And she had come to him here, in his place, and knelt before him, and sworn to be his right hand, his servant, his ambassador, whatever he required of her. This was the culmination of centuries of familial ambition.
And now she stalked through the cramped, buried chambers of his home, the very surface layers of his mind, and experienced discontent.
Yes, she now had what she wanted. No, it was not what she had wanted, after all. She did not mind the darkness, having never much cared for the sun. What irked her was that she had worked so hard and come so far, and yet others were set over her who had done nothing, who had been handed the world on a plate. Others who knew less than she, whose kin had not kept the dark flame burning for so many generations, were valued more than she was.
It was not fair. It ate at her like a grub.
Argastos had gone to play with them again — to woo them, as he termed it. She was here, willing and ready, and he had gone in search of younger flesh to taste. Younger and more ignorant.
She could feel him at the heart of things, and she wanted to go to him, but he had forbidden it. Await my commands, he had told her, and she would be so happy to do just that if only she felt valued and appreciated.
And, as she brooded on that a while, a new wave of thoughts seemed to insinuate itself into her mind. He does not deserve me.
That was a shocking thought. She froze as it came to her, as surprised as if it had issued entirely from outside her. Yet did it not mesh with the gears of her own train of thoughts so perfectly?
This thought of gears, so ugly and inappropriate, threw her. That was why he did not value her, because her Aptitude clung to her like a stench. She was not worthy of Argastos, and yet he had taken her in. .
Because he had no other servants. What sort of a master lives like this?
Again that intrusion into her mind, and yet was it not true?
You are Helma Bartrer, Mistress of the Great College, after all. You are a rare gem, one to be valued, and he does not appreciate you. You have been deceived in him. He is not worthy of a servant such as you.
She shuddered, feeling for a moment that her thoughts were not her own. But surely her own thoughts had been leading her in just such a direction ever since she had come here. It was just the speed and the distance she had travelled that had startled her.
There are other masters, if you must have one, she found herself considering. But Argastos is a broken thing. You must confront him.
Now she was frightened. Confront Argastos? The thought of his wrath was terrifying. He could destroy her, unmake her. He would hang her grimy robes among his trophies and forget her. No, no, she was his servant, and lucky to be that. She could not ask for more. She was not fit to be more.
And for a moment there was a new voice in her head, sharp as the smell of acid, and it said, Oh, give it up. You don’t have the faintest idea how to go about this.
She froze, in that half-place, in that half-light, thinking, Am I going mad now? And this was her own thought, beyond contest. And even after that: Would that make me more what he wanted?
But then the assault of new thoughts resumed, and their tenor had changed. Yes, I am not worthy. I am a slave, Argastos’s slave. Yes, he does not value me, but I’m a slave and he’s my master. It’s not my place to complain. And it was as though there was some other voice inside her mind protesting this, but being overruled. But if I’m unworthy, what about the girl, hm? How much more is she undeserving of the honours he has given her? She doesn’t even want them! That idiot child Cheerwell Maker has done nothing in her entire life to earn his love, and yet he woos her, he offers her the world. More fool her if she won’t take it.
I hate her. She realized this was true. In all the world I hate nothing more than I hate Cheerwell Maker, who has stolen Argastos’s affections from me. It was strange to hear herself lay out her thoughts so clearly, but it was true, so true. That loathsome girl who did not know her own luck, she was the undeserving one.
She had come here to steal Argastos away.
Yes, of course she has. Oh, she plays at being unwilling, but she’s a clever whore, that one. She will lead him on and lead him on, and then she’ll turn on him when she has run him ragged, strip him of his power and destroy him — and then waltz back to Collegium, never caring what she has destroyed. I have to save him from her. I have to make him understand what she is.
She opened her eyes, having realized they had been closed. Everything was so very clear to her now.
Slowly, step by step, she began navigating the buried maze towards Argastos.
