STARGATE ATLANTIS: Lost Queen (SGX-04)

by Melissa Scott

  “Let us call for our cruiser,” Blaze answered promptly.

  “Absolutely not,” Sheppard interjected. “We had an agreement. No Wraith ships landing here.”

  “That was before we knew what had happened,” Blaze said.

  “We do not wish to imperil our treaty,” the Young Queen said. “And I do not believe your queen is dying. Unlike the people of the village.”

  *We can wait,* Forge said, before Blaze could say more. He rested his feeding hand on Moonwhite’s chest again, testing the life force. “She lives and is grown stronger. I don’t think that we need worry that she hasn’t woken. Yet.”

  Blaze snarled. *She is not your queen.*

  *She is my queen’s sister,* Forge snapped, *and my queen bade me serve her, and save her if I could. Do you doubt me?*

  For a moment, he thought he had gone too far, and then Blaze shook his head. “No,” he said aloud. “I will sit with her now. See if you can rouse the blade.”

  “Very well.” Forge pushed himself to his feet. *Who is he, do you know?*

  *Bell, I think, or Adamant.* Blaze settled himself at Moonwhite’s side. *They were both with her.*

  It was hard to tell one blade from another without the touch of their minds, particularly in hives like theirs that hewed closely to the physical canon of Night. Forge slipped past the Young Queen — she did not flinch from him, either — and went to where Everlasting and Salt were tending the strange blade. They had dragged him into a sitting position against a downed tree trunk, and his eyes were open, but still unfocused. On the far side of the fire, the Lanteans watched warily, and the Young Queen joined them, saying something too soft for him to hear. Forge put that out of his mind and crouched beside the stranger.

  *He looks better.*

  *He has come round a little,* Everlasting said, *but he needs to feed.*

  Forge looked at the shredded coat and shirt, imagining what the wounds must have looked liked before he healed. The blade was clearly stronger than average to have survived at all.

  *He’ll have to wait for that,* Salt said, with a flash of wry humor, and Forge smiled in answer.

  *I can help him some. And perhaps that will bring him to full consciousness.* Of course, he himself would need to feed soon then, there was only so much vitality he could spare, but he, at least, was in control of himself, and they would be returning to the hive soon enough. He went to his knees beside the strange blade and slid his feeding hand through the rips in coat and shirt, letting his handmouth just touch the blade’s skin. The blade twitched at that, and tried to pull free, his eyelids fluttering open, and Forge let his hand relax.

  *Easy,* he said. *Be easy. You’re safe now.*

  *My queen…* The mental voice was flawed and cracking, but still chimed like a bell.

  *She is alive and will be well,* Forge said.

  *I do not know you.*

  *I am of Light Breaking’s hive, her Master of Sciences Biological.*

  *She!* Bell twitched again, trying to heave himself up and away from Forge’s touch. *It was she who —* His eyes closed again, and he fell back, panting.

  Forge swallowed a hiss. *I am here to help you. Let me feed you.*

  *I do not want the Gift from such as you,* Bell snarled.

  Salt laid his off hand on Forge’s arm, urging silence. To Bell, he said, *Do you know me?*

  There was a pause, Bell struggling to focus, and then he nodded. *Yes.*

  *I belong to both hives, and neither — no storymaker ever belongs to any one hive,* Salt said. *You know this.*

  Bell nodded again. *Yes.*

  *I was sent to bear witness,* Salt said. *Just as they were sent to rescue Moonwhite. You may trust them to help you this far.*

  There was a long pause, Bell’s eyelids flickering again, and then he nodded. *I consent.*

  Forge flexed his feeding hand, setting his claws, and felt Bell’s life-force flowing toward him, hot and sharp, tasting of fear and grief and thinned by exhaustion. He shifted his own focus, and fed it back to Bell, first the little that he had taken and then his own, pouring it out like salve on a burn. He saw Bell’s features change, color coming back into his skin, and felt the moment his focus sharpened. Forge released him then, the first pangs of hunger tugging at his own chest, and sat back on his heels. *So.*

  Bell pulled himself upright, settling himself more comfortably against the log, his movements for the first time entirely purposeful. *Thank you.*

  *It would be well,* Everlasting said, looming over them so that Forge had to crane his neck to see the consort’s face, *to tell us what happened.*

  CHAPTER FOUR

  *SO FAR as he is able,* Forge said, and laid a cautious hand on Bell’s wrist.

