by Randi Darren
“Sorry for turning you into a pack mule. Rest and sleep as best as you’re able. Get out tonight and follow the plan. We’ll meet up with you when we can. Questions?”
Meliae and Fes shook their heads as Petra handed over her weapons to Fes.
“Good, be safe. Petra, are you ready?”
“This one is prepared, Master.”
Vince gave Fes a small smile and laid his hand on her shoulder.
The Orc woman’s eyes focused on him for a second and she gave him a tired smile.
After a brief second to consider if he should even bother following through with this insanity, Vince set off.
It was several minutes later when Petra coughed into her hand. It was probably the singularly most unsubtle thing he’d ever seen or heard of.
“Yes?” Vince asked as they walked along the street.
“This one would ask you a question, if you would allow it, Master.”
“Ask away, on the condition that you don’t call me Master for at least fifteen minutes,” Vince offered.
Petra’s brows furrowed and her lips turned up in a small pout for a fraction of a second.
“This one accepts the terms… Vince.”
“Good. Now, questions?”
“This one has watched you couple with the Dryad and the Orc repeatedly. This one understands your goal of impregnating them and finds that end good. Any growing colony has a queen laying eggs constantly.
“Yet there is no queen. No other males. You act the part of the mate, though. This one has very limited knowledge on your species and culture and would ask for information.”
Vince could see the capital building of Washington in the distance. All around him was the hustle and bustle of civilians and soldiers.
No one would hear anything they said to each other in this madness. Just another conversation in a mob.
“Fes is… my first wife. Meliae is my second. There are no other males and never will be. There is only me. I’m afraid this isn’t normal for human culture, either. We’re kinda making this up as we go,” Vince admitted, his eyes sweeping the crowd.
“This one thinks she understands. How did Vince take Fes and Meliae as wives?”
“I beat Fes in a fight and purchased Meliae.”
“Yes. This one was also beaten and collared. This one is then your third wife. This one will strive to become your first wife. When would Vince like to couple and work towards a child?”
“I—” Vince started.
“Halt!” boomed a voice directly in front of him.
Vince turned his head and found himself looking at a patrol of guards.
Petra will have to wait a bit.
“Vince? Of the Ranger guild?” asked one of the helmeted soldiers.
“Yeah, that’d be me. I take it you’re here to escort us to the throne room?” Vince asked.
A heartbeat passed before someone in the patrol responded. Vince was getting pretty tired of addressing faceless helmets.
“Yes. Please fall in with us and we’ll escort you to the capital building immediately.”
There was no arguing with that statement, and he honestly wasn’t sure he could take an entire patrol without getting himself mobbed.
“Lead on,” Vince said, walking into the middle of the patrol. Immediately the soldiers closed up around him and began “escorting” him to the building at the end of the main thoroughfare.
Their destination was a pre-Wastes government building that had gone through a number of conversions to turn it into a castle, complete with stone towers and wall.
Beside him, Petra stood up to her full height. With a grunt, she fastened her helmet, pulling the strap tight under her chin. She shrugged her shoulders and flexed her hands.
Petra began systematically cracking an open palm against each piece of her armor, seemingly checking the position and preparedness to receive a blow.
Vince couldn’t help but grin at his soldier as she prepared for battle.
Subtle, she is not.
Vince let his eyes take in the room for a single heartbeat before focusing in on the trio of people seated at a table.
Al was easy to pick out with that smarmy grin and punchable face.
Next to him was an older man dressed in expensive pre-Wastes clothing. He looked like nothing out of the ordinary, and Vince felt like he’d be hard to recognize in a crowd with that mud-brown hair and those turd-colored eyes of his.
Which was amusing, since Vince expected him to be the king.
Across from them was a third man, dressed in leather armor and ill at ease. He was only a bit more memorable with blue eyes instead of brown.
Judging on the color of his uniform, as that was the only thing it could be, it was clear this man was a representative of the Kingdom of Portland.
No one rose from their seats, and all three men viewed Vince as if he were something to be scraped off a boot and tossed off the path.
“Reporting as requested, hub leader,” Vince said, staring at a point between Al and who he was assuming was the king of Washington.
“Of course you are. Do you even realize… no, no, you don’t. Because you’re a fool. A stupid fool,” Al seethed, his face turning a bright red as he spoke. “Running around the border without a proper route, doing nothing at all, I’m sure. Nothing other than fucking your little playthings.”
Vince blinked, collecting his thoughts. Without meaning to, he began to reach out empathically to everyone in the room and just outside of it.
Behind him in the hall he could feel Petra, annoyed and nervous. The two guards with her were feeling the same damn way.
The three in the room with him were angry. Very angry. Murderously so.
Vince had to keep himself from turning his head to the left when he felt a fourth mind against the wall.
A shielded mind.
I see you, Seville.
