Read Online Flame by Amy Kathleen Ryan - Free Book Online Page B

liking your new life in the bosom of your enemy?”
    Waverly stared at the old man with no idea of how to answer.
    “Come, now. You must have thoughts on the matter.”
    “Doctor,” Mather broke in, tapping a pen furtively on her desktop. “I’m not sure stirring up past resentments is the right way to build trust with Waverly.”
    “Resentments?” the old man said, his gaze trailing over the woven tapestry that hung on the wall behind Mather. “Is that how you’d put it?”
    The Pastor looked at him, cowed.
    “What word would you use, Waverly?” the man said quietly. “War crimes?”
    “Atrocities,” Waverly whispered, her sudden rage choking her. “Monstrosities.”
    Mather smoothed her smock with trembling hands.
    “Come now, Pastor,” the old man said. “You must embrace your mistakes to embrace your enemy.”
    “All right,” Mather said quietly, looking at the old man first, then at Waverly. “You’re right. What I did to you and your families was…”
    “Unforgivable,” the old man said.
    “Yes,” Mather replied, before Waverly could say anything.
    “So how do we move on from here?” the old man asked Waverly.
    Mather opened her mouth to speak, but Dr. Carver held up a hand to silence her, and to Waverly’s astonishment, Mather obeyed.
    “Waverly?” He looked at her expectantly. “What do you feel would make life bearable for you and the rest of the Empyrean refugees?”
    “She would have to go on trial,” Waverly said evenly, wondering if he actually had the power to make that happen. During her captivity on this ship, she’d thought the church elders were beholden to Mather for their power, but she was beginning to wonder if it was the other way around. “The Pastor and all her thugs would have to be punished.”
    “You mean to send them to the brig?” he asked. “Or perhaps you mean for the Pastor … to be executed?”
    Waverly stared at Mather, unflinching.
    “Listen, now,” Mather began, holding up a hand.
    “So you see, Pastor?” said the old man. “Your idea that we can all live on this ship as one big happy family is perhaps…” He waved a talon in the air, searching for a word. “Unrealistic?”
    “No,” the Pastor said. All the fear left her face, and she looked doggedly at Dr. Carver. “I don’t believe that. Peace is always the better alternative.”
    “A rather odd thing to say,” the old man said, “coming from the architect of the Empyrean Massacre.”
    “You’re the one who wanted the rendezvous,” Mather shot at him.
    He waved a languid hand. “A meeting is what I wanted.”
    “ You suggested the nebula. To surprise them.”
    “I raised many concerns about your plans. You assured us there would be minimal loss of life.”
    “Things did not go as expected.”
    “Ah yes. The fog of war.” He chuckled. “Invoked by many a war criminal.”
    Waverly could not believe her ears. She watched the old man’s profile as he sat back in his chair, grilling Mather ruthlessly, calmly, taking in every twitch and squirm as the woman shrank under his attack.
    “What matters now is the future,” Mather offered.
    “Not to Waverly,” the old man said. He turned to her, lifted his chin, waiting.
    “You need to answer for what you did,” Waverly said to Mather.
    Mather stuck out her chin. “What about what your crew did to us?”
    “Ah!” The doctor was shifting in his seat back and forth, as though he were at a sporting event. “Go on.”
    “Captain Jones and your … his scientists destroyed our fertility,” Mather said, her strength restored.
    “They paid for it with their lives,” Waverly said. “What more do you want?”
    “What?” The doctor looked at Mather. “Does the girl not know?”
    Mather shook her head, barely perceptibly, but the doctor ignored her. “Your Captain is alive, Waverly.”
    Waverly felt as though the wind had been knocked from her body. When she looked at Mather, she saw the woman glaring at the old man as though