  The blade snatched it away. *Is there no one here who serves my queen?*

  *Her consort is here,* Everlasting said.

  *I do not see him.*

  *I am here.* Blaze rose from his place at Moonwhite’s side, though he kept himself between her and the others. *You may speak freely.*

  “Hey.” That was Sheppard, standing on the far side of the fire. “You want to let us in on this?”

  *Not particularly,* Salt said, as though the thought escaped unbidden. Everlasting smiled in spite of himself, and Forge ducked his head to hide his amusement.

  *Humans,* Bell said. *Lanteans? What are they doing here?*

  *They are here because you landed on a world given to them under Alabaster’s treaty,* Blaze answered. *And, yes, we will speak so that they can understand.*

  Bell’s mouth closed in a thin line. *I will not betray our queen’s business to the Lanteans.*

  *You will do as I tell you,* Blaze snapped. *And the first thing I want to know is how you came here.*

  Forge looked across the fire to see Ronon looming behind Sheppard, and the cleverman McKay watchful to one side. The Young Queen pushed another branch into the fire, and looked up to meet his gaze, her eyes dark in the flickering light. *Speak aloud,* he said.

  *The cleverman is right,* Blaze said, and switched to speech. “I ask you again, what happened? How did you come here?”

  Bell bared teeth at him, though his weakness was still plain to see. A part of Forge’s mind admired his courage even as he glanced sideways to see how the Lanteans were taking this.

  “We came to visit their hive,” Bell said sullenly, and jerked his head at Everlasting. “For what purpose, I do not know. The queen did not share that with me.”

  “Though you have been considerably in her company of late,” Blaze said.

  That had the familiar sound of rivalry, a consort working to keep down a rising favorite within the zenana, and Forge caught Everlasting’s eye.

  “Be that as it may,” Everlasting said, and Blaze checked himself with visible impatience.

  “So she did not share her mission. Very well. What do you know?”

  “We came, we docked.” Bell shrugged. “We waited while she went aboard alone. She returned, and we cast off again, to return to the hive.”

  “And then?” Blaze demanded.

  Forge could see the Lanteans moving closer, spreading out so that they could see everyone’s expressions more clearly. *Careful,* he said, and Salt touched his wrist.

  *Let them hear. It concerns them, too.*

  It would if they were Wraith. Forge paused, startled by the thought. If they were Wraith — if they were a species to be dealt with as though they were people — then this treaty was valid and the Lanteans had every right to be part of the discussion. And that was a weird and disturbing thought, and one he would not pursue just now.

  Bell glanced unhappily at the Lanteans. “Once we left the hive, the queen complained that she was ill. We loaned her our strength, each of us in turn, but she did not heal, and then we all began to sicken. At that point, this was the nearest planet with a human population. We intended to land closer to the Stargate, but the ship itself seemed affected, and we crashed where you saw.”

  “And then?” Bla
ze prompted, when he seemed unwilling to continue.

  *We culled the village,* Bell answered, with another look to the Lanteans. *Are you sure I should say that aloud?*

  *He should speak,* Everlasting said, before Blaze could answer, and Blaze gave him a wary look. *We cannot hide it if it is true.*

  They had seen no bodies in the village, and the villagers had not spoken of seeing Wraith. Forge hissed softly, and saw the same surprise in Salt’s eyes.

  “Speak,” Blaze said.

  *On your head be it.* Bell lifted his hands. “We, Silken and I, went to the village to cull. We fed ourselves and brought back humans for the queen to feed upon, but it only helped a little. Adamant had scouted while we were away, and said there was an iratus nest in the hills above us. The queen said that she would go there. And so we did.”

