The Defiant

We whiled away the next day in our rooms. The boys took turns standing guard in the hall, so it would look like they were actually doing their jobs, instead of playing card games with the royalty.

I found a small cache of books in the bedside table of the Crimson room. Unfortunately, only one was in English, a history of Cebos. Boring, but I needed something to distract me from my anxiety, so I cracked it open to the table of contents. Immediately, an entry jumped out at me. Rest Holiday, the celebration of which this ball was for. More specifically, the Prime Minister’s ball was only for the officers of the government. I turned to the page the entry specified and began to read.

The Cebosian Rest Month was established in 2261, four years after the initial settlement of the colony. During this period, the planet is at its closest to the sun, which creates geologic instability, leading to an increase in mine collapses. After several dozen miners lost their lives during this time each year, the Prime Minister declared a planetwide holiday to prevent further casualties.

The third day of the Rest Month is known as Rest Holiday. This is the longest day of the Cebosian year, known as the summer solstice on Earth. The Prime Minister has historically hosted a ball for government and military officials on this day, and many other Cebosian citizens celebrate as well. Citizens parade in costume down the streets, and many cities also host large markets, known as lantern markets because of the colorful lanterns that are lit after the sun goes down.

Traditional foods for this holiday include: mitzyn (a fried doughy pastry stuffed with fruit and dusted with sugar), kiros (a sweetened furler leaf mash wrapped in thin sugar paper), and chocolate (an Earth delicacy made with milk, sugar, and cocoa beans).

See p. 351 for a list of other Cebosian holidays.

Geologic instability. Maybe there would be an earthquake while we were at the ball. That would certainly save us the trouble of coming up with a suitable distraction so we can sneak down to the cellar and retrieve the ‘official’ without being seen. Which reminded me…

I shut the book and left it on the bed, standing up to go out into the parlor, nearly tripping on the hem of my dress as I did so. This stupid dress had been fun at first, but now it was really getting on my nerves.

Out in the parlor, Seven, Six, and Four were sitting on the floor, playing an improvised board game with the decorative marbles from a flower vase. Two was absent, probably taking a shift out in the hallway, and Eight was gone too, most likely behind the closed door of the Orchid Room. Three lounged on a sofa, playing idly with her hair and glaring at the game players when they made too much noise. Five slumped in a chair, fast asleep, snoring like a freight train.

“Hey, guys,” I said, sitting down at the edge of what looked like the made-up game board. “Can we discuss the plan?”

“Good idea,” Seven said. Four scooped up a pillow from the sofa behind her and chucked it at Five. It hit him square in the face and bounced off. He sat up, disoriented.

“What the—?”

“We’re having a strategy meeting. Go get Eight for us,” Four said.

Five stood up, grumbling under his breath, knocked on the door of the Orchid room, and went in.

“Hey, Three, can you go get Two from the—”

“No,” she said, not even looking up from her hair.

“Ooo-kay. I guess I’ll just do it then,” I said, crossing to the exterior door. I opened it, and Two tumbled inside.

“Leaning on the door?” I asked. He nodded sheepishly from the floor. “Come on in. We’re going to discuss the plan for tonight.”

“What if someone comes by?”

“No one will. Has anyone all day except the people bringing lunch?”

“No, but—”

“It’ll be fine. C’mon.”

We returned to the parlor, where everyone had congregated and now sat in a rough circle.

“How much more detailed does the plan have to be? We go down to the cellar, get the guy, and get back up to space. Simple,” Three translated for Six.

“Well, we need to plan out how we’re going to do that. We don’t know where the cellar is, or where the official is being held, or how to get him out of here without being detected, or how to get to the spaceport,” Seven said.

“As to the location of the cellar, there’ll be food at the ball, right?” Five asked.

“I would assume so,” I said.

“Well, we just watch the servants, then. They’ll certainly be going back and forth to the kitchens and cellars to get food, so if we just figure out where they’re going, that’s where our guy will be.”

“Great idea, Five,” Eight said, uncharacteristically warmly. “I think once we find the cellars, we just have to make a distraction, and get down there fast, so we can all leave as a group.”

“What kind of distraction?” Two asked.

“Oh, I think Seven’s abysmal dancing should be enough, don’t you?” Three cut in.

“Three!”

“No, she’s right, I’m terrible. But I think we should come up with something that everyone will see at once,” Seven said amiably.

“Like what?” I asked.

“I’m not sure. Are there windows in the ballroom?”

“Probably.”

“Okay. This’ll sound crazy, but what if one of us, probably one of you—” she said, gesturing at the boys, “since you’re less recognizable—throws something through the window once we get the signal that our scout found the cellar? Everyone would surely look up if a window broke, and it would probably hold their attention long enough for us all to get down to the cellar.”

“That’s so crazy, it might actually work,” Four said.

“Yeah, except if the person who broke the window is caught, they’ll be arrested,” Two pointed out.

“I think it’s worth the risk. After all, all eight of us are breaking the law anyway,” I said.

“Who gets stuck with that job, then?” Two asked in a tone that suggested it would not be him.

“I’ll do it,” Five volunteered. “I’ll throw a chair or something, and then get out of there as quickly as I can.”

“I can scout out the cellars. Once I find them, I’ll come up and get Six so we can find out where our passenger is being held,” Two said.

“I’ll keep watch for Five.” Four said. “But what do we do with this guy when we find him? Will he go with us?”

“The way Imelda talked about him, it sounded like he would be waiting for us to transport him. But in case he’s unwilling, we can try to find some rope to tie him up with,” Eight said, completely passionless like she wasn’t discussing the best way to kidnap a man.

“And how do we get out afterward?” Four asked skeptically. “Surely people will notice us sneaking out of the palace with a bound man slung over our shoulders.” I agreed. This plan seemed to be resting on an awful lots of ifs.

“I don’t think we can really plan very much for that. We don’t have very much information. I say we just wing it and hope for the best,” Two said.

“The hovercars are kept in a garage by the guard’s barracks. Six saw them yesterday. We can just steal one and take it to the spaceport,” Three said, watching Six’s motions. “It shouldn’t be hard to get there. There are signs everywhere.”

That was all we could plan for now, but to me, it sounded very unprepared and risky. I would be happy when this whole affair was behind us.