“We were patrolling the border as you instructed. While I admit the majority of the duty was uneventful, we did come across a battle. As I’m sure you’ve already read the report, I feel it pointless to repeat the details,” Vince said slowly. “Otherwise, we’ve followed your orders to the letter while maintaining the neutrality of the Ranger guild.”
The last sentence Vince said while turning his head to stare directly into Al’s eyes.
Al’s spine straightened at that, taking in a slow, audible breath.
“We appreciate your services in that regard, Ranger,” the king interrupted. “You’re right of course, and we understand your wish to remain neutral while maintaining the peace at the same time.”
Vince turned his eyes on the king and nodded his head slightly. “Just as I slew the bandits in Portland, I slew what I believed were unlawful townsfolk in Washington. The Ranger guild is to remain neutral.”
The ambassador nodded his head once to that, nearly at the same time the king did. Al, on the other hand, looked like he’d wound himself up to a boiling point.
“I’ll have you flogged and flayed—” Al started.
“Where in the charter do you have that authority? As I stated previously, I followed your orders to the best of my ability, within the stated orders I was given,” Vince said without emotion.
Al slammed his hand down against the arm of his chair and lifted his other hand to point at Vince.
“Quite right, Ranger,” the king boomed. Al said nothing, but Vince could clearly see his words were only restrained by his teeth.
Vince said nothing and waited. He’d need to be dismissed by either the king or the hub leader.
“You’ll remain here in the capital for a time. I’d like to speak with you at length about your time on the border,” Al said slowly.
As he spoke, Vince could feel the anger and hate oozing from Al’s mind, and a slow-building sense of satisfaction and glee.
“We’ll have a room arranged for you here in the castle.” With that, Vince, felt the finality in the man’s mind.
He’s going to have us killed tonight. Fuck th
is. Being a Ranger isn’t worth dying over. If they want to kick me out for not following the rules, fine.
“I’ll—” Vince started, but was interrupted by the doors behind him swinging open.
Turning his head, Vince saw a squad of armed men lead Petra into the audience hall.
“These men will show you to your quarters. We’ll speak more in the morning,” the king explained. Turning his head to Al, the king started up a different conversation.
There was no point in resisting. Both he and Petra had been frisked and checked for weapons by the guards who had received them at the door.
Vince felt naked without his blade, but felt better that he’d given it to someone for safekeeping.
Even without it, though, he knew he was a match for any two men here, and Petra perhaps three.
Being unarmed didn’t make a fight impossible, but it made it damned nearly so.
“This way… sir,” muttered a helmeted guard.
Vince said nothing, but took his place next to Petra in the middle of the squad. They set off as soon as the guards closed around behind him.
Petra’s helmeted head swiveled to peer down at him. Without any response from him, Petra turned her face back to the guards ahead of them.
Minutes ticked by as they walked onward, and upwards. They climbed quite a number of stairs until it felt like they were probably in the tallest tower in the keep.
The hell am I, a princess in need of rescue?
Reaching a floor that seemingly had no further stairs to take, they turned to a door on the left.
Cold iron covered most of the door in strips, giving it the appearance of being an iron door with wood, rather than a wooden door with banded iron.
“Invoke your slave collar and order your slave into this room and that she not leave it under any condition,” came an echoing voice from inside of the guard’s helmet.
“Petra, by the slave collar that binds you, I order you to stay in that room and not leave under any condition,” Vince said immediately.
Vince hoped that Petra would be quick enough on the uptake to realize this wasn’t what he wanted her to do at all, but that she needed to play along. He’d have to think of a plan so that they could escape.
Apparently he need not have worried, because Petra immediately turned around and marched into the room.
Closing the door behind her, the guards then dropped a bar into place that would keep the door well and truly shut. Then they led him down to the other end of the hallway. Another door greeted him; much like the last one, it had a security bar.
“Get in.”
Vince didn’t argue and slipped inside, taking a look around. Behind him, the door shut and he heard the bar drop into place.
“Nice cell,” Vince muttered. All around him were rich furnishings the like he could only have imagined. The vast majority of it was pre-Wastes and beyond expensive.
He briefly considered lighting it aflame. If they were going to kill him in the night, he could at least make it expensive for them.
Noticing a window at the other end of the room, he walked over to it.
It was big enough to actually crawl out of, but that was where any escape plan would end.
There were no stones beneath the window or to either side. Directly above the window was a flat patch of stone that would prevent one from climbing up and out as well.
“Lovely unobstructed view. Oh, and look. A nice concrete stamp below me to catch me should I jump. Ah, how considerate. It’s even located in a private area below me for quiet cleanup. I think I even see lovely red splotches down there. It appears I’m not the first resident.”
Petra’s helmet-free head swung into his view.
Vince blinked at her, too stunned to respond.
She reached up and tucked her hair behind her ears and then turned her head to the side to face him.
“This one assumed you desired her cooperation until such a time as she could escape,” Petra murmured. “She has barricaded the door in such a way that no one will be enter for many hours, then escaped.