  It was, Forge thought, an entirely unsatisfactory narrative. *And the other blades? What happened to them?*

  *An excellent question,* Everlasting said.

  “Well?” Blaze glared at Bell. “How did the others die?”

  “They gave their lives for the queen, so that she would be strong enough to endure the iratus bite,” Bell said.

  “And yet you live,” Salt said.

  “She tried to leave us enough alive that she could restore us when she was healed,” Bell answered. “That is our queen’s way, not to waste any blade’s life.”

  And our queen does not endanger her people in the first place, Forge thought, but that was not something he could say aloud without starting the fight that Bell was begging for. He chose his words carefully. “This is not entirely clear to me. The Lanteans said the village was not culled.”

  “And why would they tell us the truth?” Bell snarled.

  “Why would they not?” Everlasting answered. “Such a lie would hardly be to their advantage.”

  “Unless they would prefer to make alliance with your queen,” Bell said, “a thing which my queen would never have tolerated.”

  “To the best of my knowledge,” Everlasting said, his eyes on Blaze, “our queen had not yet made up her mind about Alabaster’s offer. We had no dealings with the Lanteans until this moment.”

  “Nor had our queen made a decision,” Blaze said, but his tone was less certain than his words. “And yet…”

  “She was well when she left our hive,” Bell said. “And she was well when we arrived on yours. It was only after we left that she grew ill.”

  “If that is an accusation,” Everlasting said, his voice cold, “speak plainly.”

  “Isn’t that plain enough?” Bell stretched out his hand to Blaze. “I say our queen was infected aboard their hive, and if they have no sickness, then how can it be anything but a direct attack?”

  “Hang on,” Sheppard said, from the far side of the fire, and Forge saw the Young Queen rise to her feet frowning.

  Everlasting ignored him, his attention on Blaze. “You spoke with my queen yourself. You know she is worried for her sister.”

  “So I did.” Blaze’s expression was unreadable. “And yet. Bell raises some interesting points.”

  “Let us ask the Lanteans,” Forge said. Both consorts turned on him, snarling, and he made himself face them without flinching. “If there were no bodies found, either here or in the woods — then perhaps the fever has confused Bell’s mind.”

  “We didn’t search the woods,” Blaze said, but Forge thought he relaxed just a little.

  “Sheppard,” Everlasting said. “You’ve heard what this one says. Could there have been Wraith in the village — could one of us have culled without your knowing it?”

  Sheppard looked at the Young Queen, who gave a fractional shrug. “I don’t know. It depends on how sick people were, where your man took his prisoners, whether there was anyone left alive who knew about it.”

  “The death toll was high,” McKay said. “And at least half the people in that hall were unconscious. It’s just possible that everyone who had contact with the Wraith, or knew about it, wasn’t able to talk.”

  “I don’t believe it,” Ronon said flatly. “Word would spread. And that kid wasn’t scared. Not the way he would have been if there’d been a culling.”

  “I agree with Ronon,” the Young Queen said. “Perhaps your man culled on the outskirts, though? There were some isolated houses.”

  “Well?” Blaze looked at Bell, who shrugged.

  “We did not enter the village, no. There was no need.”

  “This makes — not enough sense,” Everlasting said.

  “It makes entirely good sense,” Bell said. “Your queen tried to kill ours.”

  “She did not.” Everlasting spread his hands, showing off-hand and feeding hand together, his eyes on Blaze. “You spoke to our queen —”

  “More to the point,” Salt said, “would she have sent her Consort and her Master of Sciences Biological, knowing that if anyone had survived the crash her plan would come to light?”

  Blaze drew a long breath. “Sheppard. Can your people inquire of the villagers, find out if there was a culling here?”

  “We can ask,” Sheppard said. “McKay. See what Beckett can do.”

  “On it,” McKay answered, and withdrew, muttering into his communications gear.

  “What more proof do you want?” Everlasting asked. Blaze snarled but did not answer.

  “You are both forgetting something,” Salt said. “When the queen awakens, she can tell you herself what happened.”

