my skin. Lily drains the rest of her lemonade before trudging back out of the bar, nodding goodbye to Ruben.

He scowls at me. "Don't even try to get angry at me."

"I'm not," I admit with a slur, gripping a fresh glass of gold whiskey. "She's right. I am hateful. I tore a father from their child." A chill slithers into my bones as the raw honesty and reality of my words reverberate around us.

Hateful. The thought rattles around my head with icy resonance, like the chime of the temple bells. Am I hateful? No. I had to save my sister from those Tranqs. We'd both be long rotting beyond the walls now. Sometimes, in the Walls, we must be selfish. I did not enjoy tearing a father away from his child, of course. I know that feeling all too well. Their deaths prowl through my mind with reckless abandon, reminding me how utterly alone I am in this kingdom if it were not for my sister, who I must... I just must protect. Selfishness keeps one alive in this kingdom. It is how we survive here.

"It is quite suffocating in here," Ruben says, downing the last of his drink. "Shall we continue our walk through the streets?"

I nod, thanking the bartender. We stumble out of the bar, dodging the crowds still filling the alleyway and the street. Ruben leads me through the street, lined with various coloured buildings, balconies, and underneath stone arches. Horse hooves clatter in the distance. But carriage wheels do not screech or rattle against the smooth pavement. Hints of aromas waft into my nose, savoury and smoky, and my stomach rumbles in protest. We continue through the streets, until the buildings thin out, and we arrive at a park. In the north of the Concave Sector. Across yet another arched bridge, over a gurgling, bubbling stream, and onto the freshly mowed grass. Evergreen hedges and plants border the grassy field, with bronze park benches dotted across the landscape. Thickets of bright violet flowers shift in the icy breeze. Concave people mingle about. Walking, hands entwined with one another. Children shriek with laughter as they kick a ball between them.

My eyes linger on the water fountain in the centre of the park. A round marble pool, elevated from the grass, with porcelain sculptures of two female figures. Naked and sitting with their backs against each other. One of them wears a necklace with a crescent moon and cries tears of stars. While the other wears a floral headpiece.

"The Goddesses of the Night and the Day," Ruben says, his gaze roving my face, not theirs.

"I know," I say. "Tutella and Ruaris. Two sisters separated by Curos, God of the Earth, who cast a spell on the planet, making it so the sisters could only perform their duties without each other."

"So, they do teach you of the legends in Convex schools."

"Pig. You know our school system is basically non-existent," I say, rolling my eyes. "If it weren't for my mother, I wouldn't have even learned to read."