by S. J. Higbee
In the event, we didn’t sell the smelly old flag – though it was now on my future ‘to do’ list – and Vrox and I took off just five days later. In truth, there was no risk of missing Mai’s funeral. Given she’d been murdered, her body was parked in the mortuary under the Medical Centre. Cnicus didn’t have a lot of trend-edge equipment, but they did have a mortuary capable of taking up to five bodies at a time. What with one thing and another, folks regularly died unexpectedly out in The Arids.
Meanwhile I hired a lawyer, who found enough proof that Cupert Peaceman hadn’t followed protocol during his arrest of Felina to call a halt to his plan to have her summarily convicted and Collared. But Cupert refused to free Felina on the grounds that she was a flight risk.
On the evening before we left, Seth and I had a meal together. I’m not sure who suggested it, but it was a sunblasted notion as I was still hurt and angry he wouldn’t come with us and he was angry and hurt because I wouldn’t stay in Gloriosa, like a good little Overlord. As we stiltedly exchanged comments about how nice the food was… wondering when it would finally stop raining… the long traf queue that had snailed across the front of Brarian Place that morning when some wet-brain disabled the auto-drive mode and caused an accident… Struggling to think of another safe subject, I recalled when we first arrived, that we never ran out of things to say. Everything changed the day Uncle Trislen and Beal died…
I looked down at the flaked fish in a delicious creamy sauce – one of my favourite dishes – and put my knife and fork together to signify I was done. “I reckon I’ll crawl into the straw.”
Seth rolled his eyes. “When are you going to let go of those Cnican phrases? You keep talking like that and everyone around here will go on thinking you’re nothing but a dust-tic that’s lost her way.”
I stared at him. “I am a dust-tic. There was a time when you didn’t mind that.” I turned away, muttering, “And I’ve surely lost my way.”
He blinked. “I’m sorry, that wasn’t called for… Goodnight, Kyrillia. Sleep well.”
But this dust tic was too full of pain and unshed tears to reply, deciding to say my farewell in the morning.
However after I’d packed up my last-minute essentials, showered and dressed in the pallid dawn light the following day, I quietly walked through the connecting door and stood watching Seth asleep. Seeing his face so relaxed, my courage failed me. It would be unbearable to see that unguarded expression snap into the wary, frowning version he usually wears around me. So I left him peacefully asleep. Instead, I made for Vrox’s den, my head filled with mantivore excitement, suffused with flickering vari-coloured shades of teal and amber at the prospect of going home.
A couple of hours later, we said our formal farewells at the flyer-park in front of the inevitable crowd, where I hugged Seth and kissed his cheek. His guarded expression was firmly in place, but I was startled when he held me tightly, whispering, “Please come back.”
“Course I will.” I hugged him right back, a boulder-sized block of misery rolling off my chest.
Before he ruined it by adding, “Because Gloriosa needs you.”
I turned towards the flyer and didn’t look back, while Vrox padded at my side, pointing out all the suitable males in the crowd interested in mating with me.
CHAPTER FIVE
Some twenty hours later, stiff from sitting too long, ears ringing with the droning flyer engines and my goggles set on max protection from the bright sunlight, we were circling Cnicus.
I peered at the screen, eager for my first look at the village since I left with Seth just over a year ago. It was a shock to see how much everything had changed, even though I’d been the one arguing for it. Upgraded roads were clogged with long lines of wagon-trains arriving and departing. The expanse of cleared vegetation ringing the village wall now held a barracks, with a secondary perimeter set up, patrolled by soldiers and spiderbots. Instead of scrapping the small landing beam sited within the village wall, they’d built the additional upgrade on the south side of Westgate, with landing pads for four medium-sized cargo or tourist-class flyers, along with a reception building.
The flyer shuddered as Vrox lurched across to look at the screen.
You gotta keep still! Now we’re coming into land, you need to be strapped in.
Vrox, snarling in protest, nevertheless allowed me to clip him into the specially designed harness, probably picking up my real fear that if he insisted on roaming around the flyer while coming into land, we risked crashing.