  Both consorts relaxed slightly, but Bell shook his head. “We should not wait. We should take her to Nimble now, return her to the hive where she can be cared for properly.”

  “Nimble will never fly again,” Blaze said. “My own brother lies dead at the controls. We must depend on the Lanteans to return us to the Stargate.”

  “Which we’ll do as soon as we can,” Sheppard said, with another of his uneasy smiles. “Just not tonight.”

  “So you have said.” Blaze took a deep breath. “I will stay with my queen tonight, and you, Bell, will keep watch with me. In the morning we will consider further.”

  Everlasting dipped his head. “A wise plan. Forge and I will be here, where you can see us.”

  “And I,” Salt said, with some exasperation, “will tend the fire. Here. Where everyone can see.”

  “And we’ll just watch all of you from over here,” Sheppard said. “Should be a fun night.”

  The night passed more swiftly than Blaze had believed possible. Moonwhite still slept, cushioned on her nest of branches; when he touched her hand, her skin was cool and faintly damp, and the life-force moved steadily within her. And yet she did not wake. Bell lay just outside the shelter’s entrance, so that anyone who tried to enter would have to step over him, drowsing in the semi-trance that passed for a blade’s sleep in time of danger. Blaze didn’t know what to make of his story. On the one hand, it was what he himself had feared from the beginning, that Light Breaking had decided to kill her sister rather than continue to argue about their best course. History was full of such stories, sisters who slew each other for control of their hives, daughters who killed mothers, mothers who killed daughters, and always for what seemed at the time to be good reasons. Moonwhite herself was capable of making such a choice, if pushed to it, and he did not love her less because of that.

  And yet. Everlasting believed he was telling the truth, and Blaze did not believe that Light Breaking would lie to him so directly. If Moonwhite had done the same to him, told him a lie and sent him to another hive to uphold it — it was a betrayal, and he did not think either sister would choose that course. He and Everlasting had been friends, before they chose different queens, he had even rescued Everlasting once, when a culling had gone badly wrong, and both Moonwhite and Light Breaking had found that relationship useful. As Light Breaking found it now.

  It was possible that Bell’s memories were confused. That could happen when a person was wounded and starved, actual events tangling, remembered out of order or only in part
. It was even possible to mistake intent for action, to have planned a thing and been sure one accomplished it, only to discover that it was all illusion. And certainly Bell had been terribly injured — and by what? Blaze frowned, considering the pattern of slashes across the front of Bell’s coat. There was more damage than he would have expected from the attack of even a swarm of iratus — they went for the exposed flesh of neck and face for preference, not the usually-covered center of the body — and the pattern didn’t really fit injuries suffered in the crash itself. Perhaps the humans they had taken had fought back? That seemed to be the best explanation.

  He rested his hand on Moonwhite’s chest, the exposed skin pale as marble in the firelight. The marks where the iratus queen had gripped her were long healed, not even a shadow to mar that perfection. He could feel her life-force flowing strongly — his own strength, at least in part, and gladly given. Light Breaking was the more out-going of the sisters, but Moonwhite’s quieter strength had drawn him like a moon draws the tide. He stroked her cheek, daring a caress she would barely have tolerated even in the privacy of her own bedchamber.

  *Come back, beloved,* he whispered, barely the thread of a thought to lie against her mind. For a moment, he thought she stirred, eyelids flickering, but her thoughts dropped away from him, sinking into darkness deeper than sleep. He blinked hard, his eyes stinging with tears he would not shed, and arranged her more comfortably on her bed of branches.

  The Lanteans were active with the sunrise, building up the fire that Salt had allowed to burn down and fetching water to begin their own meals. Forge brought water without being asked, and Blaze took his share with only a momentary pang of distrust. If Everlasting wanted to be rid of him, he would not make that move under the Lanteans’ eye. Moonwhite slept still, though he thought when he reached out to her that she was closer to consciousness than she had been.

  *What next?* he asked Everlasting, as they stretched in the rising warmth.

  *Return to your hive as quickly as we may?* Everlasting shrugged. *That would be my choice.*