Read Online True Son by Lana Krumwiede - Free Book Online Page A

and he flinched.
    Pain. Pain shooting through his shoulders.
    Then he remembered. He was chained to a chair. His arms were tightly bound behind him. If he let his head drop, the pain was unbearable.
    He lifted his head. Tried to balance his head perfectly on his neck so he could relax his muscles a little. There. One tick above unbearable.
    His mind drifted into the fog again.
    There was something urgent he must do. What was it? He searched his brain. Everything was jumbled. Something to do with the archons . . .
    “They depend on you,” his father’s voice whispered through the fog. “The responsibility falls on you.”
    “I’ll take care of them,” Gevri answered. Had he spoken aloud? Was that croaking sound his own voice?
    “Gevri? Can you hear me?” said his father. But his voice was also strange. Higher. More nasal. “Are you ready to resume our discussion?”
    Gevri opened his eyes. The voice was not his father’s. A Nau soldier sat in the chair across from him. Fancy uniform. Dark maroon. Shiny buttons. Blue-black stripe on the sleeve.
    That stripe, it meant something. He used to know. Couldn’t remember.
    “Begin recording,” said the soldier. “Military Inspector U. Felmark Puster interrogating prisoner number six-naught-nine-dash-one-one-naught. Let it be noted that the prisoner has been forced to stay awake for five days and three hours. All indications are that he is unable to use any variety of psychic ability. The prisoner will now state his name.”
    Gevri grunted.
    “Let it be noted that the prisoner refuses to identify himself,” said Inspector Puster. “First question: By what means were you able to disarm the Nau soldiers?”
    Questions. More questions. How many times had the inspector questioned him? Gevri had lost count. Or lost the ability to count. He sighed. It made his shoulders hurt again.
    He could answer with one word: dominion. But they were all counting on him. His father, the archons, the whole military. His father had developed dominion as a secret weapon. Finally the Republik had an advantage that would win them independence from the Nau for good. Only a weak, ugsome coward would give in to this torture and tell them what they wanted to know. He kept silent.
    “Let it be noted that the prisoner is uncooperative,” said the inspector.
    Strobe lights splattered across the floor, the walls, everywhere. Colors, blinding white spots, rotating around the room, then reversing, then spinning again. Gevri scrunched his eyes tight, but the lights were impossible to block out completely.
    “Question number two: Where does this ability come from?”
    They’re counting on me. Ending the war is more important than a few minutes of torture
. A distant part of his brain tried to remind him that it had been days, not minutes, but he told himself to shut up.
    “Revised question number two: How is this power wielded? That is, what triggers it?”
    Gevri imagined himself as a statue cut out of stone. He could not see. He could not hear. He could not speak. He could not feel. He was nothing.
    “Turn off the strobe lights,” said the inspector. “Perhaps the sleep deprivation is preventing you from forming coherent thoughts. Perhaps I should recommend a short nap. Fifteen minutes, shall we say? If you answer one question, just one, you may sleep for fifteen minutes.”
    Fifteen minutes of sleep! Paradise!
    No. He did not need sleep. He was nothing.
    “Let me make this a bit easier for you,” the inspector said. “I will tell you what we have already learned from your young friends, the underage soldiers that were captured at the same time you were.”
    Gevri’s stomach clenched. This was the first time the inspector had mentioned the other archons. “My unit? Where are they? What have you done to them? If you hurt them, I swear to you, I will —” He struggled against the cords that bound his wrists. The pain nearly ripped his spine from his flesh, but this time he welcomed it. He