Morality was something the Ascend held dearly, even if, like most moral systems, it didn’t always match what other races thought was right.
Luckily, or unluckily, the only warriors hurt had been either fixed easily or they’d died quickly. Four dead out of the few he’d brought. A terrible price in one combat.
They had one functioning stasis bed and enough power inherent in the shuttle’s power storage to keep it going for five days; after that, she would die. This whole planet might be as good as dead by then if they failed during the upcoming days.
How was he to fight this evolving enemy when she was doing things that were illogical? The knives the girl had killed with had sunk through crystal-tempered armor as if it was made of sponge, and they’d dissolved to nothing within seconds of the girl dying. Only Ally had apparently seen them or the girl as she’d walked through the defense ring, killing his people. He’d not sensed her at all until she lay dead.
Asking Ally what had happened had been fairly fruitless so far. She’d calmed, but not enough to speak.
“You were that girl’s shield,” he said quietly to the unconscious woman. “You were brave and you were her savior for many days. How am I to use these witches to defeat the queen if two of them are barely functioning enough to walk?”
Betty, of course, slept on and the lights within the glass tube blinked efficiently, tinting her blue, sterilizing, ignoring him and his worries.
The witches seemed like puzzle pieces that needed to be fitted together just so to work and some of his pieces had been chewed up.
After the battle, he’d come across Willow with Stom her loyal and confused companion trailing behind her. Bodies had still littered the landscape, cars still burned, and wafting smoke from the fires obscured the sky.
As he stepped up to them, his feet crunched through partly burned grass and Willow turned, a partly eaten creature’s tail hanging from her mouth. A rat perhaps. Her wings made of black nothingness and haze had flared and twitched, ashes freshly forming and drifting up to mingle with the floating debris and smoke of the fires.
Though she then hid her blood-smeared face, she ate the rest.
Stom, with a pained expression, had shrugged. “I don’t know what to do. She hasn’t eaten for days and she grabbed that, whatever it is, as it ran past us.”
“Never mind, Stom. It’s nutrition. Never mind. Keep her alive, that’s all you can do.”
As long as she didn’t start eating people, it was fine. If that happened, he’d do what he had to do. If Willow was a part of this witch puzzle, she was an ugly grotesque part.
Now, Steve...
Mermaids were myths, weren’t they? Or had they once existed? Who was the girl with the knives? Another myth?
Before all the destruction, he’d have had access to endless information about the Earth. Ancient history and myths were not something he’d researched before. He needed a perspective on what these creatures were and why they might be advantageous. On other planets, battles with Bak-lal had involved fighting creatures with biologically installed weapons, hard-wired nerves, and added armor, as well as beast machines that were close to purely machines.
What was this factory queen aiming to do?
This truck driver might have a fascination with the history of his planet and the creatures of its myths? Stranger things had happened. He messaged Brask to have the man sent over.
The one flaw in that manifested itself soon.
Brask messaged back to say that Steve hadn’t a clue unless he wanted to talk about torque ratios or the flaws in the latest common rail diesel engines. Someone else was coming to talk and Brask, for once in his military life, which was all his life, prevaricated. He didn’t say who was coming.
Long before she leaped up through the open shuttle door, Dassenze knew. Every stride closer that she took pulled at him as powerfully as a line to a hook set in a deep-lurking coelacanth on the planet Rider Blue. Those things could eat a person whole.
He’d gone to the midsection of the shuttle and seated himself facing the door, leaning with his forearms on his thighs and his hands clasped.
When she saw him, he tapped his fingers together. “Sit down where you are, Talia, on the floor, and let us discuss why you came when I asked for Steve.”
Her mouth gaped and she blushed hot red.
That alone stirred him. “You knew I did not call for you. Tell me why should I not punish you?”
