“You’ve caused quite a stir,” Sarah said, setting her hand on my shoulder. “I support you, but I hope you’re prepared for what comes of this.”

I set my jaw and looked over the ledge. It was morning, and the canyon was abustle with people breaking down the final remnants of the festival. The cleanup efforts had taken all of three days, since nothing went to waste: all of the leftovers were dried and the containers washed for reuse. Next to the workers carrying another load of decorations, an unusual crowd was gathering at the base of Gibnor. I narrowed my eyes, suspecting that it had something to do with my announcement. “The news spread faster than I expected,” I said. “Do you think the elders will challenge me?”

“No, they would only be embarrassed. Your story rings of truth.”

I nodded. “Operation Exposé was a success. The elders were fools to think that they could keep the news of the king’s deception from Bellgate.”

“Now the king and all nine elders will be out for blood. You undermined them.”

“I know.” I pulled my hood over my head, obscuring my features. “I better get back to the base.”

“Good luck.”

I took the stairs two at a time, anxious to leave Gibnor and its cloud of tension. As I weaved through the crowd, I picked up snippets of conversation:

“-pulled the wool over our eyes!”

“-prepared to fight-”

“But what about proof?”

“-should speak to Glace-”

I pulled my hood tighter at the mention of my name. Within the borders of the crowd, the air itself seemed to pulse with suspense, setting my teeth on edge. Even with my face obscured, I could tell that the people’s typical smiles had been replaced by dark expressions, and although it had never been unusual to see weapons in Bellgate, the crowd bristled with more daggers and guns than I’d ever seen on civilians.

I slipped between the last vestiges of the crowd and walked briskly to the base, trying not to look back. After a quick nod to the patrolmen stationed outside, I climbed to Nico’s room and rapped my knuckles on the door. Hardly a moment passed before he answered with bloodshot eyes and ushered me inside.

“Any news of the operation?” I whispered. Although he hadn’t approved of my decision to tell my story on the night of the festival, he had supported me since, even going as far as to launch his own investigation when the elders had cut off communication with us.

“I’ve been on the radio all night. Karakul and Eldridge are in chaos.”

“What’s happened?”

“There were protests all night, and one of my informants thinks a factory boycott is in the works. This morning, the king announced a country-wide travel ban.”

I nodded. “That’s nothing new. He-” I stopped suddenly, interrupted by shouts from the canyon. We rushed outside, where we were confronted by the sight of what seemed to be a small army. The crowd outside of Gibnor had swelled in size and surrounded the base, chanting “come out!”

“What are they doing?” I asked Nico.

His knuckles were white as he gripped the knife at his hip.“They’re calling the elders.” I turned my gaze upward to the peak of the base, where the elders’ living quarters were situated. Since the last night of the Solstice Festival, they’d barricaded their doors and refused to meet with anyone requesting an audience. The silhouettes of their guards were barely visible as they paced back and forth.

The crowd’s shouts grew louder with every minute without a response from the elders. They grew noticeably more agitated, shaking their fists and weapons as they screamed. Below us, soldiers emerged from their rooms, watching silently from the base’s ledges. They want answers, too, I realized. They feel betrayed that the elders would hide something so important from their own army. Unlike Amberasta, Bellgate is a democracy, and the army’s loyalty to the elders is not unconditional.

Suddenly, a smaller group broke away from the crowd, pushed past the patrolmen, and surged up the stairs of the base. No one moved to block them as they passed the first ledge, then the second, finally stopping on an outcropping one story above our level from which they would have a full view of the elders’ rooms.

“Come out!” the group’s leader shouted into a megaphone. “We demand an audience!” Once again, several minutes passed without a response. He shook his fist, almost in hysterics. “You can’t stay holed up forever! We know that the king’s war is a ruse, and that you kept it from us! Are you in cahoots with the king?” Below, there were shouts of agreement from the crowd, and several people fired their weapons into the air to punctate his point. Nico pulled me away from the ledge, and we watched the rest of the interaction from against the rock face.

The leader appealed to the elders several more times without a response. He shouted and pleaded, waiting in between each attempt to allow them to respond. When he raised the megaphone for the final time, his voice sank into a cold growl. “You give us no choice,” he said. “We will have answers, and we will have retribution! Stand clear!”

