Are you finally going to tell me why you did it? the Chancellor asked with a tired sigh.
Wells shifted in his chair. He could feel the truth trying to claw its way out. Hed give almost anything to erase the disappointment on his fathers face, but he couldnt risk itnot before he learned whether his reckless plan had actually worked.
Wells avoided his fathers gaze by glancing around the room, trying to memorize the relics he might be seeing for the last time: the eagle skeleton perched in a glass case, the few paintings that had survived the burning of the Louvre, and the photos of the beautiful dead cities whose names never ceased to send chills down Wellss spine.
Was it a dare? Were you trying to show off for your friends? The Chancellor spoke in the same low, steady tone he used during Council hearings, then raised an eyebrow to indicate that it was Wellss turn to talk.
No, sir.
Were you overcome by some temporary bout of insanity? Were you on drugs? There was a faint note of hopefulness in his voice that, in another situation, Wells mightve found amusing. But there was nothing humorous about the look in his fathers eyes, a combination of weariness and confusion that Wells hadnt seen since his mothers funeral.
No, sir.
Wells felt a fleeting urge to touch his fathers arm, but something other than the handcuffs shackling his wrists kept him from reaching across the desk. Even as they had gathered around the release portal, saying their final, silent good-byes to Wellss mother, theyd never bridged the six inches of space between their shoulders. It was as if Wells and his father were two magnets, the charge of their grief repelling them apart. wi
Was it some kind of political statement? His father winced slightly, as though the thought hit him like a physical blow. Did someone from Walden or Arcadia put you up to it?
No, sir, Wells said, biting back his indignation. His father had apparently spent the past six weeks trying to recast Wells as some kind of rebel, reprogramming his memories to help him understand why his son, formerly a star student and now the highest-ranked cadet, had committed the most public infraction in history. But even the truth would do little to mitigate his fathers confusion. For the Chancellor, nothing could justify setting fire to the Eden Tree, the sapling that had been carried onto Phoenix right before the Exodus. Yet for Wells, it hadnt been a choice. Once hed discovered that Clarke was one of the hundred being sent to Earth, hed had to do something to join them. And as the Chancellors son, only the most public of infractions would land him in Confinement.
Wells remembered moving through the crowd at the Remembrance Ceremony, feeling the weight of hundreds of eyes on him, his hand shaking as he removed the lighter from his pocket and produced a spark that glowed brightly in the gloom. For a moment, everyone had stared in silence as the flames wrapped around the tree. And even as the guards rushed
forward in sudden chaos, no one had been able to miss whom they were dragging away.
What the hell were you thinking? the Chancellor asked, staring at him in disbelief. You couldve burned down the whole hall and killed everyone in it.
It would be better to lie. His father would have an easier time believing that Wells had been carrying out a dare. Or perhaps he could try to pretend he had been on drugs. Either of those scenarios would be more palatable to the Chancellor than the truththat hed risked everything for a girl.
The hospital door closed behind him but Wellss smile stayed frozen in place, as if the force it had taken to lift the corners of his mouth had permanently damaged the muscles in his face. Through the haze of drugs, his mother had probably thought his grin looked real, which was all that mattered. Shed held Wellss hand as the lies poured out of him, bitter but harmless. Yes, Dad and I are doing fine. She didnt need to know that theyd barely exchanged more than a few words in weeks. When youre better, well finish Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. They both knew that shed never make it to the final volume.
Wells slipped out of the hospital and started walking across B deck, which was mercifully empty. At this hour, most people were either at tutorials, work, or at the Exchange. He was supposed to be at a history lecture, normally his favorite subject. Hed always loved stories about ancient cities like Rome and New York, whose dazzling triumphs were matched only by the magnitude of their downfalls. But he couldnt spend two hours surrounded by the same tutorial mates who had filled his message queue with vague, uncomfortable condolences. The only person he could talk to about his mother was Glass, but shed been strangely distant lately.
Wells wasnt sure how long hed been standing outside the door before he realized hed arrived at the library. He allowed the scanner to pass over his eyes, waited for the prompt, and then pressed his thumb against the pad. The door slid open just long enough for Wells to slip inside and then closed behind him with a huffy thud, as if it had done Wells a great favor by admitting him in the first place.