Chapter 18
The direct data feeds from the fight at the small town of Yunta had jolted the factory queen into awareness in seconds, as soon as the sword-wielding woman began killing. Then, near the end of it all, another woman had intercepted her last witch. The witch creatures were so rare and this one had been so hard to catch – like cupping sunlight in your hand and drinking it.
Little Alice. Nothing should’ve been able to stop little Alice. Nothing could see her and she had a mind like a school of sharks, predatory, cunning, and she liked to kill. Well, not before, but after the modifications, she had. After she fed her some of that spiciness she sucked from the soil. Witches thrived on that. They had their own spiciness but add in hers too...
They overdosed. It made them morph into the unexpected. Like Alice with those knives. She loved surprises.
Now little Alice was dead, in spite of those infinitely sharp knives she’d learned to conjure up.
Extraordinary, and she’d been stopped by a woman who was clearly a witch and then by a shotgun shell through the head. That shotgun was carried by another woman who hadn’t seemed normal.
She dismissed that fact. That one was dead. Gone. But the others. The live ones. Tempting.
She was going about this wrong. The data feed indicated possible two way leakage. Probability of seventy nine percent that her base had been compromised. Bad, weak nerve inlays. Tsk. Such a pity the feeds relied on live, transmitting Bak-lal.
Trying to fetch witches to her was not yielding happy results. She might kill them before she had them in her grasp. Why not lure them here instead? In her womb, her cocoon, she could smother them with her defenses. Then tie them down and feed them to the wild nerve-chewers.
Yes. She wriggled inside her brain case pod, snug and snickering. Nothing ventured, nothing consumed. Feed them clues, make them come. Separate and kill the males, keep the pretty females with their pretty powers. Yes.
It would be done.
Now...what could she make next? Feeding humans and witches the spicy earth energy made their changes unpredictable. The troll with tentacles had not come out well.
She wasn’t stupid. Her intelligence cells still functioned, mostly. The earth spiciness? She was dealing with something best termed magic. It had never existed before. Now it did. Like a bunny pulled from a hat.
The Fleet would be surprised at her find. Devastated even. Magic violated so many laws. It made the sacred code seemed like so much piffle dust.
What next? What next could she make? But she mustn’t hurt the witches, no, not until she had them properly.
*****
Whoa, what the hell was she doing? In the past bold and cold would’ve done it for her. Stare them down, be superior. Not with this one. Dassenze was in a class of his own. Even more so since she’d let him...since he’d... Fuck. Admitting what she’d let him do, and Brask too, was a roadblock in her mind.
Yet every time she felt either of them near her she melted, again. Disconcerting.
Brask had a habit of coming up to her from behind and grabbing her neck or hair and kissing the hell out her. It’d gotten so that she waited for him to do it, even when she knew he was coming, because she loved the emotions summoned when he held her still.
Talia checked the katana at her side then pulled it, still sheathed, from the waist belt. Sit, he’d said. So she did, smoothly going into the lotus position, with the scabbard and sword across her lap.
Now she was looking up at him. Deliberate move on his part. He had the higher ground. She didn’t care.<
br />
“Why?” She kept her tone dry. Inside turmoil, outside, calm. “Because you own no part of me. Remember? You told Brask you were keeping away. Fine. But that means you have even less rights than he does and I will rarely sit still for him to do...anything. So you punishing me? Not happening.”
He eyed her for ages. She withstood the tension and waited.
“You are impertinent.”
“I’m sensible. That’s all. I’m not yours.” Not his but she wanted to be and she’d come here to tell him that, in a way, but it was difficult to say face to face. The same as it was difficult to admit attraction to Brask until he spoke to her, or she smelled him...heard his boots on the floorboards, or felt his hands.
She stared, willing the information into his head but knowing it wouldn’t work, she was no Ally, no mind manipulator. Thank God.
With Dassenze too, it was different from how it seemed to be with Brask – there it was physical, with Dassenze she sensed a deeper connection. She would be happy just sitting in his lap talking with him.