That’s it, her mind whispered to her. And when you have shown him what the Maker girl is, that scheming little witch, how he will reward you! How he will finally see you for what you are, for who else will his affections light on, if not you?
A warm feeling suffused her, despite the chill of her surroundings. Argastos, broad-shouldered and brave, warrior-hero of legend, would look on her with his beautiful white eyes and finally know her for what she was. That image of him was strong in her mind, the war leader in his pale mail and dark cloak, the man who had fought back the Worm.
Her feet led her without error, twisting and turning through the root-snarled tunnels of his barrow. She only half-saw the skulls embedded in the walls, eyes and mouths stopped with earth, the bones and rusted shards of armour underfoot. She had eyes only for the visions of her own mind.
And she was suddenly before him, as he sat at the heart of his domain, and she let her eyes feast on him, strong and silent and wise, and then something wrenched within her mind, something seemed to fall from her eyes, and for a brief second she saw him as he really was.
Not merely a corpse, but what a corpse would become if it were buried forever underground and not allowed to rot: a peat-black, bone-hard, withered thing, and yet those eyes, those white and living eyes, rolling in the gaping sockets. .
She screamed, recoiling, and something unfurled in her mind, striking at that withered thing from an ambush swift and fierce as any scorpion’s sting or mantis’s reach.
Argastos was abruptly standing, dragging his facade of a living man about him, but reeling, hurt, furious, and yet he barely saw her. Even then, he hardly noticed her presence at all, save as he might notice a gnat singing past his ear.
He lashed out. It was a reflexive gesture as much as anything. Even as he destroyed her, Helma Bartrer was wretchedly aware that this was not personal.
And as she fell into darkness, as his ancient mind extinguished hers, she realized that they were no longer alone. The girl, that despised girl, was there with them, having appeared from nowhere, and the Wasp bitch was with her. And, even as the two of them attacked him, Helma’s last thought was that Argastos still valued them more than he had ever valued her.
‘This place was once the hub of my new trading cartel,’ the bearded Fly-kinden announced grandly. ‘I took the good stuff out when we set sail. The rest, the Wasps got.’
Those words caught the notice of his audience, a couple of hundred pairs of eyes lifting towards him, if they had not been on him already.
‘Which means,’ he went on, ‘that they won’t be back soon to search it, I’m wagering. Eventually, yes, but not soon.’
He was standing halfway up the steps that led to the upper level, in order to be better seen. The ground floor was not quite full, not quite standing room only, but it was close. When Tomasso had acquired the lease on this warehouse, he had reckoned that it included more space than his family would require in this generation. He had not planned on storing Spiderlands mercenaries, who took up more room than expected.
Their leader was a pale, lean Spider in dark mail that Tomasso could tell was good quality, despite the battering it had taken. His name was Morkaris.
Up top, on the roof, Despard was keeping watch, hidden as best she could and relying on her good night vision in the encroaching darkness to warn of approaching Wasp patrols. The fighting itself was not close, now. Morkaris and
his people had broken away from the main Spiderlands contingent early, and moved from cover to cover until Tomasso had spotted them and brought them here.
They looked at him with naked distrust, which was understandable in the recently betrayed. They were beaten and bloodied — Morkaris himself had a bandage about his forehead which was dark with drying blood. Many of his followers looked worse off.
Hard men, though. Tomasso knew the type, for he had done business along the Spiderlands coast for years and, with a Fly-kinden crew, he had hired muscle often enough.
‘You want thanks, or you want paying?’ the Spider leader asked him. The ragged pause before he said it showed just how tired he was. ‘Or you want to see how much you can get for us from the Wasps?’
‘I have a modest proposal.’ Tomasso put his hands on his hips, surveying the mercenaries proprietorially. ‘It’s not much, I warn you, but in this market a handful of beans makes a wealthy man, as they say. You’re for hire, or you were. And you signed on with the Aldanrael to come and sack Collegium.’
‘Not Collegium, specifically,’ Morkaris answered, mangling the name slightly. ‘But, yes, what of it?’
