Free The Phoenix Crisis by Richard L. Sanders Page A

language showed any real defiance.
That was wise.
    “ You have dishonored
yourself, and in so doing you have dishonored me, and the Polarian
race, and worst of all you have dishonored the very Essences
themselves,” Rez’nac did not stop until he was but a meter away
from his son.
    “ I am of the Essence of
Qi’lara. I know no dishonor,” Grimka replied simply.
    “ And I am of the Essence of Khalahar and I
say that you do.” Rez’nac pointed at him. “I know that you slew the
human soldier on the Nighthawk. Slaughtered him in cold blood. And
I know that you dishonored yourself further by denying your actions
when questioned by the humans. Do not dare to deny it to me,” his
eyes narrowed and he stared at his son, teeth clenched.
    Grimka looked at the other Polarians, as if
for support, then his eyes met Rez’nac’s again, and there was a
change. He stood a little straighter and his muscles tightened, his
face looked like steel and fire filled his eyes. “Yes, father. I
did those things. And I was right to do them.”
    Rez’nac felt like he’d been
dealt a lethal blow. He had come here expecting this, convinced of
Grimka’s guilt, but a small part of him had still wished all of it
to be a great mistake. Now that Grimka had confessed, and showed
neither remorse nor regret for his deeds, a small part of Rez’nac
died. “I am the one who decides what is right and what isn’t,”
Rez’nac said fiercely. “For it is I who is of Khalahar. I am the master here. I am not
yours. You are mine.”
    “ The human deserved what he
got,” grumbled one of the other Polarians, a youth by the name of
Hrokki.
    “ Silence!” Rez’nac said,
turning his attention to the others. “You will not speak again
until I allow you,” he looked from one to the other. They both
lowered their heads, perhaps in shame. Rez’nac looked again to
Grimka.
    “ Hrokki is right,” Grimka
said. “The human defiled our sacred ways. There is only one
appropriate response, the Blu-qi! I did not murder him as a dark
one in the night, I performed the Blu-qi as our ways
demand.”
    The Blu-qi was a punishment
ritual reserved for only the most heinous of crimes. And had it
been Grimka’s place to decide the sentence, and had the victim
understood the Polarian ways, Rez’nac conceded that his son would
have been in his right. But it had not been Grimka’s place, it had been
Rez’nac’s, and the slain human had not known their ways. “It was not your
place to decide.”
    “ What was there to decide?”
asked Grimka with wide eyes. “The Blu-qi is our way!”
    “ But the humans do not
follow our ways!” said Rez’nac.
    “ No father,” Grimka said,
now drawing his ceremonial dagger. “It is YOU who does not follow
our ways.”
    “ You forget yourself again,
Grimka,” said Rez’nac, reaching for his own blade.
    Grimka looked to the other Polarians. “I
declare an Arahn-Fi!” The others looked up in shock.
    “ You would challenge me?” asked Rez’nac in disbelief. His son, who
had never known true war, and had never bled true blood, was no
match for him. Why dishonor himself further?
    “ The Essences demand it,”
said Grimka. “You have become lost, father. You may no longer lead
us. For you are no longer guided by their light.”
    “ How dare you?” Rez’nac felt
a surge of anger, strong as tidal forces, pour through
him.
    “ You bring us into the
unclean company of humans, you submit us to them—that they may be
our masters, you shed our blood to die in their wars, you poison
our souls with their tainted politics and interests—none of which
are our concern,” said Grimka, citing a list of accusations that
struck Rez’nac as too ready not to have been prepared—clearly
Grimka had been planning this rebellion for some time. “And you
take us far from our homeland, away from the souls of the Essences.
Ever since we have left I have not felt them. Have you?” He looked
from Rez’nac to the others. “Have any of