“What are you thinking?”
“Uh.” Sprung. What had they been talking about? “Did you know Ally had spoken? About where the factory queen is?” She went on, disguising how he’d rattled her yet sure he saw through this. “She said she’s in Adelaide. She can find her way if we get closer.”
“She spoke?” He frowned. “Truly? This is good.”
“Yes, truly. And yes, it is. She’s managing best if I, Brittany, and Steve stay far away. I heard this from Rimmil. The Igrakks don’t bother her, or the Feya like Stom. It’s just humans.”
“I see. Then that means that as we near Adelaide, she’s going to be not functioning at all.”
“Yes.” He’d worked that out quickly.
“That’s a huge problem. If I’d known this, that Betty was unconsciously shielding her, I’d have guarded her far more carefully.”
“How is Betty?” Please don’t say she died. Last she’d seen, Betty had been brought here. So where was she?
“We’ve put her in stasis. It’ll keep her safe and stable for five days.”
“Will we be able to get her more help within that time?”
“Yes.” As she watched, his blank expression failed and she glimpsed depths where he was unsure of this. More. Was he scared? Surely not?
“You’re sure?”
“We only have to destroy this factory queen in time.”
She sat forward. “Are you lying to me, Dassenze?”
“If I was, would I tell you?” This time the bronze man was inscrutable.
For a moment, she fidgeted with the leather on the scabbard. “You’ve not asked me about what happened to me during the fight.”
He bowed his head then looked up a moment later. “No. Because I saw. You almost died but you saved yourself with that sword assembling trick.”
“Yes. And I have no idea how I did it.”
“It doesn’t matter.” He shook his head. “I’m convinced you’ll remember how if you have to. I’m just glad you discovered it.”
“Me too. I thought you wanted to ask about our history and mythology.”
“I do. About mermaids and that young girl with the vanishing knives.”
“I know enough to give you a quick rundown. The girl isn’t a myth, she’s from an old book, a well-known one called Alice in Wonderland, only, in that, she doesn’t ever have knives and she certainly couldn’t disappear at will.”
“Keep going. The mermaid?”
“Myths and they don’t swim on land.”
He asked her questions for a half an hour or more before deciding he knew enough.
“I see no advantages for her to be making these unusual Bak-lal. I think she’s insane by Bak-lal standards. It may be the decades of isolation or something about this particular planet.”
“Is that good? Does it make her easier to defeat?” She gripped the hilt of the katana for a second before noticing what she’d done and letting go. As if she could stab the queen from here.
“Her insanity is making her moves chaotic but still potent. It seems to be making her harder to defeat.”
“Frightening.” An insane thing like what she’d heard this creature was, a huge monster buried under the earth? “Absolutely frightening.”
“Yes, she is. Another Alice would scare anyone sensible. I’m hoping she can’t copy and clone witches. Tomorrow we’ll find out. Time to go, Talia.” He smiled. “Thank you for coming.”
From the footsteps and her new senses, she could tell Brask was coming her way. What was he up to? He’d sent her here but hadn’t said he’d follow. Hurriedly she stood. Though she turned partly away, some suicidal tendency made her turn back and say, “You know if you were a part of what we have, I would’ve let you punish me.” It was her way of asking him to join them, and he’d see that.
Her toes crunched up in her boots at her audacity, especially when he growled. Even her neck hairs stood on end. Brask jumped up beside her. As he landed on the shuttle’s deck plates, she felt the impact of his weight travel up through her soles.
“Is she annoying you, Lord? If so, I apologize.”
“I wasn’t.” At her riled tone, Brask grabbed her neck and stared her down.
It shouldn’t work on her, but it did, again, to her dismay. She shivered at the goose bumps prickling her skin.
“Does she need to say sorry to you?”
Oh fuck. No.
After a taut silence Dassenze added, begrudgingly. “No. She’s correct. I don’t own her. I can’t punish her.”