‘And because you’re for hire, rather than sworn to the Aldanrael, when everything turned inexplicably to turds you got right out and left your paymaster mistress to it.’
The Spider shrugged, while his men remained silent, listening to every word and watching their chief for a lead.
‘And you’re in Collegium still, but they’re rounding up all the Spider-kinden they can get their hands on — not just your lot either, I saw men and women who’ve lived here all their lives getting grabbed on sight. So you’re well and truly pissed on, and no mistake.’
‘Is this going anywhere?’ Morkaris demanded sharply.
‘Yes, it’s going as far as this: I can’t help you. The Wasps are going to get you sooner or later.’ Tomasso shrugged. He registered the impact of his words on many faces. ‘I think your men are loyal to you, Morkaris. They’re still by your side, rather than just each man for himself. Are you as loyal to them, I wonder?’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
Tomasso clasped his hands together which, in much of the Spiderlands, was the archetypical gesture of a merchant putting forward a deal. ‘I said I can’t help you, Morkaris. Them, I can help. Maybe, I hope.’ His gesture took in the far end of the warehouse, where certain groups of the mercenaries had set themselves up. Tomasso was used to quick counts, and he reckoned he had two hundred and sixteen Spider-kinden here, with thirty-nine Scorpions and a score of other assorted miscellany. ‘No Spider within these walls is safe, but what about the rest? I’ve spoken with a merchant of the city whom I deal with. He runs big overland caravans — good stuff, lots of guards — and it’s a dangerous time. No surprise he’d have a lot of guards on his payroll. Naturally, the Wasps won’t want a large private militia of sellswords in the city, so our man will agree to get shot of them, kick them out of the city quick as you like. Of course, we’ll get you out of that Spiderlands kit and into something a bit more local. We can sort that.’
Morkaris’s expression was eloquent on the subject of how uncertain this plan sounded.
‘I know, I know,’ Tomasso admitted. ‘But it’s that or — what? Maybe you tell me your own plan, and we can compare notes?’
He sensed the mood, having been a leader for a long time. The non-Spiders had suddenly been given the gift of hope where they had none before. The rest. .
Looking at those faces, pale, bruised, lean, yet drawn in every line with the elegance that Spiders took for granted: men and women in equal number, and all of them hearing that death sentence confirmed, it was an effort of will for Tomasso to face them with equanimity.
And Morkaris asked, ‘What do you want, Fly? What do you want from the rest of us?’
Tomasso smiled slightly. ‘Nothing but what you make a living at. I need you to fight — fight the Wasps specifically. Does that sweeten the deal?’
Morkaris glanced back over the disparate mercenaries, his followers. No doubt his mind was working hard, trying to prise more options out of their situation, but in truth Tomasso wasn’t sure there were any.
‘You want us to die for you,’ the Spider leader said bitterly.
‘Wouldn’t you rather die for something?’ Tomasso asked him.
Over the years, Ant tacticians had devoted much time to the unfolding of an army, the perfect elegance of thousands of soldiers moving as one, representing the highest expression of Ant-kinden culture.
So it was that the Sarnesh came in sight of the Imperial Eighth Army towards evening, and began ordering themselves by pitching a cursory camp from which they could mobilize within moments, assembling their artillery, arranging themselves in a widespread formation in case the Empire decided to bring its greatshotters to bear. It was a sight to make an Ant poet weep.
Tactician Milus was unmoved. The purest expression of the Ant way of life meant nothing to him unless he won.
It was entirely possible that the Wasps would have a go at any moment with their superior artillery — the Sarnesh were well within range. A lot depended on whether the Wasps wanted to fight now at twilight, when nobody was at their best but when the Ant-kinden’s superior discipline and linked minds would add up to a significant advantage, or whether they would wait until morning. It was a decision Milus was not happy leaving in the hands of the enemy, but he himself did not want to try an immediate attack. Therefore it would be the decision of General Roder instead.