It wasn’t until we were nearly on the ground and I saw the village Elders lined up, along with everyone else in their market-day best, that it occurred to me there’d be an official Reception. My advisors had recommended I wear full mourning, given it was my mother who’d died, so I descended the steps swathed in black, my variweave flecked with blue. Immediately, Cupert Peaceman assaulted us with his accordion, the ear-curdling row having only a passing resemblance to our anthem, ‘Arcadia for Me’ as the Elders stepped forward, bowed and smiled.
Last time I was this close to these people, they were furious that my murder conviction had been overturned.
I graciously nodded and waved in response to the villagers’ bobs and cheers. Some flung flower petals and leaves which softly pattered against my robe. Probably pleased at the improvements my visit has created.
Vrox, ignoring the steps, leapt from the flyer, kicking up a puff of red dust before strutting across the hard-packed earth to stand beside me. The intense sunshine gave his scales a metallic sheen and intensified the bioluminescent vari-colours flickering around his body. His silver eyes, protected by their nictitating membrane, were milkier than usual giving him an eerie, alien appearance. The crowd roared, while some oldsters crossed themselves, and children screamed excitedly as he bared his teeth. Vrox rose to his full seven-foot height, loving the attention.
“Your Ladyship!” called Onice, still the most stylish girl in Cnicus.
Rushing across, I threw my arms around her. “It’s so shady to see you!”
“And you! Many thanks for coming.”
“Your Ladyship!” exclaimed a familiar Uppie voice.
I turned to greet Kestor Brarian. He’d been seconded to Cnicus as Mai’s apprentice, but in reality he’d run the Node while she got on with her plant nonsense. I noticed how closely he was standing to Onice as he bowed with a flourish no one from Cnicus could come close to managing.
“Kestor.” I nodded, warily. Felina had told me that after my supposed death, he’d not only been my mother’s apprentice, he’d also shared her bed. And here he was, standing too close to Onice to be anything other than her partner.
Her face lit up as she gazed at him. Like he was the nexus to her Node…
Vrox shifted, eager to meet Onice.
“This is Vrox,” I said. “He’s really keen to meet you.”
Kestor swept into another of those flowing bows that must’ve taken hours to get right. “I’m honoured, Your Ladyship—”
“Oh sorry, I meant Onice.” Conscious of a few sniggers, I muttered to her, “Cos he remembers seeing you through our MindLink when we used to evac outta here together for our natters down by the river.”
She looked up at him. “I’d no notion that mantivores were so fine. I’m honoured to meet you, Sire. Many thanks for taking care of my dearest friend, here. It’s good to know the rest of the planet now knows how special she is.”
There was a solid reason why Onice was my friend for all those years – she always knew the right thing to say. Wish I did…
Vrox croons his approval of her manners, wondering if I wanted to make her my first queenling and take her back with us.
She belongs to Felina, I reminded him.
Lupita Honey approached and curtsied. “Welcome home, Your Ladyship. We’re right sorry that you’re returning at such a sad time.”
Unsmiling I nodded to her, recalling her eagerness to see me convicted and Collared during my trial. While Vrox wrinkled his
snout in a silent snarl, causing the watching crowd to mutter nervously.
However, she stood her ground, earning my reluctant respect. Vrox in threat mode was a fearsome sight, yet she didn’t so much as flinch. “I’m guessing you don’t have any fondness for some of us after what went down.”
I blinked at her directness, wishing Gloriosans would follow the Cnican example and come right out and call a spade a roaching shovel. “It was a shoddy move. You must have realised I hadn’t killed Osmar.”
“I had my doubts. But Mother Mai, may the Node bless and keep her safe, was mighty convincing.”
“Yeah, I’ll give you that.” I opened my mouth to add that she was also capable of snaketalking the stars into circling the sun, when Onice cleared her throat behind me. “God rest Mother Mai,” she said, loudly.
Vrox whimpered, his neck crest drooping as his vari-colours flickered into mourning blue, as a fervent chorus from the assembled villagers and visitors echoed Onice’s comment.
Joining in, I silently thanked her to the skies and back for her quick thinking. I’d have slid into a slurrypit of my own making if I’d said a word against my mother in front of this audience – something Lupita Honey had set me up to do.