“Shall I?”
Oh, that question made her nipples harden. Why? Because it implied that Dassenze was a part of what they had. This is what he’d begun to do before – command Brask as to how to treat her. It was a heady situation, teetering on the brink. Would he answer?
“I cannot tell you that, Brask. She is yours alone.”
Her mouth tweaked at that reply. Man. She’d heard sadness.
“You do know she still only has the pet markings? Lord?”
Her eyebrows rose. Brask was angry and showing it? To Dassenze? Incredible.
“I didn’t. Doesn’t matter. Her witch powers are emerging well. You saw what happened. She can summon random objects to her hand and create weapons.”
“That’s not enough though is it? What if she needs you to really get to the top of her powers? What if?”
She dared to peek at Dassenze. The glower she saw made her even more amazed that Brask would challenge him.
“If she’s a pet I can fuck her wherever I want to, in full view of others.”
Though she twisted her head at that, stunned, her mouth open, Brask hardly acknowledged her.
“This is true. You can.” Dassenze’s answer was measured but vehement, furious in all except gesture. “But you will not. Do not defy me on this.”
With a gesture, he dismissed them.
Interesting. The crazy thing was, she’d actually wanted Brask to fuck her in front of Dassenze, because it might have tempted him.
How did the saying go? Oh what a tangled web we weave? Yes, that.
Chapter 19
All through the night, she watched from afar as Dassenze did post mortems on the slain Bak-lal. It was something she might’ve helped him with, considering her pathology degree, but going anywhere near him was akin to skipping rope on a minefield. Sad. So she’d stayed away. Almost everyone else gave him a wide berth also. The process was a touch gory. The humans probably wanted to throw up and to the warriors it was likely not something they wished to dwell on.
Only Brask had kept him company at times. She wondered what they’d spoken of. Her, perhaps. Egotistical to think that, but a girl could hope.
So instead she tried to sleep yet ended up going to the window to check if he was still there, out in the fields. Yep. He was. Sleep. Punch pillow, and have another anxiety attack about the coming day.
They drove off at six am and she sat up on top of the second trailer
, in the rear gun turret the Igrakk engineer had somehow welded on, watching the shuttle and Yunta dwindle behind them until dust and distance obscured all. Too claustrophobic to stay inside one of the trailers. If they survived, Betty would. It was good to think that, amid all the chaos.
There was no one left to monitor her or turn anything on or off, but the stasis bed was automated. All Betty needed was someone to come fetch her, afterwards...
If they didn’t come, it’d be because nobody was left to do so.
Steve was driving, of course. Ally, Rimmil, and Dassenze were up front in the cabin too. The two reinforced, armed, and armored trailers were attached behind it. They hadn’t known what to do with Willow but Stom had eventually coaxed her up to the front turret that sat above and just behind the cabin. She watched nervously as Willow stepped out onto the roof and migrated forward to perch at the front edge of that first trailer. Though the vehicle jarred and swayed she seemed unaffected and safe. Stom stayed in the turret only a yard away. With the upper two thirds of the canopy of each turret being transparent, observation was easy.
This was what Dassenze was afraid of, partly, she supposed – having to follow her about like a lost puppy if something like this happened. Bondmating might compromise what he had to do. He wanted to be free to make the hard decisions without bias.
She got it. She just didn’t like it.
So the semitrailer had a figurehead in the form of a naked woman wreathed in shadowy mist, with those dark, ephemeral wings shedding ashes and fragments into the air. The trail of debris rose high into the sky. Here and there, tiny bursts of fire decorated its length. It signaled where they were but what could they do?
Her imagination made the factory queen seem powerful, omniscient even. Would she know they were coming? It was a dismal thought.
With one warrior riding beside them on the motorbike, their convoy sped onward to Adelaide where Ally said the queen lived. If she didn’t, they had no time to go elsewhere. By midday they’d arrive.
Defiler Page 14
