Chapter 96:
“They come and get you,” Mayah’s bunkmate was whispering. “They question you. Depending on what you say, depending on your record, they classify you.”
“When do they come?”
The whispered response came from the serf in the bunk to Mayah’s right. Mayah herself was eavesdropping, pretending to be asleep. Keep your eyes closed, breathe evenly, she told herself. Don’t miss this chance to find out what it means to be reviewed.
“Nobody knows. You never get a warning.”
“What questions do they ask you?”
“About before. They want to know whether you helped the Eenta, or whether you’re complicit, whether you collaborated with –”
Someone coughed. Mayah’s bunkmate stopped at once. Mayah waited, holding her breath, but she heard only silence. Eventually she gave up and rolled to her side. Collaborated with the Rajas, it had to be. If a serf had collaborated with the Rajas, she would be found out during her review, and classified accordingly.
What’s classification? Mayah had asked the Eenta boy. Well, it had been over a week now since the Eenta had dropped Mayah off at LakeCentral Castle, and in that week Mayah had learned that classification was everything. It determined where you slept, with whom you spoke, how much food you received to eat, and where you could go. An unclassified individual like Mayah was confined to the castle. She had discovered that when trying to leave it on a made-up errand. A guard had shouted at her and shoved her back in when she failed to produce a classification card.
Mayah’s hands were clammy. Tiri DipperToo isn’t real, she thought. She won’t be in any genealogies, and I don’t think I know enough about Eenta village life to be able to lie about it. Maybe I could make something up about being a patronless castle serf instead? That’ll at least explain why I’m not in a registry book.
Then she hesitated. Something wasn’t right. The men, women and children with whom Mayah shared the barracks were all either awaiting classification like herself or were classified as having suspect loyalty. The latter group had even less freedom than the former, and not much better access to resources. But what linked them together? Were they all complicit? But the Eenta regent Mayah had met her first morning, she found out, had been a Free Serf. And many of the suspect loyalty were former village serfs who had never even seen a Rajas. How had they collaborated with the Golden Castle?
Was it really collaboration Mayah should avoid admitting to in her review, or was it something else? Did it even matter what she said or didn’t say?
Mayah found herself shivering. She missed Lainla and the Cursed. She even missed being hungry in the Gather’s Children ditch! At least the rules had been clear there. Here, Mayah didn’t know what was or wasn’t real.
***
Evening came, after a long day of sweeping and cleaning and shining and this and that and a thousand other things Mayah’d had no idea needed to be done to keep a castle up. And still she didn’t know what to do about her pending review.
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She sat on her bunk and tried to keep her thoughts on her dilemma but looking out at the higher classified Eenta accusers gathering in the central aisle, Mayah didn’t think she was going to be able to. Gritting her teeth, she prepared herself. Unclassified members had to attend call-out sessions, but careful observation had taught Mayah that they didn’t necessarily have to participate in them. If Mayah didn’t want that to change, she had to keep her emotions from showing on her face.
“Who wants to go?” a higher classified Eenta called out. “Any volunteers?”
Mayah’s stomach clenched. If nobody volunteered, everyone of suspect loyalty would have to confess something. That had happened two evenings ago. Each serf had had to endure less interrogation personally, but their collective confessions had pushed the session late into the night. Exhausted, Mayah had dozed off, only to be slapped back awake by a higher classified Eenta.
When a former village serf girl around Mayah’s age got up from her bunk, Mayah didn’t know whether to feel relieved or sick. Yesterday evening the same girl had volunteered to confess as well. “I thought the Chenta and Eenta had always been different,” she had said then. “Now I know better. The Rajas looked at the serfs on their right, and said, you are the Chenta. Then they looked at the serfs on their left, and said, you are the Eenta. There’s no real difference between us.”
“It took you this long to realize this?” a higher classified Eenta had sneered at the trembling girl. Others had joined in. “Were you not paying attention to anything we’ve said? No wonder your loyalty is suspect.”
The girl was in the central aisle again now, her hands clasped over her village suit’s waistline. “I didn’t educate myself,” she whispered. “It took me longer than it should have to learn that the Chenta and Eenta have no real differences between them.”
Mayah squirmed in her seat. Why was the girl doing this? What did she expect would happen? The Eenta weren’t ever going to pat her on the head and say good job you are absolved now. It had taken Mayah only a week to figure that out. Besides, the accusers this evening were different from yesterday’s accusers. They wouldn’t understand that the girl was trying to demonstrate progress.
Sure enough, one of the Eenta accusers scowled and pointed a finger in the girl’s face. Mayah winced. She expected him to rail at the girl for not having educated herself quickly enough. To her surprise, he instead screamed, “How dare you say that! The Chenta and Eenta have always been different from each other. Even on Earth they were different!”
The other accusers began piling on. “You think you can even compare the Chenta and the Eenta?”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean anything bad –” the girl stammered.
“You’re sorry. You think that’s enough? You think it’s enough to mean well? No, it’s not intent that matters, but impact!”
“I –”
“How many times do we need to say this? We Eenta were oppressed from the start, and that makes us pure, it makes us better than the complicit Chenta. We’ll destroy them the way we destroyed the Rajas!”
The girl began weeping. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”
Mayah began blinking. She couldn’t cry, she couldn’t cry, it didn’t matter how bad she felt for the girl, she couldn’t cry, because then she’d get in trouble, they’d haul her up there and make her volunteer and Mayah couldn’t remember anything, she was so confused, because hadn’t Sukren told her there was no real difference between the Eenta and the Chenta? Had he been wrong? Or had he told her that because he was a Chenta himself? Was it true, as the Eenta were saying now, that the Chenta had been the real Rajas collaborators all along? Mayah couldn’t remember, and if she said the wrong thing she would get in trouble, and if she got in trouble they’d find out that she was a Rajas, and then it would be over.
I have to get out of here. Before they classify me as suspect loyalty. Before I go insane. I have to escape.