Yeah… I need to remember that just cos this lot live right on the edge of The Arids, doesn’t mean they’re all sun-fried gapers. Not only is Lupita brave, she’s smarter than a stalking mantivore. And she’s my enemy. But at least I understood the threat she posed, whereas back in Gloriosa I had unseen enemies I knew nothing of.
Sweat trickled down my back – how I’d missed that! Even though it was several hours to noonblast and there was now a heat diffuser sheltering Cnicus from the worst old Cronos could throw at us, it was already hotter than at any time I’d been in Gloriosa. I loved the sensation of the building heat, as it seeped through to my marrow. Taste of dust… stink of overheated dung… feel of grit on my skin… I didn’t have a mother who’d loved or even liked me, but this place nurtured me all the same. Though clearly Madam Ellern Healer-Prime didn’t think so, as she rushed up and waved her meditab in my face, muttering about uncivilised conditions and germs.
Mr Steward approached. “Your quarters, such as they are, are now ready for you, Your Ladyship.” He gestured towards Felina Keeper’s rambling building straggling out from behind the Stores, looming along the whole western side of The Square. “There.”
As if I didn’t know! “Thank you for your lovely welcome,” I said, smiling to the crowd, who broke into ragged applause as we started to make our way along the path across The Square.
“The Cnican Nodery is at your service, Your Ladyship,” called Kestor.
Neck crest erect, Vrox thrums with red and orange threat colours, snarling vile curses at an open-mouthed Kestor.
Course it is, wilt-wit! Anger ripped through me, echoing Vrox’s territorial aggression. Who does this citified rooster think he is? Him and his upswept nerve in inviting me into the Nodery I grew up with. How dare he? My bare-toothed grin was more threat than friendliness. “Thanking you kindly for your hospitality, Kestor Brarian, but I wasn’t asking.”
Onice stared at me, white-faced and appalled, while children started wailing.
Any regret that I’d so frightened youngsters and shocked my best friend was flamed flat by the anger scorching through my head, as I turned to my guards, ignoring Ellern’s mutters about getting some rest. “We’ll now visit Felina Keeper.”
“Oh! That’s not—” began Cupert Peaceman, chief lawman in the village.
I swung back to him, fists clenched at my side. “Not?”
“I-I was just going to say, Your Ladyship, that it isn’t customary for prisoners to receive visitors without approval—” Peaceman’s normally florid face was as pale as porridge.
I borrowed Seth’s trick of biting off words when he wasn’t happy. “I am the Overlord. Given that you knew me when I wasn’t, I’ll cut you some slack. But this is your last warning. I don’t need approval. I have the Codes and in case you don’t know what that means, I’ll tell you. I can drain your water tank, shut down your cooling fans and your temp controls, slag the console in the Peaceman prison and wipe all your records for the past six generations, as well as hoe your datatabs flat. And it would only take me a handful of minutes. Understand?”
“Yes, Your Ladyship,” he whispered.
I’d have felt sorry for him if it hadn’t been for his wet-witted move in arresting Felina. Or his shoddy attitude towards me when I’d lived in Cnicus. Amongst the shocked murmurs were a few sniggers, so clearly I wasn’t the only one who disliked Cupert Peaceman.
As my entourage were escorted to Felina’s house, I marched across The Square, mightily relieved that Vrox had healed all the injuries I’d collected from my sleep-walking stunt onto the windowsill, as hobbling around Cnicus wouldn’t have look half so upswept and entitled which was how I needed to appear to this lot. They remembered me as little Kyrillia Brarian, Mai’s slave-slogged daughter who’d spent her days scrubbing the floors and cleaning up after Osmar. And once Cnicans got an idea fixed between their ears, it generally took a good long while to shift it. The sooner they caught up with the fact that I was now Overlord Kyrillia Brarian, ruler of Arcadia, the better it would be for all of us.
Pacing along the path with Vrox at my side, I glared at the failed attempts to liven up the parched landscape with a straggling line of unhappy-looking plants either side of the path. If Mai were alive, she would’ve sooner sprinted down West Street during the noonblast than let these drooping blossoms get in this state. Slightly shaken at that stray thought, I speeded up, eager to see Felina again.
