"These games were nothing but a sham."
A deep voice rang out, vibrating through the room with no clear source of origin, continuing without the need to take a breath.
"Designed to keep the people of Nihon in servitude to a corrupt class of rulers. You claim to compete against each other, but in truth, you all work towards the same goal. The preservation of your power."
"Who said that?" Queen Adehe asked. Her voice sounded very different from the way Sofia had previously heard it. The lines on her face were glowing red. Everything about her demanded obedience.
She had stood up. Others were looking around too.
"Speak up," Queen Adehe said, her voice trembling with fury now.
Instead of an answer, laughter roared through the air like a quake through the earth. As it died down, the room was filled with silence. The remains of the last tableau had vanished. Master Whit was still staring at the spot where the shards had fallen and dissolved. Her face showed incomprehension and a strange kind of complete understanding at the same time.
"My queen," she said. "Shall we continue?"
Not having any lines on her face, she was apparently allowed to speak without being spoken to first. That was why there was such an oppressive silence, Sofia realized. They were not used to spontaneity, to speaking their minds without being prompted to.
Queen Adehe ignored her anyway.
"Who saw something?" she asked, all but spitting the question.
She looked at the people around her, all carefully arranged in order to reflect their social standing. In keeping with her habits, deeply ingrained in her, she started with the people with the most lines. Yet, everybody, one after the other, shook their head or declared with a trembling voice that they had not seen anything except for the fracture in the tableau.
"Do you think they are lying?" Sofia asked Orì in a low voice.
Before Orì could answer, or rather, tell Sofia to be quiet, Queen Adehe had focused on her.
"What did you say? Speak up!"
"N-nothing," Sofia answered.
Everybody stared at her.
"Saying nothing doesn't require words."
"I just - I was thinking out loud."
"Very well. What were you thinking? Out loud?"
Sofia's face felt red and hot. She looked at Orì. She wasn't meeting her eyes, but Sofia could sense her disapproval. Somehow, it was even worse when she looked like her mother. Maybe that was the point. She felt as if Mother was there, watching, judging. Ready to take her back and lock her away. But that wouldn't happen, Sofia decided. Mother wasn't there. She was still in charge of her own decisions. She would always be.
But still, the whole room had eyes on her.
"I just wondered if maybe people were not saying the truth."
She heard Orì sigh next to her.
"Not saying the truth?" Queen Adehe repeated incredulously. "You mean, lie? Lie to their queen?"
Sofia shrugged.
"Why not?"
Queen Adehe stared at her with an open mouth. If the situation hadn't been so fraught, she might have started laughing.
YOU ARE READING
The Games for Nihon (BOOK THREE)
Fantasy[New Chapter 1-2 per week] Sofia, Orì and Ami are visiting the Kingdoms of Nihon in preparation for the Games that are being held every ten years and that define the power structures of the magical world of Nihon. While trying not to be sucked into...
