Red Rising

I was forged in the bowels of this hard world. Sharpened by hate. Strengthened by love.

He is wrong.

None of them will survive.

But I am no Gold. I am a Red.

“The weak have deceived you. They would say the meek should inherit the Earth. That the strong should nurture the gentle. This is the Noble Lie of Demokracy. The cancer that poisoned mankind.”

“All men are not created equal,”

Just like the Society. Build on the backs of others. It isn’t cruel. It is practical.

“You make one tribe out of twelve,” I finally say. “By taking slaves.

. He disagrees with the rules, but he follows them. It is possible. I can do the same until I have power enough to change them.

“If you are thrown into the deep and do not swim, you will drown,” he says, and raises his thin eyebrows. “So keep swimming, right?”

I force a chuckle.

“A poet’s logic.”

Roque who looks and speaks like a poet. His smiles are slow, few, but genuine. Rare

He is what they call a Premier; they cannot be drafted. His parents choose his House. Then I discover why. His scandalous mother, a bannerwoman of the House Bellona, owns our planet’s two moons