The Security Suite was smaller and shabbier than I recalled. The smell was the same, though. A stink of overtaxed coolant, piss and the sharper stench of desperation. This was where everyone had to register for the yearly census, and Mai invariably sent me to stand in the line snaking around the Reception area and then sit one side of the battered console, while Cupert’s daughter, Damita Peaceman fired questions at me without bothering to look in my direction. Not worth a glance. Until I was accused of murdering Osmar.
And here she was… Damita Peaceman. Though I’d forgotten that she, too, was a redhead with pale blue eyes. In fact as she looked up, I realised we must be related. When I’d lived here, my hair was invariably cropped short and covered with a headscarf, but now it was longer and no longer hidden, the resemblance was unmistakable. And as she glanced up, I saw the same realisation flicker across her face.
She jumped to her feet, recoiling slightly as Vrox lumbered in behind me, before harvesting her wits sufficiently to bow. “Your Ladyship. I hope your journey was shady.”
She’s certainly an improvement on her daddy. Though I reckon that Cupert isn’t her father – I’m betting she’s my half-sister and that she’s another of Osmar’s offspring. That so, Vrox?
Vrox churrs an amused agreement…
My turn to harvest my wits. “Yes, it was, thanking you. I’ve come to see Felina Keeper.”
“Course you have,” she said, without missing a beat. “I’ll go and get her. Please take a seat, Your Ladyship.”
Frowning at the nasty tuffrock chairs, I recalled how they graunched the buttocks and jabbed the back, especially the one with the wobbly leg. “I’ll stand.”
Vrox paces, growling with ill temper as this nemmet nest reminds him of the box where he’d been incarcerated for far too long.
Suggesting he settle down, I Sent him a comforting image of his den in Brarian Place, which he irritably flicked away. Loping past me, his tail thudded painfully against my shins.
“Ow! Stand still, there isn’t room for you to scamper about the place like a jaspered chicken.”
He hunkers onto his haunches, snarling a curse at Cub.
Suddenly Felina barrelled into the room filling it with her energy.
“Felina!” I’d imagined meeting up with her again so many times since our hurried leave-taking in the middle of the night
. How she’d sweep me into her arms, exclaiming at how grand I looked…
But she scarcely glanced in my direction as Vrox whimpered to her.
What’s going on? Why is Vrox acting like he’s a naughty cub and she’s his Prime Queen?
She made a rumbling sound in her throat, her grey flecked eyes looking weirdly silver in the dim lighting, tilting her head as she locked looks with him. As for Vrox – he crouched, crooning, until his belly scales were scratching the floor. My head was suddenly full of vibrant vari-colours as the mantivore thrummed with excitement.
Vrox?
His silver gaze flicked across to me, swivelled back to Felina, then his emotions and thoughts suddenly blanked as if he wasn’t there.
I blinked, watching him in full abasement to Felina so close I could touch him, with a yawning absence in my mind every bit as thorough as the time I’d thought he was dead. Giddy and sicker than a sun-slagged field-slogger, I gripped the back of the chair, willing the room to stop spinning, determined not to puke or stagger in front of the roaching mantivore. Not after he’d flung me out of his head, as welcome as a turd at a tea party, now that Felina had appeared.
She stopped, looking slightly dazed – and I realised Vrox was talking to her.
How does that work? I thought you’d MindLinked to just me and Osmar. And he’s dead! But I might as well have kept my thoughts to myself, as Vrox was far too busy MindSpeaking Felina to bother with me. While she had clearly tranced off in – what had Denzel called it? – MindLink stasis. Whereas here in Cnicus, they called it vore-stunned. Her grey eyes suddenly flickered with silver flecks as her gaze fixed onto the mantivore, her lips curved into a small grin as she got down on her knees, then stroked his eye-ridge with one hand and tickled him in that sensitive spot under his chin.
I swiped my hands down my robe. How does she know where his soft spots are? Why is he crooning to her?
“Hallo you old monster,” she murmured. At least it was Felina’s version of a murmur, given she tended to converse in a minor bellow. “We finally get to meet after all these years. Have to say, for once the old prodder was straightline when he said you were the most lethally beautiful creature he’d ever seen.”
