Robinson Crusoe 2244 Read Online Free Page B

him. He’s never like this at home.”
    “Are you all right?” Slink asked.
    Robinson looked at Tessa, who cozied up next to him. “Never better.”
    Slink grinned. “Well, there’s nothing less attractive than an oversized third wheel, so—”
    But before he finished, the Second Spire’s bell tolled. Tessa’s brow furrowed, as she was first to grasp the sequencing of tolls.
    “We need to find a Feed,” she said.
    “Why?” Robinson asked, turning to Slink. “Is that a Wall alarm?”
    “No,” he answered gravely. “It’s a toll of Expiry. Someone is about to be executed.”

Chapter Six
The Red Road

     
     
    The inner-quad was so packed with students that it was impossible for the trio to get a glimpse of a Feed monitor. The message was clear however. Someone had been found guilty of treasonous acts and a sentence of Expiry was to be exercised immediately in the Crown Square.
    The queue for carriages leaving the school was long, so Slink led the others on a serpentine jot that spilled out at the eastern end of the Clutch, near the Crown itself.
    A sizeable crowd had already amassed with Tiers taking position outside the stores while ordinary citizens filled the streets. Renarch Uth, who had designed Tessa’s spring wardrobe, frowned when he saw Slink but knew better than to speak up while his friends were present. His apprentice even ushered over water, unbidden.
    It wasn’t long before the Second Spire bell tolled and a contingent of Red Guard took positions in front of the crowd. Over the open Crown Gates, the Feed display flickered to life. All eight Regens would be watching.
    Public sentencing was a bizarre affair. It was one of the few occasions when the Tiers and the underclass took in anything side-by-side. But everyone was there, infusing the air with a perverse sense of excitement. The scene brought to mind a memory of when Robinson was a small child sitting on his father’s shoulders, jeering with the crowd as a condemned matron accused of theft was marched down the Red Road before him. He remembered his mother pulling him to the ground and scolding him. He hadn’t understood the harsh look in her eyes that day. Now that he was older, he realized it had been disgust.
    The massive swath of bodies kicked up dust as citizens craned their heads. Robinson scanned the faces across the street until he spotted his father huddled in a darkened alcove, talking furtively with Tier Fallow and Tier Cork.
    “Tessa, have you heard something about a campaign?”
    Her nose crinkled oddly. “No. What is it?”
    He shrugged and then deflected. “Something one of the Nobes at school mentioned, but I only caught the word in passing.”
    “You don’t remember who?” she asked offhandedly.
    He shook his head, though it troubled him to lie. Not that it mattered. When the bells tolled for the third time, she grabbed his arm and said, “Here they come.”
    Through the Crown Gates, a battalion of Iron Fists emerged. The Iron Fists were the Regent’s elite guard, kept for his personal security and for battling renders. They wore bulkier uniforms with iron plating covering their shoulders and torsos. The iron gauntlets they wore gave them their moniker. It was said one strike with an Iron Fist could crush a man’s skull with ease.
    Once they were in position, the Crown officials followed, led by Tier Vardan Saah, Tessa’s father. Her chest swelled with pride as he strode forward in his crisp, navy uniform with a narrow line of red running down one side. His clipped, dark hair sat comfortably above a high collar. He wore no facial hair but had deep-set eyes that always drew people’s attention. Accompanying him was Brapo Liesel, a towering figure rumored to be the city’s executioner and the personal tracker of any who fled over the Wall.
    At last, the Regent appeared, adorned in navy and gold, his halo of silver hair shining like a crown. To the people, he raised a single hand of One and Four. The crowd