Nico and I watched, petrified, as the leader raised his hand. From his group, two people with machine guns stepped forward and fixed them on the opening of the elders’ quarters. After a moment of hesitation, the elders’ guards stepped aside, allowing them an open shot.

The shots whipped through the air with a vicious crack, followed almost instantly by a thwack like a sledgehammer as they impacted the red rock. Chunks of rock flew past our ledge, smashing into the sides of the base until they came to rest on one of its lower ledges. Nico and I rushed inside, watching from the window to minimize the chance of being hit.

When the shooting stopped, the world fell into stunned silence. The remnants of the elders’ barricaded doors lay broken on the story below ours. Slowly, the leader raised the megaphone to his mouth again. “You have ten minutes to come out before we come to find you.”

My pulse throbbed in my neck. “Will they go?” I asked Nico.

“I do not know. They may be too prideful.”

We waited with bated breath as the minutes ticked by. The atmosphere grew tenser as some of the base’s soldiers began to convene near the stairs, carrying their own weapons. I watched as they gestured animatedly, pointing at the elders’ rooms and then the crowd below. I stared at them in shock. They plan to defend the elders? If it comes to that, there will be a civil war in Bellgate.

Just when it seemed that no one would appear, the crowd began to shout again. We crept back outside to watch as a female elder, seemingly unarmed, climbed down the stairs to face the group that had destroyed the barricaded doors. As she walked, several soldiers fell in beside her, pointing their weapons at the group’s leader. Their presence seemed to bring her confidence, and she drew a voice amplification box from her coat pocket. “What do you demand?” she asked.

The man raised his megaphone again. “You knew that Solokia did not steal from Amberasta and that the war was a ruse. Why didn’t you tell us?”

It took the elder a moment to find her words. “It is true that we knew. We planned to announce the news once some time had passed and Operation Exposé was successful. We did not want to give anyone false hope.”

“A politician’s answer,” Nico commented. I nodded; although I included basic information about the operation in my story on the night of the festival, I had not expected the elder to mention it. The truth in her response makes the rest of it more believable.

“We have no way of knowing if your claims are true. Perhaps you would have told us, perhaps not—we have no proof either way.”

“You will have to trust in us, like you have for decades.”

There were shouts of dissent from below, and the leader scoffed. “No. Not anymore.”

“Then what do you want?”

“We want to fight.” He gestured at the crowd, and they shook their weapons. “We have heard reports of new resistance groups, and we want to join them. When news of the king’s deception spreads to the warfront, there will be chaos. Now is the time to lend our support and guidance.”

The elder’s voice grew strained. “We have heard no such reports.”

“It doesn’t matter. We cannot trust your word any longer. Either way, we will go and find out the truth for ourselves.”

“You would leave all at once, drawing the king’s eye here? That would be idiocy!”

“We will operate as we have always done. I will not argue with you about our plans. We demand provisions and arms for those who wish to leave now, and training for those who plan to join us later.”

The elder raised her hands and glanced at the soldiers behind her, as if ensuring that she still had their support. “We will not stop you from leaving, but we will not give you more than the most basic resources for your march of folly. Of course, if you can afford to buy the arms and provisions, the situation is different.”

I grimaced, and the crowd shouted with fury. The elder had outmatched them: they were people of Gibnor, farmers and healers, unable to afford the outfittings of an army. Several people in the crowd raised their weapons, and I shrank back, terrified that I was about to witness a battle. The man with the megaphone looked up the side of the base as if gauging the opposing force. In response, more than half of the soldiers, at least one-hundred people, pointed their guns at the crowd.

My blood ran cold. “They’re prepared to kill their own friends and family for the elders?”

“It’s more than that. Because of her phrasing, they believe that Bellgate’s resources are being threatened.”

I grabbed Nico’s arm. “We have to do something. I’ll speak-”

“No. The best thing to do is wait. A shoot-out will help no one.”

I cursed with frustration. A moment later, the rebellion’s leader held up his hands in a gesture of peace, clearly determining that his hodgepodge force was not prepared to unseat the elders. Together, he began to retreat with his gunmen. Halfway down the stairs, he turned one last time and raised the megaphone. “Call us whatever you want,” he said. “Idiotic, mad—it doesn’t matter. Never mind moral responsibility; you are all the real fools for believing that Keon’s war won’t reach you here. And when it does, the elders’ lies won’t protect you.”