Page 172 of The Amber Sunburst

Kallias winces and grits his teeth.

Alexander hardly notices. All he sees is red.

“Get away from him.” He barely recognizes his own voice.

“You truly have the arrogance of a prince, don’t you? You think the whole world is yours? I’m afraid it’s not.”

Alexander steps forward, hand tight on his sword. “Get away,” he grits out.

The Educator tsks. “You’ve already forgotten all about your friends, haven’t you?”

Oh God.

“You think I don’t know your little plan?”

The others need him to get to the hovertrain from the docks. It was Kallias’ idea, using a boat as a decoy. It was Kallias’ idea to keep it from everyone but the two of them.

“You don’t think I have men waiting at the Academy, ready to run down to Arc Eight right now?”

But it doesn’t even matter anymore, does it? Because Kallias has never been on their side. The Educator knows everything.

“You don’t think I know about your pathetic little boat? The one your friends are waiting on right now? I’ve left the ports open, you know. Just to give them hope.”

He’s going to kill all of them. Zeno, Eudoxia, Lazarus, Ophelia, Arete.

Except the Educator doesn’t continue on about the fact that the boat is a decoy, or about their real plan to take the hovertrain to a different port in the countryside.

What?

When Alexander finally brings himself to look at Kallias, he’s met with desperate eyes. They’re trying to say something to him. And when he looks down at Kallias’ hands, he realizes what.

He taps on his leg in repeated, steady increments.

--. ---

G. O.

Go?

Go.

With that one word, everything comes together.

Kallias didn’t tell the Educator everything. He doesn’t know their full plan, which means it could still work. Kallias was never going to leave with them. He helped them, he lied for them, he stole for them. And now he’s sacrificing himself for them. For no fucking reason.

“No,” Alexander says.

The Educator shakes his head as if Alexander is talking to him. “Yes, boy. I’ll give you a chance to warn them, if you like. We won’t ambush them until you’ve made it there, for the sake of fairness.”

“You want to publicize it, don’t you?” Alexander asks the Educator, eyes not leaving Kallias. “You want me to be there, to take us down in one fell swoop. To show the world your regime is not to be trifled with.”

“I suppose you’re smarter than I gave you credit for.”

--. ---, Kallias taps out again, eyes gleaming in frustration.

“No.”

“Whatever you say.”