“This one would ask her master to move so she could enter to complete her task. While heights do not bother her, this one thinks that a soldier ant clinging to a wall looks out of place in a human settlement.”
Vince nodded his head and quickly got out of the way. Petra filled the window as she maneuvered her legs through.
Suddenly breaking out in a smile, he shook his head. He’d forgotten that, much like an ant, she could climb nearly any surface.
“You’re a beauty, Petra. I honestly hadn’t even begun to think of a way for us to escape.”
“This one thanks her master for the compliment to her appearance. Though she would like to ask you further about your preferences, she feels this is not the time.”
“Quite right, quite right. Alright, let’s see if there’s anything small we want to steal, barricade the door, and then figure out what we do next.
“Personally, I’m done with this place. I figure we slip out once sunset comes, get out of town. Swing over to that village, pick up Fes and Meliae, head out to the deep countryside, and lay low for a while.”
“This one thinks her master’s plan lacks detail, but agrees that as an outline, it’s a good start.”
Vince scoffed at that, smiling once more. “Between the three of you, I’ll never have to worry about being misled, will I?”
Petra merely shook her head.
Chapter 14
Guards had come to check on them. They had discovered quickly the door was blocked. Blocked by very expensive furniture and items that they didn’t want to be responsible for. They were forced to retreat rather than earn their king’s wrath.
Besides that, nothing happened. Vince spent the evening chitchatting with Petra.
Up to this point, apparently her life had been one of conflict. A neighboring ant colony had provided her with a daily war that had lasted for her entire life.
She described an endless conflict in which she had slain her enemies and watched her colony mates die. Daily.
Ants could repopulate quickly, and losses were absorbed with little difficulty.
Petra was a bit of an abnormality, though. She learned, adapted, survived. Most of those who’d fought with her, or against her, had been too young to know any different. Or too stupid to believe there could be a difference.
Which was why she had left the nest when it was apparent there would be no possibility of recovery. Even if there had been other survivors, they would have probably gone straight into another battle with their neighbor, only to be wiped out.
Vince had become so engrossed in her story that they’d talked about little else.
When the sudden explosion of orange sunlight beat through the open window, Vince was surprised. Sunset had come quickly.
“Dang. Time we got a leg on,” Vince said, getting to his feet. “I know we didn’t talk much about the plan, but I really can’t think of what else I’d add to it. Trying to detail it out would achieve little since we’re not sure what to expect.”
Petra grunted and checked her helmet on her hip and her bundled armor on the other side. They’d decided that it would be better for them both if she made the descent in only her normal clothes. After a moment, she looked back to him. “This one dislikes it, but agrees.”
“Well, with that being said… should I mount you like a horse, or do you carry me?” Vince asked. He wasn’t quite sure how Petra planned on getting him down.
“Master will ride this one. She apologizes that this will not be comfortable, and asks that you hold on tightly to her with arms and legs.”
“Right,” Vince said under his breath.
Petra sidled over to him and lowered herself down. Her ant abdomen lay on the ground and her legs were arranged a little differently to accommodate him getting on.
Reaching out, he laid his hands on her segmented abdomen and leaned forward. Lifting a leg over her, he slid into the space Petra had indicate
d.
He wrapped his legs around her hips, then reached around and locked his arms around her middle just under her breasts.
“Master, could you please move your ankles higher or lower? This one must shamefully report that you have rested them directly atop an area that would not assist in climbing,” Petra said, as she stood up slowly.
Thinking about it, Vince realized he had quite literally pressed his ankles into her nether region. “Sorry, Petra.”
Easing up a bit, he managed to move his ankles down further till he found the point where her skin went from human to carapace.
“Better placement, this one thanks you.”
Petra started to walk forward and Vince couldn’t help but feel amazed. Petra’s movement was smooth, her legs working around him as if he weren’t even there.
Then they were outside the window and sideways.
Vince managed to keep himself seated and held on to the athletic ant-soldier as she glided along the wall to the back of the building.
Finding himself not enjoying the view, Vince pressed his face into Petra’s shoulder blades and took slow breaths.
He could feel his center of gravity change as she maneuvered them along the wall. At times, he swore they were nearly upside down. As quick as could be believed, Vince felt the world right itself underneath him.
“This one reports that she has escaped with her master. Though, she would ask her master to remain seated. She can move more swiftly than he and can get him across the rooftops and out of the city quickly.”
Vince nodded his head against Petra’s back. “Done. Get us outside the city.”
Petra didn’t hesitate. They were off in a flash. Vince could feel the air parting around Petra from the speed she put on. His orientation to the world changed as she jumped from building to building.
Didn’t even know Waste ants could jump. Normal ants can’t.
“Master, this one sees the one called Seville,” Petra said as they came to a sudden stop, breaking through his thoughts.
“What? Where?” Vince asked, peering out from around her back.
Lifting an arm, Petra indicated towards what looked like a man and a woman walking down the street.
From this distance, he could certainly believe it was Seville, but it was hard to really confirm that.
