Free Bite Back 05 - Angel Stakes by Mark Henwick Page A

Hidden Path party would be preferable to death, I assumed.
    All of it secondary.
    Prowser went on: “Our hosts here in Los Angeles are Panethus, the party of Emergence. Their political argument runs that we must reveal ourselves to humanity, and for humanity to most easily accept us, we must have ethics and morals and behavioral structures that are more reassuring to humanity. Structures that the new Assembly will impose on us all.”
    More stirring in the auditorium. They’d come to see Skylur and the Eastern Seaboard argue a matter of life or death. Prowser was making it an academic lecture, however key the points.
    I didn’t have the luxury to be bored. Somewhere in this process an attack was lurking that was directed at Skylur, and delaying the nomicane till I was present meant it had to come through an attack on me, whatever Prowser said.
    But where was it?
    “The Panethus creed is based on treating our human kin as our equals,” Prowser said, as if oblivious to the mood. “They say Emergence would need that equivalence recognized in our law, and to ease the minds of humanity, that would mean our laws would need to resemble theirs. However, humanity’s various judicial systems are predominantly concerned with the presentation and testing of evidence. Their penal system is hampered with the knowledge that the legal process might be faulty and the hope that incarceration or punishment might bring about redemption. They are largely founded on the basis that all are equal in the eyes of the law.”
    She raised her arms. “We are not limited like that. We taste the truth. We know who the guilty are. We assess the possibility of redemption. Our systems of reward and punishment have served us well for longer than all of humanity’s empires have stood. If we abandon them, we abandon part of that which makes us Athanate.”
    She dropped her arms dramatically. In those last couple of sentences, she’d caught them again. There was a rumble of agreement sweeping through the room. She’d turned her listeners around.
    And there was something in Prowser’s voice that told me she was exactly as she presented herself—implacably against changing Athanate laws. I guessed it was coincidental if that put her on the side of the Hidden Path party. Or defending Ibarre’s betrayal.
    She’d certainly gathered a worrying amount of support in the room.
    At that moment, Ibarre stood up. I could see confusion in the ranks behind Prowser.
    Not as planned.
    Ibarre was deviating from the script. And he had waited till Prowser had a good following.
    Skylur steepled his fingers in front of him.
    “House Prowser has the floor,” he said quietly.
    Ibarre continued to stand.
    Prowser frowned, but she did that little dip of the head and returned to her seat.
    “Thank you,” Ibarre addressed her, painfully polite, then walked out into the space in front of the podium. In his hands, he carried an old leather-bound book.
    He turned and looked through the audience until his eyes found me again.
    Bad, bad feeling.
    My gut was telling me Prowser really hadn’t known about this; about Ibarre’s second change of their plan. And that look from him only confirmed it involved me.
    Ibarre started, subdued and formal. “My colleague, House Prowser, has raised a point of principle that underlies this nomicane. How are we to regulate our community? For all the groundswell of opinion backing Emergence, here in this room we have felt the strength of support, even across the political divide, for our Athanate traditions and beliefs.”
    He took slow steps to one side, head bowed and a frown creasing his forehead as if he was in deep thought.
    “The way we govern ourselves is codified.” He held up his book. “Laid down in books like this, which every House has: Agiagraphos . The Hidden Path. The guide to our survival.”
    He opened it and began reading, but immediately stopped.
    “Of course, not all here speak our language.” He snapped the book