Lissart had known something about Roder, at least, and he would question her again after he retired to his tent. He had ordered her brought along for a number of reasons: she could advise on anything unexpected the Empire might do, or she could even be used as a bargaining counter, perhaps. In the hidden darkness of Milus’s mind, where his fellows were not allowed, there was also the reason that she made him feel better: a tame Imperial agent he could bully and intimidate, and yet a woman who possessed a quick, biting conversation that none of his kin was likely to reward him with. And also expendable — useful but ultimately expendable. What more could a man ask for?
His commanders were reporting in, one by one, confirming their readiness, their part within the plan — whether that plan called for a battle now or tomorrow. Milus himself had obsessively pored over the reports of the first clash between his people and the Eighth at the siege of Malkan’s Folly. There the Wasps had been securely dug in, and the Ants had tried their traditional frontal assault against that well-defended position. Here, however, the Eighth had been marching to meet them, so would have only the most cursory fortifications. Here also, the Ants were ready to disperse over an enormous area and come at the Wasps from all sides, giving no target for the Wasps to mass their superior artifice against. . well, perhaps one target, but that was all part of the plan. Attacking in open order like that would be suicide for any other kinden and, because he was not so trapped in the usual thinking of his kinden, Milus was still concerned about the rush of casualties that his men would suffer when they did form up in the moments before they struck. Even with perfectly linked minds, it was a formidable piece of manoeuvring to get right, and there would be an uncomfortably long period when the Ants were still not quite together, and yet were packed close enough for the Wasps to unleash everything they had.
But that was the plan, and he had no better one. If he was lucky, his distraction would draw a lot of Imperial attention and buy his soldiers a little more time, saving a few lives. Sarnesh lives, of course.
There was one section of his army that would not be attacking in open order — because it lacked the hard discipline required for such niceties. They would go marching in shoulder to shoulder — or as close to that as non-Ants could ever manage. They would form the centre of Milus’s attack. If he could have painted targets on them, he would have done so.
Tell me about Roder, he had encouraged Lissart. And, with a little encouragement, she had. Was he a clever m
an? She wouldn’t say clever, precisely. Not a stupid man and nobody’s fool. He was a solid planner of battles but not a man to rely on untested ingenuity. That had proved to be a strength when he had been fighting the Spiders at Seldis. It was a fool’s game to try and out-weave Spider-kinden, after all — your clever plans would turn out to be part of their even more devious ones. Instead, he had trusted to the known capabilities of his troops and his armaments, and beaten them on the field deftly and brutally, before moving to invest their city. He had left precious little room for all their vaunted plots and trickery.
Milus could predict, therefore, that Roder would understand exactly how the Ants intended to come at him. And yet, at the same time, a tempting target for the Wasp artillery would not go unheeded, for even if those close-grouped soldiers were not Sarnesh, they were still a threat. All those Mynans, all that rabble from Princep Salma, they would still kill Wasps if they got close to them. Roder could not ignore them, therefore.
That they would die in their droves did not concern Milus. It was a battle, after all, and non-Sarnesh casualties did not overly worry him.
And there was one more thing he had learned from Lissart. Roder carried a grudge born from a narrowly failed assassination attempt outside Seldis.
Every Spider-kinden that Princep had vomited up for military service — and there were quite a few of them — would be positioned front and centre in that nice, tempting block of miscellaneous infantry. Oh, probably Roder was too much the professional to let that sway him, but Milus lost nothing by offering such a bait.
By nightfall it appeared that Roder would be spending the hours of darkness digging in, putting up what makeshift fortifications he could. The scouts of both sides would have a busy night of it, with Fly-kinden trying to dodge each other’s attention to get a good look at the enemy. The entire Sarnesh force would be sleeping in its armour, ready to wake at a moment’s notice, but by then Milus reckoned he had the measure of his opponent. He told his commanders to move the artillery three hours before dawn, and to expect the Wasp engines to start pounding them an hour after that.
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